Bob's Computer Service

09/14/2026

What if someone got into your email tonight?

Could they only read your messages?

Or could they figure out where you bank, which cloud services you use, who your clients are, where your files are stored, and which accounts they could try to reset next?

That is what makes email security so important.

For many people and small businesses, email has quietly become the master key to a huge part of their digital life.

The scary part is that an attacker doesn't always want you to know they are there. Sometimes quietly watching your inbox can be far more valuable than immediately locking you out.

In my latest article, I explain why protecting your email deserves more attention, what a criminal could learn from a compromised inbox, and a few of the protections every business owner should be thinking about.

Ask yourself one question:
If someone got into your email tonight, what else could they reach?

Your email is the account that can reset all the others. Why email account security deserves more protection than most Springfield MA businesses give it.

09/11/2026

This Week in Tech History

September 9, 1995 – The Sony PlayStation launches in North America
Believe it or not, the PlayStation almost wasn’t Sony’s console at all. In the early 1990s, Sony was collaborating with Nintendo on a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo, known as the “Nintendo PlayStation.” At the last minute, Nintendo pulled out of the deal.
Instead of backing down, Sony doubled down—and the rest is gaming history.

What changed everything?
The PlayStation became the first home console to ship 100 million units worldwide. By using CDs instead of cartridges, Sony provided game developers with more storage, lower costs, and the freedom to experiment. That led to massive, cinematic experiences like Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil—games that proved video games could be as deep and emotional as movies.

The long-term impact
The PlayStation didn’t just compete with Nintendo and Sega—it redefined the gaming industry. It popularized 3D graphics, gave us the modern memory card system, and helped elevate video games into mainstream culture. Today, PlayStation is one of the most powerful brands in the tech industry, still pushing the boundaries of digital entertainment nearly 30 years after its inception.

Fun fact: Only about 200 prototypes of the abandoned “Nintendo PlayStation” are known to exist and one sold at auction for over $300,000!

Do you remember firing up that original gray PlayStation? Which PS1 classic stole your free time—Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, or Gran Turismo? Drop your favorite below! ⬇️

09/09/2026

Yesterday, a cyber incident disrupted Springfield Public Schools badly enough that classes had to be canceled.

Think about that for a moment.

A large organization with thousands of students, employees, technology systems, and dedicated IT resources was forced to stop normal operations because critical systems were unavailable.

Now imagine the same thing happening to a business with five employees.
Email stops working. Shared files cannot be reached. Customer information is unavailable. Computers may not be safe to use. Suddenly, what looked like an IT problem has become a business problem.

We still do not know exactly what caused the Springfield Public Schools incident, and I am not going to speculate.

But the lesson for every business owner in Springfield MA is already clear.
Cyber incidents do not only happen to huge corporations somewhere else.
They happen right here in our community.

The best time to find out whether your security, backups, and recovery plan actually work is while everything is still working.

I wrote about what local businesses can learn from what happened in Springfield and the practical protections every business should be thinking about.

If a cyber incident can Shut Down Springfield Public Schools, it can happen to any business. Learn why small companies need MFA, tested backups, limited access, and a recovery plan.

09/07/2026

QuickBooks works perfectly for one person in the office.

Everyone else waits.

Reports crawl. Invoices take forever to open. Someone restarts the computer, and suddenly nobody can access QuickBooks.

The problem might not actually be QuickBooks.

I still see small businesses where the entire QuickBooks company file has quietly become dependent on one employee’s computer. That computer was never meant to be a server. It just became one over the years.

And that creates a bigger problem than frustration.

What happens if that computer crashes, gets infected with ransomware, or does not turn on tomorrow?

Your accounting history should not depend on one computer behaving perfectly every day.

In my latest article, I explain why QuickBooks can be fast for one employee and miserable for everyone else, what proper QuickBooks hosting should look like, and why backup needs to be part of the conversation.

If this sounds familiar in your office, it may be worth reviewing the setup before a slow QuickBooks issue becomes an accounting emergency.

QuickBooks flies for one person and crawls for everyone else? The problem is usually where the company file lives. A Springfield MA look at QuickBooks hosting.

09/04/2026

This Week in Tech History

📅 September 4, 1998 – Google is founded

Two Stanford PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, launched a small search engine project out of a California garage—calling it Google, a play on the word “googol” (the number 1 followed by 100 zeros). Their goal? To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and helpful.

At the time, search engines like Yahoo!, AltaVista, and Ask Jeeves dominated the web, but most of them listed pages based on keywords. Google’s innovation was its PageRank algorithm, which analyzed the relationships between sites, delivering far more accurate results.

Here’s the wild part: In 1998, Google’s founders actually tried to sell their search engine to Yahoo! for just $1 million. Yahoo! declined, thinking search engines weren’t that important. That decision is now remembered as one of the most significant missed opportunities in the history of technology.

