Congratulations Canadian athletes!

Congratulations to all our athletes on an absolutely outstanding showing in the Olympics. Your hard work and valiant efforts make us all proud to be Canadian. Congratulations to the men’s hockey for the exciting finish to the Games.

You all did an incredible job and we’re very proud of you!

Also a HUGE thank you to all the volunteers who helped make the games what they were.

G’Oh Canada!!

Congratulations to Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada on their Gold Medal in Ice Dancing! A stellar, inspiring performance truly deserving of a history making trip to the top of the podium.

In Barrie, we are THE virus removal experts!

The onslaught of virus infections is increasing daily. The standard recommendations of “Norton, Spybot and Adaware” are less relevant than they’ve ever been. Virus infections cut through the mainstream tools like a hot knife through butter. Many virus infections are coming through flash advertising, which are maintained by third parties. This means that mainstream websites, such as Forbes (in my own personal example) are infecting websites without the website owners even being aware of what’s happening.

Virus attacks are getting more vicious every day. One of the latest infections, masquerading as an “Internet Security” suite, downloads other infections, prevents you from removing it, blocks access to the internet and many other devious tactics. Simply deleting the key file, which some mainstream antivirus solutions do, results in not being able to log on to Windows. When logging on, you are automatically logged back out again.

Even vicious virus attacks like this can be dealt with. We are the virus removal experts in Barrie. With the exception of Virut, we can eliminate any virus infection on your computer without formatting it. Today’s infections make it more important than ever to only trust your computer to a professional. An amateur can render the computer inoperable with their inexperience, forcing you to wipe out your computer. An inexperienced computer repair technician can also leave hidden infection behind, resulting in your computer becoming reinfected in very short order.

Have you ever heard someone tell you that they had their computer in for repair and two days later it was as slow as ever? That’s because an inexperienced computer repair technician didn’t do the job properly.

We understand how important your data is to you, as well as how important it is that down time is reduced to a minimum. We remove the virus infection quickly, give your computer a performance tuneup, remove expired or inadequate antivirus solutions and install new ones (free and paid antivirus software is available) and then pass the computer through our quality control process after the repair is complete. Finally, we fully guarantee the computer repair (as we do all our computer repairs).

We’re also available to help after the repair. If something pops up on the screen that you’re not sure of, we’ll be here to help. It’s always nice to have a computer geek you can call on when you get stuck. A simple phone call can often thwart expensive mistakes. Our reputation has been established not only by how good we are at what we do, but the superior level of service we give to each and every client after their computer repair or sale.

Today’s virus infections mandate tough measures. Don’t leave your invaluable information and functionality in the hands of amateurs. In Barrie, Ontario, Northern Protocol Inc. is the only place you need to take your computer for repair and virus infection removal.

We are now Startech Authorized Resellers!

Startech is a rather cool company. They make just about anything and everything that’s difficult to find anywhere else. In fact, their slogan is “Making hard-to-find easy”. They certainly do that. They have the most extensive collection of unique kibbles and bits I’ve ever seen.

Previously we bought them through two of their distributors, ASI and Synnex. I’m pleased to announce that we now buy them directly, ensuring us fast, efficient delivery of even the oddest and difficult-to-find accessory.

Before running all over town to find that hard to find part, give us a try. We’ll make sure you get it. Fast.

The word is out!

Today was an exceptionally good day. We were busy all day. Plenty of computers to repair, two new builds to get out the door and I was called out to various job sites all day. That in itself is a typical day at Northern Protocol Inc. these days. What made it stand out was a simple thing, but to me a very important one.

We had a fellow come in today. It was a rather innocuous visit, really. His reasoning is what made it stand out. This fellow is a now former Future Shop employee. While he worked there, numerous people came in and told him to come and see us and buy from us instead. That was huge to me. The word is getting out that we are the place to go. It wouldn’t be the first time that Future Shop had sent people to us to purchase products (and we greatly appreciate the referrals).

