Technical Tidbits

It’s really quite a shame but I’ve been in the PC/Tech business for nearly 15 years and except in the earlier years, I have been the one with the crappiest computer!

Well, this one is on it’s last legs. I am on the PC more hours than I’m off and I give my machines a tough workout. In the early morning hours, I’m checking my Yahoo mail, my MySpace friends, and I play a few games. After the shower, it’s back on to my business and students e-mail, answering my class discussion area, handling other client requests, and maintaining several websites for myself personally and my clients. Then, there’s the writing of my courses for my company website, textbooks, eBooks, reports, my company blog, and the list goes on.

Needless to say, I’m on the darn thing for over 10 hours a day literally - breaks included!

My P4 is about on it’s way out. I’ve been having nothing but difficulties with it holding on to memory when using my graphic applications, and cutting me off FTP mid-stream. I reboot and everything is fine. But God forbid if I dare keep my Thunderbird e-mail open while doing anything else!

So, Friday evening, thanks to a client contract renewal, I was able to order my new PC! WHOO HOOO!

I was going to order this HP Pavilion a6317c Refurbished Intel Desktop PC.., but while I was out doing errands, my housemate called and said, “I found your new PC!”

It seems, that while I was gone, he received an e-mail from TigerDirect.com that had a barebones PC on sale for $199.00!

So, when I got home I checked it out and what a deal! WOW!

I ordered a PCChips A13G+ Barebone Kit . It contains:

• PowerUp Black ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side and 450-Watt Power Supply
• PCChips A13G+ (V3.0) Motherboard - NVIDIA GeForce 6100, Socket AM2, MicroATX, Audio, Video, PCI Express, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, USB 2.0, Serial ATA
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+2.30GHz OEM Processor ADO4400IAA5DO, Processor Speed: X2 4400+ / 2.30GHz and Cache Size: 1MB
• Maxtor 200GB Hard Drive - 7200, 8MB, ATA-100, PATA
• Lite-On LH-20A1S SuperAllwrite SATA OEM DVD Burner
• Crucial 1024MB PC5400 DDR2 Memory

Yes! All of that for $199.00!

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what the catch is, right?

There is none. The only thing you have to understand about barebones is that you need to put it together. And you need to read what isn’t included.

In the situation of this special, there is no Operating System and the CPU fan is not included, but Tiger gives you a recommendation on the ordering page and allows you to add it to your cart. I also chose to upgrade the memory by adding another 1 GB stick bringing me up to 2 GB. And I had to order the thermal paste to use on the CPU.

Since I’ll be wiping my current drive, I am free to use my Windows XP CD for the new PC hard drive. As long as it’s my PC and I’m only running one copy, I’m not in violation of the licensing agreement. However, I did order a copy of Vista Home Basic just so I can have it installed on a dual boot with my XP which then allows me to teach Vista. (Something I would really not like to do, but unfortunately, people are getting stuck with it, so they need to learn!)

So, you might be saying, “But Debbie, you’re a techie, you know how to put these things together! I don’t have a clue!”

Okay, so here’s the clincher! How about a video that shows you what you have to do to finish putting it together?

So if you go this page: PCChips A13G+ Barebone Kit -.. and scroll towards the bottom, you’ll see the Video Installation Guide link!

So you could actually do it yourself and save lots of bucks too!

I also wanted to mention that on the HP Pavilion I was going to buy, they only included a 250 Watt power supply. That is the bare minimum of power you should have and you need to add about 50 watts for every additional device you add to your PC.

If you don’t have enough power going to your devices, they get “starved” and fail sooner. So be careful of that when ordering any PC! I don’t understand why HP would even think of putting in such a low watt power supply anymore! But then again, they didn’t consult me!

By Monday, I’ll have my brand new dual core here! Now, to transfer everything! Sigh. A technicians work is never done! (Laughing)

written by Admin \\ tags: AMD, AMD Athlon, AMD Athlon 64 X2, crucial, crucial memory, duo core, hp, HP Pavilion a6317c, LiteOn, liteon DVD, Maxtor, Maxtor hard drive, NVIDIA, Nvidia GeForce, Nvidia GeForce 6100, p4, pavilion, pc, tigerdirect

According to a AP article by Michael Liedtke posted this morning, Microsoft has decided to scrap the idea of buying Yahoo! WHOO HOOO! (Or is it, YAHOO!)

Although the news is outstanding for those of us who do not want to see M$ get it’s loser hands on Yahoo, there are two exceptions I took to the Liedtke article.

He says,

Microsoft Corp. withdrew its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. on Saturday, scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google Inc.

