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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Technology
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It's time, I need to clean up my PC, tamper with the registry, the CD/DVD burner doesn't work, as of yet, and so I pry open my wallet and splurge for a Terabyte Hard drive (external).
This should allow me to do a backup of files.
And it does, in a way, only a 45 GB backup takes 48 hours. 48 freaking hours!!!
The USB 3, whatever that is, doesn't appear to be supported by my PC. Funny, while I looked over all the features of the new drive (CNET pick of the year, small, needs no external power...), I failed to note that it was SLOW AS MOLASSES IN JANUARY. SLOW AS CANADA POST!!!
Mind you, that wasn't a feature bragged about on the box.
But now, finally, it's reasonably current and as soon as I have even just a little bit of spare time I can begin cleaning and fixing it up.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Technology
- Hits: 1857
Everyone's played it. Well, everyone but me, but I don't need to, they've told me how it's played.
But I wonder, for the time and effort spent mastering the game, wouldn't it be better to learn to play the guitar and become a REAL guitar hero?
Then you wouldn't be playing the game.....
Or - wait - maybe as part of the game package they could sell a filter - the cable from your electric guitar would run through the filter before running back to the console, and as you "passed" on various levels it would get progressively harder. The filter would convert and compare you're notes to those expected by the game. Same karaoke style, with images of your favorite band playing, chords along the bottom, but instead of learning how to do nothing on a plastic imitation guitar, you'd actually be learning how to play songs by the Beatles, Arrowsmith, whoever...
Now that would be a game. And you'd learn something. You'd have to provide your own guitar, but that's minor.
Or other games. Why are there no world-building games? Games where you learn to build bridges and buildings, high rises, and as part of the learning you need to know the properties of metals, materials, alloys, you need to learn remedial and then advanced physics, any gaming system now could handle it. It would be grooming a future generation of engineers and architects.
I suppose the point of this is, why must entertainment and education be separate? Why don't they integrate the two? Especially given how easy a tablet education is to take when you enjoy learning - and everyone (ahem) enjoys computer games, don't they? Why don't computer games teach skills that can be translated into THE REAL WORLD, I suppose is the point of this.
Just a thought.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Technology
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Last night, yet again, I notice the task manager has been disabled by the administrator. Yet another virus. And so update my definitions and do a scan with Norton Antivirus, but it finds nothing. Time: 2 hours. But my task manager is disabled, and this is trouble.
And so I do another scan with Malwarebytes, find 4 viruses, remove them. Humourously about halfway through the scan Norton tells me I have a virus (having just done a complete system scan and come up empty handed) - a little like a guard dog barking at it's owner to tell him his house has been robbed. The Task Manager is still disabled, I check group policy, settings are fine. I reset it, this seems to fix the issue of bringing up the task manager. The Windows Online fix-tool does nothing to allow me to access it. I have no idea where these viruses came from, but suspect that perhaps they came from the files on the other PC I fixed (and temporarily copied to my PC.). Internet Explorer has crashed 3 times this morning, despite my being unable to find any active processes or startup items that might be virus related, the reporting tool advises me that it's a windows issue and I should get used to it.
I suppose I should just get used to it. I'm on the computer a lot, maybe I should budget time for fixing these issues, or just realize that it's windows and they'll never be fixed, and be grateful I didn't succumb to all the hype about Vista and think of how things could be worse...
Now to scan it with AdAware.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Technology
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A friend is having problems with her computer. So I take a look at it, I know something about these sorts of things.
And it has problems. I mean, real problems. A boot time of 15 minutes. Every crummy add-on and plugin you can get to "boost" your internet experience. A minimum of 5 minutes to launch a webpage.
So I volunteer to help her out, she's not rich and can't just run out and buy another PC when the old one isn't working properly. And besides, how enviromentally friendly would that be? So I get her to round up all her discs and drop the computer off - a Compaq 2500 laptop. Windows XP Home Edition. Pentium 4 chip, 60 GB HD and 512 RAM. I'm just going to format the PC and reinstall windows after backing up her files.
