This month we'll cover the essential apps that techs carry when doing on-site support. Let's say when you get to the client's site, you don't have everything in your office with you, maybe not even your laptop. But you whip out your phone and voila, you can diagnose and fix problems with the apps on your phone!

A prime example is a WiFi Analyzer app available for Android and iPhone to diagnose WiFi problems. How's the signal here? Where's the best location for that range extender or mesh node?

That's just one example. Come to this month's meeting to find out more tools a tech should carry to solve real-world problems.

There's a law to make you wear seat belts, but there's not a law forcing you to back up your computer data, and a lot of people don't, even though they (and you) know it's the right thing to do.

In observance of World Backup Day (March 31st) the Oregon Computer Consultants will share the highlights and lowdown of readily available computer backup and synchronization solutions to help you prepare for the inevitable!

Uploading files to remote servers varies a lot depending on the service and, of course, the file size. Most web-based applications handle this easily and the process is pretty quick. But if you need to work with legacy Windows applications running in the cloud, chances are the file upload process is painfully slow.

When applications run via Remote Desktop, file uploads are tolerable in short bursts but the more modern way to run these remote applications is via RemoteApp, which is really using RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) underneath but handles and prioritizes packet transfers differently rendering standard file uploading to a very slow process.

We'll discuss this briefly followed by a demonstration of one method using several technologies working in conjunction with each other to enable fast file uploads to a Windows program running remotely.

As the new year gets under way, let's get our heads back into the game and orient ourselves for success in 2026.

On the slate for discussion is:

• How we actually make money as IT consultants?
• What have we stopped doing recently?
• What are clients asking for the most right now?
• How do we see technology and our businesses changing?
• What’s the most useful for us and our clients as we enter 2026?

Join us for our Year-End LAN Party featuring Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator!

Because our normal meeting would have landed during Thanksgiving week, we’re shifting our year-end get-together to Tuesday, December 2. We’ll start the evening the way we usually do — with food, conversation, and a little show-and-tell — and then we’ll spin up a classic LAN party vibe and crew a starship together.

Artemis is a co-op “bridge crew” game where each person takes a station (Captain, Helm, Weapons, Engineering, Science, Comms, etc.) and we work as a team on missions. It’s easy to pick up, a lot of fun, and very much a “talk to each other and save the day” kind of experience. If you want to peek at the game ahead of time, you can check it out at TrekCmdr.com

Important: To play, please bring your own laptop. A Windows laptop is ideal, but anything that can run a basic Windows app should be just fine (Linux running WINE or a Mac running Windows in Parallels / a Windows VM). After you RSVP, I’ll send out a download link so you can test the installer ahead of time and make sure everything runs smoothly.

As always, dinner, snacks, and drinks will be provided. Come hang out, catch up with everyone, and close out the year with something a little more playful than our usual Tuesday routine.

We'll share crazy tech stories, spooky computer issues, frightening real-world phishing or malware scares, and connive ways to eliminate phantom printers that have come back from the grave!

Looking to expand your toolkit without spending a dime? Join us for a hands-on session exploring some of the most powerful free utilities available today. We’ll dive into Microsoft Sysinternals and NirSoft Utilities—lightweight but mighty tools that can uncover insights and add new capabilities. We’ll also showcase highlights from Microsoft PowerToys, a set of utilities designed to help both everyday users and tech enthusiasts get more out of Windows.

Throughout the meeting, we’ll demonstrate popular favorites as well as tools requested by the group.

Check out the toolsets in advance here:

• Microsoft Sysinternals
• NirSoft Utilities
• Microsoft PowerToys

We’re certain this session will fill up quickly, so be sure to RSVP on Meetup.com soon. And as always, dinner will be provided!

What do you do when you're waiting for a long computer process? Or if you just want to take a break? 

For our end-of-summer meeting, we'll discuss less serious topics and share what we do for fun. Perhaps you play solitaire while waiting for a slow Windows update at a client's office. Maybe you like to go for a bike ride at lunch. Or perhaps you're into adrenaline-pumping, first-person shooter games to relieve the stress of a long support call with an annoying client.

Everyone can contribute--there are no wrong answers!

You're all using AI in some way or another, even if you're not subscribed to a specific service. Some of the ways you could be using AI without even realizing it include reading an AI-generated summary of reviews on a product page, following an AI-generated ad on social media, reading an AI-generated blog, or even following AI-generated directions to a new destination. Maybe you're using a free service such as You.com for your internet searches or Perplexity.ai for researching topics of interest. Maybe you've tried some automation with CoPilot or asked ChatGPT a question. If you use Microsoft Outlook with its AI enabled typing enhancements, maybe it's helping you with your grammar and spelling and even suggesting endings to sentences.

Tonight, we'll get a little more intentional and use dedicated AI services for some specific tasks to showcase what it can do. Some of these being planned for the live event include generating a website from scratch, writing a technical blog, researching content for a presentation, and analyzing a large set of data. These tasks will be performed live with input solicited from the audience.

We'll meet at the office of West Coast Technology Guides in Tigard for viewing the examples on the big screen. There will be food so please RSVP!

Often, we're so wrapped up in the details of our everyday work -- coding, computer repair, removing malware, etc. -- that we don't have time to look at the larger trends in Information Technology. Certainly, new applications of Artificial Intelligence is the 800-pound gorilla, so we're planning another update on AI for July but there are other trends that garner less attention, for example new Internet threats, cyber warfare, etc. That's the focus for this month.