During the darkest days of my career's "busy period", I thought I was the only IT guy in the world who was both ethical and competent.

I am thrilled to report that I was wrong. Tonight's guest, Mike Cowan from McGyver Tech, is based in LA and heard me on a Pittsburgh talk show one morning in 2017. He called me up and said "Hey, we think the same way." It would turn out that we think very similarly, like Computer Exorcist parallel universe counterparts:

• We both had a passion for technology and ended up working in the industry through serendipity.
• We both strive to solve problems the right way once and for all instead of milking people for fees.
• We have come to the same conclusions independently of each other about the industry and its intentions.
• He even has his own "Three New Threats" tenets, and his own witty catchphrases!

So he became my first fully independent local affiliate, and I'm so thrilled to finally have him on tonight. In Part 1, you'll get to know him, and next week we get his opinion on an article he sent me.

Tonight we discuss:

• How free software is marginalized - In other words, there are things in modern life that can't be done with free software, and instead require some proprietary technology. However, I argue that it's a lot better than it used to be.
• Using a password manager, especially with "sugggeeeesssted" passwords, means relinquishing control of your life to someone else. If you really insist on using a password manager, we'll discuss a few points you should know to protect yourself.
• Are complex passwords really more secure?
• What's the best way to make sure I never lose my passwords?
• Finally, we discuss how all of this technology and control SEEMS intimidating and controlling, but it won't last forever. The Roman Empire was similar, but it eventually fell. Keep your eyes focused on the eternal and it'll remind you that all this is fleeting.

Thanks as always for telling your friends about the show!

This week we discuss:

• How Google Chrome ranks as the worst browser in terms of privacy (even amongst its peers)
• Which alternatives get the job done without all the spying
• Marc's new Edge Obliterator Script protects you from the Edge nagware
• How Google proposes to replace cookies with FLoC, which pigeonholes you based on your "type"
• The Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, and what could've prevented it
• Robotaxis - They bring us places, but micro-control us with apps
• Geofencing - a new form of micro-control
• Trolleys - a brand new invention that Marc totally came up with on his own. They're like robotaxis but they stay in their own lane and don't smash into things. Nobody ever thought of this simple idea.
• A generation raised without logic, morals, ethics, or common sense, firing off the weapon of technology indiscriminately without questioning anything.

Remember, the only thing that will stop Big Tech is you and me raising awareness!

Most of us have seen those scary popups that tell us we have viruses and beg us to call a phone number - but now they come with scary sirens and scary voices. They know most seniors can't lower their computer volume, especially when the popup is in fullscreen mode.

We all know virus scanners and laws can never stop these things, because they're simply deceptive emotional sentences. So what do we do?

We feed it back to them, of course!

In this episode, I purposefully visit these popups and then call the number on the screen. I then put the phone up to my big speakers and blast the sirens into their ears, all the while pretending to be an overwhelmed senior.

It could be my favorite one to date. I hope you love it.

Tell your friends about the show and tell them they can become a Computer Exorcist by visiting becomeanexorcist.com

It's a solo teaching episode of the CEP!

Today we celebrate over 4000 downloads!

We start the show by discussing Microsoft's latest debacle, the Recall Scandal. Oh, no big deal. Just them force-attacking every Windows PC with something that recorded your voice by default without any knowledge or permisison, that's all. More to come on that one, but feel free to look it up and warn people about it.

In our first article, I explain this new gimmick where you can unlock and start your car with a mobile app. To most consumers, a magical gizmo talks to another magical gizmo. They don't realize all of this depends on connectivity to a very unreliable and insecure cloud server, built like a house of cards.

Even Tesla admits this should be a secondary way to use your car - it should never be relied upon. So always keep your main keycard in your pocket.

Next, it's the "I've Been Sayin' It For Years" segment. For years I've been warning people that those wifi-controlled thermostats dangle a bit of convenience in front of you like a gingerbread house, then welcome you right into the oven of control.

