Techno

PC breakdowns – why drag your PC to the repair store?

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Ever had your PC break down and had to lug the thing to the nearest (or not!) pc repair store? I know I have, many times. It’s surprising that we still have to do this but the range of problems is quite extensive!

Whether you run pcs in your business, or run pcs for your SOHO, it’s always infuriating when these technical glitches happen:

  • hard disk dies;

  • power supplies dies;

  • graphics card fizzles out;

  • motherboard is fried;

  • and so on…

All of these problems cut into your productivity to say the least! It would be nice to have computer service at your home. Just call a technician who comes promptly (ie. within a few hours) and who can diagnose the fault, and repair it or replace it as necessary.

Wonder if someone will come and replace the dying battery in my motherboard?… I forgot to get it replaced last time I had to drag my monster PC to the store, and every day I have to reset the time and date. Very annoying! How much would that be, not including the airfare?

(Re-) Installing Google’s Tracking Code: it’s easy but Google makes it tricky!

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Here’s a frequent problem with Google Analytics that I’ve encountered on more than one occasion.

Hi,

Do you know if Google Analytics has had any problems lately? I have it in both of my sites, and they are both saying I had no visitors at all in the past month, which I know is not the case.

Craig

In fact, this happened to me several times. Once or twice it was because I changed themes and forgot to copy the code, other times the code was simply broken (I don’t know how); and other times still are a mystery. This is what it will look like.

google anal stats

You see, day after day of no traffic! So if you see that after several days your blog isn’t recording any traffic, it’s likely you are suffering the same issue.

The best solution is simply not to waste any time and go back to your Analytics account and find the code there, then copy the new code into the same location

Now in case you can’t find it, here’s a picture guide!

settings 2 for tracking

Click on your profile and hit ‘edit’ link. Then you’ll see this…

settings for tracking code

And you have two choices for your code. I’m using the new tracking code, but you can use either.

Copy and paste that code (whichever) into your blog footer. Within 24 hours you should see stats again.

Oh, and don’t believe this when you see it, I don’t know what it means, but it certainly doesn’t mean what it says it means!

receiving data

My account is ‘receiving data’ and yet showing nothing! Otherwise, voila! You’re done!

The View from My Desktop: Lots of great apps

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This was a view from my desktop yesterday as I was working. I thought I would share some of the software I’m enjoying using at the moment with you all.

current print screen

In the background, of course, there’s Firefox 2.0.11 with an unusual theme. I can’t remember what theme I’m using at the moment in Firefox! Oh, got it! It’s LittleFox. My version of Firefox runs a bunch of plugins, some of which are listed, and some of which are visible in the closeup.

firefox plugins

I quite like FoxyTunes, and the Better Gmail plugin. IETab works pretty well for websites where the owners refuse to admit the existence of FF. SearchStatus is also pretty neat as it displays PR, Alexa and Compete scores on your browser. Here’s the complete list.

ff plugins 2008

On the midground, there’s the Flickr upload tool, that I was using to upload photographs from my recent trip to Taichung. It’s a seriously useful tool! And Flickr is a great website for photographs. In the foreground, you can see Trillian running: Trillian is a tool that allows you to chat on four different platforms at the same time – Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ/AOL, and GTalk.

u3 image cruzer

Minimized to the icon area on the right: you can see a U3 Cruzer – a seriously useful piece of electronic wizardry that allowed me to do most things while I was away, simply by plugging it into a PC. So I used it at the hotels and in an Internet Cafe to access most things I needed. The image lists all of the software that I’ve got installed on my Cruzer: it works pretty well, and the OpenOffice is seriously useful. Can’t see Microsoft Office 2008 doing that, can you?

I also have three more applications that aren’t installed but just work: an FTP program, an MP3 Player that just runs, and BlogComment. In fact, Trillian is running from the Cruzer itself. As is the next wonderful mp3 playing software. XMPlay 3.4 is only 305Kb (yes, Kb, not MB or GB!), and it plays many formats including streaming formats from my favorite online radio stations, including the one I’m listening to in the screenshot above: Sky.fm’s Da Tempo Lounge.

Skype is also running but I usually just use it to call people, rather than accept calls. For incoming calls, I just use regular phone calls or chat in Trillian or Skype. I don’t call that much.

Last, two pieces of blogging software that are helping me: BlogDesk is my blogging platform that helps me post to the blog(s) and creates the neat pictures that everyone seems to like; and a late comer, called BlogComment that doesn’t need installed, but that facilitates the entry of repeated information for commenting on blogs: your name, email address and blog address. I can’t find a URL for it.

So, what’s your desktop looking like today? Show us a picture on your blog and tell us about your favorites.