Noah Luis

Once I heard a precher say that by giving your tithe or offering that you will start to realize that, over time, you care what happens to the finances you invested into that church or ministry. The same concept lies everywhere else. Personally I believe that time/money/effort that is invested into anything will produce responsibility or a "wanting to take care of whatever it is you invested in".

Take for example purchasing a car. Some of my peers are fortunate enough to have parents that can pruchase them a brand new Toyota Camry. Do they take care of the car and change or check the oil often? NO. Why is this? I believe that since they didt not work for the money that was INVESTED into that new Toyota Camry they, by default, don't claim any responsibility since they didn't see how much work it took to build up the finances to purchase such a car.

On the other side of the coin if you worked and saved money to buy a brand new Toyota Camry, wouldn't you be more apt to want to take care of it since you invested time/money/effort into the finances for the car? I would.

I believe it is an unconscious thing that most of us overlook and don't realize we are doing. Kind of like how our bodies naturally scratch themselves without us having to think about scratching. We just scratch.

Invest into something and see how much care or Responsibility you have for it.

About 5 weeks ago I stumbled upon Chris Pirillo's video on YouTube talking Computer Repair'. I ended up finding his live stream which is hosted by Ustream.tv. This site offers users a free account to broadcast live anything they want (with certain restrictions) if you have a webcam and a microphone.

Since then I've been broadcasting and recording clips on things related to technology that could help people who aren't knowledgeable make wise decisions with their technology. People are quite interested since the material I give them is free. Call it free tech support. Most places charge for this service.

It's simple, you signup for an account with a valid email, setup your profile, and click the BROADCAST NOW button and you are live. Whoever goes to your ustream site will see your live stream and can chat with you through a live chatroom.

Here is a link to my ustream page: www.ustream.tv/channel/noah-luis-live. Or you can find me at my own site: www.emmanutech.com/live.

Sign up for your free account if you have something to share with the world. =)

Software and hardware updates come along quite regularly. The average user could probably find an update for either software/hardware they have on a weelly basis. This is true moreso for software since software is much more complex.

Since software has a level of complexity and is neither perfect, the probability that there will be updates for it is 99.99999% true. Software that has been written and deployed often isn't completely bug-free with our computers and the operating system we use.

So the question is: Are softtware/hardware updates good for my computer?

This is a debateable question given that there is always a possiblity that by fixing one thing with an update you create several problems that didn't exist before. Now is creating more problems a good thing as opposed to keeping the old problem without the new problems? That's the ultimate question.

Well, not all updates are flawed. There are updates that do help to eliminate severe issues with our software. A good tip to keep in mind: "Update your computer regularly, but if you notice problems that didn't exist before an update be sure to keep note of that when asking a computer tech to uninstall the update you installed." This will help you save some headache with related problems.

Good luck with updating your software! =)

Recently I did a video on purchasing a computer and how not to base your purchase only on price. Well the afterthought of that is the Maintenance of your computer. There are two realms of maintaining your computer:

1) Physical Realm - The place you choose to position your computer will have an effect on the lifespan of your computer. If you choose to put your computer in a dusty hot corner where there is moisture in the air, you can bet your computer will die alot sooner than it was meant to. The tip here is make sure you keep your computer in a well ventilated area, not outside of a house or building, and in a room where the dust to air ratio is quite low.

2) Virtual Realm - Websites you choose to surf and software you install and use has a direct impact on how many virus or spyware infections you will attain. Some people I've done work for use Limewire. Limewire is a filesharing program which is free. Well my analogy is: Take a needle for tattoing and share it with thousands of people and see how many infections you get or attain in a short time. Keeping your computer updated and scanned regularly will prevent unwanted buildup of malicious programs and files which will break your computer sooner than it was meant to.

Thought: You could have the most fastest, best quality, biggest storing computer on the planet, but if you have no maintenance or responsibility to go with it, you will trash it soon. Doesn't matter the quality or price.

Bottom Line: Maintenance is easy if done regularly in small amounts over time. So MAINTAIN YOUR COMPUTER!

Yesterday I got around to installing the long awaited Windows Vista Service Pack 1. The total size of the download was 434MB and took about 25 minutes to download. It took an additional 60 minutes to install and configure itself. Now after it has been installed I haven't been able to notice any improvements necessarily that are obvious other than the annoying balloon that keeps asking me if I want to help Microsoft make Windows better.

