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What we’re up to

We’ve been quiet, thought I’d share what we’re up to.

I’m tired, stressed and getting unmotivated again. With at least 3 coding projects to finish, and life being helpful with throwing stuff around, I can’t concentrate on anything.

I’ve often thought about stopping and getting a new part-time job to try and focus on getting things back on track, but there are so many terrible examples here. For example, 58 hours per week is considered ‘part-time’, recruitment agencies duplicate every job out there multiple times, and the big-name job sites don’t help with terrible sorting practices.

New Website

I’ll develop a new, easier-to-maintain, more secure website requiring the least framework updates. While it is hard work uploading posts or importing them into the new system, it should make my life easier without having to update plugins or ban IP addresses because they’ve tried stupid stuff to try and get in.. though it’d also hide the fact that they’ve attempted the whatever they are trying anyway.

Items to sell

I have a few items to sell, Memory sticks etc. Woocommerce sucks up server resources. EBay and Amazon are pretty terrible to use. Facebook is silly, sometimes it’ll let you list products on Facebook, then other times it wants you to use off-Facebook methods such as your site or a merchant service.

Christmas

Seriously not looking forward to this one, being the first Christmas without my dog, I need to work out what I want to do as I’m not coping at all anymore. We’ll probably shut around the 20th for paperwork, and not sure if I’ll restart after Christmas.

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Christmas 2022 operating times

merry christmas sign
merry christmas sign

Apparently, I’m allowed a break at Christmas, so we’re going to shut down from the 22nd of December to the 4th of January.

After a terrible year of injury, panic, illness, more panic, and global panic (yes you get to experience it too!), my Anxiety hasn’t really gotten back down to manageable levels.

Hopefully, I can get back up to speed, have more energy to do more in the new year, and hopefully write more posts.

I’m also stepping back from Social Media as Twitter is becoming quite toxic and Facebook has made things difficult for Businesses to access their pages correctly.

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end of 2021

low angle photo of fireworks

Well, the end of 2021 went so fast. all I can say is good riddance to it. From Chip shortages and tech scalpers to Pandemic restrictions, it’s been a pretty crap year. Interestingly spent most of the year thinking it’s still 2020.
Let’s recap what 2022 will start with.

Chip Storages

Semiconductor shortages are expected to continue while new factories are built, so computer parts and other tech are delayed still. So not much going to be available.

Better Broadband?

Possibly, BT is testing areas where they have completely retired copper lines and gone pure fibre connections with Digitial phone numbers. Issues there with power cuts as there’s no power coming down the line to power a wired handset.
Likely that the Fibre cost per month of £45 is going to be standard after this, but there is hope that if Internet Acess is required for Education or work that there will be a ‘National Requirement’ of a lower-priced or subsided connection.

Our likely aims for this year

Hopefully, sell more products (if we can get supplies of them!), more web design templates too. Just need the motivation to keep writing posts like this a lot more often for activity!
Maybe not stressing about everything will fix that too.

Anyway, I wish you a better year than the previous two.

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Parts supply update

Parts Supply

With everything still going a bit crazy worldwide, slowly the supply of parts are getting though and getting a bit cheaper.

There is still chip shortages for most things, these seem to be controller chips that go in almost everything such as Digital Car dashboards/diagnostics, Hard drives and their controllers and much more common use equipment and parts.

On that note, our regular Parts Supply distributor is still expanding their ranges and now have Fractal Design ION Power Supplies, More information on them here

Operations wise

I was hoping to be back up and running after being so careful with the pandemic, but it looks like case numbers are still high. This will make a miserable Summer, combine it with heat and hay fever to keep my anxiety levels up. Pretty much making me fed up if it goes on for much longer.

I still want to redesign bits of the site, but not finding any decent inspiration or starting point to do it.

Windows 11

Majority of systems from the last 6 years will run the new Windows with no issues. TPM modules seem to be tripping up the upgrade checker. I would of said those are a easy fix to add, but guess what scalpers are buying up like crazy.. Yup, from £22 per unit to £70.

Any PC purchased in the last year or so should have a built-in TPM, you can check compatibility with Microsoft’s tool found on the Windows 11 Introduction page

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Almost back to Normality?

With the lifting of the restrictions, we might be almost back to normality?

It’s going to be strange and stressful.
I was completely inept at social interactions before all this. So I’m not sure if I can cope with dealing with clients face to face again.

Personally, Not likely to be vaccinated before June/July, if at all. Migraines and stress aren’t much better either.

