All My Google Results Show Up In Italics – What Gives?

July 24, 2015
by admin

When your Google something, and the results in Chrome show up as Italics — it usually means that the font normally used for this is missing.

Determine What Font Is Used

If you right click on the text that is in italics, you can “inspect element.” A window at the bottom of your screen will come up and you can scroll through that to find information about fonts. If, for instance, you see Times New Roman — then it’s the Times New Roman font that has an issue. Most likely, the “regular” version of the font is missing so the browser is auto-substituting another version — the italic version.

Check Your Fonts Folder

To get to your fonts folder, go to Start –>Control Panel –>Appearance and Personalization –>Fonts. This will contain a list of all your currently installed fonts. Double click on the font you determined that your browser was using; in our example, this is Times New Roman. This will open up the font versions and you can see if the “regular” version exists. If it’s missing

Download The Regular Version of Your Font

If you Google “download Times New Roman font” you will have options of places you can download the font. Be careful that you use a REPUTABLE site to download, so you don’t end up with a bigger problem in the form of a virus.

Install the Font

Once you download the font, you can install it. Your italics issue should be gone now (but reboot your computer just to be sure.)

(Note: if you are missing basic Windows fonts, chances are great that you are missing other essential Windows files. It may be time to backup all your data and wipe your computer, putting a fresh install of Windows on your machine. If you need help with that, give us a call, it’s what we do!)

Computer Doc Changes Business Direction

Danville Kentucky Computer Doc Changes Business Direction We love our clients — the business clients, the individuals, the creatives, the entrepreneurs, the nonprofits and the public in general. We have found a wonderful place to do business here and it is gratifying to help people. We love it!

We don’t want to lose that, but we also want to have weekends occasionally and be able to stop working before the wee hours of the morning. After two years, the time has come to find a little work-life balance and to get enough rest to be able to deliver the best possible work to our clients.

We are Only Two

Steve and I recently had to consider how we do business, how many hours we can work per day, how many days we can work per week, and how we could help the most people and make the biggest difference in our community with the 24 hours available in each day.

Our business has grown to the point that we either had to hire more people — one to work in our reception area, another to work in the shop with Steve, and a third to help with graphics and website development — or we had to trim back on our client list — which we didn’t want to do.

The City’s Decision Helped Us Make Our Decision

While we were mulling over if we wanted to grow our payroll to continue to expand our services, the City of Danville decided to raise payroll taxes. Our decision was made. We will not be hiring additional staff. With that new information, we had to make additional difficult decisions on how to trim our workload and still help as many people as possible.

Why We Do What We Do

Steve and I both want to be sure that our work makes a difference. Simply “making a living” is not enough for either of us. We want to be a part of improving the local economy, of supporting small businesses and nonprofits, and helping our neighbors succeed in their businesses and organizations.

We believe that positive change starts at home.
We believe in grass roots approaches to improving our world.
We believe that the only way our country will get stronger is through the power of small business.
We believe the work of local non-profits matters and that assistance should come from neighbors not government.

Radio Show: Ubiquitous Computing

March 21, 2015
by admin

Ubiquitous computing, computing everywhere, and The Internet of Things is the topic for this week’s Radio Show. We talk about:

The creepy, eavesdropping “Hello Barbie”
Automating and remote controlling your car
The dangers of connecting to public WiFi
Appliances and gadgets to automate your home
and other topics

Listen now:

LiFi the Next Generation of WiFi?

March 19, 2015
by admin

What’s LiFi?

LiFi, which uses light waves rather than the radio-waves utilized by WiFi, may be the biggest advance in data transmission since wireless options appeared on the market. Visible communications is a low-energy, highly secure method to transfer data through the air.

How LiFi Works

LiFi uses an LED light that flickers at a rate too fast to be detected by the human eye (which translates it as a solid “on” light), these flickers are projected and detected to send and receive data packets without wires and with 10,000 times the available bandwidth of traditional WiFi!

Why You Might Want LiFi

Although it doesn’t require line of sight, the LiFi is stopped by solid objects such as walls — so your neighbors can’t try to hack your LiFi from their house! It also offers the following advantages:

Lower Cost
Requires Fewer Components
Extremely Low Energy Use
Higher Speeds Than WiFi
Safer for Humans and Animals
Won’t Conflict or Interfere with Other Electronic Devices (There’s no electromagnetic interference.)

