Michael J Smith

Computer Stuff

Check out how to make apps for android ~ http://developer.android.com/guide/index.html

I highly recommend checking out Asus laptops! Well worth the money.

Helpful Tips

Take it one step at a time~
Throughout my career in IT, I get asked to help someone with their home computer. (As do all IT professionals) The one thing to keep in mind when troubleshooting problems is to take it one step at a time and do the simple things first. There are some simple things that you can do to help your computer run the way its supposed to. Here are just a few things:
1. Keep your antivirus up to date. Update your antivirus as often as you can. You don't have to always buy the expensive Norton or other name brands. AVG is a very good antivirus and is one that I use on all my windows computers at home. And it's FREE.
2. Keep your drive clean! Take a look at how much free space you have on your C:\ drive. If you have less that 1 GB, its time to archive your files. You can pick up a flash drive from Walmart or Target pretty cheap. If your computer has a DVD/CD burner, you can burn them to the disk and store them somewhere else. Archiving your important data is always a good idea. If your computer crashes and you haven't saved your documents somewhere else off of your computer, you just lost all of your data. SAVE OFTEN!
3. Go to a store like Office Depot or Walmart and get a can of compressed air. Turn your computer off and blow out the vents to your computer. If your computer can't breathe, it can't operate and you are cutting the life of your computer in half at best. Most of the time, people put their computer on the floor where dust collects and the dust will start to collect on the vents and the fans will not run as well. This is a cheap solution to keeping your computer running well. You can also take the side off of the computer and blow out the dust from the inside.
4. Sometimes you do actually need an upgrade. If you've done all of the above and its still running slow, you can do some things to help out that aren't that expensive. Adding RAM is fairly cheap and easy to do. A larger hard drive can sometimes help if you need to add an application and don't have enough space. If you don't feel comfortable adding these upgrades, its best to take it to someone who knows what they are doing. Make sure you check around at the prices and the warranty of the work they are doing. Geek squad may be convienient, but not always the cheapest or best route. Most of the time there is a small business who will do the same work for cheaper and offer a better deal.