Home & Business Computer Services

Your Real Friends Never Say, "I Love You."

2008-02-17T22:00:00.005-06:00

Happy belated Valentines Day. Sorry I missed it, but Easter is coming up soon. Have a happy Easter. If you're expecting to receive a cute animated e-card from me with a giant egg-hiding pooka to celebrate our Savior's resurrection ... well, you would be disappointed. If you don't get one, you fall in one of two categories: people I don't know or people I care about. Friends don't send friends e-cards.

"Why not?" It's a privacy violation. "Really? How?" Well, lets examine this from another point of view. Imagine the following improbable conversation.

Spammer: "I am Sam. I spam. When I'm not spamming, I sell lists of active e-mail addresses to other spammers. Did you get the twenty variations of "Inv3st in Nigerian V1@gra?" that I sent you last week?"
Aunt Ethel: "Yes I did, and I replied to each one to remove my name and clicked all the links to remove it, but I still get those messages."
Spammer: "Sorry about that. I promise I will promptly remove your name from my list, but it may take up to 6 weeks. I'd like to make it up to you. Just give me your name and address, and that of your family members and I will mail them a spiffy Wallmark birthday card, personalized with your name on it. It's only $5, or 5 for $20."
Aunt Ethel: "I'm not comfortable giving out my address to you, and besides I can do that myself. Don't you mean Hallmark?"
Spammer: "Good for you! Obi Wan has taught you well. It was rude of me to ask. I tell you what. We have a new offering. I'll send them a free e-card on their birthday. But naturally I would need their e-mail addresses, and yours so they can reply to it. Oh, and their birthdays so that I know when to send it."
Aunt Ethel: "Oh! Free? Let's send them the cute one with the bootleg Mickey Mouse throwing hearts all over the place."

Is the e-card from a reputable company? Maaaybe. Did she read their privacy page? Doubtful. Was there a privacy page? Perhaps. Do they abide by the rules mentioned in their privacy page? Who knows? I'm sure the Internet Police, Captain America, and the Easter Bunny will prosecute anyone who abuses the system.

The frequent reality is that Aunt Ethel just sold her family's inbox privacy and hers for a spiffy e-card. I guarantee you that nine out of 10 of them think that it was really thoughtful, or just pass it off as "another cutesy card from Aunt Ethel." The tenth one is the designated computer-saavy individual in the family who just got through removing spyware from three of the other nine's computers. You know, the cranky zealot who's always pulling his hair out, scolding the others about buying some sort of antivirus software, and always replies to the fascinating forwarded e-mails with some weird link to a site called Snopes.com. Sheesh, what a whiner. I'm sure everyone's computer is probably still under warranty which means they send a team of motivated experts to the house to fix it if it breaks for any reason. Besides, the site has a gold lock which means it's secure. Right?

In the computer security world, we call this "social engineering." This classic example has the following traits:

It attempts to create an environment where the targeted individual is comfortable voluntarily divulging information that otherwise would be treated as private.
It attempts to create an environment where the targeted individual is comfortable voluntarily divulging other people's information that otherwise would be treated as private.
It plays on your emotions. C'mon! Cute fuzzy kitty cat e-card for your favorite niece! And we'll automatically send them another one on Christmas!

It can also have security implications. Many sites require you to install some sort of browser plug-in to view the really cool spiffy animated card. Is it safe? Were you planning on uninstalling the plug-in when you're done viewing it (assuming it can be)? Are you sure that it doesn't do anything else, like hypothetically collect passwords and credit card numbers?

Some sites are legitimate. Many are not. Many others say they are legitimate and pinky-swear not to sell your information to anyone else. Listen to the cranky zealot: "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me!" There's a reason the post office has strict mail fraud rules and tries to establish trust with the public. It comes as no surprise that old snail mail scams just moved their operations to the Internet.

If you love your friends and family, send them a real card, write your own e-mail, or do nothing, but please think twice before sending an e-card. If you find yourself to be the recipient of said e-card, fight the urge to retaliate. Instead, consider giving them an equally thoughtful gift such as a Ford Pinto, a cute litter of free dalmation puppies, or signing them up for a cell phone plan and prepaying the first month.

If you would like me to forward a courtesy copy of this article to your friends and family free of charge, just leave their e-mail addresses in the comments field below, but you might need a free Blogger account first ...

Pandora: Your favorite music that you've never heard

2008-02-17T17:20:00.002-06:00

Wow. I'm normally not much of one for the sites that collect my personal information, but this one is different. I'm somewhat of a music nut, and somewhat stuck in the influences of folk songwriting and 70s era rock. I ran across an experimental site a while back called Mercora (now part of social.fm, which was really cool. You could search for your favorite artists and songs, and for a while you could actually record a limited amount of them to your computer. It could broadcast your music library with others, and you could listen to theirs. It was a pretty good way to discover new music, but it had some flaws. You were at the mercy of the "DJ" whose station you were listening to. Sometimes their stations were not very coherent. Mozart + Rap + Country on the same channel didn't flow very well. It appears that the site still works that way, but I haven't used it since the name change. Meanwhile I got sucked into Pandora.

