I <3 my auto mechanic

Posted on May 17, 2016June 11, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Tips

How is your computer like your car?

The longer we’ve had our Volvo and Hondas and continued our relationship with our mechanics, I continue to come to the conclusion that taking care of computers and cars is very much the same. I know; that sounds like Crazy Talk! I’ll tell you what I mean.

Regular maintenance:

Just like you want your mechanic to give your vehicle a once-over every 3-5,000 miles, your computer needs looking at as well. About once a year Chris will:

Clean up temporary files – this helps your machine run faster.
Check for and remove any viruses or other malware.
Make sure your drivers are up to date.
Look for any unusual behavior.
Ask you questions about how you use your machine and any annoyances you’ve experienced lately.
And other tasks as required.

Strange noises:

Unexpected noises are never a good thing. Whether it’s from your car or computer, if you’re like me, your first inclination is to ignore it and hope it goes away. Then, if it happens again you start to take it seriously! Unusual noises that some of our customers have experienced include:

Grinding fan noises. Your computer needs to stay cool in order to work properly, and that is what the fan is for. If the fan starts to make noises, it’s getting ready to fail. If it stops making the loud sound, it’s already failed and it needs to be replaced asap! If your computer gets too hot, the whole thing could fail.
Voices. Yes, voices. Lately we’ve seen some weird viruses that talk to our customers. “Make sure you call 800-555-1212 right now!”
Squeaking from a dry fan belt
A clicking sound from inside your machine could indicate that the hard drive is failing.

We’ve found that one of the most important things to do in keeping our vehicles in top shape is to get to know our mechanics. We’ve been invited to their special events and are proud to call them our friends. We have similar relationships with many of our customers too, and we’d love to get to know you as well!

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fourteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more at http://www.GeekForHireInc.com Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free 2-3 day shipping and the online streaming. I haven’t tried the Kindle lending library yet, but I’m tempted! Prime is normally $99/year, but you can try it for 30 day for free by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial

Q&A with Chris Eddy (iMac’s, PDF’s and Windows 10)

Posted on May 10, 2016August 21, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Apple, iMac, iPhone, Microsoft, PDF, Smartphone Apps, Tips, Win10

Question:

I’m currently running window 7 professional on my work laptop. Windows 10 want to upgrade computer software. I have office 2003 and ms project software 2010 and I’m wondering if windows 10 compatible with these programs? Also since I’ve been rejecting windows 10 computer seems to constantly upgrade software (daily) and is running slow. Any way that not upgrading to 10 can be causing this?

Answer:

I think you should decline the W10 upgrade because W7 works fine for you, I don’t think that W10 has enough new and different and better stuff that you should run right out now (metaphorically) and get it. Also, I’m seeing occasional strangeness with W10 becoming unresponsive or very disk intensive for long periods of time, and have seen occasional filesystem corruption after things like a graceless shutdown which causes the machine to require serious startup repair (not the automated one), but W7 would have recovered from that in stride.

Question:

An associate recommended PDFMerge as a great program to take individual pdf pages and be able to combine them into a document. I went to the website www.pdfmerge.com and downloaded it. …. Well now every pdf on my laptop is a soda pdf. This was not what I intended – will this cause me problems since they are no longer adobe pdf’s? Should I have you change it all back? Worried about this change. Recommendations?

Answer:

This is an easy thing to change. Go to the file using Windows Explorer, right click on the file name, go down to “Open With”, select the Adobe Acrobat Reader program, and make sure you put a check in the box to use this program for this file type in the future.

Question:

Do you have an opinion on the iMac all in one? The 21.5 ” most suitable for my space and I’d like to connect it to a TV and be able to watch TV at same time as using computer – is that possible or a pipe dream?

