Must have tool for mobile techs or any mobile sales person?

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Have you heard of square? This small yet powerful tool will change the face of eCommerce forever. I thought Wepay.com was good but square takes payment processing even further. I mean that literary. After I heard of Wepay.com I closed my paypal account. When I heard of square I made more money.

What is square

Is an application based credit card processing company that uses your smart phone or tablet to allow you to accept credit card payments. There are no contracts and you only need your smart device to download their free application and start accepting credit cards from anywhere you have internet access or 3g service.

How does it work?

It’s simple.

  1. Go to Square.com
  2. Sign up for an account.
  3. They will send you a FREE credit card reader that looks like the picture below. It plugs into your headphones jack on your device

    4. square credit card

  4. Download their app on either your android device or iphone. Just go to the apple store and type “square”. Same applies in the android market.
  5. Once the app is downloaded and you have received your reader in the mail (3-5 business days usually), you can start accepting credit card payments anywhere.

How much does it cost?

The only cost associated with the service is the 2.75% per swipe. But I think that’s a small price to pay for such a service. If you need additional readers after the first
free one, it’s just $10 per reader. And the best part of the deal, absolutely no commitment. You can stop using the service anytime. But I don’t see why anyone would.

For mobile sales, this tool is indispensable.

In no way whatsoever am I affiliated with square and was not paid for this review. It’s just a service that’s too good to ignore and makes my job a lot easier

Desktop, laptop or tablet?

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People are becoming more and more mobile. As a result the mobile industry is booming leaving behind desktops. But surprisingly laptop sales have suffered a bit as well. Why? A powerful force in the world of computing is emerging.

Thomas Friedman is onto something in his book, The World is Flat. The world is becoming flat in the world of computing. What this means is that people have the power of information at the palm of their hands. It used to be that such information was accessible via smartphones. But there is something even better than smartphones.

What is it?

Tablets are mobile devices that use applications to provide the user with the same function as a laptop, gaming system and sometimes a cell phone put together. They are becoming very popular because they allow mobile functionality anywhere. Laptops used to serve this purpose but they needed to be charged and even then they would only provide a few hours of use before needing to be charged again.

With tablets it’s much simpler. I have a Samsung galaxy tab. I charge it once and I can use it for up to 9 to 13 hours depending on what I am doing on it. I use it for business, personal schedule and errands, gameplay, movie watching on long flights, news and updates, investing and even for typing office documents that I later transfer to my desktop for printing. With a tablet, it seems the possibilities are endless with the many applications out there. It’s not going to be long before laptops are a thing of the past altogether.

Do you have a tablet? If so, what do you use it for primarily?

PCI versus PCI express

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Computers are not complicated. You just have to be willing to learn about them. And knowing about them starts with knowing their parts. So I am going to talk about the PCI and PCI express cards and why they are important for your computer. Without them (especially the PCI slot) it would be very difficult to expand and add on to your computer and the motherboard. Thus it is important to know about these two technologies.

The meat

Currently the most common use for PCI express is video. It is the slot on the motherboard were the video card is attached. If the on-board or built in vga cord input on your motherboard stops working, you would buy a new video card and insert it into your PCI express slot. The slot is usually a different color from the PCI slot.

On the other hand the PCI slot is used for more expansions because motherboards come with more of these slots. With the PCI express slot, you may get two slots whereas with the PCI slot you may see three, four and even more on a given motherboard.

The PCI slot is used to expand on Ethernet, sound card, modem, USB ports and other attachments you may wish to add to your computer. What this means is if the USB ports on the motherboard stops working you can buy a USB PCI card and insert it inside your computers PCI slot instead.

The physical difference between these two cards is the distant between the metal bracket and the start of the connector. A performance difference is that the PCI express slot is much faster than a PCI slot. That is why it is called a PCI express. It delivers a higher video performance than a regular PCI card.

In some cases the PCI express slot has its own (usually 4 pin) power connector that gives it the power it needs. However, most PCI express cards don’t use it.

