My brand new computer that I just got at my office, is CHURNING, and CRUNCHING so loudly. I think I over used it already. It’s probably time for a reboot, as I don’t think it’s been off in the three weeks that I got it out of the box and fired it up. I rarely turn off my computers at home. That’s probably why our electric bill is $500 a month. Do you turn off your computer at night?

reboot, computers, Windows Vista

We were talking the other night about doing some serious backing up of our 5 computers that are in our house. We all have so much data on our machines, and if we lost any of it; it would be a great lose. This conversation stemmed from a discussion I had with an online friend. Her external hard drive went south, and she lost years and years of data, including her children’s pictures. Man, I still feel her pain when I think about that.

There are several reasons that hard drives can fail. Just to name a few:

1. Inaccessible drive or partitions
2. Data corruption
3. RAID configuration lost
4. Mechanical hard drive failure
5. Hard drive surface damage

Luckily if something like this happens there are places that can possibly retrieve all your lost data for you, like DataRecovery.net. They offer services such as hard drive data recovery, and raid data recovery. First they will test the components and closely examine the drive platters to determine the extent of physical damage. That allows them to make a plan to recover your lost data. So basically, when you have a hard drive failure, it may not be the end of the world. They just might be able to get all your data safely back where it belongs.

hard drive data recovery, RAID data recovery

And here I thought I was in love with my 24″ wide screen monitor. Well if money were no object I’d be cheating on it right now with this 82-inch LCD Monitor. 82 inches! Man I wonder what my blog would look like on that thing, and where the hell would I put it?

monitors, 82 inch LCD monitor, Samsung

Damn Microsoft. They went and got all sneaky on me doing a Windows update while I slept, then rebooting when it was finished of course. I’ve sat her for a couple hours not even realizing my Trillian wasn’t running.

But I think it did something to my drivers for my wide screen monitor, because I cannot get it to go any higher than a 1024 X 768 resolution. In fact that isn’t even a wide screen resolution, right? Did anyone else run into this today?

After doing some digging around on Google I realized I wasn’t the only one. The update just blew out the video drivers, so I had to go to the Dell website, download the new drivers and install them. That didn’t seem to work, in fact, it made it worse. It’s telling me that my laptop is 2, and the wide screen monitor is 1 (dual monitors). BOOO! That’s not how I like it.

Oh well, I just disabled the monitor for now, and I will be working with one screen today. I’ll try to look at it more tonight. It’s awful. I hate computers. I wish I didn’t depend on them as much as I do

Windows Updates, video drivers

Okay, so it’s a little big and bulky, but the idea behind this is fantastic. No need to yern for that multi-monitor setup people have with their desktops. Now you can get it on the go as well.

Source: Aving.com

Aving.com, three monitor laptop

When I worked for my last company we relied on a colocation for our servers. They were not the greatest investment our company made as they once went down and we lost everything, with no backup. My boss was furious, and the sys admins were running for cover that day. They were not the well thought company though, and things like this seemed to happen a lot. Luckily not all businesses run like this, and there are some very reliable Canada Web hosting colocation facility, like Momentum.com. They are safe and secure, and offer service, reliability, and scalability like no other. And also recoverable backups!

managed backups, data backup, colocation hosting

Do you need help with removing a virus from your computer? How about getting rid of that pesky spyware? Well now there is a phone-based tech support company, much like the Geek Squad, called 866GeekNerd.com. For just $1.99 a minute you can get all the computer help you need by calling them at 1-866-GeekNerd.

They will walk you through any problem you are having with your computer, and help you fix it, right when you need it. 24/7/365. They will also help you with setting up a wireless network in your home, so you can have your laptop with you no matter where in your house you are. Yes, even the bathroom, and I’ve been known to check email from there before. HA! So add 1-866-GeekNerd to your phone book, and remember to call them next time you are pulling your hair out.

866GeekNerd.com, 1-866-GeekNerd, computer help, technical support

I don’t think I have ever shared pictures of my sexy external hard drive. Trust me, it’s much sexier than yours. Even if you have the same exact one, mine is still sexier. It doesn’t just sit there and look bored. It has flashing colorful lights that change every 2.5 seconds. And it’s properly named F:\Disco Bitches. It’s a 320 GB, which isn’t all that big, but considering I have my entire internet life on it since 1997, it rocks like disco lemonade.

I will let you touch it for $50 bucks. Kiss it for $75 bucks. And do the unmentionable for $100. Who’s buying?

Western Digital, disco lemonade, hard drives, sexy

You’ve probably all faced having the power go out in your house before. Being without electricity is awful, and such a darn pain to reset all those clocks, after the power comes back on! Let’s say you had more to worry about then just being without your TV. Let’s say every single blog and web site you own was on the server that currently has no power. YIKES! That’s where TotalUPS.com comes in. They are a full service company that offers UPS maintenance including installing and maintaining new and refurbished UPS systems. Not only do UPS keep you powered, but they also help protect your computers from electrical surges, line-noise problems, including brownouts and blackouts.

TotalUPS.com, UPS maintenance

My HP printer is out of ink again. I swear it drinks it when I’m not looking. I always think I have extra inkjet cartridges on hand for times like this when I really need it, but I can’t find one single cartridge in the house, and I really don’t want to go out today to get any. So I looked around online and found Inkers which seem to have some pretty good prices.

I found the one I need for about $1.50 cheaper than any other place, and the shipping was free with a minimum order of $20 bucks. When you’re ordering inkjet or toner cartridges, it’s not too hard to reach that minimum. They also offer a money back guarantee for one full year. You can’t beat that.

inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges, online shopping