For the scoop on the Craigslist (owned by eBay!) versus Listpic war there is an interesting article from Wired.
Listpic is a web site that presented craigslist using displaying the pictures from the listings in a thumbnail layout. This saved time as you did not have to click on each posting to see the picture.
“When looking for furniture on Craigslist, the main thing I wanted to do was browse through all the photos. I didn't know the exact furniture I wanted, but I knew what I liked once I saw it. I ended up clicking in and out of all the listings with pics. It took forever and made me go crazy! I stopped right there and thought to myself, there must be a better way of doing this”
Now Listpic is a competitor to Craigslist. Time will tell if they gain market traction.
I miss the the graphical view of Craigslist and regret that the parties could not work out their issues.
A client got the following error message, “Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE”
I did some research on this error and it shows the XP hive was corrupt. BAD NEWS!
His PC would not boot to XP. He had NO ,Backup or Windows XP CD.
Well, I though for sure that we were looking at a reload of XP with a potential loss of his data.
Since he was using a Toshiba OEM version of XP I could not simply us my XP CD to repair his files. I booted to the XP recovery tool and looked at his hard disk files. My plan was to use the recovery files that manufactures place on the hard disk to return the PC back to when it came from the factory.
No such luck, Toshiba does not use this recovery technique.
OK maybe I can use the CD to boot to “safe Mode” and restore the XP settings to the last good recovery point.
For once things came out better than expected as it booted to safe mode XP! I then restored the XP files to the last known good restore point and then tried to boot from the hard drive to XP.
A minor miracle the laptop booted to XP with no loss of data!
Unfortunately, the client did not want to invest in the time to run disk diagnostics to see if the drive was failing or an external disk drive to create a backup boot hard drive.
If you get a new PC this Christmas remember to put ALL of the CD's in a safe place. You may need them one day!
Why are you paying $10 a month for an AOL Account? If you have Internet access (DSL or Cable) your AOL services are available using the same software for free!. The only thing you lose is the ability to call the AOL help line, for that you pay $120 a year!
This link from the AOL site will show the differences between the free and the $120 a year account and you can use this page to change your plan Change AOL Plan.
In Summary:
"AOL® High Speed Essentials - With the AOL High Speed Essentials, you can enjoy unlimited access through your existing high speed connection, and you'll have 10 hours of dial-up access from AOL each month if you need it for just $9.99 a month. You'll also get great features like Premium Support, AOL® Premium Security Suite, AOL My eAddress, AIM Phoneline, 5 GB of X Drive storage, AOL® Radio, and AOL Video.
AOL® Free Services Option - With the AOL Free Services plan, you can enjoy unlimited access to AOL for free while you are connected to the Internet through a separate Internet provider (not AOL). You will also get the AOL Security Suite and access to AOL Radio. "
The "free AOL"gets you AOL mail and free anti virus software.
The AOL desk top runs slow and requires at least 1 gig of Memory. I really don't like using AOL as my default web browser, but you can make your own choice.
You don't have to be in San Diego to take advantage of saving $120! I just did a computer tune up for a client and saved her the $120 by switching to the free AOL. It paid for my "Computer Concierge Service"!
“A new scam e-mail that appears to be a solicitation from the IRS and the U.S. government for charitable contributions to victims of the recent Southern California wildfires has been making the rounds. A link in the e-mail, when clicked, sends the e-mail recipients to a Web site that looks like the IRS Web site, but isn't. They are then directed to click on a link that opens a donation form that asks for personal and financial information. The scammers can use that information to gain access to the e-mail recipients' financial accounts. The IRS does not send e-mails to taxpayers soliciting contributions to a charitable cause.”
Most charitable solicitations via e-mail are scams.
If you are interested in the “charity” do a Goggle search then use the Google results to go to the official site!
NEVER enter your personal information on a web site you followed from an e-mail link. It is easy to get tricked by these low life thieves.
The complete press release from the IRS can be found at: IRS News Release
Was the link really to the IRS?
(Yes it is, how did you know?) Don't be fooled by the art work. Logos and the art work can be cut and pasted to create a look very much a like the real site in a snap!
ATT Yahoo DSL offers Norton Antivirus suite "free" with their DSL service (approximately a $40 one time cost and $20 annual renewal)!
