Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of calling technical support, only to end up on hold for an extended period of time to ultimately speak to someone in a foreign country who speaks poor English. The advice we’re offered from such loosely titled "technicians" is often wrong, and it’s not uncommon to be told the problem is a.) your computer or b.) Microsoft. It can often be a colossal waste of time and energy. It’s enough to make anyone not want to call technical support ever again – and the manufacturers would like nothing better.

From the manufacturer’s perspective, offering technical support is considered a "cost center," because they do not make any money from the technical support department. As such, they cut costs every way they can by under-staffing and out-sourcing. Technical support personnel working for manufacturers are not paid to help the calling customers. Their productivity is not measured by how many customers they’ve actually helped, but instead by how many phone calls they’ve dispensed within a certain period of time. Whether the customer’s problem was actually resolved is not typically part of the equation management measures.  read more »

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PC security software is a necessity for any PC connecting to the Internet. However, deciding which PC security software to use can be tough. Major PC security software companies have deals with the large PC manufacturers to include trial versions of their software in the hopes that when the trial is over, you'll hand over your hard-earned cash for continued protection. The tactic works: People are so confused over what to do, they just pay the money. Who really wants to figure out how to replace the security software that came with the PC or what to replace it with?

Norton and McAfee antivirus products are the two most popular and most widely used. However, their PC security software has become so complex and complicated that it cannot only be difficult to understand and operate, but it can also severely degrade a computer's performance. Security suites have become so bloated they can even cause computers to crash upon installation. And uninstalling them can render a computer completely unusable if the uninstall does not complete correctly. Also, even after being successfully uninstalled, many files, folders and registry entries related to the PC security software are often left behind, requiring a manual clean-up to actually rid yourself of them completely.  read more »

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By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

Let’s survey the landscape of my home office’s technology graveyard: I have an old PC — circa Last Century and long since obsolete; a once-coveted, leading-edge Nokia analog cell phone my daughter now uses as a playtoy; two CRT monitors long ago replaced by flat-panel monitors; a few keyboards, mice and other gadgets and hardware that serve no purpose but to keep me from having to dust the shelf-tops on which they rest. They consume my space. There has to be a better solution.

Enter MyBoneYard, an online service designed to help people ditch the old tech.

This is no idle concern. The mercury, chemicals and various elements that exist in PCs and monitors is enough to make your body glow green. Once crushed and in the landfull, these nasties leech into the groundwater, polluting the environment and the water that irrigates our crops, quenches the native fauna — and flows through our taps.  read more »

• by Jeff Zbar
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Right now, I’m in a motel. I'm browsing several sites for information to include in this article; downloading a 10 MB file in the background; and Outlook is checking for new email every five minutes. But this motel offers no Internet access. My laptop's WiFi adapter cannot find an unsecured wireless network to tap. I'm not wired to the room's phone so I'm not using a dialup ISP. How can I possibly be on the Internet at all, let alone at 1.5 or more Mbps?

The answer, in my case, is Sprint Mobile Broadband, one offering of the latest generation of high-speed Internet service delivered via cell phone networks. It's like having a portable cable modem. Indoors or outdoors, at a café table or in a moving taxi, if I can get a four-bar or stronger Sprint signal I’m online at broadband speed, without wires. This is cooler than a polar bears' picnic!  read more »

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