NuTech Services Blog

When it comes to innovative new technologies, look no further for inspiration than good-old classic science-fiction and pop culture. You might be surprised by how many concepts first seen in works of fiction have made their way into our day-to-day lives. Let’s take a look at some of the more noteworthy examples.

Those born in the 80s (as well as some others) will likely recognize
“Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Select-Start” as the Konami Code, a famous cheat code that first appeared in 1986. Since then, the Konami Code has spread, now being featured in software titles and websites. Let’s consider the origins of the Konami Code, and how it has been featured in the zeitgeist.

Per our role as cybersecurity professionals, part of our responsibility is to put the developing threats out there in the world into perspective for the clientele that we serve. After all, with so many modern threats seeming to border on science fiction, it is only natural for smaller organizations to assume that their size will protect them from such attacks through simple lack of interest—or even that such threats will never be used practically at any significant scale. Unfortunately, these assumptions are too often mistaken.

When the Internet was established, it was a marvel. Now people could move information across the world in a matter of seconds. This is why the term “world wide web” was coined. Nowadays, there are literally billions of users on the Internet and the rules have had to be changed. This has some online services in conflict with government regulations and has an impact on how users are able to use the Internet. Let’s look at a couple of examples. 

Internet connectivity is an increasingly important component to a business’ capabilities in this day and age, as well as all the more crucial to an individual’s everyday life. However, with financial difficulties restricting this access for many, the Federal Communications Commission has stepped in. With a $50 subsidy being made available to low-income homes each month, this situation warrants a closer look.

It’s no secret that 2020 has been relatively tough on all of us, down to the technology that so many use and rely on each year. Now that we’re in the home stretch towards a hopefully better 2021, let’s look back at some of the technologies that didn’t deliver as promised and some of the other issues that we saw this year—some relatively harmless, and some decidedly not.

Drones are a technology that comes with some controversy, but also some real utility. Known best as an unmanned deterrent measure used by governments, today drones are used for a multitude of different tasks. Today we’ll discuss how drone technology has expanded over the past several years. 

Workplace engagement has long been a conundrum--how do you maximize the productivity of your business without alienating your team through quotas and ironclad policies? Many businesses have been finding that an effective way to do just that has been to use a concept known as ‘gamification.’  Let’s explore gamification and how it might be useful to you.

Your employees are your greatest asset, which means that they need to be carefully managed and maintained, just like any of your other productivity-boosting assets. The difference is, your employees aren’t just another solution - they’re human beings, and as such, they aren’t tirelessly motivated. In fact, if your employees aren’t treated properly, they could… burn out.

By now it should be clear that the same computer might not work for two different businesses’ needs. In previous articles we discussed how to select the right CPU, RAM, storage, and display for your desktop. This final post will be dedicated to some of the topics that couldn’t fit into previous parts.

When considering a business’ strengths, there is a tendency to focus on its more quantifiable aspects - it generates x dollars in revenue, or leverages advanced solutions a, b, and c. While these kinds of competitive advantages are valuable to have, it is also important to recognize how critical one of your more qualifiable strengths can be: your company culture.

Election Day for the United States is November 6th, and regardless of your feelings regarding U.S. politics, the fact of the matter is that millions of Americans will soon go to the polls and cast their ballots. Unfortunately, what many of them don’t realize is how insecure their voting machines actually are, and how they are potentially putting their vote at risk.

To educate the leaders of tomorrow, using technology from the past isn’t going to cut it. While some schools are still using technology from the last century, others are moving forward. Today, we will take a look at classroom technology innovations, and how to get this exciting new technology in the hands of more students.

Are you drowning in old computer cables? Do they sit in a drawer and take up space? Chances are that you’ll have quite a lot of old cables that are sitting around collecting dust due to your organization picking up new devices that come with even more new cables. Sure, you might think you still need that old 25-pin serial cable for that legacy scanner from 1997, but it’s probably time to let go. While there is some merit to keeping old cables around just in case, the proper alternative to throwing out unneeded cables is to recycle them.

