Auburn Computer Magic

Windows 2008 64bit Print Server & XP 32bit

2010-04-23T13:38:00.003-05:00

I ran into this issue recently where I was upgrading our Print Server from a Windows 2003 32 bit server to a Windows 2008 64bit server. I ran into problems because 95% of my workstations are Windows XP 32bit editions and I needed to have both sets of drivers installed. This seemed fairly straightforward, but it wasn't. Here's the process of setting this up:

1. Install the printer on with Windows 2008 machine

2. Share the printer

3. Go to a Windows XP 32 bit machine and download the drivers for that printer

4. Install the shared printer on Windows XP by manually browsing to the downloaded drivers

5. Once the printer is installed on XP, under control panel, printers, right click the printer and choose properties

6. Click the Sharing Tab, and then Additional Drivers

7. Browse to the 32 bit drivers you downloaded previously

8. The drivers should install successfully

***If this does not work and you get a message like "Windows cannot locate a suitable printer driver. Contact your administrator for help locating and installing a suitable driver" then keep reading***

9. First verify you have the same driver on both the server and workstation, like PCL or PS

10. Windows 2008 installs a lot of drivers by default and if this happened with the printer your having issues with then go to the printer manufacturers site and download and updated driver for your printer on Windows 2008 64bit edition

11. Install the downloaded print driver on the printer on your Windows 2008 64bit server and be sure the driver version is now reflecting a new version when you are done

12. Go back to Windows XP and attempt to install the additional drivers as in Step 6 above

Customize Blackberry Activation Email

2009-12-17T22:49:00.003-06:00

The default way for the BES Server 5.0 to send activation emails is just with the password along and no instructions to the user on how to activate. There is a way to customize this on the email that automatically goes to users. Log into the Blackberry Enterprise Servers administration page and then follow the steps below:

Under the Devices Section expand Wireless Activations by clicking the plus sign
Click Device activation settings
Click Edit activation settings
Fill in the custom activation message you would like to go to your users. Here is a sample message:

To activate your Blackberry follow these steps:

1. Click on the Options Icon
2. Click Advanced Options
3. Click Enterprise Activation
4. Enter your Company Email address
5. Enter the password shown at the bottom of this email
6. Press the Trackball and choose Activate Now

In 30 minutes your activation should be complete. If you have any questions please send an email to helpdesk@company.com or call our helpdesk at 555-555-5555.

iTunes Can't Authorize Computer Maximum 5 of 5 Reached

2009-12-08T22:35:00.007-06:00

So, here is the scenario. You have multiple computers, or you have reloaded a computer multiple times, or your family all shares one iTunes account name and somewhere down the line when you are installing iTunes and going to authorize the computer you get a message stating you have used 5 out of 5 activations. The problem, the other computers no longer have iTunes, or have been reloaded and you can't deauthorize them if iTunes isn't on the computer any longer. There is a way to deauthorize all computers at once. The steps are below:

1. Open iTunes and Click iTunes store on the left

2. Sign into the iTunes Store with your user account

3. In the top right hand corner you should see your iTunes account name (your email address). Put your mouse over the email address and click the little arrow that shows up next to it. Click Account.

4. Next to computer authorizations it will give you the total amount of computers activated under this account. You can click Deauthorize All.

Clean up, Speed up, Tune up Your Computer

2009-12-05T03:27:00.002-06:00

Dirty Computer - Come inside
Originally uploaded by punkwalrus

The picture is kind of a joke. If you need to clean up a computer like this use a can of compressed air and then re-evaluate your living conditions. I wanted to share a few of my favorite utilities I use for this and some manual things I do in addition to using the utilities. At the bottom of this post you can find the links and steps I do.

Spyware is abundant these days, and it slows down your system like crazy. It seems that there are a ton of utilities out there, but for the last six months the one that has been doing the best for me is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. The free version works great, just follow all of the defaults and this should make a great improvement.

Another cool utility is CCleaner. It will delete your temporary files and other things. Basically CCleaner saves you from manually going to all the temp folders and clearing them out.

Here is what I recommend for cleaning up your computer:

1. Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and run it to remove spyware

2. Download CCleaner and run it to clean up temp files

3. Reset Internet Explorer to defaults
a. Open IE
b. Click Tools, Internet Options
c. Click the Advanced tab
d. Under Reset Internet Explorer settings, click Reset, Click Reset again
e. Close Internet Explorer and open

4. Remove excess startup items
a. Click Start, Run
b. Type msconfig, press enter
c. Click the Startup Tab
d. Uncheck any programs that do not need to start when your
computer does (be sure to leave checked antivirus/spyware protection)
e. Click Apply, OK, Reboot, on Reboot check box to not show message again

Exchange Database Won't Mount Log Drive Full

2009-12-05T03:08:00.002-06:00

I hate it when this happens. You get an alert that Exchange is down. You go look and find the Store is not mounted and then you realize it is because your log drive is full. I've ran into this a few times, but mostly when I've been in process of migrating mailboxes to a new server and forgot to turn on circular logging before the move. The easiest way I have found to get around this is as follows:

1. Leave the Store dismounted

2. Go to your log drive and compress the log files only (select the files, right click, and go into Advanced and choose compress)

3. Wait until this process completes (you don't have to do them all just a few)

4. Mount your store

5. Immediately run a full backup

***If this happened because you are migrating mailboxes you might try turning on circular logging at least until the mailbox move operations are complete***

LeftHand SAN, VSS, and Backup Exec

2009-11-22T22:52:00.001-06:00

IMG_1101
Originally uploaded by madferrett

Recently I ran into issues getting Backup Exec to backup data that was stored on the LeftHand SAN. I was getting VSS errors, specifically HP VSS errors when attempting to backup the data across the network.

Here's was the setup. I had a new LeftHand SAN, an Exchange 2007 cluster that had two mailbox servers with their mailbox stores on the SAN. I had a separate backup server. The SAN's network traffic was completely segregated from the main network, and the backup server was not connected to the SAN network.

What I found the issue to be is that the HP VSS tools had been installed on the Exchange Servers and it was not needed. I had to uninstall the HP VSS and after a reboot everything worked fine for over the network install. In this time I did find that doing an offhost backup would be the best solution, but part of the issue with that for this setup was that all Operating Systems, including the Backup server were not on the same edition of Windows, so it would not work correctly. For now, simply uninstalling HP VSS on the servers that host the data did the trick.

How Not to Screw up a SharePoint Install

2009-08-09T16:23:00.011-05:00

Here's the scenario. Your boss comes to you and says, "Hey, do you know Sharepoint?". You say, "No, not at all. I've used it, but never supported it or installed it." He turns around to a group of people outside of your office and says, "O.K., we will have a Sharepoint server up and running for you in 1 1/2 weeks. Then he walks off to his office and your fellow coworkers start saying, "Hey, I hear you are supposed to have a Sharepoint server done in 1 1/2 weeks." You track down your boss and say, "Hey, what's this about Sharepoint." He says, "Oh yeah, I need you to build them a Sharepoint server and have it ready in 1 1/2 weeks." Your fellow coworkers back you up and try to convince people that it shouldn't be done this way, to no avail. So, now you are stuck building a Sharepoint server with little time to plan and A LOT to learn. This has bad process written all over it, but it happens.

The point of this post is to point out the gotchas I ran into. I am by no means a Sharepoint expert, but after I installed it six times in that 1 1/2 weeks I understand a lot more about it than I started out knowing. My setup included a three servers, the Sharepoint server that hosted the websites and search indexes, the database server, and the email server that just handled email functions. First, go to this site and read up, be sure to download the Visio flow chart, it is great. Here are the things that took me a lot longer to figure out than I wanted them to.

1. You will need to plan, even just if a little bit. If you have limited time to plan I suggest planning your Sharepoint Service accounts and at least the servers you are going to use. Be sure to document this information somewhere. You will need multiple Sharepoint AD accounts created, DO NOT JUST USE YOUR CREDENTIALS. Follow this link for a guide on what accounts to create.

2. If you are using Windows 2008 64bit edition you need to download Sharepoint Services 3.0, MOSS 2007 with the SP slip streamed into it, and Project 2007 if you are going to integrate Project server. These three installs will be ran in the order of Sharepoint 3.0, MOSS 2007, and then Project 2007.

3. If you are using a database server that you have other databases on then anytime Sharepoint says it needs to create a new database, rename new databases as they are created to Sharepoint_xxx, the xxx's being whatever Sharepoint says should be the default name. This makes it much easier to keep track of which databases belong to Sharepoint.

4. When you are creating new Web Applications, name them based on the public URL you plan to use, such as: https://sharepoint.companyname.com, https://mysites.companyname.com, and https://spss.companyname.com. If you do this right and make all users go to the public URL then you will not have to mess with alternate address mappings.

