Taking care of your computer is a lot like taking care of yourself.

Human Version: Do you exercise regularly, avoiding unhealthy activities?
Computer Version: Do you surf regularly, avoiding naughty websites?

Human Version: Do you have a healthy diet to give your body fuel and energy?
Computer Version: Do you have enough RAM for your operating system and all of the programs you run everyday?

Human Version: Do you visit the doctor on a regular basis for a physical?
Computer Version: Do you check your system for spyware and use an anti virus program?

Human Version: Do you have a good neurologist on call if your brain suddenly stopped working?
Computer Version: If your computer’s brain (also known as the hard drive) stopped working, would you know which data recovery resources you needed to get going again?

See all of the similarities? Just like humans need to take care of their hard drives (brains), we need to take care of our computer’s hard drive. Who would you call if your hard drive took a dump and you lost access to your documents, files, pictures, and who knows what else? Would you go to a fly by night operation that gave you an estimate for a low rate, but then pulled a switcheroo when the hard drive was fixed? Of course not - that’s like going to a quack doctor. A hard drive repair company like DTI Data offers free upfront flat rate price quites on ALL hard drive recovery. If they don’t recover your data, you don’t pay. Apparently DTI is a favorite of not only geeks, but real people too - like Matt Geiger. (That’s of special interest to me, since Matt has a house in my hometown of Tarpon Springs, Florida!)

Not only does DTI Data offer fair pricing and great guarantees, but they sell software developed in house AND they’re one of the few data recovery companies in the US with their own class 100 clean room. (A clean room is a controlled environment for product manufacturing, and the concentration of airborne particles in the room is restricted. A class 100 room means that no more than 100 particles are allowed in a cubic foot of air. The end result is that hard drive recovery performed by DTI Data Recovery in said clean room is authorized by all major hard drive disk manufacturers.)

DTI has also adjusted to new technology, which is why they’re also offering iPhone data recovery under the same no data no charge guarantee offered on a regular hard drive!

I’m sitting in my second day of sessions at IzeaFest, listening to Merlin Mann speak. I hadn’t heard of him prior to coming to the conference, but…wow. He’s amazing. Not only has he completely captivated the audience, but he’s got great advice, including:

Have an obsession.
Share it daily with one person.
Don’t be a dick.
Don’t sweat SEO, traffic, or ads.

(I think he’s channeling Jim Rome - “Have a take, and don’t suck.”)

Merlin also won my heart when he used the word “testicles” and the phrase “lesbians who crochet” into his speech.

A few months ago, I replaced my aging IBM laptop with a brand new Toshiba model. Having done a fair share of complaining about Vista after using it on another PC, I actually attempted to buy a laptop without Vista - I thought it was THAT bad! After realizing that a custom build laptop would cost me twice as many clams, I gave it up and gave into Vista. I have to admit, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I haven’t had any of the compatibility issues that I’ve heard others reporting, and if anything, Vista and the way it works to organize things has made my life easier. So yes, I’m willing to take back all of the negative press I gave Vista…but it IS a Microsoft product, so we all know there’s still room for error.

On any given day, there are a multitude of things that can go wrong with your PC. It won’t boot up, it’s slow to shut down, you get system errors, or worse - the blue screen of death. Just this Thursday at work I turned on the laptop we use for training development, and I couldn’t get it to open Excel. I couldn’t access the content on my flash drive. I rebooted it FOUR times and still couldn’t get anywhere. What’s a girl to do? At work I have an IT team to turn to, but at home or if you’re a small business without an IT department…you’re on your own - but you don’t have to be! Did you know there’s a Windows Vista Small Business Assurance and customer service team? They offer free Vista support for small business customers, so you can work through common PC issues or just find out how to make Vista work better for your needs and goals. The team is available Monday through Friday, from 10-7 Pacific time, so it’s just like having your own IT team…and they’re only a phone call away.

I’m sitting in a room with Jeremy Shoemaker (”Shoemoney”) and John Chow right now. Thank you, IzeaFest, for giving us the opportunity to learn from bloggers of this money making caliber! I’m happy to report that John doesn’t come across as pompous and full of himself as he does online. Jeremy has shorts on, which is a bit weird since I expect a business casual dress in a conference like this. Stephanie Agresta is sitting next to him and she has the most amazing shoes on - I want them.

Tell me about your web host…

If you asked 100 people about web hosting, would your host’s name be mentioned? If they were rated on a scale of 1 to 100, where would your host fall in that web hosting rating? Does your host offer you extra services for free, like shopping cards, message boards, and fun PHP installs? Are they available for support 24/7, or does it take days to get help? Has the company that you’re hosting your blogs and websites with won any web hosting awards?

Years ago, when I first got online and bought a domain, I hosted with a company I found online called “Need A Dot Com?” Their website was needaDOTcom (not linking since it’s been years since I worked with them!) and we thought it was cute enough that we started paying them $25 a month for services. Yes, $25 a MONTH to host a rinky dink website created with Front Page…and man oh man, didn’t I think I was big time! Back then (do I sound 80 years old, or what?) web hosts were few and far between…well, compared to the options you’ve got today. You were limited to certain things and didn’t have much freedom in what you could do. Times sure have changed!

Now, web hosting companies are a dime a dozen. Anyone with a server and time to spare slaps up a site and says he’s a web host. When you put your domain, your files, and your work in someone else’s hands…how do you know your in good hands? WebHostingRating.com is a new host rating site with a goal…to build the biggest search-able web hosting directory around. The end result will be a Wikipedia of sorts…for web hosts! Review plans, promotional offers, discounts and coupons, and real reviews by REAL customers. The site also offers web hosting tutorials for those of you just starting out with a site or a blog, and you’ll pick up helpful tips on how to monetize your blog, dedicated hosting, and features available from your web host. This quick read on cPanel is a great resource for people who have always wondered what all of those options in your web hosting control panel do!

The next time you’re in the market for a web host be sure to check this resource out!

Remember my mini-rant about my Adobe Professional 9 not playing nice with my Word doc forms? The folks over at Adobe must be using Google alerts to keep tabs on their customers, because I got 2 comments from Adobe employees on that post and several emails. The team took the time to investigate my issue and even fixed one of the forms I couldn’t get to work. It turns out, the issue was unrelated to Adobe and probably caused by a hidden field in the Word doc I was converting.

Two observations:

• Blogging can get you attention, good and bad. In this case, it was good, and I was able to get my problem with Adobe fixed.
• Adobe goes the extra mile to make sure customers are satisfied. Instead of telling me how I could fix the problem, one of their people created my forms from scratch to make sure the suggested fix would work, and then emailed me a copy.

It goes without saying that I’m one happy Adobe customer right now!