Everyday Randomness

CostCaptain Offers Discount Microsoft Products For Education

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If you’re looking for a way to give back to your child’s school check this out. CostCaptain is a Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller that sells Microsoft products such as Office 2007 and Vista upgrades to schools, libraries, and even home schools (great for those of you who home school and want your kids to learn to use Microsoft Office!).

What’s so great about this?

If you’d like a way to support or give back to your child’s school, or if you’re a home schooler looking for a way to get a discount on Office 2007 or a Vista upgrade, you can purchase directly from CostCaptain, or you can buy a gift certificate for the school!

Vista upgrades are $89, and Office 2007 costs $129. For you home schoolers all you have to do is provide proof of academic eligibility to purchase the products at this price. If I had kids I’d definitely be taking advantage of this right now because I definitely plan to home school my children, at least until they’re high school age. Then I’ll allow them to make their own decision about whether or not they would like to move to a public school or continue home schooling or alternative schooling methods.

Home Business Window Sign

I had a customer today ask me why I don’t have a sign in my yard or on my window advertising my home business. First of all I admit it can get a little confusing for some of my new customers.

Sometimes they have trouble finding my house because I don’t have a sign, and when they get here they have a trouble figuring out which door to use. That’s because this is an old house that was once a duplex, so we have two doors on the front of the house. One leads into what is supposed to be the formal living room that I use for my office, and the other leads into the guest bedroom.

Sometimes I’ll have customers knock on both doors because they don’t know where to go. Recently I started sticking a sign I printed out quickly on the one door that says “use other door”, but that’s all I’ve got as far as signs go. There’s nothing officially showing my business name, and that’s something I would like to have.

I realized I can buy vinyl window signs from VistaPrint for as low as $11.99, so that’s something I’m really thinking about doing. I could put it on the window in the room I use as my office, so it would give my customers a better idea of where to go. Then I could order one of those signs that hangs from the mailbox like I’ve seen other home businesses use. Then my customers would have no problem at all finding the house.

What would be even better would be my own little building separate from the house, like the huge unattached garage we have, but my Grandpa can’t even convince my Grandma to clean her junk out of it to give him room for his lawnmowers, so I doubt I’ll ever be lucky enough to convert that to my business space. Besides, I like the setup I have now since I work all ours of the day and night, and the window signs are removable. That means I could take it down when I’m not open for business or when we’ve got something going on here like holiday celebrations, etc.

Best of all, I can either choose to create my own logo design or I can use VistaPrint’s design template to create a sign within minutes.  It’s something I’m definitely going to check into.

Bored Out Of My Mind

Hubby had to work today, so I decided to set aside today as my day to do some work on my own computers. It’s been so long since I ran it, I forgot just how long it takes to run a full defrag on this computer. I swear it was more boring than having to talk to mortgage lenders. Then again, maybe that’s going a little too far. I’ve never have to deal with mortgage people for myself, and I never plan to. Hubby and I plan on building our house a little at a time. Even if it takes us 10 years at least we’ll know it’s paid for.

Anywho, now I’m waiting on Hubby’s pc to defrag, but since he doesn’t have a lot of stuff on there it shouldn’t take too long. What I’m really thinking about doing is taking a nap. I was up at 2am this morning to hear the news about baby Aislyn, so now I’m getting pretty tired.

You know that nap does sound good.

*runs off to curl up on the couch.*

Chuckles

The laptop is fixed.  Sometimes I have to laugh at my customers, not for their stupidity, but for their total computer innocence.  Today’s customer told me she was having problems with a game.  Her desktop looked weird after she installed a freeware game that she downloaded.

She dropped it off on the way to work this morning, while I was still asleep, so hubby left a note telling me what game she installed.  I didn’t even turn the laptop on until I was finished with my last post.

The problem was so simple.  She downloaded the game, but she never installed it.  What she did was extract the zip file straight to the desktop.  That left her with a ton of little files with extensions and icons she’d never seen before.

I deleted the files from her desktop, installed the game, and she’s good to go.  I figured if something like that caused her to freak out, I might as well go ahead and run a cleanup.  There’s no telling what else she has lurking around.

I always double check for antivirus and install anti-spyware protection for all of my customers.  I show them how to use it.  I type out a very simple to follow list of instructions, and I place it in a folder on the desktop called “Do This Once A Week”.

Well, she hasn’t.  Her virus definitions haven’t been updated since January 13.  I know she’s got a Verizon internet card, so my guess is she only connects the card when she wants to get online, and she still expects her definitions to auto update.

Hers were set to automatically update on a time schedule.  I changed it to automatically update when she “dials up” since that’s how her card interacts even though it’s not dial up.  Now I guess I better check the anti-spyware definitions and run another scan.

Time For My Recertification

I got a letter today reminding me I need to take my IPC Specialist certification test again because my current certification will be expiring in the near future.  It expires January 12, 2009, but the state has a very short list of classes I can take if I want a refresher course before I take the test again.

Here’s how it works.  I can pay about $20 to take the test without going over the material.  I can pay $100 to take a refresher course on the day of the test.  You sit in a classroom for 4 hours listening to someone go over the correct procedures, then you immediately take your test.  You aren’t given any time to actually look over the material on your own, so to me it’s a waste of cash.

The last option is to take a 2 day class that goes over the J-STD-001 Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies in detail.  You have to pay $150 for the 2 day class.  You’re allowed to take notes in the classroom, but you’re not allowed to take any of the material home to study it.  Yet again it seems like a waste of money to me.

If I were to take the class I would have to take it at the manufacturing plant where I previously worked.  I hate that place with a passion, so there’s no way you’re going to catch me spending 2 days there.  It’s bad enough I’m going to probably have to spend an hour there taking the test.

Besides I can keep my $100-$150 because I have the power of the internet.  I have already found a place where I can order my own hard copy or electronic copy of all the material for the course for $37.  I would really like to have my own hard copy of the material since I’m using it in my job at least once a week anyway.   Then whenever that times comes every 2 years when I have to renew my certification, I can stick with the $20 recertification test.

Even if I never use my certification again I’m still going to get recertified.  Why?  Because it’s cool to be able to say I’m certified to solder for NASA.  lol