Well, now it's a reality, and everything I've said has come true. They went from not saying a word about the control part, to then saying "oh don't worry we'll just lower your thermostat a few degrees", to full-blown controlling you and taking power away from you during peak times.

Marketingbobbleheads had the nerve to call this "Virtual Power Plants": You don't generate any power, but during peak times they take power away from you and put it where it's needed, so you're acting like a power plant.

Finally, I raise awareness for the Free Software Foundation and their call for 100% free software instead of all this closed nonsense. I do make one point that they should focus on the big goals (like eliminating MS Outlook) before going after the nit-picky stuff.

So! If you don't know what to do with your life, come help me stop the trickle of money and power toward Silicon Valley. Visit becomeanexorcist.com for more info.

Tonight I continue with my "Torment a Scammer" kick:

A personal injury lawsuit scammer calls to ask if I've been in a car accident. Foghorn Leghorn answers in the affirmative, and it all goes downhill from there.

The next scammer claims that he wants to give me health insurance benefits, but he needs MY credit card number in order to pay me. Interesting. So I read through a bunch of totally irrelevant cards and by the time I get to the membership card for dog shows, he drops.

Next are two cable company scammers. I ask the first one if he can see the the dirty movie I'm watching, and of course confuse him by constantly changing the cable provider I subscribe to.

The second one tries the same shtick about being from "TV Service Provider" so I tell him that one of his colleagues had gotten to me first and I'd already given all my credit cards to him. I then break character and let him have it.

The last one is from the "medicare open enrollment" gold rush. I ask if his company can give me gift cards to my favorite restaurant. Later he asks me what branch of the military I served in, so I throw him a curveball.

Thanks for telling your friends about the show, and tell any clubs you're in that I can come give them a talk on online safety!

And now, the moment you've been waiting for: It's another Torment a Scammer episode!

First up, we have a Spectrum imposter. I give her the runaround by constantly changing my tune as to what cable company I subscribe to.

Next, we have a very revealing call from a guy who admits I'm not "the no call list". I HIGHLY doubt he's referring to the American Do Not Call Registry. Far be it from them to respect that. Rather, I think it's an internal list where scammers keep track of guys like me who waste their time.

Later on is a pain relief scammer. I keep her busy by telling her all the ailments in my body.

Finally, a Medicare scammer who wants to know the name of my doctor. I spend about 16 minutes spelling the name GUIDO SARDUCCI while he struggles with it. (Some of you will remember that character from SNL!) I then read off all of the membership cards in my desk, including my grocery bonus card, my hotel rewards club, and my Purina Puppy Chow membership card.

Thanks for telling your friends about the show, and buy my book for all of them!

In this episode, we'll discuss some recent Microsoft cloud service outages and explore why they still happen.

We'll also discuss:

Some recent update attacks and the resulting destruction to Windows PCs.

What causes update attacks and how to prevent them.

And finally, after eleven years of Marc hosting tech talk shows, finally, finally, someone in the government realized that Microsoft should be questioned and possibly held accountable for some major major cybersecurity breaches (and hopefully the panic, chaos, and fear that society has had to deal with since the company's inception).

Get ready to learn and thanks for telling your friends about the show!

Remember, if you know someone who wants to protect seniors from Big Tech and online scams for a living, send them over to becomeanexorcist.com for training!

Tonight we discuss cybersecurity breaches: In other words, people stealing each other's data instead of doing something constructive.

Microsoft Exchange is a software product from 1996 that holds your emails in a server. In 2021, the world watched as bad guys broke into Exchange servers and sucked emails out like a vacuum.

The bad guys then shared the exploit with other bad guys. In other words, the hack went viral.

The cybersecurity community panicked, Microsoft churned out a patch (which the bad guys immediately started reverse-engineering), and they all went back to an uneasy silence. Until the next time, and the next one, and the one after.

So goes the continuous break-fix-break-fix cycle of fear. In other words, Whac-A-Mole. (New holes are discovered in Exchange almost daily.)

As usual, Non-Microsoft products were not affected.