Here's how it works. You're not sharing libraries with other users. You are limited to their library (which seems pretty extensive), so you might not get your favorite indy rock band or older LPs which never survived the transition to CD, but what you do get is very interesting.

First, you search for an artist or song title. Next, it creates a "station" with similar songs, based on certain characteristics of the music. You can optionally add other artists to your station to customize it. Pretty neat? Not yet. This is where it gets interesting. If you really like a song, you give it a thumbs up. If you don't like it, thumbs down. Soon, an eerie thing starts happening. You start hearing music that you've forgotten about, or have never heard before, but you like it...

After a while, you realize that not all of your music belongs on the same station. Pandora lets you create multiple stations, to accomodate various moods or styles. I have a couple that I attempt to keep strictly instrumental. Others are for foreign music, country classics, killer rock riffs, or soothing music. Others are ordered more by their decade. It's amazing how well and how quickly it starts figuring out your music interests.

Oh, and so far, it's free as in zero-cost. Wow. It appears to be financed by advertising graphics and links to purchase music, but your music keeps on playing.

Since this is the age of social networking, you can listen to other users' stations, or share links to yours. I added my channel list to this blog, so if you're reading this from a news aggregator, don't miss out. Here are some links to my channel. You can add them to your RSS reader to see when I create a new station.

My profile on Pandora
My Pandora stations RSS feed

The more you play with it, the more it grows on you. Enjoy!

Still here... just elsewhere.

2007-12-08T13:48:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry for the really long delay in updating this feed. Life's been busier lately, and my free time has been spent on various other projects or interests, most of which have been centering around computers. There have many days where I wanted to write about some of the exciting things that I had been doing, but I just didn't have the energy at the end of the day. I need to post an article on burnout. I have recently taken up art as a hobby, since I can't always tell the difference between work and play when I'm on my home computer. I blame my BlackBerry a.k.a., my Wireless Leash.

On the technology front, I have really gotten into various open source projects. For those of you who may not be familiar with the term "open source," here is a brief and incomplete explanation. It usually refers to software where the author has released the programming instructions (source code) for others to view, and reuse, usually under a very permissive licensing system, and usually at no cost. This allows other programmers to see and learn techniques that others use, and incorporate what they have learned in their own programs. It also allows non-programmers to have free software programs that would have cost a lot of money to obtain otherwise. This goes in a very different direction than the commercial software that most people are used to, or even the freeware and shareware that others are familiar with. The source code is traditionally the most guarded part of the software. It is the heart, the blueprints, the schematics. This is the kind of information that fuels industrial espionage against companies like Adobe and Microsoft. Yet, the open source software model thrives today, and even cuts into sales for their commercial "competitors."

In my opinion, the beauty of open source isn't that the technology is shared, or that the programs are free, although those are excellent reasons. The real benefit is the community that it creates. How many times have you been using a program and said, "This program is great, but I wish it had an option to do ___." ? With traditional software, the responses to these requests are usually directed back to the author, who decides if the feature merits inclusion in a future version. If you make the same request in a forum for open source software, you will often hear the response like, "Good idea. Feel free to submit a patch." In programmer-ese, this means, write the changes yourself, and send me a copy when you get it working. Newcomers may be offended by the apparent disinterest in the author to make the change for them, especially if they have no knowledge of how to program, but an interesting exchange has just taken place.

Take a few steps back. The author usually is not getting paid for their program. Many, if not most write these programs in their free time. Occasionally, a company will sponsor a larger project, or donations are made to the author, but in general, it takes a lot of time and usually some money to provide these "free" programs to the public. The author has given a gift to the world by providing the program in the first place. The author provides more of a gift if he/she/they decide to support all the bug reports and feature requests for the programs. What ends up happening is that if the program seems worthwhile to enough people, it will attract other developers who may come out of curiosity, but may end up staying to help. The program turns into a project, gains support from others, and usually starts improving.

This reminds me of the old folk story called "Stone Soup." Read the brief description from the link. if you aren't familiar. You can actually start an open source project with nothing but an idea. Gather some interest, sell the idea to a few people who know how to program, and come up with a rough draft. Borrow pieces, parts, and people from other open source projects, if needed, and if successful, the project will start to have a life of its own. Before long, you have a mix of casual onlookers, enthusiasts, and dedicated programmers who want the project to succeed. Improvements get added, bugs get discovered and fixed, and very complex programs are created by the time donated by all involved.

Here is a list of some of the projects that I have interest in, or use frequently. I haven't contributed code for any of them (yet), but I have participated in discussion on a few. There are many other tools that I use as well, but the ones I chose to list give a sample of the ones I particularly like.

