I was just flipping channels eating some delicious ice cream when I landed on the television shopping channel QVC. Regardless of the fact that yes, I was indeed watching QVC, the important part of that detail is what exactly was being sold. The item being talked about was an automated computer hard drive backup device. The device was meant to plug into a USB port on a computer and it would simply back up pretty much everything it could grab. I’m sure the majority of people who have ever had a personal computer have had a situation where information/data on their computer was lost, so yes, backing up your computer is very important. However, the thing that surprised me was how expensive the item was. The product itself was $180 (USD (United States Dollars)) and came with other accessories that pushed the total price of the item to over $200. That is a good chunk of change, in my opinion, and thus I realized that being a total geekoid and knowing how to manage my electronic technology entirely myself has saved me quite a good deal of money! To show you all just how much moola I am saving myself, I shall give some detailed examples with potential prices/values! Hooray!

Basic Computer Stuff

The Problem: Setting up a new computer, adding desired software, customizing, data transfer, etc
Potential Solutions: Have a technician come to your home and walk you through it
Price Ranges: $135.99 – infinity (Firedog); $149.99 and up (Geek Squad); $99/hr – $300/4 hour block (Geeks Onsite)
Why Do it Yourself?: Setting up a computer you just bought can be tedious and somewhat confusing, absolutely. New and changing operating system software can take time to adjust to. Connecting all your peripherals and installing appropriate software can also be really boring and even confusing. However, computer technology is very rapidly being upgraded to be easier to set up, customize, and use by pretty much anyone. That said, it is a good idea to learn how to set up a computer on your own eventually versus paying someone to do it for you time and time again. If you learn the first time from a professional, you won’t have to shell out big bucks in the future if you get a new computer. Also, most new computers have warranties so that if you do need help setting up your computer you can call the manufacturer and receive instruction for free.

Potentially Difficult Computer Tasks

The Problem: Upgrading an internal manufacturer part (I.E.: graphics card) to a newly purchased market product
Potential Solutions: Take it to a computer shop to have them install it for you or have a tech come to your home
Price Ranges: $49.99 – $149.99 (Geek Squad); $135.99 (Firedog); may be cheaper at local stores in your area
Why Do it Yourself?: Taking apart a computer can be intimidating, no question. If you are not careful, you can destroy the entire computer without even removing anything via your own static electricity. Even though something like that can happen, it is not as scary to open up a computer as it may seem. The inside of a desktop computer is usually pretty spacious and is not jam-packed full of devices as one would think. You may have to move around wire bundles and what not, but usually the whole process of removing/adding a piece of hardware (like a graphics card or RAM memory) is extraordinarily straightforward. If you have a screw driver, enough lighting, and a steady hand you are in great shape to start out with. The hardest part of adding and removing hardware is the pre-removal process that you have to do before opening up your computer. From my experience, people don’t take enough time to make sure all the old software, drivers, settings, and other files from old hardware are removed and not being used by anything before they install the new hardware. Sometimes extra steps need to be taken that are not described in-depth by a manufacturer in a small Installation Guide, so you should “do your homework” before anything. In all honesty, though, removing software is far more tedious than actually opening up a computer, fiddling with the hardware, and putting it back together. Once you do it the first time, you will feel 1000 times more confident about your computer knowledge and capabilities and will thus start to feel even more comfortable around the inner workings of computers which is always a good thing!

Usually Scary and Explosive Problems

The Problem: Virus and/or malware removal from 1 computer with possible data recovery
Potential Solutions: Take the computer to a tech shop, remotely troubleshoot, or have someone come to your home to repair the damage on-site; get a new computer entirely
Price Ranges: $150 – $400 (Geek Squad); $219.99 – $400+ (Firedog); $139.99/year (iYogi subscription)
Why Do it Yourself?: In the long run, learning how to remove viruses/malware is the best experience to go through in order to learn how to protect your computer from malicious stuff in the first place. Viruses and malware vary in severity and how much they can damage or destroy your computer, not to mention if they are capable of stealing personal information from your hard drive. Removing malware and/or viruses can be tricky to do completely, properly, and safely. If you have a bunch of spyware that is not as malicious as some of the mutating trojans that modify an OS command center and registry, removing the software can easily be done by yourself without the help of a paid professional. If you do end up getting some horrific virus that locks you out of your own computer and overloads the hard disk to the point of permanent corruption, though, I would say pay for someone to fix it or buy a new computer. You only get that one approval from me, though. Haha. As I said, having your computer bombarded by a really malicious virus is a horrible thing to experience, but really it is the best tool to teach every computer user what to avoid to keep their computer and data safe.

Just these three tasks I’ve listed in this post – all of which are extremely commonplace and occur every single day – can really add up to some big bucks if you pay someone else to do them for you. The companies that provide these services make money on customers that have no idea how to do the jobs themselves or are simply too afraid to do it for fear they will damage their computer. If you are completely new to computers and have no idea what any of the terminology means, then yes, it would be beneficial to have someone else do these tasks. However, I am a big believer that if you have the opportunity to learn how to do a task and troubleshoot your problem(s), absolutely task it. If a professional comes to your house and can show you how a problem needs to be fixed, take the time to listen and learn. It will pay off in more ways thank in just your bank account!

Opening up my internet browser this morning, I was unaware that today marked the anniversary of the start of a somewhat recent American event. After seven years, this date has been pushed aside by so many other events in my country that it has been all but forgotten by people such as myself. When I read the one-line Yahoo! News headline that read “Little fanfare for 7th anniversary of war in Iraq” this morning, I was overtaken by so many thoughts and emotions that I could not help but cry. The article text was unimportant for me because as an American, I have seen what the article spoke about live on television in my living room. The “shock and awe”, the fall of the statue, and the explosions of IEDs. I have also seen the hundreds of news stories over the years about soldiers and their families who have been affected so greatly because of physical/mental injuries or death. Now that it is the year 2010 and this war is heading into its 8th year, the images of the war that were once so controversial and talked about have completely faded away into the background of American life.

