Home and Family Services
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Jan 27, 2011
Today PCS is happy to announce that all remote, on-site and in-house computer service pricing for Home and Family users has been lowered to $90 per hour.
Whether you are employed with one of our SMB clients or were referred to us by a friend, PCS is extending its service offerings to all users who have home PCs and/or Macintosh home systems.
If you would like to take advantage of this new offer, please click on the Chat icon on the right-hand side of our web site to start up a chat. You can also use our Contact Form or give us a call at 615.371.9931.
We’re ready to help!
Section 179 Deductions
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Dec 20, 2010
Did you know that Section 179 of the IRS tax code allows businesses to deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment purchased or financed during a tax year?
What this means is that if you buy (or lease) a piece of qualifying equpiment, you can deduct the FULL PURCHASE PRICE from your gross income. It’s an incentive created by the US Government to encourage businesses to buy equipment and invest in themselves.
For your business to qualify for this deduction, the below equipment must be purchased and put into use between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010:
- Equipment (machines, etc) purchased for business use
- Tangible personal property used in business
- Business Vehicles with a gross vehicle weight in excess of 6,000 lbs (Section 179 vehicle deductions)
- Computers
- Computer Software ( “off-the-shelf” software)
- Office Furniture
- Office Equipment
- Property attached to your building that is not a structural component of the building (i.e.: a printing press, large manufacturing tools and equipment)
- Partial Business Use (equipment that is purchased for business use and personal use – generally, your deduction will be based on the percentage of time you use the equipment for business purposes.)
If your business can benefit from this deduction and there are possible tech purchases that you’ve been putting off, now may be the time to invest in your business. If PCS can assist in any way, please drop us a line – we’re ready to help.
AVG Free 2011 Update Problem
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Dec 3, 2010
This week’s mandatory update of AVG 2011 Free Edition has caused most 64-bit Windows 7 PCs to fail while loading Windows. AVG posted a FAQ with instructions on how to repair the problem using a boot CD or USB device.
If you have been affected by this issue and need assistance, please give us a call at 615.371.9931 option 1 or use our Contact Form. We’re ready to help.
Thanksgiving 2010
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Nov 24, 2010
PCS will be closed from Thursday, November 25th through Sunday, November 28th in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Happy Turkey Day from your friends at PCS!
Good Morning, Dave
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Oct 3, 2010
Would you like to have your computer welcome you on boot-up? It’s an easy thing to set up, and here’s how…
- Open up Notepad and paste in the following lines of code:
Dim speaks, speechspeaks=”Good Morning Dave”Set speech=CreateObject(“sapi.spvoice”)speech.Speak speaks
- Save the document as a .vbs file (eg: “goodmorning.vbs”)
- Place a shortcut to the new .vbs file in your Startup folder to insure that it plays on boot
You can modify what the script says by replacing the content in the quotes speaks=”Good Morning Dave” with anything you wish. You can also test the script by running it prior to creating a shortcut for it in the Startup folder.
Be sure to share your creativity by telling us how you use this script on your PC!
MSE Going Free
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Oct 3, 2010
Over the past few months, Microsoft Security Essentials has been a reliable tool in our fight against virus and malware infections, and in October, Microsoft is sharing the love with the small business.
Starting in October, small businesses will be able to license Microsoft Security Essentials for up to ten PC’s, at no cost.
Compared to other anti-virus solutions out there, that may not seem like a huge savings, but subscription costs do add up over time and MSE is just as good, if not better, than the standard commercial-fare.
For more information, review this posting from Microsoft’s SMB Community blog.
OpenDNS FamilyShield
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Aug 29, 2010
For the past couple of years, PCS has been configuring our customer’s networking environments to utilize the OpenDNS service 
for both its stability and speed, and now there’s another reason to get on the OpenDNS bandwagon: FamilyShield.
Kids get into all sorts of things they shouldn’t get into online and parents want to protect their kids from what’s “out there.” In June, OpenDNS introduced the FamilyShield service that is..
..the absolute simplest and most straightforward way for parents to protect kids from the bad stuff online.
By configuring your home computers and/or home router with the following FamilyShield DNS numbers:
208.67.222.123
208.67.220.123
…your home network will block pornographic content, including OpenDNS’s “Pornography,” “Tasteless,” and “Sexuality” categories, in addition to proxies and anonymizers (which can render filtering useless). The service also blocks phishing and some malware.
OpenDNS provides instructions on configuring 18 different brands of routers to take advantage of this service. If you would like assistance in securing your home network, please feel free to tap PCS by using our Contact Form on this web site and a technician will be with you shortly.
From 8 To 12
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Aug 29, 2010
The days of wimpy, eight-letter passwords are now gone. The 12-character era of online password security has now begun.
The bad news: Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology utilized a cluster of graphics cards to crack eight-character passwords in less than two hours.
The good news: The researchers discovered that the same process would take 17,134 years to crack a 12-character password.
The article “How To Create a ‘Super Password’ by CNN’s John D. Sutter, outlines the issue very well and explains the how’s, why’s and what-to-do’s to insure that your online identity is secure as possible behind a good password.
Snipping Tool
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Aug 29, 2010
There is a little-known utility that is lurking in the Accessories area on all Windows Vista and 7 operating systems that we at PCS use on a daily basis, but no one seems to be aware of: the Snipping Tool.
The Snipping Tool can be used to capture a screen shot, or snip, of any object on your screen and then annotate, save, or share the image.
The mouse can be utilized to capture any of the following types of snips:
Free-form Snip: Draw an irregular line around an object
Rectangular Snip: Draw a precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.
Window Snip: Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture
Full-screen Snip: Capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip.
After the snip is captured, it is automatically copied to the mark-up window where you can annotate, save or share the snip.
Personally, I use this tool in my day-to-day communications with clients via email. It is invaluable in allowing me to illustrate a concept, problem or solution with a program by taking a “snip” of my screen and then pasting that snip in a quick email.
I know a few clients are in the habit of emailing a screen capture by hitting the Print Screen (PrtScn) key on their keyboards, pasting the capture in Word, editing the capture and then mailing the document as an attachment. Hopefully this tool will make that process a lot easier for some folks.
AV Vendors See 19%
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Aug 9, 2010
According to a recent report by security firm Cyveillance, anti-virus software vendors detect an average of 19% of all malware attacks. What may be even more disturbing is that after 30 days of the malware attack being “in the wild,” the percentage only jumps up to 61.7%.
Per the findings reported:
Cyveillance tested thirteen popular AV solutions to determine their detection rate over a 30 day period and found that popular solutions only detect an average of 18.9% of new malware attacks. By day eight, AV solutions average a 45.7% detection rate. This rises to 56.6% on day 15, 60.3% by day 22, and 61.7% after 30 days.