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“Techie” Interview Series 4 – Abelardo Gonzalez

Continuing the “Techie” series, an old friend of mine from college agreed to the infamous interview.  I met Abelardo Gonzalez during my days attending Pensacola Christian College and he has turned out to be one of those “techie friends” in my own life.  Abbie has some strong opinions on tech and life so I think you’ll enjoy his answers!

Bio:

I am an A+ Certified Computer technician. I also do web design and programming on the side, and can frequently be found trying to push some envelope somewhere. I own 4 computers, a mac, a small notebook, a pc built out of spare parts and built into an LCD, and an iPhone (it runs UNIX, it is a computer). You can sometimes find me walking around holding my laptop sideways, reading books, or taking pictures/video of events in town.

I also recently started participating in the liberty movement in New Hampshire, where we are trying to decrease government regulation and interference with daily life. Since I was working as a truck driver in Pensacola before the move, this also means I am actively looking for a new job in NH.

I am a christian of the “non-modern” variety. My political and religious views tend to not fit any labels I know of.

Do you mind being called a “techie” friend?

Whatever floats your boat, although I’d prefer “friend” with no adjectives .

How long have you been interested in technology or computers?

My dad bought a TRS-80 and I was awed by his ablities to control what was on the TV with it (Like a picture of a house blowing smoke). That was in Kindergarten. Watching Star Trek every week did not help diminish my interest in technology. When my dad bought our first computer with QBasic in third grade, I tried to write a GUI, and continued studying user interfaces since then. When I got my first computer, a Performa, I learned Hypercard and wrote the word processor I used to type all my homework in high school with it.

Do people in your life (friends or relatives) seem to turn to you for computer related problems?

Yes. Sometimes too much, and sometimes too little. I hate seeing them take their computer to BestBuy to fix, and will attempt to intervene at that point .

If so, does this bother you?

Sometimes they ask for help, and then start telling me how to fix the problem. I stop fixing at that point. Unless they threaten to take it to BestBuy to fix, in which case I’ll probably just charge them.

If someone would contact you for assistance, what kind of steps should they take before asking for help?

Reboot. Google. Or at least write down the error message and tell me if your hard drive sounds like a chainsaw before I start making recommendations over email or phone.

Where do you see the internet in 10 years?

Unfortunately, with government regulations creeping up, I don’t see the internet as we now know it in 10 years. I do see something similar to Cable TV as the internet: high entry cost, regulation, lack of anything other than studio produced content. It may be faster, but I probably won’t be able to have a website after that. Internet may be freely available to all much like TV is, and may even be divided between local content and subscription based outside content.

Personal pages will be reduced to subdomains of corporate websites, and all content will be under scrutiny, even your emails, for supposed security reasons. All actions on the internet will be monitored, and I doubt there will be any dissent expressed on it.
Content will be, in general, more polished. Controls will be in place allowing you to filter all content for your family. All advertisements will be custom tailors to your specific profile.

I could see most moving willingly to this new internet, especially if a “crisis” was played up enough to convince everyone the move is necessary. Such a move will also likely be mandated by governments.

Now, this is only if government interference continues… hopefully it will stop, and none of this will happen.

Related to the last question, where do you see computers in 10 years?

Depends greatly on what happens over the next 2 years. What should happen is that computers should become smaller, more pervasive, and cheaper.

As far as US based computer manufacturing and design goes, if the country continues its economic collapse, the most cutting edge equipment will continue to be designed and sold outside the US. The US will probably fall backward technologically, and whichever country is more economically free will be the new technology leader, releasing smaller, more powerful and cheaper computers and equipment. Such technology will probably remain more expensive in the US because of import costs, etc. We are currently seeing this on a small scale.

Your opinion on:

Best OS?

BeOS/Haiku OS

Best Web browser?

Opera (for readability reasons, it used to be Safari, but then I found gdi++.

Best free/paid antivirus program?

AVG (but don’t use their spyware program)

Best search engine?

I want to use something other than Google so bad, but everything else stinks!

What are the top 3-5 websites you visit regularly?