Now I've never done this before. Certainly not to my own PC, this is more of a "Networking" thing and I'm a programmer. Still, I've met quite a few network people, it's obviously not brain surgery, I've a working connection to the network off my PC, and so I begin.
Step 1: Back up the files.
Should be simple enough. She's never burned a CD on her computer, so I'll be the first. Except that 10 attempts later I haven't managed to burn a single CD, all attempts fail. Still, there's always a workaround - I backup her files to my server. Takes a bit longer, but this should be good.
Step 2: Format the HD.
Now I'm gonna cheat here and do it from the CD. Boot from CD and choose option 1, and completely format and reinstall the OS. But there's a problem. For some reason after boot the drive fails to read all the files...error messages, 73% of the way through. I take out the CD and check it, there's no scratches. But the errors persist. Windows won't install.
I try several times, it's always the same. Well, not ALWAYS the same. Sometimes the file copy fails at 23%, or 24%. It's always the same in that it fails, but not always the same where.
Now I'm hooped. This wonderful favour I'm doing is gonna look awfully bad if I go to return the PC in a non-working state. I mean, it didn't work before, or it did but barely...now it's not working at all. And every fresh attempt to install takes close to an hour. I go outside to have a smoke while I thing about how to break the news....
Finally I have an idea. The disc drive appears to be getting quite hot, perhaps this is causing the errors? And so I haul it outside and let it cool down for half an hour. It's minus 10°C outside, that should do it.
And sure enough, it installs without error.
Step 3: Download updates
I check the window firewall settings, for some reason they're off and won't allow me to turn it back on. But I check the network connection and it shows it as being secure, and so I begin the long task of downloading the countless updates windows has provided since SP1. Which are a lot. And I download some security software as well, but I begin to get strange errors. Pop-ups telling me the PC is shutting down. I'm unable to bring up webpages despite having an active internet connection. Viruses. This goes on for a few hours. I'm getting nowhere, the PC is getting worse, not better, and I still can't seem to get online via the browser.
Step 4: SP 3
Why not? This will make it something in the neighborhood of 30 updates. I can get online after reboot for 3, 5 minutes at most. I've installed Zone-Alarm, which is indicating there are some serious problems. Frequent attacks on the PC. Shaw would appear to be the Hacker highway.
But SP 3 installs and the real fun begins. The computer reboots to finalize the install, and then goes into this endless cycle of rebooting. It never reaches the windows screen. This SP 3 has gone horribly wrong. And googling it I find that there are hundreds, thousands of reports of this, something conflicting in the hardware-software configuration. Microsoft has a free hotline to call. I find some steps I can try to restore the PC, none work. I can't boot it into safe mode, it just reboots. I access the recovery console, but the suggested steps there fail. Finally I just resolve to restart the whole reformating procedure, leaving off SP3 in the updates.
Step 5: Format HD & Reinstall Windows
Naturally I freeze the PC for half an hour first. To ensure that it boots from CD properly. And Windows reinstalls, the PC boots normally. Now the client, my friend, has suggested that I download Shaw Secure - her ISP's free antivirus solution. Which I do. And I run a scan of the PC and discover that there are 695 Viruses. Many, of course, are instances of the same virus. I delete what I can, but this corrupts the OS, files like Word won't launch, there are windows.exe errors. I run the antivirus 3 times, deleting what I can, physically going in to delete folders the program won't. Finally the PC scans virus free.
Step 6: Format HD & Reinstall Windows.
But it's so damned late and I need to sleep. It's been 2 days on this freakin PC and I've had it.
The next day I format the HD and run a repair installation on Windows. And it starts up without a hitch. Programs work. I copy files back onto her PC. All done. And the computer runs much, much quicker. I've updated to Windows XP SP2, with all the security updates. I've installed Windows IE 7 and Firefox. There are other things, but she needs it back right away, she's gonna pick it up, she needs to do some work.
