Family Tech: Time for a tech check up

Life is never slow for a family. With the holidays over, playing fields and swimming pools frozen solid, spring sports still weeks away, now may be the sole chance all year to catch our breath and think about reviewing our family technology.

This is the week when tax documents arrive in the mail. Do you have a place you put them, or will you be searching through stacks of old mail come April?

How about the anti­virus you have running scans automatically on your PC? When was the last time you pulled it up and looked to see when it last ran a scan?

Often we schedule the scans for 2 a.m., but we turn off our computers every night. The computer is never on at 2 a.m., hence the scans we think are protecting us are not.

Do you backup regularly? Few do. If you don’t want to invest the time and effort into a backup system, then at least consider moving important files to Dropbox, so that you have backups on your computer and in the cloud. Up to two gigabytes of storage is free. Few of us, when you measure the size of critical files like finances, etc., need more.

Links to past columns on backups and Dropbox are in this week’s link page.

You have a year of accumulated family photos on your PC, on camera cards and in your phone. Now is a good time to consolidate them to your PC and back them up, so if the worst happens these family memories are safe.

Invest in a bottle of compressed air and blow the dust off the keyboard of your laptop and from the vents. If you have a desktop, unplug it and remove the outer door and blow the accumulated dust from the interior. It is amazing how much dust they gather. This can prevent the computer from overheating and fail­ing at a critical time.

Are any of your battery-operated gad­gets going through batteries faster then before? Consider buying new batteries for them. The store that sold you the de­vice should carry replacement batteries.

Batteries Plus, a chain with local outlets, is also a good source for batteries for all your devices.

Maybe your devices are not running well due to pilot error. After using a device for a while, it is always good to read the manual again. If you cannot find it, search the Internet. You will likely find it. A lot of what might have been cryptic during the first readthrough will be clearer after having used the device for a while.

Is your phone contract coming up for renewal this year? Now is the time, then, to start looking at the phones and carri­ers again to see what you should move to when your contract expires.

What about your cable, phone and Internet provider? Are they still the best, at the best price? Call them and tell them your spouse wants you to move to the competitor. You may be amazed at what they offer you to stay.

I know someone who saved over a $100 a month with that simple phone call and didn’t give up any of the services she was receiving.

Next week, we will look at the single greatest program for keeping a family organized, students on top of all their topics, and give small businesses some of the data capabilities of big businesses. 

Read more at the link page at bit.ly/FamilyTech. Mark is the author of the ebook, “Get Productive Fast with Evernote.” Details at Mark’s blog, markstout.blogspot. com. Email markstout@gmail.com.