First Mr. Liedtke, I, as a longstanding user of Yahoo, don’t believe that Yahoo is a tarnished Internet icon.

Secondly, I don’t believe for one second that even if M$ had purchased Yahoo, it would ever be capable of toppling Google!

To elaborate on the first exception, those who call Yahoo a tarnished Internet icon, obviously don’t use Yahoo. Perhaps it is tarnished because it is not the best search engine on the block, that much I will admit, but there are things that it does well - and better - then others!

1. People Search. I never bother searching for people anywhere else. Their people search (white pages, yellow pages, reverse look-up, and so on) have always delivered results for me.

2. My Yahoo. I love the customization abilities with the My Yahoo pages. When I login to my My Yahoo page, I get everything I need at one glance first thing in the morning. I can see:

• 5 different weather zones.
• My Yahoo Groups
• My News Headlines that I choose
• News about the stocks I’m interested in
• Comics I like to read daily
• Horoscopes
• Any other items I want to add to my pages

3. Yahoo Financial. Delivers outstanding, relevant information for anyone involved in the stock market. I just set up my page with the current stock symbols I’m watching and I can see as much, or as little of the information I want. This includes graphs!

4. Yahoo Groups - FREECYCLE. Got something you want to get rid of but it might be useful to someone else? Don’t throw it in the dump, Freecycle it! To any of Yahoo’s shareholders who does not know about these geo-targeted groups, you need to check it out!

5. Yahoo Answers. I’ve looked up some interesting things on the Yahoo Answers that would’ve taken me a long time to narrow down through Ask.com or a Google search. AND without the constant barrage of flashing ads on about.com!

So you see, Mr. Liedtke, to it’s users, Yahoo is far more than a search engine or advertising server.

And to companies like Microsoft, don’t underestimate the power of the Yahoo User community! We go there because of what Yahoo does and how it provides what other sites do not. Even Facebook, MySpace, and Google doesn’t give me what I have with Yahoo. And if you take it away, I’ll go away and so will many other users. So, what good would it be to have a site that no one visits? What good are your ads and search when no one visits it?

Now, in reference to my second exception about M$ toppling Google…..

There’s an old saying about a snowballs chance in hell. Have you heard it?

Microsoft has Live Search and its predecessor, MSN search. Was MSN useful as a search engine? NO! Is Live Search useful as a search engine? NO! So why does Microsoft even think Yahoo would do it any good? In fact, everything M$ touches turns to crap so we users can only assume that you would also ruin Yahoo!

So Microsoft, since you can’t make your own search efforts work, and everything you touch turns to crap, and you’d turn Yahoo to crap, then by deduction, you wouldn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of even trying to compete with Google!

In fact, you’d probably help Google conquer the world because everyone would run from Yahoo the minute you purchased it!

In closing, I commend the shareholders for being greedy little bastards! It helped save Yahoo for now.

written by Admin \\ tags: AP, Associated Press, Freecycle, google, live search, Michael Liedtke, Microsoft, microsoft search, msn, search, shareholders, tarnished Internet icon, Yahoo, Yahoo News, yahoo shareholders

I was doing some research on TrendMicro for a student and accidentally fell on this hidden new tool! RUBotted is a new, free botnet (zombie) detection and removal tool in Beta from TrendMicro.

In my PC security course, I teach my students how to detect zombies and botnets but this tool makes it a snap!

I just downloaded the small file and installation went 1 - 2 - 3!

I was relieved when the installation completion announced that: NO BOTNETS FOUND!

It also runs quietly in the background (systray) and doesn’t appear to be using any huge amount of resources. In fact, I don’t even notice a difference in my system performance.

The requirements to install this new tool is minimal so even if you don’t have the latest and greatest PC or processor, check this out!

Kudo’s to TrendMicro for creating a great new Botnet (Zombie) detection and removal tool! And FREE!

written by Admin \\ tags: botnet detection, botnets, free, free botnet removal tool, free pc security, free pc security tool, how to remove a botnet, pc security, remove a botnet, Security, trend botnet, trendmicro, zombie, zombies

If the headline doesn’t get your blood boiling, probably what I have to say about this will!

The headline is actually one in the InfoWorld Today’s Headline Newsletter I just received. According to the article located here: http://www.infoworld.com/, the geniuses at M$ have come to this conclusion because of the information they receive back from their Malicious Software Removal Tool (MRT).

Okay, in case that just went right over your head for a brief second, read again what I said….”the geniuses at M$ have come to this conclusion because of the information they receive back from their Malicious Software Removal Tool (MRT).

