Sadly, most people still don’t have a backup solution. Even if you just copy your personal files to an external hard drive once per month, it would be better than nothing. The real problem is that most people still don’t understand data storage; it’s all just magic to most users.

In my experience, the best solution is a product that is easy to configure and does the job quietly in the background. It should have an indicator that it is working though, or disaster is still right around the corner.

When people ask what I use, I tell them about Acronis True Image Home. Not only do I use this product for my personal computers, but I have been using Acronis to image server hard drives and to upgrade desktop hard drives for years. Acronis backup, restore, and recovery products are so revolutionary that the top 2 hard drive manufacturers in the world offer their customers limited versions of Acronis disk cloning software when they purchase a new hard drive. It’s easy enough to use that almost any home user could replace their own hard drive.

With Acronis True Image Home, you can schedule your computer to do a full backup every night, automatically. I believe this is the best PC backup solution ever. With Acronis, you can do full image backups and restore your computer, even to a new hard drive. Your PC will magically boot up with all of your software installed and working just the way it was before the crash or accident. Another amazing accomplishment by Acronis is the ability to restore your existing operating system, software, settings, files, and configuration to a brand new computer. If you have ever tried this in the past, chances are you ran into the notorious blue screen of death. Not with the Acronis True Image Plus Pack. With the Plus Pack you can restore to dissimilar hardware, and it adds support for Windows Dynamic Disks too.

I know from personal experience that these products work as described and they cost less money than what some of you over-paid for your current antivirus, and your antivirus isn’t going to save you from hardware failure. Take my advice and purchase Acronis True Image Home TODAY!

DC=TAPI3Directory,DC=OurDomain,DC Microsoft TAPI Directory

The procedure to remove this directory was quite simple. First we open a command prompt and type TAPIcfg show.

This gives us the TAPI partition name which you should note is a fully qualified domain name.

Once you have that then you type:

TAPIcfg remove /directory:PartitionName /Server:PrimaryServerName

You might be able to leave the /Server parameter off but it didn’t work without it for us.

If you need to create a TAPI application directory partition you can reference this Microsoft page.

You can also type TAPIcfg help at a command prompt.

So it may seem a little odd that my cell phone has always been just a telephone to me. My motto for years has been “If it makes phone calls, that’s good enough for me.” I never texted, I never browsed the web from my phone, nor did I tweet or post to Facebook from my phone. Finally, I’ve realized the convenience of having a miniature computer to carry around in my pocket, and I made the jump to a smart phone about two weeks ago.

The Droid Incredible from HTC seemed to hit a good balance of specs, features, and cost, and when enough reviews told me that this is “the best Android phone on the market,” it’s hard to refuse.

So how is it?

While I never owned my own smartphone before, I have had some experience with a BlackBerry Curve, as well as an old Samsung Omnia (Windows Mobile). I immediately noticed that the Droid Incredible is more intuitive than either of the other smart phones I’ve used. The multi-touch screen of course trumps the trackball or trackpad on the BlackBerry any day, and the interface is much cleaner and easier to use than the old Windows Mobile UI, but of course, that’s not necessarily a fair comparison, as the Omnia is over two years old, and smart phones and their respective user interfaces have been developing at a breakneck pace.

Physically, the Incredible isn’t much to look at. It’s a slate phone with a large touch screen, and it’s black, but this sort of “blandness” actually works in its favor. There are plenty of other Android phones that have a rounded, almost bubbly look to them that sort of makes them look like toys, such as the LG Ally, Motorola Citrus, and Samsung Continuum. The Incredible isn’t trying to be flashy, and has a classier, higher-quality look for it. Still, there are a couple of interesting aesthetic choices made to the back of the phone, with its unusual three-tier backplate/battery cover and hint of red around the camera lens. Also, everything underneath the battery cover is colored a fiery red, which is sort of baffling; like getting a tattoo on your butt, no one is going to see it (unless you’re a plumber). Wait, did I say something before about being “classy”?

