Speaking Digital

Starting today, you’ll find a couple of new sizes and three new design options available for purchase over in the Photo Gallery.

New Sizes

You can now easily order oversized prints through the Photo Gallery. The new sizes are 20 x 24″ (same size as the photos I have hanging at Buffalo Wild Wings in Mattoon) and 20 x 30″. The costs for these new sizes are $48 and $60, respectively.

New Design Options

Along with the new sizes are three new design options for your prints. The first option is called Color Focus. Color Focus takes the main subject of the photo and keeps them in color while converting everything else to black and white. This option looks really sharp and provides for an eye-catching photo. Color Focus is available on any size print at no additional cost.

The second option is called the Chalk Board Series. Pulling from times since passed, the Chalk Board Series uses “chalk” writing and diagrams in the border to give the photo a very unique look. The border can either be colorized or stay black and white. Please let me know when you place your order if you want the border to be colored. If you don’t specify that you want color, the photo will be printed with a black and white border. The Chalk Board Series is available in 5×7″ (vertical orientation only), 8×10″ (vertical and horizontal), and 12×18″ (vertical and horizontal.) There is also a special 8×10″ film strip design option. Pricing for the Chalk Board Series is as follows:

• 5×7″ – $6.00
• 8×10″ – $10.00
• 12×18″ – $25.00

The third and final design option is the Signature Series. This option only comes in 12×18″ (vertical and horizontal) and features the subject’s name, year and sport name below the photograph. For an added touch, I can use your actual signature where your name would sit. Special arrangements are needed for this option, so please be sure to contact me if you want to take advantage of this capability. The Signature Series prints are $25.00.

You will find the new options available in the shopping cart after you add a photo to your cart. All prices mentioned above do not include tax (6.75%) and shipping ($4.00). If you should have questions, please let me know.

Now that the winter sports season at CHS is wrapped up, I’m running another contest. The winter sports photograph with the highest number of votes wins. Whomever the main subject is (as determined by me) will receive a 20″ x 24″ print for themselves to match the one to be hung in Buffalo Wild Wings in Mattoon. There are no limits as to who can vote or how many times you can vote, so enlist your friends and family.

The deadline for voting is Sunday, March 21st at 7:00p.m. At that time, the photo gallery will be shut down and the winner determined. All voting is to be done through the photo gallery (http://www.speakingdigital.com/photography/) and any votes or “likes” cast on the Speaking Digital Facebook page will not count. You can keep track of the voting by heading to the Rating Album.

If you should have any questions or problems voting, please let me know ASAP, because you may not be the only one with that question or problem. Good luck and get voting!

I’ve had a rash of PC’s come in lately where their owners were having issues – random shut downs, inability to install updates or software, can’t search the web as expected, etc. There is one common thread between all of them – file sharing. Whether it was LimeWire, BitTorrent or web sites, it provided the same outcome – a seriously infected PC. So I ask a simple question – is it worth it?

Is it worth it to grab the latest and hottest songs and movies from the ‘net from file sharing programs and sites for free? How does it feel to have your PC come to a crawl just to have that song or movie? Even more importantly, how does it feel to shell out the $70 or so (depending on the level of infection) for me to clean up your PC because you decided to swipe the song from the web as opposed to pay $.99 for it? Is it worth it?

Now I understand the whole I’m a poor college/high school kid argument, but now you’ve made that situation even worse because you’re now $70 in the hole as opposed to $.99 (or whatever the cost of the media you want is.) Just because your program or web site says the file you’re downloading is just the song or movie you want doesn’t always mean that’s all you’re getting. It’s like that one Christmas as a kid – you know you’re getting presents, only to find out that gift isn’t that toy you wanted, but some ugly sweater or turtle neck.

Now that I’ve thrown the whole guilt-trip thing at you, here’s the steps to start fixing the problem.

1. Quit using file sharing – literally.

Most file sharing programs will run in the background to make it easy for you to keep doing whatever else you’re doing while your five finger discount goods are being downloaded. You will need to kill these processes. Typically, you’ll see them in your Task Bar (lower right hand corner of your screen.) Right click on your program of choice and choose exit, quit or whatever terminology is used to close the program.

2. Remove your file sharing program.

While your program has a built-in uninstaller, they typically leave behind all sorts of garbage after they are uninstalled. They came, they partied and then left the place trashed. Grab yourself a copy of Revo Uninstaller and uninstall your program. Revo will not only run the program’s built-in uninstaller, it will scan your registry and PC for those left overs and give you the ability to clean up after the program.

