Send/Receive large files with drop.io

If you have files (currently up to 100mb) that need to get to someone why not give drop.io a try!  If you have to receive a fax and don't have a fax machine, give drop.io a try. That site again, is http://www.drop.io

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone (KB936330)

Although Vista SP1 will not be released through the normal Windows Updates until later this month, you can download the standalone version here.

More information in greater details can be found through Ed Bott's Blog.

Carbonite update problems-continued

I received the following email from Carbonite which explains the latest problems and how to correct this.  I suggest using the hotfix link provided as this is the easiest method. If you have problems with this,or wish for me to help you with it, just contact me directly.

Dear Carbonite Customer, 

Carbonite began the first phase of a system upgrade early Monday morning. Due to a server glitch, a small number of customers using Carbonite version 3.5.89 have been unable to reconnect, even though Carbonite's servers were unavailable for only a few hours.

We've identified your computer ************** as one of those that may be affected. (Carbonite will alert you that it can't connect to our servers by displaying a flashing red lock icon with an alert symbol in your system tray.) 

Don't worry, your backup is safe, but it will not be updated until you take steps to reconnect to our servers:

Option 1: Download a hotfix
1) Go to http://www.carbonite.com/hotfix
2) Click the 'Run' button on the two dialog boxes that appear
3) Carbonite should reconnect to the server shortly after you've applied the hotfix

(Note: If you are still having problems connecting to our servers after applying the hotfix, please reinstall Carbonite according to the directions below.) 

Option 2: Reinstall the latest version of Carbonite as follows: 
1) Go to http://www.carbonite.com/manage to log in to your account
2) Click the 'My Protected Computers' tab
3) Click the 'Reinstall' button, and follow the instructions to reinstall Carbonite on your computer

As soon as you've either applied the hotfix or reinstalled Carbonite, your backup should resume immediately from where it left off.

We apologize for the inconvenience this causes.

Sincerely, 

The Carbonite Team

Carbonite and Comments

Blogs have always amazed me, from the very first one I read I knew the RSS thing would be a hit. What I did notice however, was how any blog with a comment section would typically be loaded with either very negative or comments about nothing relavent to the topic, nor was the idea that people could comment on something I felt were simply the persons own opinons anyway.

 

So it should come as no surprise when I receive an annoymous comment through my website, clearly attempting to hide their true identity by not providing any real email address, even though backtracing of an ip address can always be accomplished. It seems this person figured I was under contract or making commisions from Carbonite.  No, just like everyone else that does sign up to their service can gain additional months of service (3 months) so sure, you can do the math and quite quickly see it would only take 4 friends for you to have your own computer completely covered for a year. Call it a perk if you want but certainly I am NOT making money from Carbonite. Do I think their service is great, absolutely. So when I receive email from them stating that updates, etc had caused a few burps in the system and that I would have to perform a 2 minute reinstall of the software and to not worry that my data was still quite safe and nothing had been lost... so what is so wrong about passing this sort of information on to my friends and blog readers who may already have the product, or wanting to learn more about it?  I must say, with all the negativity in the world, it is a shame that even a blog/website like mine that is only trying to help those with computer problems find solutions and to understand this weird and wonderful thing called technology.

 

Am I making this up?  Here's a clip from the email message sent:

 

Dear Carbonite Customer,

Carbonite began the first phase of a system upgrade early Monday morning. Due to a server glitch, a number of customers using Carbonite version 3.5.89 have been unable to reconnect since that time, even though Carbonite's servers were unavailable for only a few hours.

We've identified your computer *************  as one of those affected.

Don't worry, your backup is safe, but it will not be updated until you reinstall the latest version of Carbonite as follows...

 

 

..it then goes on to explain how to fix the problem.

 

 

 

 

 

Carbonite Backup

I have received a few notices from Carbonite with regards to a recent update and system maintenance they have been performing these past few days. As a result, it appears there are a few computers that have barfed at this latest update and they are recommending a simple reinstall. Yes, it is quite simple and something I can help you with if you find you are getting a Red indicator on your Carbonite product just contact me so that I may help you.

