Category: LifeStyle

Technology, Have we gone too far?

There are days that I long for the twisted pair; you know the POTS line or (plain old telephone service.) Yes, the one that hooks up to the one phone, on the wall or in the hallway in that special little nook that was designed by the architect for it. I would even go back to the dial phone, as I think that it was not only a simpler time, but probably a more reliable form of communication. OK, maybe not, but since we were not on it all of the time we had no idea when it was not working. The phone after all was not for kids..

I don’t know how many of my friends had a dial phone but, if you did not, you missed out. Calling a radio station to be the 25^th caller was a real chore back in the day. If you won and I did once, it was a real conquest!

Speaking for me personally, I have at least 6 email addresses, the cell phone, the business phone, fax lines, house phone and of course SMS text messaging and even IM on FaceBook. I am also a ham radio operator and have half a dozen radios that can all be going at the same time, but most of the time not.

No, not me, but my station back then looked a lot like this!

It would seem that I should be able to be reached. Back in the day, I had a pager as well although, that thing was really nothing more than an electronic leash; for whoever had the number.

When I was a kid if I wanted to talk with a friend, I would go get on my bike and ride to their respective homes and ask the “parent who answered the door” is “fill in the blank” home and can they come out and play? Yes, a little like the Cleavers..

When I was a little more sophisticated, (8years old,) I used a Walkie Talkie to talk with my friends that lived within a half mile or so. That in a large part prompted me to get my ham radio license at a whopping 13 years old. With that; I have visited with thousands of folks all over the world, but that is another story for another day.

The Smart phone, which is why I am writing today, is a marvel of technology. It is the Swiss army knife of communication! With that device I can call anywhere in the world from just about anywhere. I can send text messages and pictures of whatever interest me. I can get them as well. I can send a video to someone or receive the same. With Facetime or Skype, I can live video chat with people too! I can watch movies or play games and yes, I can poke someone on facebook from the waiting room at the Dr.s office. The camera quality is such that if I had the mind to I could take a “quality picture of my dinner” and post it on facebook as we all want to see what you ate for dinner, right? Wink wink. The camera part is really quite true, it is a really decent camera for a phone!

There are some issues with this however; of which I wish to expound upon. First and foremost, SMS text messages (at least with my phone and service) are not guaranteed to make it. Back when e-mail was new, the common greeting on a phone call was “did you get my e-mail?” E-mail is not 100%, it never has been, and it never will be. E-mail is more reliable today as the servers are more persistent and the internet is more robust. It is still not guaranteed to get there.

Text communication whether SMS or e-mail or chat on some service can be dicey as you don’t get the facial queues that you do; well… in person. One can discern some queues in tone of voice when on the phone but, without emoticons and “LOL,” we might not know if the person was serious or kidding! That type if communication leaves lots of room for miss-communication.

We are in fact a world in transition regarding our communication. I have many “friends” on Facebook but, how many of them know me personally? How many of them know my favorite colour or type of food, or I theirs for that matter? So one has to ask, just how good of friends are we? Would they even want to be my friend in person?

When is the last time that you spoke with your neighbors? Do you know their names or anything about them? I have two new neighbors of which I have made a point to introduce myself to, welcome them etc but, I also made a point to know their dogs name, and introduce myself to him as well. You should have seen the owners face light up when I took the time to get to know his pooch! I am not bragging about myself; or chastising you, I mention this because I realize that most of us pull into the garage, and close the door behind us. We leave the same way and “in my case” I use a lawn service so I don’t even have the opportunity to meet while I am butchering my grass. “hence the lawn service, I ruined the yard when I cut it the first time.” It was tiff grass I think, and my mower was not made for it…. I think. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Don’t depend on text or e-mail as it is not super reliable. There are times my phone will go off in the middle of the night, with all sorts of text messages, from days ago! I keep it with me most of the time but I have to admit, it too feels a little bit like a leash at times.

You know the old story about the lost invitation to the party, it may really have gotten misplaced. If something seems out of character with the person that you know, trust your instinct and call. If the invitation to the party does not arrive, call. If you were not invited well, re-evaluate that friendship. If you sent them a text, they may not have responded because they did not get it!

