Also for all my friends it is King IT (eye tee), as in Information Technology.  It is fun to hear people say King IT like it is a verb.  “If you need something fixed just king it.”  Hey if it helps the name stick in your mind then you can call me whatever you want, as long as you call me.  Thanks everyone.

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.

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.

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.

As of right now I am providing computer repair and consulting services for a few local companies.  One thing I do want to say is how pleased I have been to meet many of the installers and technicians who service this city.  Most of them are very helpful to the new guy, and I am very appreciative to them.  I am enjoying how Medicine Hat is large enough to have most of the services you need, but small enough that you can get to know most of the people you need to know.

It has been a very good first couple months, and looks to be very busy in the future.  King IT (as in Information Technology, not king it pronounced like do it, and it has no reference to the Stephen King book) is currently looking into some new opportunities, and I am very excited about the future possibilities.  Keep checking back here for more information when it is available.

Anyway to finish this post I just want to say, computer repair Medicine Hat.  That was for you Google.

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.”

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.

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.

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.