Compute This 2-16-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Shrock Innovations presents the midwest number one independent computer repair
company with service centers and Lincoln, PA, Maha, Papillion des Moines,
and across the country via the Shrock Desk. This is
Compute This.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, folks, and welcome in to Compute this. My
name is Thora Schrock. I'm the owner of the Shrock
Innovations Computer Company. A couple ways to join us on
the program this morning. For zero two, five, five, eight, eleven,
ten is a number you can call to ask a question,
make a comment, be a part of the program in
some way. A lot of people, you know, wow, it's
great that you know, we have a whole hour here

(00:38):
to do it, and it goes by faster than you think.
And you know, about halfway through the show, people kind
of get the courage up to call. And then three
quarters of the way through the show and the phones
are full and there's not a lot of time left
to take those calls. And the little, dirty little secret
to radio guys is that the callers make the show,
not me. I mean, you wanted to listen to me

(01:00):
blather on for an hour, you'd listen to the Aftershock,
but no, you're here. You know, you're here listening to
compute this, so four zero two five five eight eleven
tens number to join us if you're outside of the
metro area eight eight eight two five zero two zero
nine one eight eight eight two five zero two zero
nine one. As always, we're giving away a twenty five
dollars Shock Innovations gift certificate, good for anything in the

(01:22):
service center that that you come across. We just add
it to your Shock account. It's like a credit on account.
You have it available to you, and we're going to
give that away to one lucky caller here at the
end of the program. All you have to do is
give us a call here and make a comment, ask
a question, talk about an experience in the service center,
whatever you want to do to get yourself in that
drawing for a twenty five dollars Shock Innovations gift certificate.

(01:44):
All right, so we do have a ton to go
through today on the radio show. Guys, it was a
pretty quiet news week, which well, from a tech news perspective,
you know, the news it's like drinking from a fire
hose anymore. But from a tech news perspective, it was
pretty quiet this week. So we kind of have some
some blessings there. But on the other hand, there is
some business that we need to take care of as well.
Before we get into that, though, I want to encourage you,

(02:06):
if you have not done so already, to make sure
you check out shrock Innovations dot com. You can click
on radio show there and pick up all the previous
week shows, not only the shows, but the videos of
the shows, the aftershocks. For those of you who don't
know that we do video for the program. We are
live right now at Facebook dot com slash Shrock Innovation.
So if you prefer to, you know, watch your radio

(02:26):
more like a podcast, you can watch it there. It's
a little bit different experience. There's a whole community of
Shrockville here that we've got all of our regulars in
here making comments, and they know a little bit of
the inside stuff of what goes on when the main
microphones are turned off for those commercial breaks. So it's
kind of a cool place to hang out. So if
you missed the show last week, we talked last week

(02:46):
about the United Kingdom passing a law requiring Apple to
give the UK access to every iCloud account everywhere, regardless
of your citizenship. So if you're a US citizen. The
government of UK basically passed the law. England passed the
law saying they could snoop in americans iCloud accounts and
if Apple wants to do business in the UK, they're

(03:07):
gonna let them. And Apple's kind of like, oh and
by the way, it's illegal to tell anybody about this,
So if we do snoop in any American's accounts, you
can't say anything to them. Somehow that leaked. Imagine that
it was like a leak. Yeah, I got out and
it wasn't really well received. So there's some question there
about what Apple's going to do about it. The law's law,
so what are you gonna do about it? Speaking of Apple,

(03:29):
we've got some news coming up on the program today
about their AI initiatives and what's going on with that. Also,
we warned you last week not to trust China's deep Seek.
You know, it wasn't any like five alarm five. If
you want to try it out, that's fine. Don't try
to use deep Seek to do anything at work. Don't
try to use deep Seek if you're a government employee. Please,

(03:50):
for the love of all things holy in the sweet
baby Jesus, do not use that at your government job.
I understand that there are some there might be some
people looking for reasons to let people go, and using
deep seek in your government job would be one of them.
So don't do that. But the main reason is because
it was basically found in the source code. It's open source,

(04:10):
and somebody went through the source code and found essentially
communist China. The government of China has access to every query,
every response, every question, you know, every bit of data.
If you give it passwords and user names to access things,
to do things for you, it's going to have that information.
So it's very very, very much not secure from the

(04:32):
perspective of having a communist government with access to everything,
even going down to the fact that it's not secure
on a level where a lot of the stuff that
people have been asking deep sek was found posted on
publicly accessible databases that were not password protected or encrypted.
So even if it's not even if you're not even
if you think the government of China is an overblown threat,

(04:52):
you do understand there are threat actors out there that
would take personally identifiable information, user names, passwords and use
them for nefarious purposes. Don't use deepseek it's just not
a good idea. And if you want to ask it,
you to summarize news for you. Just as long as
you don't ask it about Tanneman Square or anything like that,
I mean, it'll be it'll be just fine. And don't
ask it about President She either. It won't answer any

(05:13):
questions about Winnie the Pooh. Won't to answer your questions
literally about Winnie the Pooh either. Also last week on
the program, we shared some details with you about how
the Doze group, how they're finding this waste so fast.
You know, they're like, he's nineteen year old kids, blah
blah blah blah blah. Okay, I don't know if you
guys know this or not. The nineteen year old, well

(05:33):
now twenty one year old kid, one of them that
is doing this work for Doge. He was listening to
a podcast when he was nineteen and he heard about
these scrolls that were found near Pompeii that were buried
in the ash from the volcanic eruption. They were basically

(05:53):
you couldn't unroll them because they were just disintegrate. They
were ashes. Right, Some professor some where did some kind
of three D super cool scan to basically look inside
the rolled up ashes to see what was printed on
those pages. The problem was nobody could decode it, nobody
could figure out how to read it. And so he

(06:14):
took the scans and put them up on the internet
and said, hey, let's crowdsource this. Let's see if we
can get other people to do it. And when he
did that, this one of these DOSE kids, this nineteen
year old kid, was like, this is super cool. He
was listening to a podcast and he heard about this,
and he thought. There wasn't no war, there was no reward,
there was no uh you know, prize for decoding it. It

(06:36):
was a scholarly endeavor. And he says, you know what,
this would be really really cool, and you know, I
bet AI could help decode these scrolls. Interesting thought, so
he decides to start working on it, and sure enough,
the kid decoded an entire paragraph translated a paragraph from
an incinerated scroll using AI. Since his proof of concept,

(07:00):
the entire scroll has been decoded, and now there's hope
that we will be able to decode the entire library
of freaking Pompey. Because this kid, who is now working
for doge for like a dollar a year, this kid
who does things not because there's a financial reward to it,
but because it's an interesting challenge that will make him
think and expand his horizons in weird and new ways.

