Money | Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners

Posts Tagged: money

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 7 Comments
25
Jul 08

Telecommunications Bundling

Almost two years ago, I wrote an article (click here) about knowing how much you pay for your telecommunications every month. Telecommunications costs include cell phone, long distance, land line phone, cable or satellite TV, and Internet costs. I use the method I described in that article to help people get more of a handle on their tech costs and features and often save them money while getting better services.

I’m not going to rehash that article today, you can read it by clicking the link above, but I DO want to hear from you about bundling services together. Do you currently bundle your Internet, phone, and TV under one umbrella? If so, do you like the concept and does it work well for you? Do you think it saves you money? If you aren’t currently bundling services, why not? Is it not available in your area? Do you prefer the a la carte approach? Or are you just completely satisfied with your current services and don’t want to change?

That’s a lot of questions, but I think if we can generate some comments from those questions, it will help others decide whether bundling makes sense to them or not. Go ahead! Leave a comment below answering some of the questions I just proposed. I currently do not bundle because I live on the out skirts of town and can’t get our local cable service and would bundle with them if I could, but am currently happy with our telecommunications systems and don’t have many options to change.

Go ahead, leave a comment below and please share your experience with bundling!

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
30
Jun 08

Why overseas tech support doesn’t work so well

Frequently, computer users hire me to call and talk to tech support for them. That may seem like a waste of money to some people, but consider that many computer users have to over come TWO language barriers. Yes, I said two language barriers.

The first language barrier for both the overseas helper and the computer user seeking help is understanding each other. We have a hard time understanding the accent and language use of the person trying to help, and they, too, have a difficult time picking up our use of the English language and our accents that are foreign to them.

Secondly, computer lingo poses an even greater problem for many computer users. Most calls to tech support come from beginner computer users who are still learning the language of computers and their way around Windows. When instructed by a tech support person with an accent to click here and open a menu there, the process quickly becomes overwhelming.

If you need to call tech support, be aware that both you and the support person will be working hard to understand each other and be prepared to listen carefully and explain yourself fully. Approaching the call with all your information written down will help you. Have a pencil and paper to take notes on your end, and don’t be afraid to politely ask the computer helper to repeat any instructions you don’t understand or didn’t hear clearly.

Helping computer users via telephone is a difficult task, and recognizing that there are two language barriers that must be breached will help you approach the call with a different attitude. Speaking of attitude, keep a positive, light tone in your voice and be patient and the call will go much better and probably faster.

Do you have any other techniques for handling tech support calls? Or do you have a tech support story you would like to share? If so, leave a comment below and share with all of us.

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 4 Comments
16
Jun 08

Warning: Your computer may be infected with viruses, spyware and exortionware

Extortionware? What is extortionware.

I have seen at least 10 computers in the past two weeks that have recently been infected with extortionware – viruses and spyware that infect your system by pretending to be an antivirus or other security program.

With names like Windows Antivirus, WinAntivirus, XP Antivirus 20008, etc. these programs appear to look and feel official. However, they are some of the worst virus or virus-like programs I have ever dealt with.

These viruses often come onto a computer via a pop-up advertisement that says looks like a Windows security or antivirus warning that reads something like, “Your computer is infected with one or more viruses and spyware programs. Click here to run a full scan.”

Up until you click on the button, your computer is likely 100 percent virus and spyware free. However, after clicking on the scan button your computer will be infected with dozens of viruses and spyware programs.

These programs scan your computer and appear to be looking for bad guys. When the scan finishes it shows a long list of discovered programs and informs you that to remove them you must pay $50 or so to remove the viruses.

This is why it is called extortionware. These programs infect your computer then expect you to pay to have the software removed. You should know though that even after paying the money, your computer will still be infected.

Removing these programs can be extremely difficult and time consuming. I have four infected computers sitting in my office right now awaiting a reformat due to these problems.