Ending

Although these technologies have been around for a long time and improvements have been made in many areas of computing, the PCI and PCI express have not seen much change. The move from AGP(accelerated graphics ports) video format has taken and continues to take a long time. PCI apart from USBs continue to provide the main method of expansion. As far as PCI express is concerned, will we see expansions in the format for modems, network cards, raid cards etc in the near future?

Do you want to be your local computer repair guy?

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If you want to be the guy people in your city call when they have a computer problem there are a few questions you have to ask yourself. First and foremost you have to ask yourself am I ready to take on this role? Do I have the right tools? Have built up the right skills set to meet the demands of customers? And perhaps the most important question if you want to do it full time is, do I have the financing? In this article I am going to address these questions to help you get started. Let’s start with the most important of these questions.

Do I have the financing?

I started my computer repair services with about $500 back in 2006 from my dorm room. Obviously living in a dorm room paid for by scholarships and grants cut my expenses even more. My biggest expense was and still is gas.

Why? Not just because gas is expensive but I do onsite repairs. I go into people’s houses and businesses and perform most of my services there. On really slow units I take with me to cut opportunity cost. Having a commercial office is important but a home office gets the job done as well.

The key is cutting your expenses as much as possible. With less money going out the more you get to keep and before you know it what starting out as a hobby becomes very profitable.

The clients pay for the software so you don’t need to buy volume licenses but I did just to be able to offer them a discount rate. Licenses is another expense to worry about but one that pays off in the long run.

As far as tools are concerned, being knowledgeable is your greatest tool. I write more about needed tools that will make your job a lot easier. The bottom line is, you don’t need much to be the local computer repair guy. You need your brain, some hands on experience if possible, lots of patients and courtesy and you will do just fine.

Am I ready to take on this role?

If you love computers and don’t mind tackling issues and trouble shooting them then you are a step ahead of the crowed. Depending on your town it could start out slow so you will have time to adjust or it could kick off right away. The only way to be sure regardless of what happens if you want to be “the guy or gal” is to be organized. When you are organized things move a lot smoother even if they catch you off guard.

Do I have the right tools?

If you have a deep knowledge of computers then you have the most important tool of all. But that’s not all. You will have to have both component oriented tools such as screw drivers, thermal compound, power supply etc handy. On the footer of this page the tools section will aid you along with future articles. Staying informed is important.

As far as building up the right skills, will you start a business you know nothing about?

Moving files from Windows Vista to 7

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Ithought this was a pretty good question by one of my clients. It also gives me the opportunity to tell you a bit about my Tip Cycle program were I can answer all of your computer questions. The reason I call it the Tip Cycle is because it’s a tip for a tip. Browse around the site and check it out. Moving on.

The question she asked was, could I create a back from Windows Vista using the system backup and restore feature built into the system to create one and be able to move that backup and restore those files in Windows 7? I thought wow that is a good question.

In essence, you are backing up files in one operating system (Windows Vista) and restoring those files in another (Windows 7). The answer is very simple and it is the genius of Microsoft at work.

I hate Windows Vista. I always encourage my clients to upgrade. Windows Vista is like the more retarded cousin of a retarded cousin. But there is one thing that makes the transition easy if you want to use Windows 7 first before migrating all the day.

I had one client who had a bad experience with Windows Vista as many have reported. Her issue was that she didn’t have a large hard drive. It was about 40 gigs but insisted on having Windows vista. After while being that Vista is such a large operating system and there was not much room left for her to store anything else.

Not only that her old compressed files and her temporary internet files among other junk that needed to be cleaned took like 4 gigs of space. It seems her space just shrunk and shrunk with each use. She decided to make the move to Windows 7 after convincing that a larger hard drive was needed as well since she loves music.

So now the question came on how to move her information over. Well, it is much simply than you think between Windows Vista and 7. Click start and in the space where you can search, type “backup & restore” and choose the back up option. Save the files on an external media such as a USB or an external hard drive.

The system automatically creates an application along with the saved data. Take that backedup data to the new system and repeat the step but this time choose the “restore” option and pick the computer option that comes up next that says something along the lines of “this is the computer I want to restore my files to”.

