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Monday May 3rd, 2010 in Take It From Me. People are always asking me: “You have clients? What do you do for them? Oh, you’re an I.T. consultant? What kind of I.T.? What can you do?”
The main thing to take away is that a consultant is someone who has answers in a specific field. People are always trying to narrow down exactly what it is I do and it’s sometimes a challenge for me to sum it up.
Right now, I have a little over two dozen clients that pay me for my knowledge and services. They value my expertise, my resourcefulness, and my advice and they count on me to steer them in the right direction. They pay me because I have answers to questions, and I facilitate what they would otherwise not be able to, or don’t want to put the time into. They pay me also because sometimes it’s more cost efficient, and I’m able to provide solutions at a much cheaper rate than the general consumer would expect from department stores or big business.
I strive to provide a service that’s superior in three main regards:
- Cost: In the long run, I’m going to save you money. You’re not going to spend anything on the unnecessary, and you’re going to put money in the right place so you get the most value out of what you buy, and how you use it.
- Efficiency: Every client of mine gets personalized treatment. I cater to your specific needs and put the extra time (without extra billing) to make sure the job is 100% complete. Examples being data transfers and personal setups are done to your satisfaction. GeekSquad, Futureshop, or the Apple Store won’t do it as well as I do. I’ve seen it done, I’ve seen them leave huge gaps in transfers leaving a customer completely unsatisfied. I guarantee you’ll be happy with my service, or you don’t have to pay me.
- Knowledge Base: The reason I hold myself at a much higher esteem is that I’m well versed in numerous different subjects. Your Futureshop employee won’t have the greatest advise for you Mac purchases, your Apple store genius won’t have the answers to your home networking issues, and your GeekSquad will give you scripted answers that you would expect from a company, not a person. I’m the only resource you’ll need to handle your wide array of issues, and best of all, I’m honest, up-front, and direct. No run around, and no B.S. responses for me.
Having said that, I’d like to share with you a list of the recent work I’ve done for my clients, to give you a better understanding of how simple (or complicated) the service I provide can be.
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Friday April 2nd, 2010 in Take It From Me. **UPDATE April 14th: Apple has announced a delay due to a large number of sales in the United States. Whereever the bottleneck, Apple is unable to keep up and is delaying the Canadian (and international) release of the iPad by about a month. It’s been also announced that details of the availability will be made clear on May 10th, so stay tuned for more specifics as they develop.
“A magical and revolutionary product starting at an unbelievable price.” This is how Apple has chosen to market it’s latest invention, the iPad (www.apple.com/ipad). Will it live up to the hype? Nobody can say for certain… but we sure can speculate!
It’s been a buzz for a while, and everyone has been waiting patiently. Unfortunately however, everyone outside the United States has had to wait a little while longer before getting their hands on the device.
When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in January, he noted that the first wave of devices (WiFi-only) would be available late March. This was eventually pushed back to early April and then set in stone for April 3rd, 2010. The catch was that the WiFi + 3G version of the iPad would be available sometime after the WiFi-only device, estimating about 30 days. At this point, we still had no idea when the device (either version) would become available to the rest of the world, and no intelligence to suggest that a Canadian launch was imminent.
A press release by Apple on March 5th, indicated that the iPad would be available outside the United States near the end of April. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK are the countries that made the cut for the “outside of the U.S.” list.
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Thursday April 1st, 2010 in Tutorials. One of the new refinements released with Snow Leopard, was Chinese character input. This does come standard with any install of Snow Leopard, but isn’t enabled – you need to take a couple further steps to have it functioning and ready.
First, you’ll need to make sure you have one of Apple’s laptops that is equipped with the glass trackpad (the one without any buttons), and running 10.6 or later.
Second, open your system preferences, and choose Language & Text option under ‘Personal’.
Under Language & Text, choose the ‘Input Sources’ tab, then on the list on the left hand side, scroll down and choose either Chinese – Simplified or Chinese – Traditional. You’ll notice that when you do this, the right hand side of the preferences window will show “Show/Hide Trackpad Handwriting Control + Shift + Space” no longer greyed out. This is the key combination you’ll use to toggle the handwriting input dialog.
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Tuesday March 30th, 2010 in Take It From Me. It’s a documented fact that (and excuse the lack of references, you’ll have to take my word for it) Apple has been on the rise as of late. There are more Macs than there have ever been, and with exciting new announcements about Apple’s iPad, and other looming upgrades to other devices (iPhone, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro), it’s a good time to be an Apple groupie.
 Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard I’d like to shine the light on a release that was made more than 6 months ago, because I’ve recently encountered a few people who were very much of the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” opinion. While in theory, this mentality typically does hold true, in practice it sometimes seems… a little less than practical (har har).