I have advised all of my clients and family since day one, never to install that tool. The reason was that I actually tested it and found it trying to remove one of my third party pieces of software I use in web designing. Later, it started trying to remove components of the Norton Antivirus I was using! That was enough for me to call it quits early in the game. From then on, I did custom installs of the auto-updates and excluded that bad piece of junk! (So now that might explain to some of you why the he** your Norton or other software keeps screwing up!?)

But NEVER once did I know they used it to send back information! And I’ll bet NEITHER DID YOU!

According to the InfoWorld article (emphasis added by me):

Microsoft’s latest security data is particularly interesting because of the sheer number of machines that the company can electronically survey with one of its free security programs, the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT).

The MSRT is a low-end security tool that removes some of the most common classes of malicious software. The MSRT, which is an optional installation, scans machines once a month, and reports its findings back to Microsoft.

The software is on an astounding number of PCs: 450 million worldwide, according to Tim Rains, group product manager for Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group, which handles security issues. Rains made his presentation Tuesday at the Infosec security show in London.

First of all, might I say that putting Microsoft in the same sentence with TRUSTWORTHY anything is an oxymoron! Trustworthy Computing my A**!

So now I’m obviously peeved (as you can probably tell!) and on a whim I went back to this page: http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx to see if there was anything in that page that says that (And I printed it to PDF in the event M$ decides to change that page!) they also report back to M$. And it says nothing there!

So, I clicked the download link that takes me here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en#Overview

And again nothing mentioned there. (And yes, I printed that page to PDF too!).

So, on yet another whim, I download the miserable tool. That’s what they make ADD/REMOVE for right?

And I found it, sort of! See for yourself how it’s presented in the screen shot below:

Now, compare the statement: MICROSOFT MAY COLLECT AND PUBLISH AGGREGATED DATA ABOUT THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE to the article statement of: “…scans machines once a month, and reports its findings back to Microsoft.“

LIARS! You are no better than the alleged scumware you are telling us you are supposed to be removing!

Now that I have that out of my system, let’s continue….

The article goes on to state (emphasis again by me):

“Our customers choose to run some of this stuff,” Rains said. “Some of them get some value from it. Some of them don’t realize what they are doing. Some of them do. That’s why we call them potentially unwanted. Some of them are legitimate companies with legitimate products. We don’t want to make any value judgements on that.”

First of all, Mr. Rains, how the he** would you know that your customers choose to run them? Does your removal tool ask them WHY they are leaving it in? And does your software tool also report back how many of your users know what they are doing?

Maybe, just maybe, the poor people out there DON’T know what they are doing because you creeps have kept them so numb and dumb that they have no CLUE what to do!

The article cites that winfixer is installed on home computers up to five times more than any other rogue software program. For those of you who don’t know about winfixer, it displays a nagging screen much like the one I showed you in my REANIMATOR blog post.

Since it looks like a Microsoft Windows screen, and poor, unsuspecting users have been suckered into believing that Microsoft has their best interest at heart, why wouldn’t they click on it!

Little do they know that it’s the flaws in your “rush to market” operating systems that promotes this stuff! But oh yeah, that’s right, like Ballmer said about your VISTA, “it’s quality code!” How silly of me to forget that! It doesn’t matter if it’s secure or compatible as long as it’s first!

This latest article sickens me. How dare you - MICROSOFT - make a statement that some users may like adware! You arrogant, egotistical, spying, low-life, software pushers! You deceive the public with your propaganda and then wonder why users can’t make proper decisions? And then you have the nerve to judge them for it?

Shame on you!

Shame on the shareholders who continue to buy your stock!

Shame on the OEM system builders who continue to support your software.

Shame on us, the buying public, for not wising up sooner!

And shame on any Microsoft product user who continues to allow you to spy on us while lying outright in your privacy statements! There is a huge difference between the words “may” and “will” in a privacy statement. YOU KNEW you were going to use and collect that data. That’s not “may” - that is will.

I can’t wait until your Karma catches up to you! What goes around, comes around! And I’m waiting………

written by Admin \\ tags: adware, AV, ballmer, infoworld, malicious software removal tool, Microsoft, mrt, norton, reanimator, vista, winfixer

I was cleaning out some e-mail when the newest Information Week newsletter arrived. I opened it because of the title referenced something new Microsoft (M$) was up to.  I really didn’t care about the announcement related to M$ but I did find the article relating to Comcast very interesting!

In the InfoWeek article of the same name as my post entry, it seem Comcast has been playing with our traffic!

This actually explains a lot of what I’ve been experiencing! I thought my PC was starting to fail but could not find any test results to back it up! This is probably why!

We have Comcast high speed cable and over the course of the past several weeks, I’ve had issues with uploading/downloading through FTP along with connection issues to the many websites I have to visit in the course of my work.

