Lake Tahoe On Line AND Microsoft Vista

We are getting a LOT Of questions about Vista. Things like: "Should I upgrade? Do I need it? What is Vista? Where is the Tahoe Queen and when does it start operations?" Ok, so the last one doesn't have anything to do with Vista but we do get that phone call, that and 'how is the skiing?'.

Ok, back to the topic. We have two machines here at LTOL running Vista, one Laptop and well fancy that the very machine that your intrepid blogger is using right now is using Vista. The laptop is one that according to Dell 'could run Vista' and it does with 1 Gig of Ram. The Desktop has a 256 Video card on it, and 2 gigs of RAM, so it is slightly more tricked out. As an aside Vista does not seem to like the video card because almost to the point of being 'often' that the machine has to 'recover from a video crash' and it just gets annoying. Microsoft nor nVidia have a fix for this yet. Also Microsoft has a problem at the moment with a Sonic driver for the optical/CD drives it seems as new machines coming in with Vista report that the driver is not functioning properly.

So, my advice still stays the same: "If the new machine you are pondering is a mission critical, my only business machine, and my business will come to a screeching halt if it doesn't work properly? Vista is not yet for you." "If this machine is a back up machine, a light use machine, the machine I take on vacation with me and my business won't blow up if this, for instance, laptop doesn't work with Quickbooks 2001, then Vista might be for you."

But let us be honest, Vista is ONLY an operating system. It won't get you coffee, slice bread, make you more attractive to the opposite sex, it runs your computer that's it. You are absoultely correct if you think in about a year that you won't be able to get XP loaded on a laptop without some serious haggling because everything will be Vista. I think right now you would be hard pressed to be able to purchase a laptop that comes loaded with Windows 2000 Professional myself. You would also have to ask yourself why would you want too?

Vista is here, it isn't going anywhere so either wait a little time for the kinks to get worked out or be one of those people that help GET the kinks worked out. Just know what you are getting yourself in for when you buy what you buy.

As always, give us a call at LTOL, 530-582-2080 if you need help with your purchase.

Occam's Razor or Ockham's razor:

This principal was put forth first by William of Ockham, a Franciscan Friar which I have always thought a bit odd because I always thought it was some guy named Ockham not the town the thought came from. We can go on with a lot of latin but paraphrased it states: "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one." Pretty amazing to me since this is a 14th Century thought and it is used by lots of computer techs today.

Customers and non-customers give us a call and we have found that this is the thought of the day, every day when we do tech support. If something is not working what is the simplest solution to get everything working again. So, we will ask what some think are some pretty silly questions: "Are you on the internet? Is your computer turned on?" Personally I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten a call from someone that will say: "I'm not getting my email" so I suggest: "Ok, let's go to a webpage" and I'm told: "Oh, I can't get to LTOL.COM, but I really need my email." Sadly they are all tied in together, but it will let the tech know right away what the problem is. The light at the end of the tunnel is that a reboot, or turning off and on of your equipment 8 out of 10 times fixes this problem.

Believe you me we want to help you, we want you using your internet. We just want to tell people this simple fact: "There are no stupid questions" And that all things being the same, rebooting your computer is the simplest solution to a quick fix so thank you Friar William.

Occam's Razor or Ockham's razor:

This principal was put forth first by William of Ockham, a Franciscan Friar which I have always thought a bit odd because I always thought it was some guy named Ockham not the town the thought came from. We can go on with a lot of latin but paraphrased it states: "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one." Pretty amazing to me since this is a 14th Century thought and it is used by lots of computer techs today.

Customers and non-customers give us a call and we have found that this is the thought of the day, every day when we do tech support. If something is not working what is the simplest solution to get everything working again. So, we will ask what some think are some pretty silly questions: "Are you on the internet? Is your computer turned on?" Personally I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten a call from someone that will say: "I'm not getting my email" so I suggest: "Ok, let's go to a webpage" and I'm told: "Oh, I can't get to LTOL.COM, but I really need my email." Sadly they are all tied in together, but it will let the tech know right away what the problem is. The light at the end of the tunnel is that a reboot, or turning off and on of your equipment 8 out of 10 times fixes this problem.

Believe you me we want to help you, we want you using your internet. We just want to tell people this simple fact: "There are no stupid questions" And that all things being the same, rebooting your computer is the simplest solution to a quick fix so thank you Friar William.

Truckee DSL

OK campers, let's talk about DSL in Truckee, Northshore, Kings Beach, Tahoe City and Everything Tahoe and Truckee DSL.

DSL is a quick and easy way to get on the Internet. There are many flavors of DSL and let's talk about that for a second. There is a certain company out there that probably provides your phone service, maybe your Dish service, and a host of other things as well. We here at LTOL call them: "The Evil Empire" You might know them as AT&T. They are the largest competitor we have, and they are: "The Evil Empire" (We are thinking about getting foreboding music to play when ever we say: Evil Empire or AT&T, what do you think?)

They have all this advertising out there that says that you can get DSL for 12.99 or 14.95. What they AREN'T telling you is how SLOW that DSL is. It's S-L-O-W DSL. We are talking perhaps 2 or 3 times faster then some dial up, and since there are fluctuations in DSL speeds it is quite possible that dial up would be faster at specific times then your cheap DSL. The speeds are 786 up, 384 down. Just so you know what we are talking about.

LTOL sells DSL for 20.95 for the first 6 months. AT&T sells the same flavor of DSL 1.5 down, 386 up as LTOL does for about the same price. Give or take 1.00 either way, meaning they could be more or they could be less. But let's see what you get from LTOL DSL shall we?

AT&T charges anywhere from 65.00 to 250.00 for a tech to come out and install DSL, their DSL. LTOL charges 26.00 to come out and install a wired, one computer, DSL set up. Did you catch that, it's 26.00.