Snow Leopard is/was Apple’s most recent release of their Mac OS X operating system (10.6) that was available to the public as of August 28th, 2009. For those of you who are less familiar with Apple and Macintosh computers, think of Snow Leopard in congruence with Microsoft’s latest release of Windows, 7.
A new operating system’s (OS) release usually commands a lot of attention; it’s a new and exciting time to marvel at the cool new features, fancy aesthetic renovations, and hopefully added functionality.
Normally, with a new OS comes the need for faster, stronger and better hardware. The new operating system takes up more room, needs more memory, and a faster processor or it doesn’t run properly. This is sometimes a cause for concern. “You’re telling me I need to pay a couple hundred dollars for this new version of Windows that is going to make me want to buy a new computer because my two year old machine all of a sudden doesn’t match up?”
A new OS is supposed to be an upgrade right? Normally an upgrade doesn’t turn into a burden, it’s supposed to make things easier. For some of us, upgrading ram or clearing hard-drive space is an arduous and costly task. If only someone out there would try to break the trend…
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Wednesday March 24th, 2010 in I Recommend.  Quick plug: Perkins Mailing (www.perkinsmailing.com) is a Data, Imaging & Mailing solutions firm located in the downtown Toronto area (Dundas & River Street).
It may interest some to know that I actually run my own I.T. consulting firm. Up until recently it’s been very informal; no business cards, no website, just word of mouth and referrals getting me new clients, and in all honesty the hours can be very scarce (not that I’m complaining, it’s a side gig). I thought that if I invested a little time and money into it, I could get some positive return on my investment… so I decided to formalize the whole operation a little more.
Needless to say, I finished putting www.marcitpro.com together, and then had the much more arduous task of putting together a business card (…that didn’t totally suck). I started out with many five or six slightly different designs before finally starting from scratch with a new idea I had. The pictures you see are the first print of my final design (which I’m sure will be revised eventually).
Two things I had seen in previous business cards that I wanted for my own:
- Embossing, in this case a thermal raise to give the writing a textured feel.
- Linen-esque paper because I’m not a big fan of the plastic/glossy feeling on a business card.
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Sunday March 21st, 2010 in I Recommend.  MagicJack and USB Extension it comes with Are you currently satisfied with your long distance plan? Are you spending money as you call or are you paying a flat fee, like you should be? Spending more than $20.00-$40.00 a month? A year? Well you shouldn’t be.
MagicJack is a USB device you order from www.magicjack.com, that plugs into your computer and a home phone device, and gives you unlimited local and long distance calling anywhere in North America… for $20 a year. Caller I.D., call waiting, voicemail, directory assistance; all included. If you happen to live in the United States, or want to register your MagicJack with an American phone number, it’s free; if you want a Canadian (or a vanity) phone number, it’ll cost you $10.00 a year… for now. For one reason or another, they can’t offer free Canadian numbers. On top of that… it’s free to try for 30 days, except you pay the $3.95 shipping cost.
Anywhere you have a computer and broadband internet connection,you can use your MagicJack. If you ever move around, you’ll need to change the address for the 9-1-1 services to work properly; I don’t know about changing the phone number as I have yet to do so; but it really seems like there is no downfall to using MagicJack, and if there is, please speak up.
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Saturday March 20th, 2010 in I Recommend.  www.marcitpro.com & www.marccizravi.com on my custom frames. The topic today: custom licence plate frames. How did we get here? Good question, lets find out!
I was recently putting the finishing touches on a website for my I.T. consulting firm (www.marcitpro.com), and was thinking of all the ways I could get some low cost advertising out there.
Television, radio, movie previews, internet, billboards, public transit (to name a few). It’s pretty endless how many different ads you can put up for a business, however, there are costs associated. Usually, they’re on going: you need to pay for every time an ad is run on T.V., or clicked on the Internet.
Since I wanted to increase the value of my monthly car payments (and all the other costs associated with driving), I decided that it would be a good idea to put some form of advertising on my car as I drive around. I find bumper stickers to be tacky, and putting decals on my car… well, that’s a little desperate; I don’t want it to look like I’m GeekSquad junior driving all over town. The reality is that my I.T. practice is something I do on the side, and doesn’t maintain a huge focus in my overall life. Some months I’ll go two weeks without a service call, and some weeks I’ll spend 20 hours working. Needless to say, it’s not something that’s going to be part of my future (as far as I’m concerned at the moment), so I don’t want it to overtake the vehicle that I’m driving daily.
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Wednesday March 17th, 2010 in Take It From Me. It seems that with all the new people I meet that I happen to have an extended conversation with, they ask me “So… Marc, what is it you do?” and sometimes it’s less than easy to tell them everything it is that I spend my time on. I’ve always thought of myself as a really well rounded individual – I retain talents in many different fields, and as such, I’m currently exploring many different paths to many different goals, all to one end: early retirement with financial security beyond any doubt.
