Computer Maintenance

Something else Kelsey asked me to give her was some advice on things she can do to make her computer run smoother. Well here are some possibilities:

1. All the time, make sure you have a good virus scanner running that keeps its virus definitions up-to-date.
2. All the time, use a good firewall that detects both incoming intrusions as well as outgoing connection attempts. Windows XP has a reasonable one built in. Use it!
   
3. Weekly empty the recycle bin.
4. Weekly run Spyware/Malware detection/removal tools such as (freebies):
1. Spybot Search & Destroy.
2. Lavasoft Ad-Aware.
3. Yahoo or other Internet service provider's software.
4. Or better yet, purchase one that does real-time scanning.
   
5. Monthly defragment your hard drives. If required do an offline defragmentation to defragment system files like the pagefile.
6. Monthly or more often back up your system. At least back up your documents and other files not easily replaced. Ideally copy them to something that is removable and can be stored in another location in case of fire.
   
7. Every 6 months or so, vacuum your computer. If you feel comfortable, open the case and gently vacuum the inside of the case to remove dust/hair buildup, especially near inlets to the case. As well vacuum the outside. Use some compressed air to blow the dust out of your CD or DVD drives.
8. Every 2 years reinstall Windows. Seriously, this isn't a bad idea as Windows still tends to get cluttered up and this also forces you to clean things out.

I'll add more ideas as I think of them.

PS No, I don't always practice what I preach. But I try!

Buying sites

Kelsey asked me to send her the list of where I shop for things on-line. I'll do one better and post it here for everyone to see:

http://bensbargains.net/
http://www.slickdeals.net/
http://www.techbargains.com/
http://www.edealinfo.com/
http://shopper.cnet.com/
http://www.pricegrabber.com/
http://www.pricewatch.com/
http://www.mysimon.com/
http://www.nextag.com/

The reviews, both user and professional at shopper.com (shopper.cnet.com) are often very good. Please guard the above list with your life. :-)

Someone please depose the iPod

I am soooooo sick of trying to repair, recover, upgrade, whatever, my daughters' iPods I could scream. An iPod must be the single most user unfriendly device ever when it comes to problems. Sure, Apple nailed the user interface when everything works well, but heaven forbid there be a problem. What happens when there is a problem? You get "Generic error message #42" or in iPod speak, a folder with an exclamation mark in it indicating you should go to www.apple.com/support/ipod for some totally useless advice. Diagnostics? What diagnostics? If you are fortunate enough to be able to get your iPod into "diagnostic" mode (and I use the quotation marks as it can hardly be called a set of diagnostics. Diagnostics are those things that point out what is wrong with a device. Every failing iPod I've come across has always had all the diagnostics indicate everything is great. Yet the device won't function, refuses to associate with the computer, and even in disk mode won't act like a normal USB hard drive. Back the rant already in progress...) the "diagnostics" never indicate a problem. Reminds me of the old Digital VAX/VMS diagnostics. They would find no problems, yet VMS wouldn't boot because of some hardware problem.

I mean really Apple, how hard is it to tell the user what's wrong with the device? If the boot loader can be smart enough to tell you to go to www.apple.com/support/ipod, can't it at least give out some hexadecimal error code that I could look up? Even Microsoft software can do that! And what's with a disk mode that doesn't let you access the device? How hard can it be to emulate a USB hard drive? Even a $19 device that includes an enclosure and power supply can do that. Yet my daughter's $300-400 60GB iPod photo seems unable to do that.

Gone Phishing

It never ceases to amaze me how some people can turn something good into something so bad or dangerous. I am reminded of this as I sort through my e-mail and diligently report any phishing attemps (as well as any other spam (try Spamcop) Phishing in e-mail? What does that mean? What can I catch? How do I do it?

Well, to make sure no one has the wrong impression, I am not going to tell you how to phish. Regardless of the expression about giving someone a fish versus teaching them to fish, I'm not going to help you commit identity theft. That's right, identity theft. You seen, phishing is a technique for trying to steal someone's private or confidential information. It's much like an on-line con-game.

