This week Benjamin got an e-mail from Kenneth, who has too many programs to fit in his start menu, but didn’t want to delete any. He also answered Patrick’s voice mail question about updating Windows XP to Service Pack 2.

Benjamin also talked about securing wireless networks this week. You want to make sure that your network is encrypted. WEP isn’t great, but it is better than nothing. However, you are better of with WPA or WPA2. Additionally, make sure that your firewall is on. Block anonymous internet requests. This will keep people from finding your network as easily. Change the router name to something not easily identifiable. Lastly, make sure that your password is hard to guess and not the same as your passphrase.

The internet is changing the face of crime solving these days, and Benjamin showed us just a few of the ways that it is doing so. People’s lives are on the internet more and more these days on social networks, YouTube, Flickr, and other sites. People are being caught in many compromising positions, and now law enforcement is using this to their advantage. Many parolees have been caught for things posted on their MySpace pages, and many state governments are working to use the internet to stop crime. For instance, Massachusetts started MassGangs as a law enforcement-only site which is a database of gangbangers, with links to crimes, affiliations, tattoos, etc, and the information is shared with the FBI, the police, the prison system, and various forms of law enforcement. A mix of Google Maps and data from the London Police Department allows people to check crime in their neighborhoods. The bottom line is that we’re taking great strides in crime fighting, and people need to go out and take advantage of this. If you have any other sites that would fit in well here please contact Benjamin at www.ComputerTalkRadio.com.

In the area of gadgets, Benjamin talked about some neat toys that seem cool, but many people don’t appreciate and honestly think are pretty rude. For instance, one that particularly stands out is the Bluetooth headset. Sure it’s a pretty cool little gadget, and it pays to have it on in the car since you need one to talk on the phone in that car, but don’t wear it excessively outside of the car. When you get out of the car take it off and only put it on when you are using it. It puts up a “wall” around you and makes you seem un-approachable and cold. There’s a good reason some people call this the “Borg Implant.” There are a lot of other items on the list, so check out the audio below to find them all.

Additionally, Benjamin interviewed Brian Audiopoint, a company for the visually impaired or people with limited computer access. It uses cutting-edge text-to-speech technology to allow you to surf the web with a landline or cell phone. This is a great technology and may lead the way to even more. Check out www.audiopoint.net for more info.

Benjamin also interviewed Mathew from EasyBloom. This is a small computer that you stick in soil and it gives you all the information you need for growing something there – humidity, temperature, soil moisture, and the amount of light. Nick Federoff also dropped in for a few minutes to talk to Mathew, and will be interviewing him on his show as well.

Benjamin also talked briefly about Governor Paterson of New York, who was recently made fun of in a Saturday Night Live skit, which Paterson did not appreciate.

Lastly, Benjamin gave mention to the top three people in nerddom who died this year. Heath Ledger made the list for his portrayal of the Joker, and Gary Gygax made the list for creating Dungeons and Dragons and being what may be considered the father of role playing games. But the man at the top of the list was a household name, and one of Benjamin’s favorite authors. You’d have to live in the Congo or another timeline to not know this gentleman. His sphere of influence led to the disclosure that his background in medicine would welcome him into an E.R. From the rising sun, his discussion of man as prey, living in a lost world of our own making, ventured forth into writing on computers and electronic life. This man left us in a state of fear over future ideas gone bad, from being in a coma, to being in flight, an airframe. With him, we always wondered what would be next, - if we would be caught in a twister, or be in a Jurassic park. We didn’t realize until the end that he was a terminal man. His passing was a surprise, like a great train robbery. And in the end, he succumbed to the closest horror we have to an Andromeda Strain. Michael Crichton died at 66 of throat cancer.

Make sure to listen to the show audio below.