(07:23):
This kid is working on streamlining the government. So when
you hear him talking about the nineteen year old kids,
these are not the nineteen year old kid that's mowing
your lawn. As wonderful and smart and loving as that
kid probably is, this is not that kid. This is
the super nerd kid that nobody played with at school

(07:44):
because he was busy reading books and learning about AI
and doing stupid things with his computer. It wasn't playing
He played some Minecraft, but he wasn't playing Call of
Duty all day. He was actually doing cool things with
his computer. Those are the kind of people that are
doing this thing for Dough. So we talked about just
how they're doing this last week. So it's a really
great conversation. If you missed it, you can pick it
up at Shrock Innovations dot com. You go up to

(08:06):
a radio show, click on that. You can carry all
the main shows, the aftertocks going back, so if you
miss a show, miss a piece, you can always go
back and pick it up later. Now coming up on
the program today. The UK is attempting to get access
to your Apple iCloud account. We talked about that last
week actually, and the update on that is essentially nothing

(08:26):
much new. The UK is still insisting on that access.
Apple is thinking about possibly trying to create a separate
data storage for UK people that is essentially unencrypted because
they're not going to The UK wants a backdoor into
Apples encryption and Apple is not going to give it
to them. In additional Apple news, we have some developments

(08:47):
on artificial intelligence, the Apple intelligence for Siri. We have
some news there also. If you have not gotten the
memo yet on this, a lot of you, a lot
of you are still using Windows ten and Windows ten
is done in eight months. We've been talking about this,
you know, off and on for over a year. But
one of the things that we haven't actually sat down
and done is said, when the day comes when your

(09:10):
Windows ten operating system is outdated, what happens to your computer?
What happens to your digital life when that day comes?
You know, is it like Y two K and nothing's
going to work the next day? Right? Or is it
like Y two K and the sun will come up
and everything will be fine. Which which is it going
to be? What's going to happen? So I thought, you
know what, let's rather than who you better hurry up

(09:31):
and buy a new computer. Don't hurry up and buy
a new computer. You have eight months. You don't have
to hurry up and do anything. But you do need
to start thinking about this. And I want to give
you all the details about what's going to happen when
this deadline comes to pass. So a little bit of
a different angle on that today. And also because we
can't go by without something interesting from the Dose team

(09:51):
coming out. You would not believe what in the nineteen
fifties Batman technology the US government is using to manage
retirements of US government employees. You know, President Trump wants

(10:12):
to you know, shrink the size of government, which is
going to require laying off federal employees. That's just essentially
what has to happen. So if you want to achieve
a goal of smaller government, you have to let some
people go. Now what we're talking about. To put this
in perspective, the size of the government. Cuts that have
been outlined to date would restore the government back to

(10:35):
twenty twenty three levels. So we're not even talking about
going back to like, you know, pre pandemic. We're talking
about going back earlier in the Biden administration, not even
back to the beginning of the Biden administration, just like
maybe a year and a half ago. That's how much
money has been spent in the last you know, eighteen months.

(10:55):
So but to do that, we have to let a
lot of people go. But because of the way we
process retirements, we can't fire people fast enough. I ran
the numbers on this, says, I could not believe this
was true. I ran the numbers on it, and I've
got those coming up for you on the program as well.
For zero, two, five, five, eight eleven Ten's the number
to join us. And as I mentioned, we are live
Facebook dot com, slash Shock Innovations. Welcome Aaron Roger, Roger

(11:19):
number two Z Dogs here with us. Good morning everybody. Mary,
good to see you, Winston, thank you for the audio check,
appreciate it. And Ron Ron says, is it possible for
the quote unquote bad guys to use Windows updates feature
to introduce a virus or ransomware? You know, is it possible? Well,
you know, anything's possible, right, We don't want to ever,
so we'd never want to say nothing. Is that it's

(11:40):
impossible because it by definition installs new software on your computer.
So if it was ever compromised, especially from within Microsoft,
that would be bad. But the odds of a Windows
update automatically pushing ransomware onto your computer or some kind
of nefarious code intentionally nefarious. Now some people are looking
at the patches that came out in January and saying,
they screwed my system up enough with things they thought

(12:02):
were gonna help. I would hate to see what they
were trying to do. If they were being nasty, you know, wow,
that could be really bad. Maybe they would screw that
up too, and it would just end up not working.
I don't know, but Ron, it's a great question. But
I don't think you have anything to worry about with
your with your Windows update introducing any kind of potential
threats there. All righty Tomic, good to have you with us,
Appreciate it, and welcome Janet as well. Four zero two,

(12:22):
five five eight eleven ten is the number to join
us on the program eight eight eight. If you're outside
the metro area, that is, you can give us a
call on the toll free line eight eight eight two
five zero two zero nine one. Whenever I say that,
I want to say, like West of the Rockies eight
eight eight You remember that Bill, right, I don't tell
me about it though, Art Bell. You don't remember Art Bell? Oh?
Art Bell? Yeah, you have the East of the Rockies

(12:44):
line and the West of the Rockies Line. You're driving
in the middle of the night and you need something
to listen to and you're like, well, here's Art Bell,
and it's like, well, it's aliens again and ships that
that travel through time in the ocean. But that's okay,
I'm gonna listen to it. And it's the Time Traveler
hotline today people are calling in that who are time
travelers to tell about the future? Yeah? And I'm sure
it's fine, but I am awake. Oh you'd be awake,

(13:05):
all right.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
I know I was awake when I was working in
the middle of the night here when that was going.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
On East of the Rockies. Alrighty. So one of the things,
guys that I want to remind you of a lot
of you. Right around six months ago, we had a
maintenance checkup sale at Shock and you purchased maintenance checkup certificates.
Many of you came in for preventive maintenance, and then
when you were done with your maintenance, the sale was
still going on and we said, hey, would you like
to buy another certificate? So six months from now, if

(13:31):
there's not a sale going on, you have a discounted
certificate that you can use in your Shock account. And many, many, many,
many many of you said yes. So a lot of
a lot of Shock customers have unused maintenance checkups that
are prepaid that are free. Essentially you've already paid for
them sitting in your Shock account that we need you
to use up before they expire. They're good for six months.

