click image for a larger view; art by sunnibrown.com

The first official question in my Dell CAP days adventure from our wonderfully fantastic moderator Mack Collier was what makes you a Dell evangelist?  I referenced my experience way back early in my tech career.  I had a Dell M300.  It was a super tiny little laptop and I adored it.  I forget why, but one day I was trying to get at some of the parts inside the laptop and ended up stripping one of the screws.  I still needed to get in, so we had to destroy the screw to get into it (leaving part of the screw inside, and then I SUPER GLUED the door shut (since I couldn’t put a new screw in there).  Well, later the network card went out on the laptop.  I had only the basic warranty that came with the laptop.  I had to send the laptop in for service, and when it came back it was better than new!  Not only did they fix the real problem, which was the network card…. they fixed the door and replaced all of the screws.  There was also some strange marks on my screen, and those were gone as well.  What impressed me was that they could have just replaced the motherboard (which didn’t even require getting into the door that was broken, and left it at that.  What they did though was look the entire laptop over and repaired everything that looked broken!  It was then that I became a Dell customer for life.

Other folks in the group had similar things to say, they like Dell’s products, they like being able to “build their own machine”, and they like Dell’s social media efforts.  We then moved pretty naturally into discussing high quality versus low price, and where Dell has helped bring costs down (namely overseas support, but I’ll get to that when I talk about the support panel tomorrow). 

One of the key takeaways from this panel though was the need to educate the customers on their purchases.  I discussed the fact that people constantly came to me and asked me what they need to get in a computer.  Many people want to purchase a Dell computer, but perhaps get a little intimidated by the website and all of the options they can select.  Generally people want to get a good computer, but they don’t know what constitutes “good”.  I would just like to throw my hat in the ring as a perfect person to put the technology into terms the non-techies can understand for Dell.    Who better to educate the non-techie moms out there than someone who is already doing that very same thing!  Empowering the customers with education on what they need will go a long way to creating customers extremely happy with their purchases.  One thing I thought was VERY interesting was that the panel on Day one came to the same conclusion.  The fact that customers WANT to be educated on their purchases is obviously a hot button item right now.  You can check out Day 1′s notes on their image created by Sunni Brown below.

click for larger image of notes from Day 1 of DellCAP; art by sunnibrown.com

We also talked about ways to tailor the Dell website so it’s easy to read the reviews of people who are similar to yourself.  For a non-techie to read a review by someone who is speaking on a completely different level (way above their own understanding) would not be very helpful to that person.  Another techie though may not want to read the review of the mom who says that her kids can navigate the computer easily.  With varying profiles you can find reviews of people who have similar interests as you. 

The last thing that I had to say about marketing was the way I felt about Dell’s current marketing… the horrible horrible Lollipop commercials.  First, there is the extremely suggestive nature of the begining of the commercial.  Then the “workers” start squirting what looks like crap onto the conveyor belt (which clearly implies that the Dell computers are made out of crap!), and lastly the workers don’t “work” at all.  They just stand around singing while the machines make the computers.  Which really doesn’t give me a personalized feel to my computer.  So, the quicker those lollipop commercials can get off of my TV, the happier I will be.  If Dell wants a really good commercial, just hire me to talk tech to the moms… it’s what I’m good at.

Tomorrow I’m busting into the support panel, so definitely don’t miss that! 

What do you think of Dell’s current marketing (and even the dreaded lollipop commercial), and do you agree with our ideas about what can help the marketing of Dell and help the brand?

*Disclosure – Dell paid for my trip to Round Rock, TX to visit Dell headquarters.  They did not ask me to write a post about my trip or compensate me in any way for these posts.

Good passwords include ALL of the following:

• At least 14 characters in length
• Use of upper & lowercase letters
• Use of numbers
• Use of special characters

Creating a complex password though can be hard… here are a couple of ways to do it.

1. Think of a sentence and take the first letter of each word.  Change vowels to special characters (3 for E, 1 or ! for an I, etc), capitalize anything on one side of the keyboard, lowercase the other.

