Remote Support

Remote support is here!

While some of you have been supported remotely for awhile, we are now opening it up to everyone. The fastest connection to your computer will happen if we install a small program on your computer when we are actually working on it.  This will enable us to correct your problems whether or not you are able to be present with the computer.  If we have not installed this, then our remote support program of preference is a temporarily installed program that we will instruct you to run when you call.  You will be required to give us a user ID and password provided by the program before we can access your computer.  And you will be required to remain with the computer.  You may notice your screen blinking on and off--this is normal and will happen when we enable a faster connection.

What will this cost?

  We will charge our regular rates, however you will pay only in 15-minute increments from the start of the call.  This will save you money if it is just a quick fix.  It will also enable us to work on your computer (if the full program is installed) while you are at work or busy with something else.  When you pay us, it will be done through a secure Paypal site or you can make other arrangements, if you like. 

How did I choose the remote support solutions we use?

I used several criteria to choose.  First, it must work with Windows versions from 98 to Vista.  Second, it must work with various security systems and firewalls.  Third, it must allow us to do the work we need to do on your computer.  Finally, and most importantly, it must be secure.  There were various remote access solutions that met these criteria, but the two I am using had high marks in all categories.

What cannot be done remotely.

  Obviously, we cannot work on your computer remotely if you have no internet connection or if you just have a dial-up connection.  We cannot remotely plug anything into your computer; nor can we remove or replace any hardware.  We can schedule various tests to run, but you may have to tell us the outcome of the tests.  But that's about it.  Anything else we normally do, we can do remotely.  So, give it a try and call us at 614-329-6671. 

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Google Chrome--latest entry in the browser wars

I have been using Google latest browser "Chrome" as well as Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8.  Chrome and 8 are both in beta--almost ready for release and use by everyone.  What's different in IE8--not much.  What's different about Chrome--everything.  For 1 thing, it's fast.  Very fast rendering web pages even on a slower connection.  And did I mention, it's fast!  Wow!  I'd be using it just because it's fast.  Okay, enough with fast.  It's sleek, it imported all my Firefox bookmarks and Passwords very well.  When I tried it on a different computer where IE7 was the browser, it was importing all of those settings, also.  What I don't like about it:  it's so new, there are no add-ons.  So, no ad blocking.  But, did I mention, it's fast!  I thought Firefox 3 was fast when compared to Internet Explorer but Chrome is so very obviously fast that it leaves both of them standing in the starting gate.  I have had no problems with any web pages, from stock pages, to the NY times, to my own page, to various others.  There may be more later as I use it more. 

And as I've used it more, it's still fast.  Just one little glitch for me that no one else has noted.  I can't close it.  If I click the red X, nothing happens.  I can maximize and minimize and that's all.  But, it's probably just my system.  I can close it by right-clicking  in the upper L corner and choosing close or doing the same thing in the task bar, but it's just a tiny bit annoying!  OH, but it is so fast!

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Labor Day musing (or Vacation musing)

Here's a quote I recently read. 

Something about being here in the wilderness settles my soul.  I can see why people yearn to retire somewhere remote, just live their lives in peace without their own expectations or someone else's weighing them down. . .

If I could rationalize it as a way Jesus would have lived, I'd do it.  He may have gone off to refresh Himself, but He always came back around.  At least in His man-skin He did.  I sure wish He'd come back around right now.

I read this book over the weekend.  The paragraphs above do not define it.  It has very little to do with the wilderness!  It's a novel about a woman with a wonderful husband and son, and wonderful friends, living in a great house on a lake in an urban (possibly suburban) community.  She realizes that her life is just not right but can't put her finger on what is wrong and what to do about it.  This book is the story of how different people and events change her.  Well, not really that.  This book is how she changes as she tries to right a childhood wrong.  Well, that's not quite right either.  It's a progression from how she realizes in bit and pieces that something is wrong, then finds ways to change what is wrong.  It's difficult to describe this book because her life is not linear, things are happening in every direction and if the author had not been forced to place word after word, this would be a mess!  Just like her life.  There are so many very visual descriptions, that this would make a good movie.  So read Quaker Summer.  It is worth reading even if you aren't married, have no children or friends or feel completely comfortable with your life.

