Have we mentioned that Open Source Sucks?

It does. Open Source examples would be things like Linux. Why do we say so? It really comes down to documentation and support. There are NO good reference manuals for open source programs. People want to pretend that there is documentation but when you start looking for a specific question, there are no answers. There is then no one you can turn to, point a finger at, or even blame because the answer always comes back to: "It's free" "You come up with the answer and then post it" or other things that are not helpful at 2am in the morning when you are looking for a fix or you are under a deadline to get something completed.

This idea of not liking open source is about a 50/50 thing within the Internet community. There are loads of people that find no problem with Open Source technology, we at LTOL are just not one of them.

Gartner, one of the leading if not the leading IT technical resource in the industry did a study that compared Microsoft vs Linux technologies and if there was any money to be saved. Gartner's research showed that NO MONEY WAS SAVED by going to Open Source. So, we suggest you give it some thought yourselves and well make your own decisions.

Lastly, it is really hard to find working, supported software that works well with the O/S. Others might disagree? And they can, this is just what we at LTOL have found and now, strongly believe.

Some of you might have gotten an overdue invoice via your email yesterday. This is a great new feature of our billing system, Billing Orchard. What this does is sent out a reminder invoice 25 days after the invoice that was sent on the 2nd. So, to break this down a bit, an invoice is created on the 1st of each month, emailed or mailed on the 2nd and it is due on the 12th. If somehow the mail got lost or during our busy weeks that is the bill that gets overlooked you get a reminder sent on the 27th. We at LTOL think this is very nifty.

We are also using this cool little feature that allows us to send a quick reminder email if we notice that your credit card has expired and give you a heads up that we need the newest expiration date. What I wouldn't give to get the same type of warning on my milk before pouring it on that ole Capn Crunch.

Well, we are giving it a further try now in going green as well as keeping costs down for ourselves as well as you our loyal customers.

Ok, now that I have whetted your appetite now I'll tell you what we are all talking about. LTOL would like to have as many customers as possible go to email invoices. Why? Well because of a couple of reasons. One it is getting expensive to mail out those invoices, especially with the new .41 cent stamps that are starting next month. It is getting close to being a bit wasteful to print those invoices when we could just email them, we go through a LOT of paper for the printing as well as the envelopes to send them to you and then the return envelopes. In this day of secure servers, credit cards, and email invoices it really just makes sense to pay things online. It’s fast, it’s safe, and it saves you money. The more people we can have going to email invoices the more money we can save and we won’t be forced to add some sort of charge to keep using postal invoices. Please, please don’t hear that as some sort of ultimatum or something, it really is coming down to a fact it is getting expensive to mail out invoices and for those of you that need them, we are fine with still doing that we will have to look though into a charge for that service. We always suggest if you need a paper invoice, print the invoice we send you out on your own printer, we are still saving the paper for the envelopes.
Help us to save paper, save the environment and keep costs down. Just to let you know that we practice what we preach, we at LTOL get as many email invoices from OUR vendors as we can or from those that provide it.

Think Local, Think Green!

The CAT is back:

As I'm sure the Gentle Readers of this blog know that LTOL really likes to help out with the community, we don't blow our own horn about this except when needed. This is one of those needed times because The Humane Society of Tahoe Truckee have brought back a cat for us to host now that the new carpet is in. The cat's name is Valentino, she's a girl, that she being a big hint I'm sure and she came into the shelter on Valentine's Day, hence the name. She is about 2, she is a stray and she wants to come home with you.

The Humane society's webpage is www.HSTT.org so take a gander when you get a moment.

There is also a myaspca.org group that also can be reached at: 888-354-4441. Watching I think BBC America is where this came up and it was some pitiful pictures of animals, I can't call them pets yet, that really could either use a donation or a home. Sarah McLachlan was the spokes person for the comercial and I/We have always felt she has done good work as well. So, be nice to an animal if you can, husbands are included in this. :)

New Carpet is IN:

Well, the new carpet for the Airport Business Park Offices of LTOL has FINALLY been installed. We at LTOL would like to thank our landlord, Airport Business Park for paying for the much needed upgrade: (www.airportbusinesspark.com to see how cool free parking looks, you'll understand when you go there.) And to Foster Carpets next door in the 'new' building. They can be found at: www.fostercarpets.com While it might not have been the fastest install on record the carpet looks good and compliments the rest of the space.