2. Think of a long word or phrase.  Change vowels to special characters, capitalize anything on one side of the keyboard, lowercase the other.

Once you’ve got your P@ssw0rd all set go to Microsoft’s Password Checker tool, and see if yours passes the test!

What to search

1. Exact error message.  First thing to try, especially if you are getting a specific error message (not just one that says it’s not responding or something to that nature).  Type in eiter the entire error message, if it’s short enough, or just type in the first sentence.  In addition to the the error message you can be more specific by typing in the program name as well such as “there was an error opening this document. this file cannot be found Adobe”. 

2. General symptoms.  If you do not have a specific error message, try searching for the general symptoms.  Some great keywords are: freezing (for when things just stop working without closing or continuing), crashing (for when the program completely closes without you closing it first), hanging (for when the program freezes for a while, but then ends up responding),  and unable or no longer (for when you used to be able to do something, or the program used to respond in a certain way and isn’t anymore).  Be sure to include the program name and version such as “outlook 2003 immediately crashes”

What to Click

Now that you’ve obtained several search results what should you click to help you find the right answers?  Under each search result will show the url that the result comes from.  Look for relevant websites.  For the Adobe issue I googled in this image the first result is from forum.adobe.com.  You can see this is from the user forums on the Adobe’s website, so there should be some answers from actual Adobe developers.  The next result is from a doman called acrobatusers.com.  This should also tell you that it’s a website for hardcore Adobe users.  That will also be a pretty safe bet that they’ll have your answer.  Other websites that look legit could include tech help websites and computer support sites. 

How to Read the Result

Many times the result will be in the form of someone like you asking the forum the question.  What will follow should be several different answers to the problem.  Sometimes it will even be obvious what the original asker has marked as the solution that worked for them.  All computers and issues are different though, so what worked for one person, might not work for you.  Try some of the other solutions until you find the right answer.

MY WORD OF CAUTION!!

DON’T and I repeat DO NOT mess around with things you are uncomfortable with, or that you don’t understand.  Sometimes the answers you find can be on a very high level, and should only be attempted by IT professionals!  Things that ask you to edit the registry by typing in “regedit” I would completely avoid, unless you want to turn your computer into a brick.  </PSA>

First thing is first, turn off the computer.  I always clean things top to bottom so that the dirt and dust can fall, and it won’t fall onto clean parts.  So start with the screen.  My husband and I use Monster Alcohol-Free ScreenClean Kit , you don’t HAVE to purchase a screen cleaner, but whatever you use, don’t use something alcohol based like a regular glass cleaner!  Your LCD screen is NOT glass, and should not be treated as such.  Also use a microfiber cleaning cloth to get the job done right.  Spray the cloth and wipe the screen down.  When the screen isn’t turned on you can see all of the fingerprints and dust to clean it properly.

Next up is the mouse.  If you still have a trackball mouse open up the bottom by spinning the part around the trackball.  Take the ball out and scratch the dirt off of the bars that surround it.  For an optical mouse simply wipe the bottom and spray down and wipe the top.  You may have to use your fingernails to scratch the caked on dirt.  The mouse and the keyboard touch your hands and fingers the most, and therefore can get really gross quickly.  I recommend a wipe down about once a month, or whenever you feel or notice them starting to get dirty. 

Now we can move onto the keyboard.  First spray compressed air all over the keyboard to loosen up the dirt and crumbs.  Now turn the keyboard over and lightly tap it on the surface of the desk you are working on.  If you have a laptop do the same thing, only be much more gentle, as there is a hard drive and all the other important components under the keyboard.  While it’s still upside down use the compressed air again and blow into the keyboard again.  Now tap the keyboard on the desk again.  Continue this process until there is nothing else falling from the keyboard.  Flip the keyboard back over and starting from the top press the keys down on the second row and spray the compressed air into the row above it (so when you are pressing down the keys of the #1 spray under the F1 key).  Once you’ve sprayed under all the keys turn it over one last time and tap it again.  Now if there is any caked on dirt on the keys, you’ll have to use a combination of your fingernail and a damp cloth. 