Then follow the onscreen options and there you go. If you have any issues or questions, I am here to help. Use the Tip Cycle form to ask any questions you may have about this process.

What you must know if your laptop screen ever cracks

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It is an unfortunate situation when your laptop screen cracks. It takes away from a lot of productivity and messes up your entire day. In this article, I am going to talk about how to avoid getting your screen cracked and what you have to know if it ever happens to you.

How to avoid it from happening to you?

  • Do not leave your laptop in your car. It gets hot in there.

    • I get this one a lot when I ask how the screen cracked when called to replace a screen. Leaving you laptop in your car is not just costly when heat causes the screen to malfunction but can be costly in terms of theft. Someone can crack your window and steal your laptop. Don’t do it.

  • Do not use your laptop as a table. It is not meant for you to sit things on top of it.

    • I had one client who slammed their bible on top of their laptop in the car. When she came out of church, the screen was cracked. I thought to myself, isn’t she suppose to take the bible into church?

  • Do not threw things at people who are using your laptop. Tell them to kindly get off.

    • You would be surprised how many of these I have gotten as well. The story goes, he wasn’t suppose to be on it so I threw something at him and it missed and hit the screen.

  • Do not let minors play on your computer. Kids have toys for a reason.
  • Try not to use your laptop for extended periods of time, they get hot, and if you must a laptop cooler is a good investment.

    • This one will not crack your screen but can cause other problems if parts are over heating especially if your laptop is not properly insulated as in the HP models dv9000 and 6000.

What you must know if it happens?

Not all screens are created equal as in not all Apple CEOs are created equal. Steve Jobs will be missed greatly, one my inspiration as a Tech guy Size matters :) . Know the size of your laptop screen. Know the model of your computer. And the most important thing of all, know what type of back-light technology your laptop uses.

What is back-light technology?


It is the kind of light that your laptop uses to show you the images shown by your computer. From Wikipedia

A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). As LCDs do not produce light themselves (unlike for example Cathode ray tube (CRT) displays), they need illumination (ambient light or a special light source) to produce a visible image. Backlights illuminate the LCD from the side or back of the display panel, unlike frontlights, which are placed in front of the LCD. Backlights are used in small displays to increase readability in low light conditions….

That’s not all. There are two types of back-light technologies used by laptop manufacturers.

What are they?


I could not find a better explanation than the one found at laptopscreens.com. They sell genuine laptop products. Here is their explanation unaltered:
“All laptops in late 2010 use LCD screens:
LCD screens require a backlight system to operate, there are two backlight systems in use today: CCFL and LED
CCFL – Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light, is an older backlight method, which utilizes a daylight specter fluorescent tube and an inverter which powers it.

LED – is a newer backlighting system which does not use an inverter, and instead of a fluorescent tube it uses a strip of LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes).
So in essence there two types of laptop screens: LCD-CCFL and LCD-LED: these screens are NOT INTERCHANGEABLE.

Laptop manufacturers tailor their system for a particular LCD screen, so it is impossible to install a CCFL screen into a computer outfitted for an LED screen, and vice-versa.
The replacement screen must have exactly the same backlight type as the original (old) screen. Currently there are 2 major types of backlight for notebook LCD screens:

1. CCFL (Cold cathode fluorescent lamp)
a) 1-CCFL – contains 1 bulb
b) 2-CCFL – contains 2 bulbs
2. LED (Light emitting diode)

IMPORTANT! CCFL and LED screens are NOT interchangeable!
The CCFL backlight screens always need a high voltage inverter to power the bulb inside the screen. The LED screens use light emitting diodes to light up the screen. Most of the LED screens today require an inverter as well and the inverters of the two types are completely different. Inverters of the LED screens are attached to the bottom of the screen.
One CCFL (also known as “single backlight”) – has been and still is the most popular backlight type in laptop screens. The screen contains one bulb to light it up and has a pair of wires at the bottom finished with one white inverter connector that plugs into inverter board.”