ATT Yahoo used to offer CA (Computer Associates) package. This change went unnoticed until I checked for program updates.
I think that Norton is the "gold standard" for home / small business security software. If your machine has a "low horsepower cpu" (less than 1.6 Ghz and less then 1 gig memory) perhaps Norton is not fo you. I am running a P4 3.06 Ghz cpu with 2.5 gigs of memory and Norton has not been a resource issue on this machine.
My installation experiance: smooth untill the first Live Update, message = "LU1812 an update failed to install"!
Message said,
"wait two weeks and then run LiveUpdate again. In most cases, Symantec will re-publish an updated version of the patch within that time. Keep in mind that Automatic LiveUpdate will continue to download critical security updates while you are waiting, so you are still protected during this time. If you still cannot install the patch in two weeks, then click the "What if this didn't work?" link at the bottom of this article."
If you are having this same problem please e-mail me SanDiegoCIO@gmail.com. If there is enough intrest I will post the fix!
Well not entirely true. I found the recipes on line. LOL!
The Friday after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the Year!
IF you are under pressure to shop for Christmas presents today consider the The Entertainment Book as a stocking suffer!
This company is a fine example for San Diego business owners how to transform an "analog product" to digital and using a web site to substantially enhance the value to the customer of a product. Future postings will discuss these points in more depth.
For the first three correct answers* I will give a free 1/2 hour technology consultation (*open to businesses in San Diego County only). You chose the topic, issue, or problem!) e-mail me your answers to SanDiegoCIO@gmail.com. Answers due by Sunday 9:00 PM
Is your business earning $40,000 or more? Do you rely on your computer as as a key tool for your business? In the event of a disk drive failure following the methods I outline will reduce your recovery time to minutes!
If you don't want to backup your disk drive just view the video above...
A disk drive failure is a relatively a low probably event but will have a high negative impact on your business. You already have purchased insurance for "low probably events that have high negative impacts" such as home owners, (fire, flood, earthquake), personal liability, auto collision, health etc. I am advocating investing in insurance for your business data!
This post will discuss how to protect both your business data and the time it took you to set up your computer. Using my "Raid Me! (sm) method you can protect your investment by backing up your desk top computer or small office server with a high degree of safety and relatively low cost.
I will address your initial investment, how much data you should plan to backup, a recommended strategy, and costs.
After reading this article you will be aware of your costs of setting up your PC, the amount of data that you have, the choices that you have for backup, and my recommendation of the “best way” to safeguard your data. You can contact me (SanDiegoCIO@gmail.com) if you would like my for assistance in execution your back up strategy.
Your initial investment
You probably remember how much you paid for your computer, but do you remember how much time (and pain!) you spent initially setting up your PC? You probably invested at least 4 to 16 hours setting up your PC including: adding the computer to your network, loading Office, QuickBooks, printer and or scanner software, getting the colors, desktop icons, and other settings just the way you like them. Let's not forget adding the anti-virus software, Windows Defender, the latest patches for Windows and any other software you have. You also may have deleted the “crapware” that your PC manufacturer loaded on your PC to entice you to purchase a DSL service, antivirus software, AOL, Office or other software that clutters up your drive. What is this setup time in dollars or lost opportunity worth to you? Just backing up the “My Documents” folder will not protect this investment in time.
How much data do you have to backup?
The Windows operating system will take 3-4 gigabytes on your hard disk. Your programmes such as office and QuickBooks may take another 2-4 gigs. So we are looking at 5-8 gigs of information with none of your data. In addition, you may transfer your data (documents, bookmarks, pictures, etc.) from your old PC. As time goes on we load still more programs, save and create documents, add bookmarks, shortcuts, and desktop icons to our computer. It would be easy to have 20-30 gigabytes (7 DVD's) of data and programmes on a business computer. So I ask, “What is your backup plan?” Is it working?
Recommended Strategy
When you purchased your desktop the most lightly configuration is one hard disk connected into the disk controller on the mother board. Most newer desktops come equipped with disk drives of 160 gigabytes (or greater) and a DVD burner that can place 4.7 gigs of data on a DVD.
