The 15W Chronicles

Moved!

jdownj — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:57:35 +0000

The time has come for The 15W Chronicles to move to a new location, you may access it here: http://www.jdownj.com

Time to go!

jdownj — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:27:04 +0000

Within the next few weeks I will be leaving again for places warm and sandy. Out of respect to OPSEC(Operations Security), I wont be more specific. Believe it or not, I actually anticipate having more time to post here, and to bring this blog back from the dead. I intend to finish the computer repair series, and begin a new series on the High-Performance Wireless Router that I have constructed. Don’t expect much about my daily life while I’m gone, but I will be attempting to revive the technical side.

Computer Maintenence: The Tools I Use, Part 2

jdownj — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:55:11 +0000

There are many tools out there that will assist you in your quest to keep your computer operating smoothly. I am listing the ones that I have tested, and work for me. I have selected these with the following criteria:

Free: Why pay for something that you don’t have to?

No Spyware/Adware/Other Crap: This goes without saying, as we don’t need anything that works against us.

Small Resource Usage: A tool should be no bigger or annoying than needed, and it shouldn’t cause anymore notifications or pop-ups than needed.

One Program, One Job: There are some exceptions to this rule, but many programs that promise to be the Swiss Army Knife of computer maintenance just plain suck. The concept of feature creep has rendered some programs impossible to learn or enormous resource hogs.

Regular Update Schedule: Almost all of these tools depend on updates, whether to recognize the newest security threats, or to maintain a list of files that are safe to remove. Regular updates are necessary for full functionality.

Home for the Holidays

jdownj — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:26:50 +0000

As I write this, I’m sitting in a Greyhound station beginning a 24 hour journey back to Maine for the holidays. I’m not gonna make Christmas morning, but I’m looking forward to seeing family and friends that I haven’t seen in well over a year. Expect a few updates and hopefully some snowy pictures.

Computer Maintenence: Intro

jdownj — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:29:34 +0000

For those of you that don’t know me, or haven’t seen me in years, I provide computer repair services to friends, family, and often the general public depending on available time. Ninety percent of the computers that I see come to me with exactly the same problems. Virus protection software is either out-of-date or not installed, and viruses and other malware have just about “taken over” the computer. Unneeded programs are loading at startup, causing the startup process to take 5-10 minutes or more. Internet Explorer is almost un-usable due to five or more “browser toolbars” loading. Hard Disk defragmentation hasn’t been run in years. It is almost impossible to get anything done.

What many users don’t realize, is that if you computer is working well and meeting your needs when it is new, it will continue to run at that speed unless something else slows it down, and that any computer can easily be maintained to run at the speed that it did when it was new. You don’t need a new computer unless your needs have changed, such as the need to run a newer software package that requires newer or faster hardware. Many 3-4 year old computers more than adequately serve the needs of internet and e-mail use, and preparing documents for work or school.

Nobody likes to answer the same question many times a day, and the process of restoring performance of these machines is an annoying process for both the customer and a technician. Technicians hate this work because running virus scanners and the like takes hours of time that cannot be billed at the going rate, and customers don’t want to be paying for someone to sit and wait for the computer to do something. If the computer is brought to me, I usually charge a flat rate of approximately $50 because I can start these processes running and accomplish other tasks around the house. I average 24 hour turn-around. If I provide on-site service, I have no choice but to bill for time spent, and this can be frustrating because this process can easily take 3-4 hours or more.

The far better solution is to educate customers about how to accomplish these maintenance tasks themselves, so that the technician can concentrate on more severe problems. These tasks are not hard, but there is a culture of both users that believe that it is too difficult and technicians that like a steady stream of work. Also many basic computer courses taught in schools and the workplace do not teach maintenance tasks.

Over the next few weeks I will be releasing a series of articles about system maintenance. I hope that these can become a reference for many. I only use free software, or software with free versions in this process, due to the fact that security and maintenance software changes often, and what is the best package now, may not be in a year. Also many of the paid products are “bloated” nightmares that waste far too many resources on older computers. I have found that the free products are every bit as effective.

An Update…

jdownj — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:17:39 +0000

My Cast... Aint it Great!

Currently I am back at Fort Bragg, I have been for a while now, but I have been crazy busy in getting stuff done for work, and now in hurting myself.

It doesn’t seem like 12 days ago, but on December 8th, I went to jump, and I had a bad landing. I lost control of the steering maybe 30-50 feet above the ground, and began to oscillate, striking the ground at an unusual angle. My ankle, or rather my fibula, broke instantly, and I wound up getting a ride to the emergency room. Last Wednesday, the 16th, I underwent surgery to install a plate and 7 screws. Now, I’m pretty much on bed rest waiting for it to heal.

Into the Air!

jdownj — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:57:44 +0000

Takeoff!

Assembling the Aircraft

jdownj — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:31:43 +0000

Soldiers assemble a Shadow air vehicle. Flight operations have started, and have been proceding according to plan so far.

Shadow 200 Air Vehicle

Site Setup

jdownj — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:28:42 +0000

Today we arrived on site and began to set up our site. First step was the tents.

Floor section of a large tent

Convoy Incident

jdownj — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:45:32 +0000

Things not going as planned...

Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned, and stuff happens. The shoulder of the road was softer than expected when the vehicle pulled off for an engine problem. Currently we are waiting for wrecker support to arrive.