And with that, you should know what to do if you should ever get your screen cracked. In case I missed one to avoid, how did your screen crack if it has happened to you?
sources
Wikipedia
Laptopscreens.com

External hard drives

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Iwrite this article because I have been getting a lot of my clients ask me about using their external hard drives. Apparently external hard drives are still a new technology that still needs explaining. I apologize if that line sounds condescending; it is not intended as such. Nevertheless, external hard drives are very simple and easy to use.

But before I explain their making and how to use them, let me just highlight why someone might need an external hard drive. You might need to get an external hard drive if
The why

  • you are running out of space on your computer
  • you save a lot of music and videos on your computer
  • you want to back up your data
  • you want to take your files with you to another computer

These by no means are the only reasons to buy an external hard drive but points out the reasons for most people. For techs like myself, they are a must. I have a 1.5 terabyte (a thousand gigs). Back in the days terabytes were only found on servers now they are a norm. So now that this technology is more common, how do you use it?

Simple. When you open your new external hard drive, there is a USB cord that usually comes with it and sometimes a power adapter that connects to your electric socket. Some need external power (from your socket) some don’t because they get power and also transfer data via the USB cable that comes with it.

Once you have the box opened, connect one end to the drive and the other end (USB end) to your computer. And almost immediately a “autoplay” screens pops up asking you what you want to do. You can open the folder which is what I do and then copy the files from your computer by pressing control Ctrl+C and then click on the blank screen on the external hard drive folder that you opened and press control Ctrl+V to paste the files over to your new hard drive. That’s it.

If you have any questions you can always ask an expert using our Tip Cycle system.

A most needed upgrade for your computer

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Don’t throw away that old computer. That might just be the best advice you will ever get about an old computer. But is it the best advice? Well it depends on how old the age of your computer. Most models post 1997 I think are upgradable and put back to good use.

Pre 1997 models with the exception of a few, there is little you can do with them as far as hardware. But there is one upgrade that can save you hundreds that doesn’t depends much on the year of the computer but does on the user. If you are a power user move with the change technology brings. If you are a average user (majority of people) then this one upgrade is just for you.

  • It will allow you to use that old computer for networking purposes
  • For a particular function (ie, playing pack-man or checkers online)
  • For memories
  • To hand over to the kids
  • Or sell it to your local pc repair shop for parts. I know I am always looking to buy old pcs for this reason.

Or whatever you like but idea stands that don’t be so quick to toss out that old computer once you get a new one. You would be surprise how much more life you can get out it by simply upgrading the memory or RAM (Random Access Memory).

The CPU which I will cover in another post and memory are the performance enhancing drugs (as they say in sports) for your computer. The difference is that for a computer these are already included.
Not only that, the physical act of installing the memory is very easy. The most difficult part for a newbie is figuring out what kind of memory his or her computer uses. But this is not difficult either.

TO find out what kind of memory your computer uses, you can do a simple google search of the name of your computer and add specs at the end of it. For example my computer is called tataPC12005 because it is a model I built myself and know what’s inside. If say HP build it with this same name, to find out what memory it uses I would search tataPC12005 specs and hit enter. Then look to see what kind of memory it says the computer has and write it down. Then go to the local computer parts shop or online and buy it.

Once you buy it the installation process is quite simple:

  1. unscrew the screws on the side of your computer case that opens
  2. Locate the memory slots
  3. Press the clamps on both sides to release the memory from your motherboard
  4. Remove the old memory and align the new one just how the other was and press down until it snaps in place and that’s it.

The process above is for installing desktop memory
Recommended
If you are doing a memory upgrade I recommend you upgrade by 512 to 1 gig increments and for power users more
Did you know the system RAM recommendation by Microsoft specifications for good performance? Obviously you can always add more.

Windows 2000 minimum 256MB
Windows XP 512MB, unbelievable here
Windows vista 1GB
Windows 7 1GB to 1.5GB

Personally, the longest I have had a computer is 6 years but I am always upgrading something inside. I repaired a PC the other day that was till running Windows 98. I never thought I would still see one those. How old is your computer? And do you know any one who owns a computer that’s more than 10 years old?

