Blog - Manderso Consulting

Mar 6, 2012

What computer should I buy

I get asked this question all the time: ”What computer should I buy?” That’s a great question, and the answer is usually different for everyone that asks. Price matters to everyone, as does the power of the computer, and how long it should last before it’s replaced.

My personal opinion is that if you’re going to buy a computer running Windows 7 in the near future, and you want a name brand, stick with the Dell Business class of computers. That’s the Optiplex (desktop) and Latitude (laptop) categories. I recommend the business class to everyone, as the consumer line is mostly rubbish, as are most consumer laptops sold in stores. The hardware is the cheapest that can be found, and the case (this matters more on laptops than desktops) is very cheap plastic. On the other hand, the business class computers are sold with corporate clients in mind, those who pay more, have service contracts, and control more of Dell’s bottom line. Those computers have to be held to a higher standard than the usual consumer brand.

If you’re in the market right now for a new desktop computer, a great deal is on the Dell small business website, for a Dell Optiplex 790 with dual 22″ monitors. I would recommend this setup for anyone in a small or medium sized business that needs a computer to last a long while, with quality parts and a 3 year warranty on the hardware. The processor will last for a long time and not slow, it includes the base amount of RAM for Windows 7 64 (4gb) and has a decent sized hard drive. Here’s the link to this deal: Dell Small Business Optiplex 790.

I’ll post more in the next few days about other machines to look into when you’re looking for a new computer, but this is a start.

by manderso 1 Comment Dell, Windows

Jan 20, 2012

My Most Used iPhone Apps – Part 2

This is part 2 of my 2 part series in useful iPhone apps. Here’s part 1 in case you missed it. These iPhone apps make my business more profitable and productive, and I hope they can help you as well. Thanks for reading.

TripCubby & GasCubby – I use Tripcubby to keep track of the trips that I take back and forth between clients, as well as my rental property in midtown. This is great for tax purposes, and it’s a great interface. You can store multiple cars in it as well.

I use Gascubby for keeping up with my gas mileage; to make sure I get the most I can out of my tank. It’s also useful to enter all the maintenance that goes into the car, when they take place, the mileage on the car, and how much is spent. It also has a feature to remind you when to service your car next. Both of these programs can export to an easy to read excel file.

Amazon – The Amazon app is used at almost any store I come to. If I see a product that I’m interested in, and I want to know more about it, I scan the ISBN barcode with the Amazon app, and Amazon pulls up the product (as long as they sell it). I can then see the reviews people have given it, as well as how much it’s selling for. Sometimes, the store I’m in will even match the price!

Line2 – Line2 is great for my business. I pay $10 a month, and the phone number I purchased to be used for my business rings in this app, so I have two phone lines on one phone. The app rings on my phone just like it rings normally, though it displays as a Line 2 call, so I know it’s not to my personal number, and I can either send the call to voicemail (stored on Line2′s servers) or answer it. The voicemail is smart as well, displaying a visual call log just like the iPhone does. I can also use the app when there’s no cell signal in range, as long as there’s a Wi-Fi access point available to me. Line2 also includes SMS service.

by manderso 0 Comment amazon, iPad, iPhone, line2

Jan 19, 2012

My Most Used iPhone Apps – Part 1

I’ve decided to break this into two posts, because it’s long, and has a lot of information that I don’t want to get lost. This is a small compilation of the apps that I use on a daily basis on my iPhone, what they do, and why I use them.

Remember the Milk – I chose Remember the Milk out of all the task management software because of its built in synchronization feature, specifically that it doesn’t rely on any other service to sync with my computer, but it still gets backed up and is accessible anywhere. Remember the Milk makes it easy to enter new tasks,

which is a huge plus because I don’t want to spend too much time on just a note. If I have anything to add to my note, I can easily do that later. Their website is also very simple to use, as I can edit, delete and create new tasks there.

Another app that I’m testing is Evernote. Evernote differs from Remember the Milk because it stores the data on your desktop as well as a website and your smartphone. I’d use this over Remember the Milk because I can view and update notes on my computer offline. I’m torn between the two because I really like the interface of Remember the Milk more than Evernote, and because it’s just a simple note taker, whereas Evernote is a bit more cluttered for my needs.