5. Make sure that you do not point Mysites or the Shared Services to your main Sharepoint URL. As in point #4 above, create three separate URLs. If you don't, you will get strange stuff, like your user profiles will be the default landing page. It seems like the right thing to do if you don't know better, I mean it asks for a URL and you just want to tell it the Sharepoint URL. Big mistake here.

6. If you are going to use SSL, and want to redirect http request, visit this link.

7. Just make one site collection for your Sharepoint site to start with. At first I wasn't sure if every department needed a new site collection, so I made them each one. This didn't make sense for my setup, so if you aren't sure, I would say just start with one site collection and then you can have each department have different sites under that collection.

8. Backups: if you want Sharepoint Granular restore functions, which I would totally recommend you are going to probably have to license that feature with whichever backup software you are using. We use Backup Exec and the Sharepoint license was around $1,000

Those were just some of the areas that stumped me. I hope this can help someone down the road. I would appreciate anyone who knows Sharepoint a little better than me commenting and adding your thoughts or corrections to this.

iPhone 3GS Won't Play YouTube Videos on WiFi

2009-08-09T16:05:00.002-05:00

I got an iPhone 3GS shortly after it came out and found that my 1st generation iPhone had better YouTube video quality than my new iPhone 3GS. I did some research and found it was because I had wifi turned off on the 3GS. I turned wifi on and found I couldn't play YouTube videos at all with wifi on on the 3GS and neither could my husband with his 3GS. Both of our first generation iPhones worked fine. At first I thought this was something Apple would fix soon as I saw other people complaining about it, but it doesn't look like that has happened yet. Fortunately, I found a fix that you can read about below.

I had a newer router that is a Netgear Wireless-N router. The wifi speed listed in the setup menu was set to "up to 270Mbps" I changed this setting to "up to 54Mbps" and after rebooting my iPhone 3GS the issue was resolved. If you have a router that doesn't give you an option to change the speed look for an option to change from the N band to the G band. That should do the trick.

Blue Wallpaper with You Have Spyware Message

2008-06-13T22:59:00.003-05:00

Super Spyware
Originally uploaded by eshm

I ran into this spyware the other day on a computer. It changed the wallpaper to blue and had a message on the wallpaper saying "You Have Spyware"! It also removed the tabs from the Display Properties screen so that I could not adjust the wallpaper. Here is what fixed it:

1. Installed AVG Free Antivirus, then scanned and removed spyware/viruses

2. Downloaded and ran SmitFraudFix

3. Downloaded HijackThis and removed suspicious entries (if you are not sure what suspicious entries are then go to www.iamnotageek.com and it can analyze the HiJackThis log for you)

4. Downloaded & ran LSPFix

Best Backup Solution for Small & Large Businesses

2008-06-13T22:56:00.002-05:00

Tape Drive
Originally uploaded by danakin

Long gone are the days of people backing up to tape, THANKFULLY!!! If you are still on tape backups I strongly recommend you get away from them. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to pull my hair out attempting to get data to restore from these things.

I have been using the Sonicwall CDP units for about 2 years now and I LOVE LOVE LOVE these backup devices. They backup every computer on your network in real time. They store multiple revisions of each file and make restoring files a breeze. I finally have all of my clients off of tapes and a lot of them running the CDP device. If you are thinking of purchasing one of these I say go for it. I haven't had one fail me yet.

Notesmith 2008 Data Lost...Almost

2008-06-13T22:47:00.003-05:00

Frustrated
Originally uploaded by Fallout75

I have a client running Notesmith 2008 and their computer locked up and they had to hard shutdown. When they booted up they found that their data was no longer accessible. Notesmith 2008 would open, but you couldn't see any of the client list. More bad news, their backup had been modified by an employee and no longer included Notesmith data. So, here is what we found out. Notesmith automatically backs up every five days. It creates a backup zip file in the folder c:\princeton\notesmith 200x\data\backup\zip. The way to get the data back is below:

1. Open Notesmith 2008

2. Click File, Utilities

3. Select the restore button

4. Change the drive letter from A to C (until you do this you will not be able to proceed)

5. Click zip file and then click restore

It will automatically bring up your backups and then you can select the backup file you want to restore. Hope this saves someone some frustration. This is the first time in 8 years I've set someone up on a backup system and then the settings were change and data was ALMOST lost. Fortunately, the story has a good ending. The data was recovered and of course we setup a new backup system so this doesn't happen again!

Auburn Computer Magic Website Redesign

2008-05-25T10:00:00.002-05:00

A few days ago we redesigned the Auburn Computer Magic website. We like the new look and feel. It sticks with some of our main website design principles:

1. Create a site that loads fast
2. Create a site that is visually appealing, yet simple
3. Create a site where it's easy for a user to find information
4. Create a site that works on mobile devices

Outlook Won't Open EML Attachments or Forwards

2008-04-14T14:30:00.002-05:00

I ran into a strange problem just the other day. Outlook all of a sudden stopped opening *.eml attachments, which included a lot of these "cute" forwards people often send. The message just showed up blank. After going through a million different things including checking file associations, I found that the problem was the Google Desktop add-inn for Outlook. Once I removed Google Desktop all worked fine. Another option for this is just to disable the add-inn in Outlook. In Outlook 2007 you can find the Add-inns by following these steps.

1. Open Outlook

2. Click Tools

3. Click Trust Center

4. Click the Add-inn you want to disable, in this case the Google Desktop add-inn

5. At the bottom under manage, click Disable Item

6. Click OK, then close and reopen Outlook

Auburn Computer Magic

2007-10-04T17:16:00.001-05:00

Twin Lakes Computer Magic is now also known as Auburn Computer Magic. We now service the Auburn, CA area along with the Mountain Home, AR area. Check out our new website here.

Everett's Sawmill Website is Live!

2007-09-10T23:37:00.000-05:00

That's right, we've just completed another website. This one for Everett's Sawmill. Everett was a pleasure to work with and we were amazed with the beauty of the logs he creates for custom built log homes. Check out his website at www.everettssawmill.com.

Mountain Home Arkansas Restaurant Videos

2007-05-25T09:31:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for Mountain Home, Arkansas area restaurants then check out the new YouTube Channel Bill & I setup. You can find it here.

Remember, most posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Website is Live for Sew Unique of Mt. Home

2007-04-27T05:53:00.000-05:00

Sew Unique's Website is now live. You can visit it here. Owner, Debbie Horton, will be keeping her Blog updated with the latest happenings in the sewing world. Check out her site for all things sewing.

Don't forget, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

QuickBook and Windows Vista Compatibility

2007-03-09T11:20:00.000-06:00

We run an older version of QuickBooks and the only version of QuickBooks that works on Windows Vista is QuickBooks 2007. We didn't really want to upgrade QuickBooks so I created a work around so that I can access QuickBooks 2003 while in Vista. Here's what I did:

1. Downloaded Virtual PC 2007 for free from here.

2. Booted to Vista and installed Virtual PC 2007

3. Setup a Windows 2000 Pro virtual machine

4. Setup Virtual machine on network

5. Installed QuickBooks on the virtual machine and connected to network data

6. Created shortcut on my desktop to my newly created virtual machine

That was it. Now when I want to use QuickBooks while in Vista, I open my virtual machine and there it is.

If anyone is interested here is a good article explaining why the previous versions do not work with Vista. It looks like QuickBooks is killing their brand with the slow performance of new products, forcing upgrades by not supporting older software, and by not taking steps years ago to get their product up to date. I guess they really should change their name to SlowBooks.

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You Know It's Time to Say Goodbye When...

2007-03-08T11:41:00.000-06:00

Picture by Peter Kaminski.

1. They say, "You know, we just want it (referring to everything) to work and not have to call you to come out here again (implying everything must work forever - nevermind the upgrades)"

2. They say, "Our accountant has said we spent too much money on support last year." Even though they spent more the previous year, and appx 1/3 of what they spent in the year was because a previous computer guy installed illegal software. Even though when I compared what they spent to a competitor of theirs it was 4 times less - a competitor who by the way has a network that works pretty darn good because they listen to what I say. (They thought they shouldn't be compared).

3. They say, "We can't remember you saying we needed to get rid of Norton Internet Security, even though it was on the last invoice and I had told them at least 3 times."

4. They say, "It's (referring to everything) is not working when 1 out of 5 programs is not working.

5. They say, "It's a program we use everyday but we are not sure if it worked at all in the last year."

6. They do, "Use two other computer people for support in the last 3 or 4 years and end up coming back after they find out those guys suck"

7. They say, "We should be paying $40 per hour for computer support." When the worst company in town (that employs one of the guys in #6) charges $60 per hour.

