Catch Up

I am a bit behind with my blog postings.  First, I am a grandfather as of 7/30/10.  Second, I have not done a radio show in a LONG time.  I will TRY to do one soon, perhaps a holiday show.

I changed my landline phone service to Vonage from Verizon.  It really annoyed me that I had to pay $ 50.00 a month to Verizon when only about $ 6.10 of that was actual phone calls.  Insider wire maintenance, fees, taxes, and $ 10.00/month for CALLER ID.  AND all of this WITHOUT a long distance carrier.

I had enough so I ordered the vonage adapter and did a couple of days worth of testing.  After I was satisfied with the testing, I convinced the wife to agree to the change.  After obtaining her agreement I started the number "port" process that switches my current house phone number from Verizon to Vonage.  The port was completed as scheduled and I now have vonage as my carrier.  I effectively cut my landline phone bill in half.  I use the 17.95 vonage plan with 500 minutes of outbound calling.  With fees and taxes it comes up to about $ 25.00 which is STILL less than Verizon's $ 50.00.  AND I have a TON of features for FREE.  So far I am a HAPPY camper.  Now if I could only do that with cable.
Check vonage out at http://www.vonage.com/

I am doing a few holiday specials this month.  Like a $ 5.00 "health check" for your PC.  And "routine maintenance" for $ 25.00.  All of this can be done remotely as long as you have a high speed (broadband) connection. 

Congratulations to SpaceX for a fanstastic Falcon 9/Dragon mission.  It was great to see it succeed with clockwork precision.  Keep it up!!

Call me at 732-568-4943 for more information on how I can help you with your PC and internet questions.

Happy Holidays.

Dave

Quick Note

Hi!  Time flies by and it's now September 10.  I can't believe the summer is over.  Yuch!! Cold weather will soon be on us and I will be dreaming of living in Fort Myers, Florida.

Anyway, my internet radio show is underway.  I've done two shows, not counting a test show I did in the beginning.  It seems to be working out well.  Anyone can do it and I can help you set up your own show.  Just write me or give me a call.  My page for my radio show is: 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dave_p

All is well, my network and machines are working great.  I'll write more later.  Have a good September.

Dave

Internet Radio Show

I will soon be starting an Internet Radio Show at Blogtalk Radio.  I will provide more information soon.

Hot enough this summer?

Enjoying the incredible heat this summer?  Here in the east, it's been over 100 degrees more often than not.  Or so it seems.

Google Voice

Try Google voice.  It allows you to get a phone number, and direct a number of phones (home, cell, work, and more) ring.  It heads off the voicemail systems of those phones and provides one common voice mailbox.  And, IT'S FREE!!.  You can get transcribed voicemail messages sent to your email.  And A LOT more.  I am not even scratching the surface.  I am configuring it to replace my onebox account.  Onebox charges me $ 12.00/month for a business phone and mailbox.  I find that I am missing calls with onebox.  But with Google voice, I can have calls sent directly to my "business" cellfone.

I'll write more soon.  It's been a long hot summer so far.  Hope you are enjoying it.

Smartphone and More

Smartphone

My HTC Touch Pro 2 is working well.  No big surprises.  Some nice features.  Syncs well with both Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows XP Home

Summer Inspection

I am offering a reduced rate Summer Inspection for your PC.  I can do it on site for $ 25.00 or remote for $ 15.00.  It is an assessment of your PC's current capabilities, network safety, and recommendations for improvement or replacement.  Call me at 732-568-4943 and leave a message to arrange a Summer Inspection.

Peace,

Dave
http://www.davepickel.com/

New Smart Phone

I bought a new HTC Touch Pro 2 from Sprint a few days ago. I now have it sync'd up with my Outlook Calendar, have my email id's configured. It has a few bumps and grinds but overall I am pleased with it so far.

It's an adjustment from my Sanyo Katana DLX. The Katana is a small flip-phone whereas the Touch Pro 2 is a smart phone providing blackberry like functionality. It has Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system which has some iPhone like components.

Weather here in Central NJ has been great the last two days.  Bright sun, perhaps a bit chilly but pleasant.

Peace,

Dave

Your First Tip

You may have heard about an email program that is included with Windows XP called Outlook Express. In Vista, it is called Windows Mail. In Windows 7 it is called Windows Live Mail. They all do generally the same function but each has subtle and some not so subtle differences.