Dropbox – I’ve talked about this before, and I think a few of my customers are using it. This is a great service that allows you to put up to 2 GBs worth of data (for the free service, you can pay for additional space) into a folder on your computer, and it automatically synchronizes to Dropbox’s servers automatically. I then have access to that data anywhere, be it on their easy to use webpage, my smart phone, or another computer that has the Dropbox client installed. I save web pages that I’m working on in Dropbox so I can edit them from my iPad, my work computer and my laptop, and all the edits get synchronized automatically. So whatever computer I’m at, the files are all up to date.

I’ve also used Dropbox for note taking, and it worked for a little while, but eventually, the notes started duplicating themselves and made it too hard to work with, which is why I went with Remember the Milk.

1Password – I’ve talked about 1Password before as well, and I can’t stop promoting this software. It does just what it says, it’s a password vault. You can store all your passwords for your bank, your websites, and your bill pay sites, anything you can think of. Mine stores that, plus serial numbers for software that I’ve purchased, logins for accounts, as well as my banking information. Their security is top-notch, and I’ve never worried about storing any sensitive data there.

Part 2 will be published tomorrow. I hope this helps you in your technology usage. Thanks for reading!

by manderso 1 Comment 1Password, Dropbox, Evernote, iPhone, Remember the Milk, review, software, Sync

Jan 10, 2012

Product Review – Motorola S10-HD Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

I’m always on the lookout for good headphones. I walk around all day and if I don’t have something to listen to, be it an audiobook or music, I’ll go crazy. I’m also ducking under desks to plug things in, and headphone cords always get in the way. So I started to look for a bluetooth headset. The iPhone has had the ability to transmit audio via bluetooth for some time now, as well as use a bluetooth headset for voice calls.

At first, I tried the regular bluetooth headset that hooks to your ear, and attaches to another headphone, and that didn’t work because that’s just one more thing to lose. Then I decided to look for something a little more sturdy.

Enter the S10-HD Stereo Bluetooth Headset from Motorola. This is exactly what I was looking for. As the name suggests, this is a stereo bluetooth headset that goes behind your head. The headset comes with a charger that’s compatible with a standard Mini-USB port, as well as 4 sets of ear buds to fit your ears.

The headphones include a built-in microphone so you can talk, just like a normal bluetooth headset. From all my use of the headset, I’ve found that people on the other end can hear me just fine, with a minimum of background noise. It has controls for playing music on one ear, and controls for handling a phone call on the other ear.

On to the main focus of the device, the music. To my ears, this device sounds just like the headphones I plug in to the phone. It sounds great! I listen to a mixture of rock and audiobooks, so the sound is fine for my ears.

The battery lasts for around 6-8 hours of continuous use, which is the cause of one of my complaints, as I always forget to plug it in. My other complaint is that, while the advertising says that it’s sweat proof, the cushions that are supposed to come between the headphones and your head are trying to fall off, due to the moisture that they end up absorbing. I solved that by taping them back on, which isn’t very elegant, but it works.

Those complaints out of the way, I think this is a great solution for someone that needs cordless headphones but wants to listen to audio all day. I’ve included a link to Amazon below, and if you purchase through it, I’ll get a commission from your purchase.

Thanks for reading! Please post if you have any questions.

by manderso 0 Comment bluetooth headset, review Tags: bluetooth headset, review, stereo bluetooth headphones

Jan 2, 2012

Donate to non-profits while shopping

I was browsing my local library’s website for their hours, when I noticed at the bottom, a link that said “Support Your Library”. This sent me to a page that had, among others, a link to Amazon, that when clicked, takes you to Amazons home page, but with a small difference. Today, donating to your favorite non-profit organization could not be easier.

Did you know that Amazon donates a portion of their proceeds to specific entities when you shop through a specific link? For instance, Gwinnett County Public Library has a Donate link that allows you to shop through Amazon, and when you check out, a small commission on the items you buy is donated to the Gwinnett County Public Library system.

This isn’t just for libraries. There are many non-profits that can use the affiliate money that Amazon can donate to them just by shopping. Click here for a list of non-profits that you can help. Amazon screens each non-profit and verifies they are a legal operation before allowing them to partake of the commissions.

Affiliates for Charity.org

Gwinnett County Public Library Support Page

by manderso 0 Comment Uncategorized

Dec 31, 2011

Wipe your device when you get rid of it!

A friend of my family recently sold her iPhone on ebay a few weeks ago, and started getting some interesting, and scary problems. My wife texted her, and the person who received the phone RESPONDED! Yeah, that’s really weird.