(13:52):
I'm not really hot on taking money from people and
not giving them service for it, so I would really
encourage you, really I would appreciate it. Helps me sleep
a night if you come in get that maintenance done
on your computer so that everything is running well and
working fine, so real quick before we go to break
you know, we I'm not going to spend a whole
show on this. There'll be shows in the future about it.
But if you've never had a maintenance checkup done to

(14:14):
your computer before, you can expect to see about a
twenty five percent improvement in the overall speed and responsiveness
of your computer post checkup versus pre checkup number two.
Almost every single problem that you can have with a
computer starts off as something small that the computer is
going to mask. Max do this really well. Max will

(14:36):
paper over a problem until literally It's like if your
engine had a knock in it in your car, if
it was made by Apple, the engine would have sound
dampening technology that would prevent you from hearing the knock
until a rod is completely thrown through the side of
the engine block. Then at that point, when the engine
would physically no longer operate, then you would know there

(14:59):
was a problem with your your Mac car. So that's
how Apples work. PCs aren't quite as robust in that regard.
You know, when you start to have a problem, you're
not going to notice it right away because the computer,
if your hard drive is failing, is going to mark
the bad areas so it doesn't use them in the future.
So as long as you don't get any new bad areas,
you're okay. But if you keep getting new bad areas

(15:19):
in your storage and your hard drive, well you're going
to keep having problems and eventually you're gonna have a
big problem. Your power supply, the thing that provides power
to everything in your computer. Those wear out over time,
and when they wear out, that presents as inappropriate voltages, right,
so it'll it'll give too much power, or then it
won't give enough power. Or if you really push it

(15:41):
and you put a high demand on it with a
graphics card and doing some AI stuff and it really
sucks power from that power supply, it might work great
for about the first five minutes, and then after that
it kind of peters out a little, and then you
get weird responses from your hardware because it doesn't have
enough power. How are you going to know that's even
something that's happening to your computer until it actually happens. Well,
we have a voltage chester or a truck that when

(16:03):
you come in for a maintenance checkup, we hook your
power supply up to that and it tells us how
many milliseconds it takes for your power supply to respond
to power demands, and if it's over like fifteen milliseconds,
you're gonna get blue screens. So we have devices that
test for that. That's part of the maintenance checkup. Another
part of the maintenance checkup is cleaning up all the
garbage and to try to so off your hard drive.

(16:25):
You know, yeah, you can do a disc clean up.
You can use sea Cleaner. It's a great product. They
try to sell you a bunch of stuff. Don't buy
anything from them. You don't need to buy anything, but
Sea Cleaner is a great free product that'll clean up
your hard drive and stuff. But if you don't clean
up your hard drive, eventually it will it will completely
fill up with temporary files. It will get more and
more and more and more full. And the whole point

(16:45):
of these temporary files is to give your computer the
ability to predict what you want to do next, so
it can preload that stuff for you so that you
don't have to wait for it to load in real time. Well,
after a couple years of loading stuff, the computer you think,
you know, it has more data now, so it should
be able to predict what I want to do. But
it has so much data it doesn't. It takes longer

(17:07):
to analyze the data than it does to just load
what you were going to load anyway, and so you
have to clear out that cash from time to time.
And it's kind of funny I'm seeing articles on zd
net now how to clean the cash and Windows eleven
and why you should do it today. I mean, are
we really is that really a news article? Like do
I need to talk about that on the radio? I
guess I do? You know, like, oh my goodness, So yes,

(17:27):
you need to clean your cash and even in Windows
eleven it will make the computer more responsive and run faster.
And that's why we do it during a maintenance checkup.
So there's tons of things that happen from updates to cleaning,
to testing to actual physical maintenance where we're actually removing
the dust. You know. Inside your dryer, there is a filter.
That filter collects lint from your clothes prevents it from

(17:49):
getting you know, incinerated I guess your card and catching
on fire. If that filter gets full, it restricts the
airflow in the dryer and your clothes don't dry as
well or at all. Inside your computer, there is a
tiny fan on top of a piece of metal, like
a little radiator, and it sucks air up through the
radiator blades and blows it out the top. And that's

(18:09):
how it keeps the brain of your computer cool. Without
the brain your cpu, your computer can't do anything overtime.
What happens is dust gets stuck inside those radiator times,
those little metal spikes, and it forms a little lint
blanket that restricts the airflow. And then it'll pull up
from a different direction, and then that'll get restricted. Then
it'll pull up from a different direction, and that that'll

(18:30):
get restricted. When all four sides eventually get restricted, your
computer will start to overheat. But because it wants to
keep you happy, it will rather than overheating and blue
screening or just turning off or locking up, it will
slow itself down to maintain a usable temperature on its brain.
It's like a reverse fever essentially, and it just it

(18:51):
runs slower and still that lunk out of there, and
all of a sudden boom, your computer is running like
it used to again. So preventative maintenance check ups. If
you have a prepaid certificate, guys, it's already paid for.
This is a great time to bring it in. The
service centers are right around this time of year. We're
getting into that spring loll a little bit. When it
gets cold out, when it gets a little snowy out,
we have lower intake. This is a great time to
get your computer in, get it back really quickly four

(19:14):
zero two five five eight eleven ten eight eight eight
two five zero two zero nine. I'm going to take
a quick break when we come back. Apple has some
seririe delays in their operating system development. Are you ever
going to get Apple intelligence? We'll tell you what's coming
up next on compute this.