Some might say, that it’s less than efficient to spread your efforts so thin; I’ve come to realize this myself, however, I still pursue many different endeavours simply because I still maintain a genuine interest and have yet to make a final decision as to what it is I want to do with the future.
If you look at the following picture, you’ll see a visual representation of almost everything I’ve been a part of in a professional (or pseudo professional) capacity within the past 12 months, and for a select few, a little longer than that.
 Marc Cizravi's involvement in the past 12 months... « Read More »
Monday March 15th, 2010 in I Recommend.  I was at work last week and thinking to myself – I haven’t really spent money on anything I’ve *wanted* in the past little while. A new toy or a gadget or something to just treat myself with. I’ve been working a lot and covering a lot of expenses here and there and thought to myself: “If I wanted to spend money on something right now… what would it be?”
Well, the answer that quickly came to me was tinting the windows on my new car. I’ve always been of the opinion that cars are black holes for your wallet. Gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, tolls, cleaning, and of course accidents. Above all else, I thought that ‘customizing’ a car could get really expensive really quickly. At the same time, I thought it was stupid that people who had cars worth $4000 were spending that amount or greater in customizing the vehicle. It didn’t make sense to me. However, when I thought of tinting my windows, I didn’t just think of the aesthetic value, I thought of what it would accomplish.
I’m a night person, except when I want to be in the sun. If I’m on the beach, playing sports outdoors, working at my outdoor patio bar, or on vacation, I absolutely love the sun and the light. However, if I’m in my room trying to work on the computer, or trying to sleep, or on the road trying to drive, I would prefer less light – I feel like it’s easier on the eyes when the sun isn’t glaring down on you when you’re trying to be functional. Rationalizing to myself for a second I thought: “hey, well I can tint my windows on my car, and not only will it look really good, but it’ll be easier for me to drive.”
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Saturday March 6th, 2010 in Take It From Me. Facebook – FREE
 This one goes without saying. You’re probably using facebook, and if you have an iPhone you may as well have the Facebook app so you can respond to messages or view them quickly in a pleasant interface. While viewing www.facebook.com is pretty seamless through their ‘mobile’ version, or even the full site through Safari, the Facebook app sometimes makes it faster and easier to do what you want to do!
Shazam – FREE; Shazam Encore/RED – $4.99
 Shazam is an application that will listen to music that is playing (for about 15 seconds), creating a ‘tag’, and then scour it’s database, and give you an artist, album, and title (if it can find one. So, you’re in a bar, club, or in your car listening to the radio, a song comes on that you wish you knew the title to. Instead of trying to remember lyrics, asking friends, or searching the internet later, just pull your iPhone out, click Shazam, click Tag, and let it do the work for you.
I have a 95% success rate with this, and very rarely is Shazam unable to tag the music that’s playing. This app used to be ‘unlimited’, but recently the free version became a limit of 5 tags per month. Those who ‘purchased’ the app when it was unlimited, still have the benefit of that feature even with updates, but new users have to pay $4.99 for the ‘Encore’ version. They also have a RED version, in case you would like to donate money to help fight AIDS; a worthy cause.
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Friday March 5th, 2010 in I Recommend, Take It From Me. I’ve always been a real gadget-guy. Technology opens doors and creates possibilities, facilitates what would otherwise be impossible, or illegal. I thought I’d share not only my hands-free setup, but other gadgets I’m using in the car that are making driving easier, and more of a pleasure.
 My iPhone 3GS playing music through iTrip First, I needed a mount for my iPhone 3GS – recently the province of Ontario joined the hands-free while driving movement, so it was necessary for me to purchase something to hold my phone up, stationary, if I wanted to control the music or GPS functions. Naturally, my local Apple Store had something for me, and I picked up Griffin’s “ WindowSeat WindShield Mount” for $29.95. I decided to install it directly on my windshield. Image Below.
Second, I wanted to play the music from my iPhone 3GS through my car’s stereo; I did this with my old car by connecting it directly, through the means of a cassette tape adapter. Unfortunately, my new car didn’t have a tape player, but only a CD, so I had to go the route of the FM Transmitter.
note: FM Transmitters are devices that block out external radio stations, and broadcast a frequency that you choose, which your car picks up. So when you have your music players FM transmitter set to 92.5, and your car tuned to the same station, your car transmits music from your music player, rather than the native radio station that’s broadcasting.
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Thursday March 4th, 2010 in I Recommend.  Front & Back picture of Scosche's Solchat, Bluetooth Speakerphone. Recently the province of Ontario passed an in-car ‘hands-free’ law, dictating that anyone who would like to use their cellphones while driving, need to do so with limited hands on interaction. Simply put, you can’t hold the phone to your ear anymore, hold it in your hand while it’s on speakerphone, or hold it while you’re dialing.