8. They say, "You fix stuff and then we don't know if it works and we have to redo it." Even though I follow up after every service call and they say it's working great (good thing I take notes of date time and person I spoke to about how great the service was).

9. They have, a hateful attitude and blame instead of just stating there is a problem and they would like to get a better understanding.

10. They say, "If you ever want to work in this town again, you will do blah blah blah!"

That's when you know it's time to fire the client and say goodbye. By this point they've built up too much resentment and are refusing to look at facts.

Windows Visual or Windows Experience

2007-03-04T10:21:00.000-06:00

I run Windows Vista in a dual boot with Windows XP. I was feeling mixed on whether or not I liked Windows Vista more or not and then I figured it out. I noticed when my computer was booting and I had 30 seconds to make a choice of Vista or XP I went through this thought process:

Do I have something to get done today? If so I went to XP

Do I have time to play around and deal with a bit more annoying things? If so I went to Vista

I was a bit surprised at my thoughts on this, but it's true Vista doesn't support everything I use and it is slower than XP. I think the names say it all, XP is for Experience and Vista is more of a visual thing. So, it comes down to, do you want to see pretty things or do you want to to have the experience of getting work done faster?

Remember, the majority of posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

AT&T Killed Cingular

2007-03-03T13:45:00.000-06:00

AT&T bought Cingular and now our service doesn't work anymore. We always had great coverage at our home until Friday. Now, sometimes we can make calls out, and some calls get in, but most the time the calls are dropped and the signal fluctuates greatly. It's just gravy that our Cingular contract ends in 3 days. The only other option here is Alltel, and to be quite honest I would rather have Cingular. I spoke to tech support and they told me 3-5 days before it might work. That's not acceptable, I have kids, we do business on our phones, and we only use cell phones. We can't be down for more than 24 hours. So, in frustration I punished the Cingular logo above.

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Word 2007 PDF Gives Error Message

2007-02-26T22:13:00.000-06:00

Picture by indi.ca.

I've been working on creating a PDF file through Word 2007, but when I uploaded it to my website people were getting Adobe Reader error messages when they tried to open it. It turned out they had to have the latest Adobe Reader Version 8.0 to read the document I created with Word 2007. What a bummer. I did find this way cool free software called PrimoPDF that did the trick. PrimoPDF allows you to take any document you can print and convert it into a PDF. PrimoPDF saved the day!

Remember most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Outdoor Wi-Fi Hotspot Installation

2007-02-26T13:47:00.000-06:00

Last week we did an Outdoor Wi-Fi Hotspot Installation and had a lot of fun with it. We used two D-Link DWL-7700AP Access Points for the installation. Before doing the install we were surprised that we could not find much information on the Internet about these units, so we decided to create a document containing step by step information about the installation. You can view the document here.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Medicare MCE Claims Not Sending

2007-02-20T20:50:00.001-06:00

I hate dealing with transmitting medical Insurance claims, but that's what I did today. It all started about five years ago when I got a call from a lady at a local Doctor's office that told me her modem wasn't working. I thought, Gee, no big deal, that will be easy to fix. I went out and found out that she referred to her computer as her modem and when she said not working she meant she didn't know how to use it. I've now learned to ask people, "What do you mean so & so is not working, or how do you know it isn't working?"

Back to the story, after some questions I found out what she really needed was to get setup with Medicare to do electronic claim submissions. So, after about a week of me studying the software, and talking to Medicare, and learning about billing codes, and inputting a zillion codes, we were set and uploading claims.

Fast forward about five years and it stopped working. Claims were only being sent partially and sometimes not at all. We found that the Medicare Claims Express Software, or MCE, had corrupted data. The symptoms were when we went to "Workday Wrap up" the blue bar did not go to the top of the screen, but it did create the file to send. We could transmit the file just fine through Hyper Terminal, but Medicard did not receive it correctly.

As luck may have it, our the backup started failing last September and no one ever checked it. We were able to take all the files from the backup that started with ptnt* and overwrite the current corrupted files and then all started working fine again. Who would have thought a failed backup would save us?

Vista's Zip Extractor & Snipping Tool

2007-02-14T12:10:00.000-06:00

I'm now into week 2 of using Vista and I have found that the built in Zip extractor is extremely slow. It took it over 2 minutes to extract a 1.38MB file. I did find that WinRAR works on Vista and it extracted the same file in seconds.

Now, one thing I have found that I love about Vista is the Snipping Tool. It works like Print Screen on Steroids! You click the Snipping Tool and then select which area of the desktop you want to cut out as a picture and then it automatically opens up a new box with the area you selected. You can then save the file as a JPEG and you're done.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Getting Oriented with Windows Vista Business

2007-02-04T23:00:00.000-06:00

I've been working on getting Windows Vista Business Edition loaded this weekend. Currently, I have it setup in a dual boot with Windows XP. I ran the Vista Beta for a few months, and enjoyed it even though it was a bit slow. I'm pleased to say the final release of Vista seems to operate a lot faster than the Beta did. Here are some of the things I've ran into during this initial setup.

1. The start menu of course has changed, and I believe for the better, no more pop-out menus. Hooray!!!

2. Windows Mobile center automatically detected my Dell Axim, and after I deleted current partnerships it started syncing up just fine. I like the Interface here also.

3. I keep getting these pop up messages about switching my color scheme. Currently I'm running Windows Aero, but anytime I open Macromedia Fireworks, Trillian, or any web page with Active X content it switches my Color Scheme to Windows Basic. It's somewhat annoying, but the good news is as soon as I close the program causing the problem Vista automatically goes back to Aero.

4. Vista has some black and white wallpaper choices...finally. I don't like my wallpaper to be noisy and generally I stick with just a plain color, but now Vista has added a few black and white selections.

5. Vista Help and Support is actually helpful. I had to search for where to change the hidden files settings and when I went to Help and Support there was an option that Vista would do it for me. I clicked and boom Vista changed the setting. I was shocked.

6. Of course there are some program compatibility issues that I have noticed. Zone Alarm gives a big warning and I had trouble installing AVG. My AVG Resident Shield still will not load, even though it ran in Beta and AVG claims it should work.

7. Adobe Illustrator fussed a little after install and told me I did not have privileges. I went to help and support and Vista suggested I right click the program icon and go to the Compatibility tab. Once there I could tell it to "Run this program as an administrator" and what do you know........Vista Help and Support came through again.

My overall Vista satisfaction rating is about an 8, even though Vista only rates my experience as a 2.6.

I would still recommend people wait 6 months to upgrade and give software companies time to work out these minor issues.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

QuickBooks Performance Issue

2007-02-02T17:25:00.000-06:00

I've had a ton of trouble with QuickBooks lately, it was almost time to call in the QuickBooks Queen, but alas I solved the slow QuickBooks mystery.

Here's the scanario: Computer A hosted the QuickBooks company file and ran QuickBooks. Computer B ran QuickBooks locally, but pulled the data from Computer A. Both computers were had the same hardware specs and all other programs worked normally, except QuickBooks.

Symptoms: QuickBooks opened terribly slow after logon...32 seconds to be exact after entering the password. When switching company files it was the same thing, 32 seconds. (Keep in mind these are good computers with a lot of RAM and Processor power).

What we found: Computer A happened to also be the Spector CNE server and Computer A & B both had the Spector Recorders installed and reporting data to Computer A. When we uninstalled the recorder from Computer B the QuickBooks company file would open the file from Computer A 10 times faster.

The problem: Apparently if you host the QuickBooks file on a computer and that computer is also the Spector CNE server, and if the other computer wanting to open QuickBooks has the Spector CNE recorder then the performance of QuickBooks is degraded. It seemed that even if I switched the files around so that Computer A was pulling the data from B that there was still a performance issue, so I think that if you have Spector CNE Recorder installed at all then QuickBooks seems to take a hit over the network.

Remember, Check Design Ninjas for the latest.

Restore QuickBooks Updates After a Reinstall

2007-02-02T16:47:00.000-06:00

I usually hate it when I have to reinstall QuickBooks and wait for all of the updates to load. It seems to take forever. I finally figured out that the QuickBooks updates are stored in the C:\Program Files\Intuit\QuickBooks Pro\Components\DownloadQB13 folder and all you have to do is back this folder up. Once you reinstall QuickBooks you then can copy the DownloadQB13 folder over the top of the newly installed folder, and then when you open QuickBooks it will load the updates.

If you don't see the folder DownloadQB13, then just look for a folder under the Intuit directory named Downloadxxxx. The folder number varies by version of QuickBooks.

