As a former unhappy employee of Geek Squad I wanted to provide a list of reasons why you shouldn’t bring your computer to them for any kind of service.

1. Most of the employees that are hired do not know that much about computer repair. Geeks Squad’s philosophy on fixing a computer was to tell the customer they needed to wipe it clean and reinstall windows. Countless times this was how computers were fixed behind the bench at the place where I worked. I even had one co-worker asked me how to unplug the hard drive.

2. Geek Squad overcharges for jobs that anyone with a little bit of technical know-how could accomplish. Would you have someone come over to boil some water for you? Or have them vacuum your carpet and then pay them? Well it may seem silly but that’s the equivalent of having Geek Squad install software for you. And they charge a fee from $20 - $50 depending on the software ( I haven’t worked there in a few years so the price may be different).

3. The “technicians” are more like salesman. Everyone behind the counter is told to push certain products with every service they ring up. I will agree with them that you need anti virus and anti spyware, but you don’t need to pay for the software they sell because you can get really good software for free online.

4. If one of the Geek Squad technicians messes up, they will just wipe your computer and blame it on a virus. There were times that some of the workers ran software that wasn’t part of the approved list of software and ruined people’s computers. Then when the customer asked what the status of the repair was, the worker would tell them they had a virus and needed their PC to be wiped clean and have the OS reinstalled.

5. All your personal pictures were taken off the PC for personal use. A lot of Geek Squad work station are behind the counter where customers can’t watch the technicians work on the computers. Most of the time the first thing the technician would do is search for personal pictures of the person who owned the computer. If any pictures were found they would be downloaded onto a thumb drive and taken home at the end of the day.

Here are 2 links that contain confessions from a Geek Squad and Firedog technician. Confessions of a Firedog employee, Geek Squad confession.

I hope this has shown you that Geek Squad should be your last resort for PC repair. Next time you need some computer work done, ask around your workplace to see if someone can help you out. Even your companies IT department would be a better place to ask questions.

As a follow up to my previous Thunderbird post, I wanted to explain how to add multiple outbound SMTP accounts so all of your emails will use the proper server to send your message, just as it would if you were to send the message from the email website itself.

Open your Thunderbird email client and select Tools -> Account Settings. Your screen should look similar to the one on the left. Scroll all the way down on the left hand side of the window until you see Outgoing Server (circled in red) and click on it. In the space on the right you will see any SMTP accounts you have set up previously.

As I stated in my previous post, Thunderbird can handle many different accounts as long as they support POP3 or IMAP email protocols. I myself have 4 of my email accounts set up to be read through Thunderbird so all I do is start it up and 4 separate email accounts are checked at once.

After you’ve gotten to this scree you are going to click Add and another window will pop up with text areas for you to fill out with your email servers information. I posted a few links for certain email clients in my previous post so if you can’t find it, just go back to my previous post and look up the information. I listed the 3 main email services that allow POP3 and IMAP email reading, but there are some email services that do not support it yet.

Once you click Add you will be presented with the following screen. The Description field is there for you to give the account a name, so if you’re setting up your AOL account, you might want to put AOL email in that box. You can put any description that you want to associate with this specific SMTP server.

The server name is where you are going to put the SMTP server name, which for most email severs is smtp.domainname.com. For example, AOL’s SMTP is smtp.aol.com.

The port should be set to what your email server uses for outbound emails. This can be found on the email information pages that I linked to in my previous post.

Your username for most email servers is going to be your full email address, not just your username.

The secure connection is only used by some email services so you’ll want to check the help pages to see which one you want to use. AOL and Gmail use the TLS, if available option.

Once you’re done entering your information hit OK. The original Account Settings window will still be open, so click on any of the email accounts you have and on the right side you’ll see a selection box for Outbound servers. Click the dropdown box and select the correct one for each email.

And that’s it, you’ve set up the outbound SMTP server for your email.

If you’re not using Thunderbird for your email client, you should be. Thunderbird is created by the same development team that makes Firefox. I’m going to show you how to set up Thunderbird to read emails from any of your email accounts such as AOL, Gmail, and any other email service that allows POP3 or IMAP. Thunderbird can be set up to read from multiple accounts which makes your life easier and more efficient.

First go to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=thunderbird-2.0.0.12&os=win〈=en-US, and download the Thunderbird email client. (This link will automatically start your download when you visit it)

After installing Thunderbird, you are going to be presented with a dialog box that asks you for your email account information. The box will look similar to the one on the right. Here you can choose what kind of account you want Thunderbird to set up. As you can see, Thunderbird can be used for your email accounts, RSS feeds, and even newsgroups. For now, choose Email account (even if you’re setting up Gmail) and hit next.

