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Riding Shotgun with Rick

Learning is fun

By far the most satisfying part of my job is teaching someone something new about their computer that will enable them either to do more or do something more efficiently. However, when I learn something new (and I do every day), nothing exceeds that satisfaction.

Today, as I was helping a client learn to use their new computer and Palm handheld organizers, they informed me about some of the great features available in the ACT! program. ACT! is a contact manager software and has bounced around between a few different companies and is now owned by Sage Software. ACT! markets itself directly to businesses, large and small. Home users would find the program to be too large to be useful.

I’m not perfect….

I have never claimed to be the most knowledgeable computer tech on the planet…and I never will. However, what I will promise is that I give my customers the best advice that I can for the topics that I know about and will refer them to the best possible resources for topics outside my scope.

Today, I saw a client who traded some services with another computer tech here in Grand Junction, CO. The other tech reformatted my client’s computer and proceeded to install a copy of Microsoft Office 2000. The copy was not a legal one. My client never paid for Microsoft Office and never received a CD and certificate of authenticity for the software. She was appalled that a "business person" would do such a thing. Unfortunately, this is the second time I ran into a situation like this in less than two weeks. I also happened to talk to a client of mine, recently, who took a class and was "sold" a pirated copy of some software for a substantially reduced price over the retail price of the product.

Upgrade or repair?

If I had a dime for every time this question comes up….

I actually had this happen with two of my cutomers today. My answer, the last couple of years, is a definite ‘it depends’. Wishy, washy, I know, but it really does have to be thought out. First, the proper diagnosis has to be made. What is the estimate of the repair parts and labor and how does the user use the computer factor in together. Next, a comparison of that number to what is available in the market for new computers. Last week, as an example, Office Depot had a decent little system on sale for $198 after rebates!!

Unfortunately, the market is making so much of the technology we buy disposable…economically speaking. When looking at individual situations, however, the repair costs usually are a little under a new system. And with the exception of the hard drive that died, or the spyware and viruses that must be removed, the system is still very usable. So it comes down to how the computer is used. 

“I went over to the dark side”

The title of today’s entry was a quote from a customer of mine that I saw in a store today where I stopped to get a refreshing beverage. He was referring to the fact that he bought a Macintosh computer.

Adam and I both get similar comments with reference to Macintosh computers. The reality is that WE LIKE MACINTOSH computers. We just don’t talk about them much because so few people use them. Overall they are great machines and run very well. They are safer to use on the Internet, but I don’t agree with the common misconception that they are "easier to use" than Windows based computers.  That was the case 10 years ago when Windows was still breaking out of its shell, but not so much today.

Things aren’t always the same

A client of mine made a great observation today about computers. She put into words something that I have tried to articulate for years. I’m paraphrasing, but it went something like this: "The trouble I have with computers is that they don’t always react the same way twice."

"Wow", I thought….great statement. Unlike cars or toasters, computers have many more complex instructions going on at the same time. In fact hundreds of thousands of instructions are going on at any given time when you use your computer. And the scary thing is that these instructions are DIFFERENT for every single computer.

Know where to find your vital computer information

One of the reasons I share so much information on this web site and on our show is because I like to help people learn to save time and money. Usually if a person isn’t saving time or money, they become disgruntled and agitated.

Today, two of my clients could have saved some money and time if they had had some basic computer information available. In order to help others be more efficient and frugal, here is a list of items you want to have at the ready when you need technical help:

RTD 51…Don’t buy it!!!

On average I see about four customers day since I allow for about 1.5 hours for the visit and then .5 hour travel time between clients as a buffer. I like to load my appointments altogether and not take a traditional lunch so that I can get home a little earlier and see my kids.

To make this happen, I take a .5 gallon of water with me every day and either a home made trail mix for lunch (I’ll share that recipe later) or I eat on the road. I try to avoid drive-thru as much as possible, but sometimes that gets me into trouble.

Changing your email address is easy

A new customer that I helped today uses AOL. She stated that she is frustrated with AOL’s support, price, and continuous barrage of advertising among other things. In the next breath, however, she said

Nothing more important in computing than backup…

Destiny played its hand today in choosing my topic for my first installment of "Riding Shotgun". Riding Shotgun is the brain-child of Adam and I. We wanted to create a daily snippet of the things we see, learn, fix, and experience in our daily travels from office-to-office and home-to-home fixing computers and helping people learn about the computers.

Backup, or the lack of a backup, played a big part in my day today. One of my client’s today was a business where their computer would not boot up any longer. Upon arriving on the scene, I learned that their backup was not complete and panic ensued. After looking over the system it was apparent that it wasn’t coming back to life no matter what kind of CPR I performed. So, I pulled the hard drive out of the computer and took it to my office, where I was able to backup their data and transfer it to a CD.