I'm disappointed. Vista has much problems and this service pack didn't seem to fix much to the ordinary user. The same problems exist. These problems consist of IE freezing up or crashing often, not being able to have multiple tabs open in IE to work properly, and Vista taking forever to close/ end IE if I tried to kill the process, just to name a few.

In my opinion Windows Vista altogether is still in its beta-testing phase. The customers like you and I are left to deal with these things as opposed to Microsoft's team. If I wasn't one to help people with their computers, windows-based being the majority, I would switch in an instant to a Mac using VMWare Fusion to run Windows XP if I wish.

Vista is a huge disappointment and I believe is overpriced. My genuine copy of Windows XP costed me $200 in 2003. Windows Vista Ultimate upgrade cost me $275. Vista was a nice attempt to equalize the market to compete with Mac. But by far Macintosh has done a great job of keeping up to date with the updates and developing stable and usable software for everyday users.

Today's technology is so advanced that researchers and scientist have found a way to allow the human brain, by thought, to perform different tasks ranging from: turning on home interior lights, moving the cursor on your computer, and moving a robotic arm to feed one's self. This list is just a few of the accomplishments of Neuroscientists at the University of PIttsburgh.

Times have changed since 5 minutes ago. Technology is accelerating (increasing in speed). Not only is it moving as fast as it was 5 minutes ago it's moving faster than it was 5 minutes ago. Technology has allowed much advances in communication. Most websites that are consumer customizable fall into the category of social media.

Sites like MySpace, YouTube, Ustream.tv, facebook, flickr, and twitter are all examples of social media. These sites have their differences in strengths. Their target market is somewhat different. They allow for communication in different ways. MySpace allows for general profile information, comments, and blogs. YouTube allows for video communication and subsciption. Ustream.tv allows for live broadcasting and also viewing of prerecorded live videos. Facebook utilizes groups, pictures, and video together for communcation. Flickr allows for just pictures. Twitter allows users to blog individual thoughts that can be written in 140 character or less to share with others who choose to "follow" their every move.

It wasn't long ago that our way of communication was by way of a land-line telephone or by snail mail. Now we have advanced to a point that email is dead and the new way of communication is by way of cell phones that have interactive messaging like twitter to be up to the minute on what's going on wherever you want to know.

The trend seems to be "NOW" as opposed to "later on" or "in a bit". I wonder what is the next level of social media and communication for the world to embark on. It would be cool to find a way to transport matter (physical) long distances in seconds. That would make the world even more "NOW NOW".

Today I worked on a laptop of one of my customers. His system crashed and gave him weird error messages. So I told him I would attempt to retrieve his files if the computer didn't work. Well bad news, the hard drive in his laptop still runs/spins, but as far as trying to get his data off of it, I was unable to. I tried several different methods and still no success.What is the lesson here?BACKUP YOUR DATA REGULARLY! Don't wait until its gone to scramble to get a copy of your files.  Your files are only as important as you make them out to be. So don't neglect to do what you should do. 

Create a password. Don’t leave your account unprotected. 

Creating a password for your account on any computer is crucial.

If your computer resides in a neutral area where more than one person has access to it, this makes it even more important for you to create a password.

If you deem your personal pictures and files to be valuable to you, then creating a password will minimize the chance that your files will go missing or deleted.

Creating a password will also protect you from others going on to infected websites and unintentionally downloading Trojans or viruses.

Analogy – If you didn’t have a pin number or password for your ATM/Credit Card, anyone would be able to exploit those funds. Now in the same manner you have valuable and unique pictures, videos, and files. Would you want someone exploiting them or deleting them?

There is an analogy that does contradict my point here. Whenever I go to town and I don’t have anything of value on my or in the car, I leave the doors unlocked. Most people wouldn’t do this. You may ask “Why?”. I say well I would rather they not break the windows to get in than if I left the doors unlocked.

BOTTOM LINE: Create a password and use it.

Stories have been told that some idiot used their CD/DVD drive, when open, as a place to put their coffee cup. BAD IDEA! More so stupid idea.Tip#2: "Do not use your CD/DVD drive as a coffee cup holder"