East St. Paul Computers

We wish you a happy Easter!

Closed Good Friday and Saturday April 7th.

I.T. stands for information technology.  The title of I.T. person is as vague as the title of doctor.  There are medical doctors and there are non medical doctors.  Both have dozens and dozens of specializations.

It’s common knowledge that there are countless types of doctors and we go to the doctor that pertains to our ailments.  Why the confusion with I.T.?

Let’s sort through the confusion.  With I.T., there are arguably as many specializations as there are with doctors.  An I.T. specialist can belong to any of the following categories: database, networking, web, programming, engineering, software and hardware.  All of these categories branches further into sub categories and possibly more sub categories under those.

With this understanding, why do so many organizations place little or no importance to having a proper I.T. department?  I’ve seen organizations with no I.T. department.  They simply call a random company when there’s a problem.  I’ve seen other organizations with only a handful of I.T. people for a staff of thousands.

The department of I.T. is typically seen as a liability.  It cost money.

The truth of the matter is, an insufficient I.T. department is a black hole only because it’s not well staffed and not staffed with qualified people.  Not only do some companies spend as little as possible on I.T. staff, they also spend as little as possible on computers and related equipment.  This is a self inflicted black hole in my opinion.

Take the example of a hospital.  It is staffed with a team of doctors, all with different skills and experiences.  It also has extremely expensive equipment.  Obviously the purpose of having a full staff of doctors and expensive equipment is to save lives.  Keeping this in mind, wouldn’t logic dictate that any organization should staff their I.T. department with specialist from many specialties and to buy properly equipment?  Truthfully it rarely happens.

From my experience, this is what’s common.  Most organizations tend to hire people fresh out of school with little or no experience or they hire someone from inside the company with some computer experience.   Then they hire a manager with no computer skills to organize their team.  This would be absolutely insane if the same happened inside a hospital.

Here’s one example of a typical I.T. department at its worse.  A personnel calls a tech because the computer is functioning very slowly.  Productivity is lost as a result.  The tech replies, don’t call back unless the computer doesn’t turn on.  This is specific example of a 50 most well managed company.

To sum up.  I.T. people are not a dime-a-dozen.  Most specialties require years of education yet some don’t require any at all.  Regardless of education, what’s important is passion, training and hands on experience.  People skills are optional.

A proper team of I.T. specialist WILL improve productivity and in turn make money, reduce cost and improve moral.

The answer is.  Depends how much the printer is worth.  In most cases, the repair cost will eclipse the original cost of the printer.

How do I find this out?  CALL THE COMPANY.  Every company has an 800 support line.  The number is on the box, the manual and on their website.  The thing to NEVER do is to take the printer back to the retailer.  They are not qualified to fix anything.  They outsource all their repairs.  Warranty work and repairs do not make the retailer any money.  Anything that doesn’t make money gets put on the side burner.  A broken device may typically take 3 weeks before it is processed and then shipped.

If you call the support line, you will get the real answer immediately.  The person on the line will have a database of possible fixes.  And in some cases, they may be able to resolve the problem for you over the phone.  If the device is deemed defective, they may suggest a repair if the estimated repair cost is less than the original price.

Every company has a repair depot.  Chances are they may have one right in your city.  Example, Samsung has a repair depot in Winnipeg.  If the device is within warranty, (with proof of purchase) the repair will be free.

If the repair depot is not in your city, you will be provided with instructions for shipping.

The only time to ever bring a product back to a retailer is if it’s within the exchange period.  Typically that’s between 2 to 4 weeks.  After the exchange period, call the support line.  You may be surprised how easy processing warranty and processing repairs are.

Customer service goes beyond what we see in a retail shop.  Customer service is also tech support, warranty support and repair support.  Good companies will have good service all across the board.

Happy Louis Riel day everyone! We are closed on Saturday February 18th and Monday February 20th for the long weekend.

Enjoy this great weather on your long weekend!

Much like your car, computers are a wear and tear item.  From the moment it’s first powered on, a computer is essentially on its way to death.  How quickly it gets to that point is determined by its quality, how the user cares for it and luck.