• Freekeene.com – a blog and forum chronicling the movement for more freedome in Keene, NH, which is where I know live (ok, very close to it).
• Mint.com – when a service this good is offered, sometimes it offsets the cost of a slight loss in privacy, as long as mint continues to keep my information secret anyway.
• Apathyonline.net – my blog, with my thoughts on society, christianity and government. It is also my web-sandbox where I practice webprogramming and design.
• Google.com – Best search engine.
• And, well, I visit your website regularly.

Nice to hear from you Abbie!

-Anyone else, feel free to add to or comment on anything discussed above!

Track Your Goals, Let Joe’s Goals Help

If you haven’t noticed by the widget in the sidebar, I started using a site called Joe’s Goals not that long ago.  It’s a simple site; let me tell you a bit about how I’m using it.

Basically, in my quest to organize my blogging, I set two goals to keep track of: My posting (I would like to get to the point where I am posting once a day) and my commenting on other blogs (making friends, joining conversations).  Joe’s Goals lets me mark down on each day that I achieve my goals.  I am also able to give each goal different weight so I set posting up to have three points and commenting to have one.  That way, on a good day I’ll have four points.

As you can see, I can also display the results as a widget.  This way you can keep an eye on my progress with my blogging goals. Nothing complicated

If you’re interested, check it out!

Firefox Friday – Thinking of Switching Browsers?

Friday, it’s Friday!  Yay!  Which means Firefox Friday is here again!

Back in January I wrote a post (What Web Browser Do You Use and Why?) about the reason I switched from using Internet Explorer to using Firefox.  Since that time I’ve noticed several things.  First of all, most of the people I’ve spoken to about their browser of choice raved about Firefox.  I’ve also taken notice that over 60% of visitors to this blog use Firefox (31% of visitors use Internet Explorer – that’s about half!).

All of this tells me that many people have already made the switch away from Internet Explorer, even though it comes packaged with the most popular OS, Windows.

In this post, I would like to answer two questions:  Why are so many people switching to Firefox? and What are some tips while making the switch?

Why are so many people switching to Firefox?

In order to answer this question, I would like to refer to Mozilla.com and let them explain:

1. Speed – I think the speed of the browser is very noticeable, however I hear that if you use too many plugins, performance suffers
2. Safety - Mozilla uses an open source type of security which supposedly acts very quickly (Mozilla’s explanation)
3. Easy to use – I think the learning curve is quite manageable and once you’re used to it, I think you’ll find it very simple to use!
4. Customization - I’m STILL finding new ways to make Firefox quicker and easier for what I need it for!
5. Free - Can’t beat the price!  Five-finger discount?  I guess you can call it a steal!

Some tips for making the switch:

There are three steps I can think of that will help someone looking to switch to Firefox:

1. Download, install, and test it for a bit.  Browse the web a bit, visit some of your favorite sites and just play around with settings, etc. to see if it suits your fancy (I think it will!)
2. Import your favorites from Internet  Explorer – Detailed instructions are offered by Mozilla
3. Make Firefox your default browser – go to tools-options-advanced and you’ll see at the bottom a button to check the default browser for you.

If you need any help AT ALL, feel free to leave a comment!  I or one of my wonderfully tech-savy readers can lend you a hand, I’m sure!

There you have it!  Someday I would like to do some side-by-side comparisons with other browsers but for today, check out the benefits of Firefox.  Oh, and keep up with Firefox Fridays because we’re sure to learn more each time!

Buy Firefox and Mozilla T-shirts

“Techie” Interview Series 3 – Paul Eckstrom

I’ve found another victim, um, er, I mean, very nice person to do yet another “techie” interview!  I like to ask people who are in the tech field (or that I know have technical aptitude with computers) some simple yet curious questions about what they think and who they are.  Here’s an interview with Paul Eckstrom, PC technician and tech blogger over at Tech–for Everyone.  Enjoy!

Bio:

I am a CompTIA Certified computer technician, and the owner of Aplus Computer Aid. I write a daily Tech Tips & Tricks, and How-To blog, Tech–for Everyone with an emphasis on the “for everyone”.

Do you mind being called a “techie” friend?