But it's done, working like new, even better than new because it doesn't have all the useless shit they stick on PC's, just what she uses, it runs as quick for her as it's going to get. And there's a bit of a high there, knowing you've conquered insurmountable odds to get this PC up and working, I understand why networkers frequently mistake themselves for Gods, but I wonder why it has to be that way with Windows...I mean, who realizes when they are buying a product that they are commiting themselves to a lifetime of debugging, updates, virus scans and security patches? When they could get an even better product for free, such as Linux. Or a Mac. One never hears of this stuff happening with a Mac. It's the shortsightedness of consumers. PC's are sold new with Windows, part of the monopoly, and so people get used to working with what they have, battling it daily, rather than spend 1/10th the time learning a new OS that's going to do what they want and work the way they want.
And what's really funny, in a dark sort of way...people pirate this stuff.
But I'm relieved that I'm done, grateful it's working, I feel when it's over about as warm towards Microsoft as I do towards those Russian hackers, but at least it's working. Better and shinier than before.
She calls later, she's looking through her files, can't find one, she's not upset but it represents her lifes work. Funny, I thought I copied them all...She's not upset, it's just that it's her lifes work....
(She called later. I did copy it, just into another file folder. She had found it. She wasn't really upset, but it was her life's work.)
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Technology
- Hits: 1449
Morning and I've opened 20 pages of news related links. I open them first, then close the tabs as I read them.
Windows XP with Internet Explorer 7. "New and Improved". The first legitimate edition of Windows I've ever owned, it came with the computer. It just updated itself 2 days ago, downloading all the security patches and upgrades it needed to make for a better and safer browsing experience.
And as I'm reading the news of the day, news of the world, my browser begins to behave oddly, tabs open and close of their own accord, too late I minimize them to see in the background a warning from the "XP Police" that my computer may be riddled with spyware and trojans.
Now this is funny in a way, because I know this warning, it's proof positive that my computer is now riddled with spyware and trojans, and I futiley attempt to turn off the PC and reboot, hoping to interrupt it's installation. One of the tabs I opened was a bad tab, and I want very badly to know which one, to know which site is hosting this shit, and funny as it I'm not laughing, the "XP Police", as they call themselves, are warning me that I'm using an unregistered version of their malware, I should pay a fee to unlock the full version, and furious I try to bring up the task manager to end the process only to see that they've reserved this function for the "Administrator", and, goddamnit, I am the administrator and it's pissing me off something fierce!
Vicious and sadistic fantasies fill my head as I look at the litter of pop-ups and "Urgent Attention" dialogues, "Virus Scan Interrupted" warnings, that now cover my screen. Imagining finding where these ass-holes have their office and gouging out their eyeballs, electrocuting their fucking balls with wires ripped from the wall with my bare fingers, tearing their fucking faces from their skulls and stuffing them down their choking throats....
The rest are unmentionable.
It's hard to believe the perpetrators of this are in any sort of business, that a class action lawsuit hasn't shut them down, that someone, somewhere in the world hasn't found them and executed a Guantanamo Bay on their asses. But they're in Russia which is about as lawful for hackers as Mexico is for drug dealers, or the US for bankers. Meaning they can damned well do as they please without any fear of repercussions.
So I begin the long task of malwarebytes scans and deleting files from the registry, more scans, cleaning the PC. All in all about 2 hours to get my computer back. And when I break from the violent revenge fantasies I thank God and Allah above that I have Microsoft, the IE experience, patched and updated, otherwise, well, things could have been much worse....
Or probably not. I've never gotten a virus with Firefox, Chrome or Safari. So maybe things don't get worse. Maybe Microsoft is as bad as it gets.
Later in the day, surfing my now clean pc, IE ups and closes. "An unexpected error has occurred that requires Internet Explorer to close". I diligently send in the error report, my windows is legit, the solution is that is a "Recognized Problem" with Windows, no solution at this time, please ensure my software is up to date...
This happens probably every other day. Sometimes more often than others. "We know there's a problem and can't fix it..."
I need Windows, a PC, while I love the idea of a trouble free Mac or a Linux environment I put myself through this to feel my client's pain - they too use Windows (or they wouldn't need assistance), and perhaps I should be grateful for their contribution to the economy, the millions of people, not just here but worldwide, who make their living supporting a product that doesn't really work, and certainly not as advertised.