King IT Services Ltd.

One of the first questions a IT Tech should ask a potential new customer is “what is you backup solution?”, then wait for the vacant look.  Most of us realize how important it is to back up our data.  We all know someone who lost all of those precious baby pictures because they never backed up, but very few people actually have a backup solution.  Sure you have a DVD that you burned one weekend when you had nothing better to do, but how long ago was that?  If you are regular in your backups, where are those disks, or USB flash disks?  In the drawer beside your computer?  If so let me ask you this, what would happen if you had a fire?  That is why off site backup is just as important as backing up at all.  But how do you do it?

If you can remember to make a daily or weekly backup, and then take that backup off site you should be good.  If not, an online backup service could prove to be invaluable.  I personally use Carbonite as I like the ease of use, and it also works on the Mac.  I currently pay a flat yearly fee, and have 125GB backed up right now.  There are many other options out there, the important part is to back up – and store a copy either off site or on-line.

You will thank me when that virus hits or your hard drive goes poof.

The title of this post might be a little misleading, just like a real newspaper headline.  I love netbooks.  They are wonderful little systems that serve a specific purpose.  They are small, portable machines that are cheap.  But they are not everything.  There are many things you cannot do with them.  I was just reparing a customers desktop that they said was running slow.  After scanning for viruses and spyware, I noticed what the real problem was.  It had very little ram and a tiny hard drive.  The computer was cheap, free in fact with internet connection, but it was too slow for there needs.

People think that when you buy a computer you can do anything with it.  But that has never been the case.  If you want to play games you have always needed to buy a more powerful machine.  Over the last few years, I feel the speed of computers have increased so much that you didn’t really need to wory about speed.  The cheap computer would do everything you needed.  Today, however, with the new low cost – low power computers, I think people need to start thinking about what they need the computer to do again.

If you just want a tiny machine that can surf the web and type emails, then go with the net-book that you like.  But don’t expect it to hold your MP3 library, or be able to edit your photo’s with it.  You need to get a computer that will do what you need it to do.  That’s why I recommend either educating yourself or going to a computer store where the salespeople actually care, and know their stuff.

So I thought with all the hype surrounding Windows 7 i should give my review of it.  Now I am not a software reviewer, this is just my personal opinion.  I am not going to say that this should make Apple worry as some reviewers have, because I think OS-X is so far behind in market share that they are already aware of everything Microsoft does.  I also hear what everyone says about how wonderful it is, and how fast it is.  I agree with this all, but what are the reasons for this?  This version of Windows is stripped down of all the extra’s (you can thank the EU and anti-trust cases for that), so of course it loads quicker.  But then you need to go out and download all of the programs you need to make your computer actually do anything.

I think the real win for Microsoft with Windows 7 is in public relations.  People ‘love’ Windows 7.  I have been using Vista since day one and have beta tested Windows 7 from the early spring on multiple computers.  I have even run Windows 7 on my iMac in Sun’s virtual box.  It works great.  I have used a beta OS before, and have had no issues with 7 at all.  But then again I have no issues with Vista at this time either.  Vista has such a bad reputation (most of which is unfounded at this time in it’s exestince), that Microsoft needs Windows 7 more than we need Windows 7.

I will admit, I will be purchasing Windows 7 for all of my machines.  The question is, do you need to?  I would recommend to everyone who hates Vista to go ahead and change.  If it makes you feel better than it’s worth it.  If it makes you hate your PC less, go for it.  But if you have XP running right now, and it is working, I say don’t bother changing.  Do you remember all of that stuff that didn’t work with Vista when people upgraded from XP?  Most of that stuff may still not work for Windows 7.  You may still need a new printer and your accounting software may still not work with 7 (that was my personal experience with Vista).  But don’t upgrade.  If you need a new OS, buy a new PC. You can get a new PC for under $500.  An upgrade to 7 will cost you $120.  Thats $380 more for new everything.  I say its worth it if you are using a 3-8 year old  computer.

So do I like Windows 7, you bet I do.  Do I think Apple should be worried, you bet – if it looses its PR bump that Vista gave it, and 7 works well, they might have to start talking about their products and not just bashing Microsoft.  Do I think you should all rush out a buy it, not unless you already have Vista or are looking at a new PC.

I noticed an interesting line while I was reading through my About Me page to see if I should make any changes to it.  I saw a line at the end that I wrote “I will not try to make you change for a product I sell. I will find the product that works for you.”

Reading that got me to thinking.  How many times do you go into a store with a need, and you end up being sold whatever gets the largest commission?  I was at an electronics store looking for a DVD player with the ability to read from a USB stick.  I ended up being shown a $1500 home theater system.  It did have the USB abilities, but was way more than I had asked for.  Why do sales people feel on selling you what they want to sell you, instead of filling the need you have?

And I know something about retail, I have spent 13 years working in a retail setting.  I know the reason sales people do this.  But do they not realize that if you sell someone something they don’t really need, they will remember it?  I always preferred to find out what the customer needed, and then help them find it.  If that involved sending them to another store who I know had it, so be it.  But I lost a sale right?  Wrong.  If you provide people with what they need, you do not loose a sale, you build a relationship.  And I feel this is what business is, relationships.  To bad more people do not fell the same way.

So I would like to once again quote myself “I will not try to make you change for a product I sell. I will find the product that works for you.”