Um.. do I mind being called a “techie”? I prefer “Über Geek”.. but since I have been using, building, and repairing computers since Win 95, I definitely qualify as a “techie”.

How long have you been interested in technology or computers?

As I just mentioned, I have been involved with computers since just before the “dot com bubble“, but I actually didn’t develop a special interest in computers until rather late in life (I was kind of afraid of them there for a while, actually). But, with the advent of 56K modems, the “opening up” of the Internet to the public, and video games like Duke Nukem 3D, I was hooked.

Do people in your life (friends or relatives) seem to turn to you for computer related problems?

Well, a vigorous campaign of insulting them as morons, and charging them twice my going rate, has pretty well put an end to that annoyance.. I kid!

If so, does this bother you?

No. Not generally. Despite the advances in technology (I mean, the days of DOS are long gone — replaced by the GUI and icons), computers still aren’t the easiest things to figure out — they are NOT appliances like a TV set or microwave oven, though people often seem to see them as such.. But there are limits.

If someone would contact you for assistance, what kind of steps should they take before asking for help?

1) reboot 2) Google it.

Where do you see the internet in 10 years?

It either won’t exist because the hackers and cybercriminals will have totally corrupted it, or it will be the most ubiquitous part of our lives. (It’s already the largest man-made object on earth.) If it somehow survives, it will be the repository of all knowledge, the method of commerce, and a “Big Brother” watchdog unimagined by George Orwell.

Related to the last question, where do you see computers in 10 years?

They will be everywhere.. including sewn into your clothes. Wireless technology will keep them in constant contact.

Your opinion on:

Best OS?

Windows 7

Best Web browser?

Firefox

Best free/paid antivirus program?

Avast! Home Edition

Best search engine?

The 300lb gorilla (starts with a “G”)

What are the top 3-5 websites you visit regularly?

• Bill Mullins Weblog-Tech Thoughts
• What’s On My PC…
• TWiT.TV
• Security Fix (blog)
• Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows

Thank you Paul for taking the time to share!

-Anyone else, feel free to add to or comment on anything discussed above!

Paper or Digital? How Do You Read?

The other day I found myself for the first time in a long time separating myself from my laptop and actually curling up with a good book, ProBlogger The Book (thanks for the good read, Darren!).  My wife and I headed to the park on one of the first warm days of Spring and took our lunch and our books with us.  We were looking for that illusive thing we like to call RELAXATION.

Several things had occurred to me.  First, this was the first time in a long time I actually sought out an actual paper and ink book for reading!  What has my life come to?  Is it because I don’t read much?  No.  I read a lot, every day.  The thing is, most of my reading is done on the computer.  I do a lot of research for Bible lessons using resources such as e-Sword and anothe Bible program I found called BPBible Portable.  I also keep up with news mostly online.  I read from my favorite blogs, browse my favorite RSS feeds, read about what my friends and family are up to on Facebook and Twitter and email, and just generally do research and browsing on the computer!  The last time I went to the library I spent most of my time on my laptop!

My wife is a bit different.  She’d much rather find a good book and read through it.  Most of the time she’d rather not even put it down before finishing.  She gave me several reasons why she’d rather read from a book rather than on the computer (I added my own thoughts):

• Reading from the computer screen bothers her eyes
  • This is a common complaint about computers.  I know after a long day of working in front of a screen, when I get home the last thing I want to do is hit another computer!
• Portability – she can carry a book with her anywhere and she doesn’t have to worry about plugging it in
  • Packing up the laptop and its accessories is a hassle.  Finding electricity is a constant concern of mine when hitting the library or local coffee shop!
• In most cases, there are less distractions from the words
  • Here’s one of my weaknesses!  I am very easily distracted and email, twitter, facebook, other blogs, and even my own blog and its stats are constant distractions for me.  Am I ADD?  Sometimes I wonder.
• There aren’t any worries about viruses or bad sites
  • If you know what you are doing, this worry can be set aside, pretty much (read a post I did called Staying Safe In The Wild Wild Web), but I know this worry can be a distraction for some.
• She likes being able to hold and move what she is reading
  • I hear this one a lot.  People seem to enjoy the old fashioned feeling of the paper, the smell of the fresh pages or ink, and the flexibility of being able to hold what they are reading in any manner they deem comfortable.  I can see that.  I don’t really feel the same feelings, in fact I find it intimidating.  Perhaps it brings me back to my school days!  To each their own!

