Computer Courage is proud to announce that we were ranked the number one “Computer Services” company in the East Bay and the number four company in the whole Bay Area in SFGate.com’s “Best of the Bay List“.

See the results page here.  The top 3 companies are all San Francisco based, as you can see.

This list is completely vote-based, which means you guys made this happen!

Computer Courage has always been dedicated to providing outstanding customer service.  That’s what got us our great yelp reviews.  I’d like to thank everyone who voted for us and express our humility and appreciation.  Word of mouth has always been critical to our success.  Thank you!

1. WordPress is Truly Free and Open Source

Unlike other “free” and “open source” solutions that have hidden agendas, WordPress.org is completely free (learn more) for you, forever.  WordPress doesn’t start charging when you hit a certain size, nor does it close off any of its code to you.  This is one of the less tangible but probably most important elements of WordPress.org’s success.  No fees, no gotchas, no nonsense.

2. Automattic is an Awesome Company

The more I learn about Matt Mullenweg and his company, Automattic, the more I like them.  These guys write amazing code, protect open source programming, fight spam, host affordable and educational conferences, take security seriously, and seem like genuine nice guys.

3. Plugins Give You More Functionality

Plenty of platforms out there offer plugin functionality, but I’ve never seen a more smooth and thorough implementation than the plugin effort on WordPress.org.  Plugins allow you to add great photo galleries, sliders, shopping carts, forums, maps, and more great functionality.  There’s a searchable, one-click install directory of plugins (think App Store for WordPress).  Their code is riddled with “hooks” that allow developers to add their code to virtually any aspect of WordPress without editing the core.  Look for a few new and important WordPress.org plugins to come from the Computer Courage labs soon!

4. The Visual Editor and CMS are Outstanding

The intuitive, user-friendly backend of WordPress is probably what made it so famous in the first place.  I’ll never remember the relief I felt when I first installed WordPress after a few Drupal experiences.  I always tell my clients, “if you can do it in Word, you can do it in WordPress.”  In fact, with the Paste From Word tool, that statement is more true than you would imagine (this article was written in Word).  WordPress is continually improving its CMS, adding features such as threaded comments, galleries, revision histories, trash, custom post types, and more.  If you haven’t maintained a WordPress site yet, give it a look.

5. Easily Add a Blog To Your Site

How is this number 5 on the list you ask?  WordPress really came to fame for blogging and is still considered by many to be a blog platform.  Even WordPress itself seems to identify with blogging first, as the default configuration is for the home page to be a blog.  Aside from the amazing advances in CMS (see #4 above), the blog functionality is still the best in the business.  With categories, tags, threaded commenting, gravatars, easy theming, widgets, fantastic moderation controls, anti spam solutions, and plugin infrastructure, you can’t find a better blog solution.  Adding a blog to a WordPress site is a great way to attract and involve visitors, and to keep Google paying attention.  If you don’t need a full site, and just want a quick blog, check out WordPress.com.

6. Themes Let You Style Your Site

I tell my business clients every day that their site doesn’t need to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to design.  We love doing custom web design for our clients, but many of them don’t need it.  We’ve been able to make very beautiful and successful sites by starting from pre-existing themes and doing customizations from there.  Because themes are open source, you can buy or download them and then modify them to your heart’s content.  I have to give special credit to the folks at Elegant Themes who make wonderfully powerful and easy to use themes at a very reasonable price.   Remember, themes are independent from your content, so you can edit or swap out themes at any time and keep your content and functionality in place.

7. It’s Easy to Keep WordPress Secure

WordPress has always bragged about its “Famous 5 Minute Installation”.  Not only is WordPress pretty easy to install (it actually takes 5 minutes if you are handy with your web servers, newbies will have a learning curve), but WordPress is also surprisingly easy to update for security and new functionality.  When a new version is available, WordPress will give you an easy link for a one-click upgrade.  Warning: Computer Courage always recommends backing up your blog before doing an install in case something goes wrong.  Look for backup plugins or techniques first.

8. Google Loves WordPress

At Computer Courage, we focus on getting new customers for our clients via Search Engine Optimization.  Ever since we started doing WordPress.org installs, I noticed a spike in search results.  Over the years I’ve used many valuable SEO plugins such as the All-In-One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps.  But even without these plugins, I always felt like the simple layouts of WordPress, the permalinks, and the easy linking in WordPress would be naturally attractive to Google.  I even heard it straight from the horse’s mouth.  Matt Cutts, the other awesome Matt and the head of Google’s “web spam team” spoke at WordCamp SF 2009 and said it directly – “Google Loves WordPress”.  Edit: After saying this for the last year, I went back and checked.  It turns out I’ve been exaggerating.  He said “WordPress is a great choice” (video and slides here) but still, he goes on to gush about how much WordPress helps you get better results.  We always recommend a conversion to WordPress when doing SEO.