The Droid Incredible, as expected, comes pre-loaded with plenty of applications to serve the purposes you’re probably getting a smartphone for, like email, calendars, maps, Twitter, and Facebook, and plenty of other apps that I haven’t even looked through yet and probably won’t ever use. With a PC, I would normally want no software beyond the operating system and device drivers to be pre-loaded, but using applications on Android is a whole different animal from running programs on an OS like Windows. With the Incredible, and I assume all Android devices, you never manually close an application; instead, Android simply stops giving background applications CPU time, and automatically reallocates memory when necessary. This means that your most-used applications stay in memory and load faster when you return to them, but are completely unobtrusive when not currently in use, and that’s definitely a good thing, since you can’t uninstall any of the Verizon pre-loaded apps.

The Incredible gets a lot of flak for its battery life, which is highly dependent on how you use the phone. I’ve personally seen both ends of the spectrum; if you’re constantly using it all day, the battery could last as little as eight or ten hours; if it’s just sitting on your desk seeing absolute minimal use, you could get up to three days out of the battery. That’s right: the Droid Incredible has an 8 to 72 hour battery life. If you’re a really heavy phone user, a higher capacity battery is available at the expense of making your phone thicker. The phone only takes about two hours to fully charge with the AC charger (though it takes longer over USB) so you can pretty much get away with just charging it at any time.

The display shows bright and vibrant colors, and packs a lot of detail in with a resolution of 800×480 on a screen measuring 3.7″ diagonal. Touch control is nice and sensitive, though the touch keyboard can sometimes be a pain. When held upright, the keys are very narrow and easy to fat-finger, however, in almost all cases you can rotate the phone on its side and the display will rotate, giving you a wider keyboard. I actually like the wide touch keyboard better than the slide-out physical keyboards I’ve used on other phones, plus not having a physical keyboard keeps the phone’s footprint down.

What about using the phone as a phone?

You know, talking to people… with your vocal cords and mouth? Well, there’s not much to say; it works like a phone should. The address book/dialer leaves a little to be desired, though. The default screen for the dialer is a combined “recent calls” and contact list screen that shows contacts not just from your phone address book, but also your Facebook friends. If you have many Facebook friends who aren’t so much “friends” as “acquaintances” who have their phone numbers on their Facebook profile, it can be a little strange having all their phone numbers in your address book, particularly considering it only takes an errant tap on the screen to accidentally call that person you’ve never met who lives on the opposite end of the country. Maybe that’s just me.

Speed dial settings are a bit silly; you only have nine speed dial positions (1 through 9) that are accessed by hitting “Menu”, then “Speed Dial”, then selecting the contact. That’s right, you can’t open the phone and simply dial that speed dial number; you have to go to the Speed Dial menu and select the contact. It’s faster to just find your desired contact from the main screen. Oddly enough, I seem to have more complaints about the phone functionality of my phone than any other function, but it’s really not bad, and the smart dial function makes up for it, which allows you to easily find a contact just by beginning to dial either part of their phone number or part of their name.

Overall, I’m very happy with my Droid Incredible and I’ve definitely become a smartphone convert.

I knew I had this same issue a few years before but I could not find my notes on the fix so I had to contact Misys Manufacturing Support. Keep in mind that this version is no longer supported so they really didn’t need to help me, but they did because their support team is awesome.

Typically the problem is caused by not exiting Misys properly. This can happen if the program or computer stops responding or if the power goes out on a computer that is logged into Misys.

Here is the fix:

1. Make sure all Users are out of MISys and ACCPAC.

2. Go to the server and stop and start the Database engine (that should free up any locked resources). If you aren’t sure what database engine you are using you probably have no business trying this in the first place but you can accomplish this same task by restarting the database server.

3. After you restart the DB Engine you need to find the “Site” folder in the AccPac installation folder and delete the file named MI53UNIT.ISM.

Now you should be able to use all of your licensed users again.

