Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
Hey again everyone! I am asking folks in my network to do blogs for me as I am absolutely loving my bloggin’! Wendy Blomseth of InBeaute Photography has donated a blog to Call That Girl. Wendy is a great networker and an avid social media markter. Check out her website here! www.inbeautephoto.com. She is posting a list of ‘tips and tricks” for your holiday picture taking adventures.
Here we go, enjoy!
Wendy Blomseth/Owner, InBeaute Photography
Til the season to take lots of photos. Are you excited? Are you ready? You might be smiling now but if your computer isn’t ready for your pictures, it won’t be pretty. Here are seven easy to do steps to get your computer ready to receive a large quantity of photographs from any important occasion.
PREP YOUR COMPUTER:
Follow these easy to do steps and you’ll be much better prepared and ready to download your favorite event pictures.
Happy Holidays everyone! I’m really excited to help all of you this season with all the little questions you have! Many folks have a big question, “How do I save money when buying a computer”
First tip: If you have a monitor, keyboard and mouse that works, just buy a new desktop computer.
Second tip: Make a budget and stick to it. A basic desktop model that is good for a family/solo is under $500. You can go to Dell’s website and get a basic “no frills” computer for under $300! Or you can even buy a refurbished one (way cheaper) at Reboot http://www.reboot-store.com
Third tip: If you go to a big box store, don’t get talked into all the “extra’s” that they sell you.
Fourth tip: Don’t worry about processor speeds or hard drive space. All new computers are keeping up with the industry and giving you plenty. If you are a music or picture fan, then yes…you may want a bigger hard drive. A basic computer should do everyone fine. I’m still running on a 60 gig hard drive! (2 year old computer too)
Fifth tip: if you are buying a laptop computer, skip the bells and whistles (like media packages), just look for a basic computer with the basic RAM needed, I recommend 3 or 4 gigs.
Email me with any questions, I hope this helped many of you in your buying decisions!
lisa@callthatgirl.biz
Nothing too special today folks, just some “fun” comments I have.
One thing that kinda gives me the “weirds” is when someone comes over and says, “Can I use your computer”. I don’t care, but I always feel weird about it. Computers are VERY personal these days. They are YOUR life! Most adults have their own and some with children have to share. (but many now are getting their own). And doesn’t it seem when someone borrows your computer, something is wrong with it afterwards?
Time after time I hear stories like these, “my brother was over for the weekend and now I have viruses all over and my internet isn’t working” “My mom came over and now I have a coupon page that pops up” or my favorite!!! “My ex-boyfriend came over and said he wanted to do something on my computer, popped in a flash drive and saw a window moving for 20 minutes” (WOW, he was TAKING HER STUFF!!!).
Eeks! We all need to be somewhat careful when we borrow our computers. Not everyone is as savvy as you are right? 🙂
Back to the creepy feelings…computers are now an extension of “us”, it’s how we work, play, eat, sleep and breathe. Ok a bit extreme, but for the most part it’s true. I had a computer stolen from me once and I didn’t care about the data (as it was backed up) but I felt more violated and “who is using it now!!!” I missed it actually.
To close for today, Happy Hump Day!
Here we go again…so many of you are not backing up your data! I’m going to now be the data back up annoying person. I hate to do this, but I feel that someone has to move you to wanting to at least do one back up. Can you blame me? I see this everyday in the shop…computers crash, viruses attack, they just plain fail… Your data is there and wants you to have it back asap!
You paid for that music. You stole that music. Either way, replacing your collection would be a lot of work!
Those memories off the camera? You cannot re-take those pictures. No way!
For one week, Call That Girl is offering a $1 per minute consultation. Even if you just want to check and see if your data back up is doing it’s job or going as far as setting up a whole new system that is hands freel….we want to help. We have seen many times over that people are sure their data is backed up to only find that the external hard drive or the online back up system is not backing up properly.
Many of you are not backing up on a regular basis. For the home users, this is important to get all those pictures and music collections in a 2nd home.
We can help you figure out a data back up package that fits your needs. Many of you have back up systems in place and just need a second opinion, for a buck a minute to have that checked, this is worth the price.
For the business user, you documents, excel spreadsheets and powerpoints are critical for your business to move. If your computer fails, you can at least get to your data.
This “buck a minute” special ends Wednesday, Nov 25th. If you book an appointment before then, you can book an appointment at anytime.
Email Lisa@callthatgirl.biz to schedule an appointment.
Hello folks, I hope you all read my first edition of being safe on Facebook. Enough has changed in just a few months that it’s time I put out another edition.
Login Hackers
Folks are still getting hacked the old school way on Facebook. Please change your facebook password NOW. Next, please change your email password that you log in with too and make it not the same password that your facebook has.
Weird messages/links from your friends
Never click on strange messages from your friends, “Hey check out this cool video I am in” is a regularity on facebook. Any links with weird shortcuts as well watch out for. I would even be a bit careful about clicking on links that look “legit”. I see so many links a day and I tend to only click on the ones where others have tried it first, I see their comments and if it looks like they are “ok” then I am going to be “ok”. Risking my computers security is not worth watching a video of a cat playing the keyboards (even though that is by far the funniest video I have seen on Youtube!).
Youtube/flash install virus
Another common one I have seen going on. If you click on the fake Youtube link…aka Youtube virus, you can either download a direct virus or get a message asking you to update “flash”. This of course could be true, but most folks already have flash installed on their pc’s. Flash does their own updates, you get notifications if you need them. And they aren’t that often.
The “Dear Facebook User” Login virus
If you get a login that starts with that message and tells you that they are implementing a new login system, this is a hoax too. If you have done that and did the “updatetool.exe” download, you are probably in trouble and know it already. Sorry about that! If you have been infected, I am sure by now you have changed all of your passwords to everyone online right? I hope so. That “uploadtool.exe” is supposed to be a banking phishing attack.
Quizzes/Games
The quizzes and applications are still in question for Call That Girl. I am not really seeing folks getting hacks from them directly, but it’s still up in the air how the hackers are getting passwords. I still have a feeling that the developers are getting them from the quizzes/games, etc.
Fun with Facebook
I really have enjoyed using Facebook lately, but watching all my friends download viruses or get hacked has not been fun. Even a computer repair gal, it’s sometimes too late for me to jump in and help.
Be careful on Facebook, have fun but again remember that screwing up your computer isn’t worth the fun of it all. I still am fixing “Koobface” viruses all the time. “Koobface” is the Facebook virus going through the system. Call That Girl can do a virus cleaning and a regular computer cleaning if you get infected.
Good luck and have fun!
Skype users are finding messages come through their systems. It is a message like this…(this is the one my client found anyway). This is a FAKE…and do not click on it or add to your contacts. This is not from Skype.
URGENT SYSTEM SCAN NOTIFICATION ! PLEASE READ CAREFULLY !!
http://www.xxxx.org (I took out the real address)
For the link to become active, please click on ‘Add to contacts’ skype button or type it in manually into your web browser !
FULL DETAILS OF SCAN RESULT BELOW
If you did add to contacts or click on the link and want your system inspected, we do computer system checks, virus detection and offer a computer cleaning. Email info@callthatgirl.biz to book an appointment.