Drupal - a content management system (CMS) based on PHP. I use this one at work and at home. Perhaps one day I will move this weblog to Drupal. The system seems to focus on community-based web sites. As a result, they have an amazing community of developers and supporters. Interactive lessons are presented at the Drupal Dojo. The lessons are usually recorded for others to view at a later time. If you have looked at Drupal in the past and written it off as too difficult or arcane, I would invite you to come back and see what has happened.
GNU/Linux - Perhaps the most popular open-source project of all, this is the poster child for success in an open source community. Although GNU and Linux are technically separate projects with different histories, the two almost always go together, somewhat like the chocolate and peanut butter in the 1980s Reese's commercials. In another post, I will describe my experiences with various distributions, but in short, I prefer the Debian stable release at work, and Ubuntu at home.
Rosegarden - I occasionally play around with music on my computer. I have a cheap QuickShot MIDI controller connected to my SoundBlaster Live. My life doesn't depend on this hobby, so I'm not really willing to fork out the money for Finale, CakeWalk, or CuBase. I do, however, like to put my notes down on paper and hear how it will sound. Rosegarden is an excellent piece of notation and MIDI sequencing software. Unfortunately, it is currently only available for Linux. If you know of any comparable open source projects for Windows, please let me know. I currently dual boot my home PC between XP and Ubuntu, and have to shut everything down, which interferes a bit with this hobby.
Lilypond - Rosegarden is a powerhouse for most features, but its primary focus is on sequencing. Its notation is good, but not publishing quality. Enter Lilypond. Lilypond is only for notation and lyrics placement. It doesn't play music. It doesn't have a nice graphical interface. It takes a specially formatted text file and converts it to beautiful sheet music, comparable to any modern published work. It supports drum notation, shape notes (Aiken, Sacred Harp, ancient styles), and many other features. It has a learning curve, but has excellent documentation with pictures for every feature. I don't know it well at all, but Rosegarden and other programs are capable of exporting Lilypond files. I do 90% of the work in Rosegarden, and then clean up the Lilypond formatting to my preferences. The good news is that you don't need to know much of Lilypond to get around. Many of the commands are for fine-tuning the results. Lilypond is available on many platforms, including Windows, Mac, and Linux. There are other tools available for assistance with editing your Lilypond files.
PHP - a scripting language developed by one person for his own needs, gained interest of others, and grew into a huge success used by thousands of web sites today.
Wikipedia - Open source isn't just for programs. It can be used to describe things like information services. Wikipedia is a community encyclopedia. Its articles are submitted, edited, and maintained by the commmunity. Anyone can edit it. Logs are kept to show who edited what and when, which invites some abuse or misinformation, but is usually corrected by others in the community. Old revisions are kept as well. In addition to the information on Wikipedia being open source, MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia, is also open source. This allows others to use it for managing other collections of information in a similar fashion.
MySQL - Many open source projects which need a simple database to power them turn to MySQL. Another popular open source database is PostgreSQL, which historically has been considered more powerful than MySQL, but both programs have improved and added features since their introduction, and rival their commercial counterparts, whether by price, features, performance, or more.
Apache - Meet the granddaddy of the web. While you were busy trying to decide what web browser to use, Apache was serving up most of the pages to your browser. It's main competitor is Microsoft's IIS. For a while, even Microsoft was using Apache for a large number of their heavier duty sites. Neither is particularly exciting for the average user, but if you're on the Internet, you benefit from each. According to a graph on NetCraft, Apache is still the market share leader, but the margin has narrowed significantly since 2006. Much of this is due to improvements in IIS, from the performance standpoint, as well as from their integration with other Microsoft technologies. It used to be common knowledge that Apache always outperforms IIS, but that claim no longer seems to be the case.

I use many other open source tools, especially at work. Many are for network management and monitoring, since that is the central role of my job. Almost everything that I run on my Ubuntu partition at home is open source, with a strong emphasis on audio and games. The only things I can think of that aren't open source are my graphics card drivers, and Finale Notepad, which is a Windows program that I run from Ubuntu via Wine. Ironically, I haven't installed the program on my Windows partition yet.

All of this open source chatter may sound a lot like communism or socialism. I can't really argue with you there, but one difference is that no one is forcing you to participate. There is no cult to join, no oath to take, and you are free to come and go as you want. In America, one has the freedom to write software, and either give it away, or charge money for it. One is also free to decide which one they need. The words "monopolistic" and "unfair" often come up when discussing software pricing. It's their right. If I don't want to fork over $500 for MS Office, I don't have to. I can use OpenOffice, StarOffice, or some other alternative, or just plain go without it altogether. Some would choose to copy (i.e. steal) it instead, leaning on the "unfair" or "monopolistic" argument, which ensures that the price will not go down any time soon. Fortunately, my employer legally provides it for home use through its enterprise agreement with Microsoft. :-)

There's also the argument that open source tools aren't as good as their commercial counterparts. This is often true, but it is not an absolute by any means. I prefer some of the features and behaviors of OpenOffice to those in Microsoft Office. Software tends to develop more rapidly in the open source world. There are frequently rough edges, but there is also no corporate strategy to limit how often new releases can be made. Usually, the new features are a bit rough, but the older features mature. There is no doubt, though, that the growth and maturation of a project depends on its community. The community is both the demand and the supply for the product.

I will try to let you know more about my favorite open source programs, and other utilities that I think might be of interest. Sometimes my posts will be geared a bit more technical than others, but I will try to keep it interesting for the general audience, as well as some tidbits for those who have do similar work.

Please comment if you found this interesting. Thanks, and take care.

