It's a Dangerous World Out There

This is Randy Lawson, your intrepid and tenacious technology investigator, coming back at you this month with some more case studies. Summer is quickly approaching, and I realize that I still have some spring cleaning to do. With how important technology has come to our daily lives, that annual ritual of backbreaking labor is no longer relegated to making sure the rain gutters are cleaned out and all the smoke alarm batteries are operational. Today, that means being certain that your home and business computers run at peak efficiency without any burdensome slowdowns. Giving your computing systems a good spring cleaning means getting everything orderly and running like a ship ready to sail the data seas. Needless to say, when I first started out, I had no clue how much better everything ran with just a little tweaking here and a little cleanup there. Like you, I have come to depend on my computer for many different tasks in my life. Like you, I need someone dependable to help me get everything ship shape. That’s why I let the crew at Joplin’s Technology Center take care of my spring cleaning needs. They have taught me some of the simple things I can do on my own: uninstalling apps that I don’t use; creating a more organized file structure, cleaning up the task bar, and blowing the dust and cobwebs out of my desktop. Over the last year, I have noticed a large shift of people starting to work from home. Their commute is from the bathroom to the dining room table or home office. What if something happens to their laptop? What if something freezes up? Since they’re working from home, they no longer have the luxury of calling Lindsey down in the IT department to come see why the screen is all fuzzy and not working smoothly. Some people are more like me and have a small business with no access to an IT department. That is when I pick up the phone and call Matt, Brent, Amy, and Justin down at the Technology Center. They can help me with any problem that I have remotely. Other options are that I can bring my computer to them, or they can come to my computer. I keep my car in good working order. Get it serviced, the oil changed, the tires rotated. I depend on my car to get me from place to place, to take me to the cases I investigate. It needs to be operating at peak performance in order for me to get the most out of it. Now that computers are such an integral part of our modern life, why wouldn’t I want it to be performing at its best? There are helpful suggestions that you can find online. Your child studying computer sciences may even be able to help you. But the folks at the Technology Center come highly recommended. Check out this review from Bob Barth: “Just a big shoutout to Matthew and his staff for superior customer service provided to me when my hard drive crashed. In a couple of hours, I was back up and running!” Now that is a recommendation if I’ve ever heard one. Matt and crew know their stuff.

This is Randy Lawson, your intrepid and tenacious technology investigator, coming back at you this month with some more case studies. Nearly everyone I know has lost their keys at one time or another. We all know how frustrating that can be. Seriously, think about it. It's a cold rainy day, and your arms are loaded down with groceries, but when you reach into your pocket carefully to get your keys to unlock the house door, you can't find them. When you wake up in the morning, you're running a little late, you're rushing out the door, you get to the car…no keys. Now, you're going to be even later. Those are just some of the frustrations that can occur because you lost your keys. Now, imagine that you're at work. You have a big project that you're trying to get finished. You have been typing and typing away. Everything looks good. You slide the cursor over to the save icon, and with all the confidence in the world, click that left button on the mouse to secure hours’ worth of work. But then all of a sudden, the screen fizzes out, and everything goes black. Let's go back to our first two examples. What if when you got back to the house with your arms loaded down with groceries and couldn't find your keys but someone was there to open the door and let you in? Frustration averted. Or when you are rushing to work you left the house without your keys but you had a backup key in your wallet? Frustration averted. Personally, I know I have had that experience of losing important documents and data and case histories that I had stored on the computer. When it happened, I just wanted to wring my hands and pull my hair out. Some of those times, I almost broke down and wept. In my experiences as a technology investigator over the years, I have realized that I do not have to experience those frustrations and those torments if I just back everything up. If you have any questions about backing up your computer files, data, and important pictures or videos, the crew here at the Technology Center can help find backup a service that fits your needs. Matt, Brett, Amy, and Justin know their stuff. So, instead of worrying about the possibility of losing important material on your computer, get with the crew and they can help you find a backup option that fits your budget needs. When I first started looking into backing up my data, I had some learning to do. So, what I did was called Matt at the Technology Center. I explained to him what I was using, and what I was looking for. He pointed me in the direction of something that was simple and easy to use. He suggested that I use a service called Carbonite. Being the science fiction fan that I am, my first thought was of a famous movie where someone was captured and frozen in carbonite. That turned out not to be the case in this issue. Carbonite is a backup service. For under $75 a year I am able to have automatic computer backups that store my data, including videos and pictures on the cloud. I am able to get remote file access and have external hard drive backup. In addition to the backup services that they provide, they also have antivirus services through Webroot. So, if you have a big project that you cannot afford to lose, then my suggestion is to contact Matt and crew at the Technology Center so they can help you find the service or programs that fit your needs and your budget. Whether it is family photos or extensive inventory data for your small business, the Technology Center is able to fill your backup needs.