Our friend had gone into the phones settings and clicked the Reset All Settings option in the reset menu, but didn’t tap “Erase All Content and Settings”, and the phone was still getting the text messages (in this case, iMessages). Enter Wipe my phone, a free utility from Apple that’s included in the Find My iPhone app. We used that to remotely wipe the phone and we are no longer seeing anything weird with text messages or anything else.

Just a heads up when you’re selling your old electronic devices that may have some personal data on them. If I can help in any way, please let me know.

by manderso 0 Comment Apple, Home Technology, iPhone, security

Sep 28, 2011

Conficker Eye Chart – Good computer security idea

Conficker is the name of a virus, specifically a worm, that can get installed on your Windows computer. This worm can disable security and networking processes on your computer, leading to installation of more viruses and another person having control over your computer.

A new site has come up, The Conficker Eye Chart, which lets consumers and computer technicians know if a computer is infected with the Conficker worm. It was put together by the Conficker working group, and is essentially a web page linking to various security websites, websites you wouldn’t be able to access if you had the Conficker worm on your computer. Conficker stops access to these websites so the infected user won’t be able to download software to fix the problems it creates.

The page describes what would happen if you did have the Conficker worm installed on your computer, or if you didn’t have it installed and just wanted to check. I think this is a great idea and would be applicable for many other viruses and malicious software detection in the future.

by manderso 0 Comment Antivirus, security, Windows

Jun 3, 2011

Google Music Beta explored

I received an invite today for Google music, their free (currently) online music jukebox. It allows the user to upload their music and listen on any internet connected device, including a computer with a web browser and android devices, no iphone/ipod touch app yet.I’m going to document the configuration process and how it looks here:

I like that it takes the metadata from iTunes (my default player) and uploads it, along with the mp3. Play count as well as the rating (in the form of thumbs up or thumbs down).

Google Music Beta screenshot

I wish I was able to tell it what music I wanted it to upload, as it stands, it only uploads the entire iTunes library (I haven’t found any way to adjust what to upload). I know I don’t want to upload my audiobooks or pdf files that are stored in books (I wonder if those go up by default).

It’s quite generous with it’s free songs, I only selected 4 out of the 12+ categories of music that I like, but Google Music supplied me with at least 50 songs. Nice.

But it doesn’t work. This is in Chrome 11.something and the following error comes up:

Google Music Beta error

It works fine in Safari. Interesting irony is interesting. It seems that I’m not alone: according to this link.

edit: I’ve been uploading now for about 10 hours, and it’s gotten 110 songs. That’s with a 2 mb upload stream. I hope that Apple’s cloud solution won’t require an upload of music, but that it scans the library and shares that.

That said, the google solution isn’t a bad one, just missing some important features, and is a bit buggy. We’ll see how it matures.

by manderso 0 Comment Google Tags: google, google music, manderso consulting

May 23, 2011

New Gmail Phishing going on – be alert

If you haven’t received the following email, don’t worry, you’ll probably be getting it soon.

Dear Gmail User ,

your two incoming mails were placed on pending status due to the recent upgrade to our database,

In order to receive the messages Click here.to login and wait for responds from Gmail.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

Regards, Gmail Team.

You haven’t been hacked, this is actually an attempt to phish (according to Wiki: “is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”) your information. If you click the link, it will take you to a somewhat official looking Google web page, where it asks for your authentication information, including your password. If you have already done that, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD, and report the problem to Google (via this page: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1074268)

I send this out now, because I received this phishing attempt over the weekend on my iPhone, and it looked almost legitimate. If I wasn’t already skeptical about the content of the message, I might have clicked the link. If you receive the email, report it to Google via the link given above, and if you haven’t received it, watch out, and be aware. As always, I’m available to help if you have problems with your computer.

by manderso 0 Comment Gmail, Google, phishing, security Tags: gmail, security

Mar 14, 2011

View multiple google calendars on your iPad

I use Google for just about all of my online data collection (calendar, mail, contacts, etc.), and I find it a great service, especially for free. The fact that all my devices can see and use that data is just icing on the cake. Something to think about is that the iPad doesn’t see all the google calendars that you subscribe to by default, and getting to them isn’t intuitive at all. Good thing someone has done this already, and I’ll attempt to break it down.

On the iPad, tap settings and tap Safari, and turn off Javascript.

Open Safari, and navigate to m.google.com.

Tap the sync icon/button, and tap “Sign in with your Google Account”.

Enter your google information, sign in, and tap, under Manage Devices, your iPad.

Check the Shared Calendar that you need access to, and tap save.