If you back up a 160 gig drive that is half full, using your DVD burner, it would take 18 DVD's, Yeah, right your are really going to do this weekly! Well some of you are thinking that I can just backup the “My Documents” folder. This is better than nothing but is a flawed strategy for several reasons:
1. No protection for your the investment you made in setting up your computer
2. Does not save bookmarks, links, document templates, desktop icons, shortcuts.
3. Not all of your data is in the “My Documents” folder (such as your QuickBooks data for example)!
Well your in luck! I have an easier method it requires 2 additional disk drives and something called a RAID Card.
Step 1:"Mirror your "boot drive". The diagram below shows 2 disk drives (green) that are “mirrored” i.e. The same data is on both disk drives. This "magic" is accomplished automatically by the RAID controller card. RAID protects against a hardware failure of a single disk drive.
Step 2:Make weekly disk image backup of the mirrored drives. Using the disk drive you originally got with your PC (yellow disk in diagram above) and software provide by the disk manufacturer we will we will make a (at least) weekly backup of your mirrored drives. This protects you against a disk controller error which might impact both mirrored drives as well as some other unplanned for catastrophic event. Most of the disk manufactures provide (or you can download) software that will preform this task easily with several clicks of the mouse. This backup will take about an hour depending on the size of your drives and the data they contain. This drive is a bootable drive! Should something happen to both mirrored disks you can be back running in minutes rather than days!
Ultimate protection To protect against loss of data for the time in between your weekly back ups you can use the backup software included in your windows disk. Set up the program to back up any changed files (incremental) in your PC each day and write them to a CD or DVD. This will take only minutes as on a daily basis not many files will be changed.
Costs
Hardware: $275 - 2 hard disks, 1 “2 channel” controller card (use a name brand controller card! -Hardware costs may vary) Installation:IF you don't want to install this yourself, I will install your hardware, create the mirrored drive, set up the back up drive, load and set up the back up software for a not to exceed cost of $ 175 ($65 / hour).
Your cost to RAID a 160 gig drive will be $275 hardware $175 (or less) labor = total of $450. RAID Is A Cheap Investment!
Is your investment of $450 a good one? The real cost of of a disk failure is the cost of disruption to your business for the length of time it takes to recover your computer and resume normal business activities plus out of pocket costs to recover your data.
The diagram above shows the savings of my RAID solution given several levels of earnings or income.
I have assumed the following:
240 working days in year
Out of pocket recovery cost to hire some one to reload your computer will average $700. (If you had no backup for important data and had to use a data recovery service to get data off of a crashed disk drive the usual cost is $1,200. )
If you earned $40,000 last year and lost 2 days of earnings installing my RAID solution will save you $583 if you have a disk drive failure. You earn more than $40,000? (of course!), then it is even more important to act now! If your business is earning you $80,000 per year and you have a disk drive failure recovery will cost you $1,367. The investment of $450 is a 2 to 1 return!
If you have a 160 gigabyte drive I will install this RAID solution for $450*! (* Pending confirmation of your PC configuration).
Contact me (SanDiegoCIO@gmail.com) to take advantage of this relatively cheap data insurance!
Next post will address a three step plan for your data backup needs (as well as explain the diagram to the left!).
We in San Diego have a reputation for being "laid back surfer types". Most of the time this works well for us. You should be "uptight" about protecting your business data. It is not the time to be causal.
For people who rely on Palm Desktop Software (Palm.exe for Windows) contact, calender, and "to do" software, this message can be a real challenge; "Faulting application palm.exe, version 4.0.1.0, faulting module mfc42.dll, version 6.2.4131.0, fault address 0x00004973. Event ID 1000.
This message may mean that one of your information files (address.dat for example) is corrupt!
If you have a handheld device you can use the data on it and sync your information to your desktop (make sure your make backups of the questionable files on your desktop and the "good" files on your handheld before you resync to be safe).
One of my clients has long stopped using his Palm and just uses the desktop software. I walked into his office and he indicated that his Palm software won't load! I went through the usual problem solving process, including a reboot, asked if anything unusual happened the last time he used the application, then checked the event Log. The application event log was bulleted with red dots, event ID 1000, faulting module mfc42.dll.
