Sick of waiting for your files to open? Does your computer freeze up all the time? Are you constantly rebooting?

These are all signs that your computer network is in desperate need of maintenance or possibly an upgrade.

What makes computer networks run slow?

1. Spyware, Viruses, & Adware: This software, often known as malware, secretly installs itself on your computer and attacks your network from the inside out. Once the malware installs, it slows your computer down by constantly sending data to and from your network. This sophisticated software is designed to collect your information (personal data, web history, and sometimes anything you type) and sell it for a profit.
2. Old Equipment: Believe it or not, computers have shelf lives of 3 to 4 years. Old computers are slower than new ones. However, you can extend the life expectancy of equipment by keeping it properly maintained. Which brings us to number 3…
3. Poor Maintenance: Just like your car, your computer needs regular maintenance. When you’re driving your car and the oil light comes on, you’re supposed to get the oil changed. If the oil goes unchanged, the car will run worse and worse, until it eventually breaks down completely. Your computer is the same way—only the oil light can be a little tougher to spot.

Maintenance is the key to dependable and fast computer networks. For our Fixed IT customers, we perform maintenance continuously. Maintenance like; defragmenting hard drives, virus and malware scanning, malware prevention, end user restrictions, network optimization, security patching, and removing unnecessary programs and files.

If you haven’t been monitoring and maintaining your computer network, and things are starting to break down, it’s time for Fixed IT.

Consider what our clients are saying:

“No outages, they monitor our systems that close” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpfgkIc4fbk
“They treat us like a Fortune 500 Company” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X1NO-1jt_A

The weeks are flying by and summer is almost upon us! This Wednesday already marked our 9^th trip to Detroit to meet with the Technology Team. This time, Conroy (DE Consultant) came with me to teach his second lesson.

A big part of Conroy’s job at DE is troubleshooting issues for end users. A customer calls him when they can’t print, when their second monitor isn’t working, or when they can’t connect to the internet. Conroy then figures out the source of the problem and repairs it.

We thought it would be interesting to teach the kids how to troubleshoot and solve some basic end user issues. Conroy started off by introducing the group to the OSI problem solving framework. Without getting too in depth, the idea we wanted to convey is to check the most obvious solutions to problems first.

The first layer of the OSI framework is “Physical”. We wanted the students to first check for physical solutions (i.e. cables unplugged, broken parts, etc.)

For the first test, Conroy called up a couple students to set up the projector. They started with “physical” and found the projector was not plugged in. But after they connected the projector it still wasn’t working. We moved to the next layer of the OSI framework — “Data”. The projector was not receiving data from the computer. The students worked through this task as Conroy gave them some direction and eventually got the projector working correctly.

For the rest of the lesson, Conroy would disconnect the projector so the class couldn’t see his screen, “break” something on his laptop, reconnect the projector, and call a student up to solve the problem. Team members figured out how to connect to the internet (while overcoming multiple obstacles), fix display settings, find a missing start menu, and “fix” Internet Explorer.

Learning everything about desktop support takes 2-4 years of classes, but this lesson provided a glimpse into some of the things Conroy does on a day to day basis. Most of the kids agreed solving people’s computer problems wouldn’t be a bad career.yea

Next week, James is going to present his completed audio mixing software! Excited to get my own copy to play around with!

-Bryan

Previous Entries:
Lesson #7: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_4-27-2011
Lesson #6:http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_4-13-2011/
Lesson #4 & 5: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-30-2011/
Lesson #3: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-23-2011
Lesson #2: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-9-2011/
Lesson #1: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_2-16-2011/

After a week long hiatus for spring break, Josh (DE Consultant) and I made our way back to Cody to teach the students how clean up and speed up their computers.

When we brainstormed at DE months ago, we thought up fun ideas for the things we’d show the kids at Cody (For example, taking apart an XBOX). The very first time we met with the Cody students, we asked them what they wanted to learn about. To my surprise, they came up with things that we never thought of—things we deemed too boring. One of those “boring” topics the students wanted to learn about was cleaning up viruses.