Nashville Public Library = Information Central

2006-07-22T14:28:00.000-05:00

Well, here I am at the library. I have often referred people to their local public library for computer access, but it has been a good while since I actually used it myself. I started off by trying out the wireless access on my laptop. It worked well, and I was impressed with the speed. After entering my library card number and the PIN, I was directed to their site. I learned something new - you can now download audio books at no charge with library membership. I pulled an Erma Bombeck book off of the virtual shelf and it downloaded a timebombed Windows Media file. I had the choice of "CD quality" near 50 megabytes, but I opted for "radio quality" at 8 MB. Just a few minutes later, I had a book!

The library is a great resource for computer knowledge and access to the Internet. If your branch is crowded, expect a wait. There is a reservation system which will schedule you for the next available terminal. Bring a few $1 bills with you if you need printouts. The first dollar gets you a rechargable card with 50 cents worth of printouts (at 15 cents per page).

Enjoy!

Free Webspace and Free Web Hosting Services

2006-07-07T21:36:00.000-05:00

I dabble in web site technologies. I'm not particularly talented with the artwork or other design skillls, but I enjoy trying out some of the different technologies. I have been testing some content management systems at work and have a particular fondness for one called Drupal. It's probably not the friendliest one to use, but it has a nice balance of convenience and flexibility. After all, I'm still a programmer at heart.

If you want to find out more about content management systems, these sites are great resources for comparing products and even test driving them:

http://www.opensourcecms.com/

http://www.cmsmatrix.org/

Currently, I use this web log as my main "Internet presence." As time goes on, though, I might switch to a web site running a CMS. Since most of my business is word of mouth, I really haven't had much of a need for permanent web hosting. As such, I haven't been too willing to fork out the money for something that will probably cost more money than it generates, unless I start selling products or otherwise change my business model.

This is where the world of free hosting comes in to play. Free web hosting sites have been around for a long time, but there are some out there worth looking at. Historically, these sites did not offer much to their subscribers in the way of programming languages or database hosting. Now, quite a few of them offer access to MySQL databases and PHP or Perl scripting. I may play around with this a little, just to see how it suits me. I found the following site which has reviews and comparisons of various free web and picture hosting sites:

http://www.free-webhosts.com/

In particular, I will probably be trying out one of the higher-rated ones, Award Space. It had a bunch of positive ratings, and it was at the top of the list, so I figured that it was worth a shot. Most of these sites have a free plan, and hope that they will attract enough subscribers who want to upgrade to one of their paid plans.

Please note that I do not have affiliations with any of these companies, nor should this be considered an endorsement for any of the sites or products listed in this article.

Protect your family computers with SafeEyes

2006-06-15T21:47:00.000-05:00

When consulting for people in their homes, I am finding that more and more people are interested in protecting their family from some of the dangers on the Internet. There are a few good products which handle this. SafeEyes is one of them. I have used this product, and it is highly customizable, allows for multiple users, and can be installed on more than one computer. The really neat part is that you can set up a network of people to share your logs with. You can add as many as you want at no extra charge. This establishes accountability. For children, this can be their parents. For adults, this can be friends, sponsors, probation officers, total strangers - you name it.

Let's face it: pornography, hate sites, predatory chat sites, and even some of the more innocent looking sites can become a dangerous place for anyone, not just kids. One solution is to get rid of the PC or set hard-to-enoforce rules on its usage. No system is foolproof, but you can set up a strong barrier to help. This does not replace family rules or parental responsibility. See my earlier post for a related article from Microsoft.

The Internet is often called a super highway. Like a real highway, the roads lead to many useful places, but also lead to some dangerous ones. SafeEyes does a good job of blocking access to those roads. It's not just the bad sites that get blocked. You can have different rules for differnt family members. Perhaps your youngest children need more restrictive access, but your older ones have better judgement (or vice-versa). You can block gaming sites, or restrict the amount of time spent on the Internet for different users. SafeEyes also offers some protection from spyware by blocking access to many of those sites as well.

One really useful feature is the notification. If certain thresholds are exceeded, you can have SafeEyes notify someone by e-mail, pager, or even the telephone. This way, you can log in to the "Friend Portal" and view the logs or call home to see if there is a problem.

In my opionion, it is a well thought-out product that does a great job when used properly. It's easy to configure and use, and is well worth the cost. Read the information on their site for more information.

They have a 15-day free trial available on their site. I would ask that if you plan to purchase or try out their product, to use the links on my site. I get referral credits for people who sign up through my links, and remember, if I don't like it, I don't sell it.

Are your kids addicted to the Internet?

2006-06-15T00:24:00.000-05:00

Are your kids addicted to the Internet?

I received this link in one of Microsoft's 3 zillion newsletters. It's a pretty good summary of identifying Internet addiction in kids and some tips on how to avoid and correct it. It doesn't go into gory detail, but it addresses a very real problem. Computers and the Internet can be like that Nexus thing in Star Trek: Generations; you have the appearance of everything that you want in one convenient place, and you don't want it taken away. I wasted a lot of time behind the computer on perfectly good days. Oops - it's past midnight. Maybe I'm not the one to be writing this post.

Consolidated Best and Worst Awards

2006-04-28T23:34:00.000-05:00

In the interest of downsizing, the Best of the Net and Worst of the Net lists that I had considered making will be consolidated into the Best and the Worst of the Net list. There are a lot of sites out there that are both wonderful and horrible at the same time. Here's a stab at a few.