This was, however, the first time we’ve had a Future Shop employee (past or present) come in and tell us that his customers were telling him to come and see me. Thanks so much, Barrie, for passing out the word to all your friends, family and colleagues. It is those referrals that are so important and valuable to us, the reason for our success.

Fake Microsoft Outlook update installs a trojan

There’s an email floating around, claiming to be from Microsoft. It has an attachment that is supposedly an update, but it’s really an infection. You can read all about it over at PC World.

Microsoft does not distribute any updates via email. If you get any emails with attachments, do not open them unless you’ve first personally verified the origin with the sender.

Buy a computer, write it off on your taxes!

If you purchase a computer or software between now and January 31, 2011, you can write off the full amount on that year’s taxes! No half rule applies. Add it under Class 52 in Schedule II of your tax return.

http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2009/2009-06-10/html/sor-dors155-eng.html

Objectives

The objective of this amendment is to ensure that the correct application date applies to new Class 52 in Schedule II to the Income Tax Regulations. In the case of computer equipment described in new Class 52, the measure is temporary and is intended to encourage businesses to invest in new computers and systems software.

Description

This amendment ensures that the temporary 100% CCA rate for certain computers and systems software (new Class 52) applies to such assets acquired after January 27, 2009 and before February 2011.

There has never been a better time to buy a computer and there has never been a better place to buy a reliable computer than Northern Protocol Inc. For the best built, best backed, most reliable computers, trust Northern Protocol Inc. Computer Sales and Service.

Help us welcome James.

James (or 007 as we’ve affectionately dubbed him) is the latest member of our team. James is absolutely brilliant and brings with him an extensive and very impressive electronics background. James has designed and built robots, electronic circuits, controller boards, interfaces and everything in between. He’s absolutely brilliant with a soldering iron as well.

His cheerful personality and extensive skill set and experience is a welcome addition to our team.

Adobe CS3 Installation problems?

Several people have reported problems installing Adobe Photoshop CS3. Most of the problems that you may run into with your CS3 install are as a result of conflicts with other Adobe software. Here are some links to help you try and resolve those issues.

First you will want to have the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility installed. You can download the tool here.

After you have installed the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, uninstall any previous CS2 or CS3 products.

Adobe CS3 Cleanup Script:

Once you have uninstalled your products, run this script to clean up the previous installation.

Note that this tool has two extra levels that aren’t in the options, levels 3 and 4. Run the tool at level 3 until it doesn’t come up with any more issues, then run it at level 4. For a full tutorial on how to use the Adobe CS3 Cleanup Script, please see this Adobe knowledgebase article.

Adobe CS3 Technotes for Mac:

If you have a Mac and are trying to install CS3 or repair a damaged install, check out these technotes from Adobe.

“For the win”

We always do our best to make every client happy. Some jobs we do stand out in our minds as a huge “win” and encouragement.

Jonathan is one of those clients. He came in with an HP laptop in pretty rough shape. The internal battery that saved all the laptop’s settings was dead, the drive was encrypted so that nobody could access the critical (and highly confidential) data that was on it in case of theft and it was “blue screening” with a rather rare “internal_power_error” instead of booting into Windows.

It was easy to appreciate it wasn’t much good to him like that. He brought it in to another shop that quickly told him “I have no idea what to do with that. Go see Aaron at Northern Protocol. He’ll know what to do”. Well, it was an interesting challenge. We changed the battery, got it somewhat “running” again and then made a backup of all his data. Finally we fixed his Windows so it would run properly again.

What made my day was when he came in, told us that he had started out with the computer repair shop around the corner from his house, what they said and how he ended up coming to us. He finished it up with a great big smile and “Well, I’d rather come to the people that know what they’re doing”.

I have to say that meant a lot to me. It’s that “thrill of the kill”, so-to-speak, of beating the problems and seeing those happy faces that keeps me coming back for more. Thank you Jonathan, we really appreciate your business…and you made my day too.