Check out Design Ninjas, where we post on a daily basis.

Can a Computer Think Outside of the Box?

2007-01-31T10:17:00.000-06:00

This computer can!

Be sure to check Design Ninjas for the latest posts.

DAVE Is Cool

2007-01-31T06:41:00.000-06:00

Robert Scoble introduces Seagate's new product, Digital Audio Video Experience (or D.A.V.E):

It's a device that fits in your hand, or your pocket. Other devices talk to it through USB, BlueTooth, or WiFi wireless connections, and it stores stuff. Music. Videos. Photos. Or standard old files. You can play those off of a cell phone, or a laptop, or a desktop computer.

With 10GB or 20GB of storage for less than $200, it means your mobile phone can be your mobile computer. Nice.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Photoshop Drawing Practice

2007-01-31T06:32:00.000-06:00

I like to draw people, but I have never really entered the digital world of drawing people until a few days ago. A few days ago I decided to take a stab at drawing a face in Adobe Photoshop and I liked it. It will take a little getting use to before it feels comfortable, but above is my first attempt at it.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

MSN Sort Of Asks What We Want

2007-01-31T06:29:00.000-06:00

I went to MSN homepage and saw this:

My first thought, "Oh MSN, is asking for feedback. I will do that and I think I will suggest that they allow each user to customize their homepage with widgets, like Google. Then I could add feed readers and whatever other information I want." So, I clicked on the link and went to this little survey giving me four options of what I wanted MSN to add, like below:

Well, I chose the Neither option and apparently so did the majority of people. I did find that you can customize your MSN homepage with widgets, but it seems like too much work to mess with it. I'll just keep using Google. I think MSN should have made this question a little more open, where people could have actually suggested things that they want.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Symantec, "We Cannot Pass This Information"

2007-01-24T20:44:00.000-06:00

From my previous post, you've probably noticed I'm having some trouble with Symantec. What you may not know, is that I've been having trouble with different versions of Symantec for the past two years. I've been slowly migrating all my clients away from them and anyone who is running their product. Today I had some problems with Symantec detecting Spector 360 as spyware and disabling it even though the end users told Symantec to Exclude scanning this. So, Spector sent me an email on how to fix it all (basically reinstall everything) and a link to Symantec's chat. When I connected with Symantec's chat service I was number 29 in the queue and after I go connected this is what was said:

user Misty_Olen
has entered room.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

analyst Shailendra has entered room.

Shailendra:
Hello Misty_Olen. My name is Shailendra.

Misty_Olen:
I have Symantec Corporate Edition 10.1 that we paid for about 50 licenses of, I have Spector 360 that we paid for 50 licenses of, both of these costs thousands of dollars. Now, Symantec has killed my Spector install, even though I clicked exclude. I want someone at Symantec to do something about Spector being detected as spyware.

Shailendra:
Hello , thank you for contacting Symantec Live Technical Support. Please make a note of the Chat Request Id [268368] for this interaction

Shailendra:
Can you confirm the telephone number as

Misty_Olen:
870-xxx-xxxx

Misty_Olen:
870-xxx-xxxx

Misty_Olen:
bottom number is the correct one

Shailendra:
I suggest you please contact enterprise support.

Misty_Olen:
I suggest Symantec get it's act together and you pass this information on

Shailendra:
I recommend that you please post your message / query to the respective product group. Doing this will direct you to the exact group of Technical Support Engineers specializing in that particular product group, who will study your case and provide you with information that match your needs.

Please click on the URL link provided below and choose the respective product from the drop down list of products:

>Web URL:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/enterprise/select_product_contact.html

Shailendra:
Is there anything else I can help you with?

Misty_Olen:
Yes, you could help me

Misty_Olen:
You could agree to pass this on, instead of telling me to call a phone number after waiting through a queue of 29 people

Misty_Olen:
This whole waiting time has been pointless unless you are actually going to do something besides be an online phone book

Shailendra:
I understand your concerns .

Shailendra:
But we cannot do that.

Misty_Olen:
you can't pass on information

Misty_Olen:
?

Shailendra:
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.

Misty_Olen:
No I don't accept

Misty_Olen:
I accept results

Misty_Olen:
not what you are offering

Misty_Olen:
You should have a boss or someone that you can tell about this

Shailendra:
We cannot pass this information.

Misty_Olen:
that's what I want you to do

Misty_Olen:
so, are you saying symantec can't communicate

Shailendra:
I suggest you please contact them.

Misty_Olen:
?

Misty_Olen:
who are you? Do you work for symantec?

Misty_Olen:
This is technical support,

Misty_Olen:
you work for symantec

Misty_Olen:
you have a boss

Misty_Olen:
tell your boss to tell whoever needs to know that there is a problem with this

Shailendra:
Please click on the URL link provided below and choose the respective product from the drop down list of products:

>Web URL:
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/enterprise/select_product_contact.html

Misty_Olen:
Thanks, but you just lost at least 10 customers from this one exchange, way to go Shailendra, you should look for a new company to go to work for

I lost a snippet of this conversation where Shailendra told me that I was at the Home Users Support group. I understand I didn't have a home user product, but nowhere in the waiting time did it talk about connecting to Home User technical support. My problem with this is that if you work for a company then you should be able to send an email to somebody who could take a look at this problem. I wasn't looking for a solution from Symantec, I already have one from Spector, all I wanted from Symantec was for them to step up and do something about this happening in the future. But it looks like they couldn't even do that.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Symantec's Never Ending Queue

2007-01-24T20:42:00.000-06:00

I posted earlier about Symantec killing Spector 360. Well, it turns out that I was wrong, and you don't just have to exclude a couple files, you have to completely reinstall Spector, and configure Symantec to exclude Spector from scans. This alone was enough to make me want to kill Symantec, but there's more, I went to connect to their online chat and I was number 29 in the queue. That's like telling me to wait forever. I've moved most of my customer's off of Symantec, but after this I'm ready to persuade the rest to switch also. The thing is that Symantec should know that business's spend thousands of dollars on their Spector 360 software and thousands on Symantec, so why on earth they would detect legitimate software and disable it is beyond me. Get a clue Symantec, better yet just go ahead and die like the dogs you are!

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Symantec Kills Spector

2007-01-22T09:30:00.000-06:00

I have Spector 360 installed at one of our customer's locations and it has been running successfully for a month. But, today Symantec attacked. Apparently they released an update that detects Spector 360 as spyware and quarantines it. Symantec detects Spector as Spyware.Spector, so the first step is to go into Symantec and in every scan you have setup you have to configure it to exclude Spyware.Spector. Then you have to get two new files from Spector: spuninst.exe and spsetup.exe. Those two files have to be copied over to the Spector 360 and overwrite the old files with the same name. You then have to go into the Control Panel and create a new configuration file with the Deployment utility. Then you must redeploy all Spector installations. It's frustrating when Symantec attacks.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

WordPress Website

2007-01-18T17:04:00.000-06:00

Today I've been working on a website redesign for TLCmagic. Bill and I wanted something simple, fluid, and functional. We decided to try out WordPress for this transition after we read this article . In that article they mention these as reasons to base a website off of WordPress:

* editing without needing to know HTML

* reader participation through comments

* organization of the content using tags

* seamless handling of pre-existing URLs

* easy addition of new functionality (because it is “open source”)

* free support by the very responsive developer and user communities

Remember, the majority of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Windows Vista. Upgrade? Or Not?

2007-01-18T11:53:00.000-06:00

At the end of this month a new version of Windows will release, Windows Vista. I ran the beta copy for a few months and found it to have a lot of nice eye candy, but I'm not sure that I will upgrade. I'm afraid a lot of people are going to go out and buy Vista, not realizing that it will probably slow their PC down, unless they upgrade the hardware (like in the video above). I'm not sure yet if we will upgrade to Vista right when it comes out. I am however looking forward to 2007 Office because it is just so darn cool looking. So, before you run out and buy a Vista upgrade be sure to do some research on what hardware you have and how it will operate with Vista.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Sonicwall CDP Connection Problem

2007-01-16T21:32:00.000-06:00

Today I had a connection problem with a Sonicwall CDP 1440i. I could not connect using either the Enterprise Manager or the Agent Tool. I could bring up the Sonicwall CDP login page in a browser, however it would not accept my user name and password. When I entered the wrong user name and password it displayed an error message at the bottom of the screen about being out of space.

So, I called Sonicwall support and got Frank. Frank had to login remotely and do some of his Sonicwall magic to fix it and then all worked fine. So, unfortunately I don't have a fix to offer other than call Sonicwall.