Removing the infection can be easy with the right tools, but so much damage is done to system files that often, a reformat is the quickest option for full repair.

Most of the infected systems have had full antivirus protection, the problem with these viruses is that they install like programs so antiviruses don’t often catch them during the install. Once they have been installed, the first thing they do is shut off the antivirus making them more difficult to remove.

Be careful. Unless the warning includes the name of your antivirus, you are best to just click on the X in the upper corner. Do not click on the CANCEL or CLOSE button if one is provided as these are often false links.

Digital Photography / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 3 Comments
4
Jun 08

Why print pictures at home?

We talk about this topic many times here at HelpMeRick.com, but too few people are reaping the benefits (and cost savings) of printing their digital photos via a print shop instead of at home. Printing pictures at home costs a lot of money and takes up way too much time. And unless you spring for the more expensive printers, inks, and paper, the results of home printing are sub-par at best.

I prefer to save my money and valuable time by sending my digital photos to an online photo processing service like Shutterfly. Services like Shutterfly make uploading my photos fast and easy and then I put together my own coffee-table book that gets used over and over. If I just want prints, I like to either copy them to a CD and take them to a local developer or use Picasa and upload them to a local store development center like Walgreens, WalMart, etc.

Remember that the bottom line for our computer is that they are supposed to save us time, not waste it. Printing your digital photos using your local and online resources will save you time and money!

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
8
Apr 08

Living online with your applications and data

Here I go again talking about online applications and data storage. I keep bringing it up because the idea makes more sense to me everyday.

In just my first two days of work this week, I found multiple examples of how computing online instead of on your desktop makes sense for so many people. It will be a long time before serious photographers, movie makers, engineers, and graphic designers can make do with online applications because their programs require a great deal of computer speed, power, and storage. However, for the bulk of computer users at home and many in small businesses, migrating data online and utilizing online applications can save a great deal of time and money.

Many households today now have multiple computers. Unfortunately, computers don’t always last as long as we would like due to mechanical failure or security breeches and often we would like to be able to access data or programs that exist on one computer from another. For these reasons and more, working with online applications makes perfect sense. Online applications and data storage gives you a lot of flexibility and security. Here is a quick list of my advantages and disadvantages of online computing:

Advantages

Data is always backed up
Data is secure
Data is available from any computer, anywhere
Applications for editing and creating data is available from any computer, anywhere
Buying the latest and greatest computer is no longer a factor
Buying expensive applications is no longer necessary
Compatibility with other applications is now easier
All basic computing needs from light digital photo editing, word processing, spreadsheets to checkbook management, basic genealogy and more can be done with just a browser and an Internet connection

Disadvantages

Some computing needs can’t be met online yet (engineering, high end movie or photo editing, desktop publishing, etc)
A high speed Internet connection is required
A small learning curve and paradigm shift is necessary.
Search our web site for Web 2.0 to learn even more.

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 5 Comments
24
Mar 08

Why good computer guys get grumpy sometimes

Arrogant computer guys really bother me. I try very hard not to be a computer guy who thinks he knows everything.

The problem with this is that I am sometimes competing with computer guys who convince people that they do know everything. When I try to straighten out the situation, I get the line, “but the guy at Best Buy said that Norton is the best.” or “But my son who has worked at HP for 20 years says that Vista is much faster.”

When I try to explain using experience and logic, they don’t want to listen. Logically, wouldn’t it make more sense to listen to someone who isn’t trying to sell something. Even better, someone who deals with problems in real-life homes and businesses every day?

Stereotypically, computer guys are known for their bad attitudes. I am beginning to figure out why this is so. Computer guys have a lot to be grumpy about. The following list is not a list of complaints as much as it is a list of truths that explain why computer guys can be a little edgy sometimes.

Most people think that computers should be easy to understand and that any problem they have is a rare problem.
Most people think that most computer problems have a simple solution.
Most people think that they should know everything about their computer.
Most people think that computer businesses are a scam – a secret cult of guys who are withholding answers and refuse to give them up unless they pay an outrageous price.
Most people think that if you pick 10 people out of a room, they would be the ones who know the least about computers.