3. Get your PC updated.

This is sometimes easier said than done. If you have a serious infection, you may not be able to update Windows, your anti-virus software or anything else on your PC. Assuming this is not the case, start by updating your anti-virus software, then Windows, then all other software on your PC. You need to plug any holes in the software on your PC. If you are in the unfortunate situation where your PC physically cannot update anything, you can do one of two things. First, you can drop me a line or second, you can attempt to eradicate your PC yourself.

4a. Eradication

I will take the utmost care of your PC when attempting to fix the infection. Typically, expect to be without your PC for about 24-48 hours. While you won’t be billed for 24-48 worth of work, my software can only run as your PC will allow. You are only billed for the actual time I am working on your PC. In other words, the meter is only running if I’m physically working on the machine.

A typical cleanup takes 1-2 hours of work to clean up the mess, uninstall junk and get your PC’s software as updated as possible. Typically, your PC will be in perfect working order. You may have things missing (toolbars, cute screen savers, cute mouse pointers, music, movies or any other infected files) when you get your PC back. There is no way around this as typically these items were the source of the infection.

4b. Self-eradication

Self eradication is not an easy process and can be somewhat daunting when the malware on your PC is killing every attempt you make to start cleaning up. There’s some pretty tough stuff out there that will literally fight back while you attempt to clean house. It makes things really fun. Here’s a list of software (in no particular order) I may use in cleaning a PC. These are all freely available on the web and I’ve provided links to their respective web sites.

• Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
• Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool
• Spybot Search and Destroy
• SuperAntispyware
• SpywareBlaster
• Combofix
• Smitfraudfix
• Rkill
• Roguefix

These links are provided to help you clean up your PC. I, in no way, take responsibility if you cause more harm than good if you use one of the above listed pieces of software on your PC. There is always a chance that cleaning up your PC will cause serious damage to the stability of Windows depending on how badly infected your PC is.

Some malware sink their claws into Windows so deep that removing them destroys Windows. The only option at this point is to get your files backed up off your hard drive, then “nuke and pave” – completely wipe your hard drive and start with a fresh install of Windows.

With all that said, is it still worth it?

If you haven’t noticed, the web site has been completely overhauled, running completely on WordPress (save the Photo Gallery, which still uses Gallery) using the awesome Twicet theme. Now, I know I offer web design and development as a service so you’d think I would go and design and develop my own theme for WordPress. That’s a valid argument, until you start to think about the time it takes to develop a very sophisticated and sleek looking theme for WordPress. That’s time I just don’t have to devote to myself when I have customer’s jobs to take care of.

Is this a departure from designing and developing web sites? Not exactly, as there is still tweaking and customizing to be done on any purchased theme. No theme or template comes ready to go out of the box. It has to be worked and bent to fit your needs and likes, so there is still some design and development that needs to be done.

What does this all mean for the customer?

My goal has always been to give my customers exactly what they are looking for and nothing less – a professional-looking product while keeping total job costs down. That’s part of the reason I don’t have a fancy storefront. I would have to build that into my costs I charge my customers. While this may drive some customers away from using my services, let me pose this question – Does the final product look any less professional if it did not come from a fancy storefront? I think not.

By using pre-built themes and templates, I can provide my customers cutting edge designs while keeping the total job cost down. This theme cost me $37. That’s barely over the cost of what I charge for an hour’s worth of work. I would never be able to provide the same quality design work for that type of price, even if I tried really hard. It’s just not physically possible.

I have never been afraid of using somebody else’s pre-built themes, templates, software, etc. to accomplish a job. Why re-invent the wheel when somebody has already done it? I understand the want for something custom built and unique, but at a certain point you have to be realistic. Do you have the money, and more importantly, the time to give to that type of project? Even if you did, would you really want to part with that money if you could have something for a fraction of the cost, while still getting the same quality?

For those of you that know me, I’m not out to make a fortune on my customers. Yes, I will make money off of the jobs I complete. My main interest, though, is providing people with a quality product at a reasonable price. I feel that will bring my existing customers back to me and, hopefully, they’ll be so happy with the final product, they would be willing to recommend Speaking Digital to their friends and families in the future.

Since I’ve last written about the Backblaze storage pod, I bought nearly the rest of my components – the hard drives and the power supplies. I still haven’t picked up my anti-vibration foam rubber pad that will sit between my hard drives and the top of the case, but I see this component as relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

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