Posted by Richard on Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Tags: garage door – garage doors – garage door opener – garage door repair – garage door replacement – garage door installation – garage door service – garage door prices
People will often come up with all sorts of reasons to avoid spending money. There are probably folks right now putting off calling the garage door repairman to fix the off track garage door or get a new battery for the automatic garage door opener because they are not sure whether to believe that the supposed end of the 36,000 year Mayan calendar in 2012 of the Christian Era calendar might really be the end of the world.
But apparently, from recent news reports about an upcoming book, it looks as if there has been an error discovered and the supposed end of the Mayan calendar as originally calculated may be off as much as one hundred years. In fact, it may have already passed.
The thing is, there are always apocalyptic visions and predictions where someone somewhere is reading the tea leaves or the heavens and stars or the Tarot or Runes or maybe even the Magic 8 Ball to determine that the end of the world is right there around the corner no wait it’s the next corner or the next corner after that.
Now, there are always going to be events that happen around the world that someone will interpret as the end of the world. One example was the focus on the Year 2000 potential computer programming problems. After the calendar flipped to 2000, there were not may problems but that is most likely due to the emphasis on fixing potential problems prior to the calendar flip.
But because there are always going to be problems and there are always going to be omens and portends there really are no excuses to put off getting those garage door repairs completed. Delaying necessary maintenance, whether for the garage door, the rooftop, the plumbing or anything else is usually a recipe for further and greater problems later on. People will always come up with the reasons to avoid spending money but the avoidance is the genesis of the saying “penny wise and pound foolish.” By not investing a little bit when a problem is first discovered and putting it off again and again, the problems will only grow and grow.
So folks just need to go ahead and relax. The world is not likely to be ending in just over two years (December 20, 2012 was the calculated end of the Mayan calendar compared to the modern era calendar). Life will go on. Oh the world will eventually end, just probably not quite that soon and when it does, oh well. As the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy put it, “Don’t Panic.”
Posted by Richard on Sunday, 07 November 2010
Tags: garage door – garage doors – garage door opener – garage door repair – garage door replacement – garage door installation – garage door service – garage door prices
The other day there was an earthquake in Oklahoma that was initially set at 4.5 on the Richter scale but was later upgraded to a 5.1. Folks might have missed the news of this earthquake however as it occurred the same day as the Chilean miners were rescued after 69 days below the ground after the mine they were working in had a cave-in.
While Oklahoma is not the first state a person thinks about when the term earthquake comes up, apparently, the fault lines in Oklahoma are fairly active although usually not of this high a magnitude. As far as that goes, many people are not aware that occurred one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in what is now the United States was on the New Madrid Fault line near St Louis in the early 1800s (it caused the Mississippi River to run backwards for a period of time).
With a magnitude of 5.1, there can be property damage from the earthquake. For example, it can cause garage doors to go off track. It may not even be easily noticeable that a problem has occurred until the homeowner attempts to open the garage door and is unable to do so.
People in Oklahoma are probably more aware and used to garage doors being damaged by a tornado, or super thunder boomer of some sort. That’s the type of damage where tree limbs can be thrown up against the garage door, visibly damaging the garage door and obviously causing it to need to be repaired by the local garage door repairman. But the earthquake damage, where the door just might be off track also requires a call to the local garage door repairman but not quite as easily noted until the door jams or doesn’t open at all. That would be the final level of frustration for some people, to have the garage door jam as the owner is attempting to go somewhere and unable to get the car out of the garage.
So even as 33 men saw the light of day for the first time in 69 days of mostly darkness, the world continued on its path with other problems and news stories. Newer news stories will come along in the next few days and weeks. Maybe even further earthquakes in Oklahoma that will wind up being the top news story of the day the next time it happens. Of course, the news stories most likely won’t say anything about the homeowners who have to call the garage door repairman.
Posted by Richard on Thursday, 04 November 2010
Tags: garage door – garage doors – garage door opener – garage door repair – garage door replacement – garage door installation – garage door service – garage door prices
Is Google trying to take over the world? With the recent news that they are testing “driver less” cars, they may well succeed. It seems they have been programming some cars to be able to “self drive,” as a means for more safety, possibly fewer cars on the road, and just to be able to say to the world that they could and did do this.
As current technology and laws stand, there does have to be a licensed driver actually in the car but the driving program is actually doing the driving. In the early tests, there has only been one reported accident that happened when the Google car was re-ended by another vehicle.
But think of the almost endless possibilities. People can go to the party, drink all the alcohol they want and make it home without having to worry about getting stopped for driving under the influence. They won’t have to worry about little things like crashing into the garage door by forgetting to open it before starting to drive or trying to enter it too soon when they get home. Of course, a down side to this is the garage door repairmen will no longer be collecting the tales of how the garage door was really damaged. And the insurance companies will lose some of their advertising tales for the same reason. But the Google cars will be able to have the automatic garage door opener programmed in so that the car can’t start out of the garage or attempt to enter until the garage door is opened correctly.
