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Rick

Security is Paramount

I’m posting from the road today as I sit waiting for my last customer. An earlier customer made a neat comment/observation. She said, "Geesh, I didn’t realize there was so much to setting up the security on a computer."

She had an expired version of Norton that we uninstalled. Then I loaded AVG Antivirus, Zone Alarm Firewall, and Windows Defender. Security setup seems time consuming and tedious during setup, but once installed properly it can work autonomously. The little extra time spent up front pays dividends down the road with decreased support calls and repair costs.

I am bragging

I have read some of Adam’s "Shotguns" lately, and he has referred to himself as an expert, but also said he didn’t want to brag. My goal today is to stir things  up a little and try and get our readers to start utilizing the discussion possibilities in our posts.

When I sit down at a malfunctioning computer, I picture Bugs Bunny sitting down in the concert hall when he played Beethoven with Elmer Fudd chasing him around. He fluffed his tail and flipped out his coat tails with the utmost confidence and bravado. I don’t where a tux to help my customers, but I do strongly feel that they would be hard pressed to find a better computer person to sit at their desk. I know Adam is a very strong second and in some areas (like photography), way ahead of me.

Give Picasa a try!

http://www.drwinn.com/graphics/quarter_hourse.gif

I just put that picture there to get your attention. 

I’m not trying to brag, but I know more about digital photography than the average computer user. This is partly due to the fact that I took Photoshop classes in college for about three years.

I love Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, but I can also appreciate that not everyone needs such a powerful program.

Microsoft Word or Office Problems after last week’s Windows Updates

This is a short note to help those folks who are having problems with opening Word documents after a critical update from Windows last week. It appears it is unique to folks with some specific HP software.

After studying it, I would recommend going to Add/Remove Programs and remove the HP Share-to-Web program (unless you are really using that feature…most people don’t). If you do use that feature or want to learn more about the cause and fix for this problem. Visit Microsoft’s Support site and read their article. 

Searching through the email

Many of you are familiar with how to search the Internet, but did you know you could search through your email similarly? Look for the "Search" function in Thunderbird and the "Find" function in Outlook or Outlook Express in the  Edit menu.

Using these tools, you can quickly search through hundreds of messages to find a specific sender, content of the message, etc. Simply fill in the boxes corresponding to the information you want to search for. You can choose to search for a word in the From, To, Subject or Body of the message.

Microsoft Access Help Site

Microsoft Access is a great and incredible tool, but sometimes it’s nice to find some help on features that are new or unfamiliar to you. The best site I have found there is Utter Access.

Tax Day – Fairtax.org

Political talk is usually a no win situation. However, I believe that when it comes to taxes and our current system, we are all losers. I also whole heartedly believe that if we scrap this antiquated, corrupt current system we have and move to a level playing field, we can all win.

Please visit the Americans for Fair Tax web site and take the time to study and learn about this proposal and then write your congressman or woman and senators to encourage their support of this important proposal.

How did you learn all of this?

I saw two clients today who were setting up broadband for the first time. They were having identical problems, but the solutions were totally different.

Client #1 had paid for a package through the local cable network for cable TV and telephone service, but had failed to ask for broadband Internet as a part of the package. They had also told her that it would not work on Windows 98.

I bought her a network card, we called the cable service and asked them to turn on the broadband Internet and I got everything up and running.

Client #2 had the cable broadband running just fine on one computer, but the other computer refused to connect. I installed a new network card and everything worked great.

Laptops are perfectly adequate computers

One of my customers today just purchased a laptop to compliment her desktop computer. She wasn’t thrilled about the idea of having two computers, but didn’t realize that her new laptop was every bit as capable as her older desktop computer.

She isn’t alone. Many computer users think size equals power. When they look at a svelte laptop and compare it to a large black or beige box, they think it must be missing something. In specific instances (designing the next Golden Gate Bridge or editing the next Oscar winning movie or playing the latest FPS game) laptops will not perform as well as a souped up desktop computer. However for most general computing purposes (Internet, word processing, email, digital photography, etc), laptop computers are perfectly capable.