Frank let me know that this was a known issue that had been happening lately. I expressed my concern about the other units I have installed that did not have current support agreements, but did have valid warranties. Frank let me know that if I was unable to connect to the unit then they would either RMA it or tell me how to fix it if the unit was still under hardware warranty, but out of the support agreement. Frank wasn't one of those evil support guys (like the guy I had to talk to from QuickBooks later in the day), he actually knew what he was talking about, fixed the problem quickly, and gave me good advice about the other units. Thanks Frank!

Remember, most of our posts take place at Design Ninjas now, where we Kick Ass on a daily basis!

Bill Gates Must Die

2007-01-07T20:34:00.000-06:00

I actually like Bill Gates, but I thought this video was funny. My thoughts: If you hate Windows enough you will spend enough time on learning how to use Linux or a Mac. Personally, I don't hate Windows that much.

Remember, most of our posts are taking place at Design Ninjas.

Dell Pre-installed Spyware

2006-12-08T08:34:00.000-06:00

The first time that I noticed My Way Search Assistant in Control Panel on a brand new Dell I thought I must have picked up something in the first five minutes online. The next two new Dell computers I installed had the exact same thing, and this time it was before I started surfing the Internet. I did some research and found that it was true, Dell is now pre-installing spyware. They are telling their tech support not to tell customers about spyware removal products because it goes against some license agreements. They even say customers are overreacting in this article. Dude, Dell is almost Dead.

Remember, most of our posts are now taking place at the Design Ninjas Blog.

How the Hell Did a Californian land in Mountain Home, Arkansas???

2006-12-03T17:45:00.000-06:00

We've had a lot of people ask how Bill ended up here in Mountain Home, Arkansas from Sacramento. Last week Paste This suggested we tell this story, so we've decided to do just that.

We usually refer to it as our Bait and Switch story.

Bill and I met through a mutual friend Steve LeBlanc. Steve and Bill had lived in Santa Fe 15 or so years earlier. Steve introduced Bill and I through the Internet. Now normally I would not have spoken to anyone on the Internet I didn't know, but I figured Bill had a good reference so he must be ok. After countless hours on the phone and online I flew out to Sacto for some Microsoft training. That was it, we knew we had to be together. So, every other weekend we flew back and forth. The plan was for me to move with my two kids to Sacto. I loved it there and so did Bill. Well, after Bill and I got married I chickened out (didn't want to quit my job, sell my house, or move my kids). So, I delievered the news that there was no way I was moving to California now. At that time I was still living in Arkansas and he in California. So after a day of him thinking this over he decided he would journey to The Natural State to be with me.

Today marks our two year wedding anniversary, and it's been a great adventurous two years!!

Remember, most of our posts are now taking place at the Design Ninjas Blog.

Activation Hell

2006-11-30T08:59:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in a few days for a couple reasons. It's been a bad few days...I crashed my computer a total of 3 times. I had a Win 2000/Vista dual boot setup...not anymore. Here's what happened.

1. Decided to install a new burning program on Win2000 partition
2. Got a blue screen and thought, no big deal I use Acronis I will restore the image
3. Started Acronis restore, got an error, ignored it, it deleted my Win2000 partition, but didn't restore
4. I was frustrated, thought about just not using a computer anymore, 5 minutes later decided I would take this opportunity to upgrade to WinXP...I've been holding off for awhile now
5. Installed WinXP on the former Win2000 space
6. It booted fine, but couldn't get to Vista anymore
7. Attempted to fix Vista boot by booting to Vista CD and doing a repair, no luck
8. Thought screw this I'm going to get rid of Vista and wait until the final version comes out
9. Deleted Vista partition
10. Could no longer boot Win XP
11. Repaired XP (sort of) by running repair off the CD
12. Programs didn't work right, things were strange, ran chkdsk and blue screen of death again
13. Keep in mind I activated XP when I first installed, after I repaired and now I was going to have to activate again (hold my breath and hope it works so I don't have to call India and read a gazillion numbers)
14. I again pondered not using a desktop computer anymore and sticking with my laptop
15. 5 minutes later started a reinstall of Windows XP
16. Finished reinstall and started to activate and no such luck
17. I entered Activation Hell with Microsoft, so I did the phone thing and got that worked through..as a side note this was the 2nd time in one day I had to call Microsoft to Activate, earlier in the day I had to call for a customer
18. Spent forever reinstalling programs and such
19. Backed up the computer
20. Now I'm back :)!

Remember, most of our posts are now taking place at Design Ninjas!

Firefox vs. IE

2006-11-11T16:11:00.000-06:00

Here at Design Ninjas we are big Firefox fans. Mostly because there are so many extensions to choose from and ways to customize your browser with Firefox. My favorite extensions are Adblock and Adblock Filterset.G Updater. You can see in the two pictures above how different the same web page, www.tvmegasite.net, looks. The top one was a screen shot taken in Internet Explorer. The bottom picture was a screen shot taken in Firefox. The difference in the look is caused by the Adblock extension in Firefox.

I understand tvmegasite.net is a nonprofit organization and needs to make enough money to support the site, but the amount of advertisements and the ugliness of them all violate my sensibilities! I don't mind text advertisements, like Google does. It's the moving, flashing, dancing, bouncing ones that make me nuts. When a company puts advertisements like these on their websites I assume they are looking to sell to people who aren't tech savvy, because people who are know how to block that crap automatically!

You can find this same post at Design Ninjas. We will continue to post here every once in awhile, but most of our posts you will find at the Design Ninjas Blog.

Official Launch of DesignNinjas.com

2006-11-01T19:53:00.000-06:00

This morning a cat came up to our back door and we let our dog Buster out to meet him. There was barking and a claw to the nose, but they made friends and Buster shared a saucer of milk with Sam the cat.

And today is the official launch of our new site DesignNinjas.com where we will be doing most of our new blog posts. Click on over there to see a clip of Buster and Sam making friends.

TLCmagic White and Nerdy

2006-10-31T10:45:00.000-06:00

We heard this Weird Al Yankovic song off the Straight Outta Lynwood album for the first time this morning and just had to mash it up with this clip from our Office Closing. Yep, we're White and Nerdy, but tomorrow we will go live with our new Black and Beautiful Site!

To Take Risks or Not To Take Risks

2006-10-16T14:13:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I (Misty) was walking through a little grocery store and looking at all of the old people. I had a moment of wondering what I would think when I was their age and I looked back at my life. I wondered if I would have any regrets. Normally I don't believe regrets are a good thing because every choice I have made, good or bad, has usually taught me something, and helped make me who I am. But, I could conceive of being older and regretting one thing, and that one thing was: Not taking enough risks and letting my fear control my decisions.

So, what is a risk? I know there are many different ways people think of risks...like in the video surfing a big wave, or sky diving. I'm talking about different risks, like starting a new business or making a big move across country. Mostly I think of these as risks because it's not guaranteed that I will be improving my life if I do these things, and I could fail bigtime, and the thought of failing is a scary one.

So, next is working through the fear. Fear is a tough one for me and I have many ways of dealing with it, but my two main ones are ignore it and push through the scary thing, or step back and take a bigger picture look. I think the "healthier" approach is the step back and take a look at the bigger picture. You may wonder how I do that. Well, let's see if I can explain it.

Example: Bill and I are moving our business in the direction of Design.

What's the risk or the fear in the example? We could lose all of our money and die from starvation. We might suck at Design and everyone might hate us. What if no one wants to pay us money and then what if we have to get jobs working for other people? The fear goes on and on.

What do I do to stop it? I decide to stop the thoughts where they are, and then I look at the worst thing that could happen: We could slowly lose money and have to get regular 9-5 jobs. Then I think about the best that could happen: We could be wildly successful and achieve all of our dreams. Then I think of what will happen if we don't take the risk: Nothing...things will probably stay the same. We won't improve our chances for success, but we won't die an ugly death either. Once I know all three of those answers (Worst, Best, and Middle) then I take a look at my overall life and goals and decide whether or not the risk is working towards my goals. If it is then just knowing the answers to those questions is enough to help me move through the fear and get on with the Risk Taking.

If anyone is wondering about Bill's process...Well, it's simple. He's fierce. If he feels fear he crushes it, and then becomes more fierce. He's also very arrogant, so he thinks he is wonderful at everything. His process is much, much different from mine!

Working With Your Spouse

2006-10-16T14:12:00.000-05:00

If you have read our blog much, you know that we are married and we work together. Most people have ideas about what it is like to work with your spouse, and some have experienced it first hand. Of course, like everything in life, there are pros and cons to it. As you can tell from the pictures, it takes a whole lot of wrestling, and working back and forth.

