Computer Repair Experts in Phoenix, Arizona. my PC Techs Presents:

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The United States Postal Service (USPS) has instituted a new pilot program whereby they will take small electronics, cellular phones and inkjet cartridges, for free, and recycle them. This is pretty cool! Previously it was always a hassle to find somewhere to recycle these small electronic devices and, in most cases, it was easier to just throw them in the trash than to call all over town to find a facility willing to take them. The great thing about the new USPS program is the simplicity of it. All you have to do is put the device into an envelope (provided by the post office for free) and then drop it into the mail.

An example of the types of products you can recycle through this method: Inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Cell Phones, Digital Cameras, iPods, MP3 Players.

Since the components are recycled and reused, they don’t end up in landfills and this actually helps the environment. You can find the envelopes for free in any Post Office and you can take as many as you’d like. Be sure to keep some on hand for ease of use the next time you need to dispose of a broken technology item.

The pilot is set for 10 areas across the country, including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego, but could become a national program this fall if the pilot program proves successful.

In a surprise to many but not me, having recently watched my Google Adwords account costs rise, Google announced today that their earnings for the first quarter of 2008 were higher than expected. As of this writing, the stock is up a whopping 17% (or $76.42) in after-hours trading! For those of you who don’t follow stocks, 17% in a day is a HUGE number for a stock with a market cap the size of Google. Now for some links:

Live Analysis
The future of internet advertising
CNET
Reuters

For online advertising, there really is no alternative to Google Adwords. They own a solid grasp on this booming industry, one that is set to continue to grow at a rapid rate as conventional businesses realize the importance of advertising on the internet.

If you bought Google any time in the past two months you ought to be feeling pretty good about yourself right now!

As a website developer, I utilize several online resources on a daily basis to gather facts, check code syntax and share ideas. There are some resources that I just couldn’t live without. I use the following fifteen resources so often that I’ve dedicated an article to them and would like to share with you my thoughts on why they are important. I’m also hoping that others can read this and learn from it, or possibly even teach me a thing or two. Anyways, here’s the list of the top 15 online website development resources that I use, in order of importance:

Google: Google is my homepage. It should be everyone’s homepage. Isn’t it your homepage? There are very few questions in this world that Google can’t help you find an answer to.

Adobe Devnet: I do the majority of my web development using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. I have the web premium suite that also includes Photoshop CS3, Flash CS3, and Fireworks CS3. The Adobe Devnet is an excellent resource not just for the tools I’ve just mentioned, but development in general. I get a lot of use out of the blogs, exchanges and forums there.

Dictionary.com: What webmaster is complete without a thesaurus and online dictionary? I often find myself beautifying text with the thesaurus on dictionary.com. Not only is it great to make sure you don’t use where instead of wear, it’s a hunky-dory way to utilize words like disgruntlement instead of anger.

Bluehost: Do you design websites? Have you ever used Bluehost? These guys have excellent customer service, affordable prices, and a ton of hosting features. I use Bluehost for hosting whenever possible and have used them for several years now as a very happy customer. Their services also include a very useful support forum.

Google Adwords: Let’s face it, if you’ve got a product to sell you’re going to need Google Adwords. Since we know that everyone has Google for their homepage (see above), we also know that the first thing they’re going to do when they want to buy something is search for it on Google. All bow before Google, the king of online advertising.

iStockPhoto: Do you need an image for a website? Does it have to be high quality? Do you want to be able to search for it based on concept keywords? How about low cost? iStockPhoto does all of this and they do it well. iStockPhoto, for those times when you need to find an image of ‘goth nosering‘ for a company website.

Flashkit: I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent digging through ActionScript code on this website to find ways to accomplish what I needed to do. Let’s be honest, the Flash CS3 software has really poor built-in actionscript3 reference material. No worries, we’ve got Flashkit, our savior! PS: They’re great for other things, too, like sound clips and example movies.

osCommerce Forums: There’s a bit of irony here. You’re selling a product, trying to make a quick buck, and the tool you’re using to do it is completely free! Crazy world we live in, I know. Sure enough, osCommerce is a free shopping cart solution that works marvelously and it’s completely customizable via PHP.

Google Code Search: I’ve always liked the word snippets. Why couldn’t they have called this Google Snippets? Maybe if Google hadn’t turned down my resume for a position in their company a few years ago, things would be different. Oh well, their loss, my gain! In any case, even though I don’t work for Google, and it isn’t called snippets, I still find their code search a useful tool when hunting down bits of PHP, ASP, ColdFusion or JavaScript.