Speaker 4 (19:29):
Everyone has experienced some form of data loss or know
someone who has. It's unfortunate, but sometimes the technology we
rely on simply fails. And the last question you want
to hear at that time is you have a backup
right when you're a hard drive, memory card, backup drive,
or flash drive fails, you turn to the data recovery
experts at Shruck Innovations to get those pictures, songs, and

(19:52):
memories back. You know, not all data recovery companies are
the same. Having the right tools and knowledge to get
the job done right on the first first attempt makes
all the difference between a successful recovery and the permanent
loss of your important data. Sometimes you only get one
shot at a successful recovery. That's why Shrock has invested
in top of the line recovery imagers, a Class one

(20:14):
hundred clean environment over ten thousand dollar components and a
staff of recovery engineers that are the best in the business.
Shrock has a ninety six percent recovery rate getting data
back from failed devices. When the unthinkable happens and you
need your data back, turn to the experts at Shrock
Innovations for professional and affordable data recovery services.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
Shock Innovations repair technicians also make house calls. Make an
appointment and let us bring our award winning computer support
right to your home or business.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
Laptops are subjected to some of the most stressful computing
situations imaginable. They get dropped, stepped on, flap shut, and
pushed until the battery dies. Sometimes your laptop works hard
for you, so when it has a problem, take it
to the laptop expert that Shock Innovations. SHROC has four
convenience service centers the Nebraska and Iowa with more than

(21:05):
one hundred total bench spots to get your technology up
and running again. SHROC has the largest supply of replacement
components in stock, and we fix more laptops than any
other nearby repair center. Why wait weeks to get your
computer fixed when Shrock can diagnose the problem, provide you
with a friendly and accurate estimate and fix it usually
in two days or less. Remember, if you have never

(21:26):
been into our service centers before, new customers get their
first hour of labor free. So the next time your
laptop screen gets cracked, the keys pop off your keyboard,
or your two year old decides a glass of milk
is exactly what your laptop needs to cool off, Take
it to Shrock and let your local laptop repair experts
get it back in top shape again.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
All right, folks, welcome back in to compute this. My
name is Thor Schrock and the owner of the Shrock
Innovation's computer company, and we have four locations to help
you out when you want to get that preventive maintenance done,
or maybe when you're in the market for a new
computer to replace that old Windows ten machine, or maybe
you'd want to maybe you have a Shock computer, because
a lot of you listening, I mean, we've been on
the radio for over twenty years, so a lot of

(22:12):
you listening already have Shock modular computers. You're like, Thor,
I get it, I get it, I get it. What
you don't understand is that that old modular computer that
you've probably brought in for a maintenance check up at
some point and you were told this computer is not
compatible with Windows eleven. So you're not going to be
able to upgrade. You're going to have to buy a
new computer in October of twenty five, so start budgeting

(22:33):
for that. Well, guess what. We have a new option
for people in that situation, where if you have one
of our modular computers that you've purchased from Shrock, we
can do what's called a core upgrade. Essentially, we replace
all the important guts inside the computer. We're going to
give you a new motherboard, memory processor, sometimes even a
new hard drive if your hard drive is old enough.

(22:55):
And the new tech is so much faster than the
solid states, the first and second gen solid states, it's
not even funny, But essentially, for less than the cost
of a new computer, we can upgrade the existing computer
that you already have. So if you have a Holiday
special that's like six years old and you're like, oh, man,
I was hoping to get another few years out of this,
but this Windows ten update thing is really going to

(23:15):
screw it up, Well, guess what, we can upgrade your
holiday special computer to make it Windows eleven compatible. Regardless
of how old it is. It could be the OG
Windows XP Holiday Special from twenty twenty one. The first
one twenty twenty one, two thousand and one. Twenty twenty
one was not the first one. Two thousand and one

(23:36):
was the first one that you could bring that computer in.
I still remember what that case looks like. I handbuilt
most of those myself, so I still very much remember
what that case looks like. But you can bring that
in and we can upgrade that and make that a
Windows eleven computer. So essentially, we can turn any desktop
that we built into a Windows eleven computer, and it's
cheaper than buying a new machine. So before you buy

(23:58):
a new computer, please do check into the Core upgrade option.
You can get a quick quote over the phone. We'll
just give us a call. We'll give you a quote.
You know. If you want to send us an email,
you can go to Shrock Innovations dot com and click
on contact and just shoot an emails say I'm thinking
about a Core upgrade? Can you tell me what it
would cost on my computer. We have almost all the
information we need already to tell you how much it
would cost, so it really really easy to do. So

(24:21):
it you know, we talk about dose, we talk about
artificial intelligence. All the things that are going on in
the world of technology today that are we're literally living through.
It's like I'm trying to imagine. I remember back in
two thousand and I don't know, two two thousand and three,
when the show we were just getting started. We were
just on one radio station in Lincoln, you know, Kobe

(24:44):
Mack was doing the show with me. And that was
because I needed a handler, you know, because otherwise I
just got d yeah, radio and stuff and you know,
cute help by interjecting it helpful times floor And if
a person wanted to reach you to buy a computer,
how can they do that. Oh that's a great question, Kobe. Yeah,
I got so excited talking about the computers. I forgot
to tell you how to contact us. Hum. Yeah, important.

(25:07):
And so I needed a handler. So back then there
was this new thing called remote desktop and it was
the latest technology and it would let you through MSN
Messenger help a friend with their computer. You could see
their screen and control their mouse, and it was a
huge People were freaked out. They were like, oh my gosh,
this is crazy. But from a technical support perspective, we're like,
this is amazing because we had gotten really good at

(25:30):
like using you as a pair of eyeballs and having
you tell us what's on the screen and then telling
you where to go from there. Do you see these
dots up here? Don't click on those dots. Do you
see the dots? Though, I see the dots. Go just
to the left of those dots. Do you see the
square box with a thick border on the top. That's
how you make the window bigger, you know, you know,
we got really good at doing that.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
Well.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Once we were able to see your screen, well, tech
support got a lot easier, right, And that was a
huge technological innovation made possible by broadband internet. People had
yes on modems. Right around the time of Bush v. Gore,
people were coming off dial up and getting DSM modems.
We're talking high speed, baby. This was like one hundred megabit.
I mean, your motem was fifty six. This was like

(26:13):
a hundred. It was fast, right compared to what we
have today, it was nothing. It was the cheapest Internet today,
the Internet on your phone blows away what we had
back then. But it was all new technology. It was exciting.
It was opening up new opportunities and new chances for
things to happen that never would have happened before. And
that's the period of time we're living through now with