Pros:

You love the person you work with (at least you should if you are going to work together)
You know each other very well and get to speak in Raw Format
Working together adds adventure and a sense of accomplishment to the relationship
You get to kiss and hug a lot without sexual harrasment lawsuits

Cons:

Working together can add more stress to the marriage (but if handled correctly can bring the two closer)
You can't just quit your job easily because you live with the partner you own the business with
You have to look at the same person 24/7, and anybody can get annoying after that long (remedy: get out and take breaks with friends)

Most of the time we love working together. Sometimes Misty wants to rip Bill's head off, and other times Bill wants to growl at Misty like in the pictures below. When we stop and think about it though, we both would hate not getting to work together.

South Park Ninjas

2006-10-12T16:11:00.000-05:00

We often watch South Park episodes at night after the Kids are off to bed. In this clip Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny transform into ninjas. For now we transform with Stealth.

Zero to Hero or Hero to Zero

2006-10-10T12:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we had a service call at Mike Byler's house, a.k.a the Iceman, and he had a hard drive that was dying. Mike let us know in Raw Format that if we didn't get the data we would be a Zero, and if we did get the data we would be Heroes. Turned out we got to play the Hero role this time! We understand how these roles fluctuate, and just as easily we can be the Zeroes again. Anyways, we like the Iceman and we love Raw Format. Yesterday we talked about who our ideal public was, so we have a new quality to add in the ideal customer:
We love it when customers give us Raw Format!

Puppy Print Update

2006-10-09T18:01:00.000-05:00

We saw a post about Hugh MacLeod's Puppy Print on eBay, so just for fun, put one up ourselves. It sold to a chap from Australia for $41.00 plus shipping, not quite as high as the first one for $56.00, but not too bad. So a print from a South African company, lithographed in England, goes through Arkansas, before landing in Australia. And the Global MicroBrand rocks on. Krikey!

Who We Love and Who We Hate

2006-10-09T09:59:00.000-05:00

Who do we love? Who do we hate? Who is our public? Who is our ideal customer?

These are all questions that we often ask. In the picture above, we have Sheila, a.k.a., The Salsa Lady! We love Sheila and her Salsa, but you may ask why do we love her. First, she makes wonderful salsa and is amazingly friendly, she usually has a positive outlook on life and a smile waiting for us. Second, she's alive and she can see things and get things. Third, she's in love with her husband after 20 odd years of marriage. She's a truly fun person to be around. No, she is not a customer, but does contain qualities we look for in customers.

So, who do we hate? No, we aren't going to post a picture example on this one. We hate people who have a bad attitude, people who won't return phone calls, and people who aren't alive. We hate it when people are not happy to pay us and don't get that we like to do good work. You may get stumped on the people "not happy to pay us" and think "why would anybody be happy to pay anyone?" Well, two examples:

1. We love to pay our attorney Norman Wilber whatever money he asks for and as soon as we get the bill. Why? Because he does a kick ass job and we want him to get that we appreciate him

2. I (Misty) loved to pay the Roto Rooter man whatever he wanted when he pulled out a glob of toilet paper that my son had stuck in the toilet. Why? Because I couldn't get the stupid toilet to flush and even though it was just toilet paper he made it happen and I appreciated that!

So...who is our public or our ideal customer? People who are alive, people that get things and are often taking a fresh look, people who are capable of appreciating, people we can connect with, and most importantly people who get the joy of us doing work for them.

You can lead a carp to water, but you can't make him duck.

2006-10-08T08:50:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday we went down to the fish dock at Bull Shoals Lake and spent a couple quarters to feed the carp and ducks. That day it was warm and sunny, but today it is cool and foggy. As the weather changes direction, so do we, to get unstuck from the same old same old.

TLCmagic Ninja Masks

2006-10-04T15:20:00.000-05:00

We transform TLCmagic t-shirts into Ninja Masks as we transform Twin Lakes Computer Magic into Design Ninjas. But we are still in Stealth Mode, so can say no more.

Serial Website Killer

2006-10-02T10:49:00.000-05:00

This screencap to the top left shows the site that was and still is online. It, of course, is several years out of date. Why not take it down or update it?

This to the right is the site we did last year, it is still online, and it has not been updated either. Why not take it down or update it?

This to the bottom left is the site that came out last week. It appears that no one has explained to these people that you can use the same URL and change the design of the site by uploading new files. It also appears no one has explained to these people that it will be hard for people to just stumble on the correct site if you keep multiple websites up at the same time. How long until this one is abandoned and folks have to start looking again for the Twin Lakes Soccer Association? What are these people thinking? What is their Design?

Ninja Mask

2006-09-26T12:13:00.000-05:00

We came across this image years ago on the Net, and we found it again with a Google Image search. But what is a mask for? This Wikipedia article suggests ceremonial uses, to prevent recognition, protective, punitive, and other uses. And how will you use your Ninja Mask? With great power comes great responsibility!

Ninja Partners

2006-09-25T12:54:00.000-05:00

We came across this video clip, and it cracks us up! We are extremely fortunate to have each other as partners, but every once in a while it feels just like this. Enjoy, and may you find a great partner yourself!

TLCmagic Take Three, You're Out!

2006-09-24T19:08:00.000-05:00

It had to happen sooner or later, they took down TLCmagic and put up more signs in the windows. You saw Take One and Take Two, and now this is the last of the Drivebys. But watch this space, for we have much more to say about signs, designs, and Ninjas!

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

2006-09-20T19:55:00.000-05:00

We summited our version of An Invitation To Giving, and it was taken over by Microsoft Publisher and totally changed into another creature called "Brochure"!

Would you rather get an Invitation or a Brochure?

You be the judge!

TLCmagic Take Two

2006-09-18T15:49:00.000-05:00

Last week we did a Driveby Shooting, and today we came back for more. Our URL is still there, but now it is surrounded by even more signs, and decorated with the Flag. God Bless America!

Smarter Conversations

2006-09-16T10:14:00.000-05:00

This past week we were reminded of Hugh MacLeod's thoughts on "smarter conversations", and particularly these two points:

5. Ruthlessly avoid working for companies that “don’t get it.”
Yeah, you may have to turn down a few gigs, and that can really hurt when the rent is due. Still, anything that’s easy to get isn’t worth having.

6. Ruthlessly avoid working for companies that think they know better than you.
Luckily, if you get the whole “smarter conversations” thing, their “Yes, buts” will just seem rather empty, making them easier to “toss out like old furniture.”

We do want to have smarter conversations. Don't you?

Synchronicity

2006-09-14T20:18:00.000-05:00

This morning, Bill's custom-built usual working computer with dual monitors, to your left in the picture, would not turn on. Bill switched to the single monitor computer, to your right, and just continued on. Later Misty replaced a power supply and processor fan, and the usual working computer was up and running.

All this was possible because of Misty's technical knowledge, our inventory of computer parts, and our nightly synchronization of computers. Is YOUR data backed up, is YOUR system backed up? How much does it COST per hour if you cannot get on your computer and do your work? What is your business model DESIGN? Good questions, huh?

Sailing Into The Wind

2006-09-13T19:12:00.000-05:00

Neither of us had ever seen a sailboat on Lake Norfork before, but this evening we did, and geese too! Notice the geese have the wind at their backs, while the boat sails into the wind.

We have noticed sometimes when we make a choice to do what is best for us, it seems like there are more forces against us, and the appearance is that it is easier to go with the flow than against the flow.

Good example 1: When we got married everyone except Bill's best friend Bud Guess told us to wait and wait and not to get married so soon. We went against the wind and are very happily married.

Good Example 2: When we started our own business, all of Misty's family was telling us that we shouldn't do that. We went against the wind and have had a very successful and fun business together.

Been sailing into the wind lately, or are you one of the geese?

TLCmagic Take One

2006-09-10T08:51:00.000-05:00

If you read our blog often, you know we like to have fun. Like when Bill stole the UPS man's dolly just to get a picture for a blog post. Our latest trick is when we moved out of our old office to become more Mobile, we left our website address at the bottom of the door. We wondered how long it would stay up, and what great mashups we might get with new signs.

So, here we have TLCmagic Take One. Over the weekend we did a driveby photo shoot of the Office on the Corner on the Square and found that we have become integrated with the Republican Party. Oh the Humanity, Horror, and Humor of it all!

Full Moon & Rising Sun

2006-09-08T10:56:00.000-05:00

The Full Moon & Rising Sun, and two gray herons welcomed us as we started our walk by Lake Norfork this morning.

Colton & Madison both had early falls, and we all had an early Fall with cool temperatures and fog.

Why Do You Rob Banks? Because That's Where The Money Is.

2006-09-07T19:30:00.000-05:00

We were shown this example to the left of a brochure encouraging gifting to a non-profit organization, and were asked if we might do something similar.

