**** Change in Services Offered ****

Due to the ongoing Coronavirus situation, services which I offer will only be conducted remotely via Team viewer.

Teamviewer is a remote desktop sharing platform that allows desktop sharing.

Services are limited with remote desktop sharing

The following services are offered as long as the computer can connect to a network (wired or wireless)

*Virus/Spyware removal 
(As long as the Virus/Trojan allows network connectivity)
*Data backup and resolutions
*Software install and upgrades
*Consultation and Training

How Motherboards Are Made

Ever wonder how all the motherboard components of your PC are put together? 

How the resistors, capacitors, Mosfet, and processor are placed on the mobo?

Back in the 80's everything was done by hand. Now it's all done by automated SMT lines; Surface Mount Technology machines. It starts by placing the smallest components first, then to the larger components.

Gamers Nexus toured Gigabyte's Taiwan SMT lines and factory to show how motherboards and video cards are made from start to finish.

Video Courtesy Of Gamers Nexus

Tech History: Suzanne Vega, a song, and how MP3 was invented

Back in 1982 Suzanne Vega wrote a song called "Tom's Diner"... yes, the famous one remixed by DNA with the heavy bass line, dance beat, and synth horns, but the original was an a cappella song.

By 1984 it had been released on an obscure folk compilation, and didn't appear on Vega's studio albums until 1987's Solitude Standing.

Yet, the catchy tune has made Vega the "Mother of the MP3".

How's that you wonder? Well... read on.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

In 1988, German audio engineer Karl-Heinz Brandenburg and his team were working developing an audio compression scheme.

The compression works on the basis of "masking" - what we hear, what we don't hear — that sometimes when hear something it's masked by other sounds. 

Think having a cello and violin side by side with the cello in the foreground.
Those 'other' sounds are removed from the file making the file smaller and thereby compressing it. 

It was during a series of compression algorithm tests when Dr. Brandenburg heard "Toms Diner'(Vegas original version) playing on the radio down the hall near his office.

Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner-Original Version

Brandenburg used Vega's a cappella version of "Tom's Diner" to fine tune the compression system, playing the track before and after compression was applied to tell whether the song sounded good enough. He figured Vega's song would be a tough track to compress and would be a good test for whether the compressed version was really listenable.

That was in 1988, and it took Dr. Brandenburg and his team another 5 years of trial and error before they were finally satisfied with the sound quality of the song. 
Compression still removed a significant portion of the data, but the difference was undetected by audio experts.

So, in 1993 Dr Brandenburg and his colleagues submitted the compression system to the Motion Picture Experts Group (That's the group that sets the standard for audio and video compression) and MPEG Audio Layer III was born.

How To: Disable Googles Ad Personalization tracking

You're browsing a web page and suddenly on the right side an ad appears for razors. And yet, you just picked on a pack at the store a few days ago. 

True.... you were looking at ordering online at Harrys and Dollar Shave Club but decided on buying a pack locally.

But why are you seeing an advertisement on what you were looking at a few days ago? Is Google reading your mind?

It's called 'Ad Tracking' and, long story short, Google keeps track of your browsing habits very closely.
And this is all for marketing purposes. 

Don't want Google snooping into your browsing habits? Here's how you can disable it. All it takes is one click of the mouse and 'Ad Tracking' is disabled.

1. On your browser log into your Google account if your not already logged in.

2. In the address bar type in https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated

(Note: if you click 'More Options', you'll get a check box allowing Google to use your browsing activity to personalize ads on websites. It's easier just to turn off Ad Personalization altogether)

3. Click the switch to turn off Ad Personalization.

When you turn off Ad Personalization, you'll get a pop-up window essentially asking if you're sure you really want to do this?

Click 'Turn Off'


And that's it. 

Turning off Ad Personalization gives a certain level of privacy knowing that Google isn't keeping track of your browsing activities. 

Tech News: Microsoft's latest Windows update was apparently deleting files

Microsoft has had to issue a major warning to all Windows 10 users.

The last update was deleting files.

With update KB4532693 a serious issue was detected with a small group of Windows 10 users, but it's serious involving the loss of some user data such as the desktop and personal files. First off, it’s important to understand that this is simply based on a small but a growing number of user reports.

When it was released on Microsofts "Patch Tuesday", the Windows 10 KB4532693 security update was found to revert certain system settings to their defaults and also removes files from the desktop. 

Restoring some files
For many users, Windows 10 has renamed main user profile folder and files can be restored from C:\Users profile folder ending in .000 or .bak name, with new reports of user data being deleted. 

The update has now been pulled from Microsofts update page and is no longer available.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4524244/security-update-for-windows-10-february-11-2020