About mistywindow.com
The reason for writing this site
It started in October 2005 as a means of providing online help for problems
encountered by people at SeniorNet and others whom I help with Windows computing.
The aims of mistywindow:
- to provide easily understood guidance in the use and care of Windows PCs.
- to help you to avoid problems and provide a lot of stuff to make you a power user.
- to provide a helpline via the Feedback page.
- to publish anything at all that takes my fancy. Provide links to useful sites. The world needs another blog and here's mine - At my wits' end.
- to make the site self funding with responsible advertising. Ah well, back to the drawing board ...
Check back every few weeks to see what's new, and give me your feedback.
The site will help:
- anyone who isn't as confident in computer use, setup, and care as they need to be.
- anyone who's looking for a source of information about making Windows easier to use and more productive.
- anyone who isn't too sure about backups, malware, megabits and gigabytes, defragging and disk scans, pop3 and smtp ..........
- anyone who is about to buy a PC and wants to know what they need and what questions to ask. Read the Hardware Pages and you'll probably know more than the retailer will.
If you already know:
- how to back up your data safely - i.e. more than one copy, in more than one physical site, and not on your computer;
- how to reformat your hard drive and re-install all your software;
- the difference between a tracking cookie & a key logger;
- and what Ctrl + I does in Internet Explorer;
then maybe you don't need mistywindow.com, but have a browse around, there may be something useful here anyway. Tell your friends about the site so that you spend less time digging them out of strife. And your contributions through feedback would be appreciated. Click here for Feedback.
The perpetrator
I'm a retired marine engineer living in Wanganui, a small, somewhat isolated city in New Zealand.
Back Then
I was born in Dunedin, started working life in the Royal New Zealand Navy as an apprentice, ran around the world in cruisers and frigates, and left 20 years later as a commissioned Engineer Officer.
The following 20 plus years I was at sea, mostly as Chief Engineer in merchant
ships. Everything from salvage tugs to bulk carriers. In between seagoing
I had a couple of years as the engineer of a steel rolling mill in
Auckland and a stint
as a general manager in a small cruise ship company in Lautoka, Fiji.
That's me over on the right: changed a bit since then. Entropy is a terrible thing.
Now
I'm an experienced computer user and tinkerer. I build my own computers, work as a volunteer fixing people's PC problems and coaching computer courses. Just the sort of person the professionals will tell you to keep away from your PC.
Well, some of the professionals I've dealt with have been worse than the amateurs. You need a good basic knowledge so that you can pick out the posers from the professionals.
I'm experienced in:
- Microsoft Windows and DOS.
- Microsoft Office: particularly Word, Excel and Outlook. This suite is so vast, I doubt if more than a handful of people know it all from top to bottom. Maybe nobody at all.
- diagnostics, PC and data rescue, virus and spyware inoculation and cure.
- use of the Internet and email.
- building, maintaining and upgrading PCs.
My Interests
I keep up with the IT scene. Presently I'm concentrating on graphics and website creation and server side scripting.
Since being thrown in the deep end of a Navy diving course I've been a minor fitness freak.
I'm interested in the environment, science, philosophy, politics and economics. I love camping, and I live in the right country for it.
I worry about our collective stupidity over the environment and our unsustainable
way of life.
"Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier
centuries is attributable to science,
which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century."
Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy
From the planet's point of view, it's been all downhill ever since.
I'm in despair of the standard of politicians we inflict upon ourselves. It's in my hands and yours.
If you click on any logo like the one below, it will take you back to the home page.
