Q. what gave you the idea for the book
As many people in the IT industry can attest to, when you work with computers,
you have a lot of friends and family that start out conversations with "Hey, you
work with computers, right..." Before you know it, you're spending some quality
time working on their computer. Don't get me wrong - I really enjoy it. But
after a while, I kept wondering why there wasn't a good book for the everyday
user. There are books out there for the technical user and books for "dummies,"
but there didn't seem to be a good book for the average Joe - the guy or gal
that knows how to do the basics like surf the Internet or check email, but needs
some help with knowing what to look for when buying a new computer or howto
properly protect their computer and their data. I used to make jokes that I
should just write a book on this and then one day I just said "Yeah, I
should write a book for the everyday user - I can help out so many
people!" And with that, Just the Computer Essentials
was born.
Q. whats the feedback been like from the userbase
Fortunately, the feedback has been extremely good. A lot of things came into
play that helped with the book's success. Windows Vista was in its early beta
stages and with access to each revision, I was able to ensure that the book
would be accurate and timely with Vista's release. In addition, I had the
book read and reviewed by many people before publishing to ensure that it was
both accurate and easy to understand. I made sure to work with the admittedly
non-technical (that's fancy for friends and family that know little about
computers!). They made sure that they understood everything I wrote and when
they didn't, I rewrote to make sure that they did understand it. I also worked
with technical resources to see if they could catch anything that wasn't
accurate. Since the book's release, I've gotten quite a bit of feedback from
people just thanking me for a book they could understand and really use. That's
actually been the best part of things - every person that I can help is someone
not asking me to work on their computer! ;)
Q. have you put any thought into a follow up book
Well, technology will always be ever-changing almost faster than we can keep up
with. Because of that, I can assure you that Just the Computer
Essentials will need some changes down the line as technology
changes. Right now though, I'm starting on a new book that will help to guide
users to some of the free software available on the Internet.
Here's a few more - feel free to pick and choose whatever seems to be along the
lines of what you're looking for...
Q. How will readers benefit from reading this book?
I really wanted to make sure that readers aren’t overwhelmed with a bunch of
information that they’re never going to use. As in the title, I stuck with just
the essentials of what the everyday user needs to know and put it into an
easy-to-read book. I want readers to feel confident that they know what they
should be looking for when buying a new computer. I also want them to be sure
of themselves when protecting their PC and their digital photos, music,
financial data, and other files. The last thing anyone wants to hear is that
they’ve lost everything because their hard drive crashed. You need to put
protection in-place from the beginning or this easily can happen to you. This
book is a very cheap price to pay for the assurance you gain from knowing how to
properly protect your important files.
Q. Where should we begin in providing proper security for our
computers?
The first step is realizing that you do need to protect your
computer. Then you need to come up with a game plan. There are tons of
different options out there for protection from viruses, spyware, trojans, etc.
I go into the details in my book on making sue you understand what you need and
some of the best options, such as an all-in-one suite versus individual
products.
Q. It seems that one of the biggest pushes you emphasize
throughout “Just the Computer Essentials” is backups. Aren’t there other tasks
that you should be concentrating on first?
Security should be your first and foremost thought. As soon as you get your
computer up and running, the first things you should be doing is bringing it up
to date with Windows updates and getting security products installed and
configured such as antivirus and antispyware software. However, after that, get
your backups running. Security is important because it helps prevent malicious
activity from affecting Windows and your important data. But, there are times
when a new virus can get past your software before the software is even aware
that it’s a virus and then it might be too late. And, security doesn’t protect
against physical problems, such as hard drive failures or fires. Backups are
critical and should not be taken lightly. Too many people assum they’re never
going to need backups and when they do, it’s too late. I’ve had to tell people
that they’ve lost everything and that’s not something that’s fun to do.
Q. What are your thoughts on the new online backup services that
seem to be popping up everywhere and would you recommend one more than another?
Online backup services have really matured over the past few years. I am a
large fan of these because the good ones automatically back up your data on a
regular basis and the data is offsite – if something like a fire took out your
computer, you don’t have to worry about your backup being taken out as well. I
go into more details about some of the different services available in my book,
but I will tell you two of the most important factors to keep in mind with these
is:
1. Make sure that your data is encrypted when it’s passing through the Internet
from your computer to the online storage location so a hacker can’t read your
data during transmission.
2. Be sure that the service offers some type of encryption-on-storage option.
This will allow your data to be encrypted while on their servers, so f a hacker
were to break into the servers where your data is stored, it would all be
gibberish to them.
Q. Where is the book available?
Just the Computer Essentials is available from a number of popular
online bookstores such www.Amazon.com ,
www.amazon.co.uk
, www.BarnesAndNoble.com , and my website
www.booksbyjim.com. It’s also available through Ingram, one of the
largest book distributors – so if you can’t find it
in your favourite bookstore, they should be able to
easily order it for you.