I hope this helps someone but just like I told my client, you really need to upgrade MiSys to a supported version.

Problem: Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 came with your computer and you need to re-install it. The computer did not come with any disks to reinstall Office 2007.

A: You can get media directly from Microsoft at 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Backup Media

Here are some more options for downloading Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010 Product Installation files.

Download Office 2007 Retail Versions

Download Office 2007 MLK – This is the download for the medialess licensing kit versions of Office 2007.

Download Office 2010 Retail Versions

Download Office 2010 with a key card – The 2010 key card version was previously known as a medialess license kit or MLK for the 2007 version of Microsoft Office.

If you lost your disk you can order the Microsoft Office installtion CD or DVD. – order replacement media from Microsoft.

So what was the fix? Microsoft KB 903267

Apparently the issue is related to invalid node types.

I have to say I love Microsoft-Fix-It. Now Windows users with limited computer skills can fix registry issues without opening the registry.

Here are some of the search terms we tried that did not pan out:

• cannot access workgroup computers by name only ip address.
• cannot access computer network by name only ip
• cannot access computer network by name
• cannot ping computer name
• cannot browse computer by name

We hope this helps save you some time, let us know in the comments if it works for you.

It took me several more weeks of research, but soon it was decided. I would no longer be upgrading; I would be replacing. The advent of the new Intel LGA 1156 socket meant I would not be simply adding a processor and RAM, but also a new motherboard and a new power supply. When all was said and done, the only part remaining from my old computer was an ASUS DVD burner.

At first, I was planning to use the Core i5-661 for its 3.33 GHz clock speed, but when I realized I could save almost half on the Core i3-530 and only lose 400 MHz, it was a no-brainer. I was fine with the lesser speed, especially with the excellent overclocking capabilities of the Core i3-530.

I felt like I took a bit of a leap with the ASRock motherboard, RAIDMAX power supply, and G.SKILL memory. I had never used any of these brands before, but for the most part, the reviews for all were promising, and RAIDMAX and G.SKILL are rather well-known amongst gamers. (As a side note, customer reviews on practically any computer part will make you nervous.)

Finally, I had the build locked in and I placed the order.

Quick note: Up until the last moment, I had planned to use my old IN-WIN Z611T case for the new build, but ended up deciding to get a new case for better airflow and cooling right before placing the order. Only a day later did I realize I purchased a full size case and a micro ATX motherboard. Oops! Of course the micro ATX board will still work just fine in the full size case, it just feels like a missed opportunity.

The parts all came in one box (except for the case of course.)

I immediately opened up the Cooler Master Centurion to get to work. The case uses an easy to use screwless design, though the expansion slot snaps are rather flimsy. Optical and disk drives are held secure by sliding plastic clips.

The RAIDMAX power supply is modular, but just like my last experience with a modular PSU, I ended up using all but one of the cables. I do like that it has smaller “tails” protruding from the casing instead of sockets embedded in the side to attach the modular cables, making it easier to manage when already installed in the case.

The large 135mm fan has blue LEDs built into it if you’re into that sort of thing, and I will shamefully admit that the blue glow inside my computer is kind of nifty.

After getting the power supply and motherboard installed, I had a little laugh at the micro ATX board sitting in that big case, and also encountered a pretty large (though easily worked around) design flaw in the case; the front case fan cable is stupidly short. Stretched to its fullest, it was still a good inch and a half too short to reach the fan header and I was forced to use the included 3-pin fan power to 4-pin Molex power adapter and an entire extra modular power cable.

The rest of the build went smoothly, and I was pleasantly surprised by the video card’s clearance. A card of this size will block one of the 3.5″ bays, but there are four more available; more than enough for me.

After installing Windows 7 64-bit and getting drivers installed, I, of course, went straight for Crysis, which not only got a poor framerate on my old machine, but even with low graphics settings for higher framerates, it would be frustratingly jittery, presumably due to the dynamic loading of textures and models. None of this was to be seen anymore.

