So what’s up with the geek? How come that Colby fellow is just plain lackluster in terms of content? Well, you can call it writer’s block, you can call it enjoying the summer months, or you can call it just plain busy elsewhere.

But the truth is, i’m a little stumped for relevant material. So this is a call to action. I am looking for some questions, direct or indirect, regarding topics that you think need covering in this column. I can of course go back and hit issues previously addressed and i suppose that’s exactly what i will do…

It’s summer, and it’s been a glorious summer here in Southern Vermont, but let’s not forget about lightning. Sure, it’s been a sunny summer and the gardens are lush and fruitful, but lightning storms crush computers and electronics in an instant. Uninterruptable power supplies are essential if your data is essential, and a quality surge protector will suffice for the rest of us. Let’s be smart and not just plug our expensive things directly in to the wall okay? Good.

Definitions. A while back I went about writing a couple of articles regarding the terminology of a handful of useful tech items so that perhaps we could all easily converse in a language that was mutually defined. No sense regurgitating that drudgery here, but rest assured there i an archive online. it’s at: http://www.vermontgeeks.com/blog

Shopping online. It’s huge. Well, for me it certainly is. I am a preaching locavore when it comes to food. And this year is a good year to be just that. Start simple, you probably have a neighbor within three miles that has chickens and fresh eggs. Make it happen, say hello. They’re probably cheaper and so much better for you than any factory farm produced junk that could have salmonella. Know Your Source! Then take it up another notch and get some milk. Did you know there are cows here? Milking cows? It’s true. Oh yeah, and you can get a CSA farm share from the Boyd farm that’s not only reasonable, but supports local farmers in the best way possible. Not to mention the fair number of roadside farmsteads with a plethora of fresh produce. Or just park your car somewhere near my house and leave it unlocked, there will be squash on your passenger seat when you return. So anyway, yeah, shopping online. I buy all kinds of things online. If you’re worried about internet security in that regard, you need to not be worried, as much as educated. Be sure that you are paying through a secure site and if a deal seems too good to be true, well, there it is…

Mac’s vs. PCs. Mac’s still win. But PC’s are cheaper. So go ahead, the economy stinks.

Home Theatre? Same as before. Things keep getting shinier and less expensive. HD content is becoming more and more prominent and it’s fantastic. Duncan Cable is working on a new HD distribution system with great promise and we’re eagerly awaiting it’s full rollout, we’ll keep you posted! 3D is still kind of a joke. Cool for gaming and animated movies, but the home experience is still in it’s infancy. We’ll see if this not new technology can somehow do what it has historically failed to do… Succeed.

SPAM, the delicious Hormel product, and ubiquitous junkmail that we all suffer from. I still say the best defense is to protect your email address and to have multiple email addresses for just that reason. One for family/friends, that you NEVER give to an outside company. One for online shopping, and another just for junk that you can use to ‘sign up’ for random bits of online information and otherwise ignore.

Word. Well, they’ve gone ahead and released Microsoft Office 2010, and early reviews are outstanding. It’s much snappier than 2007 and cleaned up a little, so if you didn’t bother with 2007, but upgraded your computer somewhere along the way, well, I say go for it. Especially if you’re running Windows 7.

I’m quite sure that everyone could use a reminder about the tragedy of data loss and the need for at least one backup if not two. Online backup solutions are convenient and inexpensive insurance. Having an external hard drive that backs up your data automatically is a no brainer with the cost per GB dropping daily. If you’re not backed up, you WILL lose your data eventually. So there’s fair warning.

Viruses morph and change constantly, but the basic tenets stay the same. we’re still a fan of Microsoft Security Essentials for free and while there are a number of fantastic paid solutions. ESET Nod32 has been consistently fantastic for a long time.

Recycling. Yes we still gripe about recycling. One good thing has occurred since that article. The WSWMD has gone forward with accepting pretty much all forms of recyclable plastic. I applaud their efforts greatly, especially as it is by no means a money maker to do so. As well, it’s gotten a bit less expensive to recycle your old computers and peripherals. Just bring them by your local transfer station and pay the fee, don’t dumpster them, that’s just bad karma.

So there’s a general recap of a number of topics we’ve covered in the past. Sure, I’m mailing it in with this article, but there’s some gems in there somewhere, I’m sure of it. If you have questions or would like a specific topic covered, send me an email at colby@vermontgeeks.com and we’ll see about making everything better in your geek world.