Despite the beautiful weather, we still had 9 students show up. They all said their computers at home were in need of clean up. Josh plugged into the projector and showed them the infected laptop we had brought.

First, he showed the team where to get some good (and free) virus removal software. Josh recommended Malwarebytes. He walked them through downloading and installing the software, and then ran the scan on the laptop we had brought in.

Malwarebytes found the virus we had intentionally downloaded on the computer. Josh showed the students how to permanently remove the infected files.

After giving them tips on how to avoid viruses in the first place, Josh showed the team how to speed up their computers by defragmenting the hard drive. Time ran out on us at this point. I let the kids know I’d be posting a tutorial about what we covered online for them, and sent them on their way.

Looking forward to next week already. Conroy will be making his second appearance as he shows the group how to fix some common computer problems.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

-Bryan

Lesson #6:http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_4-13-2011/
Lesson #4 & 5: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-30-2011/
Lesson #3: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-23-2011
Lesson #2: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-9-2011/
Lesson #1: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_2-16-2011/

Yesterday’s trip to Cody took a new direction. Previous lessons had been about breaking, fixing, and making all things technology. Yesterday’s lesson was about planning for the future.

Mike (Operations Manager) handles the hiring here at DE, so he thought it would be useful to give the students some insight on where to look for jobs and how to land one.

The hour started with some round table discussion. First, Mike asked who was looking for a job this summer. Everyone raised their hands. Then we discussed the process of deciding what type of jobs would be good fits. Mike asked questions about the team’s interests, skills, money requirements/goals, and transportation restrictions.

The students came up with some good potential jobs based on these metrics. Examples included everything from working at the local mall to flying jets for Delta (jobs were not necessarily limited to this summer).

For the kids looking for “right now” jobs, Mike guided them through the process of finding and applying for a specific job. Along the way, he provided insight on what employers look for, interview tips, and how they could set themselves apart from the competition.

For David, the future airline pilot, Mike recommended that he look for a job in line with his long term goal of flying commercial jets. David decided working at the airport handling baggage could be a good experience, and found a job posting on Delta’s website.

Finally, we closed by encouraging the team to contact us if they were applying for jobs this summer and needed some assistance or advice.

Next week is spring break, but the following week we will be teaching the team how to clean up and speed up their computers!

I’ll let you know how it goes,

Bryan

Previous Cody Project Blogs:
Lesson #4 & 5: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-30-2011/
Lesson #3: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-23-2011
Lesson #2: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-9-2011/
Lesson #1: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_2-16-2011/

Yesterday’s trip to Cody was exciting to say the least. To get some perspective on the lesson, let me first tell you a little about the teacher. (James, DE Programmer).

James taught programming at his own high school in Ypsilanti– when he was still in high school. He also wrote music for his high school and college marching bands. So… he’s basically a genius and built for this volunteer project.

When James started devising his lesson, he asked if he could go two weeks in a row because he had so much to share. Yesterday was part one of his two part lesson on computer programming and music.

He started out by showing the kids some things he’s done with music– without any fancy (expensive) software. He played them an arrangement he wrote for his marching band, and all the students recognized it as the Lil Wayne’s hit song Lollipop.  

Next, he had the kids download Audacity (a free music mixing program) so they could start recording their own sounds. Everyone broke up into groups and began playing around with the software. James showed them how to layer three separate audio tracks on top of each other. The students were very interested because they could see the potential of the skills they were learning. James had just given them all the tools they needed to make their own music!

Time flew by so fast, I barely remembered to take pictures. (I only snapped the one you see!) Next week, James is going to expand on this lesson by turning their keyboards into drum machines. Then they will record sounds, loop them, layer tracks, and create works of musical art! (All with free software btw!)

I’ll let you know how it goes!

