My Computer Back in Service

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If you Blog, you know that most of the time spent writing a post is online. If you are on a dedicated server with one of the High Speed Providers it is usually not a problem.

But if you still use Dial-up (why would you?) or need to post using Wi-Fi it can get expensive pretty quickly. Sometimes you just don’t have access to the internet for whatever reason, but still want to get an article ready for when you regain internet access.

What to do?

I personally, just started using Windows Live Writer. It seems to fit the bill for most times when I am not online but need to get something written. (This post is written on Live Writer.)

What it does:

• It is compatible with Blogging Services like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and Movable Type and most other platforms.
• It uses WYSIWYG so you can see what your Article will look like before it is published.
• You can insert pictures, tables, videos, hyperlinks, just about anything you can do on your blog online. It even spell checks as you’re typing.
• Best of all once you are satisfied and can get online, you can publish it directly, save as a draft online or save as  a draft and continue editing online.
• You can even set categories and a date to pre-publish a post (al least using WordPress I don’t know about the others).

What is Doesn’t:

• If you have a recurring series of posts that the lead paragraph/ending are always the same, you Can Not save it as a local draft and reuse it. It will automatically pick up whatever the end published document contains.
• For some reason, when you publish a post containing pictures or .jpg .gif .jpeg .png or similar, it will automatically add it to the default upload as a new pic. If you delete it from the upload file, you will lose the picture or whatever graphic you added to a previous post.

All in all, Windows Live Writer is a very effective and powerful publishing tool for writing Blog Posts when you aren’t online.

I once had a customer that actually told me she was Zipophobic, that she was afraid to use a .zip file because she didn’t understand them.

Zip files are nothing to be afraid of, they are just a compression of a bunch of files for easy download/upload. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a nice, easy, fast way of transporting files.

According to Wikipedia

ZIP is a fairly simple archive format that compresses every file separately. Compressing files separately allows for individual files to be retrieved without reading through other data; in theory, it may allow better compression by using different algorithms for different files.

Moving a lot of files from one computer to another can be quite cumbersome. Storing spreadsheets from an accounting program on a CD for transport to the accountant is sometimes difficult because of the size. Backing up your personal or business information is a necessity, but it is a pain.

In my opinion, the easiest way to accomplish these tasks and a myriad of others is with a .zip program.

• Some are free, like http://www.7-zip.org/
• And there is the one I use, WinZip (free trial, not freeware).

If you have large amounts of information that you need to transport or store, try using a .zip program. It is the simplest way to go.

There may come a time when things are going along just fine. Everything seems to be working exactly as they should and then BAM. Nothing works. You may not even be able to boot up your computer to a normal state. You can’t even get as far as the System Logo and it goes down again.

What do you do?

Think… What changed since the last time you tried to get on the computer and had no problems?

• Did you Add something? A new program or upgrade to an existing program?
• Did you Delete something? Accidents do happen, that’s why they usually have a confirmation for deletions.
• Did you download something from the internet unintentionally (like a virus)?

Let’s assume you did none of the above, but you are still having problems and the computer still won’t boot properly. What then?

As the computer is booting, you should see text telling you what it is trying to do. It will show you that it is accessing your hard drive, CD-ROM, memory etc. When there are problems detected, it should give you a menu with some options like:

1. Start Normal Mode
2. Start Safe Mode
3. Start from Last Known Good Configuration

If you have an idea of what caused the problem, you can start in Safe Mode and try to uninstall or end the program that is at fault.

If you have no idea what is causing the problem, but know that you added something, or there was an automatic upgrade to your system, go with the Last Known Good Configuration option.

If none of the above works, you may have to reinstall your whole operating system (I hope not, you lose a LOT of your stuff that way).

If you are having this type problem and nothing seems to solve the problem, let me know.