After doing some research, I found KB articles from Microsoft which talked about the need to have Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed in similar cases.  Sure enough, once SP1 was installed and the system was rebooted, Windows accepted the system key and the system was validated.

I’m also guessing that this probably only applies to restore media that may have been issued prior to SP1.  For example, I know that if you purchase replacement restore media from HP, they include many updates that have been released since the system was first released.

I’m hopeful that Microsoft has corrected this problem in Windows 7 so that a fresh install doesn’t require consumers to hire a computer technican to complete a system restore.

To complete the restore process, I’ve been using Partition Commander, which is a great tool when it comes to quickly formatting and converting a volume to NTFS. 

While there may be various reasons why a computer is misbehaving or acting funny, such as an infected computer or the start of a hard drive failure, I always tell clients that this is an opportune time to back up data if you don’t already have a process in place, especially before the situation gets worse.

I cannot tell you how many times I have had to replace a hard drive and the horror on a client’s face when they find out they have lost everything.  I just can’t say it enough.  Backup, backup, backup.  And when I say backup, I’m mainly talking about all the content that did not come with your computer, such as pictures, music, video, and documents.

Personally, I try to use the 3-2-1 backup rule, which is basically keeping 3 copies of files on 2 different media types with 1 copy offsite.   The offsite part of the rule used to be tricky, but online backups have made this much easier now.

In fact, I recently became a Carbonite customer, which is an online or ‘in the cloud’ solution.  So far I’ve been extremely happy. I’m not trying to make this a Carbonite commercial.  There are a few other solutions out there too, such as mozy, ibackup, and idrive. I mainly tried Carbonite because I hear them mentioned on many of the podcasts I listen to.

And if you’re not sure you need a backup solution, just think about what value you would put on your data.  If you’re like me, I can’t when it comes to family videos and photographs.

So no matter what type of backup solution you decide to implement (external hard drive, flash drive, online, or a combination of all), don’t take the chance of losing data, especially when your computer starts giving signs that something is awry.

In my opinion and experience, cleaning a computer should be the last option, while restoring a computer should be the first option.  Hopefully this article will give you some insight and advice as to the differences.

When a computer has been infected by a virus or malware, I generally find that no matter how well the computer has been ‘cleaned’ there is always remnants leftover, which continues to impact the performance of the computer.  

In fact, most computer I’ve worked on that are 2-3 years old, are already running slow because of excessive programs being installed and unnecessary applications running in the background.  Catch a virus or malware and performance really takes a dive.

Restore Options

So let’s talk about restore options.  If your computer didn’t come with restore media, you may want to see if you are able to create it yourself using an existing application on the computer.  This would entail running a program that is supplied by your computer which will allow you to create the restore media using either CDs or DVDs.  In fact, regardless if you are having performance problems, it’s always a good idea to have a restore option for your computer.

Another option is to see if your computer has a restore partition on the hard drive.  A restore partition is a section of your hard drive that has been designated to contain just the data needed to restore the operating system and any programs that originally came with it.  To start the restore process from the hard drive, you probably need to hit a designated function key (the F1-12 keys at the top of the keyboard) when the computer first boots up.

Finally, if you don’t have the restore media or the option to create it, and your hard drive doesn’t have a restore partition, some manufacturers will actually allow you to purchase it.  Some are reasonable, others are not.

And if none of the above restore options are available, then it’s probably time to look into having the computer cleaned as well as possible.  

Restore Issues

There are some drawbacks to restoring your computer versus cleaning it.  First, if you’ve installed a lot of applications besides what came with the computer, they will all need to be reinstalled after the restore process.  This can be problematic, in that if you don’t have the application CDs or originally purchased them online, you may not be able to reinstall them.  This in itself may dictate the decision of cleaning versus restoring.  

The other issue is related to restoring is user-created content, such as pictures, videos, music, documents, etc.  Basically anything you created that did not come with the computer.  All of this content will need to be backed up prior to doing a restore, as most of the time it’s wiped out after the process.  

Some restore options allow you to restore without eliminating this data, but in most cases I would recommend doing what’s called a ‘destructive’ restore, where the hard drive is completely wiped clean prior to reinstalling the operating system.  By doing a destructive restore, you ensure that nothing is leftover from the previous installation, so viruses and performance issues are eliminated.

The final drawback of restoring your system has to do with operating system updates.  Chances are when you restore your system, updates that have been released since the system was brought home will need downloaded again and reinstalled.  While this seems like a lot of work, the payoff is increased system performance and knowing you have a completely clean system.

To recap, if you have the ability to restore your system; reinstall applications; and backup user-created content, I would recommend restoring a system back to its default state.  If there is no way to restore the system and reinstall applications, or there is too much user-created to backup, you may want to look into cleaning the system as best as possible. 

If you have any questions about this article, feel free to contact me and I will be glad to give you a free assessment via email or phone.

The site interface is simple, and one of the first things I did as a new visitor was search for proposals from schools in my area.  By typing Bakersfield in the search box, I found several local schools who had active proposals.