That is what my wife calls me.  She wonders what in the world I could be doing on this crazy site.  My friends make fun of me, and my wife makes sure I’m not following any good looking girls   And you know what, I was a skeptic at first.  I got onto twitter because as a tech guy, I needed to see what all the hype was about.

So I leaped in a posted a comment… nothing.  So I found some friends (or 1 friend) who was on there and looked at what they used it for.  Still I had no idea what to use this for.  And then it hit me.  I was moving to Medicine Hat.  I found a blogger who was on twitter, and followed him.  Then asked if there were any more “tech savvy” Medicine Hat residents.  And that’s how it all started.

Now as I build more followers, and follow more interesting people I start to see the use of Twitter.  I can keep up to date on who, and what I want to.  I have some tech guys like Leo Laporte, some 49ers players like Takeo Spikes, and now some fantasy football guys.  And when I post a question on insurance, I get a bunch of new insurance companies following me.

So is Twitter the next big thing?  I guess it depends on how you use it.  If you comment on how you had a cheese sandwich for lunch, or about Ashton Kutcher, I will probably unfollow you.  But if you add content, then welcome to the twitter universe.  As for me, feel free to follow me, you will find me on twitter as @kingtyler.

Whats next for me you ask?  I need a new cell phone.  iPhone, Palm Pre, or some HTC Windows phone.  As of now I have no idea.  But I will decide in the next month.

So as I said in my last post I was ordering a iMac 24″ for the family.  First off, it took almost 2 weeks to get here, I am not sure if that had to do with a major update that they waited to install before shipping, but it was longer than I though it should take.  But when it did get here I have to say I was impressed.   The screen is HUGE.  I have used a 15″ wide laptop for the last little while and thought that was good enough.  But the 24″ sure stands out.  My wife is starting to get used to it, and even enjoying the size, but bigger is always better right?

As for the OS, I do like OS 10.5.  It seems pretty easy to get the hang of.  Everything I had trouble with was a simple google search answer away.  There are issues as there will always be.  Some of the software I use on a daily basis will not work on Mac.  But with a quick install of Sun Virtual Box and Windows 7 64 bit Beta, I was able to get them up and running.  I am still going to use the laptop for quickbooks etc, as I don’t know how the speed would be while running in virtualization.

One negative now.  iMovie will not read Mpeg1 or 2 formats.  All of my videos from my Sony camera are in Mpeg1.  So I have spent hours now with MPEG Streamclip converting them over.  After they are converted iMovie is very fast, and I think good enough for the little amount of video editing I do.

All in all, good so far.  I will update with anything else I notice.  Also I will start taking booking for Medicine Hat after the Aug long weekend, so let me know if there is anything you need.

Tyler

So as some of you know I test-drove one of the new Asus Eee Top touch screen PC’s. I won’t get into the specs, if you need them you can go right to Asus web page.  I will talk about my experience with this unit however.  Off the top the first reaction to this is “cool”.  It is a slick looking machine, and the price is unbelievable.  When you compare it with the twice the price HP touch systems, it is a no brainer.  But then you get to using it.

I found Windows XP to be lacking in touch abilities.  So after a day I upgraded to Windows 7 RC.  The touch ability under 7 was much better.  With Picasa you could use multi-touch to zoom in and out of the photos.  But while playing with this you start to see the limitations of the system.  It only has 1GB of ram and an Atom (netbook) processor, and it cannot handle most multimedia applications.  It had difficulty streaming internet radio while looking through our photo collection.  It was at this point that I realized the real market for this machine.  It is not for the young university student, it is for grandma, or mom to use in the kitchen to surf the net and look up recipe’s.

Now you may think I am unhappy with this box.  You couldn’t be more wrong.  I love this box, you just need to use it how it was designed.  The programmed screensaver has pictures of people using it, not to render video, but playing games with the kids, and grandpa surfing away.  If you are purchasing it for those reasons I think you would be very happy.

For me, I need more power.  So I ordered the iMac 24″ 2.66 w/ 4 GB of Ram.  It will handle all of my multimedia demands easily.  But at about 3x the price it comes at a cost.  I will let you know how the switch campaign goes for my family. I promise to never become a Apple fan boy though.

Before I start I want to credit Paul Thurrot for this idea.  You can read his post at his WinSuperSite.   He is speaking about how Windows7 should not be simple – but it should be easy.  What is the difference you ask.  Well when you do something simple, or strip it down to the bare minimums, you don’t necessarily make things easier.  He mentions the IPhone.  It doesn’t have a back button because Steve Jobs doesn’t like buttons (look at the Mac Mouse without a right click). So if you click on an email link, you can’t get back to the email.  You need to go back to the home screen, and back into your email program.  That may be simple, but it isn’t very easy.

Now with technology, and Internet services, the same situation faces us all.  We want our tech to do what we need it for, we want it to be easy, but we don’t want it to loose its effectiveness and become simple.  That is really what I am trying to accomplish for my customers now. They don’t want to know how to make everything work they way they need it to, they want it to be easy.  But there is not anything simple about the problems that the modern day business goes through on a daily basis.

So next time you wish your technology was simple, think twice.  What you might actually want is for your technology to be easy.  That’s what I try to do.  And that’s why I chose Tech Made Easy, and not Tech Made Simple.

So the move is planned.  Medicine Hat is going to be the new home for King IT Services.  I am in the process of getting my contracts moved over to the new city.  And now is the hard questions…What cell phone do I get?  I am thinking about the IPhone – but am unsure of Rogers coverage.

Oh, and if you have any leads on housing let me know.