For the last 21 years I have staunchly believed that a real estate agent could not use a Macintosh computer in the operation of their business. My rationale was that there was just not enough business software available for the Mac. When our MLS’s moved away from proprietary software to web based applications, the nails…
Let’s talk about phishing. No, not fishing with a rod, reel and some bait, but phishing where hackers try to get you to give up some personal information by exploiting a weakness in your browser or email service. Here is how it works: This weakness allows malicious coders to create Web sites that look exactly…
Here is the Cliff Notes version for those of you in a hurry: You need one. Go get one. Stop arguing. Now for the rest of you, we’ll start with a little trip back through time. Back in the days when desk top computers were just starting out, they were stand alone computers connected to…
I want to talk a bit about backups. But first, let’s take a little quiz: First question: Do you have a backup program/system in place that regularly performs a backup of your critical data? (Answer truthfully and no copying your neighbor’s answer) Second question: How likely are you to remember to do this on a…
So one day you go up to your computer and it is doing something weird or it’s not doing what it should be doing or something is wrong and you just have no clue what to do. You’ve even rebooted, but the problem has not gone away. It’s now time to call tech support…or is…
Now I’ll talk about Error Checking (A.K.A. ScanDisk or ChkDsk) and Disk Defragmentation. These two programs are essential to the continued good health of your computer. Running these two programs is like changing the oil in your car and getting a tune up. They don’t perform the same functions, but if your forget to change…
Next up is Virus Scanning, so to start with let’s talk about what is a virus. If you go the McAfee web site, their glossary defines a virus as “A computer program file capable of attaching to disks or other files and replicating itself repeatedly, typically without user knowledge or permission.” This is probably as…
Moving on to some hardware issues now. We are living in dangerous times now here in California. (And if you believe the news, other parts of the country will have the same problems soon) I am referring to the dangers to computers from power outages. As mentioned yesterday, power surges are disastrous to electronic equipment…
I’d like to offer an alternative to blindly picking up the phone and calling tech support. There are some preventative measures that you can take, but you aren’t going to like them as you’ll have to spend a little money and a little time, but believe me, this is the better way. First and foremost,…
Sooner or later, we all experience a computer crash. This is the first of a series of what to do when that happens…and before! Here is the dirty little secret of technology, both hardware and software…It doesn’t always work. Even the best software and hardware companies have products that just don’t work in every possible…
