Solutions and services for business and home computers

With Verizon Wireless taking over Unicel, my little Nokia N95 was going to stop working sometime in May. I’d been wondering what I was going to replace it with. Although the iPhone is very tempting, I really didn’t feel up to the “trick AT&T” routine that you have to do up here in Midcoast Maine to get one. And the coverage concerned me. So… last Friday I went to US Cellular and got a Blackberry Curve.

I’m liking it more the longer I have it. It does a few things I really wished the N95 had done – namely, if you get a phone call from someone, it’s easy to then call them. Or if you get a call from someone, you can look in the log, and easily email them.

I do miss the camera (both the video and still) on the N95. And I miss the radio, since I’ve had no radio in my car since 2004.

Tonight I start teaching the iPhoto class at Camden Hills Regional High School. From the description on their site:

Description: Have you just bought a new camera and/or a new Mac? Want to learn how to make the two work together? This course will be an introduction to the iPhoto program that came with your Mac and show you how to efficiently store, organize and share your photos. Students are welcome to bring their own Macs, but note that we will be using the most recent version. Registration $35. 3 weeks 6:30-8:30 p.m. Begins 2/25 CHRHS Mac Lab

Hope to see you there.

I was recently asked how far I travel to help people. The answer is, “I don’t know!”. No one has yet asked me to travel to see them and had me reply, “I can’t do that”. But I do charge travel time if it’s south of, say, Damariscotta. Travel rates are negotiable.

My friend Stephen Gleasner is leaving Appleton today to race in the Tour Divide – a race from two hundred miles north of the Canadian border down to the Mexican border. You can read more about the event here and you can track his progress here.

After a long break (since December) I sold my first computer in quiet a while. Please check out the store to see what we have. I’m working with some other ex-AABA people, and it looks really good.

Note (rather late note) As of September, the store has closed. So, for the moment, I’m back to helping people with their computers.

Think about your “Data Shadow“…

I’m happy to announce that I’m selling computers and peripherals again – now as an agent of Mac2o. You can get to the store by visiting hs.mac20.com or clicking the Store link in the Nav bar above.

It looks like the Auto-update feature in Quickbooks for Mac OS X is doing something very bad -  erasing all files on your desktop, after warning that your disk does not have enough space.

Shortly after getting the new laptop, which came with 10.4 installed, I did an erase and install of 10.5. Shortly after doing this, I noticed the keyboard started freezing, while the touchpad and button worked just fine. “Oh no”, I thought, this is where I come to regret getting the refurb. But a little digging around found an article at MacFixIt.com. One of the posters suggested the following command:

sudo update_prebinding -force -root /

If you have this issue, copy and paste this into a Terminal window and hit return. Wait for the command to complete (you’ll get a prompt back) and reboot. This fixed the problem for me. I see the same issue is mentioned at AppleInsider but they say that no fix has been found. Perhaps I was lucky.

Well – it had to happen. After more than 5 years, lots of work, several bad drops, broken hinges, and perseverance, my old 800 MHz G4 PowerBook died. For Good. I’ve replaced it with a new Mac Book Pro – and I love it. I got a refurbished model of the 2.4 GHz 15″.