Do you need a technology investigator to help you find a good IT checklist, computer desktop, and/or learning the new technologies available in today's monitors. Click or call us today at 417-238-1195.

The inspiration behind our hacker’s story has been leaked over the last couple of years. The goal of our young hacker was to develop a virus, but not just any virus. He wanted to establish himself as a unique one of a kind hacker. He called his modern day code extrapolation “Franken Virus’! 

Dorms, books, and food alone will cost parents thousands of dollars per semester. Finding places to cut costs can be difficult, but one major expense can be avoided. Laptop computers are very quickly becoming a necessity for any student, and they are costly. Finding a cheap laptop that will get the job done can save a great deal of money. Many have found the answer in Refurbished Laptops or Low Cost Chromebooks. One of these type laptops is one that has been returned to the manufacturer and has been restored to a "like new" state. Although the computer is not damaged, it can't be sold as new so the price is slashed heavily. A $2000.00 laptop might be sold as a refurbished item for $900.00 and be no different that it's new counterparts, like Chromebooks. This means that for less than half the cost or in the case of a Chromebook a third of the cost. A powerful refurbished laptop can be purchased, and in many cases be placed under warranty in the same way a new laptop would. Almost every major computer manufacturer offers refurbished laptops including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. In the case of Chromebooks they automatically come with a great warranty.

This presentation contains images that were used under a Creative Commons License. Click here to see the full list of images and attributions: https://link.attribute.to/cc/1022706

Do I need a New Computer? This is a great question to ask yourself. When do you need to purchase a new computer, right? You are hit from every direction from the big box stores about how technology has changed. Thus, how you are falling behind, if your computer is more than five years old. You think to yourself, has technology changed that much? The answer is yes, and no. Computer manufacturers will continue to push you toward their biggest and baddest new computer technology. Look, driving new PC sales is their goal. The question is, do you need the newest computer, right? Well, are you a cutting-edge consumer? Does your personality demand you have the best cutting-edge tech? If the answer to that question is NO! Then, perhaps new is not necessary. If you are accomplishing the tasks you desire with your current tech, perhaps all you need is a PC tune-up. Afterall, if a tuned-up computer provides all you need to accomplish your top computing task at a higher rate of speed, then a tune-up would put you at the top of your game, right?

Children are our greatest responsibility as parents. Today’s children spend a lot of time online, leaving them vulnerable to a quandary of attacks and temptations. What is a parent to do? Facts show, if you do nothing to protect your children 1 in 5 of those between the ages of 10 and 17 will be sexually solicited while online. Concerning, isn’t it? The big problem? You cannot watch your children all the time. It is for this reason, parents look for ways to filter Internet content. Hoping they can protect those they love. We all know now the internet is a vast depository of information; in fact, whatever information you need to know you can find via the internet. Unfortunately, some information, content, and knowledge really is harmful to our children. So, this is why we recommend parental control software to protect our children from this vast array of evil. This allows you to grab a little peace of mind knowing your family is protected from unwanted content. Do not try to police it alone, use a filtering service. The best part is you can set how stringent or how lax the parental control software is you use.