CST News

Our big news for the month is Dave’s departure. Dave has landed a new job in Dunedin after eighteen months with us. Sue and I would like to thank Dave for his time with us – we wish it could have been longer. We wish him all the best for his exciting new job in Dunedin.

Sue and I took the opportunity to have a couple of days off last weekend in Christchurch with family. Do not let anyone tell you it is colder here that Christchurch!! The easterly wind was bitter. However it was good to catch up with family.

While we were there we went out to Spencer Park to see some of the places I remember as a kid. We found this amazing adventure park called Adrenalin Forest. This is a confidence course like the Tautuku Confidence Course on steroids. If I was about 30 years younger I would love to give parts of it a go.

Have a look at it here.

Winter is certainly here with extra chilly mornings and frozen windscreens on occasions. I guess the good thing is that the cold will be killing the bugs in the garden and we do not have to mow lawns every weekend. Our weather might be colder than Auckland but at least we do not get the wet stuff that they have had recently.

Take care with the callers purporting to be from Microsoft again – they are persisting with their scamming. A possible action if you get called is to ask them to hold the line while you get the owner and then just leave the phone for 15 – 20 minutes.

Another “Take Care”. We hear lots of stories of people buying IT gear over Trade Me and having problems. Problems range from not the goods they thought they were buying to goods arriving but not working. I guess there are lots of positive deals too – we only hear about the ones that do not go right. But take care.

 

Windows 7 Support

Some of our customers may have seen recently that Microsoft will be withdrawing mainstream support for Windows 7. This is no more than a media beatup and should not cause any worry for our customers.

It is worth however mentioning the process that Microsoft uses for support for its products.

The company normally supports its operating systems for a minimum of 10 years, with a minimum of five years for its ‘mainstream’ support – or for two years after its successor is released (in this case, Windows 8). Another minimum of five years (or an additional two years after its successor is released) in something Microsoft calls extended support.

During the first few years with mainstream support, Microsoft offers security updates, non-security hot-fixes, performance enhancements, feature improvements and design changes, all for free, as well as still accepting warranty claims. Once this mainstream support has passed, and it is entering extended support, the company only provides security updates, and paid hotfix support.

What this all means in simple English is that Microsoft will continue to provide security patches for Windows 7 right through until January 2020. They will simply not be providing program improvements from next year for Windows 7 – no really big deal.

 

Funny Face

 

Copy and Paste

Format with a click

“Copy and paste” has become such a natural part of our computer usage that our fingers almost complete the task without our brains even thinking about it.

Until you want to copy and paste a big chunk of text from a website, and the moment you click paste nothing happens – that is, until you realise that your computer has frozen. That happens, because Word is trying to paste all the text you copied in its original formatting, which may overload the clipboard function.

Here’s how to avoid that from ever happening again: when you right click on your mouse to paste, look for the different paste options in the pop-up icon. Always select “Keep Text Only” or “Paste as Plain Text”. If you don’t have that option, open up the file menu and select “Options”. There you can change your pasting options in the “Advanced” tab.

Not only does it save your computer the headache of translating different formats, it also automatically puts the text into the format of the document you’re pasting into. So this saves time, stops your computer from freezing and allows copying and pasting to go back to being a no-brainer.

 

Don’t Mess With Seniors

Thank you for this Joyce.

We went to breakfast at a restaurant where the ‘seniors’ special’ was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $2.99.

‘Sounds good,’ my wife said. ‘But I don’t want the eggs.’

‘Then, I’ll have to charge you $3.49 because you’re ordering a la carte,’ the waitress warned her.

‘You mean I’d have to pay for not taking the eggs?’ my wife asked incredulously..

‘YES!’ stated the waitress.

‘I’ll take the special then,’ my wife said..

‘How do you want your eggs?’ the waitress asked.

‘Raw and in the shell,’ my wife replied. She took the two eggs home and baked a cake.

DON’T MESS WITH SENIORS!!!  WE’VE been around the block more than once!

 

Christchurch Pic

This somehow seemed appropriate after our trip to Christchurch. Has this been caused by an earthquake or a demented idiot with a four inch paintbrush (or was it done in Photoshop?).

 

Death Defying Photos

I seem to be on a roll with things to do with height after the Adrenaline Forest link above but these pictures really blow me away – my head for heights is gone now but even in my younger days, I would not have been this brave.

 

For Sale

I have for sale a second hand tablet. This belongs to CST and was used by one of the staff in Dunedin. As with all computer geeks, there was nothing wrong with it – he just thought it time for a new one.

Asus TF101 Tablet

• Android 4.03 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 1 GB memory
• 16 GB storage
• Wireless
• Bluetooth
• 1.2 MP front camera
• 5 MP back camera
• Audio jack, mini HDMI, micro SD
• 9.5 hour battery life
• Protective case

If you would like to try out a tablet, this is an easy and inexpensive way to have a go. Original cost about $750. We would sell for $450.00 ono.

 

Windows XP Runout Goodies  

We have seen a few old computers as we have worked through the XP runout process with customers. However the one below is probably the oldest and the hardest worked. It is just a shade under 10 years old and was still working fine – even if one of the fans was a bit noisy. It is also pretty obvious it has not been mollycoddled but it surely bears witness to the reliability of the PCs we sell.