If you are having a problem with JUST or ONLY the DSL? AT&T will charge you from 65.00 to 250.00 to just come and CHECK to see if the DSL is working. If the problem is not theirs? They can charge you more and they might send out the wrong person. There is a DSL/Internet person that they could send or a telco/telephone guy they could send and it might be the wrong person and then it would be at least another day before they come out.

LTOL doesn't charge anything to check DSL at your home or business. Did you hear that campers? LTOL doesn't charge anything to check to see if your DSL is working. (I will put a caveat in there that if you are say in South Lake Tahoe, as an example we might have to charge drive time, but that isn't a charge on an hourly basis, just to cover gas etc. There is never a charge in the Truckee area.)

AT&T doesn't work weekends. If you DSL goes down say on Friday afternoon, 2pm or so, you MIGHT see someone on Monday afternoon. They do NOT have to make any attempt to come fix it, it is at their discretion.

LTOL will come out promptly to check your DSL, talk to you the customer, and work to get your DSL up and running properly. We do work weekends, we go out Saturday and Sunday afternoons if need be to check your DSL.

AT&T does not live in the Truckee, Tahoe, North Shore region. Tech support can be even in India.

LTOL's owner, employees, etc all live either in Truckee, or on the North Shore, we ARE your friends and neighbors. Tech support is done from our offices or cell phones at the Truckee Airport. (12219 Business Park Dr, Suite 14. Truckee, CA 96161.

So, if you are a local business, or a local consumer, or a second home owner or a ski lease, or a summer lease, lake lease, you name it and you think or feel that it is important to deal locally, that you enjoy local support, here is my question to you?

Why aren't you using LTOL DSL?

You could be doing this right now!

That's right, had you attended last nights class on blogging you could have your own blog up and running right at this time. You would have learned a bit of the history of blogging, the cool vocabulary that blogger's are using to impress your friends, three different ways to incorporate a blog into your website, the advantages and disadvantages of a blog on your website and many, many more exciting things.

Class was full of eager folks that each made their own blog and since it was a 'make and take' type of evening everyone got to take their blogs home with them. How cool is THAT?

So keep an eye out for our next class on smart phones. What is a smart phone? It is a phone that does more then just ring when someone wants to talk to you. Does your phone send text mess sages? Email, Surf the Internet? Can it take pictures? Does it make coffee and give foot massages? Well if it does, sign up for the class now at 530-582-2080 or email us support@ltol.com

Images in Webmail

In addition to blocking a whole lot of spam, the new mail server has security features which help protect our customers from viruses, spyware and other threats. One of these threats is linked images within email. An email is constructed with images that are linked to external websites and when you read the email, it is as if you visited that website. They can then track your IP address, what kind of mail server you use and other personal information -- all by simply sending you an email with images.

Email clients like Outlook, MacMail or Thunderbird have protection against this ploy. When you receive an email with embedded photos, those products ask if you want to Load Images and you have to explicitly allow images to be displayed. LTOL webmail also has this protection.

If you'd like to view these images in webmail, you'll need to change some configuration options in webmail. From Options, select Display Properties. Make sure both of the following options are turned on:

Show HTML version by default (Yes)
Display Attached Images with Message (Yes)

Then, when you receive an email, you may see a warning "Image Removed for Security Purposes". If the email is from a trusted source and you want to see the pictures, click "View Unsafe Images" at the bottom of the email. You'll be able to see all the images inline within your email in this way.

Give us a call if you have any questions about this option.

Daylight Savings Time and Java

Yes, this Sunday March 11th is the BOOGEYMAN date for all of we computer users. Unless you have been hiding under a rock, or you just don't listen to the news you know that DST, (Daylight Savings Time) starts this Sunday. You also know, if you have read out blog post about DST, that the updates are free for your computer if you are a Microsoft or Apple user. (You Linux/Unix folks are just out of luck I guess, Yes Open Source is like that.)

However, we haven't seen a lot about Java updates from Sun Microsystem. Guess what? You need those too, they are free, and get them before March 11th.

I do think there is a lot of hoopla about this, I don't think the world is going to come to an end, but hey I'm not a Microsoft, Java, DST, expert. So, we are telling everyone get your updates.

Hey, if you are a Quicken, Quickbooks, HelpDesk, AutoCad, Word Perfect, etc., etc., etc., person as well? Check to see if you need updates too.

Truckee Computer Repair

Did you know that even today we have customers asking us: "do you guys fix computers?" The answer is a resolving "Yes, yes we do." In fact that is a large part of our business. If you are a somewhat regular reader to our blog you know that we even have 'Certified Computer Repair People' What does 'Certified Computer Repair People' mean? It means that some of us when to a BootCamp where you studied, studied, and studied some more and then took a test, passed and got a piece of paper saying that so and so can fix computers, something he had been doing for years before without the benefit of said piece of paper.

LTOL repairs computers. LTOL has certified specialists with certifications in computer repair. We even have a person, on staff that has a degree in Computer Science. We are even a recognized Microsoft Partner, by even Microsoft. (Some people put things like that on their website or business cards when it is just a bold face lie.) We think we do a good job of comptuer repair, telling you if it is cost effective to get your computer repaired or just purchase a new one. We don't sell computers, so it is not us just trying to sell you a white box that is just overpriced, no we have your best interests at heart. Why? Because we know that if you're happy with the service you will tell some of your friends. If you're not happy you will stop people on the street, point, and say why you aren't happy. We prefer the first option.

So, LTOL fixes computers, repairs computer, upgrades computers, assists in a purchase of a new computer, we are your one stop shop. So, if anyone asks you: "Hey, does anyone repair computers in Truckee/NorthShore? Hopefully you will remember that LTOL certainly does.