Podcast on Vacation

Hello everyone,

Yes I’m still around however have not done a podcast for a few weeks I know. Let me just keep you up to speed on what is happening. Three weeks ago I quit my job after being there for 2 1/2 years. I quit for about two dozen reasons, one being… do I stay aboard a sinking ship till it hits the bottom of the sea or do I jump ship in my life raft until I climb aboard another ship (metaphorically speaking of course).

What happened three days latter was the wife was laid off work…wow,  isn’t that a wet towel smacked in your face. It’s not so much of a problem for the wife to get a job being she is a truck driver. Truckers have a saying.. “As long as you’ve got a class 1 license you’ve got a job”. As for myself finding a job that will take a little longer due to our current location where we live. I have a few great prospects but only time will tell.

I will however get a new podcast out shortly. I already have all the text parts of it ready, but just have to do the audio part. It’s hard to find a time in this very small apartment to get quiet time to record it. Should be done in the next day or two.

CompTia A+ Certification

I’m tired of not having any certifications to back me up. I thought long and hard on what to do as to go to school or learn on my own by own. I can go to school and pay anywhere from $4,500 to $17,000.

What troubles me is on what these schools are teaching. 50% of the course is on material that I will rarely use like Microsoft Excel and Access which will cost $300 bucks each. Also some redundant courses like MS Word and Outlook cost another $300 each.

The main CompTia A+ course costs almost $2500. and it’s done the same way as doing it on your own by going to Comptia.org and paying $300 bucks just to get your CompTia certification. Gee, now thats a hard one…pay $2500 or $300…can I ask the audience Regis ?

Getting certified will open new job prospects but I know it’s not the end because I will continue to advance. Also looking into getting certified with Hp. I noticed that there is a shortage of qualified laser printer techs. Getting a certification in Hp Laser printers can open more doors and those techs make mega money because they are in high demand.

Need a better Job!

Being a tech support professional is a good stepping stone job, but not a carrier. The pay is low however the benefits are good. I started in desktop computers, then moved to laptop and now in the laser printer area. I still have a lot to learn in printers and it does feel good when you learn new tech related issues, however I feel like my present job is not a replacement for real tech training. I need to go to a technical school and get a certificate or diploma so I can get a real tech job and make good money.

I could also start my own computer repair business however I see everyone else gets a degree then starts a business fixing/repairing pc’s and also going on house calls to do networking. Thats not what I want to do. My dream is to have a pc repair shop and recycling depo. To get older pc’s at no cost or little cost and refurbish them into decent workable low cost machines with a open source operating system like Linux or Unix. There is enough pc’s in Canada to do this but the real trick is to have that edge on how to start this project/idea. I need to get into business with someone else but not sure who as of yet. Some people I thought in the past I could get into business with turned out to be somewhat untrustworthy.

What is wrong with B.C. ?

Something that has been bugging me for a while now living here in B.C. is the problem with homelessness. Coming from Winnipeg, Manitoba you do see some homeless people, I mean every city has at least a few people. However here in Chilliwack, B.C it’s pretty much an “in your face approach”. The homeless people 99% of the time do not bother you and most do not beg but a few may have cardboard signs up stating there homeless and hungry or something similar. You see them out side during the day on a bus bench at a Walmart or at night sleeping under the front walkway canopy at the local welfare office or pitching a tent in the bushes.

My heart goes out to them. I realize that here in B.C the provincial govt is very conservative and generally looks after upper class taxpayers and people who contributed in their last campaign. I’m not going to go off on a rant about politics but I just want to set a picture of in my opinion how B.C. is so much different then in good old Manatoba.

As a renter, the landlord and tenants board is not nearly as fair and just as in Manitoba. You have to pay for any disputes with your landlord and in my case a few years ago, key evidence was not allowed to be brought up let alone submitted. An appeal is possible but again you have to pay for that privilege only to have the same person who was presiding in your last dispute with your landlord handle solely your appeal. Then to respond back with ” you can not appeal because you did not like the outcome of the case”.

I always thought that if I won the lottery one of the first things I would do is buy up acres of land just out of the city and fill it with trailer homes and house all the homeless from Hope to Chilliwack B.C. , but I know thats just a dream.

After that I would buy the first plane ticket out of this messed up city and header home to Winnipeg.

Better late then never

I never had an interest in it before and I thought it was just a fad that will blow over in a few months but …well…I’ll admit, I was wrong. What am I talking about ? I’m talking about Twitter. Yesterday I just set up an account with them and so far it’s not bad. I knew a few podcasters/bloggers that have been twitting (if that is a word) for several months now like for example Dwight Wallbridge who I follow on The Geeks Blog and The Caffination Podcast with Paul R.J. Muller.