SQL Dialects Reference: A quality SQL reference, for times when ‘Select * from Widgets’ just doesn’t go deep enough to get the job done.

PHP: Manual Quick Reference: PHP is fun. This online PHP reference manual is a shining example of just how fun it really is.

VBScript Forum: When you need a piece of VBScript code, chances are good that the crazy guys at VBScript Forum can help.

Web Design Forum: No mystery here, it’s all in the name.

WebDeveloper.com: The ONLY thing I don’t like about this site is the bland appearance. Everything else rocks, especially the depth of topics and the history of information contained within.

Whois.net: I used to be a big fan of the Network Solutions whois tool. Not anymore, I’ve tasted the glory of whois.net!

So there you are, 15 web design resources packaged nicely into this Tech Club wordpress blog. Develop until your fingers peel away my friends! Are there are resources that you use regularly for website development that you’d like to share? Let me know, I’d like to hear about them.

Are you interested in Windows Vista SP1? Are you waiting to upgrade to Windows Vista based on the performance of Service Pack 1 and plan to base your decision on the comments that have been made since it came out? Do you already have Windows Vista but aren’t sure if you want to upgrade to SP1? Are you trying to upgrade to SP1 but can’t get it to work? Now that Windows Vista SP1 has been out for a month, I’d like to share my experience with you and hopefully help to answer some of your questions along the way.

Installation

Installation of Service Pack 1 for me on several machines thus far has not been a walk in the park. Microsoft is quick to comment that the install for SP1 is included in Windows Update. In many cases, however, I’ve found that SP1 not listed in Windows Update for Vista machines and following technet advice doesn’t solve the problem, either.

First things first. Check if your Windows Vista machine has already automatically applied the Service Pack 1 update. To do this, open the RUN box from the Vista start menu. In Run, type “WinVer” without the quotes and click OK. You will see a window that says “About Windows” and will contain information about your operating system. If you are running Service Pack 1, this window will say Microsoft Windows, and on the next line after “Version” it will say “Service Pack 1”. If you don’t see “Service Pack 1” in this window, you don’t have it installed and should continue with the following step.

The best way to install Service Pack 1, despite the best advice from Microsoft, is to manually download the installation files. You can get the installation files here. The file is 434MB so it will take a while to download. My advice is to download the file, burn it to a CD, and then delete the file from your computer (to save HD space and to have a copy for later). Once the file has been downloaded you can double click it to begin the upgrade. The process takes roughly 1 hour, even on a very fast computer, so be prepared. The update process will reboot your computer several times so make sure that all of your programs have been closed out before you begin.

Usage

Thus far I am very impressed with Service Pack 1. I’ve used it on Windows Vista computers with dozens of software programs installed and have encountered no problems. As an example, one machine has an installation of the entire Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium package. This includes Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Fireworks, etc. All of these software programs have been tested and work flawlessly with Service Pack 1. As with any software package, if you want to be sure it will work with SP1, make sure you always have the latest and greatest versions of individual software programs installed. Here’s the link for Adobe Downloads.

Some other programs that have been successfully tested with Service Pack 1: Winamp, Microsoft Office 2003, AVG Free Edition, Spybot S&D, Mozilla Firefox, Comodo Firewall Pro, Paint Shop Pro, Truespace 6.6, Steam, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Goldwave, iTunes and many more. In fact, I have yet to find a program that doesn’t work with Vista SP1. I’ve read about them, but have never experienced a conflict for myself. Chances are good that your programs will work with Vista Service Pack  1. If you’re concerned about a particular program, check out this list.

The performance of Windows Vista under Service Pack 1 compared to non-SP1 is amazing. It’s literally night and day! Most of the performance issues that I’d experienced before Service Pack 1 resulting in ‘slow operating system’ complaints that others have posted about are gone. Windows Vista under Service Pack 1 is fast. My conclusion: This upgrade is definitely worth it!

I spent an entire day tweaking an ultra-portable Sony Vaio TZ series notebook with Windows Vista. The user was ready to dump Vista entirely and go back to Windows XP, even if it meant several days of lost work in reconfiguring his applications. His computer was so slow, even though he had a $3,000 computer, that he could barely use it. By the time I was done with his computer, after installing Service Pack 1 for Vista and running some various system tweaks, he was a believer in Windows Vista! Now his computer is lightning fast, using Windows Vista, and he’s happy.