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Daniel's 70 weeks nicely explained

I found this discussion online and thought it well reasoned.  I generally stay away from numbers of any sort and eschatology of any sort, but it came up recently so here is something I can follow. . . .somewhat! The following is a question and answer from the web so the "I" does not refer to me.

“What is the most logical method of interpreting the final 3 1/2 days of Daniel's prophecy of 70 weeks.  I see the messianic fulfillment and how the one who confirms a covenant is Christ, not an anti-Christ figure, but still have difficulty with the last 3 1/2 `days.’ While the previous 69.5 weeks can reasonably interpreted as years, it seems like most interpretations end up extending the time period indefinitely or imposing a gap between the first and second halves of the `week.’”

This is a question that troubled me for some time as I was working my way from premillennialism toward amillennialism.  When I read Meredith Kline’s essay (“The Covenant of the Seventy Weeks”--  Click here: Covenant_70th_Week) all of a sudden the answer hit me--and it had been right in front of me the whole time.  In the ninth chapter of Daniel's prophecy, not only was Daniel talking about the Messiah and not an Antichrist (based upon the glorious things that are to be accomplished by the Messiah before end of the 70 weeks–see Daniel 9:24), but in the Book of Revelation, John actually tells us what happens during the last 3 ½ years of Daniel’s 70th week!  It is a time of tribulation for the people of God.
In Revelation 12:14, John speaks of a “time, and times, and half a time.”  The same time reference also appears in Revelation 11:1-2 and 13:5-6 (forty-two months).  Obviously, this is figurative language depicting the fulfillment of that eschatological time of tribulation predicted by Daniel and left open-ended in Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks.  Kline argues that this is the period of time of the church in the wilderness (“The Covenant of the Seventy Weeks,” 469).  Likewise, Beale holds that these references are based upon the eschatological period of tribulation foretold by Daniel not only in Daniel 9:27, but throughout his entire prophecy (Beale, The Book of Revelation, 565). 

In Revelation 11, the forty-two months are connected to Elijah’s ministry of judgment, and to Israel’s time in the wilderness (which included forty-two campsites), and which may have entailed forty-two years in the wilderness-- if Israel came under God’s judgment after spending an initial two years in the wilderness before coming under curse.

Therefore,  Daniel is predicting a time of tribulation for the people of God after the Messiah comes, but before the last Jubilee (since the seventy-sevens of Daniel’s prophecy are ten Jubilee eras–see Kline’s essay, where he argue for this point).  As we see in Revelation 12:5-6, John tells us that this three and a half “years” of tribulation are inaugurated at Christ’s resurrection and will be consummated at his second coming (Beale, Revelation, 567).  When we notice that Christ’s own public ministry lasted three and one-half years, the image should be pretty clear--it applies to the entire church age.  

While dispensationalists have a fit with this "non-literal" interpretation, it is John himself who tells us that the final 3 ½ years of Daniel’s prophecy anticipates the entire period of time between Christ’s first advent (his death and resurrection) and his second advent (in which the final trumpet announces that the earth is redeemed and all of God’s people are forever freed from the guilt and power of sin).
The way we interpret this 3 1/2 weeks is a great example of the hermeneutical difference between Reformed amillennialism and dispensationalism.  As Reformed amillennarians see it, the New Testament (especially in a vision given by John in which he proclaims to the church the contents of the scroll which Daniel was told to seal  until the time of the end), ultimately interprets for us what Daniel was prophesying.  In other words, the New Testament interprets the Old Testament.  The bottom line is that in Revelation 11-13, John tells us what those remaining three and a half years of Daniel's prophecy really mean.  Thus, we are not left in the dark about what this means, and we have in Daniel 9:24-27 a glorious messianic prophecy centering upon the active and passive obedience of Christ (v. 24).

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