True, it’s not very intuitive, but it’s there. I hope this helps.

by manderso 0 Comment Apple, Google, iPad, Sync Tags: calendar, google, ipad

Feb 14, 2011

Keeping track of your passwords

Clark Howard was talking about the multitude of passwords that we now have to keep track of today. From home and work email, to your power company, to twitter, there’s a password for everything now. It’s a real pain to have to keep up with them all, especially securely.

Some people try to make a simple password, usually for multiple sites. Something like a childs name, followed by a number (e.g. “Michelle2″), and then it’s used for most websites. This isn’t very original, nor is it secure. If a hacker breaks into one of the sites that you use that password with, that password has been compromised, and with it, the other sites you access with that password.

Well, there’s always writing them down, right? Sure, you can write all your passwords in a little book that you keep with you all the time. But those are too easy to lose, destroy or steal.

A method that I tried a long time ago was to use the name of the site in the password. For instance, if I wanted to get into the Suntrust bank site, I’d use “$untru$T1!” as a password, and attempt to remember that. Unfortunately, that’s not as safe as you might think, and again, not as easy to remember as you’d like.

Enter 1Password, from Agile Web Solutions. 1Password allows you to store your huge amount of passwords in its database, along with the username and website in the same entry. Even more, 1Password can also store your computer software serial numbers, credit card numbers and pins, as well as notes that you wish to keep secure. Of course, the program keeps your data safe with a strong encryption algorithm, and a password of your choosing (so make it good and strong!).

There’s a plugin for most (if not all) browsers as well. That plugin allows you to fill in the authentication information for the website you are on, as well as any information that you may have to fill in repeatedly, such as your Name/Address/etc.

These days, we want access to our sites on all our devices, at anytime. This need is filled by the clients on our various devices that Agile has developed, and synced with Dropbox, which I’ve discussed earlier.Agile has put out clients for the iPhone and iPad, Mac and a Windows version as well.

There is other software that will fill this need as well, including Lastpass, Wallet and Keepass, but I always stick with my tried and true 1Password. You should give it a shot!

by manderso 1 Comment Dropbox, Mac, security, software, Windows Tags: password, security, software

Jan 28, 2011

Importing PDFs into Word and Excel

Here’s a tip for those of you that need to import a pdf image into a word document:

Open the pdf (either in Adobe Reader, Acrobat Pro, or if on a Mac in Preview) and find the page that you want to copy into the word document,Click Edit, and click Take a Snapshot (In preview, click the select tool)Highlight the image/text that you want saved, and it will be copied to the clipboard.

PDF SS1.tiff

Now, open the word document, scroll to where you want the pdf information to go, and paste the image or text that you copied into the clipboard in.This puts the PDF information you selected into the word document. Note that this also works for any word processor.

This page “How to import a table from PDF into Excel” shows you how to import a PDF table into Excel. It involves copying the data into word, creating a table (which comes out poorly formatted), then copying that table into Excel and cleaning it up.

I hope this helps some of you with your operations. Please let me know if you need assistance with this, or any other computer issues.

by manderso 0 Comment pdf, software Tags: import, ms excel, ms word, PDF

Jan 14, 2011

Great WordPress Plugins w/ update!

You may have noticed a few changes at Mandersoconsulting.com recently, one of them being that I’ve redone my site! I’m pretty excited about the new pages, as well as the blog layout. I think everything is now easier to find, and I’m showing off my abilities.

That said, I took the opportunity to redo my WordPress install as well, as it was getting a little cumbersome. For one thing, I was having major difficulties getting any outside writing applications to play nice with it, such as Marsedit or any of the WordPress iOS applications. I had tried different settings on the rpc-xml file, without success. So I felt that since I was giving the site an overhaul, I’d do the same to the WordPress installation.

Once the blog was setup, and all the posts were imported, I needed to install some plugins for additional functionality:

Akismet: One of, if not The best spam filters for WordPress blog posts around. I can’t tell you how many spam replies it catches for my blog, and it works on at least hundreds of thousands of WordPress installations. It’s definitely worth the free sticker for personal blogs, and $5 for business blogs.

All in One SEO Pack: This is a great plugin to help with SEO on your blog. It gives you additional control over what information gets sent to the search engine spiders, including additional details of the blog post, and additional keywords. It’s donation-ware, but I’m going to send some money over. I think it’s a great WordPress resource.

Twitter Tools (w/ Bit.ly URLs, Exclude Category and Hashtags): Used to send your blog posts directly to Twitter, and includes the ability to shrink the URLs automatically. The setup for this is very easy, by the way.