To make a long story short I, rebooted the PC it in safe mode the software still would not load. In my mind this ruled out a problem with conflicting software. I then googled mfc42.dll and found that this DLL was active in many software problems. For those so inclined the best definition I found was from IBM, "The Microsoft® mfc42.DLL provides an Application Framework, known as MFC (MS Foundation Classes). This framework provides an object oriented, easier programming interface for Windows. Many applications (like ClearCase) use this dll. " http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?ratlid=cctocbody&rs=984&uid=swg21146638
OK but what did this mean for the Palm application? I found another post that indicated that this error probably meant a corrupt data file.
So the task became how to fix a corrupt file. I looked for file utilities that could fix this problem as the Palm file was in binary and found none. I found both Perl and Java programs that would read the file for other than recovery (conversion, or to populate a HTML page). I looked at these as a worst case solution. I looked at the file in a hex editor to see it anything was apparent, like a mangled header. No luck!
I then went to the Palm Support Forum. Not much luck, however one post suggested to using the "repair tool in Palm Desktop found in the Tools/Options/Tools Tab," I looked at the Palm software on the client machine, no such Tab!
Then the A HA! what about upgrading the Palm application to the latest version and try to use the recovery tool? I had known that the file layouts had not changed for many years. I made backups of the file in question and in another machine loaded the new palm software and tried to access the corrupt file. WOW! The Palm application worked and the address file opened without even running the recovery tool! Victory (3.5 hours later).
The client returned I informed him of his luck (and my skill! lol). I asked him again had anything unusual happened the last time you used the Palm software, any new software on the machine? etc... He said with somewhat of a sheepish look, "I cut and pasted some information from a web page". This explained the corrupt file. The web page probably had some characters that corrupted the data file. The new version of the Palm application had code that looked for this kind of data exception and did not "crash" the application.
Take home messages: 1) back-up changing files on a daily basis 2) when pasting from one application to another use paste as text (or unformatted text) when possible to reduce the potential for introducing 'special characters" that may crash a poorly written application. (You can use notepad to create plain text if your favorite application does not have this feature). 3) Use the latest version of your applications 4) Have "Personal CIO" or a "Computer Concierge" to bail you out!
"Locate and organize all the photos on your computer. Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks. Share your photos with others through email, prints, and it’s fast, easy and free."
" Fast, easy and free" how many times have we heard this only to be disappointed. Picasa is one piece of software that exceeds expectations!
Creating a web album is quick. It can be private (you invite viewers by e-mail) or open.
A friends daughter just had a hard disk failure. she had 1200 pictures of family including all of the baby pictures. The data recovery estimate was $1,200. I have and recommend to scan the "family album" that was created before digital photography. The scanned photos can be saved and distributed in Picasa as well.
Your business is at risk if you don't have a backup strategy. I am working with a client that had 5 years of Quickbooks data and no backup! He was lucky! Will you be as lucky?
The great American writer Norman Mailer Dead at Age 84.
"Mailer's suspicion of technology — "insidious, debilitating and depressing" — was so deep that while most writers used typewriters or computers, he wrote with a pen, some 1,500 words a day." ( AP Obituary By RICHARD PYLE )
Maybe he just needed a CIO (Chief Information Officer) or a "Computer Coach" to smooth the edges of technology!
It was a shock when my anti virus software (I was using CA) detected the Ofinpa.A Virus. I had just clicked on a link that was contained on a Craig's list posting (for a San Diego web developer). I after the CA software cleaned the infection I went to the CA virus encyclopedia (Link: http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/virusinfo/virus.aspx?id=66710 ), and found:
"HTML/Ofinpa.A is a detection of HTML files that have been modified by Win32/Ofinpa.A Infected HTML files contain appended code that attempts to connect to the domain ntkrnlpa.info and download and execute a file. At the time of publication, this link returned an empty file."
The virus was added to the CA definition file on 10/29/2007. It is a new virus.
I have been researching this virus to see when other anti-virus providers will include it their virus detection updates. One has to remember that each software provider may change the given name of the virus slightly. Most maintain a cross reference list.
The take home message is to have current virus definitions that are automatically refreshed frequently.