While I didn’t run a proper Crysis benchmark, the first two levels were pretty consistent mid-30s FPS (and no stuttering!) at 1680×1050 resolution, DX10 mode, all settings “very high”, no AA/AF. Perfectly playable.

For a proper benchmark through 3DMark 2006, a comparison between the two machines:

CPU: Intel Core i3-530 @ 2.93 GHz
Motherboard: ASRock H55M Pro
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1600 MHz
Video: XFX Radeon HD 4890
3DMark score: 14274

vs.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 2.33 GHz
Motherboard: Intel DG33BU
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM DDR2 667 MHz
Video: Foxconn Geforce 8800GTS 320 MB
3DMark score: 8757

That’s good enough for me!

When the original announcement trailer for StarCraft II started popping up on the internet one weekend back in May of 2007, I was giddy. I gathered up any information I could, which was limited at the time, and then spent the rest of the day playing StarCraft: Brood War in celebration.

I was never a big competitive player, mostly because I played with my brother and dad, and Battle.net didn’t work with multiple players on a single IP address, but after we played so much that the three of us were no longer challenged by five AI players, there was a stint during which we each had static IP addresses just so we could play on Battle.net and get a real challenge. This, as it turns out, is a fact that would later get me a spot at the launch of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty closed beta.

In September of 2009, I saw that Blizzard Entertainment was doing a contest through their StarCraft Twitter account: Tweet your reason that you are StarCraft’s biggest fan, and the 300 best answers would be selected to receive beta keys. So I, of course, tweeted that I loved StarCraft so much that we had static IP addresses so we could play together online.

Come October, I got a message that I had been selected. I’m sure I said the old “I’ve never won anything in my life!” bit. Of course, there was no word yet when the beta would actually open, but come February 17, 2010, it was upon us.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Closed Beta

The first thing I noticed as I jumped into my first game of StarCraft II was how much it felt like classic StarCraft while still being so new. I never got into Warcraft III simply because it was just so immensely different from previous installments in the Warcraft series, with its focus on smaller armies (even going so far as to penalize your income if you had too big an army) and “hero” units with RPG elements. This is certainly not the case with StarCraft II; while there was still plenty of new stuff to learn, I found it easy to draw on my experience in the first game to get me through.

Each of the three playable races has gotten an overhaul while still retaining the basic feelings that made them what they are. Units like the Terran Firebat and Protoss Reaver have been replaced entirely, while others like the Terran Ghost and Zerg Queen have gotten a complete makeover, making things fresh and interesting.

I’ve heard some remark that the game does nothing new, that it’s just “StarCraft with new graphics”, and that modern real-time strategy games like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes do so much to mix up the RTS format while StarCraft II is stuck in the past. Maybe StarCraft doesn’t do anything particularly innovative for the RTS industry, but there isn’t a game like it out now, and hasn’t been since, well, StarCraft: Brood War. There’s still plenty of room for the StarCraft format; just look at South Korea’s e-sports scene. Even so, StarCraft deserves a new coat of paint. The new graphics and particularly the new unit AI and pathfinding make the game much more comfortable to control. (Remember trying to fit Terran Goliaths or Protoss Dragoons up a ramp choke point?)

The beta version is limited to online multiplayer, as Blizzard Entertainment is remaining pretty secretive about details on the single player campaign until the full game is released. With the beta, you have the options to play unranked against random players, your friends, or computer AI (on the “very easy” difficulty setting only), or get into the ladder and play ranked 1v1 or 2v2 with people automatically matched to your skill level. 1v1 matchmaking seems to do a pretty good job, but 2v2 is almost always a tossup.

