December 01, 2007
Wow what a deal!
Today when I booted up the family PC to put us the Anniversary blog post I was greeted with a Java Balloon saying the following:
Update Java now and get Open Office Free!
Hey sounds like a great deal, after all Open Office is a first rate Office Suite that does all the Microsoft Office does. We've mentioned it more that once around here.
The deal would be a lot more impressive if Open Office wasn't already free to use.
Posted by Peter at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2007
The return of project Valour it
Well Veterans day is fast approaching and the annual fund raiser for Project Valour IT (Voice-Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops)is in full swing at the Soldiers Angels site. As before there are four "teams" representing each service branch. The blogs on each team and their progress can be seen here. Now I never served but my father served in the Pacific during World War II in the Navy so that is where my dollars are going. But no matter what team you give to the dough will go to wounded service men and women who need it. If you can spare a few bucks please do.Posted by Peter at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2007
Who says cheap is bad
Via Glenn Vodka pundit notices a chance in the Blu Ray vs HD-DVD wars with a new player in the game...Walmart:
The HD-DVD side has been concentrating on price, and they're taking a huge swing for the fences with today's sale. It's a gigantic risk financially. Either Toshiba or Wal-Mart or both are absorbing a very substantial loss by selling these units for $98 (I'd guess just Toshiba, Wal-Mart is too smart to take a hit this big). The HD-DVD drive inside the HD-A2 all by itself is worth more than $98, even without all the associated technology and packaging.So why are they doing it? To capture the market. I heard people saying it in line this morning: "Hey, for $100, if Blu-Ray winds up winning, so what? This one's almost disposable." That argument certainly worked on me; after years of dissing both formats (or more specifically the format war itself), I was up early and at my local 'Mart my own self.
As he says multiply 25 x Wallmarts and that a ton of market.
Posted by Peter at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)
Where is part 2?
Exciting things have been happening here at HiWired. Unfortunately that means some other things have been pushed back, that includes part 2 of Chris Muir's podcast. We hope to have that up before the end of next week.
We are also interested in soliciting some suggestions for future podcasts. Do you have someone you want to hear from, let us know in comments.
Posted by Peter at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2006
Don't let this happen to you
As today's Day-By Day shows above this is a feeling that everybody gets at one time or another. It's important to remember that your computer is a machine like any other and needs to be maintained, here are a few quick hits.
REBOOT: Even if you are the type who leaves their computer on all the time (I'm not, most of the guys here are) you will want to reboot your system at least once a day. Rebooting daily forgives many PC sins and starts you with a clean slate (I sound like my parish priest).
CLEAN OUT TEMP FILES: If I had a dollar for every customer who hadn't cleaned out their temp files I'd still be working since a dollar doesn't go as far as it used to, but this is a problem I see over and over (particularly on older machines which needs some TLC). This can cause issues during installs, hang ups and grief. Not cleaning out temp files is like drinking and not sleeping it off, your system will slow down, start to slur and then crash.
DUST DUST DUST: Heat is bad for your computer, one thing that happens over time is dust will build up inside your machine and heat your parts, using Canned Air clean your computer say once a year at least. If you are moving things around in the house, take advantage of that time to do it since usually the computer is tucked into a spot where it is hard to get to. An annual dusting will prolong the life of your machine.
HIWIRED: (You saw that coming didn't you) Finally we're going to toot our own horn a bit and suggest you get either our HiWired PC TUNEUP or Worry Free PC plan. This will give your system a checkup of your virus, firewall and spyware protection, A year of HiWired Protector to make sure your system stays up to date, and remote backups so if the worst does happen your data is save, and the data is the reason you have that computer anyway. After the initial setup fee (a half price PC Checkup) HiWired's Worry Free PC comes in three flavors that start as low as $6 a month so you can be protected without breaking the bank. Is it worth one Big Mac Meal a month to keep key data safe?
P.S. I think it's only fair to say that the use of today's Day-By-Day cartoon doesn't mean Chris Muir has endorsed our site.
However it is also fair to say that I very much endorse his.
Posted by Peter at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2006
A quiet day
Well it's Easter Sunday and it's been pretty quiet around here as you might expect, but busier than last year as you might also expect.
If you have a PC issue and you don't want to wait till tomorrow give us a ring. We will be here till 11 p.m EST tonight Easter or no.
Also tomorrow is Patriots Day here in Massachusetts a state holiday. The running of the Boston Marathon will be held tomorrow and the Red Sox will be playing their traditional Patriots day game at 11 a.m.
We at HiWired will be open our normal hours from 9 a.m.- 11 p.m. as we are today.
Posted by Peter at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2006
What a difference a year makes. Happy Birthday to Us.
One year ago today the LightFrog blog posted its first entry. It was quickly followed by our first link and tip (which unfortunately STILL hasn't kept people from the risks of LimeWire). We were starting something fairly new: A blog by a business written by it's employees, management and ownership all with posting rights talking directly to the customer base.
A lot has happened in that year, a name change to HiWired, the making of the cool design we enjoy today, the arrival of babies, an impending wedding and shared postings by many different people about many different things. (While many other still don't post you know who you are!)
We had our first instalance, we reported on technology, gave tips for your PC, talked about internet free speech, learned some things, and watched people vent about Dell computers and xbox 360's and put up an online help wanted sign.