Fin

It has happened to you too

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It always feels good when you know your occupation helps people. As Techs we either start at a very young age learning about computers. And if your passion is bullet proof you don’t that passion turns into a fulfilling career. I think a lot of Techs can testify to that.

We usually start out helping family and friends with out geeky skills and for many of us the light bulb comes on that says hey I can do this and make money. That’s how it happened for me at least. I started reading about computers when I was about twelve and by fifteen I could build one. Nowadays, with all the parts in front of me give me 30 minutes and I have one running for you.

But the best part of the job is not just when your pocket is full after a nice day of work or you land a nice contract with a company. The best part for me also happens to be when I help a friend solve their computer problem.

A friend of mine facebooked me today asking for help because there some movers that came to his house and one thing led to another his hard drive doesn’t work anymore. He guessed the USB connection is broken on the external hard drive. He didn’t know what to do so he messaged me. Here is what he wrote:

tate, what’s good man??? where are you these days?? if you’re in the states, i have a question for you. i have an iomega external harddrive with a lot of important files on it. i was using my mom’s office over the summer to write my master’s thesis, and one day some workers came in to put in a new desk. anyway, after they were finished, i came back to keep working on my thesis but my hard drive is no longer working. thankfully i saved my thesis elsewhere, but no computer will recognize my hard drive anymore. i have a feeling the hook up where a usb connects to the hard drive was broken when those men moved my mom’s desk, but i really have no way of being sure. where do i go from here to replace that part and get all my files back??? any help is appreciated, thanks a lot man. i hope you’re doing well

You can see his problem here. Hard drives crash all the time. But in his case it doesn’t seem his had crashed. So I told him to buy an external enclosure, take out the hard drive from the case and put it in the new enclosure and connect it back to the computer. Remember, always back up your files in more than one place. It saves you a lot of headache and frustration in the long run.

What is HTML?

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H TMLstands for Hypertext Markup Language, is one of the simplest yet most powerful language used to create a web page. In other words html is nothing but a set of markup tags which is used to describe a web page. Unlike other programming or computer languages html is far simpler to understand and very easy to grasp. HTML is the best language for a person set to create his/her first web page and has been in existence since the early 80’s.Html tags are surrounded by the angle brackets and are always used in pairs (start and end tags). E.g <body> </body>.
Some of the basic and the most important html tags are,<html> : Every html document starts with this tag which defines it as an HTML document.<head> : This tag is used to define the header of an HTML document where information of the document is placed.
<div> : Is used to define a section in a document
<body>: It is between this tag that the main content of the document is placed.
<b>: Is used to make the document text bold.

<a>: This is called as the anchor tag which is used to create a link to another document.
<h1> – <h6>: These tags are used to define HTML headings where h1 corresponds to the largest and h6 to the smallest heading.
<title>: It is used to hold the title of the document is plays a very important role in the search engine optimization.
<table>: This tag is used to define a table within the html document.
<th>: Is used for indicating a table header cell.
<tr>: used to create the rows within tables that will contain cells.

HTML document can be created by making use of any text editor and saving the document with ‘.html’ or ‘.htm’ extensions and is opened by default with a web browser. An example of a simple html document would be,

<html> — html document starts here
<head> – html document header
<title> Document Title</title> — document title
</head> – header tag ends here

<body>Document Body — document content
<div align="center"> – html document section
<a href="http://www.test.com/"> An example </a> — anchor tag, used to provide a link to another web page
<table> — html table element
<tr> – creating a row within the table
<th>Column 1 heading </th> — specifying table cell heading
</tr>– tr end tag
</table> — end of table element
</div> — div end tag
</body> — document body ends here
</html> — html document ends here

The current version of html in use is HTML version 5
For those who are interested and fascinated by this language can use the following websites to gain more in-depth knowledge about it,

http://www.htmlprimer.com

www.html.net

http://www.w3schools.com/html/

http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/

These web sites provide a wide range of tutorials and examples, which can help master the language.
I hope this helps in getting you started as web page author