We did this one below in the form of an invitation, and we think it is quite different.

Which one will get better results?

Burning Sticks is Like Design

2006-09-05T13:19:00.000-05:00

Sometimes all we have to work with is a pile of dead things, so we have to burn it down and start from scratch. And if it doesn't burn fast enough, we call for backup, our neighbor Linn Sonkens, and have him cover it in crankcase oil. Out with the dead things and in with the new ideas.

Misty's Drafting Chair

2006-08-31T20:46:00.000-05:00

Misty's Drafting Chair arrived yesterday. Some assembly was required, but all came out well.

Design Website Draft Part Two

2006-08-31T20:11:00.000-05:00

And now, the exciting conclusion!

Design Website Draft Part One

2006-08-31T19:58:00.000-05:00

Today we closed the office for good and went down to Norfork Lake to discuss the design of our design website. Here is Part One.

Our Garage

2006-08-29T12:58:00.000-05:00

Our garage may never become as famous as the HP Garage, but it is already showing promise as a base camp for Process, Brand, and Web Design. We call it the huh RAH heh, as if it were a Spanish word. Technical note: The word garage is actually French in origin.

Misty has her dual monitors, tower, tablet, laptop, and p.d.a. setup. All she needs now is her Drafting Chair.

Bill is happy as a clam with his dual monitors, tower, full backup computer, dual printers & scanners, and whiteboard!

TLCmagic Goes Mobile

2006-08-29T09:21:00.000-05:00

We sent out this press release a couple Tuesdays ago, and today The Baxter Bulletin published this photo with this caption:

Bill and Misty Olen, co-owners of Twin Lakes Computer Magic, recently announced that they will be closing their office on the Courthouse Square in Mountain Home at the end of August to become more mobile. Said Olen, "Almost all our work is on site, and now we can go more places."

This is all part of our rebranding TLCmagic as Mobile, Global, and En-****ing-gaged!

Serenity Inc. Logo Process

2006-08-27T20:20:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we began the task of marketing Serenity Inc. with the name of the organization, the words "Domestic Peace", and a little bit of the sense of Serenity's purpose. Bill offered his raw format opinion of their former logo here.
Misty surveyed relatives and friends on what the words "serenity" and peace meant to them, Bill Google Image searched the words and looked at hundreds of images. We discussed our findings and came up with about 4 possible areas of imagery, and Misty began making sketches until she had over a hundred.

We pored over the sketches, and narrowed the field down to 3 themes: Family, Dove, and Sunrise. More sketches were made, and we narrowed it down to 3 finalists. Grayscale versions and 4 tagline options were presented to the Board President and Executive Director, and a consensus began to emerge.

Now it was time to review the process with the full board and include their feedback, so color schemes we presented. And taglines were offered -- Building Domestic Peace, Bringing Domestic Peace, Making Domestic Peace, Waging Domestic Peace.

And the winner is Family Purple on Blue, Bringing Domestic Peace!

Love Story Collage Colored

2006-08-25T12:49:00.000-05:00

Love Story Collage Two

2006-08-25T12:30:00.000-05:00

Ok this is the last of the "love collage" posts---at least for now!

Love Story Collage

2006-08-24T16:53:00.000-05:00

Misty was working on this collage to print up in poster size for our bedroom, and then a couple of Sunday's ago, this post got this comment from Tara Hunt of HorsePigCow.com:

You two are so cute!

You have to join the Love2.0 meme. ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/love20
(etc.)

It's about couples connecting through geekery. :) Thanks for coming by and commenting.

We think Tara and Chris Messina are way outasite cool, and so we have posted on Flickr and joined the meme.

Customer Responses

2006-08-21T16:47:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, we get a communication like this note from Cheri Hanson of Quarry Marina which is just about right. We like to do work for the people who are wildly enthusiastic to have us out and know that we are worth what we charge.

And then every once in a while we get a customer who complains that our prices are too high. We always invite them to comparison shop other providers and hope they do not come back.

Misty's Latest Ozark Mountain News Article

2006-08-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

A few weeks back Catherine Abel, the publisher/editor of the Ozark Mountain News, stopped by to ask if Misty would write an article on "Buying Your Child A Computer" in exchange for a small display advertisement. The rate sheet for OMN states:

The Ozark Mountain News is a free monthly newspaper, with 5000 copies distributed thoughout Mountain Home and surrounding towns.
It is a lively mix of local news, community happenings and stories about interesting people and places. The Mountain News enjoys participation from our readers, who write articles about their fields of interest and who make their opinions known in a lengthly Letters to the Editor section. We feel that community feedback makes the News a vital part of Ozarks living.
Above all, we take pride in accuracy, fairness, interesting photography, in-depth reporting, and in providing our readers and advertisers with a product well worth reading.

We had fun composing the article and ad, we wanted to make something that did not look like everything else in the paper. Pick up a copy, read the article, view the ad, and tell us if you feel we succeeded!

Stewie Persuades Brian

2006-08-16T14:04:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, we get a customer who does not pay, or is slow to pay, one of our invoices. To Bill (in another lifetime, the highest-paid dishwasher in Santa Fe, but that's another story), who did collection work by phone, in person, and in court in New Mexico, this is an old, old story. To Misty it is shocking like the Stewie Persuades Brian video clip. We usually send in Good Cop first, then Bad Cop if needed. Like Bill says, "If they can't see the light, let them feel the heat."

TLCmagic Closes Office to Go Mobile

2006-08-15T11:17:00.000-05:00

We do not know how the Baxter Bulletin will crop this picture, or edit this text, but this is the press release and picture we sent them, and now we will just have to see how they handle it.

Bill and Misty Olen, co-owners of Twin Lakes Computer Magic, today announced that they will be closing their office on the Courthouse Square at the end of August to become more mobile. Said Bill, “Almost all our work is on site, and now we can go more places.” Added Misty, “People can call my cell phone at 405-4859 or Bill at 405-4860.” The website for Twin Lakes Computer Magic is www.TLCmagic.com and the weblog is at http://tlcmagic.blogspot.com.

Office Closing Caravan

2006-08-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

Picture this: Retirement community, courthouse square. Bill and Misty Olen, the wild and crazy people, decided they would like to take a picture with their cars on the sidewalk so that they could capture five signs in the photograph. The mission took place on a Sunday while the little town slept (or was in church). Blasphemy!

It all happened so fast, and we took this video to share with the world. Peggy Freeman even stopped and yelled out her car window, "It looks like you're having a party!"

Customer Letter

2006-08-14T13:33:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago, we sent out this letter to our one hundred and thirty or so customers from the last year and a half. Regular readers of our blog already knew of our thoughts about the Past and the Future, and our Purple Perspective, but for some of our customers this was new news, and from all those we have heard from it was welcome news. Yes, our emphasis is shifting from computer repair and networking, to web, brand, and process design, and this is an exciting change! As our profile says, "A couple who love to play with technology and have fun with design, start their own business to help people tell their story and achieve their dreams."

Mick Lucenta Receives His A+ Certification

2006-08-07T20:04:00.000-05:00

Hooray Hooray! Our former Intern Mick stopped by for a visit today and shared with us the news that he finished his CompTIA A+ certification. We love it when good stuff happens to good people. Congratulations Mick and good luck in the journey ahead!

Geek Weekend

2006-07-30T21:46:00.000-05:00

Insight into a Geek's Weekend:

Go to the movie rental store and rent some movies
Watch them
Only partially enjoy two of them
Watch the third even though it's awful
Decide it would be way cool to make a video about watching bad movies (you know, the whole world cares and if we upload it to YouTube then everyone will see how totally ungeekified we are)

Mystic Paper Beasts Theatre Company

2006-07-17T16:12:00.000-05:00

We just got word that Dan Potter and Marya Ursin have put up a new web site for the Beasts! It is chock full of pictures and information, and is well worth a visit.

Marya and Bill go way back to ancient times at Swarthmore College when theatre and dance played second fiddle to more traditional academic studies. Pictured above with the late Addison W. Lee IV in front of the infamous Kitchen Mural (a site for naked Super 8 film shoots), with others they pioneered the way for the performing arts, or at least had some fun.

Rene's Birthday!

2006-07-17T15:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Rene and Oksana threw a party down by Norfork Lake to celebrate Rene's birthday. There was food and drink and children and adults, and music all around. In this clip Misty holds Rene and Oksana's son Alex as they played. Rene did renditions of "Gloria" and "House of the Rising Sun" and Oksana reviewed both the classic and folk traditions of Europe. The movable feast went from Pavilion One down to the Swimming Area, and a grand time was had by all!

Questions?

