professional geeks for hire

Its been a while since I’ve updated this blog and its a real shame because I think I get more traffic on this blog than any other website I have.  Let me bring you up to speed on some recent projects.  I created a new website for my photography business.  You can check it out at www.jonphillipsphoto.com.  That’s the official studio website/blog but I also have my personal blog at www.jonphillips.net.  There, you can find out about some of the behind the scenes/geeky photography stuff I’m doing.  For example, my latest post is called Tomato Strobist, where I tried to recreate a shot that David Hobby did on strobist.com.  You can check it out if you want to see what that’s all about.  

Photography is keeping me busy and if you’re reading this and want to know more about it, check out the site.  If you’re interested in getting a free 8×10 print, sign up for my photography newsletter HERE.

Apple Mail

I can’t stress enough the importance of backing up.  If I asked you today, “When’s the last time you backed up?”  Can you tell me?  Have you ever backed up?  Well, let’s start with the basics.  The following tip is for those who own Macs and use Apple Mail.  You may be a long time Apple user or maybe you a new member of the cult of Mac.  Whichever you are, this a basic tip on how to manually back up your Apple Mail messages and To back up your preferences:

1.Get a USB thumb drive, external hard drive, or maybe even a burnable disc.  Create a  folder on your external device. For example, you might call it “Mail Prefs Backups 2_16_09″
2.Quit Mail.
3.In the Finder choose Home from the Go menu.
4.Open the Library folder.
5.Open the Preferences folder.
6.Copy the “com.apple.mail.plist” file to the folder you made in step 1.  You can either copy & paste, or “option-drag” it over to the folder. Remember, don’t move the original files, just copy them.
7.Close the Preferences folder.
8.Open the Mail folder.
9.Copy the “MessageRules.plist” file.
10.Copy the “SmartMailboxes.plist” file.
11.Finally, copy the Signatures folder.

To restore:
Move all copies of the files and folders to the original locations from which they came, as listed above.

How to manually back up Mail messages:

1.Quit Mail.
2.From the Finder’s Go menu, choose Home.
3.Open the Library folder.
4.Copy the folder “Mail” to your backup location. Again, you can use an external hard drive or burnable disc.  And remember, don’t move your files, copy them.

You can restore backed-up mailboxes at any time by quitting Mail and moving the copies back to their original locations just like the previous example.

Another tip:  There are ways of automatically backing up things such as your email with MobileMe or a program like SuperDuper. It’s always a good idea to know how to manually do these things.

This little trick came in handy recently.  I had to get access to the backup program on a server to verify what was getting backed up, the status of the jobs, etc.  I had access to the server put no one knew the password to log in the backup program.  After a few minutes of googling I found this and it worked like a charm:

1. Open a command prompt on the server where you want to change/reset the caroot password.
2. In the command prompt browse to the drive where you have ARCServe installed (e.g. C:\Program Files\CA\…)
3. Once in the ARCServe folder type in the following: cstop
4. This will stop the ARCServe services that are running.
5. When all services are stopped open the Windows Explorer and browse to the folder:
C:\Program Files\CA\BrightStor ARCserve Backup\Data\Discovery
Here you will find a folder that has the name of your server.
6. Rename this folder.
7. Back in the command prompt type in the following: cstart
8. This will start the ARCServe services that were stopped in item 4.
9. Still in the command prompt type in the following:
Authsetup/p “password” where “password” is what you want the new password to be.
10. Close the command prompt and try to open ARCServe with the new password.

Over time, your PC can become sluggish and start to slow down.  Reasons for this include: temporary files from browsing the Web, viruses, spyware, registry errors, browser toolbars, programs that automatically start up when your PC is turned on.  Luckily, there are some free programs that do a good job of cleaning up your PC.

1. CCleaner
CCleaner is one of the most versatile tools I have at my disposal.  CCleaner will analyze your system and run the equivalent of a “disk cleanup,” which deletes temp files and files in your recycle bin.  These files accumulate over time and need to be cleaned out.  CCleaner also can fix registry errors.  I always do a backup of the registry before I run this.  The program will ask you before you to a registry scan whether or not you want to save a backup.  It can also be used to check which programs run on startup.  This can be done alternatively through MSConfig, which is a built-in Windows program, but CCleaner is much more simpler.  You’ll want to minimize how many programs that run automatically on start up.

2. Malwarebytes Anti-malware
The next thing to do is run a virus scan.  I prefer Malwarebytes but another very good program is SuperAntiSpyware.  I know it has a funny name, but it does a good job.  These 2 programs will scan your system for viruses, trojans, and spyware.  Spyware can really slow down your computer so its important to run a scan regularly.  Have you heard of the infamous Antivirus 2009 virus?  Its a rogue anti-spyware program that tries to scare you into buying their antivirus program and can be very frustrating to get rid off.  There are several different variants of this particular virus and each one has its quirks.  But Malwarebytes Anti-malware will get rid of it every time.  Here’s another tip:  when you have a virus that continues to regenerate itself and keeps coming back, turn off System Restore, then run a scan and reboot.  Those particular viruses will hide themselves in System Restore.

3. Auslogics Disk Defrag
Windows  has its own built in defrag application but I have found that Auslogics runs much faster.  And to be honest, running a disk defrag only needs to be done once or twice a year.  Its not something that needs to be done very often.

These are just a couple of programs that I personally use and have found to help me out when trying to clean up an old system.  Another thing that I do is check the installed programs.  It will also help to do an inventory of your system and see if there are some programs you can uninstall.  Uninstall any browser toolbars that you have but don’t use.  They can also affect the speed of your browsing.  User behavior is the biggest factor in how a system behaves.  Be careful about the websites you browse to, do not click on links in email or download attachments.  This will minimize the potential for getting spyware and viruses on your system.