Answer:

In general, I like the iMac. And, in a nutshell, yes. But you’ll need an “Apple TV” device, which is a white hockey puck sized thing that connects to the house network and to the TV. More here: http://store.apple.com/us/question/answers/appletv/can-i-use-apple-tv-to-mirror-my-imac-on-my-tv/QCFJP9Y472HAJP9YP

Do you have a quick question about your Mac or PC? Send us an email to support@geekforhireinc.com

Windows 10 – Once more

Posted on May 3, 2016January 13, 2025 by Gail Eddy in Apple, iPhone, Microsoft, Smartphone Apps

It’s almost like it’s Groundhog Day. Again. (The movie, not the holiday.) Yes, we are still getting calls from customers who have upgraded to Windows 10 and immediately began to experience issues with their machine.

What are some of the issues? Here’s a sampling of some of the questions we’ve received:

I can’t find any of my files! They all seem to have disappeared!
I can find my files, but my computer won’t let me open any of them
My applications don’t seem to work properly anymore
My computer can’t find my printer, or the network
I’ve got the dreaded black screen (or blue screen)
My computer won’t boot

The problems go on and on. I am guessing that there are plenty of times that someone upgrades to Windows 10 with zero problems. Those are not the people who call us!

We still have the same advice that we did in February: https://geekforhireinc.com/windows-10-update/

If you have a Windows 7 machine, don’t upgrade unless you have a serious business need.
If you have a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine, you should be okay to upgrade, although you may still experience some issues
If you have a Windows XP or earlier machine, don’t (DO NOT!) upgrade. Consider purchasing a new machine with Windows 8 or 10 already installed.

If you’re planning to upgrade do this first:

Back up your data. Use an external Hard Drive if you have one, or upload to the Cloud
Make sure you have a list of all the programs and applications that you use.
Make sure you know what all of your passwords are, especially if you have asked your computer to remember them for you.
Make sure you know what your WiFi Router password is.

Please let us know if you experience any issues with your upgrade. Call with any questions!

Review of the Word Flow keyboard for iPhones

Posted on April 26, 2016April 29, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Apple, iPhone, Microsoft, Smartphone Apps

Smartphone Keyboard

Last week Chris introduced me to a new keyboard app for the iOS. He thought it might help me have less.carpel tunnel symptoms while typing. I’m trying it out by typing this blog with it. It is called Word Flow and was developed by Microsoft.

Mostly it is doing okay. It has good predictive skills, though not all that much better or different than the standard predictive text that comes with the standard iPhone. It only has four punctuation marks available; period, comma, exclamation point, and question mark. (But, really, how often do you use a semi-colon?!)

One issue that I am experiencing is that when it thinks I’m done with a sentence, it will randomly throw in a period! Another issue is that it doesn’t “know” the shortcuts I’ve programmed into the phone to get a jumpstart on the predictive text. For example, when I type “bou”, the iPhone will complete the word “Boulder. Word Flow doesn’t do that.

Here’s an example of what the keyboard looks like and the predictive text errors:

I think that for people who are one handed typers or thumb typers , this will be a great product. For people like me who are used to typing with both hands and more than two thumbs, there aren’t a lot of benefits.

As a person who is very much concerned with security and privacy, I did take exception to allowing Word Flow access to my data. Take a look at the verbiage for the “permissions screen”.

“Full access allows the developer of this keyboard to transmit anything you type, including things you have previously typed with this keyboard. This could include secretive information such as your credit card number or street address.”

Ummmm, no. I think that is part of why the shortcuts I’ve programmed into my iPhone aren’t working with this app.

If you think this might be right for you, take a look at this, more positive review.

What keyboard are you using with your smartphone? Is it the standard one that came with, or another app that you’ve installed? Let us know what you are using, which phone you have, and how the keyboard is working!

Virtual Reality

Posted on April 19, 2016April 29, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Facebook, Holodeck, Oculus, Virtual Reality

“The promise of virtual reality has always been enormous. Put on these goggles, go nowhere, and be transported anywhere.”