How does this add up to a grumpy computer guy? I will illustrate with the following story. It is actually not a single event but a story of actual events that took place in one day, in one room very recently.

Picture a convention setting. Many people in the room. It was not a computer convention, nor did it have anything to do with technology. Most of the people in this room know that I am a computer guy by trade. As I walked across the room, I was stopped seven times. It took me an hour and a half to get across the convention floor.

“Can I ask you a quick question?”
“Say, Here’s one for you…”
“Do you have a second, I have a really fast question.”
“Aren’t you the computer guy?”
“My daughter said that you would be the guy to answer my question…”
“My kids did something to my computer and now It keeps giving me error messages, what would cause that?”
“I have PeoplePC and I can read my email, but I can’t view web pages, can you write down some notes of what I should check?”
“My computer keeps telling me I have a virus but I don’t open any emails from people I don’t know, how do I get rid of it?”
“How do I get pictures from my camera to my computer?”
“My printer only prints out one page then stops, what is causing it?”

In every case I tried to nicely point the people to HelpMeRick.com, I gave them a few ideas of what they could try, I even wrote down some notes amd these were the responses I received:

“That sounds too complicated.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“Where do I find that.”
“I don’t know if my computer has that.”
“My email doesn’t have a password.”
And my personal favorite, “Can I do that?”

I explained that I have a business where I do house calls and solve such problems and teach such processes and thus received this chorus of replies:

“I knew you were going to say that.”
“That’s what I was afraid you’d say.”
“Do you do senior discounts?”
“That’s almost as much as a plumber.”

In every case, I told explained that it was up to them, but I charge money to fix problems.

Most of them thanked me but acted like I was holding back a secret fix in order to extort money. A couple of them stopped short of calling me names.

I received a call on Easter morning, (which I didn’t answer, but listened to the message today.) the caller said essentially, “I am having problems with my computer and will be home all day today if you can stop by.”

I will end this article with a few secrets:

Computers are not easy to fix. Even for me. There are no secrets to fixing computers, only years of experience piled on day after day.
Everyone else doesn’t know more than you do about computers. Actually, the fact that you are here, reading this website, means that you know more than 90 plus percent of those you hang around with.
A good on-call computer guy is worth more than a good a good doctor, mechanic or plumber, yet most of them charge much less than those professions.

I do not want to be mistaken for an arrogant computer guy, but I do hope that this article makes people think about what it’s like to be a computer guy in a world where every other profession, most hobbies and even civilization depend on good computer guys.

Rick’s editorial comments:

Great article Adam! I whole heartedly agree, and would like to add to your last paragraph that when a doctor, plumber, or lawyer walks across the floor at a “convention”, they would never get seven or eight questions…often no questions at all! After almost 13 years of operating my business, I am just now starting to understand the value of my knowledge and expertise. In fact, I will be arrogant and say that I believe there is not one person in the state of Colorado and possibly the United States of America, and possibly the entire planet that can troubleshoot, fix, and explain what I did to a computer as quickly or as thoroughly as I can.

Because Adam and I have worked together for a number of years, I think he follows as a close second to me because he has grasped the importance of being able to relate to the common computer user and include them in the process.

Adam and I both have an intense desire to teach and spread our common sense knowledge of computers. We work tirelessly here at HelpMeRick.com to give anyone who visits the advantage of our experiences and expertise. We know that computer users who heed our advice and practice our common-sense approach to computing save themselves money and are happier more productive computer users than those who don’t follow our advice. We know because we see it and experience it every single day.

Please use our site and spread the word about it.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
10
Mar 08

Can I ask a dumb question?

“The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask.”

That’s my pat answer when approached with the question…and I hear that question a lot. I believe that by not asking questions you eventually end up costing yourself time, money, and/or knowledge.

