Last week computer users in the valley and beyond had a scare when they woke up to find their normally useful computer, a brick.
    John Shoff of Reality Bytes tells The Mail that in the early hours of October 12, an automatic update, pushed by Microsoft caused computer users some major problems.
    “Several businesses around Alberta have been affected,” he said. “We’ve encountered this for many of our managed IT clients, yesterday October 12 was a very busy day for our tech team.”
 He said there are a number of ways to fix the issue and some are quite simple, such as running a system restore back a few days.
 Shoff wants to spread the word to others who may be affected because not many things cause more panic in a technology user than a fatal error.
    “The reason why I want to get the word out is that reading the error “inaccessible boot device,” one could assume that they have a major hardware issue, and/or lost data,” said Shoff. “It’s important to let people know this is potentially a very simple fix in many cases, so people shouldn’t be fooled into buying a new computer, or replacing hardware because of this.”
     He adds this is rare for these types of troubles and this was the first time since Microsoft began automatically installed updates.
   “There is basically no way to turn off the critical system updates that Microsoft pushes out,” he said.

    
    The Village of Carbon came together in the spirit of community to support local shopkeeper Andy Kim who owns the Carbon Grocery store.
    “The Mail” reported in its September 27 edition that Kim’s business has been the target of break and enters and thefts. The Carbon Library rallied the community and put together a fundraiser to help him boost his security, and raised in the area of $10,000.
    The Kim family was pleasantly surprised by the turnout, and humbled by the support and generosity on October 7.
“I am overwhelmed, I never expected that much money,” said Kim, who has been in Carbon for about 11 years.
    What makes it even more impressive is that it only took a couple of hours. The Security Block Party was scheduled for all afternoon, however, because of the blustery weather it only lasted a couple of hours.         They had a barbecue with hot dogs and chili for a free will offering. Handmade fall crafts and pies were also sold with all proceeds generously donated to this cause.   
    More than 100 came out for the cause. Kim was impressed that a couple of school-aged girls were able to raise $540 alone.
    The goal was to help Kim upgrade his security. He says that now he is able to buy security shutters, chain doors, and other security items.
    “They are doing everything they can to chase the thieves away. They are helping me more than I can ever imagine,” he said
    “It is a special place that’s for sure.”