New rates

Posted on by
Reply

After having tried a flat rate for computer repair for 6 months I am going back to an hourly rate. I had many customers request a flat rate. I found that after I went to a flat rate customer’s didn’t want to have their computer repaired. Not only am I going back to an hourly rate but I am lowering the price for the month of January.
If you drop off your computer this month the rate is $25 an hour. In February my rate is going back to $30 an hour.

When your computer is at my office I can be more efficient. I only charge for the time it takes for me to repair the computer. Many times I have to start a scan and then let that scan run for an hour. Then I start the next process. I don’t charge for the time the computer is just running. I only charge for when I have to do something to it.
If I go to your home or office it is going to be $100 for coming to your location and then $25 an hour. Minimum of one hour. When I am at your location you are paying for the whole time that I am there regardless if the computer is running a scan or not. You can see that it is going to be much cheaper to drop the computer off.

RTML and Css for Yahoo Stores

Posted on by
Reply

Yahoo uses a proprietary retail template software to design pages in their store editor.  I have been slaving away on my store over the last three weeks. I finally have it just about to the point where I want it and want to share what I have learned. Most of what I have done so far has been extensive css edits and hacks. I have learned how to hack the rtml to the point where I can add extra images to the item page. If you would like to see some of my work my store is http://www.oregontomatoseeds.com and I have started a blog dedicated to rtml and css edits for the Yahoo Store. http://site.fillmypc.com.

How to fix your facebook settings.

Posted on by
Reply

I realize this is a long note but it is step by step how I changed my facebook settings.

 

1. Create a list and put all your friends into it.

 

2. Click the “Manage List” button that is in the up right corner.

 

3. Click Update Type

 

4. Click Manage list button again.

 

5. check mark the types of updates you want to see. For me it’s Status Updates and Photos. I uncheck “music and videos” and “Comments and likes” but that’s just a personal preference.

 

6. look over at Favorites.

 

7. click close friends.

 

8. Click Notifications button and select “off”

 

9. Click Manage List

 

10. Click Choose Update Types

 

11. Then Click Manage List Again.

 

12. Unclick all update types.

 

13. Click Manage List again and click add/remove friends. Uncheck all the people list there.

 

14. Look over at favorites and remove Close Friends from favorites.

 

15. Then goto lists and click the pencil button next to “close friends” and click hide.

 

Now if you look over to the left you have your Everyone list, when you click on it, it will show you all of your friends activity in most recent activity first. If there is anyone who’s updates that you don’t want to see just remove them from the list. You will never see them.

Nice little webpage from NIST on how to set your computer's clock.

Posted on by
Reply

I like all my clocks in the house to be set at the same time. This includes the computer clocks. I have two Atomic clocks in the house. I like using NIST servers to set my computer clocks as well. Here is the link for the list of time servers that are part of NIST. This link describes how to set your computers clock. Basically you should be able to double click the clock in the bottom right on you task bar. Then click on the “Change date and Time Settings” option. Click on “Internet Time” and drop one of the servers listed on the server list page. Make sure to use one of the servers that accept all time requests and that are not too busy. By default my Windows Vista computer uses the Microsoft server time.windows.com but that server is so busy my computer’s clock never synced. Now I am using one of the others and the clock is syncing correctly.

On Demand Virus Scanners

Posted on by
Reply

Sometime a computer’s mainline defense it’s Anti-virus has been compromised.  Maybe a rootkit or some shiny new malware has disabled it. What do you do then? My answer is an on demand scanner their are tw that I know of that work well for this kind of issue.

The First one I try is TrendMicro House call.

The Second one which is new to me is Eset Online Scanner

You can run these straight from your browser. They will scour through your computer and clean up any infections that they find.

 

 

Alternate DNS Servers

Posted on by
Reply

There is alternatives to your ISP’s slow and unprotected dns severs. Additionally there are alternatives to the internet that everyone knows.

First lets discuss what DNS is. DNS stands for Domain Name Server. Back in the old days before there was the WWW. People and institutions would inter connect there computers together. Then there was whole networks of computers that were put together. The only way to connect from one computer or network to another was through knowing the IP address of that computer. For instance Microsofts’ IP would be something like this 207.46.197.32. You would have to remember this set of numbers if you wanted to get to their network. Then came along the DNS servers. They would convert words like microsoft.com to the ip address 207.46.197.32. And then your computer could connect to their network.

Now what does this have to do with you? Well in all likelihood your internet provider is doing the work of changing the name into the number. Now sometimes we would like the DNS to block an address from getting translated for us. Such as some server like superhacker exploit server that sends out virus and popups. There is a provider called opendns that will do just that for us. You can also use opendns to block all assorts of categories of websites from your network. One example would be Ads or porn.

There are other dns providers as well. Opennic provides access to alternate websites run out of the control of Icanns and IANA Which tries to govern the whole of the internet. What Opennic does is provide access TLD that are not registered with icann or IANA such as .glue, .bbs, .free, .fur, .geek, .gopher, .indy, .ing, .null, .oss, .micro With the “normal” internet yo have to go to an icanns approved registrar to get a domain name. For example fixmypc.us is registered through Melbourne IT through a reseller Yahoo. For that I have to pay for it to be registered. The lowest price I have found is about $10/yr. I could register through Opennic for no charge a domain like fixmypc.geek. Now the problem is since it is not registered through my ISP I would be able to get to the site unless I add DNS server to network config. Opennic has great instructions on how to do this on your computer. What I did was add their server to the first of my dns server settings then I added the open dns servers for the filtering of bad websites from the conventional internet. I then add Google DNS severs just in case Opendns fails. Finally I add the dns servers from my ISP just in case my system needs to hit an internal network from my isp for some reason.
I recommend that you take a look at the Very least opendns for your network.
To test to see if you are able to get to an Opennic site click here. It’ll take you to http://wiki.opennic.glue/HomePage
Open NIC
216.87.84.211
69.164.208.50

opendns
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Google DNS
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

qwest DNS
205.171.3.25
205.171.2.25

Mac Shield Removal Portland, Oregon

Posted on by
Reply

So today I had to remove Macshield from a clients macbook. Mac-Shield is a type of rouge software which pretends to be an anti-virus, but in reality it is a malicious software that infects your Macbook. I found a great set of instructions on bleeping computer. It includes a handy little tool just to remove this piece of software. It is very easy to remove and cleanup. After removing it, I installed Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition and did a full scan just to make sure there weren’t any other nasty viruses on the computer.