So don't look for Outlook Express in Windows Vista or Windows 7. You will spend a lot of time and not find Outlook Express.

Also, you can choose to use a "web mail client" such as yahoo mail, or hotmail, or similar.

Have a great day and enjoy the weather.

Dave

For Franklin in Technology Spring 2010 Alumni

Hello folks. I enjoyed my time assisting our instructor, Barbara. And you all were great students. I appreciate the opportunity to be of help to you all.

Should you want individualized instruction, please feel free to call me and leave a message at 888-282-4449. We can cover more skills in depth, and take a look at those social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. My rates are reasonable, and as always, seniors are welcome. Please note that my personalized instruction is independent of the Franklin in Technology group.

Again, thanks for a great Spring 2010. I look forward to helping you discover more about your PC. In the meantime, feel free to check this blog site often for more updates and tips. And you can also contact me with the yahoo email id we used during class.

Sincerely,

Dave

So What's New?

My sister in law wanted her HP all in one installed on the laptop I sent her. She lives on the west coast. Bottom line I was able to load drivers and have her" plug the USB cable into the laptop and we were successful in getting the printer installed on the laptop. Remote control really works well.

Other than that, all is pretty good. I am assist-teaching some computer courses given by the Franklin In Technology group, a part of the parks and recreation department of Franklin Twp, Somerset County, NJ. I have some more clients to assist, and potentially more to come. So right now, things are looking up.

Oh, I did install a Windows Home Server for a local business client here. The installation went pretty well. It's worth looking into (as I said previously) for small businesses and home networks. Well worth it.

Peace,

Dave

Laptop Re-born

So since I got my new laptop, I spoke with my wife and we decided to send the old laptop out to her sister on the west coast. And, of course, I decided to format the drive and reload the o/s since we have the original reinstall discs from Dell.

This started about a 4 day saga involving about 5 hours of phone calls with Dell (side note, any dells purchased prior to 2004 have lifetime free tech support, so don't recycle yours just yet). Well, today after 12 hours of being shut down, the old laptop decides to finish the install. And after an almost full day of research & using their drivers cd, I have the machine 99% functional.

Anyway, it's almost ready to ship.

Peace,

Dave

http://www.davepickel.com
http://www.seniorspchelp.com/

Adjusting to Win7

It's really all good. So far I am not experiencing many issues. Boots fast, works fine, lasts a long time.

Just thought I'd write real quick. It is getting late here on the east coast and I have to visit a client tomorrow.

I did some preliminary checking tonight on some coins I have. The result are amazing. If I am correct in looking these up on eBay, I have over $ 5000.00 in collectible coins. NICE!!

Anyway, all for now. I am going to watch some TV.

Peace,

Dave


http://www.davepickel.com/
http://www.seniorspchelp.com

Small Business Solution-Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server Solution

Microsoft apparently now agrees with me. They are advocating use of Windows Home Server for businesses and offices of 10 PC's or under. See Microsoft's website at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/soho/default.mspx

I am working on putting together a "platform" of software and services using WHS for Small Offices/Home Offices that fit the 10 pc or less criteria. Stay Tuned.

Peace,

Dave

http://www.davepickel.com/

The New Year

Windows 7

I got a new laptop with Windows 7 on it. I like it. I am recommending it to my clients. It is not too different from Vista so Vista users won't be totally lost. XP users will have a steeper learning curve but will still benefit from upgrading to 7. I recommend if your pc can handle the upgrade, then proceed. If not and you are ready to upgrade your hardware, buy a new pc with Windows 7 already installed.

Remote Control Programs

Why do you need to know about them if you don't do desktop pc support? We all have friends and relatives who are constantly asking us to fix pc problems. With remote control programs we can fixe many of these problems without going to their homes or offices. This saves a LOT of travel time and money, especially if we aren't getting paid for our services.

I use a program called logmein (that's log me in) for more permanent remote control that may require me accessing pc's without the owners being present. All of my clients have agreed to allow me access to their pc's when they are not present. I can do repairs, training, and routine maintenance.

For situations where the client may want a less permanent program, I use either crossloop, or Fog Creek Software's copilot program. Crossloop is part of a pc help site that connects pc technicians to users in need of help. The crossloop remote control (screen sharing) software will work without having to create a login id on crossloop. Fog Creek Copilot software is free to use on weekends. And, you can get a $ 5.00 day pass during the week.

All of these programs work very well.

Peace,

Dave

http://www.davepickel.com