(26:33):
AI again, we're having a major technological evolution that is
going to allow us to do things that we were
not able to do before. It's going to allow us
to be more productive than we've ever been in our lives.
And it's going to require some mental flexibility to work through.
Or you can just take it day by day and
just hey, isn't that interesting? All of a sudden, my

(26:54):
life got a little easier. I got a text message
from my cell phone yesterday. Yes, cell phone sent me
a text message telling me about how Google Gemini can
now chat with me through my text messages. So if
I have a question, like, you know, what time does
this movie play? I can just text myself and Google

(27:16):
Gemini will just tell me the answer. I don't have
to go on the internet. I don't have to look
anything up anymore. I don't have to That's incredible, now,
is it accurate? I don't. I mean, if they gave
you all the warnings and the disclaimers and everything like that,
you know, don't trust it yet essentially, But yeah, it's
pretty darn accurate. It works pretty well. So it's only
natural that people with you know, iPhones, are like, hey,

(27:40):
Apple Intelligence, I just got the new iPhone sixteen because
I want Apple Intelligence. Siri is supposed to is my
virtual assistant. Why don't I have AI on Siri yet?
And the answer is because, well, it's not ready, and
so Apple is like working day and night with their
own twenty one year old geniuses who are not working
for Doje. It was supposed to actually be released as

(28:01):
part of iOS eighteen point four. They've introduced some of
the Apple Intelligence features to the device already, but not
the SERI stuff, not the stuff that allows you to
talk to the phone and have it talk back to
you intelligently. This is like the Jarvis upgrade essentially, right
like iron Man had Jarvis and you have Siri. But
it's not ready yet, so they're hoping that it's going

(28:22):
to come out in version eighteen point five. There's some
talk that they might release the AI update as part
of eighteen point four, but have it defaulted to turn off,
so you have to go into the settings and turn
it on if you want to try it out. Then
you're kind of part of the beta. It's not gonna
work well, but then it'll get better because you're using
it and you'll be you know, whatever you're using it

(28:44):
for that's not working will be the first things that
get fixed. It's kind of an incentive to try and
use it anyway. So we'll keep you posted on this guys.
If it does come out as part of eighteen point four,
but it's disabled, we'll have instructions on how to enable
it if you want to play around with it. But unfortunately,
you're gonna probably have to wait until eighteen point five
or later until the Apple intelligence makes its way into
Siri for zero two five five eight eleven ten eight

(29:06):
eight eight two five zero two zero nine one. Gonna
take our second break of the program. But when we
come back, you know, we've already skimmed over this a
little bit about how Windows ten is is going to
expire in October of twenty five, and you know how
you're gonna have to make some choices at that point.
But why are you going to have to make choices?
A lot of people get really temperamental about this. My

(29:27):
computer works just fine. Windows ten is just fine. Why
does Microsoft? Who gives Microsoft the ability to come into
my house and tell me my computer is a piece
of garbage and that I have to buy a new one,
and they're they're happy to sell me a new OS
for Windows eleven. Who are they to do that? So

(29:47):
what we're gonna do is we're gonna we're gonna take
a quick segment to go through why this is happening,
what is going to happen when that day comes, and
how that's going to directly impact your life life. So
if you choose not to buy a new computer, you
choose to stay on Windows ten, if you're one of
the quote unquote bitter clingers and you're not going to
give it up, well we'll tell you what to expect.

(30:10):
And if you're, on the other hand, you're ready to upgrade,
we can also tell you what you're going to the
pain you're going to avoid. So interesting segment coming up
about what's going to actually happen in your life when
Windows ten expires coming up next on Compute this.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Remember the good old days when virus detection worked like
where's Waldo? Spot the virus and the striped shirt and
you win. Today's infections are changing hourly to avoid detection
and use social engineering to trick you into making mistakes.
Using yesterday's security to defend against today's threats is like
using leeches to stop an infection. It just doesn't work.

(30:44):
We recommend Sophos intercept x anti virus backed by Shrocks
Virus free guarantee. Sofos uses the power of AI to
detect the patterns of a virus attack and responds with
Shock's custom actions that stop it fast. With Sofos on
your PC, Mac, Android, or iOS device, you get the
state of the art protection you need to defend against

(31:06):
the most advanced attacks out there. In fact, if your
device gets a virus while running Sofos antivirus, Shock will
remove it for free, guaranteed it hasn't happened yet and
we intend to keep it that way. Ditch your dad's
antivirus and keep your device, data and identities safe with
Sofos and Shock innovations.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Update all of your third party apps on your computer
with secure updator. It keeps all your apps running smoothly
and helps block viruses. Download it for free today at
secure updater dot com.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
You know your computer needs modern antivirus, and you know
using a VPN helps protect your identity online. But did
you know that all of that protection could be useless
if you're running outdated programs. We all run common free
software like Adobe Reader, Dropbox, Firefox, and Chrome. Every day.
There are critical security updates for these common programs that

(31:58):
don't get automatically installed for us to two weeks. That's
an eternity in today's world. That's why Shock created Secure Updator.
Secure Update checks for and installs these critical updates every
eight hours, boosting your antivirus by closing off attack vectors
before they can be used to penetrate your computer. Go
to secure updater dot com and try it for free.

(32:19):
We are so confident in our product we don't even
ask for a credit card to start the trial. Go
to secure updater dot com today and start your fourteen
day trial and enjoy having the peace of mind that
your software is being updated quickly and safely. You will
be shocked at the number of programs that are out
of date on your PC right now. Get your fourteen
day free trial at secure updater dot com.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
All righty folks, thanks for sticking with us here at
My name is Thorschrock. I'm the owner of the Shock
Innovations computer company, and you're listening to compute this. We
have four locations to help you out. When your computer's
having trouble, or you need some assistance, or you're looking
for something new, you can come to the original Shrok
Innovations in Lincoln, Nebraska where it all started at just
south of fourteenth and Pine Lake Road, seventy five oh

(33:08):
one South fifteenth Street in Lincoln. In Omaha, the number
two Shock, when we expanded into Omaha, is located at
one hundred and sixty ninth and Burke Street, just across
the street from the Village Point Mall where the rent
is slightly cheaper. Then if you and you know you
don't have to carry your computer as far. Could you
imagine parking in a parking field at Village Point and
then taking your computer out of the car and putting