So, it’s very interesting to see that they are trying to control the traffic! This raises some questions for those of us who work from home!

Your cutting into my hourly rate Comcast! That is NOT a good idea!

Any lawyers out there wanting to take on Comcast on behalf of this home business person?

written by Admin \\ tags: blocking traffic, comcast, fcc, infoweek, traffic

Okay, perhaps I’m stealing from Spock (Star Trek), but it’s for a worthy cause, isn’t it?

This is my new tag phrase! I came up with it when I was sending a comment to Stu over at WServerNews.

The article reports the results of the SunPoll regarding the statements made by Gartner and Windows collapsing. (If your so inclined to see the results:  http://www.sunbelt-software.com/sunpoll_historical.cfm?id=156)

This is the one thing I’ve always loved about the WServerNews, they aren’t afraid to report it like it is!

Sunbelt Software has a discrete Microsoft Gold Certified Partner on the bottom of their home page so we know there’s an obvious relationship! And WServerNews is a part of Sunbelt so you would think that they might be a little M$ biased.  And at times they are, but you don’t bite the hand that feeds you - right? I mean a lot of Sunbelt’s software is aimed at securing M$ products! So, you would think one would err on the side of caution, and they do.

But, that doesn’t stop them from reporting on facts, alleged facts, and even offering up a valid poll that might be deemed as “anti-Microsoft.”  Kudo’s Sunbelt and kudo’s to WServerNews!

Now I got off my original subject! I hate when I do that!  ::DUH::

So, I wrote this short e-mail to Stu and signed it, on a whim, “Live long, Prosper, and go Open Source!”

And I thought to myself, that pretty much says how I feel lately!

I use Thunderbird for all my e-mail, Firefox for browsing, and I recently downloaded Open Office so I can delete the Office 2000 I currently have on my machine and call it a day.

We’re downloading the new Ubuntu today too. So it’s just a matter of time.

Little by little, I’m weaning myself off Microsoft.

Oh! And I also downloaded the programming information to learn how to program for Open Office!

In short, I’m joining the Open Source community and I’m going to be teaching you how to move from Microsoft dependency to Open Source compatible options.

So, “Live Long, Prosper, and go Open Source!“

written by Admin \\ tags: Gartner, live long, Microsoft, open office, open source, prosper, Spock, Star Trek, ubuntu, windows, WServerNews

Thank you to the wonderful film crew and journalists of ABC World News tonight for the interview opportunity. ABC World News Tonight due to air 5:30 PM (Central Time) with Charles Gibson (barring any major world crisis) will air an interview with me tonight.

This is the first time I’ve ever had an opportunity like this and the film crew was so great! They made me feel as calm as could be expected given the circumstances. And the staff and journalists connected with ABC World News are very professional and friendly. It was one of the most positive experiences of my life to date.

So again, thank you ABC World News for the awesome opportunity and thank you again to the film crew for making it such a pleasant experience!

And if you get a chance to watch (and you’re one of our repair customers),  the entire World will know I’m leaving repairs and teaching here full time! Not many people get to retire on world news! ::WINKIE::

Debbie

written by Admin \\ tags: ABC, ABC World News, Charles Gibson, gas, gas prices, high gas prices, World News

A friend just sent me this link to Lockergnome’s site and tells me to look up the “Stupid Internal Microsoft Vista SP1″ post.

So, I did. I don’t know what to say. It’s something you have to see for yourself!

http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2008/04/17/stupid-internal-microsoft-vista-sp1-video/

written by Admin \\ tags: Microsoft, SP1, video, vista, youtube

I upgraded our WP to 2.5 about a week or two ago and never really had a chance to get into it. Well, over the past few days, I’ve been playing with it. WOW!

Good job WordPress FOLKS! KUDO’S! ::CLAP::

It took me a while to get used to the new dashboard but I did.

The new themes with all the available widgets and plugs-ins are overwhelming! I spent over two hours looking at the new templates before deciding on the one you see now. And then, I spent another six hours pouring over plug-ins! I feel guilty having so much fun designing our new layout! ::EMBARASSED::

If you haven’t had a chance to upgrade yet, do so immediately! This new version kicks butt! (Can I say that on a company blog? ) ::OHNO::

Again, thumbs up, kudos, and way to go WordPress! Great job! I love it!

written by Admin \\ tags: themes, widgets, word press, wordpress, wp

Debbie says: I’m giving back! For a chance to win, donate now or add this application and help raise funds for IDOL GIVES BACK. Visit the application on my profile now!

written by Admin \\ tags: american idol, charitable giving, charity, idol, idol gives back, myspace