Finally we move onto the computer components.  For laptops this is fairly easy.  Just spray into any open spaces with compressed air, making sure to get the grate where the fan is.  With a desktop it can be a little intimidating.  Before you try to open the computer, pull the power cord out, and then press and hold the power button until the computer full discharges all of it’s power.  You don’t want to be shocked when digging inside!  One great thing about Dell computers is how easy it is to open them up.  Look on the back (where you plug everything in) for a large screw in the middle on the edge that holds the side of the computer in place.  Open it up and start spraying.  Make sure you get the fans really good.  There should be one on the mother board and one on the video card if you have a powerful one.  When you are spraying the compressed air into the fan, you may want to spray the blades to make the fan spin really fast… DON’T!  Making the fans spin too fast can actually break the fan!  It’s ok if it spins while you are cleaning it, just don’t spray right on the edges to make it spin.  Any items that you can’t clean really good with air you can wipe down with a cloth, but don’t let it be damp. 

There you have it!  You should now have a sparkling clean, and very happy computer!

So how can you avoid being hacked, and how can you tell if your blog is currently compromised?  (I will be talking for the most part about self hosted WordPress blogs).  First thing you need to do is download and install the Exploit Scanner plug-in.  I found this plug-in after hours of work, and it helped SO much!  Thank you to the devlopers for such a great tool!  For someone who doesn’t know a ton, the results on this can be a bit scary.  Here are the main things you should be looking for…

If one of the highlighted items are eval(base64_decode() followed by a whole bunch of uppercase letters and numbers then that page is definitely hacked.  I would find someone to help you clean it up though if you aren’t sure what you are doing.  Don’t just go deleting code that you don’t understand.

Another thing that will come up in the scan is administrative users.  Make sure that you or anyone else you’ve authorized to administrate your blog is listed.  If you see anyone else listed, you have been hacked.  Again, don’t try and fix it yourself.  You will need to go into the back end database and delete the rouge user.

Get yourself a Google Webmasters account to make sure the keywords that describe your site actually describe your site.  You can get a free account at http://www.google.com/Webmasters.  The easiest way to verify you own the website is to upload a file with your FTP client. 

Some good rules of thumb to avoid being hacked…

1. Your password should a combination of letters, numbers and special characters.

2. You should have a different password for your wordpress database, your admin account and your ftp password (all three should be different!)

3. Keep wordpress & plugins up to date.  When an update comes out, install it right away to avoid security holes in previous versions.

So stay safe out there, and hopefully your information remains safe!

First it will depend on what brand of wireless router you have.  I recommend Linksys (CISCO).  Definitely the best brand on the market for wireless routers/cards/etc. 

When you take your router out of the package you are going to need to hook it into your network.  In order to do this you will take the cord that comes out of the modem, or wall and put it into your router in the “internet” port (hole). 

Now if you used to have that cord that came out of the modem or wall directly plugged into the computer you will take another cord and put it in any of the other ports on the router and plug the other end into the computer.

Now that the router is all hooked into the internet and your computer, it’s time to setup the wireless network!  Like I mentioned, it’s going to depend on the brand you purchased what the defaults are going to be.  First open an internet explorer window (or the browser of your choice).  In the address bar type the IP address 192.168.1.1 (this is the default address for a Linksys router).  If that address doesn’t work, and you don’t have the documentation that would tell you which IP address to use try 192.168.0.1. 

The next thing you will see is a login popup.  Again here, the default for Linksys is username: admin password: admin.  You may have to play around with some different combinations if you have lost the insert for the package.  Another common password is 1234 with the username admin.  If you are really lost on it, plug the computer back into the modem directly and do a google search for default password (and then your brand and model of wireless router). 

Now that you’ve entered the wireless setup page the first security steps I take is to change the default router IP address.  There are several reasons to change this default IP address and range, but for now I’ll leave it at if you ever needed to connect to a work VPN there will less likely be conflicts with the work network if you change it from a default address.  Don’t change the 192.168 part, just change the 3rd octet.  You can pick something like 192.168.20.1 or 192.168.200.1, you just cannot go over 255.  After you change the IP address you are going to have to put this new IP address in the address bar and log in again.

