Recent Knowledge
-
Tom's Planner
Tom's Planner is a project organizing service that uses Gantt charts. For most people, Tom's Planner is a great project manager. Professional project managers would probably require a ...
Posted Feb 4, 2011 11:28 AM by Shaine Mata
-
Computer only detects half of RAM capacity
I had a service call for a computer that suddenly only detects half of the memory capacity of its memory chips. The motherboard and memory are both of reputable brands ...
Posted Jul 6, 2010 8:47 PM by Shaine Mata
-
Billing Services for Freelancers
Freelancers often have time keeping track of their billable hours and invoicing their clients for the time. Besides doing the work, freelancers are responsible for the administrative work, which is ...
Posted Nov 20, 2009 10:43 AM by Shaine Mata
|
posted Feb 4, 2011 11:17 AM by Shaine Mata
Tom's Planner is a project organizing service that uses Gantt charts. For most people, Tom's Planner is a great project manager. Professional project managers would probably require a few more features; but, the average Joe will find more than enough features.
Among the service's strengths, Tom's Planner offers collaboration and multiple user access. Traditional project management software tends to run on software and is only accessible to the manager.
Tom's Planner has three levels of service ranging from free, to $9/month, to $19/month. Each level permits the use of more project schedules and extra features not included in the plan below. |
posted Jul 6, 2010 8:36 PM by Shaine Mata
I had a service call for a computer that suddenly only detects half of the memory capacity of its memory chips. The motherboard and memory are both of reputable brands. The computer was in service for over one year with the same memory cards prior to the change. The motherboard accommodates two memory cards for a maximum of 2 GB combined. The installed memory consisted of two 512 MB DDR (PC3200) sticks. After the failure, the computer would only detect 512 MB total. Removing one card resulted in only 256 MB or RAM available, regardless of which memory stick was installed.
Looking on online forums, it quickly became clear that nobody knows what causes this as no consistent solutions were mentioned or no resolutions were posted. Often, the person posing the question opted to replace the motherboard altogether.
After consulting with my client, we decided to use the flaw as is and upgrade to 2 GB, leaving us with the original 1GB of available memory. I purchased the 1 GB module and replaced one of the existing 512 MB modules with it. Upon reboot, the computer detected 1.25 GB. We left it at that.
Given that memory rarely fails, if ever, we had no reason to suspect that two memory modules would give out at the same time. We did not test the suspect memory modules on other systems to determine if the failure was consistent across platforms. |
posted Sep 27, 2009 10:03 PM by Shaine Mata
[
updated Nov 20, 2009 10:43 AM
]
Freelancers often have time keeping track of their billable hours and invoicing their clients for the time. Besides doing the work, freelancers are responsible for the administrative work, which is not billable. Below are some services that can help the freelancer keep track of their time and invoice it.
|
posted Sep 10, 2009 10:29 PM by Shaine Mata
[
updated Sep 16, 2009 7:39 AM
]
If you are interested in a paperless fax solution, you may consider Snappy Fax, a desktop and network fax software. The software allows you to send and receive faxes for your office. You can either set up Snappy Fax on a desktop, or share a server that will handle faxing for several users.
You can set the software to print faxes as they come in, or to deposit the file in a directory. There are a few USB fax modems that work well with Snappy Fax. I am looking for Internal modems in addition to a hardware solution. An email to Snappy Fax support returned this information: We quit using internal modems here since they are such a pain to install but...
Most any internal modem should be fine except:
1. US Robotics (fax implementation is flawed)
2. Smartlink (does not support the E0 modem command)
3. Motorola (modem driver is flawed)
4. Diamond Supra/Modemblaster (poor reliability)
I did find that they recommend a MultiTech Systems modem that is being phased out, which allows for multiple fax lines on one computer. MultiTech also has other fax solutions if you have a bit of money to spend on a dedicated fax server.
posted Sep 4, 2009 9:13 PM by Shaine Mata
I got called to fix a computer screen that suddenly displayed upside-down. I'd never heard of this before except on a TV show about ghost hauntings. I showed up at the store and confirmed that the screen was, indeed, upside-down. After a quick search online, I discovered that a quick CTRL + ALT + ARROW (up, down, left, or right) would change the orientation of the screen. I used the key sequence and corrected the problem. The computer with the problem is running Windows XP.
I tried the same sequence at home on my own Windows XP computer without any effect.
posted Aug 20, 2009 5:00 AM by Shaine Mata
PC Antispyware 20XX is a fake antivirus program, called malware. It pretends to scan your computer, detects false positives, and then invites more programs to download. Each one charges you money for an upgrade that does not do anything.