The way phishing normally works is you receive an e-mail from someone that claims to be from a company that you do business with. Often these e-mail messages are along the lines of "There is someting wrong with your accout." And an apparent link to the company's website. In fact the link is a forgery and takes you to a web site thas has been copied to look like the one you think you are going to. At that imposter website, they generally ask for confidential information such as your social security number, account name and password, etc. With that information they can then impersonate you and potentially rob you blind.

Please be very careful when clicking on links in an e-mail and revealing sensitive information. See Phishing at Wikipedia. Don't be a phish!

-tl

Random Stuff

I can't believe I've posted nothing since Feb. How sad. I have so much to say and so few words to say it in... No, that doesn't sounds right... In any case, on to some favorites rants and pants.

I'm still struggling to set up my homebrew personal digital video recorders. Now I understand why people pay big bucks for a HD TiVo or other such beast. But then how much would I learn doing that? Seems as though the journey is half the fun, or in this case, maybe most of the fun. My current attempt has been based on Mythdora and I have much of it working. Yet there are still some wrinkles, so I'll try updating it one more time, sigh.

Kelsey and I just got back from a trip to Europe. Well actually Kelsey only saw London and I went on to Rome, Madrid, Brussels, and back to London. We had a blast. I'm sure Kelsey has some more info on her blog.

A word of warning. PLEASE USE SPYWARE SCANNERS. It seems as though almost everyone I know has had one or more run ins with spyware, malware, adware, etc. While we were in London, two young ladies from Spain were down in the hotel office trying to get one of their laptops back in usable condition. It apparently had been completely infected with adware and the like. You can prevent these things from getting out of hand. Please make sure you run programs like AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy, etc., at least a couple of times a week. And run 2 or 3 of them, not just one. If you don't, it's simply a matter of time before your computer WILL be infected.

Finally, I'm having a blast with my new phone, a Cingular 8125. This device is convergence device meaning that it is not only a phone, but runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and can connect via IrDA, Bluetooth, GPRS, and WiFi. So you can talk and browse the Internet and drive all at the same time. Well, just kidding about the driving and browsing the Internet. Even the hard core multi-taskers should probably avoid that combination. At the moment I'm just trying to find all the cool software that's available, and trying to figure out how to connect my laptop to the Internet via GPRS when I'm travelling and not near a hotspot.

More l8r...

Replace Congress

The more I learn about Congress, the more I appreciate the joke about con being the opposite of pro so what's the opposite of progress? Apparently our elected officials think that obfuscation is better than honesty. The practice of earmarks (more affectionatly called pork) is just one of many practices that must be excised from the current practices of congress. Our government is supposed to exist for the common good (read the preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America) of the people of the United States. Pork puts individual interests above the common good and exploits the present at the expense of the future. Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson recently wrote: "We face a choice between a society where people accept modest sacrifices for a common good or a more contentious society where groups selfishly protect their own benefits." Congress has definitely fallen into the latter category protecting their own self interests at the expense of the nation as a whole.

Combine the self serving attitude that members of congress seem to have adopted with the "need" to get re-elected and you have a formula for disaster. Basically Congress is for sale and the biggest contributor takes all. I propose that we skip terms limits and go straight to single terms. Then there wouldn't be any need to accept donations in exchange for preferential treatment. It would also help eliminate the current culture of pork. In fact, I propose we start this movement with a complete and total re-election of all of congress barring any incumbents from running. To keep the rotating schedule we have right now, some members would be newly elected for 2 years, some for 4 years, and some for 6 years.

Given that the above will never happen (what member of congress is going to vote himself out of a cushy job?), what is the next best alternative? I'm not sure but clearly there has to be a better way. Maybe the media should take back its role as exposer of the sort of self serving behavior that exists now and move away from the drama (Have you seen the front page of the Daily Herald's coverage of the Olympics? We now have drama awards by the paper? What next? Survivor as an Olympic sport? Puhleeze!) it tends towards. Maybe we should make deception in congress a punishable act? That way when some congressmen puts an earmark for some park in his own district into a transportation funding bill (what exactly does a park have to do with transportation funding?) we can throw that congressmen and all those that voted for it in jail! Yeah!