To my knowledge we are still the only business out there with a blog that every employee has the right to post to. I think this is way ahead of the curve and we hope to stay ahead of the curve as our second year starts.
To all of you who have posted, thanks, we hope to read more of your insights in the year ahead. To all how have linked, thanks it's nice to be noticed, To all who have commented; thanks we value your opinion but most of all to all who have read us; thank you very much for listening to what we have to say. We hope to bring you a quality blog supporting our quality tech support products.
And finally thanks to all of you who have used our services, it is your faith in us that allowed us to provide tech support from New England rather than New Delhi.
Posted by Peter at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2006
HiWired wants you!
HiWired is looking for true technologists that are passionate about technology AND helping customers of all levels. Please visit our Careers page on our site to learn more about the position and how to apply. http://www.hiwired.com/web/info/careers.aspx
HiWired is not only a fun place to work, but also a place that challenges the norm and encourages creative thinking every day. If you're looking for a 'job', HiWired is not the place for you. If you're looking for more than a 'job', HiWired may be the place for you.
Please see the instructions located at the bottom of the page regarding how to apply. Many folks don't realize that the interview process starts with the submission of your resume. If the instructions are not followed, you will not likely receive a response.
Good Luck!
Posted by Lorie at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2006
Tipping allowed and encouraged
We at HiWired are of course a for profit operation. You the customer are the reason why we are able to be New England based instead of New Delhi based.
That being said even if you do not choose to use our pay services at this time it is worth your while to sign up for a free membership.
This will give you access to our free tech tips for members here is an example of one:
It is important to remember that even though you can use your cell phone as a modem for a system, you are using it as a dial-up modem. The fact that it is a cell phone doesn't make it a high speed connection. You will expect dial-up connection speeds when it is linked to the PC (If you are using a Bluetooth connection to the PC it will be even slower!). Remember that a hotspot is almost always going to be faster than the dial modem (and it won't cost you minutes.)
If you'd like access to tips like this on all kinds of tech subjects simply click on the Join Now button on the top of this page, fill out the info, and read away. Once in a while we will take tips from the internal site and post them here, but if you want access to them all at once Join Today!
Update: Of course I should have said New Delhi instead of New Deli, I wouldn't mind if we were deli based provided we had good Roast Beef and Cheese and fresh baked bread. Come to think of it with current technology that is possible. Hmmmmmm.
Posted by Peter at 09:31 AM | Comments (2)
December 15, 2005
NPR knows HiWired
Marketplace weekend had a story called Happy Hi-Tech Holidays talking about various tech support choices. HiWired is mentioned. Our owner Michael is interviewed there. You can listen to the whole show here. Listen to our segment here. The podcast is available here for a fee.
Posted by Peter at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2005
MIT grads welcome
Another blog up in the Best Tech Blog catagory in the 2005 Webblog Awards is Lifehacker. In this article they show that our customer base for our Network Setup Offering is larger than I thought.
Posted by Peter at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2005
Feel free to nominate us
The 2005 Web Blog Awards are now accepting nominations.
If you think it sounds like I'm fishing for a nomination. Well Yeah!
There are several catagories that our blog would qualify under. Nominations are allowed till November 26, 2005. You have to be registered with Typekey to make a nomination. If you like the blog, we would be honored if you considered us.
I'm still not aware of any other company which has a blog where almost every employee from techs, to management, to supervisors, to marketing to ownership all blog in the same spot. To my knowledge it is not done anywhere else.
Now if only I could get the people who still haven't posted (and there are a bunch of them) posting. You know who you are!
Posted by Peter at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2005
Win $25,000 Home Theatre...Instantly
Be one of the first to play HiWired's Instant Win Game where you have the chance to win $25k Windows Media Center Home Theatre, iPod Nano, and many other prizes. Along the way, you can learn a little more about HiWired and help us with information for new products and services. To play the game click here or go to www.hiwired.com/instantwin.
Posted by troy at 02:38 PM | Comments (1)
June 27, 2005
Jeff Jarvis' Dell Hell continues
Jeff Jarvis' Dell Hell, which we noted here has progressed to the point where he is going to the apple store.
The nightmare every tech support person has is a person with many people listening declaring our
mistakes.
If Dell has any brains they will ship a replacement machine and make nice.
On a personal level as a lightfrog tech I am embrassed if I fail to solve a problem a but I would be ashamed to fail to deliver customer service.
Posted by Peter at 08:57 PM | Comments (2)
June 24, 2005
Shameless subscription plug
Data backups are a fact of life that most people (myself included) ignore whenever possible, we just don't want to bother with the disks, with the time, etc...
With the LightFrog Worry Free PC plan we set up automatic backups to our secure server. 10 gigs of backup for you and the best part is it comes WITH the subscription.
Even if you DO backups regularly this is an excellent alternative to cover yourself in case a disk burns poorly. One quick setup and you're set.
And that's only ONE PART of the Worry Free PC plan, follow the link above and see how LightFrog gives you more for your money.
We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.
Posted by Peter at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2005
Last chance for 1 month Free support
Remember today is the last day of our subscription special. Buy either our Silver or Gold Subscription and get one extra month (3 help sessions) of tech support free. ( A $35 or $50 value depending on the plan.)
Posted by Peter at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)