CST News
You will meet a new face when you come in to CST or hear a new voice on the end of the phone. We welcome Kelly Horton to CST as our new office administrator/receptionist/telephonist and general master of everything. Kelly is a “local girl” so will be familiar to lots of our customers. Kelly will be on a steep learning curve but we are sure she will get the support of our customers while she learns the ropes. Kelly also brings some new skills to the business in the way of design and layout. So if we can help in this area with a project you have on, do not be afraid to ask.
We would like to thank Wendy for her year with us. She has coped with everything we have thrown at her over the last year in an admirable manner. We wish her well in the future.
Our last office receptionists have been Wendy, Kelly, Wendy and now Kelly again. What are the odds of that happening?
The small competition last month was the photo to identify. For those who did not recognise it, the photo was taken from the top of Mitre Peak looking back at Milford. So often we see this from Milford looking up at Mitre Peak that I just thought that this was a bit different. I drew a name out of the hat and Kris was the lucky person. We have given her a small gift for her trouble.
We continue to be busy. Dave and Blake seem to be busy with repairs and new system installations and setups and sales keep me busy. I guess we can always do with another repair or another sale, but the picture is positive.
Data Backup
Dave recently passed a couple of comments which I thought bear repeating. We were having a casual conversation as he was working and he made the statement:
“There is no such thing as data insurance and there is no warranty for data.”
These statements are so true!! Yet every week we see people who have not got important stuff backed up. This may be business data or photos of children or grandchildren or whatever else is important to you. Some stuff is easy to get back – the music you have off the net can easily be downloaded again, the programs you run such as Minda or Cash Manager or Word are easy to replace but the data is almost impossible. We can sometimes get data back but sometimes it must be sent away to specialist forensic data retrieval people. Their cost is normally really high.
The solution is obvious and easy. If you only have a small amount of data to back up, use a memory stick. If you have more data to back up, use a portable hard drive.
We can load on some free software for you which will help you with the backup and ensure you get it right but for the cost of a portable hard drive, the insurance is cheap!!!
In the run up to Christmas, we will even reduce the cost of portable hard drives by 10%. What could be better than that?
A – Z of Fear
| Acrophobia | Fear of heights |
| Aerophobia | Fear of flying |
| Agoraphobia | Fear of public space |
| Ailurophobia | Fear of cats |
| Amathophobia | Fear of dust |
| Arachnophobia | Fear of spiders |
| Astrapophobia | Fear of lightning |
| Claustrophobia | Fear of closed-in spaces |
| Emetophobia | Fear of vomiting |
| Ereuthophobia | Fear of blushing |
| Haematophobia | Fear of blood |
| Keraunophobia | Fear of thunder |
| Microphobia | Fear of germs or small things |
| Mysophobia | Fear of dirt |
| Nyctophobia | Fear of the dark |
| Ochlophobia | Fear of crowds |
| Ornithophobia | Fear of birds |
| Pathophobia | Fear of disease |
| Pnigophobia | Fear of choking |
| Pteronophobia | Fear of feathers |
| Pyrophobia | Fear of feathers |
| Triskaedekaphobia | Fear of the number thirteen |
| Xenophobia | Fear of strangers |
| Zoophobia | Fear of animals |
Windows Scam Merchants
Just another warning to beware of the scam artists purporting to want to “fix your computer”. They seem to be doing the rounds again. We have had one customer taken for $400 and another for $300. Fortunately in both cases, the bank has reversed the credit card transaction. However, it is easier not to fall for their line, no matter how plausible they sound. If you wish to be really unpleasant, tell them to go to a place other than Balclutha in a very loud voice, or you can tell them you do not have a computer or you can tell them politely that you have your own computer repair people and they will sort out the problem.
- DO NOT BE SWAYED BY THEIR ARGUMENTS.
- DO NOT LET THEM INTO YOUR COMPUTER
- DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER
Friday Off-Cuts – the Wood News Magazine
I do not normally spend a lot of time on the new browsing wood news magazines. However, Kelly (our previous receptionist) sent this address to have a look at. There is some really interesting stuff here! However, what Kelly sent it for is the firewood stacking pictures at the bottom of the page. Scroll pretty much to the bottom of the page to see some amazing wood stacks.
Thanks Kelly – really great.
http://www.fridayoffcuts.com/index.cfm?id=548
This reminds me of a stack we saw recently in Te Anau.
Good Use For iPads
I said to my wife, ‘Get me a newspaper”
“Don’t be silly,” she said “You can borrow my iPad”
That spider really never knew what hit it.
Power Line and Tree
Seeing we seem to be on a tree theme this month, I thought this was a fun pic.
Reminds me of Norm from Yrless cutting trees to get a signal from one one of their transmitters!
New Product
We have a new model Canon printer for sale in the shop – at a giveaway price!
Canon MG2460
Print, Scan and Copy
Black cartridge 400 pages $38.99
Colour cartridge 300 pages $44.99
This entry level multifunction printer retails for only $59.00.
Remote Support
We can now offer remote support to a number of customers. This means that we can fix a number of problems from here. You will need to be able to get onto the net and follow a few instructions to let Blake or Dave into your computer. After you have let them in, you will be able to see them doing stuff on your computer.
When they have finished they will break the connection into your computer and then not be able to get in again.
Because we are paying good money to buy the best software to do this, we will be putting a small charge on any remote support connection we do as well as the time spent.
Second Hand Stuff
We have a bit of second hand IT stuff in the shop at present:
| Canon laser printer/scanner/copier | $300.00 |
| Lenovo Thinkpad T60 laptop | $399.00 |
| Dell E4300 laptop | $525.00 |
| HP DC7900 computer with Vista | $495.00 |
| HP DC7900 computer with Win 7 | $595.00 |
| Dell GX750 computer with printer | $250.00 |
| Acer 19” widescreen LCD | $125.00 |
If any of these interest you, give us a call.