Perhaps heard most often on the phone is the phrase ‘I’m not really computer literate’. At least I hear it a heck of a lot, and my response that I usually keep to myself is ‘Well, why not?’. The time for that to be an acceptable position is long past. Personal computers have been part of our landscape for over three decades and they have only become increasingly intuitive. The amount of free help out there is daunting, and while you get what you pay for, google and wikipedia have put the old door to door Brittanica fellow out of a job. There still exists among a large portion of our population a reticence to accept computers on both an intellectual and visceral level, and frankly, it’s just unacceptable. ‘Be wired or be gone’ is another phrase bandied about and it rings true for a great number of reasons and at all levels of human existence. This is not a fad, this is not a demo, the burn in period is over, computers are an everyday, every hour part of life.

Now some may scoff, wince, and turn the page at this, mumbling something about never owning a cell phone, or maybe that the set of World Book’s from 1986 is all they need to reference any question they have about the platypus. And I will not deny them their say as I had that very set of encyclopedias and felt smarter for having them, in 1986. I also got my first Apple IIe computer at roughly the same time, and by no means do I take for granted the printed pages and their part in my education. I was fortunate though, to have that computer at such an age and to have Mrs. Millett, my third grade teacher as a early adopter and advocate for computers in the classroom and beyond. My generation was the first to receive hands on use of computers at an early age in the public school system. This is why we have little or no fear in computing today, and it’s also why your grandchildren can show you how to navigate the menus with ease on your flat screen television, tivo, iPod, GPS, blackberry, you name it. I was setting the clocks on the worlds VCRs when I was a boy, but today kids that age are writing simple programs that can control the appliances in your home.

If you have moved past the first stage of technology acceptance, the second level is the ‘user by rote’. This type despises any and all changes to a computer, program, or system, but can work efficiently for a near eternity, so long as the order of actions remains the same. I still have many customers that fall into this category, and they are invaluable members of our workforce. They just want a list to follow, and they prefer it stay ‘just so’. A computer upgrade is not an upgrade to them, it is a hinderance, and at times a return to zero. These users would just as soon stick with an outdated, virus-ridden operating system than upgrade to newer, faster, more secure lifestyle. To them Windows 98 was the zenith of computer development and any changes since have caused more trouble than not. Many of them have a poster of a kitten perilously clinging to a branch with the phrase ‘hang in there’, posted near by. Another tell tail sign of this user is the number of times they click the button on the mouse. A double click for everything? This person has not adapted to change well at all.

Moving past this stage we have our most feared user. He who knows just enough to be dangerous. Clearly this individual wants to accept and use technology. It is likely that, some well meaning IT professional or youth has shown them enough keyboard shortcuts and tricks that he feels empowered. Empowered enough to buy into the newest technology, an iPhone perhaps, only to have it seemingly blow up in his face when those keystrokes don’t apply similarly. They usually power through however, and the best advancement for this group can be found when they are not afraid to ask questions, or seek out help.  Help menus and google are invaluable to them. These are the folks who got burned by the Lord Voldemort of operating systems, Vista. The early adopters of that system can barely say it’s name without vitriol, if at all, and deservedly so. They are also the rather vocal majority that has everyone repeating the scorn in mockingbird fashion. Vista has gotten much better, but they’ll never know it, it’s on to 7! And good riddance I say. 7 is a cleaned up, streamlined Vista 2. Believe the hype, as much as you believed in the maligning of Vista, 7 is solid.

And then there’s fools like me. I want the latest, bleeding edge, beta version of everything. I don’t care if it wipes out my entire computer, I can fix that. I’m the one who was using an internet phone service more than five years ago. It sucked. I still have it, although under a different moniker, and now it’s great. I still have my first iPod, the first generation one that’s as big as a deck of cards. They can fit as much music onto a player the size of a thumbtack now. I have a Mac computer museum graveyard that I should really do away with. It begins to remind me of how much those things cost and how quickly they depreciate. And yes, I always upgrade to the latest operating system, and it’s good for you that I do. That way, when you call and ask me if you should upgrade, i can give you a hands-on response which typically is, ‘not yet’. We are societies beta testers, and we get taken advantage of by the big companies for our inability to resist their shiny claims, but it also puts us in the position to resolutely pan an emerging technology that doesn’t live up to it’s advertising ballyhoo.