Gone are the days where a computer, in a household, is just a luxury.  It’s more than obvious that computers have become a necessity.  They are a crucial part of our day to day life.   They are part of our business lives and our personal lives.  Take them away and most of us are crippled.

Having said that, why are most of us simply treating computers like an appliance?  Computers are a very complex combination of hardware and software.  Both need TLC.  Lack of TLC to both hardware and software will accelerate the computer to its inevitable death.

How do you prevent this?  It’s really not that hard.  Here are some tips.

First of all, if you are not savvy, do not fix the computer yourself.  Don’t get your son’s friend to fix it either.  Bring it to a qualified shop to get you started on the right path.  A proper technician will tune the computer properly and will install proper maintenance and security software.

Besides addressing to software, hardware also needs to be tended too.   The interior, usually consisting of multiple fans, needs to be blown out regularly.   On a yearly basis, the following parts need to be tested for defect: RAM, hard drive, CPU, motherboard, and power supply.  More often than not, it’s cheaper to fix a computer when a certain part is near death as opposed to a part that’s dead.

This next tip requires its own line.

SHUT DOWN YOUR COMPUTER EVERY NIGHT.

You don’t idle your car longer than required then why keep your computer running for no reason.  Shutting down a computer will reduce wear and save power.  It essentially will allow your computer to rest and take a breath.

Most households have 2 cars or more.  If computers are such an integral part of our lives, why do some households only have 1 computer?  In more occasions than I can count, I’ve witness a family use a SINGLE computer for everything from home business to school work.  In my opinion, this is recipe for disaster.  Ideally business should be separated onto its own computer.  At the very least, a 2^nd computer should be used to all other purposes.   A 3^rd computer is never a bad idea.

The term “backing up” is commonly used.  But do people really know what that means?  Here’s what I think it should be called instead.  Data should be DUPLICATED.  Anything deemed important, duplicate that data onto another location.  That location can be a disk, a flash drive, an external hard drive, online backup, and/or even another computer.

We have emergency tools and supplies in our cars in case of emergencies: jumper cables, car jack, emergency kit, spare tires etc…  Why shouldn’t we have an emergency plan for our computers?

I say again, computers are a wear and tear item.  Treat it as such.  Expect repair costs.  Care for it.  Take it to a qualified shop to tune it up regularly.

If there is something you don’t know or understand, hire a local geek.  There’s no such thing as computer illiteracy.  We all drive and own cars without knowing what’s in the hood.  By this logic, we should take the time to understand the basic of care and emergency procedures.

Thank you so much for your support throughout 2010.  We owe a successful year to all our loyal clients.  Hands down, we have the best clients.

We are honored to wish you and yours a great holiday season!!  See you in the new year!

Friday December 23rd – closed at 5 PM.  Saturday December 24th to January 1st – Closed.  We will reopen on the 2nd.

According to Wikipedia, a virus is computer program that can replicate itself and spread to other computers.  My definition of a virus is a computer program that can manipulate code to benefit the programmer.

According to a layman, all of the following (listed for least to most dangerous) fall into the category of a virus.  The correct definition really is malware.
- adware
- spyware
- worms
- trojans
- rootkits

There’s a common misconception that malwares are around to be mischievous and for no other reason.  Yes some are made just to show off a hackers ability to mess with society.  But most malware are designed for one purpose, to make MONEY.  The end goal of a malware is to fool the user far enough to gather financial information.

How does malware typically get into a system?  Rarely by muscling itself in.  99 out of 100 times, it is invited in by the user.  How?  Pretty easy actually.  Here are common ways to invite malware in.
- downloading pirated software, music, games and movies
- frequenting pornographic sites
- forwarding and receiving emails with attachments
- clicking on website pop ups
- downloading and installing FREEBIES like games, utilities, screensavers, emoticons and wallpapers