The great thing about using Thunderbird is that it has the ability to have all of these accounts easily accessible in one place. This way your RSS feeds and emails can be read from the same window, instead of going to multiple sites and logging in to multiple accounts to read everything.

On the next screen (shown below) enter your name as you would want it to appear in your friend’s / coworker’s email inbox when they receive an email from you. Enter your email address in the box that says email address.

Next you want to select the email option that best fits what you want to do. POP3 email will download all messages from your email server onto your computer for you to read. IMAP will read the messages from the email server, but it won’t download them to your computer. All messages will remain on your email providers server. Check with your email service to see which one they offer. Gmail for example, offers both options, AOL, however, only provides the IMAP option.

If you choose IMAP the bottom half of the window will ask for your email service’s outbound address (usually smtp.emailservice.com) as you can see in the window above, my email service is through 1and1.com. The inbound / outbound server options can be seen on the screen on the right.

If you set up multiple email accounts Thunderbird will use the first outbound server you entered.

You can find the correct information for your email service at the following links:

Gmail forwarding help, AOL forwarding help, Yahoo forwarding help (Yahoo only allows POP3 access to yahoo mail plus subscribers)

The following link has information on other email services (this information may be out of date)

Email address information

Click next to go to the next screen after you’ve entered your information.

On the screen to the left you’re going to enter your user name for your email service. Most users will enter their full email address in this box. When you’ve entered your email address, click next.

If you’ve set up an email account already, your old outbound server will be used by default ss you can see on the bottom of the image. Another post will soon follow to show you how to set up multiple outbound servers.

The second to last screen (see below) will ask you to enter the name for the account. Try and name it something useful, such as Gmail work account, or AOL home email. Once you’re finished, hit next.

Once you’ve finished entering all of your information the last screen will show you all the details you entered to make sure they’re correct. Once you’ve verified that your information is correct, hit finish and you’re done.

Click on the inbox and Thunderbird will start connecting to your email server. Enter your password to connect and your email will show up in the main window. In the password window there will be a check box asking to save your password, and if you’ve got an up-to-date anti virus program, then you’ll be safe to save it (saving your password will store it in an encrypted file on your computer, this is generally safe but as with anything, it is vulnerable to hackers). If you don’t trust the password manager to store your password, then don’t check the box, and you’ll have to enter your password every time you connect to check your email.

Stay tuned for a follow-up article explaining how to add more outgoing smtp servers so you can add more email accounts, and have them play nice with each other.

Just wanted to put a quick post up about Google’s text messaging service. I recently found myself in need of directions while on the road and nowhere near a computer and I remembered reading about Google having some sort of text message service available for free. Well let me tell you this was a godsend.

All you have to do is send a text message to 466453 and in the body put what you want to find such as “Yardhouse, San Diego, CA”, or “15 x 4 / 3 +2″ and Google will respond with the appropriate answer.  Whether it’s a simple search, math problem, or name of a business, Google will answer back with what you need.

You can even go to Google SMS and enter your cell phone number, and they’ll send you a link.  After that, you can set your default location so it knows that you want to find something in let’s say Carlsbad, CA and not Carlsbad, NM.

So give it a shot and I’ll bet you’re pleasantly surprised at how easy it is.

So I’ve signed up for Pay Per Post and I have to tell you, once I was approved I saw an instant opportunity to make some money by writing reviews similar to this. The option to control what I write a review about is what appeals to me the most because it means that you will only see relevant sites shown here that I feel you will find interesting or helpful.

They have opportunities ranging from paint ball, to suntan lotion, to services provided by companies. You name it; they’ve got an opportunity waiting to have a review written about it. Like I said before, you control what you write about so you can select only to write about the topics that interest you, or would be helpful to your readers.

I had no trouble finding my way around the site to find open opportunities that I was qualified for. This is by far one of the best ways to make money if you have a blog. Pay Per Post has brought me one step closer to making money with this blog so I can do it full time.

You can check them out at the link the following link: blog marketing.

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up to start making money right now.

Do you use Firefox as your internet browser? If not, you should be, it’s easily the best browser out there. I wanted to take a moment and provide some tips and tricks that you can use with Firefox to make browsing easier.

1. Having trouble reading the text on the page? Hold ctrl and scroll your mouse wheel down to increase the size of the font on in the current window.