Toward the end of 2009, there were over 100,000 troops still stationed in Iraq as the issues in Afghanistan were escalating. 100,000 men and women is a lot of people who have to be away from their homes and families for such a substantial amount of time. However, that was irrelevant to the American news media. I remember going to my physical therapist’s office several times a week from October to December, and in the therapy room they had CNN on for general news headlines. One day there was a small headline at the bottom of the screen that scrolled by and said that the number of troops station in Iraq would begin to drop below 100,000 in 2010. This was never actually mentioned on the air by the news anchors or reporters. Instead, almost the entire newscast for days – if not weeks – was about pro-golfer Tiger Woods and his marital issues¹. I was absolutely infuriated. I didn’t care that there were other people in the therapy room so I simply started to rant about how offended and disgusted I was about Tiger Woods’ personal life getting more attention and reporting than the war in Iraq. I must have gone on for 15 minutes – all while CNN happily continued to show a video reel of Tiger Woods and his career – before I was so frustrated that I had to stop what I was saying just to finish my therapy session. However, all of the other patients in the therapy room, as well as the therapy workers, spoke up and agreed with me as they added their 2 cents worth. Even the people who didn’t verbally speak up nodded in agreement to the words myself and the other patients said. Even though we were all vastly different in age and background, we all agreed that it was a genuine disservice and insult to the over 100,000 troops still stationed over in Iraq and their families.

When, how, and why did America become more interested with moral scandal and celebrity gossip versus our own soldiers? After September 11th, 2001, our nation was brought together in such patriotism and unity because our country and all it stands for was viciously attacked. People put aside politics for a while and just became Americans. We honored each other as American citizens whether we were 1st generation citizens or 100th generation citizens. We came together and honored our country, what it stands for, and what it was created for. Students don’t learn about American history – including history before our country was even formed – for absolutely nothing. That history is vital to reminding us, the modern day American citizens, of where we came from as a country and what it really means when you say “I am American.” America is a huge “melting pot” with every nationality represented. Our citizens have heritage and ancestry from across the globe, including myself. Yet a whole lot of us associate ourselves with the term “American” regardless of our heritage. That single word doesn’t represent the color of our skin, our cultural traditions, or our language. It represents our entire history and why the country exists today, including the fact that our citizens have differing skin colors, traditions, and languages. We are a country of many, and the term “American” has always meant that. So when I see these national news headlines splattered across websites and my television that are completely concerned with trivial and shallow topics like celebrity drug abuse and scandal, how popular Twitter has become, and how David Beckham can’t play in the 2010 World Cup, I am pretty damn disgusted. What happened to the news on our own citizens fighting and dying over in Iraq and Afghanistan? I could have sworn that was a little more important.

People say they support the troops these days, and some of them I believe. You see people driving around with the “Support the Troops” ribbons stuck to their cars, and sometimes I wonder, “Do they really think about that often enough?” People who haven’t had a family member go into battle somewhere probably cannot understand what it is genuinely like to have war brought into your own home. My immediate family does not include any past or present service men or women, but both sides of my family have extremely strong roots in serving America in warfare. My father’s side of the family currently has Iraq war veterans and Vietnam veterans, as well as veterans past from long ago such as the American Civil War (1861-1865), the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), and the French and Indian War (1754-1763). My mother’s father² who I had the chance to know for several years before his passing, served in Word War II. He was awarded four Bronze Stars³ during his time in Europe in the US Army, and is by all means an American hero for things he did in that war to help his army comrades and foreign strangers alike. So, even though I do not have any immediate family members to relate to the Iraq war, I understand greatly the emotional sacrifices the soldiers and their families go through because it’s their duty. Right now I believe America is so caught up in the politics of the war itself – such as why we went there in the first place – that we forget entirely about the people who are still over there. Our politicians and leaders somehow feel the need to justify why we went, or why we shouldn’t have went, and so many other things; after 7 years, that is all kind of irrelevant. We are there, we made a mess, our troops are there by the thousands, and we need to take responsibility regardless of why we went over there to begin with.

From all that I have seen in the past 7 years, people that are my age and younger do not understand what war really consists of. It has been so glorified by movies, video games, comic books, tv shows, and other junk that young adults and adolescents think it’s “cool” or something similar. There is no way war is “cool” in any situation. You don’t think people just go to war to have fun, do you? I don’t think the families of all the people buried at Arlington National Cemetery would say that. I don’t think any surviving veterans of any war – regardless of country – would say that, either. War isn’t just a word with one singular definition that explains every aspect of it. That is utterly impossible and always will be. War can be about anything in the world. From religion, to land ownership, to racial rights, to absolutely anything you can imagine. Why a war is started is nothing in compared to what goes on during a war. People think seeing men blown up by rockets and grenades is entertaining when they are playing a video game or watching some action film; I don’t think it would be very entertaining if you were in that situation where it could be you that is wiped off the face of the earth at any second.

Today is March 19th, 2010 and the Iraq war has been going on for 7 years. Even though we don’t hear about it at all, it’s still there. Our men and women are still there. Our money and investments are still there. Yet right now, America is not paying attention to it. More so, Americans are not paying attention to America. How did that become the norm here? More importantly, when will people realize that we have to think of our country first before ourselves? Ultimately, everything that this country does as a whole affects every person who lives here. If Americans are living in some state of delusion about that, it’s time for them to wake up and snap out of it. So America, are you listening?