& WordPress Importer: If you’ve exported all your blogs data correctly, then WordPress Importer will import that data quickly, without the hassle of digging through MySQL databases or retyping posts.

Update: On Red-Sweater forums (The creators of MarsEdit) is a thread titled “Blog posting strategy with Marsedit” that explains how to add the All in One SEO additional custom fields. Another great resource!

That’s what I’m using so far. What about you?

by manderso 0 Comment Plugins, Wordpress Tags: akismet, all in one seo, blog, plugins, twitter tools, wordpress, wordpress importer

Dec 22, 2010

Responsible electronic purchasing and recycling

I heard the tail end of a conversation on Fresh Air the other day about recycling electronics, and was quite intrigued. You can read the story here.

Pt 1. Essentially, a large majority of the computers used today are put into landfills when people no longer need them, creating a large amount of e-waste. This allows a lot of the materials that went into manufacturing the computer, seep back into the ground, causing environmental problems. Obviously, this is bad for us.

Pt. 2. An option that may help you feel better about getting rid of your old electronics is the fact that there are a large amount of recycling companies out there that can help you get rid of your old computer and assorted parts. A problem with that solution is that a lot of these recycling companies have found a cheap way of recycling computers, send them to very poor countries, hire the people there to be used as labor to strip the good stuff out of the computers and burn the rest. However, there are many recycling companies around that do the right thing.

The EPA has a page designed to help you find a reputable recycler here: Where can I Donate or Recycle my old computer and other Electronic Products

Pt. 3. Look at the EPAs website for a list of companies that either offer electronics that are made responsibly or at least offer recycling programs.http://www.epeat.net/

by manderso 2 Comments Home Technology, Recycling Tags: e-waste, recycling

Oct 18, 2010

Which is better for you; refurbished or new?

Mother Jones has a great article up on the author”s personal choice of whether to replace her old failing computer with a new computer, or a refurbished computer, and the possible consequences of each choice. The article goes into the environmental ramifications of purchasing a new computer versus a refurbished computer, as well as the costs involved. I’d like to offer my feedback on the subject.

I”m all in favor of refurbished computers being purchased as opposed to buying a new computer. That’s got to sound strange to some people coming from me, as I’m the kind of guy that feels weird (or used to) if my technology got too “dated”. Now I have children .

Last year I purchased a refurbished 2009 Macbook Pro from the online Apple store. I purchased the bottom of the line model with a slower processor, the base amount of RAM and the smallest hard drive, for about $200 off the retail price. This is a great deal, but it gets better. All the computer manufacturers, especially Apple, charge a large markup on their upgrades. I used the ordered configuration for a little while until I saw a deal on a hard drive, as well as RAM. Once those were installed (and I’ll tell you a little later about the SSD I just installed), it felt like a new machine.

That”s not to say you can’t upgrade your current machine! A new computer can consist of only a new hard drive, and some additional RAM. Other World Computing has a great article on getting a new Mac for only $200. That deals with Macs, but it goes to all computers as well.

You don”t need to replace your computer every 3-5 years, as long as you can continue to use it. Please keep this in mind as you are wondering why your computer is going so slow, and what options are available to you. As always, I do these upgrades and more, so contact me if you need some help with your computer.

by manderso 0 Comment Hardware, Upgrades

Oct 3, 2010

The many uses of Dropbox

This online tool has so many uses, it’s crazy. I use it more than a USB thumbdrive! I personally use it to synchronize my passwords (w/ 1Password) between my laptop, home server and iPhone. I also use it to have a copy of clients data accessible to me via the iphone (password protected, of course), and can edit it through the iPhone if necessary as well. What a useful tool!

I tell all my clients that have important data (and who doesn’t have important data) to have at least 1 backup of said data. Most people want to keep this backup current, but they lack the time to do so. A lot of backup programs require the user to start the backup process manually, make certain a drive is available and has enough space, and so on. A lot of online backup solutions take most of the frustation from this, but don’t give the value of synchronizing that data to another computer. Dropbox does.

Another useful way of utilizing Dropbox is the web site. Most of us use computers that we cannot install software on, like a work computer. The Dropbox website gives the user another option, the ability to access and upload files via their Dropbox website. The online backup solutions don”t offer that ability. I currently use the free version, which by default gives me 2 GB to do with as I like. If I refer someone to Dropbox (which I’ve done quite a few times), they grant me, and the person I’ve referred ano additional 250 MB as a token of thanks. If you think you might get some use out of this tool, click the following link to give me some extra space, and get some space for yourself as well. Click here!