For some reason, people use Exchange to this day. The only reason I can imagine is because many IT jokers don't have updated training, and think it's the only choice.

Thanks for telling your friends about the show!

It's another one-hour special! Today is a solo teaching episode, where Marc discusses:

• Nick Francesco's exposure of Apple's "Designer Exodus"
• A Plain English history of what brands of processors Apple has used, and the opportunity to repurpose old Apple computers and tablets
• You've heard of JD Power & Associates. It's a company that surveys consumers on their satisfaction with their cars. But did you know that car companies initially resisted the feedback? It wasn't until later that they realized customer feedback could actually help them. Imagine that. (And stay tuned for Computer Exorcist consumer satisfaction seals of approval!)
• The second article illustrates how far we've fallen. Here we are in the 21st century, unilaterally ruled by Silicon Valley. Modern cars not only ignore client feedback, but force you to agree to surveillance. The cars now film you, even when they're supposedly turned off in your garage.
• Worse, yet, Tesla employees admit they watch these videos and share them with each other. When the company tried to award them with free loaner cars, their reaction was fantastic.
• Furious yet? If you're sick of sitting in your cubicle, check out becomeanexorcist.com to learn how to protect people from Big Tech!

When Marc saw this article, he knew he'd have to summon Dr. Mike to help him get through it with a bit of levity.

Tonight's one-hour special is about the HP ink cartridge scandal. Not only does HP charge an arm and a leg for their cartridges, but they're now sending out update attacks that turn your printer into a paperweight if you dare try and use a third-party cartridge. Yes, remotely killing their own brand of printers, the printers you bought from them. It's called their "Dynamic Security System".

Outraged yet? This PR "oil spill", or rather "ink spill" is very vindicating. Finally, the world is seeing what Marc's been preachin' in his tech gospel since 2012.

When they were caught doing this, HP claimed it's to protect you from "viruses". They know most people still think viruses happen, and figure they'll be able to get away with that excuse. Security experts have noted that viruses have never been detected in existing ink cartridges, and if so, it would be highly difficult, unlikely, and not worthwhile for the bad guys.

Most companies encourage you to use their usually-superior genuine factory parts, and discourage you from using third-party parts. That's totally fine, but it seems as though HP has removed that choice. Why? Their admitted goal is recurring revenue through vendor lock-in. (Remember when companies used to prioritize customer satisfaction?)

We discuss how to protect yourself from expensive factory cartridges and update attacks, and encourage people to seek other brands that are more ethical.

Finally, we discuss the phenomenon of a group of disgruntled workers walking out of a large corporation and starting their own underdog competitor - and how it usually ends up working well.

Thanks for telling your friends about the show!

Tonight's solo teaching episode focuses on one very poignant article, entitled "Can AI Curb Loneliness in Older Adults?"

• Many seniors are lonely. In response, one new company is now selling/renting robots to the elderly.
• It's one thing if you talk to it when you're lonely at home, but one lady reported shunning her family reunion because she felt as though the robot was now her family. WHAT?
• Unlike the robots from The Jetsons and Star Trek, these aren't independent robots that are "part of the family".
• These are simply glorified Amazon Echo devices that record everything you say and send it back to Home Office, and then produce results that they deem are most amenable to you. It's the centralization of companionship.
• "The company prioritizes user security and privacy." Yes, that's what they all say.
• Turns out MILLIONS of younger people have already been sucked in by AI boyfriends/girlfriends. It's an app where you pretend to text with a significant other.
• Oh yeah, and if the old folks can't afford the milking fees, NY State will pay for them, because it's a great way to keep people isolated from each other and pacified. In other words, The Matrix.
• Marc then shines a light on the whole situation by suggesting healthier alternatives. For example, there's this brand new thing that nobody's ever heard before called INTERACTING WITH OTHER LONELY HUMAN BEINGS. You can attend bridge clubs, churches, or even family Zoom calls.
• You can mentor young people, because Lord knows they desperately need to be taught some social skills.
• You can do pretty much anything else and end up better off.

