Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Get second opinion when upgrading computer

Perhaps the economy is the reason so many are choosing to tune up or upgrade their current computer rather than purchasing a new one. But whatever the reason this trend is unfortunately producing its share of horror stories.

All too many Good Booters have admitted to me that in their quest to be frugal, they employed the least expensive technician they could find to tune up their computer or without asking for a second opinion, naively accepted advice from a self serving computer retailer on the hardware they needed to upgrade their computer.

In fact, I've received so many complaints I wish I could become the local technology Tell Mel and periodically dedicate a Good Boot to exposing incompetent technicians, computer scams and rip offs.

But revealing local wannabee technicians and retail rascals is not an appropriate Good Boot topic.

However I can reiterate the standing offer I've made to Good Booters for more than nine years, and that is that you can contact me whether you're a PC or Apple user, have a computer or computing question or concern, need advice or just a second opinion on the hardware best suited to upgrade your current computer.

If your question or concern is out of the realm of my expertise, I'll forward it to one of our consulting technicians who will respond via an e-mail or if you wish, a phone call. Technicians I personally guarantee do not expect or will solicit your business.

As I have in the past, I also recommend contacting me for advice on appropriate freeware and inexpensive software to assist you with either a current computing adventure or one in which you might like to become involved.

- Freeware alert: There are freeware and inexpensive software programs for just about any computing activity.

For example: The following is a freeware program for creating posters from any digital photo. Copy [www.tml.tkk.fi /~tmakipat/thebigpicture/getbigpic.html] into your Browser and download "The Big Picture".

After downloading, right click on the ZIP file and select "Extract All". You'll have a folder named "BigPic". You can open the folder and run the program directly from the folder by clicking on "BigPic.exe".

The Big Picture is a user friendly poster printing program that divides any picture into multiple letter-size pages that can be printed and combined to create a large poster.

Although it doesn't say so on the Web site, it will run under Vista.

E-mail me if you'd rather I send you the ZIP file and/or a PDF tutorial.

Here's wishing you a Good Boot.

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