~Bryan

Previous Cody Project Blogs:
Lesson #3: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-23-2011
Lesson #2: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-9-2011/
Lesson #1: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_2-16-2011/

Technology Team meeting 3 took place yesterday. After unbridled participation at the first two official meetings, my expectation for attendance has gotten pretty high. However, yesterday we only had 9 team members. About half the students enrolled at Cody are involved in the ROTC program, and they had a mandatory inspection after school—hence the 50% attendance. Many of our regular contributors dipped in to tell us they’d be back next week though.

No matter the smaller group size, we pressed on with the meeting. We forced each student to eat 2 Jimmy John’s sandwiches so none would go to waste (actually, we dropped the leftovers off with a teacher who was hosting some freshman for another afterschool program).

Once the kids were stuffed to their gills, Jason (DE Consultant) began his lesson on setting up a wireless network. He had one student find a hot Ethernet line and explained to them how the internet worked like phone lines and wireless internet for your laptop is like a cordless house phone.

Next, he handed a wireless router to the first volunteer, and had her open the packaging and find the directions. Jason helped her when she had any questions, but as a team, they were able to get through the set up without much guidance from us. After they went through the setup process twice (Jason had to tamper with some permissions after the first attempt), both laptops were successfully connected to the new wireless network!

We had planned to show them the pitfalls of not password protecting your wireless network. Jason was going to steal files off my laptop through thin air, but the school’s firewall put a kibosh on that part of the lesson. Instead, Jason answered some questions about his past as a police officer and talked about his current job as an IT consultant here at DE.

Looking forward to next week already, when James (DE Programmer) has each student write their own simple computer program, turning their keyboard into a musical instrument. (I’ll be learning just as much as the kids during this lesson!)

Check out the past entries from my Cody HS journal below.

~Bryan

Lesson #2: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_3-9-2011/
Lesson #1: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_2-16-2011/

Not so much a title as what I just screamed. Here’s the story:

I wanted to indicate two separate quantities in the same cell, under the same heading of a table. The heading was “Workstations” on a price sheet. There were 9 total workstations— 3 of one type, 6 of another. I wanted to indicate this as 3/6. The cell below would correspond with $/$. Seems like a simple request, right?

As I’m sure many of you have experienced, Excel can be a real pain when it thinks it knows what you want to type. Excel said to me, “3/6— you must have meant March-6”.

I said nay. Simple fix, right? So I right clicked, clicked “format cell”, and selected “number”. Expecting my 3/6 to return to cell D4 where I left it, Excel surprised me again. This time, its machine brain assumed I wanted to type “40608.00”. Wrong again, Robot.

Nearing wit’s end, I changed the format to “fraction” and re-entered my 3/6 in D4. This time, Excel thought I was doing a 5^th grade fraction worksheet and simplified my fraction to “1/2”.

I’m usually pretty laid back, but at this point, I lost my cool and punched Excel in the face. I apologized, replaced my monitor, and tried one last time to format D4. I did what didn’t make sense to me and chose “text” as the format.

My cell finally stayed as “3/6”, but as a parting jab, Excel automatically left-aligned the cell, and made me click one more time on “right align” to get where I wanted to be.

**Tip of the Century**

If you need to write numbers as text to avoid auto-formatting, just type an apostrophe first. Example— Typing ‘3/6 will yield 3/6 as text (you’ll still have to click “right align” though).

Also, whatever numbers you type as text, will no longer be eligible for use in mathematical formulas. Example— ‘3/6 plus ‘3/6 yields 81216….not sure where they came up with that one!

Happy Spread-Sheeting.

-Bryan

Technology Team had another great meeting yesterday. In our second official meeting, we expanded on the last lesson about the inner workings of an XBOX and a PC.

This time, it was the kids turn to get up to their elbows in technology.

We brought the same PC from last week (in about 30 pieces tho). First, Sean (DE Consultant) went over each component as a refresher. Next, he let the students figure out where the parts went, showing them the finer details— like how to align the processer correctly so you don’t bend the pins.