As you can see, my wife and I have some areas that are more oposite than similar.  Perhaps oposites DO attract?  I for one enjoy the conveniences of “e-reading” as I call it.

• Information is easily come by for pretty much any subject you can think of
• With RSS reading, keeping up with daily updates, even of the news, is very easy
• It’s easy to keep up with friends and family (it has been argued that the impersonality of the web can actually hinder relationships rather than build them, but I see it as a way to at least keep in contact whereas otherwise I would not)
• I find that online reading offers many more opportunities to interact with what you have read.

There is a happy medium, I am sure.  I am still looking for it and I’m sure I’m not alone!  Tell me, what is your favorite way of reading?

Amazon Gift Card Twitter Giveaway – Contest Ended

Thank you to all of you who participated in the Amazon Gift Card Twitter Giveaway!  Tonight @ 4:00 PM EST, the contest ended and now we finally have our winner:

@BrianEarley of iBrianEarley.com

Congratulations BrianEarley!

Firefox Friday – Backup Your Firefox With Firefox Environment Backup Extension

Firefox Friday sneaks up behind us like a bandit once again!

Are you ready for another?  Hold on to your mouse pads because today I’ll be showing you that you can backup your Firefox!

In the digital world, backing up your work is imparitive.

If you have ever lost a project you were working on and had to start from the beginning, you understand the importance of backing up.  If you have ever had a hard drive crash and lost all of your programs, pictures, music, videos, and documents, you know this principle well.  “Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me” comes to mind!  If the idea of losing everything is familiar to you, you have probably changed the way you were doing things!  ALWAYS backup!

Well, as it turns out, Firefox has this extension that allows for easy backups of Firefox, including extensions, themes, bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies, etc.

It even allows for syncronizing your browsers!  You can schedule automatic backups so you don’t even have to worry about it!  I liked the idea of not having to start all over if something were to happen to the computer containing my Firefox installation so I figured I’d give it a try and give my opinion!

First things first!  I had to set some preliminary settings like what I wanted backed up and what folder to backup to:

When I do start the backup, this window shows up:

When it was done, I was left with the results page:

All in all, the extension seems to work seamlessly!  I believe once you have your backups, you can use them to synchronize your browsers!  If you have any bone in your body that cares about your sanity, you should be backing up your browser and FEBE definitely makes the job a breeze!  Head on over and download Firefox Environment Backup Extension today!

Buy Firefox and Mozilla T-shirts

Firefox Friday – Got Webmail? Check It Out!

TGIFF!  Thank goodness it’s Firefox Friday!  It is that time again!

This time I want to address an annoyance I’ve had through the years fo using web based email.  Are you sick of constantly having to go to the site just to check your email?  Everytime I need to check the mail, I had to open up a new window or tab and go directly to Hotmail.com (not cool).  How much time is wasted?  Well, Firefox and one of its many wonderful extensions has once agai come to the rescue!

I found this nifty extention that shows how many messages you have, alerts of new email, and offers a quick and easy link to the site!  It’s called “Webmail Notifier.”  It’s quick and easy to install and use so there’s almost no excuse!

When I first tried it out, I had to laugh because it showed how many messages I have in my inbox!

It would seem that I’m one popular person but the reality is that I am actually just lazy!  I haven’t deleted old messages in I don’t know how long!  Anyway, now time is saved and I’ll always know when I have new email waiting to be read and returned!

Head over to the download page and check it out: Webmail Notifier

Buy Firefox and Mozilla T-shirts

Do Stuff On The Move With PortableApps.com Suite!

On the move a lot?

If you are like me, then your life is busy.  It seems everyday is crazy and there’s always someplace to be!  Home, work, church, family, friends – there’s always something going on somewhere.  Sometimes that makes it difficult to get things done.

You need the tools to do what you need to do!