More on the elected morons later...

Addendum to financial disaster

As an additional bleak thought, the current national savings rate in the US is now officially negative. That means on average, people spent more money last year than they earned. This hasn't happened since the great depresssion. Combine that the fact that for many Americans, their biggest investment is in their house, means little in the way of liquid assets. Why does this portend a financial disaster. My prediction is that as baby boomers start to retire in mass, they are going to destroy the housing market. If many (most?) of them need to sell their homes to fund the lifestyle they are accustomed to, what is that going to do to housing prices? Combine this potential significant drop in housing prices and the probably upcoming Social Security debacle, and we have the potential of having a country filled with the ederly living in poverty.

Pending financial disaster

I feel sorry for the post baby boomer generation. Our government is setting up to saddle them with expenses they'll have a difficult time paying. What I'm referring to are Social Security and Medicare. I've already resigned myself to the likelihood I'll only receive back a fraction of the money I paid into those systems. Why? Because they are essentially bankrupt. Instead of saving our money for us, the government has used the revenue from those taxes to pay for other programs. This works as long as employment is growing faster than the number of people drawing on those programs. As the baby boomers retire, that isn't going to be the case. The number of retired people will increase substantially while the number of active employees contributing to the system decreases.

What does this mean for the post baby boomers? Likely large increases in taxes and decreases in government services. As well they will need to make some very difficult decisions on tax and benefit issues that will significantly affect the financial status of their parents. What does it mean for the baby boomers? Well if you're like most, you'll have counted on Social Security for a substantial portion of your retirement and you're likely to find those benefits cut some. If you're like me and have aggresively saved over the years for retirement, you'll probably find you don't get anything from Social Security, or will be taxed such an amount in retirement that it will have little positive effect on your financial situation.

Is it too late to change this? Depends upon who you believe. Are we headed in the right direction? As Bill Cosby says in his Noah skit: Riiight.

Stop electing morons

Do we have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find elected officials? Apparently our elected officials are too stupid to read the legislation they vote on. Last summer Congress (if con is the opposite of pro, what's the opposite of progress?) passed into law a bill erroneously titled "Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005". This bill weakens the protections offered by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and makes it easier for a company to send unsolicited junk faxes. Prior to this piece of festering dog doo legislation it was illegal to send an unsolicited fax to someone unless there was an established business relationship. This act basically makes it easier to claim such a relationship existed. And although it nows requires a removal number, my guess is that will be as effective as the similar requirement in the Can Spam act that congress also passed making it easier for spammers to spam you.

Unsolicited faxes essentially represent theft. They shift the burden of advertising costs from the advertiser to the recipient. How so? Instead of paying to have advertisements printed and mailed to you house for 25-45 cents per person, they can send you a fax for 3 cents and you pay for the ink/toner and paper.

So if anyone can figure out how S.714 (the number for the bill) prevents more spam, please let me know.

Oh yeah, one other thing. Is it a practice in Congress to take voice votes on bills they know aren't going to be liked by consumers? This bill apparently passed by voice vote so there is no way to know whether your friendly elected moron voted for it or not.

Broadcast DTV and the upcoming turn-off of analog broadcasts

I'm somewhat amused at the state of affairs in consumer electronics related to the upcoming shutdown of analog broadcast TV. The FCC has decided that we should all get the benefits of digital television and so has ordered the shutdown of analog television broadcasts. Actually they want to get rid of analog broadcast television because digitial television offers much more and is far more bandwidth efficient. In fact the broadcasters will get a benefit out of this as well as broadcast digital television requires far less power and televisions spend a large amount of money on electricity.