9. WordPress Sites are Accessible

WordPress sites are usually built on relatively simple and accessible technologies.  It’s easy to install on Windows or Linux servers.  It uses all free license server software.  The web pages render in HTML and CSS allowing them to show up on iPhones, BlackBerrys, Android, iPad, etc.  It’s also easy for alternative browsers such as text only browsers (see Lynx) which are excellent for those with disabilities.

10. Your Site Can Grow With You

When you add up a lot of these features, you find that your WordPress site can grow with you over the years.  You can easily upgrade it for new features and security.  You can add a new theme (ma.tt seems to add a new theme most years) without redoing your whole site.  You can add new plugins for enhanced functionality (add e-commerce if your business grows, focus more on search results, add a store finder, etc.)  WordPress.org is used by millions of sites, from the simplest little blogs to huge brand names like the New York Times blog, People, Flickr, and more.  See the WordPress.org showcase.

Have further thoughts on why WordPress.org is or isn’t a great platform for building websites?  We’ve love to hear from you in the comments below.  Thanks for your participation and interest in the web and in WordPress.org.  Finally, if you’re looking for a professional team to put a WordPress.org website together for you, contact us today or sign up for our newsletter.

PS – If Matt or the WP team reads this, hook us up with a VaultPress beta – we can’t wait to get our hands on this!

Job Description and Requirements: Computer Courage is looking for experienced, knowledgeable, and friendly computer support technicians.  Technicians will travel to businesses and homes in the San Francisco Bay Area (primarily East Bay) to fix computer problems, set up hardware and software, and train users.  Excellent technical knowledge and strong communication skills are mandatory for this job.  Employees will visit the central office in Berkeley at least once per day.

Part Time: This job will start out as a part time position, with opportunity to convert to full time within months.  Hours and days are flexible, but expect to start out at approximately two days per week.

Skills Required: Solid technical knowledge and troubleshooting for Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X. Experience with and fundamental understanding of home networking, Windows troubleshooting, backup, Microsoft Office, hardware and software installation, antivirus and antispyware tools.  Experience with Windows Server and Exchange is a plus.  People skills are a must – you will be helping and training clients every day.

A valid US drivers license, a clean driving record, and access to an insured automobile are requirements for this position.

Education and Experience: B.S. preferred, with 3-5 years experience working in IT.  Students are welcome to apply.

How to Apply: Please do not call or email with applications.  Please fill out the application below:

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Computer Courage is up for the “Best of BayList” contest at SFGate.com.  We’re going for “Best Computer Services”.

It’s super easy to vote for us (just a quick 1 page registration), just go to our voting page here and click “VOTE”.  That’s it!

Thanks for your support – please vote for us today!

-Adam and the Computer Courage team

Thank you for your interest in the Web Developer opening at Computer Courage.  Please read the job description below and then fill out the form to apply.  Please do not submit applications by email or phone.

Computer Courage is Looking for a Talented Web Designer/Developer

Computer Courage is a small business in Berkeley, California that provides web design and development, WordPress integration, graphic design, and IT services.  We have a web development team of four and are looking for a new team member to start part time in approximately 3 days per week, with opportunities for full time work in the near future.

Requirements:
- Solid HTML/CSS talent and experience (2 years professional experience required)
- Graphic design skills are a requirement – Photoshop and Illustrator
- Working knowledge of PHP is a must
- Experience with WordPress.org theme and plugin development is big plus
- JavaScript skills are a plus
- Adobe Flash and/or Actionscript skills are a plus
- Bachelors Degree preferred.  Art school graduates are encouraged to apply
- Talent is a must, experience is preferred.  If you are a talented, motivated student please feel free to apply

Location:
- This job is in Berkeley, California.  This is not a telecommuting job – only people who can come to our office in Berkeley at least 3 days a week need apply.

Compensation:

- Compensation will be from $18 to $24 per hour, depending on experience.  A salaried, full time position is a possibility in the near future.

Here’s how to switch from AVG Free Edition to Microsoft Security Essentials (also free).  Further explanation of why we recommend switching is below.

1. Uninstall AVG Free Edition.  You can do this by going to your Control Panel, then “Add/Remove Programs”.  Select “AVG Free Edition” from the list and click Remove.
2. You may need to reboot the computer after this.
3. Next, download and run the AVG Remover.  You can get it here.  This cleans out all traces of AVG from your system.
4. Now download and install Microsoft Security Essentials from here.  The install couldn’t be simpler.  Be sure to let it do a full scan after it installs.

Here’s more details about why we recommend Microsoft Security Essentials.

Free antivirus may sound “too good to be true”, but it’s not.  For years, companies like Avira and AVG have been giving out free antivirus to consumers.  How do they do it?  Usually, free antivirus exists as a “gateway” to get you to buy more expensive products such as internet security suites (which we don’t recommend for most consumers).  Instead of spending money on advertising, or on getting trial software preloaded on new PCs, some antivirus makers found that offering free basic protection to millions allowed them to sell expensive “enhanced” protection to tens of thousands.