Thanks as always for telling your friends about the show!

Tonight's guest is Janet Gervers!

One day in the 1990s, she heard about the web, and decided she should be a web designer. So she moved to San Francisco and the next morning the web took off! We even get a history lesson on the origins of Flash multimedia.

She's now an expert in online branding, emphasizing branding that authentically communicates who you are and why you're different. She mainly works with women entrepreneurs who are coach/author/speakers who don't want to deal with the tech aspect.

Tonight we discuss the typical cycle of technology: Something novel comes out, and then the designers let their imaginations run wild, until it becomes more and more and more and more bloated and overgrown.

Finally, we discuss an article about passwords! You know how websites are now forcing you to make COMPLICATED passwords with letters, numbers, punctuation, Cyrillic characters, and music notes? IT TURNS OUT IT'S TOTALLY UNNECESSARY.

It is actually less secure than a passphrase, and bad guys don't even care, because they're just copying and pasting your passwords anyway. So it just ends up being an excellent way to terrify consumers. Unfortunately, most computer guys don't know this, because they worship complexity and/or don't keep up on their training.

Thanks for telling your friends about the show!

Here's the long-awaited sequel to the interview with our very own superhero, Aaron Welty.

Tonight we discuss:

• What sparked his journey to Capitol Hill
• "Why aren't I at the next level yet?"
• Saving the world versus being the world to someone
• What happens when you realize life is finite
• When a group of students lay their hands on him and prayed for him, a miracle happened, but not the one they were expecting.
• External healing versus fundamental change and inner peace
• Aaron's superhero alter ego
• The joys of discovering a shared interest, and also discovering a shared pain
• The Terrible Privilege: How all superheroes start out as victims
• How victims can become heroes or villains based on how they handle their pain
• "There's a point to the weakness because the obstacle is the way."

This is one episode I'll never forget, and I hope it has the same great impact on you. Check me out at TheComputerExorcist.com and hire Aaron to speak to your group at AaronRWelty.com

Tonight's guest is Aaron Welty. He has succeeded in life despite a number of obstacles, such as Cerebral Palsy, and worse yet, being born in Detroit.

After doctors told his family he wouldn't survive past childhood, he defied them by going to work for the House of Representatives, climbing a mountain, and traveling the world as a motivational speaker.

In Pt 1, we discuss:

• "The duty of those in power is to speak up for those who can't speak for themselves."
• How the kids in the book Maniac Magee saw each other as individuals instead of as identity groups
• How some people strive to claim as many disability benefits as possible, or as Marc calls it, "qualify downward"
• The contrast between people who overcome their weakness versus those who qualify downward
• Deciding what kind of person you're going to be
• How to be more BA than the IDF: Aaron's journey to Southern Israel to take a 3-mi hike in the wilderness then climb a mountain the day after
• How one Rochester nonprofit goes against the narrative to remind inner-city kids of their innate self-worth
• "When something is asked of you, that's when you show up and shine."

Stay tuned for the second half next week, and in the meantime check him out at AaronRWelty.com and check out my site TheComputerExorcist.com

This is the third and final segment of the Taylor Abrahamse interview!

• How does Marc remain optimistic?
• Is it your job to save the world?
• Why 9 is better than 11
• Being your own worst enemy
• "I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of relaxing."
• Entering a dojang, stripped of the trappings of life, with nothing left besides your core identity
• Removing the "emotional charge" from your predicament, to help you solve it objectively
• How the finiteness of life actually motivates us to achieve something
• We eventually got around to reading a tech article about privacy - you're gonnawanna hear what Google and Samsung are doing to you now.
• We discuss the implications of new tech, the responses to it, and the side effects of those responses.

This and so much more, tonight on The Computer Exorcist Podcast!

Check out Taylor Abrahamse at TaylorAbrahamse.ca and check me out at TheComputerExorcist.com

Today we continue our discussion with thinker/songsmith/voice actor Taylor Abrahamse. I hope you're finding this as fascinating as I did!

