The assumed name “Nate’s Computer Services” was registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State in 2007.
Some have made mistakes about my name assuming it was just service and just computer repair. It does offend me when people say my business is the same as the “Geek Squad” or a “break fix” business because it has never been just that. Half of our business is back to being online.
Anyway the slogan for my business is “Nate’s Computer Services strives to make people’s technology experience better.” It has also been shortened for print purposes to “Striving to make your technology experience better.” It was influenced by the 4-H motto: “To make the best better.”
My logo was primarily derived from my personal logo from the Nate in the Nate Zone sign which I made and hung on my door when living south of Onamia about 1994. I added the computer around it since I seen computer monitor ads with photos showing inside the screen.
Another interesting thing “NatES” is the 1st 3 letters of my first name my middle initial is E and my last initial is S.
Shortly after the time I decided the business name, in 2006, I registered natescomputer.com for this web site. I later registered different variations of the name for typos and marketing purposes.
Others include the full business name natescomputerservices.com. Shorter variations include nate.biz and nates.us and nateservice.com .
One other thing to note. If you would take away the word computer from the name or technology from the slogan it would still fit the business. They are just added to be more descriptive. The focus is on services and to make the experience better.
Sometimes, you can trust major free email providers addresses, if they are personal friends. However, receiving business offers, or conducting business with these addresses should be avoided. Major free email providers include, but are not limited to – Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, Msn.com, Aol.com, and Gmail.com.
You should avoid doing any business with business people with these addresses, and business people shouldn’t use them. They are sometimes OK for a personal account.
Another downfall with these addresses is that the are stolen quite often, especially Yahoo, Hotmail, and MSN.
You should also avoid contacting people who send emails from one address and want you to send it to a different one.
Internet service provider (ISP) addresses are a little more reliable, and own domain addresses are even more reliable. However addresses can be spoofed, and businesses with a domain are not necessarily trustworthy.
You may also want to avoid businesses that only have social media pages and not a regular web site. Especially if you don’t know them and the business doesn’t have an actual location.
As far as offers (email, phone, mail, magazine, newspaper) go, you may want to avoid them entirely. There are legitimate offers of course, that may help you. Be careful.
Update: There may be some people that use free email addresses that are legitimate emailing. However if they are soliciting you, it is still probably best to ignore. There have been complaints to agencies that have been legitimate, using free email addresses, and that is somewhat different than the point I’m trying to make in this post.
Due to safety issues with driving and being in people’s homes we will be phasing out residential service.
Those that have an active service plan can still get in home service until the plan expires.
We will be focusing on online help and services.
We will still offer on-site help at businesses that are non-residential in Brainerd & Baxter.
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Outsourcing vs. Offshoring
Outsourcing: Outsourcing simply means having another company do work that is not done in house. For example a lawyer may outsource web site development to a web developer. This can be done in the same country, same state, or even same town.
Of course, when the media refers to outsourcing all that is mentioned is the out of country outsourcing , also called off-shoring.
I provide outsourcing to small businesses and once in a while large businesses through a contract or employment with another company, providing IT and web development services in the same state (both in the United States of America).
My business also uses some online outsourcing/partnering with businesses are based in the United States. Some of the companies have international operations.
Most companies do some outsourcing, since not everything can be done on their own.
This is just to clarify that there is a broader definition of the word outsourcing.
Although computer repair is not the primary focus of my business, I still get many calls in for it.
One problem that occurs frequently on computer notebooks that are not later Macintosh is that the power chord and power jack on the computer quit fitting together. Often times it is from misuse such as dropping or pulling the power chord too fast or shoving it in to hard. Sometimes it is not an easy fix. With Macintosh however it uses the Mag-safe connector which uses a magnet to latch on the power chord so it can easily separate if pulled and it stays in place if not pulled, so the problem rarely occurs.
I think it is a great advantage that doesn’t always get mentioned when people think about Apple Macintosh vs another notebook computer. Many times people just think of the software or the appearance of the hardware.
Another advantage for keeping stable is the metal enclosure along with the built in battery on most Macintosh now.
This also keeps the computer more stable when the computer is being moved around.
Even though it is more stable on Macintosh, with any computer, I strongly recommend avoiding dropping it. Keep it on a stable surface. Keep it away from young children and pets. Keep it out of dust including smoke. Supervise children when with computers.
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New Videos Jan 5 2011
Boundary Waters Video
North Star Helicopter Video
Boston Video:
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Cleaning Computer / Monitor
Sometimes computers and monitors need to be cleaned.
Always have equipment off when cleaning. Unplug if opening computer case.
For TVs and monitors, window cleaner or cleaners containing alcohol or ammonia CANNOT be used because it can remove the protective coding that protects your eyes. They can also damage the inner electronics if it seeps in.