When it comes to computers, it behooves you to ask as many questions as possible so that you can learn. Too often, I hear this phrase; “I don’t take your classes because I need to learn more first.”

Re-read that last sentence. If that phrase makes sense to you, re-read it again! If it still makes sense to you, don’t come to my classes.

Also learn to ask questions from people who provide intelligent, understandable answers. Big box store sales/repair people are not the appropriate people to be asking technical questions. Turnover in those positions is incredibly high and practical, knowledgeable advice is incredibly low. Plus, their desire to sell you a product and over sell you service diminishes their ability to give useful advice.

By pointing out these two examples, I’m trying to get you to understand that computer skills, like any other skills, don’t just happen. They are attained through study, practice, and emulation.

A slip of paper pinned to my office bulletin board says it best: “When smart people don’t know something, they ask other smart people for help and advice. That’s how smart people get smart.”

Hardware Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
22
Feb 08

Always check the cables

Two customer visits this week took less than 10 minutes after I arrived on the scene. When printers, speakers, keyboards, mice, etc stop working and I get a call, the first thing I ask is whether the cables/cords are all plugged in correctly or at all. About 50% of the time, I’m told either “yes they are” or “I don’t know how to check them and want you to do it.” I show up and check the cables, attach them securely to their correct spots and then everything works.

The next time you lose sound, can’t print, lose your keyboard or mouse function follow these steps to save you lots of time, frustration, and money:

Shut down the computer
Follow the cables coming from the offending piece of hardware to their ends in the computer.
Pull the cable out, and firmly reattach it to its computer home
Also, do the same thing with the power cables for any devices that use separate power cables
If your mice and/or keyboard require batteries, replace them when you lose mouse or keyboard function
Now turn your computer back on again and see what happens.

If you have trouble figuring out what cables go to what ports on your computer, use tape and a Sharpie to label both the PC and the cable itself to properly match up plethora of cables hanging from the back of your computer. You can also couple this with a photo of the back of your computer to use as a reference as well.

Bottom line: Don’t call phone tech support for these kind of hardware issues until you are positive that the cables/batteries all are attached and functioning properly. Phone support can’t see those things and might guide you down the wrong path that will cause problems once you hang up with them.

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 1 Comment
22
Jan 08

How about a new business model for airlines?

For a guy who has few investments, I spend a lot of time thinking about business. I watch news stories and when I hear about a failing industry I begin thinking about ways to improve it. This is especially the case with industries that shouldn’t be failing based how society depends on them.

I have offered ideas on how to save the movie theater industry and cell phone industry in previous posts but last night I literally shot up out of dead sleep with a possible solution for the airline business.

I think Google should start an airline – or at least significantly fund one. There are thousands of airlines in the air at any given time, each airliner holds hundreds of people. These people are sitting in one place staring at the back of the seat in front of them for an hour our more.

These people are reading about how to exit the plan and even how to use the vomit bag. Once they are bored with that, they may flip through the airline sponsored shopping magazine or watch the little LCD monitor in front of them as it nags them to insert a credit card to watch something else besides the credit card nag.

Why doesn’t someone put all this advertising space to good use and lower the price of air travel? City buses are full of advertising. Wouldn’t the same concept work with an airline?

The attendants could wear patches or the safety warning could be sponsored. Wouldn’t it be great if Starbuck’s paid to have the smell of a fresh roast piped through the airplane just before landing?

The inside of airlines have nothing but advertising space. Airlines may even find more money on their underside. While the underside of an airliner’s wings are rarely seen, they still have to be worth something for those who watch family come in or take off.

CBS could pay for LCD screens in 200 planes that would pay CBS programming. Begin an entire first season of a program and by the end of the flight the show would have a new group of regular viewers.

One big reason that computers have gradually decreased in price is because other companies are loading new systems with advertising and trialware. Why can’t the same be done with the airline business?