(source)

Virtual Reality is starting to get hot, again. I remember a trip to Toronto about twenty years ago. We went to the CN Tower and there was an arcade there that offered a “real” VR experience for about $20. Chris couldn’t pass that up and thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in a totally different world. Things sure have changed since then. It’s getting closer and closer to a Star Trek Holodeck experience. (Although I still don’t understand how Picard can ride a horse in the holodeck without bumping into the walls!)

But first, what is Virtual Reality? The website “How Stuff Works” describes VR as:

“using computer technology to create a simulated, three-dimensional world that a user can manipulate and explore while feeling as if he were in that world. Scientists, theorists and engineers have designed dozens of devices and applications to achieve this goal. Opinions differ on what exactly constitutes a true VR experience, but in general it should include:

Three-dimensional images that appear to be life-sized from the perspective of the user
The ability to track a user’s motions, particularly his head and eye movements, and
correspondingly, adjust the images on the user’s display to reflect the change in perspective”

From what I’ve been reading the new Oculus Rift is essentially just for playing games. When you head to their website, you can watch a video of the user interacting with some of their games. Although new games are being added all the time, it makes me wonder if there really is an future in VR beyond games.

Never fear – Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Facebook and Oculus is all over that like white on rice. At the F8 conference last week they introduced new ways of using VR. Huffington Post reports:

“Facebook hopes to one day connect the world through virtual spaces. It owns Oculus, perhaps the world’s best-known virtual reality company, and its intent is to use the technology to break down barriers separating people from one another. (You know, things like space and time and oceans.) In the not-too-distant future, you and a friend could don virtual reality glasses, create avatars of yourselves and meet up in digital environments to play games or just hang out and chat.”

Want to learn more? Check out these links:

Review of Two Smartphone Battery Covers

Posted on April 5, 2016April 29, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Apple, Cell Phone Service, iPhone

Power and Protection:

If you’re like me, sometimes a little clumsy with your cellphone, you need to have a protective cover to keep the screen from cracking – or worse! If you’re also like me, on your phone all day, sometimes watching Youtubes, and generally using up all the electric juice, you’ll also need to have an extra battery to keep your phone charged up. Lucky for us, you can get both protection and extra juice in the same case. Because I’ve only used iPhones, I’ve only reviewed iPhone cases, but I will provide a few links to cases for other brands as well.

I’ll start with my favorite. The Mophie Juice Pack:

I’ve used a Mophie for my last two phones and have been very happy with them. At family events when I want to take lots and lots of video’s, I can use it all day long and not worry. Most days, running Geek For Hire from where ever I happen to be that day, I use all of the iPhone’s stored power and a little of the Mophie’s power as well. It’s sleek, and I like the colors they have available. My current one is blue. The one for my last iPhone was red.

I probably drop my phone once a week or so and, sure, the Mophie has a bunch of scratches, but the phone itself is just fine.

The other protective case with battery pack available for the iPhone is the Lifeproof FIRE POWER case:

The Lifeproof case is exactly that. Lifeproof. It protects against submersion in water or mud. It protects against dropping from heights. It fully encloses the iPhone in a bubble of protection. Plus, the Fire Power model gives you extra juice for long days. The Lifeproof is the one both of our kids are using on the Appalachian Trail. And that makes sense for people who are fording streams and hiking through rain. It also helps their phones last through several days between recharging. It even has little O-rings so when you plugin your headphones the entire unit remains water-tight. So, yes, if that’s how you plan to use your iPhone, get a Lifeproof.

Before I got my current blue Mophie, Chris talked me into getting the Lifeproof Fire Power. It was big and boxy. It didn’t always sense when the iPhone was running low on juice. So it didn’t switch over to it’s battery and my phone ran out of power and turned off. That was pretty inconvenient! It lasted about a week with me before I traded it in for another Mophie!

