Thank you for your interest in the Web Developer position 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 a business in Berkeley, California that provides web design and development, WordPress integration, and IT services.  We have a web development team of four and are looking for a new team member to start part time, working full time in our Berkeley office.

Requirements:

• Solid HTML/CSS experience is required
• PHP experience is required
• MySQL experience is a plus
• WordPress.org programming experience (theme, plugin, codex) is a a big plus
• Bachelor’s 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 office full time.

Compensation:
Compensation will be from $40,000 to $50,000 per year, depending on experience.

WordPress allows for comments on pages or posts. You can disable all comments, moderate them, or restrict them to your registered users. Most site owners want to encourage some public participation on their webiste and thus enable comments (including us). The downside of this is that some hackers and SEO consultants may try to take advantage of your commenting system by spamming it.

When a user comments on a blog article, they are usually asked to input their email address, name, website, and a comment. Because they are allowed to mention their website, some businesses see this as an opportunity to get free links to their site. In theory, this could be OK if the comment and site were relevant to my article. For instance I might allow a comment on this article that links to a site giving out WordPress tips. However, it’s all too common for spammers to try to take advantage of this by putting up generic, pleasant responses to try to earn a link to a non-relevant, spammy, or even dangerous website.

Below is an example of what a WordPress site administrator sees when a comment is made (usually by email notification). The comment below is a real example of a comment of my blog which looks perfectly innocent, but is not.

Author : Exmar Xxxxxx (IP: xxx.xxx.xxx.xx)
E-mail : xxxxxxx@gmail.com
URL : http://home-security.xxxxxx.com/
Comment: Surprisingly beneficial appreciate it, I believe your current readers might want a good deal more content like this carry on the great effort.

Note: I have modified the name, IP, email, and URL by adding in those xxxxx’s in order to protect you and avoid any trouble with the original spammer.

Now, what we have at first might appear to be a nice complimentary comment. It says “Surprisingly beneficial”, it comments my effort, and it mentions my reader community. Sounds like someone liked my article?

Wrong.

On closer look, this is a spam comment. The user never actually said anything about the article (which was about spyware), it just used generic niceties. That was my first tip-off. Also, it links to a weird looking site, which I investigated and which turned out to be a pretty spammy site. It’s safe to assume that this is spam. It was made by a script that looks for WordPress blogs and puts fake comments up in an attempt to sneak in links to a website.

The proper action here to is to mark the comment as spam. If you are a blog owner and you are getting a lot of these, you’ll want to enable the Akismet WordPress comment filter, but even then many comments get through. Akismet catches the obvious Viagra/Rolex stuff but not the sneaky comments like this. Each time you mark a comment as spam, your help improve the spam filter.

If you want help with this, just contact us for a free website consultation.

The traditional server model, however, is being challenged by changes in the way that a modern workforce operates.  A traditional server is closed off from the internet, making it hard for employees to access data from home or on the road.  VPN solutions can solve this, but they require the employees to be online in order to access files.  Furthermore, many workers today want to access and even edit documents from mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads.  A traditional server simply has no obvious way of supplying data to these devices.

These challenges have been answered, in part, by cloud storage services such as DropBox.  With DropBox, a company can put all of their files in the cloud, accessible from the office, from home, or from the road.  DropBox (and rival services such as SugarSync) provide excellent mobile apps allowing modern devices to access, edit, and share company data.  Most cloud storage services also offer data syncing, allowing users to access shared data even when they do not have an active internet connection.

As IT services consultants, we are often approached by businesses who are trying to decide which path to take – should they purchase and set up a traditional server, or should they embrace the new cloud storage services?  We have solved this problem for many companies and nonprofits, by evaluating the specifics needs of the organization and comparing it with the strengths and weaknesses of the solutions.  In this article, we’ll go over some of the main guidelines we use for selecting a traditional server or a cloud service.

Issue #1 – Security

A traditional server is usually more secure than a cloud storage solution.  With a cloud solution, all of the company’s sensitive data is placed on a cloud server that the company has no control of.  This alone is an issue for many organizations.  At Computer Courage, we believe that the primary players in the cloud storage field take appropriate security precautions, and that your data is safe in the cloud, but some organizations can’t rely on something they can’t control.

Beyond this, there is a more serious problem with cloud storage security.  Most of these services sync all of the server data to each computer, allowing the computers to access data even when they are offline.  This is very convenient, but does create another security concern: what happens if a laptop is lost or stolen?  In the case of DropBox, this means that a copy of the entire company data is exposed to a random stranger.  We expect to see cloud storage services evolve to solve this problem.  Some useful functions to solve this would include a) remote wipe – delete the data off a laptop after it is stolen, b) encryption and password – all synced company data should be encrypted on the user’s workstation, and a password should be required each time a session is started.

Traditional servers are not without  their own security problems however.  Servers must be constantly maintained, updated, backed up, and evaluated for security.  This requires regular maintenance costs and the cooperation of an IT consultant such as Computer Courage.

Issue #2 – Cost

The traditional server model, simply put, is more expensive for small businesses.  A good Windows Server tends to cost over $2,000 in parts alone.  Add VPN hardware for remote connectivity (at least $500) and backup drives and software (another $500+).  Beyond the hardware cost, companies must pay to have an IT consultant set up and maintain the server, which can add to the cost.  The only silver lining here from a cost perspective is that once set up, the company owns the server and does not have to pay monthly fees to keep the data accessible.

Cloud services typically require no hardware costs and very little setup time.  There is usually a monthly service fee associated with the service, but even the most expensive DropBox package (DropBox for Teams) is under $100 per month.

