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July 29, 2008 Andy Taylor2 CommentsUncategorized

PC Club closes stores again; second time this year

My friend and manager of the local PC Club here in southern California, just came to my office and said “They did it again…They closed all the stores”.
Given only 15 minutes to vacate the PC Club store, he grabbed his personal belongings and left.
I’m on hold now with NAOC Holdings, the investment firm that purchased PC Club nationwide back on May 15th or 16th of this year.
After a brief ‘hello, how may I direct your call,” I identified myself as the owner of this blog, wanting verification of the closing of PC Club…”Just a moment please…”… … … … … “Hello, you’ve reached NAOC Holdings, please leave a message and we’ll return your call…”
Well, not a confirmation, but pretty damning if you ask me, to be transfered to the company’s general voicemail by the person who ANSWER’S that voicemail, the receptionist.
More to follow…

July 28, 2008 S!ick1 CommentUncategorized

Gmail now has SSL login by default option

When you are connected to the internet, and use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), you can use a secure (cryptographic) connection for: web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and other types of data transfers.

If you want to use a secure connection to Gmail with a web browser, you can go to https://mail.google.com.

Now, you can force your Gmail account to use SSL at login. When you are logged into your Gmail account, go to “Settings”…at the bottom of the “General” tab/section, look for “Browser connection”…

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July 28, 2008 S!ickLeave a commentUncategorized

Friday, solar eclipse

Friday, there will be a solar eclipse: the total blotting out of the sun by the moon. At its peak it will last for 2 minutes and 27 seconds, and can only be seen: in the northeastern edge of Canada, the tip of Greenland, parts of Russia, China and Mongolia.

It will reach its peak at 7:09 a.m. EDT. The northeastern part of Maine might be able to see a little bit of it immediately at sunrise.

NASA will broadcast the eclipse live on the Internet.

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July 25, 2008 S!ickLeave a commentUncategorized

Happy SysAdmin Day!

Today/July 25th (the Last Friday Of July), is System Administrator Appreciation Day.

This is the person you should schmooze so that when you break your computers at work, they’ll consider fixing it without reporting that you were doing something with it you shouldn’t have been…
This is the person that might be able to recover your email you thought was gone forever, and the same person who might not tell what you’ve been sending out…
This is the same person who MIGHT help you when your personal computer has a problem…

Just like the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, there’s a League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA). Except they don’t have a cool submarine. And motor vehicle. And additional physical abilities (other than their intellect). But they have a club YOU can’t join unless you’re one of them. If you are the boss of a SysAdmin, as a gift, you could pay for their membership…

Don’t send ’em a paper card: they’re tech-savy…send an electronic card.

Giftage, even if it’s late, is always accepted. Buy two things this year, and be on time next year. ThinkGeek is a great “toy store”. (When in doubt, it might be safer to go with a gift certificate. Don’t be cheap about it…)

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July 24, 2008 S!ickLeave a commentUncategorized

erase it forever

We’ve discussed how to prepare hard disks before you:
sell your computer…
give it to someone…
or dispose of the hard drive.

Using software is the most cost effective way for most consumers to do it. But if you need to erase hard drives completely, and somewhat often, you may want to consider a degausser.

I found two that Fujitsu produce.

SEM has Magnetic Media Degaussers…one that caught my interest is the Mag EraSURE P3M for “hard disk drives and other magnetic media”.

“…the SEM Model ME-P3M…is desgined to
degauss…Hard Drives and/or Magnetic tapes…The unit is operated by a
MANUAL HAND CRANK…”

The Mobile Mag EraSURE degausser is available, as well (and I’m unable to determine what the difference is between it and the P3M (other than style of the crank handle and the metal cover over where the media is placed).

Cost for mobile/portable versions of degaussers seem to be double and triple that over those not intended to be moved…as much as $40,000.

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