Other Phone Brands:

I haven’t been able to find protective battery cases for any other brand except the Samsung Galaxy. Please note that I have not used this product so can not provide a review. Here’s a link: Galaxy S6 Battery Case

Have you used a protective battery case for your cell phone? What brand of cellphone do you have? Which case do you use? How was your experience? Let us know in the comments below!

Need a new part?

Posted on March 29, 2016April 29, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Mac's, Windows 10

For Geek For Hire, last week was all about installing new parts for our customers. Chris replaced (or added) parts on new and older computers. If you have a non-working part on your computer, don’t think you need to get a whole new computer just to get it to work!

For example, one customer had a non-functioning keyboard on his laptop. Chris ordered a new keyboard from the manufacturer and installed it. Another option is to get an external keyboard – either wired or Bluetooth. Although your laptop is not quite as portable when you have to lug around a keyboard too!
Another customer got a new desktop computer but it came without a DVD drive. Chris ordered a very high quality DVD drive for this customer. He took the desktop apart, put the Drive in the right place and securely attached it to the inside. Then he tested it to make sure it worked properly – both read and write functionalities. (I wonder what movie they watched!)
A third customer needed more RAM which Chris was able to install.
Another customer ordered a new soundbar and asked Chris to install it for them.
Another customer woke up to a black screen. Chris determined the problem was the monitor and not something internal to the machine. A new monitor was ordered – problem solved! (Sometimes there is a problem with the video card inside the computer which causes the monitor to not work. Chris can replace those too.)

Other miracles Chris performed last week included bringing a MiniMac back from the dead, removing several hundred viruses from a MacBook Air, removing viruses from a Dell Windows 10 machine, and uninstalling Windows 10 and reinstalling Windows 7 on yet another machine.

The Scariness Increases

Posted on March 22, 2016May 2, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Data Backup, Data Recovery, Hackers, Malware, Tips

Ransomware

Chris forwarded a link to me the other day about some scary “malvertising”. For those of you who didn’t have Senor Garcia for High School Spanish, “mal” is a Latin prefix meaning “bad”. Other words you might be familiar with include “malware” and “malicious”. And that’s what this is: Malware that looks like advertising, but really contains malicious code.

I can hear you saying: “But I know how to be careful and not click on stuff that looks suspicious!” And that’s the issue right there. These are “advertisements” that appear on highly respected websites. ARS-Technica warns us that:

“Mainstream websites, including those published by The New York Times, the BBC, MSN, and AOL, are falling victim to a new rash of malicious ads that attempt to surreptitiously install crypto ransomware and other malware on the computers of unsuspecting visitors, security firms warned.

The tainted ads may have exposed tens of thousands of people over the past 24 hours alone, according to a blog post published Monday by Trend Micro. The new campaign started last week when “Angler,” a toolkit that sells exploits for Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and other widely used Internet software, started pushing laced banner ads through a compromised ad network.”

Another technical site, MalwareBytes, mentions some other websites, including Newsweek, Realtor.com, and NFL.com.

And, the malware that is being downloaded isn’t your run-of-the-mill virus. In many cases it is Ransomware, which takes all of your files and encrypts them with a special key. You then need to pay a ransom to get the encryption key to get your data back.

This is not a message you want to see popping up on your screen!

Ransomware Image - source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/03/big-name-sites-hit-by-rash-of-malicious-ads-spreading-crypto-ransomware/ — Ransomware Image – source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/03/big-name-sites-hit-by-rash-of-malicious-ads-spreading-crypto-ransomware/

What is our advice?

Use an adware blocker like AdBlock Plus
For some websites, they won’t show you ANY content unless you agree to see their ads. In that case, never click on an advertisement.
If you really are interested in a product or service that is being offered, go to the company’s site directly.
Keep your data backed up to an external source. And back it up at least once a month – more often if you are working with ever-changing and precious data.

If you need help getting rid of any malware, or learning how to regularly back up your data, give us a call!