(33:30):
it under your arm and walking a country mile to
the building like it's a walking mall. That's the whole point.
It's like if we put a Shrock Innovations inside of
like oak View or West Roads, you have to park
in the parking lot bring your computer in, or like
if we had a store, like you know, an electronics
store that had a squad of guys that fix stuff,
and you had to park in the parking lot, pick
up your computer, carry it in a cart in Oh wait,

(33:51):
that is something anyway, you know. So that's one hundred
and sixty ninth and Burke Street. And then of course
in Papillion eighty fourth and Highway three seventy and Midland's
Place shopping center right next to Ali and Hobbes and
Spin Pizza, and across the street from McDonald's there and
across the street from that brand new it's not a jail,
it's a mental health detention and improvement center. I don't

(34:12):
know it's a jail. It's where people get held that
don't want to be held. We're right across the street.
It's a beautiful building right across the street from where
they hire Shrock employees to manage it services. Sarpie County
raising my taxes and taking my employees, what's up with that?
Maybe we need a doze in Sarpy County. That's what
we need, Sarpie County, doge. Let's go all right. And

(34:33):
of course in West des Moines, Iowa, ninety five hundred
University Avenue, the newest Shrock innovations. Also, we want to
welcome back one of the top ten all time best
Shock employees ever who left us to go hang out
with some family in Phoenix and then he came back.
He is back. Ryan san Diego is back in the

(34:54):
Des Moines Service Center starting on Monday. So if you
met Ryan when you were just getting started with Shock
up there, and you love to because everybody loved Ryan,
just the guy, just an amazing guy all the way around.
If you were if you were around for the Ryan era,
he is back. He's going to be working with Shock
Business actually to uh to basically onboard additional business clients

(35:14):
in the Des Moines metroplex area. In metroplex sounds like
such a big word, the DSM area. Essentially, what we
have at Shrock is is what they call a disruptive
model in the industry. If you're a business owner, you
used to having, you know, large companies come in and
tell you, yes, we can manage your I for your
dental office or your chiropractic office, or you know, whatever

(35:36):
the case might be. Your your your your law practice, whatever.
And your plumbing company we have those're heating and air companies,
we have those, and it's going to cost you two
grand a month, and this, that and the other, and
when you need help, you can call us and will
help you. Everything's automated. You don't really ever have to
call us. Please don't ever call us. We don't want
to hear from you. We just want to get your check.

(35:57):
And that that's what you get from these other companies
when you go go with Shrock. Yes, we have a
lot of the same automated stuff. In fact, we have
more automated stuff. But when you call us, you actually
talk to the people that sold you the plan. You're
not calling some data center line in the middle of nowhere.
You're not calling, you know, a company in another state. Well,

(36:18):
I guess technically, if you're in Iowa, you might call
and get somebody in Nebraska. So I can't really say
you're calling somebody. You might get somebody in the state
right next door. Okay, But you're calling the same core
group of employees that all have each other's backs, that
all know your IT stack, that all are ready to
support your IT for as little as four hundred and
seventy five dollars a year. You heard me right, Starting

(36:44):
at four to seventy five a year. And when I
say starting, that's for seventy five a year per end
point you have five computers. The pricing is really hard, guys.
It's for seventy five times five per year. It's hard.
Soll Ryan is actually going to be We needed help.
We have so many businesses in Des Moines that are

(37:04):
that are they don't have options like this that are
coming to us now that we actually had to add staff.
So we have the opposite problem of the federal government
four zero two five five eight eleven ten eight eight
eight two five zero two zero nine to one. So
Windows ten is going to go away in October of
twenty five. We all know this. We've talked about it
several times. I've told people before. If you want to know,

(37:25):
are you running Windows ten? Some people don't know. You know,
if you look at your computer screen and your little
Microsoft symbol that's square the four boxes your Windows logo,
if that is down in the lower left hand corner
of the screen, ninety nine percent chance you're running Windows
ten unless you told it to go to that part
of the screen because by default it goes toward the
middle of the screen. If you're on Windows eleven, down

(37:46):
in that bar on the bottom of the screen, the taskbar.
So if you're in the far left corner, you're probably
still running Windows ten. If you're still running Windows ten,
you have until October of twenty five before Microsoft ends
support for Windows ten. But what does that mean? So
what they ended support BFD, I don't care, you know,
good for you Microsoft. Well, when Microsoft ends support for

(38:08):
an operating system, the first thing that that means is
no new patches, which means the last Patch Tuesday of
Windows ten's existence will be in October of twenty five,
the second Tuesday of October. That will be the last
time that Windows ten ever gets patches. On the eleventh.
What's going to start to happen is every bad guy

(38:28):
out there that has a vulnerability that they know of
in Windows ten that they have not exploited up until
that point, purposefully saving those exploits so that Microsoft would
be all done patching. They will start using those exploits
at that point, and starting on that Wednesday, after Patch Tuesday,
things are going to start to escalate. Things are going

(38:50):
to start to go sideways. For you on a Windows
ten computer, now, you'll have until the end of the
year or so, because you probably have an antivirus product
on that computer. Well, guess what's going to happened to
that antivirus product Windows When Microsoft ends support for Windows ten.
The provider of sofos for example, or McAfee or Norton,
they're going to end support for their product on Windows ten,

(39:15):
Which means if you have a problem and you call
them or you ask for help and they find out
you're on Windows ten, they're just not gonna help you anymore. Now,
these things are sold on subscription, right, so there's a
little bit of leeway here, which means, Okay, we're going
to let you finish your subscription, but there's not going
to be any new development. There's not going to be
any new renewals or licensing on Windows ten. You know,
once you come up for renewal, if you have Windows ten,

(39:37):
we can't renew you. Sorry, you just don't have antivirus.
Well why not, because it's pointless. We can't keep you safe.
There is no way to keep you safe with an
unknown number of vulnerabilities out there and no new patches
coming from Microsoft. So now we're starting to see the
floodgates opening here. Now, keep in mind that when you
buy technology, whether that's a printer, whether that's email serve,

(40:00):
whether that's a VPN, or anything that you buy for
your computer, there is a cost that goes along with
that for support for the company that sells it. One
way that companies control their support costs is by only
supporting operating systems that are currently in their life cycle plan.
So when Windows ten exits, when it goes end of life,

(40:23):
it is going to go end of life for everybody.
That means if you call your internet service provider because
your email is not working, and they say, oh, you're
on Windows ten. Sorry, our email is not compatible with
Windows ten. Even though it'll work perfectly fine with Windows ten,
and everybody knows that it will, they just don't support
Windows ten anymore. They don't train their people where the
menus are. They don't have it in their tech stack

(40:43):
to on their screens like to describe how to fix
the problem, So their minimum wage employees can't describe the
problems to you because they don't know what you're looking at.
And they they're told, do not help that customer because
they're on Windows ten. You need to get a new computer. Man.
Once you get a new computer, you'll be on Windows eleven,
and then you know we can help you out. I'll
probably fix your problem. It's probably because you're on Windows ten,
which is not the problem. But that's beside the point.