How It Will Be Used

From standard “in house” and “in office” data transfer to specialized applications like:

Underwater applications which absorb radio signals too much can benefit from the use of light signals
Mines and Petrochemical Plants where Electromagnetic fields might be dangerous
Medical Applications where WiFi would or could interfere with essential equipment
Toys – safe interactivity between toys with low power requirements for longer battery life
Turning signs, streetlights, even vehicle headlights into data hubs
Offload excess data requirements of cellular networks to offer relief in bottleneck areas

Although it’s a relatively new technology, you can expect to see it grow in the near future.

Robot “Addie” Gets a Visit From the Doc

March 19, 2015
by admin

Our own Steve Knight made history this week when he performed the first ever repair on the Xenex UV4 UV-light disinfecting robot. This brand new model came to work at EMRMC this month and is now back up and running, helping to keep patients and employees at our local hospital safer!

Danville Computer Doc on the Charlie Perry Radio Show!

March 13, 2015
by admin

This morning, (on Friday the 13th no less) we had our first appearance on the Charlie Perry Show. This first episode of DanvilleComputerDoc.com on the show, broacast on WHIR, will be followed by more on Friday mornings.

The show was hosted live, but you can hear the recording here:

If you missed us this week, we hope you will catch us next week from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on WHIR, Hometown Radio.

In the meantime, if you have any questions you would like to pose, you can contact us here on the website, call us at 859-755-4344.

We had a blast doing this show and look forward to next time… so JOIN US!

The Computer Doc Has a New Robot Patient

March 2, 2015
by admin

Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center has unveiled a cleaning robot that utilizes ultraviolet light technology to clean patient rooms. This new robot, by Xenex, already has a general practitioner on standby. That robot doctor is Steve Knight of DanvilleComputerDoc.com.

In order to qualify to be the robot’s primary care physician — Knight had to study the design and build of the robot, pass written examinations on the repair and care of the Xenex robot, and become Xenex certified to handle any and all “ailments” the machine might have.

The robot star was recently featured in the Advocate Messenger and the Computer doc is looking forward to working to keep his patient healthy, so the Xenex can work hard to keep our local facilities germ-free and help promote the wellness of EMRMC’s patients and our community.

The Xenex robot joins a long line of computers, networks, companies and tech-loving individuals that Danville’s own Computer Doc helps to keep healthy and happy.

Welcome to Danville, Xenex!

Cryptowall 2.0 Virus: What You Should Know

The latest variant of the Ransomware known as Cryptowall 2.0 is a particularly nasty piece of malware, and it’s been hitting individuals and businesses in Danville, Boyle County, and the surrounding areas.

How Did I Get The Cryptovirus?

Like most viruses, this one will invade your systems through the standard routes including: malicious websites, email, downloads, and ads. However this virus can also spread through files and attachments such as Adobe PDF documents.

In fact, PDF files are the primary transmission route of this particular virus.

Once you have the virus, it can travel across your network to infect some or all of the machines connected — and it can infect any “backups” you have that are connected to your computer — including “cloud based” backup systems.

What Does the Cryptowall Virus Do?

Once activated, the Cryptowall 2.0 will attempt to encrypt your personal files (pictures, emails, Word documents, PDFs etc…) with a 2048 key RSA encryption algorithm so complex, our own government has not yet been able to break it.

What Can I Do If I Get Infected with Cryptowall?

The encrypted files cannot be recovered without paying the ransom fee, which will give you access to the decryption program. Once you have the decryption key, you will have to manually run that key program on the infected computer or computers.

I Know Someone Who Had This (and Paid the Ransom) Can I Use Their Key?

The decryptor is infection specific, which menas that you will not be able to borrow the file from someone else that has already paid the ransom fee.

How Do I Pay The Ransom?

If you do decide to pay the fee to get your personal files back, you will have to buy approximately $500 worth of Bitcoins (depending on the current conversion rate, which fluctuates daily), which involves setting up a Bitcoin wallet and purchasing the Bitcoin from a reputable online dealer.

You will then have to send the payment in Bitcoin form through the TOR payment gateways that are specific to the particular virus that has infected your system. If this ransom fee is not paid within 5 days, the ransom will double to $1000 worth of Bitcoin.

How Do I Remove The Virus?

After payment is made and the transaction processes is validated through the Bitcoin network, you should (if everything goes according to plan) receive a link to download the decryptor specific to your infection.