We discuss:

• Artists (and us) leaving the whole scene behind and retiring (but then what?)
• WHY people like certain songs - what components make up a good song?
• The cynicism, pandering, and formulaic nature of this year's Big Game commercials - "a miscommunication between corporate culture and real life"
• "How do these people have all the money if they're so bad at understanding human needs and human psychology?"
• Were the 80s the peak of civilization?
• Taylor's catchy kids song "Potbelly Pig"
• Songs can have sugar and oatmeal components - you can only take the sugary stuff for so long before you start to crave something more substantive.
• The Bee Gees having eight Number 1 Hits in a row
• What if someone set out to create a song engineered to contain the components that researchers find attractive? Has it been done already?
• What is a Cameo?
• Feeling bad about charging your clients while your competitors blatantly rip them off
• Company leaders feeling as though they're under pressure to cheat or make gimmicks, versus doing the right thing no matter what

Stay tuned for the third and final segment of our interview.

"Three episodes with me? That's preposterous!"

Check out Taylor Abrahamse at TaylorAbrahamse.ca and check me out at TheComputerExorcist.com

Tonight's special guest is Taylor Abrahamse. He's a thinker, a songsmith, and has been a voice actor for several famous TV shows and animes.

I don't even know where to begin. We talked about so many fascinating things, we had to do three episodes. Here are some of the many topics we covered in Pt 1:

• Trying to be unique in a world of Taylor Swift fans who drive silver Camrys
• "Uniqueness, by its very nature, means not everyone can be it."
• Being lost vs. finding your path
• How each piece of music or art, regardless of financial return, contributes to humanity's collective success
• How social media really is the ADD of television multiplied by 200 or even 1000
• How social media is like a stadium where some people do things, the people in the bleachers react to it, then the people behind the bleachers react to the reactions of the people in the bleachers
• Making money by helping people, or making money by forcing things onto people
• Being massively famous vs. being the world to someone
• How do we get good ideas out there effectively?

Hope you love the episode, keep tellin' your friends about the show, and check out Taylor at taylorabrahamse.ca and check out my site TheComputerExorcist.com

Today is a solo teaching episode where Marc discusses positive articles!

If you have some data you really care about, like family photos, you can now burn it to a Thousand-Year DVD. It has a surface made of minerals, and is projected to last 1,000 years. How do we know this? Well we put them through torture tests like extreme heat and moisture. They remained intact, unlike normal writable DVDs (not to mention floppies and Zip Disks, which die very easily).

What's the second issue people don't talk about? If your media survives, you also need a machine to read it! DVD players are fairly ubiquitous, unlike tape backup readers, which CHANGE every year, so with those, you're very unlikely to find a machine to read your data.

The other good news is about replica cars. Rather than just kit cars, it's now legal for companies to create and sell fully assembled "new" vintage cars - brand new metal that's SIMPLE and reliable and isn't crawling with cloud control. It's a very beautiful thing.

Tell your friends about the show!

It's another Torment a Scammer medley! Here's some of the mayhem you'll hear today:

• The first Spectrum impostor didn't understand percentages, so I explained to him that 120 was 50% of 240 until he snapped.
• In the next clip, I was talking to a Spectrum impostor and my other phone rang! It was a Medicare impostor so I put the phones together to let them duke it out.
• Next guy claims he's from "satellite company". No company in particular, just "satellite company."
• The next dude claims my discount is based on my Social Security Number and tries to get it out of me. I drive him wild and ramble on and on until he pops.
• The next lady is so overworked she just breathes heavily into the phone, so I ask if she's got lung problems.
• The next guy apparently asks for my "zip cord". Hilarity ensues.
• We then get a guy claiming to be Medicare. I mis-hear him as "Madagascar Part A + B?"
• The final lady asks for my Spectrum bill and phone bill, so I look over all the bills I have, and assume she meant my "food bill" from Burger King. I then proceed to tell her how my lunch was...

We had over 2,600 downloads in our first year of 2023! Thanks to the fans and keep telling your friends about the show!