Self driving cars may make it possible at some point in the future to send the car to the school to pick up the children at school and deliver them to soccer practice or piano practice while the parents go on with their everyday work. Google cars programmed to follow a route on Google maps to go to the school, then to the soccer practice field then to the music teacher’s home. Depending on which child would finish the after school activity first, the car can be set to wait or return to the other then come back. Why, the Google car could even be set to allow some customization that would allow the parents to set a “bickering trigger” that would tell the children to stop their bickering after “hearing” some pre-determined level of back seat whines with the appropriate parent voice.
Posted by Richard on Thursday, 28 October 2010
Tags: garage door – garage doors – garage door opener – garage door repair – garage door replacement – garage door installation – garage door service – garage door prices
Most everyday there are news reports about a new Techno Toy or widget. Recently, Apple has had reports that it will be offering iPhones through Verizon as well as for ATT wireless networks. Other tech companies offer their versions of “smart phones” such as the Android from Google. The smart phones have legions of developers working to develop “Apps” that run on the phones in question that do most every task that is done on a PC or Mac.
There are also “tablet computers” such as the iPad that are a bit of the intermediary between a full blown desk top or lap top computer but seem to offer a little more ease of use and are a little larger than the various smart phones. Many software companies offer tablet versions of their best selling desktop applications for use on the tablets. New functions for the smart phones come every day. Smart phone users are surfing the internet as they go about their business just as if they were sittng at a desk in the office or at home.
As fast and furious as the smart phone and tablet applications come along, there do appear to be some functions that have not yet made it to these pieces of technology. So far, there are only a couple applications available that will allow the smart phone or tablet to operate as an automatic garage door opener for example. However, setup is complex, and so far the apps are particularly problematic. Although it is possible that these applications have in fact been created and publicized but have already been replaced in the news by another new application that starts the coffee pot in the morning or one that changes the baby’s diaper when necessary.
There do seem to be a few problems that might make it a little more difficult to create phone apps that function as automatic garage door openers. For example, most automatic garage door openers operate using radio frequency or some other form of electronic pulse, radio wave, or microwave so any phone application would have to be able to generate the proper frequency and style of signal in order for the garage door to open or close properly.
Beyond that, once the smart phone application is set up to be an automatic garage door opener, what does the homeowner do in case of a problem? Does he call the garage door repairman or does he take the phone into the phone company technician to do the repair? Or does he just download a software patch for the app online?
So as smart as the smart phones are becoming, it is still probably sometime in the future before they can perform ALL functions around the home and replace all the other little technical devices in use.
Posted by Richard on Thursday, 28 October 2010
Tags: garage door – garage doors – garage door opener – garage door repair – garage door replacement – garage door installation – garage door service – garage door prices
Most everyone who has a personal computer of some sort has had corresponding computer problems. Depending on the type of machine used the problems may be minor or easily solved just by closing a browser. This solves most of the problems Macintosh users experience, assuming they are exercising care in the downloading and installation of applications.
Things get a bit trickier for those folks who use the Windows based operating system from Microsoft. Windows is still the leader in the operating system wars although the Apple Computer Macintosh operating system and the open source Linux operating system maintain a solid base of users.
Because of the wide spread nature of Windows operating system PCs the creators of viruses, spyware, and other malware tend to concentrate more on overcoming the defenses and protections on PCs than they do Mac and Linux machines. After all, the more users means a wider universe of people who might not be keeping up with the latest virus protection software.
It’s rather like how the neighborhood thieves might try to find the homeowner who keeps the automatic garage door wide open by mistake. Far easier to break into a home through a wide open garage door than it is where the homeowner remembers to use the automatic garage door opener to close the garage door as they drive off in the morning. People intent on causing harm to others, whether through using software to steal information or cause damage to a computer or people breaking into homes, are all about taking the path of least resistance or they wouldn’t be doing the bad things they are doing.
Just as the best way, of course, to keep people from walking through the open garage door is to close it, so is it the best way to protect an individual computer is to make sure the anti-virus and anti-spyware software is up to date. If however, an individual’s computer has been running slow and sluggish for a while, it is possible to have any bad software removed by the folks at the local computer maintenance shop. Just as sometimes the automatic garage door needs to be serviced by a garage door repairman, so does the individual computer need to be serviced by the computer repair person.
A good garage door repairman can help to extend the life of a garage door by assuring that the automatic garage door opener is working correctly and the garage door is still on track and in much the same way, a computer repair person can extend the life of the computer, just be checking and removing any malware that might have snuck in while the user wasn’t paying attention.