Craig's List http://www.craigslist.org/. This is the ubiquitous free classifieds site. On one hand, I find employment and a place to buy and sell my junk. I posted an ad there once offering computer services and got a few responses and some potential customers. I have answered a couple of ads there for companies needing some freelance work. You can get free stuff, barter, or see what's going on in the neighborhood. On the other hand, they are barely regulated and have entire categories that would make your mother frown. (Did I mention it started in San Francisco?) My web filter is pretty good about blocking parts of the site without blocking all of the site. It's up to the general public to flag your posts as offensive or off topic. This is the same general public that thinks the lottery is a good idea; the same general public that can pour coffee and operate a cell phone while driving, but the turn signal is too confusing...
Ebay http://www.ebay.com/. Ok, so no one on Craig's List bought your 8-track collection. Not to worry! You can sell your Garbage Pail Kids collection to some obsessed collector. You can use the proceeds to beef up your Atari game library. Shoot, you can even buy a house or a car from wheresthebeef129492. On the bad side, you can also spend hours at a time shopping the World's Largest Yard Sale. You can also buy or sell information kits to tell you how to become a millionaire. It's really easy - just sell a few hundred thousand of the information kits. Have some stolen software? Sell it on ebay! It's sort of fun just to browse the obscure listings and laugh at the imbeciles selling their broken pet rocks. It 's also fun to come back in a few days to see what idiot payed $22.43 for it. Then it's really amusing to watch him sell it a week later for $148.65 after etching a vague likeness to the Virgin Mary on it.
SlashDot http://slashdot.org/. "News for nerds, stuff that matters." This is the rumor mill for geeks. It's an A+ example of a A- site where you can get B+information from C sources (average, naturally), and comment on them until some D- moron hijacks the conversation. This is where the million monkeys congregate when they are not typing the complete works of Shakespeare.
Rent-A-Coder http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/default.asp. This is a brilliant idea. If you need a quick computer project done, you can post your requirements to this site, and let programmers bid on your job. Why hire a consultant, when all you need is some college student that knows what they're doing. This is an excellent window into our economy in action. I decided I would look around for a while. I was soooo disappointed. It's great if you need work done, but what about the workers? I see bids for people building full e-commerce websites with custom graphics for under $50. What? How do they make any money? Who would do that kind of work for such a small price? To find the answer to that question, youwill have to travel to the other side of the globe, a.k.a. eastern Europe, India, Korea, and Pakistan, among others. You may be smart, but so are thousands of others, and their average paycheck is a lot smaller than yours. They can live off less than you, so Nyah-nyah, phtbtbtbtt, on you!
BlogSpot http://www.blogspot.com/. Speaking of a million monkeys at a million typewriters, Blogspot comes to mind. Assuming their content droids don't delete this paragraph, we have now reached a point where anyone can publish their ideas to the world easily. Just like the Internet, this can be very good or very bad. We start to accept misinformation and biased viewpoints as truth. I bet you didn't even bother to check the accuracy of my site either. Pick a random blog. Read it. Pick another one. You will find people pouring out their hearts to the Internet. You can get pictures, e-mail addresses, work hours, and the location that the owner lives in, usually because they publish it themselves. That's more than enough information to start stalking the author, assuming that anyone actually reads their posts. Every time I write a post, I feel like I'm placing a billboard in the middle of a forest. You're not likely to run across it by accident, and you probably won't see it unless someone tells you about it.

What other sites should be in this list? What other necessary evils plague and benefit the Internet? Comments?

Strictly Non-Business - Other Sites

2006-02-28T19:20:00.000-06:00

Here are some links to some other sites. For the sake of privacy, I will not be posting links to my customers' sites, unless it is not related to their business either (and not without their permission). Here are a few sites that fall into a couple of categories - people and places in my life, and sites that I think would be useful for computer users in Nashville. If you compile all of this data, you can probably figure out more about me than I know.

Here's the list:

Community

Crieve Hall Church of Christ - You're officially invited. Bring a friend and a Bible as we study God's word, worship Him, and help and encourage each other to do our best to serve Him. Crieve Hall is home to the Nashville School of Preaching, Spanish worhip services and classes. We support multiple mission and outreach programs at home and abroad. You can also catch our preacher on the local PAX TV affiliate (see the site for details).
Lipscomb University Community Chorus - The site hasn't been updated in a while, but most of the info is still good. We meet a couple of times a month during the regular school year.

Computer Stuff

37211 PC Users Group - No, I haven't been to any of the meetings yet, but it looks fairly active, and it's been around for a while. Check out their list of other Nashville computer groups. Who knows, maybe I will make it to this month's meeting.
Slashdot - News for nerds. Don't spend too much time here - it's easy to do, even for non-nerds.

People

Brent - http://brentkmoore.blogspot.com/ - I've known Brent since, whoa..., well, a long time. Need a diversion? He's good at that. He has another web site. Let's flood his blog with traffic.
My other friends don't seem to have web sites. If I'm wrong about that, please let me know.