When this new law came into effect, I was working at the Apple Store, and I first tried out a bluetooth headset, but didn’t like it for numerous reasons:
- Small, easy to lose (which would need to be replaced), liable to fall off my ear while I’m driving.
- Difficult/inconvenient to charge; likely to bring it back and forth from your car and home… which would raise the risk of losing it.
- Uncomfortable, and inefficient – always having trouble understanding or being understood during conversation.
After trying and return one of the headsets, I picked up one of Scosche’s bluetooth speakerphone units. Much to my surprise, it was actually solar powered too – something that turns out is incredibly helpful.
I’m sure there’s more than one kind of solar powered bluetooth speakerphone unit, but I’m going to focus on the one that I have. The model I have specifically, is called the Scosche solCHAT II, CBHSOL2.
- Hands-free bluetooth speakerphone.
- Integrated solar panel re-charges the internal lithium-ion battery.
- Includes two mounts: one visor, and one suction cup for the windshield.
- Address book import, name announce when receiving phone calls (Up to 1000 contacts).
- DSP echo cancellation ensures a crystal clear conversation even in noisy vehicles.
- One-touch voice dialing (majority of phones).
- Comes with usb cable and car charger… just in case!
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Wednesday March 3rd, 2010 in Random. I was not so recently involved in a car accident near the downtown Toronto area, and thought I might share the experience.
 The damage the other vehicle received from our collision. Stop sign means you yield... I was coming off the Don Valley Parkway at Bloor street (1997 Ford Escort LX), and rounding Castle Frank when a woman driving on an intersecting road (2006 Acura TSX) pops up in front of me, not giving me enough time to stop, causing a collision (T-Bone).
The woman who was driving the other vehicle, had started creeping through the first two lanes, because traffic had bottled up and allowed her room. However, instead of being careful and creeping into the third lane, or spotting incoming traffic, she tried zooming through, or assumed there were no vehicles coming, and made her attempt at a quick pass… fail.
On impact, her car kept traveling in the same direction, and while mine had come to a complete stop upon collision in my direction, I was dragged along a little bit in because the two cars were lodged together. The majority (if not all) of the damage that my car sustained was to the front grill. As soon as I turned the car off, and put a foot on the ground, I knew my car was done. A massive amount of engine coolant was all over the street, without even seconds to spare. Upon closer inspection, it seemed like the front foot or two of my car was completely destroyed.
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Tuesday March 2nd, 2010 in Tutorials. It’s not secret that a popular company like Apple has hundreds of people applying daily for work. If you’re one of those people, and happen to have that extra drive to be one of the few selected to join the team, this guide will serve you greatly. I was hired in September of 2009 as a ‘Specialist’ (essentially a glorified salesman) in one of their retail stores, and want to share the experience that it was, to go from nothing to hired.
First thing you need to do is create an Apple ID. You can go to myinfo.apple.com to do so. Once you’ve entered all relevant information (the more complete your profile, the better) you can login and search the job listings that are currently posted. Login with your Apple ID to cooljobs.apple.com. From here, you’ll be able to search through corporate, as well as retail positions that have been put up. Since I haven’t gone through the corporate process, I won’t touch on that, and will just stick to retail.
 Apple Retail Once you’ve clicked the “Search Retail Jobs”, you’ll get a return of a long list, with all the job titles prefixed by a country code; CAN for Canada, US for the United States, GER for Germany, etc. Choose each position you think you’d be suited for, one by one, and go through the process. You’ll choose a state/province where you’d like to apply, and either apply for current or future openings. Once this is all done, you’ll be formally submitted as a candidate, and if by some miracle you get chosen out of the bunch, good for you, you lucked out.
Once you’ve finished all the applications, I would encourage you to drop into the store, and meet some of the managers; it’s usually very occupied in the Apple Store, so it’s a good idea to go early in the morning (I would call 11am the deadline to go in). Let them know that you’ve applied formally online, and are very interested in a job with Apple. Tell them why you want to work for Apple, why you’d be good at the positions you’ve applied for, and why they might want you on the team. You want to make sure you’re being cordial at all times, and not coming off too strongly. Let them know that you’re aware that they’re hiring (if they are) and if they’re not, let them know that you’ll be checking back, and that you’re serious about applying. Ask if there’s anything you can do (every store is different, every manager is different) that will sweeten your chances at an interview.
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Monday March 1st, 2010 in Tutorials. I recently had a friend message me asking how to change the default font, and I had to explain it to her quickly. Wouldn’t it be nice if all I had to do was link her to a post on my website showing her detailed descriptions and images, which would in turn save me time, and make the process easier and clearer for her?
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