{"id":12,"date":"2009-11-20T00:52:37","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T08:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jepheverett.wordpress.com\/2009\/11\/20\/the-realization-of-the-surreal"},"modified":"2009-11-20T00:52:37","modified_gmt":"2009-11-20T08:52:37","slug":"the-realization-of-the-surreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/?p=12","title":{"rendered":"the realization of the surreal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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i\u2019ve been in seattle 5 years, and amusingly lived right down the street from microsoft when i first moved here.\u00a0 i was so jealous of all the \u201crich people\u201d in their fancy cars, and angry with all the traffic they made on hwy 520 when i wanted to get into seattle to see a punk rock show on a friday night after work.\u00a0 well, joke\u2019s on me cause now i\u2019m one of them but i\u2019m still driving the now 5 year older car.\u00a0 i can say i am doing my best now to accomplish what i can without having to waste gas and time in traffic, by going online to get more things done faster. <\/p>\n

i\u2019ve been trying to focus lately on the core aspect of what i do, in terms of trying to help as many people get the most out of their computers as possible.\u00a0 after the past few weeks on trying to focus on the basics of how computers can adapt to help each of us as individuals with, as i have experienced personally, every aspect of life.\u00a0 i have personally found all of the following on the internet- 2 houses, a dog, true love, and i think it count\u2019s twice- once for the woman i hope to make my wife and again for the dog- a guitar, a free car well i took a friend to pick it up anyway, i already had one lucky for him., many close friends, and a way to keep in touch with some of the people i\u2019ve met in the 12 states i\u2019ve lived in.\u00a0 there\u2019s nothing that connects us like the internet. it\u2019s an old analogy now, but the idea of the information superhighway is right in terms of needing to learn what you\u2019re doing online.\u00a0 no matter what pc you\u2019re using, a phishing attempt by a clever mock-up of a website you trust could trick you into giving up personal information.\u00a0 if you learn to use the tools available to you, like a billion other windows users have, you\u2019ll be able to stay safe online as well as keep in touch with people in richer and better ways than have ever been possible before.\u00a0 if you don\u2019t have time, the information superhighway can make the commute shorter, and i bet i can show you a shortcut or five \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

i\u2019m asked more times than i can count every day \u201chow do you learn this stuff,\u201d and i\u2019ve tried answering this a million different ways, but, in order, when i\u2019m faced with virtually any problem in life, i wind up using the collective wisdom most people call the internet to find the best answer, by searching.\u00a0 often the f1 key will get you a quicker answer if it\u2019s a simple question. you can look for basic instruction on how to get online and do a search on www.bing.com<\/a>, or the provider, like google, or yahoo, or search provider of your choice at your local library, and use public pc\u2019s to gain some familiarity with the basic controls if you want or need to, and the library can often help you find free classes and training in your area. the following points should help anyone already familiar with using a pc make sure they don\u2019t find themselves lost due to any sort of loss, whether due to hardware failure, being stolen, or even a virus.\u00a0 since i studied political rather than computer science, and enjoy building custom pc\u2019s in my spare time, i can say with 100% confidence, from experience, that you can learn to do this all yourself!<\/p>\n

1. illness\/virus:\u00a0 a foreign intrusion that is somehow harming the system.\u00a0 from a clogged dryer hose to a virus in your pc, proper care and maintenance is sorta the price of admission if you want your \u201cstuff\u201d to keep working the way it did when you bought it.\u00a0 if you have one, and aren\u2019t comfortable or able to wipe out your PC by reinstalling windows, learn to, or pay a professional to and then follow the other steps below.<\/p>\n

2. hardware issues\/capability problems:\u00a0 windows gets the bad wrap for a lot of common hardware and driver problems.\u00a0 if your computer is on and reading a message on anything other than a black and white screen, windows and microsoft are doing their best to do what you ask, or at least to tell you what\u2019s broken with your computer.\u00a0 occasionally that will be some issue with windows itself, but the vast majority of problems, in my experience, are due to either out of date drivers and software, incorrect initial configurations, and just too much stuff going at once.\u00a0 the best and worst thing about windows is that it\u2019s the system over a billion people around the world use to interact.\u00a0 the possibilities with a pc are endless, so of course there are some complexities in how they work.\u00a0 just like upgrading a car\u2019s audio system or suspension takes knowledge, and requires you to work with it\u2019s limits of sound-making or corner-taking, a pc has limits in performance based on the parts it\u2019s made of.\u00a0 just like in the real world, there is a chance of being taken advantage of in a sort of digital mugging known commonly as spyware, or being infected by virus.\u00a0 basic precautions will protect you from virtually any virus or spyware, if you learn to use the security measures available- i have personally not encountered a virus in the 7 years i have followed the following 3 basic steps.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