Global stocks of parts

There is still a massive shortage of stock of newer parts and equipment, not only due to the chaos of the pandemic, but we got a semiconductor shortage and crypto miners buying up GPUs and drives like crazy. This is partly the reason why I’ve not updated the site stock, compared to other parts retailers our prices will be too high once we get anything.

Future

Not sure. I want to look at services and pricing again.

Some repair jobs are getting trickier with HP following Apples lead by hiding its model numbers under obscure numbers or just having text slightly off colour of the casing. All in Ones gluing parts down with stronger glue than the hinge welds you want to repair.

Overall I’m not sure how much longer I can offer services without the confidence of being able to inspect, advise or procure parts when everything’s rare or getting more expensive.

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2021 tech trends

I Initially started this 2021 Tech Trends article before Christmas, but with everything going on and most of these products being constantly out of stock/no supply. I held off until stocks became more available.

New Stuff

3rd Generation Ryzen CPUs

The new offerings from AMD not only seem to be better value for money than Intel’s 10/11th generation I5/7/9’s, but fair very well in benchmarks against Intel’s matching range CPUs.

Best advice, since supplies of these are going to be limited, get a B450 chipset board with a 2nd generation Ryzen (3xxx) and you’ll be futureproofed for when generation 3’s (5xxx) are more available, which will likely be after Christmas, around March time

nVidia RTX 30×0’s

Nvidia RTX 3080/3090’s launched last month, with low supplies and scalpers selling the ones they could get hold of for ludicrous money. As these either seem a bit too powerful, or Games are under-optimized for it at this moment, I don’t think it’s worth getting one until 6months to a year down the line and save some money when they are available.

AMD 6800’s


AMD launched their 6800’s mid december teasing lots of benchmarks with nVidia’s earlier offering, with some anti-scalping advice for retailers. Again, benchmarks on the AMD cards look pretty promising and the new implementations seem to match NVidia’s performance tech.

Our Advice; These cards a bit too overpowered, overpriced and undersupplied at the moment have a look for lower-cost cards with 8gb ram and DirectX 12 support.

Raspberry Pi 400

A new Raspberry kit has arrived as an integrated Keyboard, ideal for someone to learn how to code or as a hobby kit.
You can pick them up at RaspberryPi.org for between £60 and £100 for the full kit.

A working shift

With Working From Home possibly becoming a more accepted thing, It might be time to invest in making it comfortable.
Standing desks seem to be getting popular, now there are Runner Desks with a treadmill under them. Likely to see more appear in this line this year as we’re expected to work from home until half way through the year.

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Lockdown Lunacy

This lockdown lunacy is getting silly, but hopefully end is in sight.

Migraine increase partly due to stress. Stress due to lack of income, no motivation due to stress, possibility of getting passive income via blogging/streaming if motivated. ugh.

Need to look at passive income, the local repair and sales aren’t really enough to keep motivated over.
1 week someone will want a cable, then nothing for 3 weeks so I fit in some coding. Something crops up at a crucial testing/progress day and that’s that project forgotten about for a few days.

Current Events;

Thanks to the pandemic causing issues with supply chains and movement, along with the poor handling of said crisis. Our ability to get out and sort problems have been pretty much torpedo’ed.

Of all the humour of how much people are laying into Government, its weird to be pulled back and reminded this is all happening, and there’s bugger all we can do about it.
Anyhow.. Here’s whats happening IT wise.

  • Prices going up on stuff like memory, Processors. Lack of supply and safe working distances are going to make this an issue until at least October.
  • Deliveries of goods, while contactless delivery can be arranged. Insurance won’t cover it, so distributors won’t do it.

As for us, I’ve looked at remote support. There is virtually (no pun intended) no way I can charge for it. onsite/workshop repairs are going to be weird until End of June. I’m still suffering from stuff from before this crisis to hit the ground running.
We are also looking at standardising, possibly increasing the prices of some of our services.
I also wanted to redo the site with a fresh design and content, but with my motivation and everything else falling apart it hasn’t really happened.

Anyway, we’re not over it all yet. So stay safe, and don’t click any dodgy stuff.

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Isolation day – ???

Maybe I should of started this earlier.

Basically lost what day it actually is, stir crazy’s pretty much describing it.

After this crisis is over, there need to be questions asked of not only how it can cripple the entire world, but over 4 billion lives brought to a halt, a small to medium percentage of that ruined.

As for us, I actually have no idea if we can survive beyond April. Our income was reduced to virtually 0 before this thanks to nerve damage causing issues with repairing small items.

