The Computer Guy

Another chapter has started.

I will tell the younger ones about a lesson of life that is a hard one to swallow at this stage of the game. It is called "The Almighty Piece of Paper".

Granted, I am not, and probably will never be, The Almighty Computer Guru, piece of paper or not. And to be honest with you, that is fine by me. All I want to do is help others who are not as technogically savy as I might be. But, I cannot do this without the almighty paper. You see, I never knew what I wanted to do after high school. I was happy I passed and that was about it. My family couldn't afford college so it was off to work I went. If I wanted to go to school, it was on me.

I got a job and believe it or not, I did try to go back to school. But it was hard. I now had bills to pay so I had to work full time and go to school. I praise the people who can do it becuase I was not one of them. It was especially hard becuase I had no idea what I wanted to do. As time went by, as you might have guessed I dropped out. I found a decent job that didn't require a piece of paper and I was good at it (Still am).

More to come later.

Most of you know that I recommend AVG for your anti-virus protection. Well, they are now expiring the AVG 7.5 for the new and improved (although a little beefed up both in what it can do as well as taking ram) 8.0. Then advertisement is making you believe that you need to purchase the 8.0 but they are still offering a free version -

You can check it out here:AVG Download Information

What you may notice, is this time around, they are offering a more compelling reason to purchase the full version. It is no longer just tech support, server and multi liguel support that they are offering for paying customers. Somethings are a little more worth while.

You can download AVG Free version 8.0 from download.com here: AVG 8.0 DOWNLOAD

It is a larger download (45mb) so if you are on dsl or dialup, you may not be able to download it. For all that are having problems, please let me know and I will get you a copy. Just give me a call or send me an email.

The question I usually get the most is, "Which computer should I buy?"

When I used to sell computers, I only offered what we had in the store of course. Which was sometimes a challenge especially when computers turned around every 11-13 weeks. What I mean about that is, week 1 it came in brand new and 11-13 weeks later, it is closed out under $500 with all the bells in whistles. This is why I answer people when they ask, "When is a good time to purchase a computer", I respond with "When you have the money." I am not trying to be smart, it is the plain truth. Because no matter when you buy, there will always be a high, mid and low end models.

I used to break down the categories of computers between low, mid and high end. What seperated them was mostly cost, which justified, speed, size, etc. of a computer system. The higher end models would last the longest in your home. A typical computer in an average house (with a family) is about 4 years or so. This is when the average user decides that they need another computer, or simply a faster computer. If your computer makes it to 7 years old, you may want to start thinking about replacing it. Things start to go bad about there.

In either case, now-a-days, I usually point people to dell. Why? Well one is becuase of the warranty. The typical warranty through Dell is 1 year in-home serivce. Through a store, you would get a 90 days labor, 1 year parts and you need to bring it to the store. Then you need to wait 2 weeks and there is a good chance that if your hard drive is wiped clean and you lost everything unless you backed it up before giving it to the store. If you want to pay an extra $300 or so, then you can get in-home serivce.

I also like Dell becuase of the options. You can (to a certain degree) build your computer for you. You don't have to purchase a computer, then all the upgrades to get what you want. This is more costly and wastes more time than anything.

Lastly is becuase of the environment. No hassle. You go online, build and go. If you have questions, you can call, email or chat live with a sales person - but still with no hassle of purchase. In the store, you are prey....especially if you don't know much about computers.

Some people may be curious to know more about me. How did I get into computers, what kind of equipment I have, etc. So here it is in a nut shell.

I started back in windows 95, at least that was the first computer I played around with and that wasn't mine either. It was my brothers so you can image how little time I got to spend on it. It wasn't until 1997 (I believe) that I really got into computers. This isn't becuase I wanted to either but because I had to as it was now my job. I used to work for the big blue box with the yellow tag and I worked in every department and I was successful at what I did. I was usually the highest seller so the next logical step was to go into the largest department and become the supervisor. The only bad thing was I didn't know computers.