Finally, turn off the computer, phone, and tablet and unless you are watching a movie with the family, turn off the TV too. Spend time with those that you love, as you never know when or if you might have the opportunity to do it again (if ever.) Life is too short to have regrets and when I see complete families out at expensive restaurants, all on some phone, or some device well….it makes me a little sad for them. What memories will the children have? What about mom and dad when the kids are gone?

To me eating out is an event. To some, who do it all the time it is simply eating. I can eat at home but there is the preparation and the cleanup. If I eat out I am “served!” There is not preparation and no cleanup and there is also the friendly exchange of conversation not only between whom I am eating with but, I also make a point to learn the servers’ name, and use it. While they are, “serving me;” I make certain that they know I appreciate them.

Life is about making memories. Good or bad, life is what it is. One day, not too many years ago I was taking my daughters friend to a college across town. After we left her college I picked up a bolt in one of my tires which left me and my daughter stranded on the side of the road in a less than great area of town. It was summer about 110 degrees on the side of the highway. It was about 300 after I got the car jacked up and about 500 when I discovered that the oil change service that rotated my tires had not put the tire lock key back in the glove box! We had no water, and now I was back out in the heat taking the jack back from under the car all the while having her call the auto service. You know *4357… Yeah that one.

After getting back in the car, the auto service had no information on me or the account and would not send a wrecker. Even after I told them that I would pay the wrecker just please send one! They refused to help because I was not a customer they were not obligated to lift a finger. The auto service was paid for through the cell phone carrier and it is insurance that you pay for monthly. We were a customer and the customer service girl just fat fingered it when she looked up the phone number, you know the 10 digit phone number that should have been on the screen in front of her!?

Very long story short, after witnessing drug deals, going through gas to keep the air on and doors locked and wondering if the car would overheat, and having to go to the bathroom, we finally got a wrecker right at 5 in the afternoon, rush hour traffic! We had been out since 9am without food or water or bathroom, on the side of a busy highway since about 10 am.

Even though that was not a great memory, it is a memory, and I did get to spend the entire day with my daughter with no computer to compete for my time with her. OF course in retrospect, I don’t think either of us was real great company…

Is a poke on Facebook, or a text to someone, more important that being with friends or family in person? I too am guilty but, I try to be aware of it and resist the temptation.

-Best to you and those that you care about!

They’re on TV, they know the right answer!

Not so fast… Liberal hacks have been spewing out verbiage (verbal garbage) for years, and people suck it up as the Gospel.

Why? You see them on the “silver screen” and they appear “all knowing!”

They are actors, which is what they do, they act! Do you think that the “actors in Big Bang really have a clue about particle physics? I am dubious that they could spell Higgs-Boson much less know one if it bit them in the ass! Please understand I have no ill feelings towards this group of actors. I have watched them through most of their careers and enjoy their talents. If I met them however; would I like them? Who knows?

Their entire claim to fame is that they can read a script, remember it long enough to regurgitate their lines and emote. I am certain that looks and who you know has a lot to do with it.

When liberal elites run things, it is almost never good for the “little people.” I would expand that to say the “elites” period.

Let’s take the tax code for example. Each and every election cycle we have people talk about changing it, making it simple. Makes for great talking points and for a great control of the narrative but in reality, it will never be simplified. It is thousands of pages of text which benefit the people with the gold, written by the people with the gold for the people with the gold! It is a way to legally extract money from you and give it to them or at least distribute it in ways that buys votes from the disenfranchised, aka those who refuse to work no matter what! There is a part of the population that vote, as their sole job, they vote for a living; and you pay them to do it.

Hey Hollywood, if your so damned bright how come California is bankrupt? How come every liberal idea of socialism and communism has never worked in history, ever! The only people that this ideology benefit is the 1% who look down from their ivory tower and say stupid shit like “let them eat cake” thinking cake is cheaper than bread!

If Guns are so damned evil, how come you guys have them? You want gun laws for the peasants, but not for you. The people know, and surely you must know; that laws are for the people who are not criminals! Passing gun legislation will only hurt law abiding citizens.

