This blog is not about real estate. You won't find any stats on homes that are for sale in Manhattan Beach , Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach or El Segundo. I'll be posting sold information in a few days. Nope.. this one is about technology.
You may have noticed that I haven't been posting for a bit... that's because my computer hard drive crashed about 10 days ago.. The week before that my printer gave up the ghost and during the interval my e-mail on my cell phone decided to take a vacation.
Wow.. everything I owned (with the exception of my trusty old IBM laptop) died! While I know I am tied to all my tech stuff I've never had everything go at once. It has been an interesting experience to say the least. I've learned way more then I need to know about the workings of printers and PC's. and thought I would share a bit of my experiences.
The first thing I have to say is that I have an amazing tech person. He managed to save everything for me. I had been backing up but what I didn't realize was that nothing was taking as the hard drive was getting ready to die. A few client files that I saved on individual CD's were fine but the rest of my documents were being held hostage in computer limbo.
What really saved me was that when I bought my Dell computer I bought it through their small business department and I added a Gold service contract. If you do nothing else when you buy a computer always buy the best service contract they offer. I know two other agents who are still having problems because they are going through the regular customer service. The difference is amazing. I had the same tech all the way.. I could e-mail him or leave a message and he would call me back. Believe me when I tell you we are new best friends. He was based in Nashville Tenn. which means he spoke English. I understood him and he understood me. He would overnight parts to a Dell computer tech here and the tech was at my house in the afternoon. For those of us who live via our computers this was incredible. They wound up having to visit me twice but in the end I not only have a new hard drive but a new motherboard as well.
I learned two valuable pieces of information about IE 7 and Vista. The first is if your computer system is older then about 18 months it's best if you don't upgrade to IE 7. I really liked a lot of things about IE 7 but it can cause problems. My computer has XP-Pro but as it is 2 years old upgrading to IE 7 was a problem. The second thing I learned is do not upgrade to Vista for at least a year. If it comes installed on a new computer that is fine but the upgrade is not quite ready for prime time. All the techs loved the system and can't wait to install it... but not right now.
So while I won't bore you with all the details of my technology woes I will tell you that I bought a new printer that works twice as fast and cost half as much as my old one. The ink is cheaper and I'm very happy with it. My computer is working like new and am just waiting until Monday when I can get with my tech to re-install my old files. My e-mail on my new Palm Smart phone (Treo 680) is working perfectly.. the guys at Cingular in Hermosa Beach are awesome. My trusty old IBM laptop is ready to retire. I just have to decide whether I will go with a touchscreen or stay with a more traditional model.
I'll have real estate updates tomorrow...
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