So, if you are at all curious, do stop over, down, around and give the carpet a glance. We just like having the duct tape gone ourselves.

We would also like to stop and thank the very kind folks at: Sierra Smart Homes (Again, another free parking victim www.sierrasmarthomes.com Elvrum King Builders and Ontrack Scheduling www.elvrumkingbuilders.com and ontrackscheduling.com for helping to move the furniture and finally our tenants of Darrel Olsen of Darrel Olsen Insurance www.calldarrel.com as well as Paragon Pest Control, and Comstock Pest Control for being really understanding about having to get their 'stuff' out of their offices so the new carpet could be laid. Ok, I THINK that is everyone so if I missed someone, I'm sorry, thank you too and well, come by and take a gander at the carpet.

Earth Day and Your Computer:

Well it is coming Earth Day and we are all being reminded about things we can do to help conserve or just be aware of the world around us. Let's think about that for a moment what can we do to help out?

You can do what one of our customers is doing, we won't mention names because we don't want to embarass anyone but this person is donating a computer to a neighbor, as well as all the software etc and I mean all. The neighbor is paying to have him reformatted and then the 'nice guy' is coming over to pick the machine up from us and then setting it up for the computer's new owner. We think that is pretty cool ourselves to help out a neighbor like that.

So, what does this mean to you and Earth Day? Well of course you already know that we at LTOL take drop offs of old computers as long as they are still working, running with a PIII or like chip and well that is about it. We clean them up, wipe the info all of them and then donate them to a local charity down in Reno called New to U/You Computers. This charity works with disadvantaged adults and either gives them a 'recycled' computer or they sell them in their shop to help raise money. We think this is a worthy cause and that is why we donate the computers down to them. We haven't had to charge for this service yet and we don't get anything for it with tax breaks or anything, we just don't want to see old computers wind up in the dumpster/landfill.

If you know of or you yourself are a charity that needs 'recycled' computers give us a call and we can see what we can do to assist you.

As a FYI Bradbury's accepts used printer cartridges at no charge so they can be recycled too. With a computer we should be doing all we can to not throw things away but recycle, recycle, recylce. If you have any questions about recylcing your old computer contatct us at: support@ltol.com or 530-582-2080

We're getting New Carpet:

We're getting new carpet. It is almost like a chant, isn't it? "We're getting new carpet." Sad isn't it? Such a small thing can make a person happy? Well, we have also needed it too so we are getting new carpet for the Office here at the Airport. Ok, first I'll give you the important stuff then you get LTOL trivia.

The OFFICE will be closed from Thursday April 12 till Monday April 16th. Be clear the OFFICE will be closed, tech support is wide open and operating just there will be no pick up, drop offs, retail, etc open to the public while the furniture is moved out, carpet laid up and downstairs and then the furniture put back. So, do not hesitate to call but just know we are running around like whackos making sure everything is done the right way.

Trivia: Did you know that LTOL started off in a backroom of Radio Shack?
Did you know that at one time that LTOL operated out of a home in Olympic
Hts?
Did you know that our present office is the second office we have had in the
Airport Business Park?

Ok Trivia Question: In the beginning, in that Radio Shack, there was a limit to how
many DIAL-UP customers LTOL could have, what was that number?

PRIZE: A Medium coffee drink at either Wild Cherries, Joe's Coffee,
The Truckee Book and Bean, or even Starbucks.

Only one answer per person, those working or employed by LTOL are not eligible for the prize or families there of. You can call 582-2080 with the answer or email at support@ltol.com Hurry, be the first to answer correctly.

Do you know what .mobi is?