It all goes to show: don’t mess with the IRS. The prison system has two new residents, after Anthony Alika, 42, and his wife Sonia, 27, were sentenced for filing fraudulent tax returns through the often-exploited “Get Transcript” site maintained by the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to their incarceration, the Alikas will each be responsible to pay restitution to the IRS.

When you picture an old computer, do you see a giant machine that takes up an entire room? These days, people might consider even something like a CRT monitor and a device running Windows XP to be ancient. Yet, the oldest “computer” in the world may actually be a bronze contraption found off the coast of Greece; the Antikythera mechanism, which was used to predict and track astronomical events, like the movement of the planets and occurrence of eclipses.

Perhaps one reason why Google is so popular is because the company knows how to have fun and not take themselves too seriously. One way that Google shows us their silly side is with Easter eggs they’ve incorporated into their search engine. Here’s a list of ten of our favorites.

To access these Easter eggs, you first have to go to Google.com, and then enter the following in the search form:

Type “Atari breakout” and click Images
Doing this will transform your screen of images into a playable game of Super Breakout, complete with music and a score counter.

Type “Askew”
This will tilt your screen. Don’t worry, your browser isn’t broken. It will return to normal after you leave the page.

Type “Festivus”
Festivus is a made up holiday popularized by the television show Seinfeld. Actually, Googling “Festivus” will tell you preciously what the holiday is and what it’s about, as well as display a fun Festivus pole to the left of the search results. A Festivus pole isn’t anything fancy (it’s just an aluminum pole that stands upright), which is why it’s such a fitting symbol of the holiday.

Type “Google in 1998”
Doing this acts as a time machine that will transport your Google search back to the way things were in 1998.

Type “Zerg rush”
In another nod to video games, Google transforms the search result into an offensive attack by Google letters, characteristic of the Zerg race from the popular game StarCraft. Only you can stop the assault by clicking multiple times on each letter until it disappears, which will only cause more Zerg-like Google letters to appear. For this egg, you’ll also see a handy score counter on the side.

Type “flip a coin,” or “roll a die”
Each of these search results will provide an animated coin or die that will give you a random result once the page has completed loading. It’s handy for decision making when you can’t get ahold of the real thing.

Type “[actor’s name] Bacon Number”
This is in relation to the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” not the food. As you may recall, this game involves trying to figure out how many films separate the actor from another film that Kevin Bacon has acted in. Admittedly, having Google automate this game kind of takes the fun out of it.

Type “fun facts”
This will bring up a random fact card with a bit of trivia to boot. This is a stimulating way to satisfy a moment of curiosity, or turn time with friends into a trivia game.

Type “The answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything” (no punctuation)
Fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will appreciate this one. The answer, of course, is 42.

Type “Google Pacman”
One last Google game for you. Entering this into Google will display a pop-up screen with a playable game of Pac-Man. Google made this as a doodle to celebrate Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary in 2010 (costing the US economy $120 million in lost productivity, or 5 million wasted work hours) and the game has stuck around as fun Easter egg ever since.

These are our top 10 favorite Google Easter eggs, there are actually many more to be found. Can you think of one or two eggs that we didn’t go over? Share them with us in the comments!

Bonus egg: “Do a Barrell Roll!”

If someone asked you to throw your expensive smartphone high up into the air and risk dropping it, just for the fun of it, you would probably say no. However, for the hundreds of thousands of smartphone users who have downloaded an app designed to do just that, they may have fallen for one of the best (or dumbest) technology pranks of all time.

It’s the time of year when we reflect on scary things. For an IT company, it doesn’t get much scarier than an organization’s network getting slammed with a malicious computer virus. There are a variety of really bad viruses out there, each one with its own unique ability to cause some scary results. The way we see it, each computer virus is kind of like a classic monster.

With the United States’ Presidential election ramping up, it’s hard to go anywhere without seeing Hillary Clinton’s face. The former U.S. secretary of state and first lady, Clinton is making her second attempt at the Presidency. She has gained some negative attention recently in regards to emails she had sent from a personal email address when she was the United States’ top diplomat and it’s opened up some questions about data security at the highest reaches of government.