Historically, the PC Antispyware 20XX programs have stayed one step ahead of antivirus programs, making it difficult to find a tool that can completely remove them.
Malwarebytes' Anti-malware seems to do a decent job of removing these threats for the time being.
|
posted Aug 19, 2009 9:34 AM by Shaine Mata
[
updated Aug 19, 2009 1:36 PM
]
Elected State Officials
Rick Perry Press Office - @TexGov blogRep. Trey Martinez-Fischer - @TMF116 blogRep. Gary Elkins - blog Rep. Senfronia Thompson - blog |
|
posted Aug 5, 2009 12:35 AM by Shaine Mata
If you are having trouble making phone calls using Google Voice on your Android phone after installing it, the problem may be the way your phone number is written in the Google Voice settings. For some reason, the Google Voice application for Android phones requires that your Android phone's number be in the international calling format. If you are in the United States, you must change your phone number to the +1-xxx-xxx-xxxx format.
Once you make this change in your Google Voice settings, you should be able to seamlessly originate calls using your GV number from your Android phone.
|
posted Aug 4, 2009 10:21 PM by Shaine Mata
[
updated Aug 4, 2009 11:37 PM
]
Below is a list of social media websites that allow you to interact with others while away from your computer. The list is not comprehensive as it only includes websites that show the greatest value to the end user.
- 3jam - virtual phone number service. Not social media; but, has social uses.
- Brightkite - location-based social media. Can be used through WAP or SMS.
- Broadtexter - allows you to create a mobile club. Interacts mainly through SMS.
- Facebook Mobile - social media site.
- Flagr - allows map-based photo sharing.
- Flickr - photo sharing site. Has a mobile version.
- Friendstribe - social networking site that works via SMS.
- Hobnobster - social networking site that works mainly via SMS. Has great search function for meeting people.
- Jaiku - online presence site. Similar to Twitter.
- Juicecaster - mobile site allows you to syndicate mobile photos and video to other social media websites.
- Kyte - video sharing site. Has a mobile version
- Loopt - location-based social media for mobile.
- Mig33 - hybrid social media/global communication site. Can be used to make international phone calls.
- Mobiluck - social media site mainly aimed at meeting people.
- Mocospace - MObile COmmunity website that looks a lot like Myspace. Includes WAP and SMS interaction. Has a Latino version.
- Mosio - interactive site that works with SMS. Has a subscription service for businesses.
- Myspace Mobile - social media site.
- Qik - live video streaming from your mobile phone.
- Radar - group video and picture sharing for mobile.
- Shozu - connects social media to your phone. Allows you to share and view content. Often ahead of the curve.
- Socialight - mobile post-its. Allows you to make notes about places.
- Twitter - messaging system that works well through SMS. Also has mobile site.
- Utterli - messaging system that includes video, audio, text, and conference calling. Can be used with any touch tone phone.
- Veeker - mobile video messaging.
- Youtube - video sharing system that has a mobile site.
- Zannel - mobile content syndication.
- Zingku - promising mobile content site just acquired by Google.
|
posted Jul 23, 2009 7:49 PM by Shaine Mata
A recent experience with a wireless print server that connects to a printer via USB has left me wary of using such print servers. USB-based print servers should be checked for compatibility with the printer you intend to use. This is not an off-the-shelf setup. Old parallel cable based print servers were less finicky about which printers you could connect. Getting incompatible printers and print servers can be costly because stores are not willing to refund your money; they would rather offer store credit. Moral of the story, really do your homework before trying a wireless print server that only connects via USB.
I noticed that the printer had an both an ethernet and a USB connection in the back. This led me to realize that it had a built-in print server. I asked the business owner to bring a wireless bridge so that we could connect the printer to the wireless network as we had intended with the wireless print server. This would allow network traffic to the printer's built-in print server.
The wireless bridge we wound up using was a 802.11g/n bridge made for "gaming". There is no major difference between a "gaming" bridge and standard bridge except that gaming bridges do not deal well with multiple IP addresses behind them, especially with DHCP. It is better to assign your printer a static IP and make it the only device connected to your bridge, like you would do with your gaming console.
The most difficult part of a wireless bridge solution is that you need to set up the bridge so that it will connect with your router if you have encryption set. Beyond that, you will only need to install the printer drivers on all your workstations for that one printer. Most computers can handle network printers. There is no special setup on the workstations to account for the bridge; it is as if the bridge were not there. |
|