When you receive the file, you can run it on your system to decrypt your files, but this is not a simple process.

Things to note:

If you leave your system unprotected, without a good anti-virus program, your computer could become re-infected and you will have to go through this nightmare all over again.
You should clean the infection on your machine before decrypting your files, otherwise they may become infected again as soon as you decrypt them.
This cleaning and decrypting process is best handled by a qualified technician.
Receipt of the key is never a “sure thing” and you could possibly be out the money AND your files — Afterall, you are now negotiating with criminals.

How Can I Protect Myself?

PLEASE purchase a good anti-virus software program and keep it updated. We recommend Kaspersky to all our clients and install more of this product at our shop than any other.

Buy an external hard drive (or two) and backup your files REGULARLY to a drive that does not stay plugged into your computer or your network.

If you need advice regarding removing an infection or have questions on prevention, best back-up practices, or any other technology questions, please give us a call at Danville Computer Doc, 859-755-4344.

We want to help you keep your computer and your files safe!

The NOT-So-Lowly Business Card

August 15, 2013
by admin

Last week, a vendor walked into the DanvilleComputerDoc.com offices. During our conversation about what we do and what he does, he said he found it difficult to effectively differentiate himself from his competitors. He knew that I helped clients with digital and print marketing and asked my opinion on where he should begin.

To be honest, I’d seen his business card before and wanted to find a way to talk to him about it without being too pushy — after all, he was there to sell me on his product, I wasn’t seeking his business as a marketing client. So, I took this opportunity to broach the subject.

I asked to see his business card. He handed me the same card he’d handed me a month prior. It was not impressive.

I’m blunt by nature (and he did ask for my opinion), so I told him it was bland at best and that it wasn’t helping his marketing efforts. He asked me why, and what suggestions I could offer him to improve it.

Below are the pointers I offered him in person. After he left my office, it occurred to me that many local business owners may be interested in a little information on how to “step up” the business card they hand out every day — but often take for granted: Continue reading

Windows 8® Causing Headaches?

August 1, 2013
by admin

The following article was originally published in the Danville Advocate’s “Meet the Merchants” insert in July, 2013:

Were you initially excited to get your geekware home and start exploring your cool, new operating system? Did you find yourself confused, dismayed, and unable to access your basic programs within 15 minutes of turning it on the first time? Welcome to the wonderful world of Windows 8®. But, don’t worry, the Danville Computer Doc can help!

What’s WRONG With It?

Fortunately, your computer isn’t sick — but it HAS been “genetically modified.” Like a hybrid strain of corn, it’s edible –but it doesn’t taste as good as the original. The good news? You can improve it — just like adding a little salt and butter to that GMO ear of corn — a little effort can make Windows 8® more palatable.

Where the HECK is My Start Button?

You probably asked this question 30-seconds after booting up the first time. This new interface is designed for touch- screen devices. If your new computer doesn’t have a touch-screen, you may begin to feel the pain of these new changes immediately.

Give It BACK!

Get out in front of this headache and give yourself some relief — in the form of a start button replacement. There are several options, but Danville’s Computer Doc uses open-source solutions whenever possible. He recommends Classic Shell™ available at www.classicshell.net and is free for both personal and commercial use. This program immediately puts the familiar start button back where it belongs, allowing you to access your programs, folders, and power options just like you always have and allows you to choose the start menu you prefer: Classic, Windows XP® or Windows 7®.

But I Don’t WANT To Go Metro!

You may like the “apps” style layout of may not. You may want to avoid stand-alone programs. You may want to the new Windows, called “Metro” — you find your way back to your classic desktop. Classic Shell™ also allows you to boot straight to the familiar windows desktop, avoiding the new Windows 8® Metro user interface altogether.

Is Microsoft Going to FIX This?

Microsoft has publicly admitted their failure with users and will restore the start button and other features in version 8.1. You can preview this release by visiting: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview. Please keep in mind that this version is still in beta (testing phase). The final release will arrive later this fall.

DanvilleComputerDoc recommends you try Classic Shell™ until the final release arrives. If you are feeling adventurous, try the current version, but unless you like beta-testing with your data, waiting may avoid additional headaches.

-DanvilleComputerDoc

If you have questions about your new operating system, or need some help upgrading, repairing or learning more about your existing computer, tablet, or smartphone, call DanvilleComputerDoc.com at 859-755-4344 for immediate access to top-rated “Healthcare for Geekware!”

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