Services offered

2006-02-28T18:07:00.001-06:00

This posting contains a list of the types of work I do most often, as well as some that I don't get asked about much. If you don't see something on the list that you are interested in, let me know, as I may be able to help. I intend to update this posting as needed.

Computer setup - Is it still in the box from Christmas? Do you need help reconnecting it from a move?
Spyware/malware removal - Traditional viruses are so "90s." The new threats are commercially funded programs which may be collecting information, flooding you with unwanted advertisements, and crashing your computer. These programs are annoying, but can be removed.
Backup - When was the last time you saved your data? If your basement flooded or your hard drive crashed tomorrow, how much would you lose? We're all guilty of not having good backups. I can help you get started, and show you different options. External hard drives, DVDs, tape drives, and network-based backups are just a few ways to protect your data.
Wireless network installation - I can set up, configure, and secure your wireless network. Wireless can help if you have multiple computers in the house, and is especially useful if you have a laptop.
General networking - I currently don't install the wiring, but I can get it working after that. If you need to find someone who can run cables for you, let me know. Also consider the possibility of wireless networking - it is usually cheaper than running cables, and may be a good fit for your needs. I can set up your network to allow multiple computers to share one connection, install a firewall, set up secure remote access to your PC, and more.
System optimization - There are many things that can slow down your PC.
Upgrades - Sometimes your computer needs a boost to keep up with the times. In many situations, a small upgrade will drastically improve the performance of your machine, helping you put off that purchase of a new computer. I've been using the same PC for about ten years - the board and processor have been changed 3 times, I'm on my third case, fourth and fifth hard drives, and I have at least 32 times as much memory as I started with. With the leftover parts, I was able to build a computer for a relative, with parts to spare. Upgrades allow you to gradually change your PC as you need more features.
Purchasing advice - Sometimes you just need to buy a computer. Do you need help deciding what kind to buy? Does your business need a printer or a server? I can help you decide what features are right for you, and which ones you probably don't need. Are you looking for a device that can do ____ but you aren't even sure if it exists? Are you looking for reputable Internet or mail order companies to buy a big ticket item? Do you think that $20 is way too much to pay for a printer cable? You're right. Sales is not my primary source of income, and inventory is a bit of a hassle, so I'm not going to push you to buy things that you don't need. If you need something inexpensive, I can help. If you want something top-of-the-line, I can help with that, too. The only things I sell directly are products that I would (or do) use myself.
Custom PCs - You generally won't save money building your own PC, but you can get exactly what you want, and order better parts. I can help you pick your parts, or I can build it for you.
Education - Do you want to learn more about your computer? Do you need help setting up a spreadsheet or a mail merge list? Computers have a lot of facets to them, and it's sometimes hard to know where to start and what to avoid. I can help you use your digital camera, print newsletters, and more. Want to learn how to get good free alternatives to many of the expensive commercial software applications? There is a big movement in "open source software" which is developed by a community of programmers. I use several on my own system. Some of these programs are better than their commercial counterparts in many ways. We can probably find one that will work for you, too.

Bartering / Wish List

2006-02-28T17:50:00.000-06:00

Here's a small list of things that I would like to trade for or purchase, in good working condition. These would be nice to have around. Have something? Make an offer! (Nashville area only, please)

Web hosting - I wouldn't mind having a traditional web site. If I did, I would probably want PHP to run something like Drupal. I don't need much space in the way of graphics or bandwidth.
Laser printer or multifunction laser printer/fax/scanner/copier
Flatbed or nicer sheetfed scanner
17" or larger LCD panel
Nicer sound card with MIDI input, perhaps something like an Audigy or Extigy or equivalent. I have a 4 channel Live Platinum which won't talk to my MIDI keyboard in XP.

My Favorite Hardware

2006-02-26T21:03:00.000-06:00

This is a post that I hope to maintain off and on. There are certain brands that I prefer when building or upgrading a system. I am always open to suggestions. These are subject to change. For instance, five years ago, I would have sworn by Western Digital's consumer hard drives. Now, I would be more likely to swear at them. Perhaps they will regain some trust over the next few years. There are also some brands which make great products in some of their product lines, and lackluster products in others (see Linksys).
I will try to note why I like a particular item, and whether I have personally used the products. My opinions on these products are based on experiences at work and home.