2006-07-17T15:16:00.000-05:00

We love to ask questions, even stupid questions! In this video clip Misty fools Bill by handing him a camera that is already recording, and what he sees does not make sense, so he asks questions. If a question does not make sense, it makes sense to ask questions. Check it out!

Top o' the Ozarks

2006-07-10T20:15:00.000-05:00

It happened in Arkansas, The Natural State,
On a regular Sunday, a Hillbilly Date.
Off they went to have some great fun,
A Scary Old Man and the Beautiful One.
They needed adventure and something new,
To The Top o' the Ozarks to see a fine view.
A Dam, A River, A Lake, Land galore,
They spun in circles 'til they could see no more.
Alas, it was time to return to the Earth,
For eleven dollars they got great worth.

Reminder: Signed and Numbered Art Prints

2006-07-07T14:34:00.000-05:00

We ran across this video that reminded us that almost nobody from our Geek Dinner has come by the Office on the Corner on the Square to pick up the prints. In this post, Hugh states the truth:

If your wine is not outstanding [for the price point it occupies], you’re dead meat. It's just as hard to sell a $10 bottle of wine as it is to sell a $100 botle of wine. At least if you want to make any money, it is.

And in this video Jason makes the same point, almost word for word. At the Arkansas Geek Dinner we voted on the best wine, and Stormhoek placed 3rd, not outstanding at all. So pick up your prints or the puppy gets it!

What Is This Raw Format, Anyway?

2006-06-30T06:22:00.000-05:00

Any design process requires taking a good honest look at things, without regard for being nice or polite. And sometimes it is just plain funny to state the truth.

The Marketeers Present 2007 Office!

2006-06-26T20:55:00.000-05:00

Uh, if you haven't heard yet, the, uh, new 2007, uh, Office Beta 2 is, uh, out for download. Now we aren't crazy about the name because we firmly believe in k.i.s.s. And for the non-computer geeksters out there, what we are talking about is, instead of the usual Office 2003 name layout, the Microsoft Marketeers switched the year with the word Office. They really earned their paycheck with that one!

Ok, so now the good stuff. We absolutely love the new Office. We like Vista a lot also, but the new Office is something we are really excited about. You can now save to a .pdf file (could Micro$oft be turning to the Light? Holy Jesus, say it ain't so!). The other thing that has excited us is the layout -- they have completely reworked the program and made it easy and beautiful to use. So it's all hard to, uh, explain, like Billy said, but you should definately check it out.

Dell, You Ignorant Slut!

2006-06-16T17:35:00.000-05:00

Have you noticed that as soon as you decide to move in a particular direction, the physical universe sends messages asking, "Do you really mean it?" About 3 weeks ago we posted our thoughts about the Past and the Future. Over the last few years, we have consulted on the purchase of maybe a quarter million dollars worth of servers, workstations, personal computers, and peripherals (most of them Dell). We were Dell resellers and really liked Dell until the last 6 months or so. Their service has gone down and their computer quality seems to be following. The Dell representative we ordered through would change every couple of months because they just kept quitting. There are too many horror stories to tell them all, but to get the general idea you can visit the Dell Hell site. So, after we had enough of dealing with Dell we decided we would no longer resell their computers, but that we would consult with people on purchases if they chose to purchase Dell computers.

So, skip ahead 6 months or so to last week when we were asked for two bids, one for about $10,000.00, another for about $25,000.00. We ran across an article last week talking about the Dell's new head of Customer Service--Dick Hunter (no, we are not kidding that is really his name). After reading this article we were somewhat hopeful that Dell was going away from the Dark Side and attempting to make changes. We started to reconsider selling Dell's as resellers again. So, we emailed John Pitts at Dell and pretty much gave him what we call "raw format" which is just the plain truth and no sugar coating it. We told him that in the past we resold for Dell and that we had become unhappy with their service and how they were doing things so we stopped, but that we wanted to give it another shot and see how it goes. Needless to say we were not wildly enthusiastic about getting Dell quotes, but were open to taking a fresh look at them. We sent John some emails of the computers we wanted quoted and he got back the quotes on a timely basis and then we think we asked one too many questions. We asked him how much standard shipping was and how much of a discount they give their resellers. Well, he never gave us a straight answer on discount and then he gave two conflicting numbers on quotes so we asked another question of which number was right. It turned out that Dell limits promotions to only five computers and we needed a quote on 22 computers. So, it would have been cheaper to order them online (not as a reseller) with five different accounts. Now, we didn't mention that last fact to John, but after we asked him about what discount and shipping charges he called and said that he didn't think we were cut out for his team. We simply said ok. He went on to say that they wanted people who were enthusiastic about their products and we responded that we understood that. He kept talking going on and on and finally we interrupted him and said, "John if you don't want to sell us the computers then that is fine there is nothing else to say." We get that Dell wants people saying good things about their product and they want people excited, but if people are not excited or not saying good things and are giving you a chance to redeem yourself, we think that is worth going for. In short we are back to where we were 6 months ago--we don't like doing business with Dell and we will not do business with Dell in the future.

And this week we met with Mary Carlson and Lori Atkins of Serenity Inc. to discuss marketing possibilities. It sure sounds like the physical universe knocking at the door asking, "Do you really mean it?"

Prints & Booklets

2006-06-09T12:19:00.000-05:00

Today the prints and booklets arrived from Jason, so we will figure out a way to get these out to all the folks who were part of the Geek Dinner. The attractive prints by Hugh MacLeod are signed and numbered, and the booklets are titled "Wine Blogging as Marketing Disruption". In a post today at GapingVoid, Hugh asks:
I'm wondering if, how and when this thing is going to scale outside of the blogosphere, into the mainstream, where it needs to eventually end up. Or will it just get stuck in the "Echo Chamber Of Death", like so many other blog-related enterprises?

The Purple Perspective of the Future

2006-06-08T14:32:00.000-05:00

Our Purple Shamrocks are doing very well indeed on the west side windows facing Baker Street, as are the Ponytail Palm, Devil's Backbone, Monster Fern, and Little Fern on the south side facing Sixth Street. The Snake Plant, a.k.a. Mother-In-Law's Tongue, is more to the interior, which seems to suit it just fine, thank you very much!

Three doors east down Sixth Street is the administrative office of Serenity Inc., with its purple door. We have been in discussions with Mary Carlson, soon to be Board President, about the possibility of TLCmagic doing some Marketing/Branding/Presence work for them, and there are more discussions to come. Is serenity in our future? It is hard to tell since we are more the Wild and Crazy type!

TLCmagic Bounce When IT Counts

2006-06-02T12:51:00.000-05:00

Last December, just for kicks, we did a parody of the Sony: Colour Like No Other commercial. Instead of 250,000 Superballs, we used 25 Purple Beach Balls (part of our Global MicroBranding); instead of San Francisco, CA, we used Mountain Home, AR (part of our Global MicroBrand). We do not know why we did not get it out sooner, but here it is now. Hope you enjoy!

The Past and the Future

2006-05-26T15:08:00.000-05:00

It took us a few days to recover from last Saturday's Geek Dinner, but now we are refreshed and looking into the Future.

A little over a year ago when Lenovo purchased IBM's PC Unit, we thought it would up the competition level for Dell, and help us all escape Dell Hell. We also thought that TLCmagic would see a growing market locally for custom built pc's and computer repairs. Those were some of the reasons why we rented an Office on the Corner on the Square in Mountain Home, and began our Intern and Associates Program. Now, as we start looking at where things are headed in the near future it seems to us that computer repair is going to become just like color television repair (why repair it when you can buy a new one for $300?). It seems computers are becoming a bit of a commodity, and with Wal-Mart going into the Custom Computer Biz, the Commoditification will be complete. Sure there will be some of the people that want top of the line computers and they won't be able to get them at Wal-Mart, but the majority of people will just buy a cheap PC that is definately not worth repairing.

Networking and Support continues on for businesses and is what our focus has been on the last year, but they too are going down the same road. As new OS's come out like Vista they are becoming easier and easier to use so that anyone can setup a small network. Web Design continues, but is being replaced by things like Google Pages, and of course, Blogs, and so down the same road.

So as we look into where things are headed for computers and technology in the future we must rethink, rebuild, and tweak promptly and become a Wildly Agile Business. We might even decide to Go Bedouin. But thank goodness for Global MicroBranding!

Geek Dinner Rare!

2006-05-26T14:48:00.000-05:00

Geek Dinner Mick Linda

2006-05-22T17:12:00.001-05:00

Geek Dinner Grace

2006-05-22T17:12:00.000-05:00

Geek Dinner Beef Pork

2006-05-22T17:09:00.000-05:00

Geek Dinner Tasting

2006-05-22T17:04:00.000-05:00