Since it is the beginning of a new year, I spent part of the holiday’s thinking. Thinking about goals, thinking about family, thinking about how to be better. Then I started thinking about this blog.

Why did I start, Why do I get so frustrated with myself when I don’t get a weekly article out. What can I do to help others, especially the novice users.

That is when it came to me. I started writing technology “how to” articles back in 2001 for a couple of local papers. I wrote on how to “defrag your hard drive”, “remove programs from your computer”, the basics. What became frustrating was that the editors tore the articles up, edited so that they made no sense. Quite frankly they made me look like an idiot. Also, my reach was basically the county I lived in.

So I stated teaching introductory classes at a local community college. Introduction to computer, introduction to Windows, how to optimize your computer, how to build a PC, how to repair a PC. All around helping the novice.

During this time I spent 3 years writing my book “A Novice Guide to Optimizing every computer”. I then spent 18 months trying to get a publisher. Back then most publishers would not talk to you if you did not have an agent and self-publishing was called “vanity” publishing. I did end up with one publisher, who wanted me to rip the book apart and make it something like “298 PC tips for the beginner”. Then he was “wiped out” by a typhoon. By then Windows Vista had come out. The book covered Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP.

I gave up on the dream.

As the book was written and classes taught, I saw that blogging, not newspapers was the future for my articles. So I used what I was learning, teaching et al and blogged “how to” articles. Then I hit a dry spell. Nothing new coming to my mind. I was no longer teaching, I was running my business, merged with a friend, had a staff, payroll and business customers. Blogging and “tips” just did not flow. I missed it.

I did have some ideas on “life”, some call it prepping, I call it being prepared, something I learned as a Boy Scout. Thus I began writing tips on preparedness. I am migrating those articles from TheWeeklyGeek.com to The22Man.com.

That still did not fulfill my desire to help people with their computer issues. So I spent last year trying to figure out two things, how to or more importantly what to write about the most common repairs / procedures that I perform and where is the IT industry going for the home owner.

I have been working on and doing computer repairs, building, programming et al since about 1984, I have seen trends, in the rear view mirror. Oh, yes, I did try to predict hardware and software technologies that would come up next. Normally I was wrong. Lotus is all but gone, NeXT computers flopped, CSS gave way to Ruby on Rails, the evolution back to servers and “dumb” terminals (you know, just like 1990!) just to name those I can think of in 10 seconds.

Just prior to starting writing this article I was reading on my laptop, a Lenovo Flex. I had it acing as a tablet. When I decided to pause reading and write this, the darn screen stuck in tablet mode. Up to this point my writing has been 90 degreed to my typing. A restart did not resolve this. A shutdown and restart did. Did you need to know that? Someone did.

I know, for individuals, laptops are so 2005, tablets are so 2010, everyone is using their phones to read, email, play games, bank, do their budget and write reports.

So what does that mean for me and The Weekly Geek? It means that I must continue to learn, learn new technology, accept that some things I did in 2000 are never coming back and that new, more exciting things are coming. While I doubt I will get in the tablet or phone repair business, heck every mall seems to have 3 places fixing screens. I know that for the beginner, there are things they don’t know how to do and that if I learn what it is, I can help. Not just one on one, but through the power of the blog, promoted through social media and spread and read literally throughout the world.

So what technology are you a newbie on and need help?

Until we meet again have a virus free week.