Archive for the ‘Hiwired’ Category

Ctrl-Center Hmmmm

Posted: December 26, 2008 by datechguy in employment, Hiwired, tech
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Noticed that the page for Ctrl-Center has changed.

When HiWired stopped breathing it remained to be seen what would happen to Ctrl-Center, would Office Max drop the brand or give it to another tech support company?

I presume Office Max decided they didn’t want the dough already sunk into be a loss so somebody is doing it. Since the page say US based support I presume it hasn’t gone to India but as to where it is being done and who is doing it I have no idea.

Still not sure if they will be supporting the old services that we once offered, but that is a post for another day. I’d be very interested in knowing what people think of the new service, of course I’d recommend Datechguy’s tech services instead.

UPDATE: It belongs to PlumChoice.

Happy Hanukkah to all

Posted: December 21, 2008 by datechguy in Hiwired, Uncategorized
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Tonight begins the 8 days of Hanukkah.

For those who don’t know it is celebrating the purification of the temple after it had been defiled by their foes, you can find the longer story in the 1 Maccabees 4:35-59 the meat and potatoes of it are here:

On the anniversary of the day on which the Gentiles had defiled it, on that very day it was reconsecrated with songs, harps, flutes, and cymbals. All the people prostrated themselves and adored and praised Heaven, who had given them success. For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar and joyfully offered holocausts and sacrifices of deliverance and praise. They ornamented the facade of the temple with gold crowns and shields; they repaired the gates and the priests’ chambers and furnished them with doors. There was great joy among the people now that the disgrace of the Gentiles was removed. Then Judas and his brothers and the entire congregation of Israel decreed that the days of the dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness on the anniversary every year for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month Chislev.

To all those who celebrate it, a Happy and Holy Hanukkah and to those who do not, Have a nice week.

Let me give a shout out to the old HiWired company in closing, every year we would have a greeting for Christmas, and Hanukkah on the blog. It unabashedly acknowledged the religious nature of these days. It spoke very well of the company that they were not afraid to acknowledge religious holidays and I take my hat off to them.

A day without power is not a day without Mighty Subs

Posted: December 13, 2008 by datechguy in Hiwired, Uncategorized
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Well the ice slammed into us really good. No power (or heat) in the house, no power in the neighborhood, no power for most of the city (although as of this writing two sections of town have lights) and a good chunk of central mass is totally dark.

Tonight I’m writing from a friend’s house in the former Fort Devens. Our friend insisted we come to a place where the lights burn brightly.

I have my laptop with me and once I get a chance to read about today’s news I’ll have things to say but I’ll just go with a few observations:

People seem to be taking the lack of power in stride.

Trees are down everywhere, very large branches were blocking my driveway we cleared enough to pull in and out but there are huge trees and power lines all over the place.

The bright side is with school out we were able to make a trip to my favorite haunt in the days of HiWired: Mighty Subs in Needham (where you would never know a storm took place). Art and Karen have been together since high school and have run this place for decades. Their motto is “Our small is their large” and they aren’t kidding.

If you are EVER in the Needham Massachusetts area give them a visit, they are only open weekdays till 4 and serve a full breakfast as well, but it is their Mighty Subs that are the star of the show.

There is a fair amount of pleasure just reading a book or staying under the and not worrying about the rest of the world.

It’s days like this when you really have to appreciate the Police, Fire and Utility people. When the chips are down they work like there is no tomorrow.

You know at least one Christmas its a good idea to buy your wife $300 worth of Yankee Candles. Not only will she not need any more for years but some dark day it might pay off.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, nobody has a better group of friends than me that you can count on. I’m really blessed.

And destructive as it was, those trees covered in ice, particularly the view of a tree covered hillside is one of the most beautiful sights you will ever see.

Unemployment & plan B update

Posted: December 11, 2008 by datechguy in employment, Hiwired, tech
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Well no bites yet on the e-bay stuff for tech support, I’ll likely re-list the virus cleaning for 7 days instead of 3. I was hoping to avoid the chance of anything going beyond my two week trial of LogMeIn Rescue without at least one sale, but it looks like I’m going to have to make a decision on that yearly license before I have any takers.

Logic says it will take a long time to actually build anything since the customer base that used us at HiWired and Ctrl-Center has no reason to find me at eBay or here for that matter. Heck the readers of the old blog don’t know where I am either since it disappeared with everything else rather abruptly. I did back it up after all it was 3+ years of blogging but it really doesn’t belong to me so I can’t really just re-post it. It’s going to take time. I shouldn’t expect to replace the old paycheck in a few days.

I really need to add a networking service and a printer install service, my problem is you never know with networking particularly when done remotely so the price point is an issue. I’ll likely try adding it in the next day or so with the ice storm coming.

On the bright side I do have a job interview on Monday at a college near Boston, I don’t know what will come of it but we will see. The stuff I’ve been seeing on monster is in my old pay range or slightly above but not of course working from home as I was doing before so there is the price of driving 5 days a week vs 1.

With unemployment when it starts coming I’ll be getting 64% of my base 40 hour check with the child allowance before deductions. According to my math with some adroit budgeting we can get by without going into a hole but without getting ahead. That will give me time to either find a job that pays something near what I was making or give the eBay thing a go. Most of my friends and former co-workers seem to think I can do it. I think it will work but it is just a question of time. So I guess I’ll likely buy that LogMeIn license for the year and see what becomes of it.

Hey its already coming in handy tonight, a friend of mine is having a printer issue and I’ll be able to have her sign in remotely to resolve it once she gets home. What what I’m hearing it might just be a wrong default device. If not then I can use the practice.

FYI if your printer ever doesn’t print without erroring out go to the printers area in Control Panel and look to see what device has the check mark. If your printer doesn’t have a check next to it then your system has a different default printer. Right click on the printer you want to print to and set it as the default.

Its a simple fix and will save you a headache. Next week it might save you an eBay bid.

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