Now, the reason I did so well at my sales is becuase I took the time to learn the product and understand the technology. So, I had to do the same again with computers. I spent many an hour, talking the rep's, behind the tech bench and started reading computer magazines so I could make head and tails out of these machines. It was long before I could easily break down a computer for anyone (and I mean anyone) so that everyone felt like they knew what they were getting before they purchased their machine. I finnally quite the store when ethics were an issue. I could not tell a person to buy something that I would never buy myself, nor would I teach someone to do it. So I left and went to work selling printing to the business world. I was the only sales person who could operate a computer, do my own artwork and correct files before I left a customers office.

I found a need to start something so it started with Biggebang.com. A website/ print design to small business that needed quality, but cheaply done items. It was the first start to "The Computer Guy". I enjoyed creating artwork and desiging websites for small business. I did it mostly for fun. Now, you maybe asking - what is up with the name? BiggeBang.com? Well, that was a simple concept of the big bang theory. I wanted to unleash the big bang with the e commerse of the internet. I had all the graphics, I had the programs, I had everything....except experience.....and customers.

Well, the company I was working for decided that I was the only hope for them and I decided I was not the guy for the job. I left and that is when I started working for a local Community Education and Recreation Department as just a lifeguard, water safety instructor and swim coach. It later turned out, that a position was created for an aquatic coordinator which I gladly took. So at first, I was hired to deal with swim lesson and swim team. Well, I wanted to do more. So I started creating computer classes to offer to the public. This was about 2001, 2002, somewhere in there. As I started teaching, I was also still learning. Reading, playing, fixing. As I was teaching, people started asking me if I could take a look at their systems and tweak/ fix there computers. BiggeBang now had customers.

At the time, I thought, "What the hell?" so I started fixing them.

It didn't really form until 2006 when I decided to go legit and start up the sole proprieter and named the company - The Computer Guy. I felt the biggebang name was something that sounded more like a porn site than a computer company. Besides, everytime I went to a customer's house, I would introduce myself as The Computer Guy. When I was at people's houses, they would refer others to me as the computer guy, so I figured, what better name then "The Computer Guy". So that is how I actually got started. Keep in mind, I have no prior education in computers, all I do have is a lot of reading, and alot of experience. I am not an IT guy for 3 banks, 1 law firm plus over 1,000 computer clients from all over the milwaukee county. It still keeps growing with word of mouth referals. And that is the only way I would have it.

More to come later, about my stuff and some of the earlier designs that I have created for others.

Nine times out of ten, when I get a computer call, I already know what I have to do to fix their problem. How do I know before they tell me the problem? Becuase people keep missing the basics of computers. Keep them safe and clean.

It is not a difficult thing to do, but it is one that has to be done. You will need to figure out what to do to make that happen and hopefully I can help. The first thing we need to figure out is what type of person are you? Will you remember to do certain tasks each week or do you need someone/ something to do it for you? Do you want it for free or do you mind paying for it? These are important questions that need to be answered because it will point us in the right direction.

Now, not only do you need a virus protection program, but you also need a anti-spyware program. This is what most people don't know about and don't have protected on their computer.

If you can remember to do certain tasks on a weekly basis and would like to save a couple of bucks, you can go the freebie route. One of the biggest reasons why it is free, is becuase you will need to remember to run the programs and update them yourself. This can be done, but once again, you need to remember. If you forget, you might get infected. Some free programs for anti-virus solution:

1) AVG - Grisoft (download.com's #1 most downloaded program at this time). This program is a basic virus protection that does a very good job at identify all virus's including trojan's. This program will update daily (by itself), and will run daily scans (by itself). There is no downfall with this product.

2) AVAST! - (also on downlaod.com websites currently ranked #5). This program is yet another great program that is free of charge. Has 6 scanners running constintly to protect your computer against viruses. This program does require registration, but you will not get any unsolicted emails from the company. You will receive your license key via email and away you go. This program will update daily (by itself), and will run daily scans (by itself). There is no downfall with this product.

Since I have been working on computers (for the past 8 years or so, I have recommended these two anti virus protections to just about everyone, and usually, once they start using it, they never have another virus on their computer!

Next up - Anti Virus solutions that you can purchase that will run, update and protect your computer.

Welcome -

Everyone has a blog these days so I thought I would start one up as well so welcome to the first addition of The Computer Guy's Blog!