Hard Drives
Hard drives are perhaps the most common component to fail. It seems like most of the ones I have had to replace were about 2.5 to 4 years old, or 2 to 3 years old for laptops. People trust their hard drives way too much. Usually they fail in a few spots at a time. They have a nasty habit of losing sectors on the area where the Windows registry is stored. As drive capacity has increased, reliability seems to have decreased. If you think about it, a 200 GB drive has over a trillion bits (= 1 trillion potential locations to go bad). It's amazing that they work as well as they do. Buy a good drive with a good warranty, and make regular backups! If your drive is old, consider replacing it before it goes bad. Don't misunderstand these recommendations; every brand of drive has failures. Some fail more often than others, and some have better warranties.
Seagate is my current favorite for desktop drives, since they currently come with a 5 year warranty. Most other drive manufacturers carry a 3 year or 1 year warranty. The price isn't much higher than those of their competitors, and the reliability seems to be at least as good or better.
Hitachi/IBM laptop drives are on my "Do not recommed" list, due to the large number of them that I have had to remove from service. It seemed to be especially bad in 2004. Western Digital has lost my respect on their consumer drives, but they are making some interesting enterprise products, with their Raptor series 10,000 RPM SATA drives.
Network switches
Allied Telesyn has some excellent unmanaged network switches. Yes, they cost a little bit more than Linksys and D-Link, but they are geared towards businesses and have been in the business a long time. They still come in a metal chassis, whereas many other brands are cutting costs with neat looking plastic. I'll put it this way - I've never had to throw away an Allied Telesyn switch, whereas I have had to chuck too many of the blue Linksys switches. Netgear may still be making some better-made switches, and the price is closer to that of D-Link and Linksys.
Wireless routers and access points
As much as I hate to admit it, I like the Linksys access points (APs) and routers. This is mainly because they were nice enough to make the firmware of some of their equipment open source. This means that non-evil hackers can make some interesting modifications and improvements. This is sort of like replacing the factory computer in your car with a performance model - free. This is a good thing, because Linksys seems to be missing a few features on their factory firmware (but this is getting better). A recent move by Linksys has stepped away from open source firmware on their main retail products. They didn't bother to change the model number, so you have to do your homework and check the serial number to see which one you are getting. My favorite alternate firmware is DD-WRT.
Wireless networking cards
I use D-Link, and I can authoritatively recommend to stay away from their laptop cards. The drivers and software are a bit too cranky for my taste. When mine breaks, I will be looking elsewhere. Linksys seems to have good drivers, and I haven't had complaints using them at work. Most laptops now have the option for built-in wireless, and those solutions are usually better than the general purpose add-in cards, because they use a larger antenna, usually hidden within the LCD panel. If you already have one brand of wireless equipment, there is often an advantage to use the same brand for your other equipment, although this is not a requirement. This may, however, be a requirement if you plan on using the proprietary high-speed/turbo modes that various vendors offer.
Processors
This is a sticky one. I like Intel and AMD. The choice really depends on what you want to do, and how much you are willing to spend. I am currently using an AMD Athlon which is a couple of years old, and it's fine for what I do. We have the hyperthreaded Intels at work, and they are quite nice, too. I haven't had an opportunity to play with the newer 64-bit offerings, but my next processor upgrade might involve one. In other words, ask some other people. I do not build a lot of systems, so I only research this occasionally.
Motherboards
Don't skimp. Pick a trustworthy brand. I had some strange issues with my PCs that were related to using generic or lower end motherboards. I like the Intel and NVidia chipsets. VIA chipsets still scare me due to their history, although they may be fine now. Here are some reputable board brands that I have used.
My favorite brand is Abit. This company has a wide variety of boards to choose from. The instruction manuals aren't always as "English" as I would like, but the product is nice. I have had good luck with these systems. The boards are also good for for overclockers, if you're in to that (I'm not).
Intel boards have a good reputation, although they tend to be a little bit high priced. I have used them at work, but not purchased one for personal use. Compatibility and driver support are excellent.
My previous board was a SuperMicro. It seemed to be a well made board also. They are now focusing more towards the server market in addition to their motherboard line. Your local computer store probably carries Intel boards, but expect to do some online orders for the other brands. Some things are worth spending another $25 on.
Asus is a popular brand of boards. They are consistently good performers, tend to come with lots of bells and whistles, but I don't think their quality is quite as good as Abit's. They seem to spend more money on marketing. I have not used one, but soem of my engineer friends do. Naveen had some complaints about his, but he seems to complain about all of his technological impulse purchases. I think his problems were solved with a newer firmware revision.
RAM
Don't skimp on this either. Get a known brand from a known vendor and test it. Look for brands that carry a lifetime warranty. I don't buy memory off of ebay, unless I am looking for something older or hard to find elsewhere. There are too many RAM scams out there, and relabeling chips with higher ratings than they were manufactured for. I am using some Kingston HyperX RAM which was one of their nicer series at the time I bought it. I think it was on sale at the time from Newegg. I bought two sticks "matched" which probably doesn't really make a difference, but it was the same price as buying them separately. I haven't had a problem with it, other than when I was still using Windows 98, which doesn't handle large amounts of memory well without some serious tweaking. Crucial is another pretty good vendor. If you need normal RAM in a hurry, go to their web site, pick your model, and order it direct from them. They ship quickly via postal mail, and other methods are available. The prices are very reasonable, and they have been around for a while. Corsair and Mushkin have good history and are frequently recommended by performance freaks. Their higher-end RAM can be costly. I haven't used either brand, and probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy it unless I were overclocking.

Computer Stores ... in Nashville?

2006-02-18T20:58:00.000-06:00

Nashville is a great city with many diverse people. There are all kinds of businesses here, and it is my understanding that over a million people live in the general area. So where is the best place to shop for computer accessories? Who has all the good loot?

I grew up here, and I have been asked this question almost as many times as I have asked it. Up until the mid 1990s, we had the discount stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Radio Shack still had some decent stuff, but they were floundering in the PC market. The office supply superstores were fairly decent. There were a few mom and pop computer shops around, and the game shops in the shopping malls. Overall, though, we didn't really have any stores that carried a large selection of computer goods. Before the Internet became publicly available, most of your computer saavy types would have a stash of a few good mail order catalogs.