The StarCraft II beta is remarkably stable; moreso than many release titles these days. I get the occasional unexplainable performance drop that requires restarting the game to resolve, but I can count on one hand the number of times it has crashed, and that’s playing pretty much every day. My experience with PC games’ stability is less than stellar, such as the period when playing Team Fortress 2 that every time I equipped the Heavy’s primary weapon, the game crashed to the desktop, so when crashes and freezes are this rare, I can pretty much overlook it.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is fun and addictive, and impressively polished, even since the start of the beta. Some retailers like GameStop and Amazon.com are offering beta codes with a preorder, so you can get in on the action right now, before the July 27 release date. My life for Aiur!

It took several weeks of hemming, hawing, research, and shopping, but with a budget of $200, give or take, I finally decided that I would make the jump to an XFX Radeon HD 4890. This was an interesting choice for me, as I’ve never owned an XFX product before, and I had also forsaken ATI (or now AMD) video cards a few years ago when I had been forced to replace the stock cooler of a non-overclocked Radeon X700 due to overheating, and it still overheated on occasion. My mind was changed when I looked at the current landscape of the graphics adapter market and found that NVIDIA products are, in general, too expensive for what they offer; benchmarks showed that the Radeon HD 4890 generally outperformed the GeForce GTX260 in roughly the same price point, all the while NVIDIA’s better performers were simply outside my budget.

This is where the mistake was made. I purchased the video card (from Tiger Direct, who got it to me two days after the order was placed, and with free shipping to boot – nice!) and installed it, and soon realized that my CPU is disproportionate! While the framerate boost was noticeable, my aged Core 2 Duo is bottlenecking performance and leaves me only able to bump up some graphics settings in my games – not the kind of performance I could be getting out of this 4890.

Due to Intel’s new sockets for the new Core i3/i5/i7, the LGA 1156 and LGA 1366, I won’t just drop a new processor in my existing motherboard; I’d just be upgrading to an already outdated Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad. While I hadn’t been looking originally to begin a new build, this has been what it’s turned into: a new video card turned into a new CPU turned into a new motherboard turned into new RAM and a new power supply! All from wanting to move up to a 24-inch monitor, which is now on the back burner.

What can you learn from this? If your gaming computer is aging and you want to pep it up, don’t just upgrade your video card; your CPU will hold you back. If it’s not in your budget to do what it takes to upgrade both CPU and GPU, wait until it is! You’ll see a bigger performance improvement and be much more satisfied with your upgrade if you do it all at once.

So I run over to store.acer.com and the only parts are batteries and power adapters. Thanks Acer!

I must have done it wrong, let me try again. 800-816-2237 “I see you recently called us are you calling about the same system?” (yes) which are you calling about……” (respond sales then parts) “To purchase parts please visit us at store.acer.com GOODBYE” – CLICK!
OK, let’s try to trick the system, “I see you recently called us are you calling about the same system?” (No), “what are you calling about…”(respond sales and computers rather than parts) “sorry, we must be experiencing problems right now, try your call again later”

Time to hit www.eBay.com, 1-2-3, all done, keyboard on way from 3rd party vendor.

This is almost the same experience I had with Lenovo and why we don’t sell Lenovo G530 models any more. I opened a brand new Lenovo G530 and booted it up to start preparing it for a client and the Windows image was bad. It looked like maybe it had an issue with the Lenovo camera software. I call Lenovo and the non-support agent came to the same conclusion that it had a bad image and recommended that I run the restore disk. I informed her that I did that and it rebuilt the image with exactly the same issue. She replied that it must have been shipped with the wrong disks. I asked if she could send the right disks and she said no because I wasn’t the owner, I was just the reseller. I replied that I am acting on behalf of the owner and she replied that I can get an RMA and send it in to have it repaired. I told her that I could just send it back to the distributor and get a new one rather than wait for depot service (I just opened it after all) and she said that would be fine. I said but wouldn’t it be less expensive in the long run to just mail the correct disks? She said that wasn’t an option and have a nice day.

Sometimes I think I should just open a tire shop, better yet maybe a tree service.

I need some coffee! (Excuse me, Mr. Pink, but the last thing you need is another cup of coffee)