If you don’t yet have Windows Vista, it’s time to upgrade. Service Pack 1 has finally made Vista a usable operating system. If you already have Vista, but not yet Service Pack 1, do yourself a HUGE favor and upgrade immediately.

One of the common problems that I run into are computer that are trying to run all of the graphics and eye candy associated with Vista with a video card that is not fast enough to support it. After Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and graphic display tweaks, I’ve been able to get Windows Vista machines that are just as fast, if not faster, than they would have been running Windows XP. You have to know what to look for.
Let’s not try to beat around the bush. There are still some problems with Windows Vista, the biggest of which are people who are not technically minded expecting this to ‘just work’ out of the box. Windows Vista, even under Service Pack 1, isn’t there yet. Unlike XP, Vista requires that a professional who knows technology helps you to setup your operating system. There are many tweaks and fixes that can be applied to make Vista a very rewarding computing experience. If you’re thinking about Windows Vista, don’t be afraid of it any longer. Consult with a professional computer technician who will help to make Windows Vista work for you.

I’ve been a critic of Norton products before. I wish that a company as powerful as Symantec would create software products that work properly as they’re advertised, are easy to uninstall when you find out they don’t work the way they should, and at the very least, don’t break your computer when you want to remove them. Unfortunately, the Norton brand of products (owned by Symantec Corporation) don’t work like this. Almost always, they cost more than what they’re worth and end up causing more trouble than they were advertised as fixing.

Symantec owns the Norton product name and has traditionally tried to keep their Symantec line of products separate from Norton. Symantec products have been engineered for the corporate user and, as a general rule, have worked better than their Norton counterparts. They install easy, run flawlessly and are affordable considering the depth of their features. At least, that’s how I used to feel about them. My opinion of Symantec products has been eroded over time and is now about the same as Norton. I now find myself sounding the abandon ship alarm for Symantec and jumping on the first available lifeboat.

The last straw was this week, after a day long battle against Symantec Mail Security for exchange. You shouldn’t have to battle against software you paid for, folks! Their Mail Security broke an important email server, crippling all email for an entire organization for half of a day. There were no big changes made on the server, no revolutionary updates, just *poof* – one day it works, one day it doesn’t. First, it wouldn’t filter any spam. Even a reboot didn’t make a difference. Next, we couldn’t disable the product on the server and it bounced everyone as spam. Finally, we tried to turn the product off from within the administration panel. It said it was turned off, but even then it made no difference. The only way to fix the server was to completely remove Symantec Mail Security for Exchange, and magically, everything worked great again.

It’s become obvious that Symantec cares more about their fancy marketing schemes than actually making a quality product. Sure, their website is nice, very colorful, well done. But the nuts and bots of their products are beginning to fall off. With that being said, here’s my Symantec replacement list This is a list of Symantec products that I used to use on a daily basis. Heck, I didn’t just USE these products. I would promote them, tell everyone about them, I actually enjoyed them! And over the years, one by one, Symantec slowly but surely let me down by morphing each product from a wonderful tool into a buggy pile of bloatware. Sad! Symantec, are you listening? Start putting some quality control into your junkware!

Instead of Symantec or Norton Anti-Virus: AVG provides a superior anti-virus product, and it’s free.

Instead of Norton Ghost: Acronis True Image does the job much better. Even better than that, since it’s free, if you’re techy – GParted.

Instead of Symantec Mail Security & Premium Anti-Spam: Trend Client Server Messaging Security for SMB. Cheaper, more reliable, doesn’t break your email servers!

Instead of Norton Internet Security: Comodo firewall is free, runs faster and does a better job.

Instead of PCAnywhere: Really? Who uses this. It’s built right into Windows XP and beyond, or if you’re really struggling, use UltraVNC.

Instead of BackupExec: No. Especially now that Windows Vista has their complete computer backup that takes an image of the entire drive. Not only that, you can use the free Microsoft Virtual PC to mount those images and copy out files. Otherwise, if stuck in XP just use the built in XP backup utility.

I actually feel pretty bad about all of this, like a kid who has to throw out a new toy to make room for a new one at Christmas time. I liked Symantec at one time. They played a big role in my PC toolkit. Now they’ve let me down again, hopefully for the last time.