Custom Computers & Gaming Machines

Posted on March 15, 2016April 29, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Data Transfer, Desktop, Hard Drive, Laptops, Printer, Tips

One of the services we provide is to build custom computers from scratch. (Gaming machines are almost, by design, custom computers.) Chris is building one now for a long-time customer. In fact, this is the second machine we’ve built for this particular customer!

Process for building Custom Computers:

First, Chris talks with the customer about what their goals are:

What do they hope to use this computer for?
How much storage should it have?
Required software?
Should this be a portable computer or one that stays in the office?
What is the budget?

Next, when Chris has a good understanding of what the requirements are, he does some research to determine exactly which parts need to be ordered. Often times there is a choice to be made between two or more options. He has a conversation with the customer to decide which will best meet their needs. Once all the parts have been decided, he sends the list (with all the order links) to the customer for ordering.

When the parts arrive, it looks a little chaotic for a while, but then it all comes together!

You can hear the excitement in Chris’ words about building a new custom computer:

“One of my special joys is to design and build full custom computers. This one is for a customer who is still using the last full custom computer I made for them about 5 years or so ago.

There are several special features in the design, but one of the special results is absolutely Smokin-Hot processor performance: using a modern 4-core processor and water cooling, the stock speed is 4Ghz on each of the 4 cores.

To make sure things are thermally stable, I’ve been running a CPU heating utility, which launches 8 CPU-intensive processes all running in parallel, and after about 1H the cooler is only warm to the touch with a slight increase in overall fan sound. Nice!

Note: I took this picture after the computer was on for about 10 minutes, but /before/ the burn-in process was started.”

This custom computer is almost ready to be delivered to the customer!

I’ve created a Free Report to protect you from “phishing” scams. Click here to receive it!

INFORMATION ABOUT GEEK FOR HIRE, INC.

Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has provided computer service to families and small businesses with Mac’s and PCs for the past eighteen years. Angie’s List and the BBB rate Geek For Hire very highly. You can find more on our website or give us a call at 303-618-0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3 support) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area and remote service throughout North America.

Here’s a link to our Covid19 Policy.

We’ve been using Amazon Prime for the past few years. We like the free and fast shipping. With Prime, we have access to online streaming too. Prime is usually $119/year, but you can get a free 30-day trial by clicking on this link: Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Free Substitutes

Posted on March 8, 2016April 29, 2024 by Gail Eddy in Linux, Mac's, Microsoft, Tips, Windows 7

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can’t believe how expensive everything is getting! When I look at the prices for different software, I am astounded! So, with that in mind, here are some Office Suite products you can download for free instead of buying the latest version of Microsoft Office. (All of these say they will work with Windows, OS-X, and Linux.)

OpenOffice:

For common office software like spreadsheets and word processing, many people like and use OpenOffice. Here’s the description from the Apache website:

“Apache OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.”

Head to the OpenOffice website for more info.

LibreOffice:

The Document Foundation’s LibreOffice is another office suite. Here’s the description from their website:

“LibreOffice is a powerful office suite; its clean interface and powerful tools let you unleash your creativity and grow your productivity. LibreOffice embeds several applications that make it the most powerful Free & Open Source Office suite on the market: Writer, the word processor, Calc, the spreadsheet application, Impress, the presentation engine, Draw, our drawing and flowcharting application, Base, our database and database frontend, and Math for editing mathematics.”

More info here.

Caligra Office:

Yet another Office Suite. According to their website:

“Calligra Suite is a set of applications written to help you to accomplish your work. Calligra includes efficient and capable office components: Words for text processing, Sheets for coputations, Stage for presentations, Plan for planning, Flow for flowcharts, and Kexi for database creation. In addition, Calligra offers cutting edge applications for artists to work on 2D drawings and illustrations: Krita for painting and raster drawing, and Karbon for vector graphics.

More here.

Chris has been using OpenOffice for years and can provide some training if needed.

Note: Some of these applications require that you have Java installed.