Tales from IT – Upgrading Home Automation Before a Protocol is Discontinued July 20, 2024

Welcome back to Tales from IT! Today, Maniac tells a story about a time he worked with a good friend of his father. He had mobility issues and set up an early automation service in his home to assist him with controlling things like his lights and room temperature. Since these predated the prevalence of smart devices, his devices did not connect to Wi-Fi, they used a different protocol that needed a compatible control hub to operate. However, the control hub his devices were using was reliant on a central online server, and that server was being shut down. The clock was ticking, he needed Maniac to help him migrate his devices so they could still be functional before his existing automation service shut down.

Maniac had never messed with home automation before, but he did have a lot of ideas for ways to improve and upgrade this man’s home. Could he finish the job before the old service shut down? Watch and find out!

Tales from IT – Gaming is Not Increasing Your Electric Bill June 20, 2024

Getting a little personal here with today’s Tales from IT. Most of his life, Maniac’s parents had blamed him for his home’s exorbitant electrical bills. They assumed that playing on a 300watt PC during his downtime not at school (so, five to seven hours a day) was causing their monthly electric bills to clear over four-hundred dollars. At the same time, they had a convenient amnesia over the fact their home also had a full-time deep freezer, a full refrigerator, two mini (bar) fridges, two basement dehumidifiers, and two of the most inefficient central air units that had ever been constructed.

So how much power does playing video games really take up? Well, let’s give it a watch.

Tales from IT – What Certified Refurbished REALLY Means April 30, 2024

Want to save five dollars and get a computer that could theoretically be a hundred times slower than its slightly more expensive counterpart? It’s a PC, they’re all the same aren’t they? Welcome to Tales From IT, where we share the occasional cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t listen to your IT (and the cost associated with it).

If you’re unfamiliar with “Certified Refurbished” PCs, they are PCs made up of older components that cost just a little bit less than a brand new one and are SOOO much slower! So why should you get one if you’re not planning to run legacy software on it? I don’t know. Here’s a story about a client of mine who wanted to save the five bucks. Decide for yourself if it was worth it.

Tales from IT – The Time an American Business Used Final Fantasy Hold Music March 19, 2023

Just when we thought we were done with Tales from IT, another story pops up that is worth telling. Welcome back, where our host shares some of the most unusual stories he’s experienced in Information Technology. Most of the IT work done recently has been virtual, and required a bit of being kept on hold. Typically, most major businesses that have the ability to hold or transfer calls within their system will typically have a prerecorded audio greeting play during the wait. Over the past few months Maniac thought he had heard it all, until a very familiar jingle from a certain iconic game franchise started to play over the phone. What happened next? Watch and find out.

Tales from IT – Helping a Customer With No Technical Ability At All February 17, 2022

It’s very common for IT to assist customers who have little technical aptitude. That’s typically why they need our help to begin with. But what happens when you deal with a customer who’s technical aptitude is so poor, they can’t relay to you what they need you to do for them? Here’s that story and how I dealt with it.

This will likely be the final Tales from IT on this site. Hope you all enjoyed it!

Tales from IT – Replacing a Photographer’s Workhorse MacBook Pro December 28, 2021

Welcome back to a new Tales from IT! We’re trying a few new pieces of tech today and decided to make this video for you. One of Maniac’s oldest friends took his advice and upgraded their MacBook to a newer model. However, they did it 3 years later than they should have…and both Maniac and their friends options were very limited because of it.

Can Maniac get his friend a replacement unit that satisfies their needs AND recover all their old system’s irreplaceable data? Let’s find out.

Tales from IT – Upgrading to the M1 Mac January 15, 2021

We’ve got a new Tales from IT! Apple has launched their line of custom processors and the computers that have these processors are available for purchase right now. Many friends and peers of mine are finally putting away their 5-10 year old MacBooks for good and upgrading to these new powerful systems.

But what is a Mac user to do with their years and years of files and data, especially if they have not created any backups? Apple will not take any responsibility for your data (unless it’s being stored on the iCloud), so asking a Genius to transfer your files, settings and programs is not an option. You can however, call a different kind of professional.

Watch the video below and find out what it was like to do a complete data transfer to a new M1 Mac. You’ll even get some tips and pointers along the way.

Tales From IT – Fun Times At Work September 1, 2020

Welcome back to Tales from IT, where I talk about some of my most noteworthy computer jobs. People have asked me if I ever get the opportunity to have fun on a job site. I know it may not look like it, but I’m actually a professional when it comes to my work. Typically, if I’m called in to do a job like fix a computer, I will focus entirely on that job until it is completed while I’m being assigned that job.

That said, occasionally I’m given 9 to 5 assignments that are not entirely structured, or I’m given the opportunity to be creative with my testing procedures while at work. This is a story of one of those times.

Tales from IT – Upgrading a Mac Mini to a Solid State Hard Drive August 3, 2020

Maniac tells a story of how needlessly difficult and annoying it is to perform a simple upgrade of a 2014 Mac Mini’s Hard Drive.

Tales From IT – When a Printer is More Than Just a Printer June 8, 2020

We’ve got a follow-up to our last Tales from IT, with a hiccup I encountered from a major network migration. I was under orders to pull all of the old printers from a major business. One particular user did not want their printer to go anywhere.