This is especially important for computers used for business purposes! Need help with computers for your San Diego based business business? Contact me at SanDiegoCIO@gmail.com !
Today is the running of the NYC Marathon. Running a marathon take desire, focus, and training. It takes the ability to overcome injuries. The decision to run 26.2 miles is one not to be taken lightly. No one can run for you, each step must be made as a result of your conscience decision. Important elements of race strategy must be learned, goals must be set, quantified, and plans made to attain them. (FYI ran the Long Beach Marathon in 1988 - time 4:15)
Running your business also takes desire, focus, and training. Running a business requires the successful application of many elements. One of them being the use of technology to acquire, service and retain customers.
Do you have a plan that outlines how you plan address this issue? Do you know who your customers are? Their demographics? How they found you. What is your plan to keep in touch with them? Do you have a specific place where ALL customer information is kept? Do your customers know who you are and what you believe? Do you have a written process that outline what sales processes you take with a new customer, a repeat customer (to retain them) and a process to win back a lost customer?
Today's post will outline one idea to keep in touch with your customers. Use a periodic newsletter e-mailed to your customer no less than on a monthly basis. The newsletter should have useful information related to the goods or service you provide. If should not be overly long in words or in size. There are many free sources you can Google for how to write a good newsletter.
I want to touch on how to create and distribute them via e-mail. The best way is to address each one individually, and insert in the newsletter body specific information about the customer, retrieved from your customer date base. Your address should be from either your "URL" i.e "yourname@yourwebsite.com" or companyname@gmail.com (Where gmail might be yahoo, MSN etc.). This is to help your customer recognize your e-mail and open it rather than delete it without opening. The easiest way to create and address the letter is to use the "Mail Merge" tools contained in your word processor. Both MS Office and Open Office have there capabilities.
More on these topics in latter posts... Time for me to hit the road and give a "therapeutic massage" to an injured computer in Del Mar (San Diego).
All kinds of creatures came to the door for "treats" last night.
This is Isis (Pomeranian). This year I took pictures of several of the "trick or treats" that came to the door. It was great to look at the diversity of the costumes and the creativeness of the children (parents in some cases).
This brings to mind the issue of backing up our digital pictures. If you have a favorite way please post. I have a easy, free, and "foolproof" suggestion. Lets compare notes. More by the weekend.
The Fires in San Diego and the 5.6 magnitude earthquake in The Bay Area should remind us to preform regular back-ups of our disk drives.
I am a big believer of creating a disk image as it is not only the data that you should be concerned with but the operating system and the application programs that are also stored on disk. Consider the time and expense of reloading your computer with windows, your virus scanner, programs, all of your program preferences, your shortcuts, as well as the data. It could take 1-2 days full time to get back to the pre-disk crash status.
Coincidentally my daughter just had a disk crash it took her:
Lost the use of her computer for 2 weeks
Looked for the original recovery disks (4 hours no luck)
Took 4 hours to reload data (at least she had a back up of the data!)
Took 4 trips to the compute store for warranty repair (disk replacement)
Subscribe to this blog as future posts will provide easy to use information on:
What software to use
Back up media
Back-up strategy (RAID, external disk drives, use your second computer etc.)
The Boston World Series sweep of the Rockies, and the obligatory parade, is painful for a Padre fan who saw the Rockies advance to the post season at the expense of the Padres. As a Yankee fan I see the domination of the American League by the Yankees is over and the 28 World series win may be a long time in coming.
Could the Padres achieve a would series appearance and not get sweeped in 4 games? Could we sign A-Rod, 2 other big bats, use our "wavier wire skills" to build the rest of the team? Oh well I can dream!
The Web and Your Business
For the entrepreneur baseball is a good example for what a web site can do for a business. http://www.mlb.com/ has most content available for free yet the revenue stream it generated for MLB is getting significant. The revenue stream includes Internet TV and radio coverage of the games, classic games, MLB paraphernalia, and tickets for any team any game. It is one of the most comprehensive example of a web site complementing and enhancing a customer experience. Can you use this as an example for your business?
In contrast look at the San Diego tribune today. This is an example of a business going the wrong way! The paper as a whole is publishing less average pages per day, the sports section is thinner than Paris Hilton! There was no story about the Rockies side of the series. The Football coverage remains strong at the expense of local sports coverage. The web site is a mass of advertising and does not seem to enhance the daily newspaper content.