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you did not have with you the tools to get done what you needed to get done?  If you’re on the go a lot then this has probably happened.  Well, it happens to the best of us!

Well, this same thing happens in the “computer world.”

If you are away from home, sometimes you end up in a place without the programs to accomplish what you need to.  I know for me there are specific things I do most often on the computer and I think it may be similar for a lot of people.  Here’s a list of my most common tasks:

• Photo editing
• Web browsing
• Typing (commonly known as “word processing”)
• Chatting (more specifically instant messaging)
• Some web design

Sure, I do more than just these, but these are the tasks I do the most.  These tasks require specific programs that aren’t necessarily found on every computer I come into contact with.  That can be quite the handicap!

Enter portable applications!

With portable applications, this problem is solved (or at least minimized)!  Did you know that there are programs out there designed specifically to be run from a portable hard drive?  They’re known as “portable applications” or “portable apps.”  That means that you can carry a program you need to use right on your thumb drive to be used on almost any Windows machine you come in contact with!  In a previous post I wrote about a classic example of such a program: Portable Firefox.

The PortableApps.com Suite organizes your needed portable apps into one handy portable program menu!

Since discovering the PortableApps.com Suite, my digital life has become extraordinarily easier!  The PortableApps.com Suite includes programs for almost all of my computing needs and more are being added as time goes by!  The makers have been taking open source software and engineering them to be portable!  Now I have programs in my pocket for almost anything I do so I don’t have to worry about being on a PC without the ability to do what I need to!

Best of all, PortableApps.com Suite is easy to use!

The PortableApps.com Suite is accessible by an icon in the Windows taskbar:

Then up pops the menu:

Click the program you want to use and open it does!  As you can see, there is a program for almost anything, even including a game or two!  Some of the programs I use constantly are:

• Portable Firefox, of course!  Carry all of your bookmarks and extensions with your very own copy of Firefox (now you never have to use IE again!)
• FileZilla Portable is a very handy FTP program so I can upload files for my website projects from any PC connected to the internet!
• Lightscreen Portable is a small, easy program for capturing screen shots when I want to put together a quick tutorial!
• CoolPlayer+Portable is a small and easy to use music player.  It even remember the song you left off on!
• OpenOffice Suite always comes in handy for typing, number crunching, and putting together presentations!
• IrfanView is a small photo editor I am beginning to use when I’ve got to do some quick tweaks on the fly!
• GIMP Portable is the all-so-famous graphics design program meant as an open source replacement for Adobe Photoshop!

There are more programs, too.  Explore a bit and see which ones you find yourself needing.  As you can see, most of my PC tasks are covered by the PortableApps.com Suite!  Check it out to see if it’ll meet your needs too!

Note: When using a thumb drive on public computers, there’s always the possibility of a virus being transmitted to the thumb drive.  Use precautions when using unknown or untrusted PCs.  Keep your home computer AND your thumb drive scanned with up-to-date virus software (the PortableApps.com Suite comes with Clamwin antvirus software) and PLEASE check out the Safe Portable App-ing page for more tips!

Amazon Gift Card Twitter Giveaway

UPDATE:  Contest over!  Congratulate @BrianEarley for the win! (post announcing the winner)

It’s time for another contest @ timmyjohnboy.com.

This time I’m reaching out to twitter!

As many of you know, I’m fairly new to Twitter. Although I was apprehensive at first, I’m loving it so far. I love being able to share quick links and quips with both my twitter friends AND my Facebook friends.

With this contest, I want to offer the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift card to anyone who does the following:

1. Follow me on Twitter (@timmyjohnboy)
2. Tweet the following: “I just entered to win a $25 Amazon gift card and you can too!  Read the post (http://is.gd/qzss) and enter!”

The contest will end Friday, April 17 at 4:00 PM EST time.

I will share the winner in a feature post at that time and I’ll DM them details as to how to collect the prize.

UPDATE! Good question, Mark from DarnGoodReviews.com!  The winner will be drawn from a hat!

Update #2! Sweetening the deal!  If I reach 100 followers, I will make the gift card $30!  So keep ‘em coming!