So why am I amused? Well the original date for the complete switch to digital television (DTV) was the end of 2006, but that has already been pushed out for a number of reasons. This is funny in of itself in that the decision to move to digital broadcasting was made nearly a decade ago. Is this going to be another one of those transitions like adopting the metric system? My cut at it is that it is caused be several factors, although I think the primary blame falls squarely on the consumer electronics companies.

For most people in the United States, watching a DTV signal is going to require the purchase of some equipment. At a minimum a DTV receiver is necessary as the hundreds of millions of existing analog television sets aren't going to be able to receive a digital signal. These receivers are often called set top boxes as they'll be somewhat like a cable box or satellite box. But try to buy one of these devices right now. My family tried to buy me one for Christmas and the one store that thought they knew something sold them an antenna! Yeah for consumer electronics sales people. They are so clueless about this technology and what's needed that it would laughable if it wasn't so sad. Add to this that there are not many set top boxes available and only a few consumer electronics stores in the area carry them, how is the average consumer ever going to get this sorted out? Oh, and to further complicate things, I suspect most consumers who bought an HDTV think they are reawdy for all this. Well it ain't so. The majority of HDTV sets people are buying are HDTV ready. All this means is that if they are given an already received HDTV signal, they can display it. So without a set top box, they won't see broadcast channels when the analog signals are shut off. This has all the earmarks of being another "metric adoption" fiasco.

Trials and tribulations of building a homebrew PVR

Some years ago I put together a PC that was specifically going to be used as a home theater PC. This was probably a little ahead of its time, but nonetheless wanted to give it a try. I made the disasterous mistake of purchasing an ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder TV tuner card. This card seemed to have everything I wanted. It included a TV tuner, at the time a reasonably high performance video card, and TV output. All seemed seemed well until I tried to use the ATI provided drivers and TV applications. What a joke. The system would lock up regularly, the applications only worked some of the time, and I later learned the drivers for this card are as buggy as the other ATI drivers. Even their Catalyst series of drivers appears to be full of problems.

So after struggling with this machine not making much of a PVR, I decided to try a linux based solution thinking that might be a better approach than using Windoze. There are some great packages out there for linux based PVRs including MythTV and Freevo. They provide many of the capabilities of TiVo, yet require no monthly fee and the ability to add many other features such as News, Weather, SNES emulation, web browsing, easy sharing of recorded programs, etc. But again I'm stuck with this dog of a TV tuner card. Apparently ATI won't share enough information about the Radeon All-in-Wonder card to allow good linux drivers to be written for it. So maybe this card is headed for the parts bin.

Frustrated but still plugging away...

Beat him when he's down

Or take advantage of the disadvantaged...

Why does it strike me that the Lottery, paycheck Loans, and the like are simply more ways to keep poor or uneducated people poor? Take paycheck loans for example. Presumably the only reason someone would consider such a loan is if they were in rather desparate need. Yet the loan rates are usary at best. For example, a quick Google search yields MyCashNow who's banner claims "Quick and Affordable Payday Loans" and "Helping People Live Their Lives". Yet when you check their rates, they charge $18.62 per $100 financed for a 7-14 day loan. That works out to an APR (annual percentage rate) of almost 450%!!! And others have even higher rates. How is it legal to charge someone 450% interest?

And if the Lottery isn't a poor tax, I don't know what is. The expected payout of the lottery is 3-5 times worse than the expected payout at a casino. Casinos are regulated by law to payout a certain amount. For example, in many casinos the slot machines are required to payout around 90% on their slot machines. This means that over a long period of time, you'll win roughly 90 cents for every dollar played, i.e., you WILL lose money but only 10 cents on the dollar. The lotteries on the other hand generally only payout 40-60 cents on the dollar (In Search of a Fair Bet in the Lottery). This makes the average lottery about the worst bet someone can make.

Actually maybe all of this is part of the gotta have it now mentality that seems to be sweeping the country (world?)...

Spammers rot in ...

I love it. I make a couple of initial posts and then not come back for quite a while. When I do come back, the only comment is by some moron spamming my blog for a mortgage! Get a life moron. What idiot is going to trust a spammer for a mortgage? Guess I need to turn on word verification.