In the future I will develop these thoughts into more actionable content.
Does your XP windows PC take a long time to shut down after logging off? Do you have event number 1517 in your event viewer (application)?
"Windows saved user ComputerName\UserName registry while an application or service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used by the user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when it is no longer in use. This is caused by services running as a user account, try configuring the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account. "
Although there may be many causes of long log off and shut down time if you get the 1517 error a good bet is to try is a fix offered by Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837115
I just installed it on my XP machine. Check back and I will report what impact this fix has.
Well, it has been sad and tense week for may folks in San Diego. I had to take some time to get some work done as well as gain some emotional distance from all of the tragedy.
In summary here are resources for fire news:
BEST and OFFICIAL FIRE NEWS : http://fire.ca.gov/ - This site has the status of each fire.
The mandatory evacuation for portions of the community of Olivenhain in the City of Encinitas has been lifted as of 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 23, 2007. The mandatory evacuation was issued the evening of October 22nd for the area east of Rancho Santa Fe Road and north of El Camino del Norte in the city limits. No other evacuation orders for Encinitas residents were established. The lifting of the mandatory evacuation order will allow residents to return to their homes.
There appears to be no immediate wild fire threat within the city limits at this time, but Encinitas Fire personnel continue to monitor the situation and the Encinitas EOC will remain open throughout the evening.
The temporary shelter at the Encinitas Senior and Community Center at 1140 Oakcrest Park Drive will remain open until evacuees have left the site.
Information on other fires in San Diego County and other fire related information are posted on the San Diego County Emergency Homepage at: www.sdcountyemergency.com.
This is as of 0530. The fire has reached Thomas Maps grid 1168 (4.25 miles South of my location). More light and less smoke today due to the slight westerly wind from the ocean. This will end tonight and the forcast is that tomorrow will be the most smokey day yet.
FYI: ENCINITAS MANDATORY EVACUATIONS The Encinitas Fire Department has ordered the mandatory evacuation of the area east of Rancho Santa Fe Road and north of El Camino del Norte. Evacuees can go to the Encinitas Senior and Community Center at 1140 Oak Crest Park Drive. (From http://www.cbs8.com/ )
I made a presentation to a business group last Tuesday. I had 1 slide devoted to Business continuation and disaster recovery. Little did I know how much we dealing with these issues this week!.
If you are evacuating and have NO OFF SITE BACKUPS!
Take your laptop.
If you have room take your desktop (don't bother with the monitor printers etc.)
If you are short of space and have the skill take out you hard drive(s).
Absolute minimum is to save your Address book (burn a dvd or cd)
Saturday: "S" is frustrated by his computer having the following intermittent problems:
No boot to post
Sound card not working
Connection to the Internet
This is a P4 1.6 hz PC 4 years old and running XP. The history of the PC is that "S" is very interested in trying new software by downloading if from some pretty questionable sites. In addition not all of his software would pass a review from the Software Publishers Association (LOL).
The plan:
Re-seat all cards and memory
Check the clock battery
Use task manager and autorun to see what processes and programs are running (eliminate those not required or are "problem" processes"
Virus and malware scan
Make sure MS fixes are current
Defrag drive
Check bios are current
Check voltage on power supply
All of the above will take 1-2 hours with no guarantee of a fix.
"S" preferred plan is get a new computer. What do you think is best?
What was the solution?
We went to the computer super store (the name starts with a "F"). We found a HP with 1 meg of memory and 320 gig drive for $299. We added another gig of memory- problem solved.
I am San Diego based and provide technology services, home or business, including hardware repair, software selection and installation, technology planning for your business, e-commerce, and "e-based" marketing campaigns.
The mission of blob blog blog etc. is to connect technology with actionable ideas for the entrepreneur. The scope ranges from PC tips to “Techo-Strategy”
In addition "liberties" will be taken for topics of interest to me and I trust to you.
For the scoop on the Craigslist (owned by eBay!) versus Listpic war there is an interesting article from Wired.
The diagram above shows the savings of my RAID solution given several levels of earnings or income.
