About PC/MAC-Assist, (Well Scott mostly...)
IT Started with D.O.S. - 1984
After a stint in a photography studio in the summer of 1984, and the studio changing personnel after a death in the photographer's family, and a two week job at a graphics department of a local Brooklyn paper, I went to a temp agency in Manhattan.
Hired as a voucher clerk, I was tasked with filing paperwork and then creating spreadsheets in Lotus 123v1A for the salespeople to track their comissions.
I had no idea how to use Lotus or a PC.
I studied D.O.S. 1.2 and Lotus until I knew every single command. I was at that office at 4:30 A.M. - hours before I was scheduled to start officially. I was intrigued and kept learning.
By 1987, I took the position at American Mensa as Assistant DP Coordinator, handling backups for the HP mini computer and the PCs. I also handled general technical support and cleaning coffee pots. (Don't Ask...)
I was also the consultant for Baruch College's publication, "Dollars and Sense". They used Apple Macs and IBM PCs to create the magazine and needed someone to help the student volunteers with technical issues.
Shortly after I started at Mensa in 1987, friends started asking me to help setup their computers. I travelled all over the five boroughs by train and bus, setting up computers and printers, and performing upgrades and repairs.
By the Spring of 1990, I was the Assistant Manager at The Computer Factory in Brooklyn, on Flatbush Avenue. I wrote custom database programs for the store to track past clients and create lists from those sales for use in the sales environment.
After the company closed down, many customers became my peronal clients. My new clients needed custom databases for tracking volunteers on election day, setting up computers for desktop publishing, office management and even setting up the early dial-up modems and fax systems in computers and offices.
Over time, I was also hired to handle word-processing for financial firms and became quite proficient on the Microsoft product line.
2000 - 2006
In the Spring of 2000 I was hired for the Corporate Help Desk at Viacom, handling PCs, Macs, and writing the intranet help system for the CBS minicomputers. Word, Excel and other programs were my specialty. I was able to diagnose what programming failed on custom built add-ins for Word and Excel and report that to the programming team.
I moved to California in 2004, and I worked for a local computer repair business that eventually folded.
2007 - Full Time!
In 2007, I launched PC/MAC Assist full time and have had the honor of helping hundreds of clients around the valley, from home users to medical, legal, retail, corporate, farming and other businesses.
With the flexibility of remote support, I have been able to reach more clients around the country and globally - the pandemic really made that a necessity.
Cleaning up virus and other infections, I have garnered knowledge and experience on data loss prevention and closing off many avenues that hackers uses to get into a computer.
After hours of testing multiple antivirus products, I have developed a toolkit for clients to use to aid in preventing a computer from getting infected. Yes, even a Mac can get some pretty bad infections via a browser.
Today: Disaster Prevention | Antivirus | Backups
Ensuring business continuity is the primary goal with a focus on making sure that all data is backed up in multiple locations in case of a crisis.
As the web has changed our lives, the advent of AI has brought additional security concerns as well. Hackers can take an email and a breached password, create scripts to test all variations of a password using AI and then do "credential stuffing" against banking and other such sites.
At a recent Developer's Summit, I presented on the issues around password theft, data breaches and securing accounts and using password management systems to mitigate the loss of financial and other accounts if someone has their data and personal information exposed in a data breach. Breaches that occured years ago can still be a threat if the end-user has been using the same password - even in variations - on multiple sites.
Today I work with a team of developers to create websites, and handle social media marketing & management as well as reputation management. We also handle email server migrations and setups.
If your website needs a refresh, you need more exposure on Social Media and advertising for your business, and reputation management, please give us a call today.
We are also here for your PC and Mac needs - click the link below for our form and let us know what we can help with!
I look forward to being of service!
You can click here for our contact form and let us know how we can help you
Thank you all for the continued support!
In Service, Scott