2. Want to open a new tab? First you have to make sure that you have the tab bar visible. You can do this by going to Tools -> Options, then click on Tabs, and check the “Always show the tab bar” checkbox. Now anytime you want to open a new tab, you can double click on the tab bar and a new tab will open.

3. If you want to close a tab, click your mouse wheel on the tab and it’s closed.

4. To open multiple homepages when you launch Firefox, go to Tools -> Options, then click on the main tab, and in the homepage bar, simply type all the pages you want to open separated by the | character (shift + backslash)

5. You can also set keywords for your bookmarks so you don’t have to go searching through them every time. Go to Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks, then right click on any bookmark and select properties and you’ll see a new dialog box. Near the bottom there will be a text box that says keyword: All you do is enter the keyword you want associated with the bookmark and hit OK. Now anytime you want to go to that bookmark, all you do is type the keyword into the address bar and hit enter, and you’ll be taken to your bookmarked location.

So there you have it, just a few tips and tricks to make your internet browsing with Firefox quicker and easier.

If you don’t have Firefox, you can get it by clicking this link

Does your computer run like it used to?  Maybe it’s struggling to even startup?  You can prevent this from happening in the future as long as you run your anti spyware and anti virus software frequently.  There is no set amount of times you should run these programs, but I feel that your anti spyware programs should be run at least once a week if you’re on the computer all the time, and once every 2 weeks if you only use the computer a couple of days out of the week.

Your anti virus on the other hand should be automatically running in the background, which is known as “resident” or “resident protection”. Even though the program is running on its own I still think it’s a good idea to run this at least once a month manually.

The key to both of these programs is that they are up to date.  Making sure your definitions are the most recent versions for both your anti virus and anti spyware programs is very important.  New viruses come out faster than the companies can write ways to stop them and if you’re not up to date, you’ll be on the fast track to a hard drive that been eaten by things like Sasser, and Trojans.  No not the one’s with Helen, although similar in the sense that they both carry things in them, these Trojans carry mean files that will attack your PC.

Keeping up to date is not very tough, you just have to make sure you are vigil and keep on top of it.  I opened both my anti spyware program only to find that I was over 100 days behind.  Yikes! I hit update as fast as I could because I don’t know what i would do if my computer fell victim to spyware and viruses.

Luckily my anti virus software automatically updates itself, but even this can’t be trusted, as there are viruses that will turn off your anti virus softwares ability to auto-update, and you’ll never know.  So it’s a good idea to update both anti virus and anti spyware programs within the same day.
So let this be a reminder to update your software regularly, and scan your PC at least once a week for spyware, and once a month for viruses to keep it running like new.

How often do you update and run your virus and spyware programs?

Well after a short move and long time without internet I am back.  Let me tell you, moving 2 miles doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be up and running anytime soon.  Trying to snake a wire around my new apartment so that it reaches my computer was a pain.  Yet not as big a pain as changing my address.

After all these years we still haven’t found a way of integrating our address into some accessible database that can be changed for all entities linking to it.  I went to 8 different websites to update their information so they had the proper address, and I’m sure I’m missing some.  Why can’t we establish some sort of central database of addresses that all companies are linked to, that way when someone changes their address, all the companies receive an update notice of the change, and adjust their records accordingly.

This goes along the lines of integrating technology into our lives on a more personal level.  With the notion of RFID on the horizon (to be explained later)  we are nowhere near the world seen in Minority Report or even The Matrix.  I hear about companies trying to target ads to users’ cell phones, PDAs, even video capable mp3 players using some sort of targeting algorithm based on the location of the user and the location of the store doing the advertising.  And while this sounds pretty pushy, I’d rather see ads for a store I am close to, or one that I like, than be shown ads relating to geriatric products, or pet supplies.

But why are we focusing on advertising when there are other issues that could be put in place before this to make the targeting that much easier.  Allowing people to have a one stop place to change their address once would make life a little less hectic than it already is.  Imagine logging in to the website, changing your address, and in a flash, your GPS now knows your new starting address.  This could work with separate profiles as well, such as business and personal address.  Got a new job? Then sign into the database and change your work address, and all related publications, trade journals, or anything else relating to your job would be sent to the new work address.

Think about how easy it would be to update your benefits info for your job if you move.  One click, you’re done, and they’re records indicate the new place where you live.  Does this interest anyone?

I’ve said it before but we need to start integrating certain technologies into our lives now, as it will make future integrations that much easier.

Any thoughts?