My new MacBook Pro 17"

So what I did last night was finally bit the bullet and got myself a Mac. Quite a few of my PC customers have switched, and even I had recommended to several that they consider a Mac. I have heard so much good about them, and I wanted to be in a position where I could begin servicing them. Heretofore I have just responded "sorry" when asked if I could help with a Mac problem.

I bought a new MacBook Pro with a 17" screen. For those of you not familiar with the Apple product line, this is a laptop. Here are its specs:

• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display
• None
• Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide

It is really a slick machine. I played with one at the Apple Store in Natick, MA before making my decision to buy. I always recommend getting hands-on before making your decision.

I still balk at the price. One of my sons replied that you could buy 5 Corollas for the price of a Mercedes! :-) Hmm.... For sometime I will be wondering if I did the right thing.

The Apple Store

Tonight I visited the Apple Store at the Natick (MA) Collection (Mall). Tomorrow, when I am sober (just kidding) I will tell you about my experience and what I did.

Shock

One of my laptops took quite a shock today when I dropped it. It was on a chair and had power cord attached. I lifted it up by the top of the open display with one hand. I inadvertently stepped on the power cord and that caused me to lose my grip on the laptop. I was really concerned. I have seen laptops get destroyed with lesser shocks, but this one survived and seems to be running well.

So thank you Acer. This TravelMate 4220 was my first Acer, and we now have 3. It was a risk when I bought it. It was one of the less expensive machines, and I figured that I, with my PC expertise, would be able to keep it running, and I have. However, I never expected to ever drop it, and I wouldn't have expected it to survive the shock it has apparently absorbed. So Acer, thanks again, and a tip of the hat!

MSE

Microsoft Security Essentials, that is. A while back I said that I had installed it on my Windows 7 machine as an experiment. It was very easy to install and so far seems trouble-free. I have also installed it on a customer's Vista machine, and likewise, a very easy install and seems to run well and SEEMS to do the job. I capitalized the word seems because I don't feel that I have enough experience to recommend it to anyone - yet.

So if you have been waiting for my comments on this product, I'd ask you to wait for a more definitive recommendation down the road a piece. If on the other hand you are anxious to try it out and ready to do so, I would not discourage you. As a security package, it has these things going for it: it is easy to install, it does in fact keep itself up-to-date, it seems to have less overhead than say Norton or McAfee, and it is free!

FBI: Rogue antivirus scammers have made $150M

Quite a few of you know what that subject is all about. I have spent many hours in 2009 working on your PCs that had become infected with one of the so-called "rogue programs", and I thank you for your business. I have developed a formula for ridding systems of these rogues, and so far the routine I use has worked 100%. Here is a surprise for you: all I use are the programs listed in my recommended security suite. Tomorrow I will repeat that list of programs that I recommend in another blog post.

In the meantime, I highly recommend this Computerworld.com article. Please take a few minutes to read it. Between this article and tomorrow's post, you have the opportunity to avoid these rogues and save yourself an emergency call to your PCDoc.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142160/FBI_Rogue_antivirus_scammers_have_made_150M