Updates

Latest news on my, in-the-field, technology research and recommendations.

Scooters' Preferred Windows Tweaks

These are tweaks that I make to my Windows configuration that improves my productivity. Performing these kinds of changes to Windows requires a careful understanding of programming, the Windows registry, and how to protect Windows from damage by making and restoring backups. Don’t perform any of these tweaks unless you know what your doing. I am not liable, nor responsible for any action you take on behalf of this information....more

Should you upgrade to Windows 10, or Retire that old PC?

Many technology firms will recommend upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10. Truth be told, in most cases, the hardware in that older computer is not recent enough to support an upgrade like this. It can be done, but you may find, in a short amount of time, that the computer operates slower than it ever had. Don’t bother wasting time an money on a upgrade that is just going to be worthless in a few months time....more

Office Location

Improving the Life Expectancy of your SSD

SSD is a Solid State Drive. SSD’s are part of most newer computers, laptops and mobile devices. A storage device stores your personal information every time you save, copy, or transfer a file to your device. SSD’s use non-moving parts like memory technology. A hard disk drive uses moving parts to store information. Like Hard Disk Drives (HDD’s), Solid State Storage devices (SSD’s) have a life expectancy time line. A SSD is what your computer, laptop, or mobile device uses to store information on, and read from over the course of its life....more

Ebook Publishing Process

I am a author, publisher, and ebook conversion specialist. I got my start developing websites about 5 years after the internet was in fruition. During the beginning of 2019, my first book “Most Improved” was authored, and published in digital form. I then converted the digital format to a print version so my audience can experience both formats. I can do the same for you. If you are looking to convert your manuscript to a ebook, or you are just thinking about finding another way to format your documents so you can easily get them to you customers in a way they can read them, on any device, with out a major hassle, then this document is for you....more

Smooth Video Playback

Playing video online or off smoothly has some minimum hardware requirements if you want to avoid hassles: Processor: 2.4 Ghz Dual Core Processor. Graphics Card: 256 MB VRAM, 600Mhz Core Clock RAM: 4 GB If you do not know what specifications your device has, there are a few ways to check, on a PC the easiest way is to open a Run Dialog Box. Hold the Windows key down and press ‘R’....more

Where is my email stored, and is it being backed up?

You might think that when you are reading and responding to your email, it is actually is stored on your device. In the last 5 years or so IMAP and Cloud based email services changed all of that. Email is actually stored on the email hosting provider servers, unless you are using a old POP mail account. When you read, or respond to your email, you are actually reading/responding to a remote copy of this email that is stored at your service provider’s data center....more

Right to Repair

Technology Providers like Apple, Nikon, Verizon often prevent, or make it hard for customers to obtain information about a product or service. They have been known to even lock out repair facilities, like mine, from making repairs on many new electronic devices. Please support choice by supporting independent repair technician’s right to repair these products in our own way, under our own conditions, given that we honor practices that make products reliable and safe to use....more

What's your disaster recovery plan?

The Problem. A customer called me the day after the firestorm in the 2017 Northern California fires, “Scott, our house was destroyed in the fire and our computers are gone. Can you get us up and running with new laptops, and restore our data?” It was the day after returning from the coast with my family. That day I was able to order two new laptops from dell’s online store, install Carbonite, and restore data that the customer was backing up to the cloud....more

SSD File Recovery Options

The way data is written to SSD (Solid State Storage) technology is different from HDD technology (Hard Disk Drives). On SSD’s data cannot be overwritten. Flash memory must first be erased before it can be written to. The smallest writable unit on a SSD is called a page which is typically 8 – 16 KB in size. The smallest unit that can be erased is a block which consists of several pages (8 – 16 MB in size)....more