I have briefly tried Myspace, but never really took a liking to it and besides some lady with her picture holding her kid requested me as a friend after about a week. I never posted my picture, only a brief bio. I have no idea who she was nor do I care. It just freaked me for a moment with a picture in my head of the kid asking “Are you my daddy?” and the mom asking “How much money are you making?” To #1 is “no” and question #2 is “a McDonald’s manager makes more then I do”.

I finally did it!

I was pondering starting my own podcast for a very long time. I did attempt and succeeded to do a mock one, a few months back but my issue was not with the audio but with the web site. I do have what I would call a fair knowledge of building a basic website however the issue I was facing was on trying too hard to perfect it. I wanted to do it like “the big boys” so to speak. All those semi-professionals that have been podcasting for years and were doing an excellent job of it. I tried to copy some of the source code off of their web site and make it my own. Since I have not successfully studied java script it was like trying to put words together of a language you are only familiar with to make a sentence. I felt like an utter failure and did not go back to it for several months. Does anyone know what it feels like to have just enough knowledge but not enough to excel in something?

What I came to realize of course is that I cannot just jump in and be like “them” in a few days or weeks. Other podcasters started out also doing a bad show and in time their knowledge grew. I’ve have to take baby steps like in the 1991 movie “What About Bob?” (Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss).

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My new podcast can be heard at:

http://13mtn.mypodcast.com/2007/10/Pilot_Episode-49401.html

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After hearing it myself I did not like it but knew that it will improve…. I have to because podcasting to myself is no fun!

Until next time everyone, Take care

Michael Long

Tech Support

Hello and welcome to my first blog. I knew about blogs for many years now but never, until today put one up. My real intention was to do a podcast and I still plan to that, however that is on a temporary hiatus.

Well first a little about myself, I’m a 38 year old tech support personel for a major computer company for the last 2 years. I started in desktop computers then moved over to laptop computers where I am currenly but may soon transfer again to color laserjet dept. .

This blogs main theme is about older computer technolgy like old pentiums (P-1 +) and windows 9.x but also sometimes we will talk about newer technology as well.

As a tech support personel I hear everyones problems with there computers and I’m not going to get into that here or I’ll rant on for 5 pages. What I will say about that is that I think that most people buy the wrong type of computer. It’s a shame that most people buy that latest P4 pc with for example Intel 3.4 Gig Dual core processor, 2 gigs (or now you can get 3 gigs) DDR2 ram, 500 GB hard drive and a dual layer DVD burner. In my opinion that type of pc is rediculous. Processors really took a side step in 2004. The fastest processor (single core) stopped at 3.73 Gigs, then came hyperthreding and now dual, triple and even quad core. I’ll let you in on a little secret, most people will never need or use anything more than a single core 2.4 GHz processor. For people that only use the pc for emailing, surfing the web, playing music and or dvd movies and some light games like pogo.com a 1.8 Gig processer is the maximum they will ever use or need. Also in the race for faster speed comes new problems like with DDR2 ram, did you ever get an error message of “IRQ is not less or = to”, where do you think it comes from sometimes. I’m still skeptical about DDR2 and still prefer just regular DDR ram (when I updrade that is).

My best pc is an older IBM P4 1.6 Gigs with 768Mb (pc133) ram and a 80 GB hard drive running Xp Pro and Ubuntu. It also has a ATI 256 Mb dual head video card. That is a far cry from fancy, but as far as computers were in 2001/02 it would of been an above average unit. The wife has just bought a new Acer laptop with Vista basic that I just upgraded the ram from 512 Mb to 1 GB and got rid of the trial Norton as well as a few other tweeks for her. Vista is ok but it’s not for me as far as everyday use pc. My oldest/slowest is a 200MMX with 96Mb ram and a 8 Gig hard drive and a 4 Mb ATI Rage PCI video card running Windows 98 FE. It did have Windows 95b on it and I did enjoy that OS but it was very limited as far as programs, internet use and finding a good free antivirus that it will run on.

This weeks favorite DOS “GAME OF THE WEEK” is CHAMP Kong from dosgamesarchive.com
It’s just like the clasic Donkey Kong.

This weeks favorate 9.x “APPLICATION OF THE WEEK” is Ad-aware se.

In windows 95 you can still use Ad-aware se however DO NOT try to use the regular intaller. The trick is to install it on another pc 98 to Xp, then go into the program files and copy the ad aware folder to a cd. Go back to the 95 machine and copy that folder that is on the disk in to the program folder in 95 then just copy the ad aware icon from that folder you just copied now in the 95 machine to the desktop and it will work.

If there are any topics you would like me to cover or would like to leave me a comment you can e-mail me at www.13mtn@gmail.com.

Take care everyone!

Michael Long

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