This model is fine, but AVG has gone too far with it.  Starting with version 9, the product which was once lightweight and simple has become overburdened with unnecessary and slowing features.  Where AVG used to gently recommend a paid version of their product, they now push the paid version too aggressively, with questionable tactics such as unnecessarily complicated upgrades which often confuse the user into paying.

The good news is, Microsoft has released a free antivirus, and it’s different.  Microsoft is not trying to sell you an upgraded version, they are simply protecting the reputation of their operating system.  Their new product is fast and lightweight, without the popups, system drain, and confusion that bogs down other free and paid antivirus programs. It works exceedingly well.  While the world of antivirus changes from month to month, we’re happy to recommend Microsoft Security Essentials as the optimum choice for most home users (for now).

Computer Courage is proud to announce the launch of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation website.

Also built on the WordPress platform, It is a professional, but friendly website with a color scheme for each section. It also has a Google Calendar integrated into the calendar page and widgets. Visit the website at: http://www.bpef-online.org.

We were thrilled to see that in a new study by water&stone and CMSWire, WordPress came out on top as the leader in open source Content Management System satisfaction.  Image and link below:

You can download the full report here

Every incoming message is a set of tasks for me.  At the very least I need to open each message, skim it, and delete, archive, forward, or read and respond.  This doesn’t include any “real work” that the email may demand (researching a product, running a report, etc).  Like most of you, I find moments in the day to sit down and wrestle with the inbox, slashing away at it and trying to keep it to a reasonable size.  I’ve learned to take each email, parse it, and act on it.  This action may be an email response, a delegation of a task, an addition to a to-do list, an archiving, or a simple press of the delete key.  With these tools, I can bring my inbox down to size and focus on my other tasks.  But all this time, I’ve been missing something critical – I’ve only been managing my inbox, what about my outbox?

I’ve been reading David Allen’s critically acclaimed book, “Getting Things Done”, in an effort to find a way to manage my time and my tasks.  I’m only on Chapter 4, but I’m already gaining some clarity about the scope of tasks that I surround myself with every day.  One area that Allen opened my eyes to is the concept of the “open loop”, which represents an unfinished task, project, or communication.  As he points out early in the book, an open loop can be an action that you are waiting for someone else to do.  Allen recommends tracking these in a list called “Waiting For” and reviewing this list on a regular basis.  At any given time, I’m waiting for 10 or more  people to get back to me, and this is something I have trouble keeping track of.

The realization I came to today is that almost every email I send represents a task on the “Waiting For” list.  How many messages have I sent out so someone assigning them the “next step” on a project, and then simply forgot about it?  How often do they drop the ball and stall or kill the project?  Maybe I’ve emailed my employee and asked him or her to draft up a letter for a client, or maybe I’ve asked a client for some data that I can’t continue without, or maybe I’ve opened up a trouble ticket with a software vendor.  In any case, most of my outgoing emails require an action on someone else’s part, an action that I am actively waiting for and need to follow up on.

The “Waiting For” email list, aka my Sent Items, might be bigger than my Inbox!  As I realized this, my heart sunk a little.  I thought of all the new tasks I had made myself aware of.  I envisioned opening up a to do list every time I sent an email and painstakingly transcribing details about the outgoing message, who needed to act, when I expected a response, when I needed one, etc.  This sounds like an absolute nightmare.  Fortunately, I found a pretty simple solution that I wanted to share with everyone, and see how it works for me or for anyone else.

The Technique: Managing Your Sent Items with “Resolved Sent”

The key to managing your sent items will be to essentially have two folders for sent items.  The first folder is just your normal “Sent” folder – where sent messages are automatically placed by your software upon send.  This is the temporary home of all sent mail, and your goal will be to clear this folder just like you do your inbox. Your goal will be to eventually move all of your sent messages into a second folder, which I’ll call the “Resolved Sent Items” folder. This folder is for sent items that do not require any follow up, and can be forgotten about forever.

As with any GTD technique, this would only work with proper review.  I need to regularly go through my Sent Items folder and accomplish two goals: move messages to the Resolved Sent Items folder, and be reminded of items that I’m still waiting for.  I propose doing these separately.

At the end of each day, I will go through the day’s sent mail, which lives at the top of the Sent Items folder  This task is simple, all I need to do is look at each message and determine it is an “open loop” or not.  If the loop is closed, the message gets moved to Resolved Sent Items.  If the message is still an open loop, it stays put.