Next you want to change the SSID, which is the “name” of your network.  I wouldn’t necessarily make it your own name (even though mine is totally named Kimmel).  Some people like to name theirs “Don’t Steal My Internet” or something fun like “Tattooine”. 

Third you want to set up the security.  There are a few different options here in terms of how you are going to secure it.  The most secure is the most recent standard which is WPA2, although you are free to use any of the security options.  Once you have selected an option, choose a password.  Passwords are most secure if you use upper & lowercase, numbers and special characters.  Also if it’s longer than 8 characters. 

Now that you have selected all of your options save the settings, and then try and connect to your network.  Enter the password and you should now have a home wireless network.  The best part of having a wireless network is all the many devices you can attach to it.  You can even put your TV and Blu-Ray player on the wireless and start streaming apps like Netflix! 

Unplug today, and go wireless!

*Disclosure – Linksys has not paid or compensated me in any way for this post, if you work for Linksys or CISCO please feel free to pay me or compensate me in anyway for this post.

When you are switching applications quickly on your computer, press Alt and Tab at the same time.  This is a quick way to switch between two programs.  If you hold the Alt button for a longer period of time, all of your currently open applications will pop up and you can keep pressing Tab while the Alt key is held down to navigate to the correct application.

Get the button and more info about Simply Saturday HERE

First step is to go to the computer that has the printer attached to it.  Depending on your operating system there are a couple ways to get to the printers list, but across the board you can get to it from the Control Panel.  It will be under Printers and Faxes

Next right click on the printer you want to share and select properties.  In Windows 7 you may have to select “printer properties” instead of just properties.

Now you should see something like the included image.  Click on Sharing and click the check box to “share the printer”.  Click “apply” and close out the window.

If you do not know the name of this computer right click on “My Computer” and go to properties.  You should find a place that says Full Computer Name.  Write down the computer’s name.

Now go to the computer that does not have a printer attached.  Click the start menu and if you have Vista or Windows 7 you can just type this right in the start menu, for XP you’ll have to click on run.  Type in //_____ (where ___ is your computer’s name).  Hit enter.

The printer that you shared from the other computer should show up.  Simply right click on the printer and select “connect”.  It will install the printer onto your computer! 

It’s as simple as that!  As always if you run into problems or have questions, tweet me!

Desktop – This is what I call my temp file.  I store things here when I need quick and easy access to the file in the next day or so.  As soon as I’m done with it, then I move it to a more permanent location in My Documents, or I delete it.  If you really need to keep some things on your desktop I recommend installing Fences to keep the desktop neat and organized.

My Documents – It is essential for this folder to have some organization!  Most files can be separated initially into categories (folders) of Business or Personal (unless you don’t have any “business documents”).  As you get into the personal files you can have folders for all the different hats you wear.  A folder for recipes, one for bills, one for household inventory, and don’t forget a misc file.  You don’t want to create an entire folder just for one file.  Those items should be placed in the misc folder.  In order to do this, create the folders by right clicking the white space in the folder and going to “new” then “folder”.  Once the folders have been created just start dragging the files into the right folder.  To view the majority of the files at once, right click on the white space within the folder again, and go to “view” and select “list”. 

My Pictures – These can be organized into whatever makes the most sense to you.  You can have a folder for each month of the year, or a folder for the entire year, a folder for each kid, a folder for just scenery.  You can do pretty much whatever you want in here… just do SOMETHING so you will be able to find that picture of Maddie kissing herself in the mirror.

My Music – If you have iTunes there is a fancy schmancy little checkbox that says for iTunes to keep the music organized FOR YOU!  Hooray!  I suggest just turning that on, and never worry about it again.  (Yes, yes, I know I’m betraying my beloved Microsoft with this one… but I do like iTunes)

So get to work, and get those files cleaned up!