the 3 basic steps to healthy computer living are as follows-<\/p>\n

1. protect, 2. maintain, 3.backup.<\/p>\n

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a. protect. for free with the microsoft security essentials, avira free, avg free, avast free, and that\u2019s just the av\u2019s that are free.\u00a0 there are around 100 legitimate, free antivirus programs out there.\u00a0 the hope is that you\u2019ll buy a full version to get additional support and services.\u00a0 i\u2019ve done all of my financial business online my whole life, and feel absolutely 100% confident in the fact that the technologies i use to conduct these transactions keep me as secure, if not more secure, than doing business with the bank if you must, but credit union in my case.\u00a0 random side not here, get a credit union, take your money to a not-for-profit, local or regional institution and you\u2019ll be much happier with the service you receive- just make sure they have an online banking site, and ask for a flyer with photos or to have them show you what it looks like in-store so you know where you\u2019re going.\u00a0 this also means making sure your pc gets reliable power.\u00a0 you\u2019re living dangerously if you don\u2019t use a surge protector, at all times. i have several at home, and a portable one for my laptop.\u00a0 the quality of electrical lines varies dramatically, and spikes can easily damage a computer.<\/p>\n

b. maintain. this was more labor intensive back in the day, making sure to defrag the hard drive from time to time, and dealing with popups and cookies and such.\u00a0 now days this work should all be done by your security system and windows on a schedule, so long as you leave your computer on.\u00a0 at this point it\u2019s really completely unnecessary to turn off the pc 100%, unless it\u2019s a reboot to install updates.\u00a0 modern hardware has the capability to turn on and off parts of the system as needed to improve power consumption, battery life, and to make sure these critical maintenance tasks can happen when they need to.<\/p>\n

c. backup.\u00a0 i\u2019m horrified every day when i meet people who need to buy a new pc because theirs was stolen,\u00a0 i\u2019m even more horrified when they find that their backup hard drive has also been stolen.\u00a0 this underscores the need for redundancy in your backup system.\u00a0 i have a 2-step approach to backup that keeps my critical files both secure and available online.\u00a0 1st, i have an external storage system on my network. whether it\u2019s a router with an external hard drive attached and hidden away from your other computer stuff.\u00a0 i also keep the most critical 25 gb of my files backed up, and secured, for free, on windows live sky drive.\u00a0 you can even get a fee plugin to easily access your skydrive as a regular folder at http:\/\/skydriveexplorer.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

My uber crucial 5by of documents and photos are all meshed up.\u00a0 www.mesh.com<\/a> provides 5gb worth of file synchronization beauty between all the devices in my world, be they windows of the mobile or pc variety, a web browser on any computer, or a mac.\u00a0 it\u2019s a service very comparable, and IMHO much better to apples $99\/year mobile me service.<\/p>\n

all those file aren\u2019t meant to be only on one pc, all of the online options are secured by passwords you choose, with only the people you choose.<\/p>\n

also, try using the windows live essentials, also free, from www.download.live.com<\/a> to help you do email, edit photos, vidoes, blog, and keep your family safe online.\u00a0 the windows live services are all about helping you share all your digital stuff, and manage your online activities, and share all your photos and fun stuff online.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

3. resources all used up: computers, like all modern technology, require some maintenance, as mentioned above.\u00a0 In addition to having batteries that wear out, laptops are prone to exposure to vibration, moisture, and all kinds of other stuff.\u00a0 Desktop PC\u2019s should be cleaned with \u201ccanned air\u201d every 6 months at LEAST! in addition to slowing down to wear and tear on the hard drive, having too much running in memory can hold back a healthy pc\u2019s performance. if you notice the pc slowing down after you have lots of stuff happening, you need a memory upgrade. you can use ready boost on a windows vista or 7 pc to stretch the system\u2019s memory, just plug in almost any flash drive or memory card and you\u2019ll be able to choose \u201cspeed up my system using ready boost\u201d to dedicate part of the device to holding programs you\u2019re using so that slower spinning disk can spin less, last longer, and use less electricity\/battery life.\u00a0 adding a 4gb SD card to your pc\u2019s media slot is probably the best $10-15 performance upgrade you can do in 1 minute or less on a windows vista or 7 pc.<\/p>\n

4. not enough power\u00a0 computers are generally designed to do what people are doing when they were purchased.\u00a0 if your 5 year old pc isn\u2019t streaming hd videos from youtube and netflix well, it may just not be good enough to go that fast on the information superhighway.\u00a0 try the windows 7 upgrade advisor to see if you can get windows 7 running on an older xp system, and then put a 4gb sd card or flas drive on it for ready boost and that might just be enough turbo to get your videos streaming, or consider upgrading to a new PC.\u00a0 moore\u2019s law has held true for 30 years of processing advancements- every 6 months, if you pay the same amount of money for a processor, you\u2019ve been able to get about twice the performance- hence the talk of ever-increasing gigahertz and terabytes and belly-flops.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

interestingly, i\u2019ve found this strategy, especially the ever-increasing belly-flops, to be a great way to deal with problems in the real world.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

i\u2019ve been in seattle 5 years, and amusingly lived right down the street from microsoft when i first moved here.\u00a0 i was so jealous of all the \u201crich people\u201d in their fancy cars, and angry with all the traffic they made on hwy 520 when i wanted to get into seattle to see a punk … Continue reading the realization of the surreal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudagnost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}