Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

A new tutorial has been added to the Schrock Innovations DIY section. Some customers have reported receiving an “Error 10″ message when installing a Norton product such as Norton Internet Security or Anti Virus.

The normal uninstall / reinstall with a double reboot does not fix this problem, and the Norton Removal Tool alone is ineffective as well.

I was faced with this problem while on-site at a customer’s apartment in Lincoln, and designed the following solution to resolve the problem:

Resolve Norton Installation “Error 10″ Problem
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Today I dropped off our new web server at Binary.net; the company that maintains our online infrastructure for us. Our web server is housed in a bank vault behind a 17-ton door. I had the pleasure of touring the vault today to get acquainted with the environment our new server would be occupying.

Since 2005 we have placed exponential increases in bandwidth on our online equipment, and our plans for 2007 demanded a much needed upgrade.

Believe it or not, the engine that was maintaining the Schrock Innovations online technology machine was a simple one. A K6-2 450 processor, 256 MB of RAM, and a 30 GB hard drive was more than enough to provide ongoing updates for our Maintenance Checkup Home Edition software, serve all of our clients’ webpages, as well as the Schrock Innovations website as it has grown in national and international popularity.

But we have started setting our internal 2007 goals, and if we are going to meet them we were going to need more online power. A lot more power…

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Schrock Innovations teamed up with the City of Lincoln’s Recycling office to promote Lincoln’s local celebration of America Recycles Day. High school students were challenged to sign pledges to start recycling if they were not doing so already. Each signed pledge was entered into a drawing and sophomore Shelby Krause from Pius X was the lucky winner!

Coincidentally, the week before she won the new Holiday Special PC, their family’s Dell PC crashed completely and needed to be replaced. The computer has a retail value of $1499, and was presented to Shelby in a brief ceremony in front of the media in our Lincoln Service Center.
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I have just turned in my first article to my editor at Smart Computing magazine. I can’t go into detail about the subject of the article, but I can tell you that I found a way that the average computer user could save more than $2,000 in computer software on a new computer!

Smart Computing magazine is published right here in Lincoln, NE and is distributed internationally. A subscription to the magazine runs about $30 a year, but unlike other PC magazines, Smart Computing is not packed with ads. It is a content-rich magazine that I would recommend to anyone.

My article should appear in the March 2007 issue of the magazine, so make sure you get your subscription today!

For those of you who didn’t know, I totaled my Ford F250 pickup the day before Thanksgiving. I had put quite a bit of work into that vehicle, and I am selling the nerf bars from it because they do not fit on my new truck.

If you own a pre 1997 Ford F150, F250, or F350 you might want to take a look at my EBay auction to see if they are anything you are interested in. Obviously, if you are local to Lincoln or Omaha I would be willing to drop them off or schedule a time for you to pick them up.

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Schrock Innovations would like to welcome the latest two new members of our team. Mark Smith has been hired in Omaha to oversee customer support for our Maintenance Checkup Home Edition software and Jeremy Reed has been hired in Lincoln as a new on-site technician.

Mark is a graduate of the University of Nebraska, Omaha with dual degrees in computer science and software engineering. He will be overseeing all customer support inquiries, maintaining our customer support forum, and managing the Maintenance Checkup website as we release the new version of our Home Edition next year.

Jeremy has more than three years of experience in customer support and computer repair. He has extensive managerial experience which will come in handy as we add additional employees to our on-site services team.

Welcome aboard gentlemen!

It is no secret that Lithium Ion batteries can be dangerous if they do not function properly. Investigators are still looking into the possibility of a Sony-based lithium-ion laptop battery causing the fire at the Nebraska Wesleyan fraternity house last month. While Lithium Ion is normally safe, no other power technology has historically offered the capacity and energy density that a lithium ion battery could. This lack of options is why almost all notebook PCs today come equipped with Lithium Ion batteries.

But a new kind of battery could be on the shelves by early 2009. The new battery is a revolutionary departure from the old concept of daisy chained battery cells contained in a plastic housing that can be removed from a device and replaced. The new battery type is called Lithium Polymer, and while it may sound like a new concept, this is not the gel-based battery’s first trip around the block.

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The truck situation continues… When I bought my 1991 Ford F150 we had a little chat. I explained how my last truck was babied beyond belief, stored in a covered garage, washed and waxed regularly and oil changes every 2,000 miles. I told my new truck that all I ask in return is that it carry me where I need to be, when I need to be there, and if there is an accident that it keeps me safe. The ghosts in the machine and I had an understanding, and I dutifully started repairing the minor problems on the new-to-me truck.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was still getting a check engine light. I suspected a leaking vaccum hose, but then I discovered an oily substance in my air filter housing. After some quick Googleing, I discovered this was called blowback, and was most likely caused by a cloged PCV valve. I stopped by the auto parts store and bought the $4.00 valve, and put it in the next morning.

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As many of you who read this blog know, I was involved in a rear-end collision that totalled my beloved Ford F250 pickup a few weeks back. Almost immediately the search started for a replacement truck with the following conditions:

1) No loans – I don’t do car loans – The interest you pay on a car loan presses your cost of ownership through the roof. Cash for cars is the way to go.

2) It had to be decent looking – after all, my customer would be seeing this vehicle when I go on-site to fix their computers.

3) It had to be a Ford. I know how to work on them, they are easy to fix, and if I bought a Chevy Blaze would have killed me.

The replacement truck is a 1991 Ford F150 Lariat. Too old you say? Seriously the vehicle is pushing 15 years old already. But this was a very special Ford that was deserving at a another chance for service…
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I wanted to take a moment to welcome Josh to the Schrock Innovations team in Omaha. Josh will be adding some much needed HTML development capacity to the Service Center. Josh recently graduated from UNO with dual degrees in Computer Engineering and Mathematics, and his skills in development and graphics design will ensure that our customers are receiving the best possible HTML products.

This is a real milestone for our Omaha Service Center as this is the first time we will have a complete development team of specialized individuals in all areas of web design and software development. In 2007 we will be placing a heavy emphasis on our development services, which some of you may have already noticed.
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