In addition to the site, Social Actions Labs created a WordPress plugin called Possible Related Classroom Projects which displays donorschoose.org campaigns at the bottom of posts based on content.  Clay Burell did a nice job of summarizing donorschoose.org and the WordPress plugin here.

And while I like the idea of the plugin, I have a couple of recommendations as to enhancements.  First, why not offer an option to embed the project campaign links into the sidebar?  I understand sidebar real estate is limited, but it would allow for an educational-focused website (such as a PTA or school parent club) to display the information in a more prominent position.

Secondly, instead of showing proposals related to content, why not allow keywords to be included–similar to donorschoose.org website search results?  For example, only showing Bakersfield-related projects.  I realize this limits the results, but again, if I’m supporting a Bakersfield educational-related website, I probably don’t want proposals from other areas to be displayed.  Not to mention the kinds of results that may be displayed based on my content.  I noticed there is a way to not display related proposals in a post using a variable, but this does not seem ideal.

Again, I think the donorschoose.org concept is great!  What a neat way to support educational projects–both at the national and local level.  And no doubt the WordPress plugin can enhance the ability to support those projects, but I think the plugin could be enhanced to offer multiple placement options, and the ability to focus on local search results.

UPDATE:After being contacted by someone at donorschoose.org regarding the enhancements I mentioned, I was informed that the website allows the ability to create custom RSS feeds and widgets. By using the SpringWidgets creator, you can get code for multiple scenarios.

After doing a search for Bakersfield, I used the options from SpringWidgets to export the widget into html, which I then embeded into a WordPress sidebar widget and bingo. You could also embed into a single post, which might be a useful solution if the post is specific for education campaigns and not the entire focus of the website.

Meanwhile, I recorded some audio from the event, including Matt Mullenweg’s The State of the Word session, and this weekend I finally got around to processing it. 

Although John’s video from The State of the Word is the real deal, if you are interested, you can download the audio portion of the talk here, or you can play it below.

As for the specs, I recorded it using an iRiver iFP-890 (internal mic), sent it through Levelator, and exported it using Audacity. 

I wrote an article earlier this year about using WordPress as a digital scrapbook.  Although it has been a while, I finally put an example together based on my original thought. 

My son and I recently went camping, so I put some of the content from the trip together in a post.  The elements of the post included using an embedded Google map based on the GPS location I took at the campsite;  an information balloon within the map that contains information about the campsite, weather during the trip, and links to a Picasa album; scanned PDF of the campsite map; and a narrative of our trip and some highlights.

Below is the Google map and a link to the campsite map.  I used the Google Maps Quicktag by Daniel Denk, as I regularly use the Google My Maps and this plugin was the easiest to incorporate the embed link to display the map.

View Larger Map

Here’s a slideshow:

To take the digital scrapbook idea to another level, you could create a My Maps of a larger area (say the United States) with markers of event locations that would link to smaller focus maps.

By combining available content such as pictures, video, GPS coordinates, and Google maps within WordPress, you can easily create a digital scrapbook to capture life events in a format available to family and friends.

Below is a narrative of day one of the camping trip.
 

Carson and I went camping to Sequoia National Park on June 20, 2008

We had reservations at the Lodgepole Campground.  The park was quite full, and I knew it was going to be, as I had made the reservations online about three months before, and even then there were only a handful of spots left.  So although our campsite was nice, it was slim pickings. 

Carson fought a nap the whole way from Bakersfield and during the last 15 minutes of the trip he finally dozed off, which is about how long we had been in the forest.  He woke up after his catnap when we arrived at the park entrance and talked to the ranger.

The entire park and its staff remind you all of the time about the situation with food and bears, and they were very strict about not even leaving food out unless it’s only an arm-length away.

Day One:

Carson was very excited when we finally got to our campsite and was ready to explore, but I told him we needed to set up camp.  He had so many questions.  I had packed way more stuff then we probably needed (supplies and food), and it made for what seemed long a long and laborious camp setup.  We had a new larger tent and I was anxious to see how big it was.  I was happy with it and it did well the entire trip.

After setting up camp, we went down to the river, which was located about 30 yards south of the campsite.  Carson and I threw rocks for a little bit, and then he wanted to put his feet in the water.  We took our shoes off and put our feet in the water and it was extremely cold.  No doubt you could tell this was recent snow pack melt.  Both of us could not keep our feet in the water for longer than a few minutes.

After checking out the river, we had some snacks and then headed over to the Lodgepole market to get some firewood and snacks.  After that we stopped by the visitor’s center, but it was already closed as by now it was getting to be late afternoon.  Carson wanted to explore some more but I wasn’t sure when it would get dark and I wanted to be prepared to make dinner and make a fire.  As we headed back, we used a payphone to call mommy and left her a message letting her know we made it okay.

After heading back to camp, Carson wanted to go back to the river.  We went and threw more rocks and did a little more  exploring.  He was curious about the rainbow trout we could see in the river, the rocks, plants, etc.  He wanted to even try and go out in the river but it was running way too fast, and especially with how cold the water was.

We headed back to the campsite and next Carson and I took a quick bike ride.  I didn’t bring my bike so I walked while Carson rode.  The campsite was completely sold out and there were a lot of families and kids around doing the same, riding bikes and taking walks.

