Brian Gongol
The WHO Radio Wise Guys airs on WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa on 1040 AM or streaming online at WHORadio.com. The show airs from 1 to 2 pm Central Time on Saturday afternoons. A podcast of show highlights is also available. Leave comments and questions on the Wise Guys Facebook page or e-mail them to wiseguys@whoradio.com.
Apple dumps MacWorld. Apple has announced it's going to end its participation in the MacWorld conference, which is kind of like all of the American car companies dropping out of the Detroit Auto Show. What's most significant, perhaps, is that this means there will be no more Steve Jobs keynote addresses at the convention. Those speeches have become legendary, partly for Jobs's unique style, and partly because they've been used to launch many of Apple's most popular products. (Hear us talk about it in the Wise Guys podcast)
Update your Microsoft products. A big security flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer serves to underscore our advice from just last week that you should have more than one Internet browser loaded on your computer and ready to use in case an unpatched security flaw makes one browser or another temporarily unsafe for use. Microsoft broke from its regular Patch Tuesday update schedule to issue an emergency correction for this flaw. If you use Windows, you should make sure to run Windows Update or Microsoft Update soon to make sure you get the patch.
Keep up with the times. As we mentioned last week, almost everyone is running programs that are out of date -- and that means our computers are susceptible to viruses and spyware. To help you bring your computer up to speed and give you the protection you need, here's a page full of direct links to update sites for lots of popular programs. About half of the programs can be updated simply by going to the "Help" menu and clicking on a link that says "Check for updates", but we think putting the links all in one place makes it easier for you to check and make sure that all of your programs are up to speed. If you want to suggest other programs that you'd like to see on the list, just contact us.
Doing something about the weather. We hope you're staying safe in the awful winter weather we're having. And though (as we often say here in Iowa) you can't do anything about the weather here except stick around a few minutes and wait for it to change, you can help improve how meteorologists predict and analyze the weather by participating in a post-snowstorm survey being conducted by St. Cloud State University and the National Weather Service.
Good news/bad news. A combination of good news and bad news: On the bad side, China is back to censoring its citizens' Internet access. On the good side, Yahoo has just set a tougher standard for protecting users' privacy.
Bill + Melinda. It's not necessarily the high season for romance right now, but the story of how Bill Gates met Melinda is a funny one. HR departments beware: It involves the company president asking an employee out for a date.
Best of Des Moines. If you're in love with what we do -- or even if you just kind of like us -- please take a minute or two and vote for your favorite WHO Radio Wise Guys in the Cityview "Best of Des Moines" survey. We thank you in advance.
Talk back. Comments or questions for us? Hit us up via Twitter or contact us by email.
Keywords in this show:
Apple •
censorship •
China •
Gates, Bill •
Gates, Melinda •
Internet •
Internet browsers •
Jobs, Steve •
MacWorld •
Microsoft •
Microsoft Update •
National Weather Service •
Patch Tuesday •
privacy •
security •
unpatched programs •
weather •
winter •
Yahoo