.mobi is the newest web definition I suppose you could say? It is like .com .net etc but this one is tailored specifically for cell phone web surfing. That is right, for people that surf the internet on their cell phone there are now websites made for them. An example would be: www.ltol.mobi Yes, .mobi is the tell tale. I know you are asking yourself who the HECK would ever use their cell phone to look for websites? How about I give you a few examples:

You are driving around Lake Tahoe, you see a house for sale, you see the website listed as: ByeMyHouse.mobi You go to the site on the phone because you called the number listed and you just got an answering machine, you go look at the mobi website, find out that it is in your price range and you email the broker or owner saying that you're interested in getting the house. The site also has a list of bedrooms, and added features that a voicemail just can't have. Plus, you do look rather cool then the other Real Estate Agents that just have regular websites.

You are on Route 89 heading to Squaw Valley, you want to know what the best place to eat is, you do a search and low and behold a restaraunt you have heard about has a mobi website where it lists the phone number, a sample of the menu and the phone number you call and you get a reservation at a FABULOUS eatery. You're so glad you paid for that .mobi website.

Here you are on Route 80 and gosh you're tired, you want to know what a good place to stay is and you don't want the same type of place you could get in Reno. You do a quick websearch on the phone and there is just the best place to spend the night, affordable, near downtown, free breakfast. You never would have gotten the booking had you not had the .mobi website.

Your business is different from everyone else's business that does the same thing, and now you are getting 30 more calls a month because YOU invested in a .mobi website, boy are you EVER glad you read the LTOL.com blog. (You now are wondering is there a www.ltol.mobi blog.....hmmm, so is the person writing this.)

I'm not sure if you recall this or not, but there was an actual phone system at this National Discount Brokers that actually had this on their phone tree:

Welcome to National Discount Brokers!
This call may be recorded and/or monitored for quality assurance.
For trading, press 1
For a new account kit, press 2
For quotes, press 3
For customer service, press 4
If you are a netlink soft benefits plan customer, press 5
To hear more about our buy-for-free program, where you can buy your own company stock, commission free, press 6
If you would like to hear a duck quack, press 7
If you know your party's extension, press 8 and dial it
To return to the main menu, press 9
Or stay on the line for the next available customer service representative.
Thank you.

Editor's note, May 2006: Ameritrade Plus has bought out National Discount Brokers, and removed the duck quacking from their menu.

According to an article in a recent New York Daily News, this interesting menu choice has led to 8 million calls and a 75 percent increase in new accounts. The article credits CEO Chris McQuilken with voicing the duck via a duck caller. It goes on to state, "Now there's a CEO who has earned his salary."
Capitalism is far from dead, my friends. There's hope left if those aiming to service adherents of the Consumer Manifesto keep their senses of humor.


There are just some things that are just plain funny, the idea of having a duck quack at you, then hang up the phone? Well I suppose from having to sit on hold hour after hour if AT&T would give us a choice to hear a duck quack? At least we would have something nice to say about them.

It's Spring

Well happy campers it is spring and as your tech tip for the season we here at LTOL strongly suggest taking a look inside of your computer. We have had more then a few machines come in with dust so thick, well that it was pretty thick. This causes the machine to over heat, stop good air flow, and just not work as well as it could be. So, take that time out while you are cleaning the windows, cleaning in those corners to stop and also take a moment to clean out your computer. We use as an aside an air compressor, not set to max, to clean out the computers here in the shop and when you bring your computer in for service we blow it out as well, if it needs it or not.

Laptops need love too, try to make sure that the air flow panels are kept clear as well as your laptop fans are still running. A USB laptop cooling pad runs about 20.00 and is a great way to help keep your laptop cool. Well, cooler we already know YOUR laptop is cool, it is that other guys that is so inferior.

Internet Reboot

As we are sure you have read in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and as reported on NPR the internet will be rebooting today. This is due to the amount of illegal music, video and software downloads people have been doing in the past. After this reboot of the internet the music, video and software companies with the help of the FBI and Justice departments will be able to track exactly who is downloading illegal or pirated items and will trace them both to the person who is doing the downloading and where they are downloading from. The internet needs the reboot to put these patches in place. The reboot will start in China and work it's way west. It will start at 12 noon Grenwich Mean Time GWT, today. Hopefully you will not notice much of a difference after the reboot. It is being reported that individual fines will start at 100,000.00 per song, video and software download. Kazza and Morpheus could not be reached for comment at this time for comment according to NPR.