Of course there are exceptions to the rule.  Downloading pirated stuff can be safe if the visited website is properly secured and managed.  Same goes for pornographic sites.  Forwarding is safe if the email and attachment is created by someone you know.   If an email has been forwarded from an unknown source and has been forwarded dozens of times, do your friends a favor and don’t forward it.  If the email is that good and you are compelled to forward, here’s how to resend to make it safe.  Save the attachment to the computer.  Create a new email.  Copy the body of the “funny email” to the new email and reattach the attachment.  More work but you’ll be doing your friends a favor.  There are legitimate sites that provide free downloads but you have to understand that the end goal of that website is to make money.  Read the fine print and install very slowly.  Uncheck any checkboxes that aren’t required.  Website pop ups are a legal feature of web browsers.  Most are safe so we can’t blame the feature.  What to watch for are pop ups that say the following.
- you won something really wonderful
- there are INFECTIONS in your system and it’s URGENT that click on this pop up to remove them
- there are ERRORS in your system and it’s URGENT that you click on this pop up to remove them

The obvious and logical thing would be to ignore and close the pop ups through the taskbar.  Here’s the real problem.  People have a false sense of security when it comes to computer usage.  People are safe in their homes so they click on whatever prompts them to.  Here’s what I recommend.  Live with a bit of caution.  Educate yourself on what malware really wants.  Educate yourself on how they enter a your system and where they can be found.  Educate yourself on how to scan for infection.  Pay for a good antivirus program and avoid free.  Prevention is the key.  Sounds easier said than done right?  If you don’t have the saavy to find out, hire a local geek.

I’m compelled to capitalize the next sentence.  MACS ARE NOT AS SAFE AS YOU THINK.  Macs have many of the same software vulnerabilities.  Then why are there so few Mac viruses?   Simple.  Macs are the minority.  As they gain market share, the viruses will surface.

To summarize.  Only your installed antivirus is allowed to warn you of infections.  A computer will NEVER NEVER warn you of errors.  Errors do develop in computers but only a trained computer tech should scan and remove them.  If you stick to the legal things and pay for software, the chance of getting an infection is like a blizzard in July.  We are all one click away from being infected.  Antivirus programs are as simple as a fence and security system for your house.  If you let in the intruder and they vandalize your home.  It is not the fence or security companies fault.  Fixing the damage is the responsibility of the owner.  Antivirus programs DO NOT HAVE the ability to fix damages.  They are simply a first line of defense.  The rest is common sense and caution.

We acknowledge and respect the sacrifices made by our armed forces past and present.  On this day, we will honor them.

We will be closed on November 11th for Remembrance Day.

The tech community is taking a huge black eye this holiday season.  Seems that mother nature is striking back against technology.  The flood in Thailand is causing a huge shortage in hard drive manufacturing.

How?  Because Thailand produces 80% of the world’s hard drives.  There are approximately 1000 manufacturing plants.  All of which are rendered useless.

Who is affected?  Basically anybody who uses computers.  IPod classic still uses hard drives.  New PC’s and laptops use hard drives.  Any company, well known or not well known, uses hard drives.  Hard drives fail and require replacement regularly.

Bottom line.  Prices will go up.  Computer manufacturers have maybe a 2 to 3 weeks supply of hard drive before they have to replenish.  Expect prices for anything tech related to go up very very soon.  Any computer with a hard drive in it will go up approximately $100.  Computer repair costs may go up.  Prices for anything web related may go up. We were enjoying an all time low in hard drive prices.  Every week we are now seeing an increase in hard drive prices.  How far it will go?  Nobody knows.  A 500 GB hard drive earlier this year was $40, now it’s almost $110.

How long will this last?  The flood will probably last several more weeks but the after affects will be very deep.  The government of Thailand has allocated $3.3 billion US dollars to help rebuild damaged areas.

Death toll has recently surpassed 500.  Our thoughts go out to the citizens of Thailand.

Fujitsu has created a super computer that clocks up to 10.51 petaflops.  Not exactly sure how this compares to a regular computer.  We just know that it’s fast.  Its 88,000 CPU’s are capable of 8.2 quadrillion calculations per seconds.  To us regular people, that’s 15 zeroes behind the 8.  It’s a hangar size machine that requires electricity enough to power 10,000 homes which works out to about 10 million dollars per year.  Yikes!