(41:06):
When you need to go buy a new printer or
scanner or game controller or whatever you're using for your computer,
or you go to get that new graphics card so
you can play around with AI, you're gonna find that
there are no drivers available for Windows ten. Now, maybe
the Windows eleven drivers will kind of sort of work,
and maybe not, but we've all been down that road before,
usually trying to get an old printer to work with

(41:26):
a new computer. Now you have the opposite problem where
you're gonna go buy a new printer and it's not
gonna work with the old computer. You got a few
months before that problem hits, though, because you got old
new stock. You know, people made printers that are still
on the shelf that they were in the supply chain
when Windows ten was supported. Well, those aren't gonna run
out overnight, so you've probably got a few months there
before you're gonna have that problem. But when the day

(41:48):
comes that your printer dies and you need a new
printer right away, you're gonna go to the store. You're
gonna try to buy a printer and they're gonna tell you,
I'm sorry, we don't have printers for your computer because
you're on Windows ten. And when you go to buy
that new software because everything is licensed now, right, you
think your Microsoft three sixty five is gonna run on
Windows ten. Nope. So yeah, if you're subscribed to your

(42:09):
your Microsoft Office, if you have a business, you just
got torpedoed. Now your stuff is gonna work, just not
gonna just stop working that day. But what happens when
something breaks and you need to reinstall the software, Well,
guess what you can't. So over time, what's going to
happen as things break is you're going to have increasingly unknown,

(42:30):
weird expenses hitting your account as a business because you
have to buy new computers every time there's a software glitch,
which you never had to do before. So that's how
this is going to impact your real life. When you
get into the you know, the Windows ten apocalypse essentially
that happens in October. So the best thing to do
is to avoid this problem entirely. Get on Windows eleven. Now,

(42:51):
Windows eleven has better cybersecurity than Windows ten right now,
right now, it is better protecting than Windows ten. Windows
eleven has all the new AI fatures that Windows ten
doesn't have. I know you don't want to screw with
AI right now. I get that, but it's going to
seep into your life in weird and innovative ways that
you're going to appreciate that you will not be able
to take advantage of if you are on Windows ten.

(43:13):
So you can get on Windows eleven now by doing
a core upgrade on an older custom built computer me
a modular computer from Shock, we can do a core upgrade.
We obviously have new modular computers and solid state laptops
that all run Windows eleven right now, you know, or
some computers are actually compatible with Windows eleven. Some of
them even qualify for a free upgrade from Microsoft. So

(43:34):
we can answer all these questions for you in our
service centers, even over the phone. In some cases, feel
free to give us a call in the service centers
that are named earlier. Otherwise you can always give us
a call here on the program for zero two, five, five,
eight eleven ten Renee, Welcome to the program. How can
I help you on compute this today?

Speaker 5 (43:49):
Yes, earlier you mentioned how the government has screwed up
federal employee retirements tensions, and so my husband is one.
So we're really interested in how that what's going on.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Yeah, yeah, in fact, it's almost hilarious, And thank you
for the call, Rendee. This is this is something we're
going to cover here in the next segment because one
of the things that DOGE is doing is trying to
find ways that the government can be more efficient, and
so they're trying to get rid of a bunch of
people out of the federal government. And what they found
was they had a limit of how many people they
could fire in a month. And they're like, wait, what

(44:23):
what is this? Where is this limit coming from? This
limit was based on the speed of an elevator. I'm
not joking. It was based on the speed of an
elevator in a cave where all federal pensions and retirements
are processed on paper by hand in a cave. I

(44:48):
am not making this up. I had to double check it, guys,
I literally double checked it. Even the fact checkers say
this is true, and they don't like anything that Trump says.
So all right, we're gonna take a quick break, Renee.
I will tell you the complete story in just a moment.
Coming up next on compute this.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
There are enough unused computers in storage to give every man, woman,
and child in the US an old, outdated, and useless
computer system. Obsolete tablets and smartphones are nearly as bad.
Most people know not to throw them into the landfill
where they leak and contaminate, but it's hard to find
a place to safely recycle electronics. That's why Shrock Innovations

(45:21):
offers free recycling for computers, laptops, phones, tablets, cords, and accessories.
In fact, only monitors and printers have a small recycling fee.
Everything else is free. More importantly, Shock will securely delete
any data from your devices and hard drives before they
are sent to a certified recycling partner, who will then
repeat the wiping process just to be saved. When you

(45:43):
recycle your old technology at Shrock, you know your identity
and privacy are protected and your equipment is being actually
recycled by a certified recycling partner. Shock is proud to
recycle more e waste than we produce annually, making a
positive difference to our economy and ecology. Do your part
by dropping your old gear at any Shock service center

(46:05):
and be part of the area's largest and most popular
technology recycling program. With Shrock Innovations.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Now, you can configure and purchase laptops, desktops, tablets, and
more all at the Newshrock Innovations dot com. Check out
our specials for one of a kind discounts and deals.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
You would probably rather drink the water at Camp La
June than get another call about the desperate need to
renew your cars expiring warranty. Who actually responds to those calls.
Everyone wants to play the warranty game where you pay
money now just in case you need service later that
everyone hopes you won't neet or use. It's such a waste.
It's no different with computers. Major manufacturers warranties have more

(46:46):
subscript crosses than a Sunday morning church service. Batteries are exempt.
Hard drives must be completely dead and forget about anything
that they can remotely claim as physical damage. That's why
Shrock warranties are different. When you purchase a modular see
you or a solid state laptop and extend your warranty,
we offer a no risk money back guarantee. If you

(47:06):
need the warranty, you will be thrilled to have it
if you don't use it, and we refund your money
automatically every time. That's right. We are so confident in
the quality of our products that our extended warranties are refundable.
Many Shock customers use their refunds to purchase another warranty
or pocket the savings and move on. We all know
you'll need it to cover that expiring car warranty. Anyway.

