Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing software that could be able to translate, and summarize spoken or written conversation or printed material automatically.

The software is nicknames GALE, and acronym for Global Autonomous Language Exploitation. The main interest in this software stems from a severe shortage of Arabic translators.

When the US toppled Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government, millions of pages of documents were seized. The Defense Department did not have access to enough translators to make sense of the Arabic documents, so they posted them on the web so the public could help with translation efforts. While the idea was good on paper, it seems that some of the documents contained sensitive information on developing nuclear weapons, so the website was recently shut down to prevent proliferation.

Read More

Companies that plan on developing software for the upcoming Windows Vista Operating System may find they need a few more PCs (and a few more licenses for Vista) to make sure their software works properly.

Most software development companies use virtual machines for software testing – a single computer that can simultaneously run multiple operating systems. For example, it is a lot easier to make sure a new program will work well in Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Media Center Edition if you can run both operating systems on one computer at the same time and switch between them in real time.

Read More

This month’s patch Tuesday will include six different Microsoft security updates. One of the patches is very critical, as it plugs a security hole that is currently being used to take control of unsuspecting computers that are not equipped with firewalls on high speed connections.

As always, I recommend that all Windows users turn on their automatic updates so all critical Windows and Office updates will be downloaded automatically.

Read More

I wanted to post something here to tell my regular readers that I have not abandoned you! We have had such a surge in demand for our on-site service that I have been filling in personally to pick up the slack. After working a 14 hour day, sometimes I just don’t have it in me to blog.

With that said, there is something about working on-site in our customers’ homes that is refreshing. It is easy in this business to get stuck behind a desk and get so caught up in the technical aspects of running the business.

Read More

Ok, so this is not a technology post, but sometimes even my life ventures from the front of a computer screen. Take a moment to watch the trailer for the movie Obsession. Before you pull the lever on Tuesday for the national candidate of your choice, please consider the direction that your individual vote could steer this country in.

Sunday night I was watching FOX News Channel’s special on radical Islam. My 3-month old son, Jacob was fussy that night, so he was still up and insisted on being held by daddy – constantly. So we watched the special together. As I watched, I found myself wondering if my son would have to deal with this terrorism mess when he grows up.

The special put a lot of things into context for me. It illustrated how all of the situations that we see as separate theaters in the war on terror are seen as a single battlefield to Islamic terrorists. It made clear the parallels between the early 1940s and today. It made clear that radical Islam is not going away on its own, and if allowed to fester it could become the greatest challenge that we, and our children, will face over the next 10-20 years.

Read More

I am sorry I have not posted in a couple days. When it rains it pours, and our launch event just happened to coordinate with a spike in our corporate and computer repair business. Not that I am complaining about being busy – you won’t ever hear that from me. But when you couple 19 hour days with a 3-month old baby, sleep becomes a precious commodity!

The launch event for the 2006 Holiday Special PC at the Villager Inn and Suites was a superb success last Friday. The gravity of the whole event did not completely register with me until we pulled into the Villager parking lot and I saw our name on the electronic marquee board on ‘O’ Street.

Read More

Today I was contacted by the Midlands Business Journal to comment on a story regarding the implementation of networks in small business offices.

I was impressed that the interviewer wanted to explore the good and the evil of business networks. All to often business owners assume that having a network is better then not having one. In reality a business network is only really needed if there is more than one computer in the office that requires the use of a single printer or Internet connection.

In some cases, the liabilities of copyright infringement, improper Internet use and productivity losses to personal activities can negate any gains attained by implementing a network.

The story should be printed in a week or so, so don’t forget to pick up your copy!

Belly up to the table and help yourself to a nice helping of SPAM. NO I don’t mean the dinner table or the wonderful canned delecasy. Online security firms are reporting a 30% increase in the amount of SPAM email floating around the Internet over the past 2 months, and your computer may be guilty of sending some of it.

It seems that botnets are being increasingly used to serve up junk email to unsuspecting users across the Internet. A botnet is a large group of computers (usually in the thousands) that are not properly patched with the latest security updates. Because they are vulnerable, crackers across the globe can exploit these computers and use them to harvest the email addresses of your friends and family and then serve them up a healthy helping of junk email – over and over and over again.
Read More

Ok, so maybe the title is a little misleading, but it was fun to write! A couple days ago I was driving through a Taco Bell drive thru picking up a highly-nutritious late evening dinner.

Right in front of me is a red SUV with magnetic Pete Ricketts signs on the side and www.peterickets.com across the back window.

I assumed this must be a campaign vehicle (seriously – who else would put magnetic political signs on their SUV) and being a Ricketts supporter, I wanted to buy their dinner for them.

Read More

If you have awesome technical skills and a passion for customer service, Schrock Innovtaions is looking for another full-time technician to help us handle our on-site computer repair business.

As a full time technician with Schrock Innovations you will have the opportunity to work on computers in homes and businesses dealing with everything from virus and spyware infections to network migrations.

Read More