Thanks for reading. Here are a few more uses for Dropbox:

Dropbox”s Facebook page – What do you use Dropbox for?

Lifehacker – The cleverest ways to use Dropbox that you”re not using

by manderso 0 Comment Dropbox, Home Technology Tags: computer backup, data backup, data synchronization

Oct 3, 2010

iPhone and Google Sync, flakiness happens

I got my wife a iPhone 4 a few weeks ago, and for the most part it”s been great. We both use the free Google service to keep track of our calendars and email, and now we can look at each others calendars on the iPhone. Makes planning stuff with all the kids activities much easier. You can read more about doing that here. But a problem popped up.

In the iPhones contacts, you can set certain contacts to be favorites, like a speed dial on a normal phone. Hers acted weird. The first contact on the screen worked fine, and dialed the correct contact. The second contact, no matter what it is, attempts to dial, blinks the screen like it”s about to dial, then goes back to the favorites screen. The third contact dials the second contact, the fourth contact dials the third contact, and so forth. Really weird behavior.

I tried unlinking the Google account, which deleted all the contacts on the phone that were syncing with her Google account, and that didn”t work. I deleted the contacts that were saved on the phone that hadn”t been synced to the Google account, that didn”t work either. Finally, the last resort was to restore the phone to the original base image, and redo the Google account settings. That did the trick. No more favorites flakiness, and the phone is performing fine.

Just a heads-up, nothing is ever as easy as it should be, even on the iPhone.

by manderso 0 Comment Home Technology, iPhone Tags: contacts, google sync, iphone

Sep 10, 2010

Malware that looks like Microsoft Security Essentials

According to the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, there is a new malware attack that mimics the look and feel of Microsoft Security Essentials, the free and (I think) very good antivirus software from Microsoft.

The malware is found online, and is able to detect what web browser (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer) you are using at the time. It makes you think that the site you are visiting has possibly infected your computer, or may be a “phishing” site. It has a link to click to download an antivirus program to scan and fix the problems. This program is called “Win7 AV” and looks a lot like a typical antivirus program. It will install, and run a “scan” that will tell you to go online to pay for a fix.

You can tell by reading the site carefully that it is a hoax. For one thing, some words are misspelled. For another, it links directly to a piece of software to download and install. A real alert will not automatically link you to a fix, but will tell you to take precautions. The software that tells you to purchase a fix, that’s also bogus. Careful browsing will avoid traps like this and others.

by manderso 0 Comment AntiSpyware, Antivirus, Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows Tags: malware, microsoft security essentials, virus

May 17, 2010

Microsoft says to upgrade your RAM

According to Microsoft (and just about any computer tech out there), adding more RAM can help your computer do a better job running the programs you have open, and allow you to have more programs at once. From the article:

“Everything is working fine, then you add photo-editing software, surf to graphically intense Web site, install a game, and suddenly your computer can”t keep up.”

The article goes on to say how you can upgrade the RAM yourself, and is very helpful if you want to go that direction. Manderso Consulting can also upgrade the RAM on your computer, or give you other options to help your computing experience, including upgrading other components in the machine, as well as setting up a new machine for you.

Microsoft article

by manderso 0 Comment Hardware, Home Technology Tags: memory, RAM

Mar 29, 2010

Freedom Scientific’s Jaws and GotoMyPc

Freedom Scientific publishes software that reads the contents of a screen to blind people, called Jaws. It’s been around for some time now, currently on version 11. The customer brought me the machine for a few different reasons, but after I had it for some time, it started giving me a blue screen of death. This is vista 32, by the way. After installing Windows Debugging tools from Microsoft, I saw the error was starting at fsvidmir.dll. This is a driver from Freedom Scientific, which brings up a mirror display.

Searching and searching didn’t come up with anything, other than to remove and reinstall. Instead, I called their tech support, whose first question was “Do you have any other screen sharing software installed, like Logmein or GoToMyPC?” Actually, yes it does. GoToMyPc was installed on the machine. After removing that, no more blue screens. Apparently, Jaws is very particular about what software it will play nice with. Just a heads-up for anyone else out there with similar issues. Good luck!

by manderso 0 Comment GoToMyPC, Home Technology, Jaws, Windows Vista Tags: fsvidmir.dll, jaws, vista

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