(47:28):
Shocks refundable extended warranties just another way the Shrock Innovations
Computer Company makes your computer work for you.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
All righty folks, thanks for staying tuned with us today
here some of this stuff. I'm just watching the news
up here on the screen, and I'm like, it says,
this mom is worried about antestes. My daughter's gonna have
surgery and I'm nervous about her going under anesthesia? What
can you do to alleviate my anxiety? And I'm like,
you're the question is about your anxiety, Like wouldn't it

(48:02):
be it's about your daughter going under What can you
can you please tell me of how safe anesthesia is
for my daughter? Is that what you're trying to ask
or are you just saying to say, like, can you
put mom under first because this is too much? You know,
maybe she needs it too, Like what the heck is
wrong with people? Oh my goodness? All right, folks, Well,
speaking of what's wrong with people, what is wrong with

(48:22):
our government? Oh my goodness. So Doge is coming around
trying to find ways to make the government more efficient,
and Elon's like, well, you know, we have to fire
some people to do this, kind of like Twitter style,
and Trump's like, oh, I'm down with that, and the
unions are like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait wait wait, But
apparently there's tons of employees on probationary status, And at
first I thought that meant they did something wrong, and
I'm like, why are there so many people on probation

(48:43):
in the federal government? No, but what it means actually,
I think it's in terms of an employment term of length,
So probationary status meaning you've been with the US government
for less than two years. Therefore you do not have
the full union protections that a longer term employee would have.
You are easier to fire, so Aventually, people who are
hired most recently by the Biden administration can be fired

(49:03):
very quickly. Well that was the hope anyway. So you know,
we're hearing that there's going to be two or three
or four hundred thousand federal employees cut from the roles.
And you know, please don't misunderstand, because you know, I
have family members that work in the federal government. Guys,
I'm not sitting here saying this is good news that
anyone's going to lose their jobs. But honestly, if you're
sitting around all day long doing nothing, and you know

(49:28):
you're in a job that is clearly not efficient and
clearly not in line with what the direction that the
President Trump wants to take his administration, you might want
to take the federal buyout because if you take the
federal buyout, you get paid through October, and if you
get fired, you get paid not at all. So if
you're less than two years in on the federal government,
it might not be a bad plan. You're on the

(49:49):
chopping block essentially because you're the easiest person to fire,
So you might want to take that eight month guaranteed
retirement or whatever. But I digress. Trump and Elon were
informed that there is a limit to how many federal
employees can retire every month. I'm not making this up.

(50:10):
I literally checked the math myself to make sure that
this was not hyperbole. That limit is ten thousand federal
employees per month. That's the maximum number that can retire.
So I'm assuming that you know, retirement and firing, maybe
they're different things. But if you retire from the federal government,
only ten thousand retirements can be processed at a time,
in part because of the speed of the freight elevator

(50:34):
in the Iron Mountain limestone mine, I am not making
this up, guys. In the nineteen fifties, the federal government
found found I don't know, somebody they bought let's put
it that with. Somebody sold them a used up limestone mine. Like, okay,
I don't need this limestone mine anymore. Maybe I can
sell it to the Feds. And the Feds are like,

(50:54):
what are we going to do with this mine? Like,
we could use it to store paperwork. You know, in
the nineteen fifties there was a lot of paperwork and
have computers back then, and so everybody who retired there's
a file and it's all typed up and you have
to be able to find it if you ever need it.
So we need a place to file all this paperwork,
so used up Limestone mine it is, and there's one
freight elevator and sometimes it breaks down, so sometimes you

(51:15):
get a day off because you can't get in or
out of the mine. I guess, I don't know. And
federal employees work in this and literally in a mine.
They're down there in a mine, like it's an office
working on processing federal retirements. They are processed to this day,
they are processed by hand on paper. If you ever
watched that the Lokey special, like the Disney streaming service

(51:39):
Disney plus the Little Loki sub series, you know where
they kind of jump around in time and there's the
Time Variance Association or whatever, and it's kind of like
a jump back to the nineteen fifties. That's what's what
it's like down there. There's like people with typewriters and
there's it's like what is this and it's all on
paper and it's all filed by hand. And Elon found
out that the limit of people they can re tire

(52:00):
from the US government is limited by the speed of
the freight elevator in the Iron Mountain Limestone mine. Because
they never introduced computers down there because it's a limestone mine.
I'm sure it's got power, but you know how much.
I don't know. So nobody ever digitized anything. It's been
down there since the nineteen fifties, doing what it's been
doing the same way since the nineteen fifties. And that is,

(52:22):
in part what is wrong with the federal government. Forget AI,
forget you know, anything you want to do in the future.
You cannot keep processing retirements on paper. So I went
back and I ran the numbers because I'm like, this
can't be true, right, So I went and I used
AI and I said, how many people retired from the
federal government last year? AI spent me an answer back,

(52:43):
and I didn't read a website. I have to do anything.
Came back and said, in twenty twenty three, approximately one
hundred and fifteen nine hundred federal employees were retired from
the federal government. So that means nine, six hundred and
fifty nine people per month retired. So if the speed
of the elevator limits you to ten thousand retirees in

(53:03):
a month, and the elevator does break down from time
to time, because it is from the nineteen fifties, but
things worked a lot better back that. My parents had
a refrigerator that worked. I think it was from the
nineteen fifties and it was still working my entire life.
I'm like, you know, forty eight years old, things still
probably working somewhere. Well, six hundred and fifty nine a
month is about, give or take ten thousand employees a month.

(53:25):
So Lawrence, congratulations, you're the winner of the twenty five
dollars Shock Innovations Gift certificate. Thanks for taking the time
to call into the program today. Stay tuned for the Aftershock,
where we'll talk about some more stuff that the Doe's
Commission has found here and some trending Google search terms
in the DC metroplex that might surprise you. Thanks for
tuning in. We'll see you next week for another edition
of Compute This