 

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2

It is still "beta" but I have been installing the first release candidate without any problems with an overall improvement of about 10 percent. Since the final release is not too far off in the distance, you may want to wait, but then again, you might not!

 

Do you feel courageous? Then download it here!

RANT-I use the icons all the time!

Ok so I think it must be time for a rant!  I most definitely need to blow off a little steam and what better way then within the blog, where (hopefully) it is read and quite possibly a little more educated about what it is that is currently frying my banana!

So pretty much any computer that has ever come across my bench is going to leave with a little of my own computer 'personality' if you will. That being the positioning of certain icons which are shortcuts to antispyware programs that I suggest using on a daily basis (this is ideal but it would pretty much depend on how clean you want to keep your system).  The '5' icons would (currently) be CCleaner, Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, AVG Antispyware, and Adaware... thing is, they should be in pretty much that order, if you are going to run them and simply walk away from your computer. My OPTIMIZING TIPS explain all this in much greater detail. Again, this is not the problem, having them in any order you want is find, SO LONG AS THEY ARE USED!  

So imagine my surprise when I am asked to connect to diagnose and repair a problem, only to find old versions of the software installed.  Granted these are cleaning tools so it is expected there will be new versions available and in almost all cases, if you do run the program, it will prompt you there are updates available.   In some cases however, it will not tell you there is an entirely new version available. For example if you are currently using version 3.51 and there is an update available, it is typically something like version 3.6 or 3.52  but when they come out with an entirely new version number, version 4.0, for example, then this means either the old one will automatically get updated as you install the new one, it will tell you that you first have to remove the old, or you will be installing two versions of the program, this is dependent on how good the software was written.  

It is quite understandable in all cases, that you simply want to use your computer and know it is important to keep things clean and tidy and optimized so that no bugs get in and everything works great, but don't want to have to worry about the cleaning yourself, and so having things automated is the way you want to fly. In some cases, you may rather like to do things on your own because you do not trust the automatic features, or quite simply, in order to have the automatic features, you have to actually pay for the program as in most programs there is a 'light' version that is free and may do the basic tools but not all.  This is NOT the case with the programs mentioned, although they will perform all the cleaning functions so there is no need to purchase the 'professional' version however if you do want to use the automated and scheduled tasks, you WILL have to pay for them.  

But getting back to the version numbers and such... it is one thing to say you are using the icons but when you are prompted about an update available, it is very important that this be done. If you are unsure then drop me a line and ask me... unfortunately what happens in almost all the problems I see, I am being asked these questions when it is already too late... either bugs have managed to get in, because the program you are using is so outdated.  I recently worked on a computer that hadn't had anything done for 16  months.. that is, no maintenance whatsoever, other then the things that were running automatically, no updates to the antispyware programs had been done... and the funny part for me is, when I do click on the program and see the version number, it is quite apparent how old it truly is. So imagine how it is when I click on an icon on the desktop to run the program and get prompted of an update available, yes, the program that was installed was 3 versions behind.. so what does that mean?  If this had been clicked on then whatever messages were popping up were simply closed and ignored, or the program itself had never been run.

So my rant.... I can't help you if you don't help yourself!    My website is chalked full of computer tips, software/support and you can always contact me here.  If you are an existing client of mine, then odds are you have remote connection software installed that will allow me to connect quite quickly to your computer ( so long as your computer is connected to the internet ) and I should be able to diagnose things just as I was actually sitting in front of it... so there is really no excuse to have a computer system that is running outdated software... EVER!

We are the world-Revisited!

 

We are the world-Japanese style!

 

 

 

 

New Spyware Blaster available

It has been some time since the gang at Javacool Software released a new version of Spyware Blaster. Version 4.0 is now available and as always you can download it directly through the SOFTWARE/SUPPORT page.