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PRICING:
$40 hourly rate < 1 hour.
$25 hourly rate >1 hour.
These prices are approximate and can be more or less depending on what you need. Contact me for more information.
Computer Tune-up - This tune-up includes a hard drive check-up and full defrag, emptying temporary files, removal of spyware/adware, removal of viruses, and operating system updates. You must have a high-speed internet connection for me to do this job on-site.
Computer Diagnostics - Is your computer running a little slow? Getting weird error messages? Let us do the geek stuff and fix it, and make it go away.
Data Recovery - Lost an important e-mail or document? Let us try to find it and help get it recovered back to you.
Computer Setup - Got a new computer, or need help setting up an additional one? Let us get it connected right. We can also help you setup printers, MP3 players, or any additional peripherals.
Spyware/Virus Removal - Over 91% of the internet is infected with spyware; don't be a statistic, get it removed and block it from infecting your system again. We remove spyware at the source, and block it from entering your system. AdWare is annoying, and spyware risks your financial information. Identity theft is a risky problem not worth overlooking.
Software Installation - Got a new program you want to start using, but not sure how to install it? Want to upgrade an existing program? Let us do it, and take the uncertainty out of it.
Hardware Upgrade - We can upgrade your machine to get the most potential out of it. This includes CD Burners, DVD Burners, RAM (Memory), Hard Drives, Modems, Video Cards and more.
Wireless Network Router setup - Prevent hackers from infiltrating your home network and mobilize your computer(s).
Data Backup - I can inform you and install several different reliable solutions to securely back up your important files.
iPod Repair - I have become pretty handy with fixing iPods also. If you are not in too big of a hurry, I might can fix it and save you some money. I have also had a lot of success with data recovery and backing it up to a compact disc or DVD. This service is limited to the 5G Video iPod.
Home Movies to DVD - I can also convert and save your VHS and 8mm cam-corder tapes to DVD, which makes viewing and storing them much more convenient. Price varies depending on length of videos.
Cell Phone Tweaking - I can pimp out your motorola or iPhone cell phone to make it much more useful and fun. Let me know what model you have and what you want and I will let you know what I can do to it.
Some service may require the system to be picked and repaired away from your home, if this is the case a lower hourly rate may apply.
Hollis Services is not responsible for any lost data when doing the repairs and recommends backing up and archiving any information that is important to you on a regular basis.
The following article was copied from PCWorld.com/PC World magazine. When I read this, it just reminded me of myself so much that I just had have it on the site. The full article can be found at www.pcworld.com/article/id,134893/article.html.
If You're not a Geek, You'd Better Know One
Tech is so illogical and arbitrary, it needs folks like you and me to explain it to everybody else.
Stephen Manes from PCWorld.com
Thursday, July 26, 2007 1:00 AM PDT
 Bad enough that I'm my own tech support person. Thanks to the muddled magic of digital technology, I also get to handle the support calls of friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. It's not that I'm so smart. It's that truly smart people have learned they can get more done by willfully ignoring the petty details of the technologies in their lives. When something goes wrong, they figure they can find some kindly geek to set things straight. And they're right.
Concepts that seem obvious to those of us who cultivate technical savvy are utterly alien to the nontech majority--with good reason, since most products, services, and technologies aren't nearly as simple as techies and tech companies would like to believe. Just ask anybody with half a dozen remotes on the coffee table and a spouse who merely wants to watch a pay-cable show--even without the complication of getting it to play through a home audio system.
Take a flight anywhere, and you'll discover that few people know how to turn off their cell phones' annoying startup and shutdown tunes. Backing up files? I've known people who thought that copying their data to a second drive was a great strategy--until the first drive crashed and they learned that the second "drive" was actually just another partition on the same dead hunk of hardware.
I'm still astounded at how many users of free e-mail services such as Yahoo Mail either don't know or don't care that ads of questionable taste are appended to their most serious messages. The subject line of a brief but urgent note from our local block-watch captain read "Watch out for an arsonist in our midst tonight!" Neither intended nor seen by the sender, the e-mail's tagline: "Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when."
With the Web's increasing sophistication, things that used to be straightforward no longer are. Once upon a time, the mail you saved or the document you created resided on your hard drive. Now it may live on your provider's server unless you take special action to make it local. That's fine until you need the file 38,000 feet above Albuquerque, or the provider's system crashes or its business goes bust. Plenty of users fail to grasp basics like these--until it's too late.
Ignorance Can Be Bliss
But people who don't know that something is amiss with their tech may be happier for it. Consider the millions of TV watchers who apparently think they're getting a great picture from any show that proclaims "broadcast in high-definition" even though they don't own a high-def TV--or even though the set they do own isn't connected to a high-def program source. Hey, think of the money they're saving!
Those of us who make our living by paying attention to such details tend to get exasperated when relations and friends who are no longer "novice users" fail to understand or care about what we consider simple. What we forget is that the "logical" tech world we take for granted is in fact highly arbitrary, whimsical, and proprietary. Why can't you plug cell phone X into cell phone Y's charger when they seem virtually identical? Why will phone X, but not phone Y, work in Europe? Why won't a document created in Word 2007 open in Word 2003?
If you follow the world of technology, you probably know the answers to these and other mysteries. Folks who don't have a clue are probably getting real work done--until they blow up their cell phone or can't open a Word document from their boss. And that's when, inevitably, they'll once again depend on the kindness of geeks.
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