Issue #3 – Permissions and Access Control

Traditional servers use well developed tools such as Active Directory, Open Directory, LDAP, and filesystem permissions to allow for extremely fine-grained access control of files.  In a Windows Server environment, it is easy to set group permissions, allowing certain data to be accessible to certain users.  On servers, we often set up groups such as “Administrators”, “Financial”, “HR”, “Sales”, “Administrative”, etc. and share folders accordingly.  This way your receptionist cannot read your financial information, and your sales staff can’t access your HR data.

Setting up permissions like this on cloud services is not as easy.  Many cloud storage services embrace the philosophy of simplicity to the point where they do not offer more advanced controls such as permissions and access control.  As cloud storage develops, and more business and team-oriented services and features arise, this issue could easily be solved by the service providers.

Other Common Issues to Consider

Beyond the initial 3 issues – Security, Cost, and Access Control, there are a number of lesser considerations to factor when deciding between cloud storage and a traditional server.  Some organizations, businesses, or industries may have by-laws or regulations preventing them from using cloud services.  While the lack of maintenance or upgrades is mostly a bonus for cloud storage, it does allow the service provider to suddenly or unexpectedly change the way that that service works, which can cause headaches for organizations who were happy with things the way they were.

The Future is in the Cloud

Cloud storage is the future.  Even with a traditional server, most businesses want to enable remote access and off-site backup, which is likely to involve the cloud in one way or another.  At Computer Courage, we believe that Microsoft will integrate cloud storage solutions into Windows Server eventually, blurring the line between a traditional server and cloud storage services.  As Google and other large companies work to innovate the cloud storage field and create more business-oriented cloud storage solutions, we think that the pros of the cloud will start to easily outweigh the advantages of a traditional server.  For now, most organizations will benefit from a server.

If you have an organization and you want help setting up solutions such as this, or want to further investigate these options, please feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

Computer Courage is proud today to unveil our new website.  You’re likely on it already, but for those that haven’t seen it yet it’s at www.computercourage.com.

The new site in the embodiment of our web design philosophies:

Design. We have created a modern design that is consistent with our existing brand identity (now new business cards, signs, etc. and no mis-matching materials. The design is intended to be attractive (with use of custom font faces, sliders, and shading) yet still easy to navigate (with a simple menu.

WordPress. Our site is of course 100% WordPress powered. We’ve created our own custom theme from the ground up but we’ve incorporated many of the same WordPress tools we use for our customers including blog with comments, backup, Custom Post Types, an SEO plugin, and a media library. Learn about our WordPress customization services.

Search Engine Optimization. This site is carefully crafted to show the search engines everything we offer. You’ll notice that our menu is simple, focusing on our main services (and key phrases): computer repair, IT support, and web design. As you go into any section, you’ll find that the site goes fairly deep into descriptions of every small service we perform (for instance, search engine optimization, and laptop repair in Berkeley). A pair of handy plugins automatically keep our HTML sitemap and XML sitemap current at all times.  The result is a site that’s easy to navigate for people and search engines. Learn more about our SEO services.

Advanced Functionality. We’ve created an interactive design portfolio to show off our work with large, crisp pictures and Custom Post Types. We’ve put our services into Custom Post Types as well, allowing us to create sliders showing off our work throughout the site. We feature testimonials and projects in the sidebar.

More to come. We’re constantly innovating our company, and our web design services. Look for more additions to the site in the coming months and years, and thanks for being a part of our community.

Computer Courage is a computer repair, web design, and IT support company in Berkeley, California.  We are in our sixth year of operation and are growing and expanding rapidly.  We have a unique company culture of education and explanation, offering our customers a level of customer service that is not available elsewhere.  We bring our philosophy of growing and learning to our staff as well, who learn and develop as part of their employment.  Please see our Yelp reviews and our website to learn more about us.

We are currently searching for a new computer repair technician to work in our Berkeley office.  Your job will be to perform computer repair and IT support to our customers.  You will work primarily in the store on customer computers brought to the store, but will also be called upon to visit customers in their homes and offices to resolve issues.

Job Responsibilities include:

• Perform diagnostics, repair, maintenance, and upgrades on customer PCs and Macs inoffice
• Assist customers in understanding service options and results of completed jobs
• Visit customers in offices or homes to work on computers
• Assist remote customers over the phone and via remote control software
• Manage inventory of repair parts
• Consult with and mutually support other technicians in the office and field
• Manage the support ticket software

Requirements:

• Full time or part time availability
• Must have 3+ years of professional experience in computer repair ortroubleshooting
• Must be an expert in Windows XP, Vista, and 7
• Must have working knowledge of OS X
• Must have knowledge in network configuration including DHCP, DNS, and WLAN
• Experience with Windows Server and Active Directory is a plus
• Must have access to a car, a valid US drivers license, and car insurance
• Good communications and organizational skills are a requirement
• Must be eager to work hard, to learn many new skills, and work carefully in afast paced environment

Compensation is dependent on experience.

How To Apply:

Please do not send resumes or applications by email.  Please apply by submitting the online application below.

Thank you for your interest.

Computer Courage is proud to announce the launch of gas-stacktesting.com.  This site features a tough, grey design with a menu bar that follows you as you scroll down.  They also have a costom Emission Converter built into the website that lets you make various calculations, and create a nice printer-friendly version  when you’re done.

Computer Courage is proud to announce the (re)launch of magenta-inc.com.  This site features a beautiful custom design to highlight their wholesale ceramics and home decor offerings.  It includes a members-only shopping experience, a custom slideshow for their press mentions, and a product database organized by collection, category, designer and product type.