CrexTechs Blog

The big box stores are attractive  offering one stop shopping at discounted prices. The Walmart store is 20 miles from Grantsburg, 40 miles round-trip from the center of town. Depending on your vehicle and the price of gasoline, one trip can cost from $5.00 to $12.00. And Walmart doesn't always have what you need. Other big box retailers are even father away.

Shopping right here in town not only saves you the cost of gas but time. How valuable is your time? If you save $50.00 dollars (spending  in excess of $400.00 at discount prices) and the trip cost $12.00, a $37.00 savings is nothing to scoff at.   Even a $15.00 actual savings (spending over $100.00) is a real help in today's economy. But, if you are making that long trip, or longer, to save any less than that, your time, unless you love shopping, is worth more.

We have shops here in town that can serve most of our basic needs.  If we stop buying in town, these shops will disappear.  Shopping in Grantsburg also keeps those dollars and jobs in Grantsburg.  Pine City, North Branch, Cambridge and Forest Lake are great places but Grantsburg is where we live.  Supporting our community is essential if we want this to be a good and attractive place to live.  The value of your homes, property and businesses depends upon it .

Good planning and making those trips to the Big Box pay for those items not available in town makes sense. But if you need anything for your computer, check with Crex Techs before you make that trip to Walmart or Radio Shack.

We have, or can get, just about anything you need from a new desktop power cord to replace the one chewed up by your dog, cat, rabbit or lizard. We have network patch cords of all sizes, VGA Monitor cables and extensions, DVI Monitor cables and extensions, printer and peripheral cables, memory, hard-drives, DVD burners, blank DVDs and jewel cases, etc, etc, etc. We have or can get you a multitude of electronics at reasonable prices.  Give us a call first.  If we have it on hand, it is only a hop, skip and a jump away.

Don't forget that we can fix you up with new and refurbished desktops and laptops as well as custom build machines.   Buy it from us and we will support you locally, not from India!! Same goes for your anti-virus software!!

Buy locally and in the long run you will save.

Watch for items for sale right here on our blog!!  Coming Soon!!

Donating is as easy as texting:

All you have to do is  send a cell phone text message to the number 90999 and include the word "HAITI" and $10 would be donated to Red Cross relief efforts in that country.  AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon have been identified as participating carriers.

Or go directly to the Red Cross website to donate at:  http://www.redcross.org/

Or,  donate to Doctors Without Boarders at: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/

Or click below to donate to Partners in Health, one of the organizations being supported by the Hope for Haiti telethon:

visit the Hope for Haiti website at:  http://helpforhaiti.org/

Everyone is at risk all the time. Even with the best anti-virus, -malware -adware and -spyware, kept up-to-date and run regularly, you can and must do more to protect yourself. If you value your files and your machine, you should evaluate and, if necessary, change your behavior on the internet.

Risky behavior on the internet:

Your choice of internet provider makes you vulnerable as most malicious hackers write their programs for Internet Explorer as it is the most widely used web browser. Consider changing to another internet browser such as Firefox or Chrome.

Clicking on popups is the fastest and easiest way to get invected. Sometime the virus will present itself as a security popup warning you that your computer might be infected. Never click on such a popup, or any popup. Sometimes clicking the X or on Cancel or No Thanks to get rid of the popup will trigger the virus. It is usually best to ignore the popup. Close your browser and reopen. If you are persistently pestered with popups, check your browser for popup blocking options.

What to do if you think you have clicked on a bad link or popup:  Shut down immediately. Using the on/off button on your computer, press and hold the button down until the computer has completely shut down. If that doesn't work, unplug immediately. You might be able to stop the malicious program/file from fully downloading onto your machine and executing itself. When you reboot, do not restore your last internet session. Do an immediate scan using your anti-virus, anti-malware and anti-spyware programs.

Opening email and email attachments from unknown senders.  If you don't know who the email is from, don't open it.  Email filters and security don't catch everything so be careful what you open.  Don't be fooled by come-on subject lines.  Be wary of emails from friends that don't look right.  Don't share your email address through contests or solicitations  unless you trust the sponsor/company.

Visiting sports sites is almost a sure fire way of infecting your computer if you aren't careful what you click on. Why? There may be less security on these sites. Malicious hackers know that sports site users may not be as computer savvy as other users and make easy targets. Clicking on popups here is especially bad.

Visiting porn sites is also risky behavior not only for the obvious reasons but these site are a magnet, because of lax security, for malicious hackers who want to take control of your machine and steal passwords, credit card numbers and other personal data. The sites themselves are often fronts for collecting your personal data for illegal use.

Kids on the internet almost guarantees that your machine will become infected. Kids do not understand the risks and they are naturally curious, they will click on anything and everything just to see what will happen. Gaming and music websites are notorious for viruses and other bad stuff that can infect your computer. You can not change your kid's natural inclinations so do not let kids use your computer if you have important documents or pay bills on this machine. Always, always, always back up your important files and software. And have a dedicated computer for the kids to use located in a place where you can watch them.

Facebook and MySpace are targets for malicious hackers.

Check out these links for more information:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,503704,00.html
 http://www.canadatop.com/article/Computer+Virus+Risks+on+Facebook

for more information on the programs that can infect you computer see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software
(click on links to information on malware, adware, spyware, worms and trojan horses)
 http://www.demystifyingdigital.com/Laptop-Computers/computer-virus/index.aspx