After the PC was back together, Sean asked, “Now who wants to take apart my laptop?” About 15 hands went up in unison. We had the guys in front swap places with their friends behind them to let some new hands get in on the action. Then, Sean, not too concerned about the well being of his laptop, let the students figure it out on their own, answering any questions they had along the way.

After the laptop was stripped down, we rotated participants again and a let new group reassemble it (with guidance from their teammates who just took it apart). As you can see from my slightly blurry photos, the laptop still booted up when all was said and done.

We had a great turnout again this week (15). Looking forward to the next lesson on building a wireless network! I’ll keep you posted.

-Bryan

Lesson 1: http://www.dynedge.com/landing/cody_2-16-2011/

Apple is reportedly changing the game again. But this time, some big names aren’t going to play with them anymore. Effective June 30^th 2011, any iPhone or iPad app that sells anything, will be required to sell it within the framework of the application (no more linking to outside sites like Amazon.com). Why? Because Apple takes a 30% cut of all sales made within an iSO app.

What does this mean for the consumer? Some of the things you love doing on your iPhone or iPad may not be available after June 30^th. Rhapsody has already said they could not operate under the new demands. Amazon will almost certainly have to pull the Kindle app as well (or raise the rates).

What does this mean big picture? When it’s all said and done, I think Apple will regret this move. Here’s why:

Incredible vs. iPhone 4

1.) With Android doubling up Apple’s Smartphone market share at the end of 2010, the iPhone isn’t as dominant as it once was. And though the iPad broke new ground, Android now has a line of comparable tablets on the market as well.

2.) Apple has always banked on having the most innovative products. They had the “cool” factor on their side. I’ve never had an iPhone or an iPad, because I have the “school loans” factor on my side—What I do have is a Droid Incredible on Verizon, and it’s pretty cool. My sister, an iPhone user from day one, thinks it’s pretty cool too.

My point is this—If Apple doesn’t have the coolest products anymore, and they don’t have the market share anymore, where will they get the leverage to pull off a bully-move like this? Brand loyalty? Sure some people will blindly follow. But how many other faithful users (like my sister) are already on the fence?

If this change goes down as reported, and Apple loses Rhapsody, Kindle, and countless other apps, they will also lose faithful customers as well as potential new customers. The question is, will they scalp enough profits off the apps that comply to make it worthwhile?

Either way – not cool Apple.

Cody High School in Detroit had a graduation rate of around 20%. It was selected with a few other schools in Detroit to be good targets for a “turnaround”. Cody has since been split up into 4 different schools based on area of interest: Medicine and Health, Public Leadership, Critical Thinking, and Technology.

“The Small Schools at Cody are supported by the Greater Detroit Education Venture Fund, which was created by United Way for Southeastern Michigan. United Way is a leader in high school turnaround, and provides funding, advocacy, and other supports in five metro Detroit turnaround high schools.” ~United Way

DE is helping out at Cody this year by volunteering time and resources for an afterschool technology lesson each week. Deb (Customer Experience Manager) and I (Sales and Marketing… Superhero?) met with some students a week ago to gauge interest and find out what types of things they’d like to learn about. Six kids were at that initial meeting. We put up some fliers and told them to spread the word.

Yesterday, we had our first official Technology Team Meeting. We were hoping to get 10 students to show up. We were blown away when 18 students filled the Cody computer lab. (Must have been the fliers!)

Conroy (DE Consultant) enthralled the massive crowd (including me and Deb) as he disassembled both an Xbox and a PC in a flash. He then explained the inner workings of each machine, compared the similar parts, and engaged in an intense Q & A session.

Next, Conroy stunned the students as he set his tools on the table, sat down in his chair, and said “Now, YOU put it back together”. They did. Quickly. (and it still worked when I got home that night)

Great turnout, great experience, can’t wait for Tech Team Meeting #2; Building a Computer. Unfortunately, the next two weeks are no-go’s for testing and mid-winter break, but we will be back at it March 9^th. I’ll keep you posted.

- Bryan E.