Jim'll Fix It! Eastbourne Handyman Extraordinaire!
Now including Computer Help

Today was a "clean" day. I went out clean, I came back home clean. Trish was amazed. I spent most of the morning changing light switches from worn away brass to white, and normal two gang switches to dimmer switches. I was also asked to replace some pendant lights that had seen better days. It can take a surprising amount of time to make such minor changes. It was cold and wet outside,  and I didn't want to get cold and wet, and so I pottered around, getting the job done and just enjoyed doing the work.
When buying a dimmer switch always look at the rating - many are rated about 240W max. A lot of dimmer switches 'fail' after a short time, mainly because they are overloaded. If a chandelier has 8 bulbs @ 40w (and lots do) then just one chandelier will already be overloading the dimmer. If you have two chandeliers on one dimmer.... well you do the sums. All I'm saying is check the loading if you are about to install dimmer switches. If your looking for good over the counter advice checkout 'TLC Electrical Supppliers' in Eastbourne.

While I was changing switches, my client and I were chatting about loads of things, and he mentioned  in passing how he had a website made in memory of his mother with her full life story but had lost it all when the hosting service ended.
Nothing is totally lost once its been on the net.
This evening I relaxed by hunting for the website. I quickly found some of the old pages, (The ones that were supposedly lost) and with some more digging managed to find all of the pages that he had assumed were gone forever. I phoned him to tell him that his mum's memoires were not lost, and tomorrow I'll  give him a copy of the lot. What he does then is up to him.
Nothing is totally lost once it's been on the Net.
For some that's good news and for others that may be bad.

Labels: Computer Help, Electrical, Philosophy, websites

It's been a day of many talents today. One of the things I did was show a lady how to set up a blog. Easy when you know how, but daunting when she'd only just started using a computer in the last two months.. Basic computer lessons and home computer help is something I've been doing for quite a number of years. In a previous life (I've had so many!) I used to train people for a living. I don't have the educational qualifications to be a teacher, but many people tell me that I'm a very good trainer. I've found that if you concentrate on getting the basics, the fundamentals, right, the rest is a lot simpler. She was an avid traditional diarist, and wanted to start doing the same on her new computer. She'd tried a computer help forum  but only got more confused (Hey, that's happened to me too) Blog help was what she wanted, and so blog help is what she got.
After an hour she was flying solo, and so I was free to go on my way to the next call.

Which was - you guessed it - a leaky tap. Dripping taps are so annoying, and yet so easy to fix - most of the time. This one was not to be ignored. It wasn't dripping. It was pouring.
Imagine a Victorian mansion, sub-divided into flats. Over the years so many alterations have been made to the property that Stop Cocks are buried under many layers of remodelling. In other words - not to be found.
As the water pressure was so low I decided to do it "live". Open the taps in the flat to reduce the flow even further. Take the tap head off. Undo the barrel. Change the washer. Reverse the order. Hey Presto! Job done. WARNING! Don't do this unless you know what you're doing. Because it can go wrong. And then you need to know what to do next. Leaky pipes. Non flushing cisterns. Fitting bathroom heaters. Changing bannisters on the stairs, and helping people with Technology. It's all in a days work for the Eastbourne Handyman.

Here is a resource you may find useful if you have a good background knowledge of  using a computer. Some lessons get a bit to technical for the majority of users, but it's a very good place to start.

Labels: Carpentry, Computer Help, Electrical, Plumbing

If you've used a computer to store your important music photos and documents - then what follows must be everybody's worst nightmare.

Labels: Computer Help

I like helping people. I'm good with computers.
I've been helping people with terminal cases of computer phobia for years.

Labels: Computer Help