When 100 Oaks Mall was renovated in the mid-nineties, there was finally a good computer store within a reasonable distance of my neighborhood - CompUSA. The curse had finally been broken. Now you could go to one store and actually have some choices over your merchandise. It was great, but the novelty wore off. The prices seemed to go up, and the selection dwindled as they made room to sell new types of products, like cellular phones and game consoles.

What was the result? A few more stores came and went, and the ones left standing were generally a compromise from what they had started as. Let's say that you want to walk in to a store and buy something like a replacement hard drive for your computer. Odds are that most stores will have two or three brands to choose from, with a total of about five different models to choose from. Which one is the best to purchase? Possibly none of them. Retail profit margins are tight, and the best-made ones might not be in your store. The drive brands that used to be very reliable and came with a 3 year warranty a few years ago have lost a bit of their reputation and shrunk the warranty down to 1 year to lower the price. Naturally, this is easier to sell than one that might cost $20 more for what appears to be the same price. If you do your homework and find out what the best model is for your needs, you might have to run all over town to find a store that even carries the brand. It's rather discouraging at times. Other cities and states seem to be covered with great stores like MicroCenter and Frye's, but Nashville seems to be an overlooked city when it comes to one-stop PC shopping.

Aside from the obvious big stores, the following stores in Nashville are worth mentioning.

Consumer Depot - It's a liquidation store. They have TVs, PCs, small appliances, and other miscellaneous items. They aren't newcomers to Nashville.
Essex Retail Outlet - It's next to the Sears outlet store on Thompson Lane. This is another liquidation company. They have all kinds of surplus, mostly electronics and computer related stuff. The boxes might be beaten up, but they do have a decent return policy. This is similar to Consumer Depot. Stop in some time - you have to see it. Merchasdise changes frequently.
Of the bigger chains, I frequent Sam's Club and Big Lots.

When I have a choice, I typically purchase off from various Internet stores. I have a few favaorites. Some started as mail-order catalogs. Others are tied to stores in other states. Many of the best ones don't even have a traditional strefront or a catalog - their sole existence is on the Internet. These web-only companies can be some of the best and some of the worst places to shop. The better ones offer good selection and good prices. Here are some of my favorites.

Newegg.com - A very popular web-based company with a great assortment of vendors and parts. I have bought most of my personal purchases from this company for a few years now. They have warehouses in California, New Jersey, and Tennessee. The shipping prices are very reasonable and sometimes free. The product prices are usually among the lowest, even when the other guys have rebates. This site is geared a little more towards the home enthusiast, so they are a good source for custom upgrades that you wouldn't see at a strictly-business store.
Provantage - This company has been kept somewhat secret for a long time. I suppose that they don't spend a lot of money on advertising. They are geared more towards business sales like their chief competitors (CDW, PC Connection, PC Mall, etc.) but are perfectly good for personal purchases as well. Their prices are frequently the lowest, or not far behind. Pricewise, this is a great place to buy genuine toner for your printers. My only gripe is their shipping charges. The last time I checked, the shipping formula was bad if you were ordering a bunch of lightweight items. It's great if you are ordering medium to large ticket items. For instance, they had a good price on some computer cables for about $1 each. I wanted to stock up, but each cable seemed to come with a $5 shipping charge which didn't get better when I increased the quantities. I didn't buy the item from them. Shipping charges don't combine well, but the items do arrive fast. I had one order that arrived from three different warehouses from different parts of the country. This shipping philosophy explains their higher shipping costs.
Dell - They sell more than just their own good merchandise. In fact, they sell more than what's on their web site. If you are a small business customer (or larger), you have access to all kinds of products. It's a great place to purchase bulk software licensing, and they seem to have special pricing from some manufacturers that other vendors can't even touch. I think the idea is that if you buy all of your computer supplies from them, you will be more likely to buy a computer from them too.
CDW - If you can't find it elsewhere, CDW is about the largest of the big business vendors. Their prices aren't the lowest, but they aren't the highest either. They have a huge inventory, and are a good standby.
CableWholesale - This is a great place to get cables for your computer, network, or home theater, at the prices they should cost. The shipping costs are very reasonable. If you have purchased a printer lately, you will notice that they usually don't come with a cable to connect it to your computer. This is a wonderful opportunity for your local retail store to sell you a $20 - $30 USB cable. The thing weighs about an ounce, and doesn't look that special. Here's a hint - they're usually making more profit on the cable than the printer. CableWholesale has the equivalent cable for around $1.50, but it doesn't come in the same fancy package. Don't be fooled by gold plated cables - except for some high-end server cables and analog A/V cables, it's about as necessary as having a gold-plated lawn mower blade.
Don't forget to check ebay and Amazon! These are good resources to find overstocks, used items, and smaller companies.

PLEASE let me know if you have any other good recommendations for stores in Nashville. There are a bunch of smaller stores that I haven't been in, and a bunch that I have. If you need help finding a particular item, I would be glad to help.