At the start of each day, I should look at the Sent Items folder in its entirety.  Every single message in the folder represents something I’m waiting on (since I’ve screened the list  the night before).  As I read through these open loops, I may be prompted to send reminder emails, change courses on projects, or just to be aware that I am waiting.  Once I’ve been through this list in the morning, I can forget about it until the end of the day, when the pattern repeats.

This can be implemented with either folders (Outlook) or labels (Gmail, Thunderbird).  Outlook users can create a subfolder of the Sent Items folder called “Resolved Sent Items” and label users can create a label called “Resolved Sent” which they can attach to sent items.  Either way, it will be easy to pull up a list of all sent messages that aren’t finalized, and parse them.

Success in business is accomplished many ways, and one of the tried and tested means of accomplishment in business is follow-up.  I pride myself in being reliable and responsible with my tasks.  This new, wider vision of my task responsibilities is intimidating, but will also allow me to perform in a more successful, organized, and stress free manner, if I can keep up with the twice daily reviews.  Please post your feedback and comments below.

Update: Someone came up with a pretty cool looking way to do this with Gmail.  See here: http://todmaffin.com/waitingfor.  I haven’t tested it but it looks like a wonderful implementation.  Now if only someone would come up with a similar solution in Outlook.

Windows 7 – Better Than Vista
The first thing you should know about Windows 7 is that it is better than Windows Vista, in just about every way.  Many of you have heard us (and others) say that Windows Vista was a flop.  Many of you are still running Windows XP, the previous version of Windows, because it is generally still respected as a quality (if a bit dated) OS.  Windows 7 has the performance of Windows XP with a user experience close to that of Apple OS X.

Vista was a total disaster, Windows 7 is a success.  Vista is slow and crashes frequently.  7 is fast and stable.  Vista created massive problems for 3rd parties, 7 is highly compatible.  Vista is expensive, 7 is affordable ($30 for students, $120 for upgrades, $200 for new home copies, $300 for businesses).

What’s Important About Windows 7 To You?
Windows 7 has many new features.  Some are helpful, some are pleasant, some will become necessities in the future.  None of the new features, however, are worth the upgrade alone.  So should you upgrade?  Easy answer:

Windows XP users do not need to upgrade to Windows 7. You’ll get 7 on your next computer, and it will run beautifully.  In the meantime, there’s no direct upgrade from XP to 7 (you have to purchase a full copy, then reinstall).  If you have a fast computer and you want the upgrade anyway, we can do it for you, just contact us.   If you’ve been waiting to buy a new PC at the store, it’s now is a fine time.  Though you might want to contact us first to get our free suggestions and buying tips.

All Windows Vista users should upgrade to Windows 7.  Vista is a problem.  7 is the solution.  The cost of the software upgrade is $120 for homes, $200 for businesses.  The upgrade process is fairly easy, we can do it for you or you can do it yourself.  This upgrade will make your system run better and faster for many years to come.

Businesses should continue to use Windows XP until getting a consultation.  Your business operations are critical to your income and you shouldn’t take any chances.  If you think your company is ready for the upgrade, contact Computer Courage to schedule a consultation so we can analyze your hardware, software, and needs before making the jump to Windows 7.  It’s not a matter of “if” with Windows 7, it’s just a matter of “when”.

Windows 7′s New Features
Windows 7 is not just a fix for Vista’s problems, it also brings some new features and tricks to the table.  You can see a whole feature list here, but below are some of our favorites:

• New taskbar – The new taskbar is somehow simpler, prettier, and more powerful.  It reminds us of the OS X Dock, but with innovative improvements such as Aero Peek, which lets you easily see open window previews.
• Better Networking – The new HomeGroup feature of Windows 7 makes it easy for you to share your pictures, video, and music with other computers in the house (even non-7 machines)
• Better Power Management – Stay greener and keep your utility bills down with improved sleep and resume functions.
• Support for Netbooks – We’ll see how well it runs, but 7 promises to be the future of those little mini-laptop “netbooks” you’ve been seeing around.

Is It Too Early For Me?
Remember, there is no rush.  Some people don’t like to run an operating system when its just come out – maybe it will have problems with your hardware or software.  If you wait, those problems might get hammered out for you before you buy.  Companies like Dell are still selling new computers with Windows XP on them, so you don’t have to make the transitions yet.  If you have a business with a network, make sure to contact Computer Courage for a consultation before moving forward with Windows 7 upgrades.

Free Upgrade If You Bought After June 26, 2009!
If you purchased a full copy of Windows Vista, or got it preloaded on a PC from a major manufacturer, you are likely eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7 (with some tax, shipping, and handling).  We strongly suggest you claim your upgrade disc.  You don’t have to upgrade now, but you might as well take advantage of the offer (which won’t last forever).  Note, even if you bought a PC with Windows XP on it, it’s likely to have been a copy of Windows Vista with an XP Downgrade, so you’re still probably eligible.

To find out if you are eligible for a free copy of Window 7, go to this page on Microsoft’s website.