We’re keeping active by updating coding projects and have a few page redesigns to work through as well, so watch out for that.

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The Inevitable Corona virus post.

No, not got coronavirus. stop panicking. However, it’s Fen Plague season as well.

Due to Government Guidelines, we will not be able to carry out onsite work or workshop repairs while this crisis is ongoing.

We can still provide remote support and prices for equipment (stock and delivery is another issue), and while we aren’t sorting out in-house projects or organising, I’ll be attempting to write guides for simple computer maintenance tasks/tips.

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Testing some bits

More of an income is needed, and we’re not able to keep a stock of parts in for very long at the moment, I’ve looked into other options for selling products including Affiliating with eBay and Amazon.
I don’t really like these 2 as they can’t guarantee stock though.

So I’m testing some bits to see if its worthwhile. if it brings in some income while i’m out or about unable to receive phone signals waiting for clients Windows 10 to download, install and abort at 90%, then great!

An example of a collection link Barebones selection

Single item

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Christmas 2019

We’re looking at closing for Christmas around the 23rd (Monday) and coming back around the 6th of January.
Lots to get on with during the break, we’re on the lookout for a decent Accounting package what doesn’t run in fear of Open Banking Regulations or API.

After Christmas, I want to get back to selling products, after being ill a huge amount of time and age catching up. I need to cut down on stress and travelling against the fenland weather. The migraines ramping up and started to cause other things too (weird nerve responses, may have to stop doing delicate/small repairs altogether).

Here’s some tech tips to help you survive Christmas;

  • New PC/Laptop? Create an image of the system or a system boot disc to a USB stick. It’ll save a lot of effort if things go a bit odd.
  • Windows 10 has a builtin malware/virus scanner, though not as good as stuff like MalwareBytes it’s less resource hogging than McAfee or Symantec’s bundled stuff.
  • Enable Onedrive for Ransomware protection too!
  • If you are switching between Windows or Android phone this year, a Gmail or Outlook.com account with synchronised contacts should sort your transfer out. When I tried this for a family member, Bluetooth transfer worked better (windows to Android).
  • Have your rechargeable batteries ready.
  • Read instructions carefully, especially on Windows 10 first setup.
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October 2017

While we’ve been quiet, unrest and unwellness have been brewing October 2017 is going to be the last one for us.

Seems not worthwhile to continue to advertise our services for local repairs, and my own mind is trying to find something worthwhile to do in the future.

More and more work is coming through online, remote and coding jobs which need more attention.

At the End of October, we’ll be shutting down the site and deleting social pages.

We’ll continue to provide support to existing customers when called upon.

As for the future, I’m not sure yet. We will have to see.

So, I think it’s time to say THANK YOU to people who appreciated what we’ve done for them.

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Quick update – June

After a terrible week of hot Summer days and migraines, We’re hopefully back to normal.

While we’ve been busy updating knowledge and coding for projects, I’ve had little time to update products. Which has made me think that I’d have little time to process orders to customers. So I’ve looked into Amazon Affiliates for Products, as no one seems to buy from the webshop anyway.

Maybe people will trust Amazon’s cart and processing system more than my own site, so I’ve decided to pull some products through their system. If there’s a good selection of parts with decent suppliers and automation if possible. If items sell, then it’s done more than the web shop has.

Sounds a bit of a rant, but with the weather, lack of creativity and migraines, the mood isn’t great.

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Small tweaks

A bit of tweaking done to the site to help make it easier to use.

Menu’s rearranged, shop categories now on the top navigation bar to help people find products they want.

Chips! Boards!

We also finally have prices on AM4 boards for the Ryzen range, along with the new Ryzen 5’s on the list.

Windows 10 Creators Edition

Creators Edition should be available for all Windows 10 users, a massive update what should give more privacy controls and tonnes of fixes for the annoying issues. Really you should back up etc before it downloads itself, but I think we all know the drill by now.

 

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New chips, phone screens

We’ve finally got Ryzen prices on the currently available range! Unfortunately, no boards for them yet, that sort of annoys me as we’ll not see any systems including them until we get the boards.

Also on the list (under the coming soon section) is iPhone screen kits.

I’ve tried to avoid these as you can never get a decent screen kit for a decent price (along with the odd Apple policies on the 6’s), but with these appearing from the regular supplier opens up a comfortable repair opportunity. These will be available as screen assemblies or kits (which include the basic tools) if customers want to have a go themselves.