It is best to use a microfiber cloth and a non-alcohol cleaner made for screens. Try using just the microfiber cloth first and if that doesn’t work spray some of the cleaner on the cloth.
For cleaning the computer surfaces (plastic or medal- not the actual electronic boards) I use some antistatic alcohol-free cleaning wipes. Sometimes cotton tips can be used to clean places hard get at.
For getting out dust several different methods can be used or a combination of them.
First Prevention: Keep your computer away from pets, out of dusty areas, do not smoke by the computer. Have the computer as high above the floor as possible.
Second Air duster can: Advatages: blows most of the dust away, portable
Disadvantages: Can be messy, can be expensive buying the cans a lot, breathing in is dangerous.
Third Vacuum: Advantages: cleans neater, less fumes, reusable
Disadvantages: not compact( unless you have a special mini vacuum), noisy, may not get rid of as much dust sometimes, may cause extra static if not used correctly.
Fourth Air compressor: Blows out all the dust, reusable
Disadvantages: peices may get blown into circuit boards, may be noisy, messy, may cause more dust to get in air making breathing dangerous
Back in 2008 & 2009 I sold 3 computers to get the one computer I have now.
The computer I use both at home and my business. It is mostly used for business, but some personal use as well. It’s a notebook (Apple Macbook pro 17 inch)
I have an external 24″ monitor (Apple LED Display) I use along with the built in display at home. I use a 19″ widescreen display at my business (Asus LED). both have built in audio. The 24″ display also has a charger, usb hub, microphone, and camera built in. So I use the charger that came with the computer at my business. I also have an external optical mouse both places because I am sometimes more comfortable with that than the track pad.
For TV if I really want to watch it, I hook up a USB tv tuner(Elgato Eye TV Hybrid).
Even though I have one main computer, I do have other computing devices. I have an iPod Touch which can browse the web, take photo/video, and run apps among other things. I also have an Android phone which can besides doing phone calls, browse the web, run apps, gps, take photo/video and more. I also use either my computer, phone or iPod instead of a watch.
I also have an stand alone gps navigation system, and fm radios in the car, home. And 3 dedicated cameras that can do both video and still – besides the other devices that have cameras.
For viewing photos – It can be done with my computer and monitor, my iPod, on the camera itself, with another person’s TV connected with a cable to my camera, my printer has a viewing screen, or on my phone. I also have a key chain photo viewer which I rarely use since my phone can perform that function better. So a digital photo frame is not necessary for me.
I use external hard drive for video storage and local backup.
In addition I use outsourced providers for doing online backup and web hosting.
So maybe I have one computer, maybe more depending how its counted.
2015 Update: I took a couple of computers of my customers hands, just in case they wouldn’t dispose of them properly since they no longer wanted the computers. I will be keeping one of them (iMac) and I also have a laptop now a macbook air. So I’ll have 2 PC(Macintosh computers) and plus a smartphone(my iPhone which is now also my iPod). I no longer have the iPod, dedicated gps, android phone, mouse, keychain photo viewer, car. Only 1 combination fm/radio/weather radio.
One of the most common mistakes people have with web browsers is typing a web address in the search bar. When I first was using web browsers it was the opposite problem that was more common: people typing in search terms as web addresses.
Either way people sometimes end up with the wrong web page.
The problem is made even more complicated by, most peoples home pages have a search engine, and also all the tool bars that end up on peoples browsers.
To deal with this problem some web browsers have address bar to the left and search bar to the right. Others have integrated search engine with the address bar.
Many people know the difference between search bar and address bar, however many do not.
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Turning off computer
Usually when discussed about turning off computer all that is discussed is power.
Here I discuss why you may want to turn off your computer.
- At night to get to sleep I have my computer scheduled to turn off so I’m less likely to use it at that time and so it doesn’t make noise nor be bothersome with light. That’s also a good reason to have computer or TV in a room other than the bedroom.
- Another reason to turn off a notebook / laptop / netbook (portable) is so you don’t damage parts like hard drive or overheat when transporting.
- To repair, maintain, or upgrade internal components on a computer (it should also be unplugged and if portable the battery may need to be removed)
- It can make the log in password appear at start up.
- if you have malware /trojen it may stop your computer from doing further damage.
- Of course it will save power too (if you don’t turn it back on again all the time).
On the other hand…
- If your computer doesn’t bother your sleep it may not be necessary to have it shut down.
- It can sometimes be hard on hardware the more you shut off and turn back on.
- Sometimes just putting laptops to sleep may be OK for transporting. Solid State Disk drives or flash memory can greatly reduce hard drive problems with moving (but can be expensive)
- You should probably have your computer go to a login screen automatically after a period of time or just log out.
- There other power reducing options.
I usually have my computer turned off after a while at night, so now you know what I do.
–Nate
see also http://www.natesservices.com/2010/05/08/power-saving-tips/