On the eastern end of the campground loop we were located on, we could see people coming back from a hike on the Tokopah Falls trail.  Carson asked where they were coming from and I did my best to explain what they were doing.  This greatly intrigued Carson and he told my straightaway that he wanted to go on a hike.  I told him it was too late this day but that maybe tomorrow we could go hiking.

We headed back to the campsite and started getting ready for the evening.  For dinner I made spaghetti and Carson was quite hungry and ate two big bowls. 

I forgot how much work was involved with cooking and cleaning while camping, especially trying to keep Carson busy as I was flying solo.  I remembered that I had brought the older Sony cybershot digital camera for him so I let him go to it.  Many of the pictures in the album were taken by Carson.

After dinner I started the fire.  Even though it was starting to get dark, Carson was having a hard time not doing anything for any of amount of time.  As twig light arrived, a huge amount of bats came out to snack on the larger insects flying around.  It was quickly getting dark and Carson had no other choice but to rest.  As soon as the sun dropped it started getting cold.  I wondered if being near the river would make it even colder at night, and it turned out it sure seemed like it did.

I had brought stuff to make s’mores and I was hoping Carson would be excited about this.  He had fun cooking his own marshmallows but he really didn’t care for them, nor the graham crackers, which was surprising because he eats them at home.  So it turned out the chocolate was the only thing he ate.

With all the excitement, Carson had not taken his usual nap.  He was so tired that pretty much after s’mores we got ready for bed.  By now it was so dark you could really see the stars.  Carson was pretty amazed and how many you could see. I got the portable DVD player out of the car, and set it up in the tent.  Carson wanted to watch the Cat and the Hat movie.  The funny thing about that was the next morning, when Carson told me that after I turned on the movie, he fell asleep before the cat made an appearance in the movie–he was so tired.  That was it for day one.

Audio Listener Feedback – My original thought was that getting a toll-free number would open the floodgates for listeners to call in and leave feedback, but it turns out that is a lot easier said than done.  Even though the call was free, it was tough to get listeners to call in and leave feedback.  At the time (at least for this podcast), we found people were much more willing to leave feedback using email vs. calling in.  I even personally found this to be true when one time I left audio feedback for the Daily Source Code podcast.  FYI–I used Kall8 as our toll-free provider, and the service was excellent.

Consistency – Based on NASCAR news, we found that Tuesday evening was the best day for Stockcarzone to be released.  However, on the one or two occasions that the show came out later than usual, we noticed a drop in downloads of that episode.  Listeners expect to be able to download and listen to the show on a consistent basis, and this will maximize the number of listeners.  However, see the next paragraph for the exact opposite type of listener.

Listener Catchup – We found that some podcast listeners are extremely loyal, in that there were those who would go back and catchup on episodes they missed.  We mainly knew this by looking at downloads of shows which were one or more weeks old.  We also know this phenomenon to be true because listeners would leave feedback about an older episode consistently tell us that they were catching up.

Hosting Content – We used Libsyn to host our podcast, and it was worth every penny we spent.  The uptime was generally rock solid, and when a new episode was released, it would always handle the load.  Even when the podcast was highlighted by websites like Yahoo and we got a huge spike in listeners, Libsyn never hiccuped.  I would fully recommend the service.

iTunes Presence – I cannot stress how important it is to have a podcast presence on iTunes.  Throughout the 2+ years of Stockcarzone, listeners always averaged at least 60% (and usually more like 70%) of our total subscribers.  I don’t think We would have ever lasted as long as we did if we did not have the podcast on iTunes.  I realize there are other options besides iTunes for podcasts, but it’s obviously a preferred method for many listeners.

Overall the Stockcarzone podcast was a great project, although not profitable.  Corey and I both learned a lot about independently created content, and we met a bunch of great listeners and NASCAR fans.  Hopefully the information in this article will help if you are interested in podcasting and creating your own content.

And I’ve got content–but how to organize it and what to do with all of it?That’s where I think WordPress can fill a void in this regard.  Creating posts in WordPress allows individual moments to be collected and captured in a timeline fashion.  Then, throw in some plugins that manage audio, photo, and videos, and you have a great way to not only capture a summary of the events using words, but with content.

There are definitely privacy concerns to think about.  You may not want to put your life happenings online for everyone to see, but this can be handled with using the user registration feature in WordPress.  At the same time, this also allows you to grant access to those family members and friends who you do want to have access.

Using plugins such as PodPress would be a great way to incorporate audio and video clips.  For pictures, there are a plethora of plugins available, and some are as easy as pointing to a Flickr feed which many people may already be using.  There are also many Google inline map plugins where you could add a marker of destinations of events such as trips and vacations.  Create a couple of information bubbles, throw some content or links inside, and pretty soon you can see where WordPress can become a very powerfull tool when it comes to capturing special moments in life.

Although using WordPress as a scrapbook, digital or otherwise, is not a magic bullet, it does have appeal as to its options, especially as to plugins. With the availability and easy to use plugins, you could almost incorporate any type of recorded media as a historical record of the event.  Not only can you share your story with current friends and family, the hope is that some day it can work as a historical reference to memorable events.