Fast forward to today:
• Google is a global giant, with products from Gmail to YouTube, Maps to Android, and its parent company, Alphabet, valued at over a trillion dollars.
• The word “Google” has become a verb in everyday life—“Just Google it.”
• Its dominance has reshaped how businesses market, how people find answers, and even how we think about knowledge itself.

From garage startup to digital empire, Google’s journey demonstrates how the right combination of innovation, timing, and vision can transform the entire world.

Did you know? The very first Google storage system was built from LEGO bricks, holding ten 4GB hard drives—tiny compared to the cloud-powered data centers Google runs today.

08/31/2026

Thinking about factory resetting your computer because something just isn’t working right?

Be careful before you click that button.

A Windows reset can remove programs, settings, email archives, accounting data, and other important information that may not be stored where you expect them to be.

Even the option labeled “Keep my files” does not mean that everything you care about is protected.

Before wiping your computer, make sure you know what is actually causing the problem and that everything important is safely backed up.

Read my latest article before you reset your PC. It could save you from a much bigger problem.

A factory reset erases more than you expect. Before you factory reset your Windows PC here is what to back up first, what a reset will and will not fix, and when it is the wrong answer.

08/28/2026

This Week in Tech History

In August 2003, a little program called Skype was released, and it changed the way the world talked.

Before Skype, international calls were expensive, clunky, and limited. But Skype broke the mold by using the internet to connect people through free voice and video calls. For the first time, families, friends, and businesses could see and hear each other across the globe without worrying about long-distance charges.

What led up to it? Skype was built on the peer-to-peer technology that powered file-sharing apps like Kazaa. Instead of trading music, though, it traded voices and faces in real time. That innovation set the stage for the explosion of video calling we take for granted today.
The impact? Massive. Skype wasn’t just a tool, it was the beginning of a digital shift that influenced the rise of Zoom, FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and even TikTok’s live streaming. Microsoft eventually acquired Skype in 2011, solidifying its presence in the business world.

Today, whether you’re video chatting with family across the country, holding a virtual meeting, or streaming content live, you can thank Skype for paving the way.
Do you remember your first Skype call?

08/27/2026

Think Macs can’t get hacked? Think again.

A recent macOS security flaw allowed attackers to gain root access on vulnerable Macs and install malicious software.

The bigger lesson is simple: Mac, Windows, or Linux, no computer is invincible.
What matters is how well it is protected, updated, and monitored.

Read my latest article to see what happened and what every computer user should learn from it.

Think your Mac can’t get viruses? The latest Apple security flaw in Screen Sharing proves otherwise. Here’s what every computer user and Springfield MA small business needs to know.

08/24/2026

Imagine getting a call from a client asking, “Did you really send me this?”

The email has your name. Your address. Maybe even your normal signature.
But you never sent it.

Business Email Compromise can enable criminals to impersonate your company, take over a legitimate mailbox, monitor conversations, and send convincing messages to people who already trust you.

And that is what makes it so dangerous.

The damage is not always a locked computer or a ransom screen. Sometimes the first sign is a client receiving a fake invoice, suspicious link, or fraudulent request that appears to come directly from you.

In my latest article, I explain how these attacks happen, what warning signs businesses should look for, and why MFA, email authentication, monitoring, and proper investigation all matter.

Your clients trust emails carrying your company’s name.

Make sure criminals are not using that trust against them.

Read the full article on our website.

Business email compromise does not rely on malware, it relies on trust. Here is how the attack works and the controls that stop it.

08/21/2026

This Week in Tech History

August 1982 – The First Compact Discs Are Produced!

In a factory in Langenhagen, Germany, the very first commercial Compact Disc (CD) rolled off the production line—an album by ABBA, fittingly titled The Visitors. What seemed like just another music format at the time turned into a revolution.

Before CDs, most of us relied on vinyl records and cassette tapes, both of which wore down with every play. CDs, with their shiny digital surface, offered something game-changing: crystal-clear sound, instant skipping, and a longer lifespan. The format wasn’t just about music, it was a stepping stone toward how we store and share data.

By the 1990s, CDs had moved beyond the stereo and onto the desk, CD-ROMs made it possible to distribute software, games, encyclopedias (remember Encarta?), and even early internet installers (yep, AOL CDs in the mail). This tiny disc reshaped both entertainment and computing, paving the way for DVDs, Blu-ray, and even the USB flash drives and cloud storage we use today.

👉 Though streaming has mostly replaced CDs, its influence on how we consume media and handle data is undeniable. For many of us, sliding a disc into a drive was our first authentic taste of the “digital future.”

Have you ever made a mix CD for someone special or backed up your files on a stack of blank discs?