I’m Earle and I’m the owner/webmaster here. I’m also the network admin at Grand Itasca Clinic & Hospital in Grand Rapids, MN. Also, if someone bribes me really nicely, I have been known to do a little moonlighting.
Before working at Grand Itasca I was the Network Technician for Computer Enterprises. Prior to that I taught PC’s at Brown Institute in Mendota Hts, MN. I’ve been playing with computers in various forms since the mid 1970’s.
Many things are easier and quicker when done with the aid of a PC. One of my goals for this website is to help you learn to use a PC more efficiently. At the end of the day, if your PC has not helped you do a faster and more efficient job, then you are either not using the PC correctly, you may have the wrong PC, or you may have the wrong software.
I tell all my students, whether in the classroom or at work, that a PC is just a box of rocks. The PC is made out of plastics and minerals that ultimately came out of the ground somewhere. The PC, BY ITSELF, can do NOTHING! This is often the hardest concept to grasp. PC’s are nothing without power and programming and input and output.
Power: Plug it in, turn it on. It won’t do any good holding down the desk in the corner, buried under stuff. To be useful, a PC must have power applied. You might be very surprised how many times power is the problem, I get one or two calls a week at the Hospital that end up with me plugging the PC back in.
Programming: I hate to say it, but many people regard anyone that can turn on a PC as a mysterious, god-like being. I’m here to tell you that it just ain’t so. As a technician (and admin) I try to fix things that are broke. Programmers actually make the programs. Good programs shouldn’t break (often). However, programs are so complex, and the people that use them are so complex, and the many, many different types of hardware that the program must run on are so differing, that it is extremely difficult to write a program without errors. So difficult that it may be impossible. They are so complex that it is a wonder that they work at all.
Good programs should be easy to use. Life would be easier if Accounting packages were written by accountants, and Word Processors were written by Secretaries, but that seldom happens. When you can find a piece of software written by a programmer who is also a professional in the field then you have a true diamond, because it may actually do what you want it to do in ways that you expect it to.
Input: If the PC is not fed good data then you can’t expect good results. It used to be called GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. This is where you come in. If you type an “f” then you can’t expect a “d” to come out. Make sure the info you give the PC is clean and correct: the PC can’t tell the difference between good and bad data.
Output: If the PC says that 1+1=2 then it is so if the programming is good and the input is good. Don’t expect good output if you don’t give it good input and if the software and hardware may be broken. This is where I usually come in: someone thinks they have given the PC good input but the output is unexpected. I need to decide if the hardware, the programming, or the input is at fault. Folks, I hate to say this, but 9 out of 10 times the input is the problem.
PC Tips & Tricks
Some tricks and tips that I’d like to pass along
First and foremost, buy a good Anti-Virus program and keep it enabled and up to date. One virus can destroy many days work in seconds and can also make you liable for damages if your pc was used to pass viruses along. There are several good Anti Virus programs on the market, ranging from the free version of AVG to the various paid programs such as McAfee, Panda, and Trend. Most AV software runs about $50 for the software and about $30 for the annual update package, both together are far cheaper then the minimum $100 a shop will charge to remove a virus.
Second thing to get is some spyware tools. Ya gotta be careful here, there is some spyware that is marketed as being a removal tool but it just installs more. The two that I like to use are Spybot and Ad-Aware. I like to use them both; install one, update it, let it clean up what it can, then uninstall it, install the other, let it clean up what it can, uninstall. Most antivirus packages now include some anti-spyware tools but I am not familiar with them.
Third is to get a firewall. This is a bit harder to do. Comodo is a free firewall that has won more than it’s share of awards and commendations. ZoneAlarm has been around for many years. Many AV packages now have Firewall protection built-in or as an add-on. Firewalls take a LOT of configuration to get them to work efficiently. After it is installed and enabled, expect to spend days getting the config correct. It will continually be popping up windows asking you if this or that is allowed. If you read the message carefully and respond appropriately you will end up with a solid configuration. If you get frustrated and turn the firewall off you will have nothing.
For those who like to dig into the dark recesses of the OS I strongly recommend that you visit a few sites. I can highly recommend Steve Gibson. He has been around for a while and knows his stuff.
Mark Minasi is a echie who is also a very good author and lecturer. I have attended his seminars and they are well worth the money (I don’t say that lightly!) and time, and his books are usually among the most up-to-date and complete references available. His books are available thru Amazon.com and his webpage is at Minasi.com. If you subscribe to his newsletter you WILL NOT be wasting bandwidth.
Another good site to visit was Sysinternals. They were purchased by Microsoft in July 2006 and now Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell work for Microsoft. They still maintain and update their utilities and have gotten better than ever before. You can link to their TechNet site either thru the previous link or here.
Of course, who better to explain the inner workings of Windows than the authors themselves? www.microsoft.com has a great deal of useful info, but you must dig hard to find it. The Knowledge base is located at Support.microsoft.com and the MSDN Technet site has an overload of info MSDN.microsoft.com.