So I need you, and you, like it or not, need me. I’ll be vetting these new trinkets eternally, and on the far end, you will accept these pieces as useful, but only after they’ve become so ubiquitous and inexpensive that it’s a near impossibility to functionally exist without it, and that’s just fine. By that time, I will invariably be on to the next, and I can’t wait.

How about a little spring cleaning in August? This weeks column is all about the cleaning and organization of your friendly and mostly useful computer. Without fail, everyone is guilty of a little bit of haphazard file management on their computer. This is normal and it doesn’t make you a slob or a bad person, but a little bit of help in this area can certainly make your life easier.

So let’s start with file organization. Some of this may seem obvious, but it’s frightening how few people take advantage of the built in file structure of Windows. The simplest way to put this is that there are two places that your personal documents and files should be. Only two. On your computer desktop, or in your ‘My Documents’ folder. Do not save a recipe list to the root of the C: drive. A much better place is to open up ‘My Documents’, create a new folder called ‘Recipes’ and save it there. There are a number of ways to create a new folder, but perhaps the simplest is to navigate to the place you want this new folder to be (in this case ‘My Documents’) and right-click within that folder so that a contextual menu comes up. Scroll down to ‘New…’ and select ‘Folder’ from the new side menu. Windows will automatically create a folder for you aptly named ‘New Folder’. You may notice that the title of this folder is highlighted, which means it’s ready to be edited, just type in the new name (in this case ‘Recipes’), and hit enter. Now you have a recipe folder, nice.

The best reason to take advantage of this folder structure is for the upgrade process. When you get a new computer and want to transfer your old info to the new, searching the computer for folders scattered every which way is not only cumbersome, it’s downright irksome. Using built in tools like the ‘Files and Settings Transfer Wizard’ grabs your desktop and documents and prepares them for an easy transfer to the new machine, but if your files aren’t in those two places, it’s not going to keep them. Sorry.

Another key point as far as organizing these files takes place in the ‘Save’ dialog box. This box come up whenever you hit ‘Ctrl-S’ or the ‘File, Save’ command for the first time. So let’s say we’re using Microsoft Word, and we’ve written a letter to the editor of the Deerfield Valley News in support of a certain ‘geek’ candidate. It’s full of praise and admiration and it’s almost perfect. When you click on ‘Save’, where does it go? By default, with a new document it routes you to the ‘My Documents’ folder. If you have opened an existing document, it will automatically save it to it’s previous home. Within that ‘Save’ window, there are a handful of options that are generally available regardless of the program you are working in. At the top of this window is an address bar indicating your current location. Directly to the right of it are a number of small icons that can help you navigate through the folder structure. One other important icon looks like a folder with a little red ‘star’ in the upper right corner. This symbol can be pressed to create a new folder, directly from the save dialog, which can be very handy indeed, as previously explained.

On the left of this dialog there are a handful of common locations to save to, be it the Desktop, My Documents, or My Computer. Approaching the bottom, there is a place to name the file, more on that in a moment, and a ‘Save as type:’ area. This one can be very important. Depending on the program you are using, there may be a multitude of options here. This is important to note in terms of compatibility. If you are using Microsoft Works instead of Word, this is where you would select the option to save as a word document if you need to share it with others.

Back to the file name. Let’s go over some naming conventions. You can name files just about anything you want, but I can’t help but stress to you all to stop using special characters. If it isn’t a dash or an underscore, do not use it in the filename. Absolutely no periods, or apostrophes please, they create the most trouble when it comes to file restoration when your hard drive fails or when transferring data. Avoid using slashes for dates such as 09/08/09, and either opt for dashes (09-08-09), or no punctuation at all (090809). Spaces are generally okay, unless the file is going to be uploaded to the internet, where spaces are messy. So let’s just say that it’s a good habit to drop them too. As an example, I like to name files thusly; ValleyNewsArticle082709.doc

So there are a couple of tips to get you organized. Sure it made for a somewhat boring read, but sometimes the information is more important than the associated entertainment value. If it helps, you can imagine that I was wearing a pink shirt while I wrote it, or that I incorporated recorded laughter and applause to motivate me while writing. Fine by me.