A Step Away

Let me take a post here to step away from my normal material. I was going to take this post as a chance to answer some of your questions regarding technological situations. I will make sure that I get to all your questions and queries, but for once I'd like to touch on a current event.

As many of you know by now, last night the United States of America finally caught and killed the mastermind behind the September 11th attacks on the USA. Osama bin Laden was killed in a mansion compound in a town outside of Islamabad, Pakistan.This news has brought me to literal tears and has brought a new sense of pride in my country.

Let me preface by saying that I never approve of taking an eye for an eye or seeing another human perish, but Osama bin Laden's death is a welcoming sight. He took the lives of thousands and showed no remorse for the innocent citizens of the world that he murdered. No animal deserves to live nor be respected by humans that causes such a known evil.

For those of you that lost someone on September 11th, I hope this serves as some piece of justice. Nothing will bring back those lost that day, but we can grab some closure to those that perpetrated the cowardly deed. God bless America!

Tablets Have Arrived

If you weren't aware yet, the rivals to the iPad have arrived at your local retail store. Previous to just about a week ago, the iPad was the only "true" tablet out on the market for consumers. Many knockoff brands were advertised online, but nothing substantial enough to stand up against Apple and it's modified iPhone. Currently two brands (Motorolla and Blackberry) have tablets featured that put the iPad to test. Motorolla has released the Xoom which is capable of receiving 3G coverage on the Verizon network, while Blackberry has released the Playbook which is capable of receiving 3G coverage on the AT&T network. But before you go out and shell out the cash, let's take a look at the differences.

MOTOROLLA XOOM:

 The Morolla Xoom is being praised as the better of the two new tablets, as of the launch dates. This is due to a few things. For one the Motorolla Xoom features a larger screen than the Blackberry adversary. The 10.1 inch screen allows for larger viewing of movies or web content. The tablet runs on the new Android 3.0 operating system known as Honeycomb. The tablet also has a dual-core processor, which tends to be larger than many processors inside laptops. Overall this dandy, little piece is fun and EASY to use.

BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK:

The Blackberry brand introduces its first ever tablet with the Playbook. A smaller look than the Xoom, but even more portable than the Xoom as well. The Playbook has a 7 inch screen that is currently the smallest version of a tablet currently being offered on the market. The Playbook sports a dual-core processor similar to the Xoom's processor, yet manufactured by a different company.An upgrade to the Blackberry's tablet is that it has Adobe's flash pre-installed on it upon purchase. Xoom Adobe flash must be downloaded and Apple's iPad does not even support Adobe flash based websites, games, programs, etc.

Happy shopping!

Tech Talk

I was speaking with a customer tonight and I realized about mid-conversation that I was speaking a language that the customer had no knowledge of. I was trying to explain the benefits of a certain brand of wireless router over another. I began to speak about the setting up of one's router through their ISP and possibly having to know the IP address, etc. I'm sure some of you are looking at me like I'm speaking in tongues as we speak. So I thought this would be a great time to address some tech talk, acronyms that come a lot!

ISP - ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. Your internet service provider is the company that provides your internet connection. For many people in the New England area their ISP would be either Comcast or Verizon. They are the ones that you pay each month for the ability to access the internet.

IP Address - This is your special address that identifies you on the internet. You didn't think everything was anonymous did you? Think of your IP address being very similar to your home address. Your ISP assigns your house an IP address that is used by the internet to know who you are when you visit certain pages. Ever wonder how internet advertisements seem to know where you live? Thank your IP address for that.

RAM - RAM stands for Random-Access Memory. This  acronym is something you will often see when you are in the market for purchasing a new computer. RAM is the memory of the computer, or put into biological terms, it's the brain of the computer. RAM helps your start up and shut down time. It also improves the performance of your computer when accessing visual programs, etc.

MB, GB, & TB - Another acronym you will see when purchasing a computer or other types of storage devices. MB, GB, & TB are three different levels of storage starting from smallest to largest. MB or Megabyte is one of the smaller sizes of computer space, often the size of pictures, music, and documents. GB or Gigabyte tends to be the size of larger documents such as movies or programs. TB or Terabyte is one of the largest sizes of storage space to this day and is often the totaled size of a plethora of documents, files, and folders.

Kenmore Stove

Every once in awhile a technician even runs into a situation where they have no idea what the heck is going on. This is often occurs for me when I am with my car. I can give you the ins and outs of a desktop computer, but I couldn't point my windshield washer fluid out from my coolant tank. I'm car illiterate. Another technology I am quite illiterate with is kitchen appliances.

Last night I decided to cook some of Pilsbury's crescent rolls to  help study for an exam. Sure enough my crescent rolls burnt before the twelve minutes was up. I wasn't too surprised as I am used to burning my food, no matter what medium I cook it through. Though something about this one was perplexing. Even after I removed the food from the oven and turned it off I noticed the coils were still bright orange and heat was coming out at a real intense volume.

"F1." I knew when I saw that flashing from the oven that I was in for big shit. Sure enough my electrical oven has a computer inside of it that sends out messages like "F1" and "F3" to let the consumer know something is wrong. This is very similar to your check engine light on your car.

Now I am finding out it will take a replacement of the computer chip inside the machine to work. What I am more concerned about is not replacing the chip inside it, but the whole machine itself. It's scary to think I could have left my oven thinking it was off, when it really wasn't and was only waiting to start a fire. Electrical may be money saving, but it may not be life saving.

Clean Your Computers

I can't stress enough for people to clean their electronic devices. Day after day I see pieces of technology that have been neglected and could use some tender, love, and care. Most of these devices end up malfunctioning down the road and that malfunction could have easily been avoided with a clean up.

The best way to ensure your devices are clean is by purchasing some canned air. You can get this product at most office supply stores and technology stores. The canned air allows for bursts of directed wind into certain areas. For example a common problem with desktop computers is the dust and pollen that gets in through all the vents. Spraying some of the canned air into the desktop computer can help weed out the unnecessarily particles of dust that are taking up home inside the CPU. I suggest using the canned air on phones, video game systems, televisions, and pretty much any electronic device that has vents or access ports toward the inside of the machine.

If you are dealing with a monitor and need to get it clean make sure you use a liquid solution that has NO alcohol. You do not want that smearing across your screen, distorting images. Make sure to clean up with a lint-free clothe and you will be well on your way to maintaining a healthy and clean electronic device!

Shameless Promotion

This may be a shameless plug for the company that I work for, but I truly do believe in the work we do. I stand by it! Staples offers customers a Free PC Tune Up (Pending your CPU has Windows XP, Vista, or 7 and the computers can boot up with no significant problems.) on their lap tops and desktops. The tune up does a defragmentation on the computer as well as cleaning out the system registry of unnecessary operating system files, as well as program files. Finally the computer is cleaned on the inside, especially if it is clogged with dust. As long as nothing critical is found on the computer, the EasyTech technician is able to assist the customer with possible upgrades on the computer. This sometimes can be a great deciding point on whether to invest money into an old computer or upgrade into buying a new computer. All for a free service and merely waiting a maximum of three days for the processing of the on-site work! Even bring down computers that have other problems. They won't be covered for the Free PC Tune Up event, but they may still be salvageable!

Angry Birds Update

The new Angry Birds update for Angry Birds regular and Angry Birds Seasons has been released! Be sure to update your previously purchased applications or go to your marketplace and buy!