If you don’t like guns, don’t buy them! If I were president; I would push legislation that would have every “able” person in the country that was willing and able to take the proper course and get from the government free guns and ammo. Once every year or two they come in and re-fresh their proficiency and renew the certification. Don’t you know that crime would go down to nothing! We who make an industry out of locking people up would change that quickly. Would more people die in burglaries and other stupid criminal acts, Yes! Would the courts be busy at first, probably, why? Because people, (dumb people,) would test the system. There are stupid people out there that would have to see if grandpa or grandma would really shoot them. “Tap it three times grandma!”

The truth is that the typical response time for a 911 call is twenty minutes. Let me say that again, TWENTY MINUTES! Do you have any idea how fast a criminal can kill you and your entire family and be gone? Long before the first police car ever arrives on the scene.

By the time you hear the door kicked in, pick up the phone “instead of a gun,” that bad guy is already in your home looking for you, and or a family member. Now you can grab your shotgun and fire a warning shot like Mr. Biden suggested, or you can call 911 and try to stay alive while the cop finishes eating dinner, or writing up that guy that was going 5 miles over the speed limit, or investigating a domestic disturbance or; you can pick up your gun, that you know how to use and save the taxpayers some money, and your life!. The simple truth is that the cops will get there in time to write up the incident (most of the time.) What will they be writing up? If you have a gun that Matthew Mcconaughey and other liberal silver screen people (who have guns and body guards) think that you don’t need, or should not have, they hopefully will be writing up that there is either an injured or dead person that was attempting a break in, which needs to be dealt with.

When the people that you love from the silver screen come out and advocate for this or that or for some candidate remember that you have no idea who that person is, or what they are about. I loved Ed Asner. Did I really? Lou Grant, Mary Tyler Moore and even the bumbling news anchor Ted Baxter. Those are the people I loved, to watch.

Ed’s philosophy and activist rolls he has taken are diametrically opposite of mine in every way. This man believes that we took down the Twin Towers. When he talks in public do you see him as the lovable, intelligent all knowing news editor, Lou Grant?

Mr. Obama seems like a real nice person. I am certain that I could be friends with him but, as president I could not agree with his politics. With him, I learned and embraced the word “Feckless.” That is a terrible thing to have to admit and relate to a sitting president. I thought that Jimmy Carter would go down in history as the worst president ever, I think he got spared that title. I think President Obama’s ideology is flawed beyond repair. I do believe that he believes that what he is doing is good. This is the classic Ivory tower syndrome. Cake is not bread Mr. President. People need a hand up, not a hand out, Mr. President. With your approval rating so low, how about stop governing by the damned polls and just do the right thing. Stop leading from the rear! If you are lost; call me. I don’t have a red phone but I am certain that your guys can find my number. I am not a yes man and will tell you like it is! I am older than you; and I probably know more history than you do. I have run a company and I know how balance a budget, I do like it when you don’t have the teleprompter, when you talk and it is from you, and not half a dozen script writers.

Did I say script?

Yes, Script, only Mr. Obama does not memorize it, he simply reads it. His wife has aspirations of being on the silver screen too, as she has been in at least one show that I saw; Parks and Recs. She is pretty and has the right connections, so who knows.

I am unsure what drives people to want to be on the silver screen in the first place; I suspect narcissism but, psychology is not my main interest. This country is!

I dislike the process of politics. What kind of life is it where one begs for money and votes the entire time that they are in the public eye? No damned wonder nothing gets done in Washington, they are too busy setting things up for their next election!

Things need to change so these guys can actually get some work done.

I have some ideas that would fix it and guess what, they are from history and some are simply common sense which, we as a nation seem to be short of these days!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing! Scene 5 of Macbeth, if memory serves…

-Best

Pick Your Battles

Sitting back watching the Houston Mayor run roughshod over preachers has been entertaining.

The LGBT community has in many ways influenced the lives of everyone on this planet who has a TV, or a radio or even use a PC or other device to get on the internet.

Hollywood insists on putting “gay” into many of their products, which may be a sign of the times, or it may be part of an agenda, or both. The public can either accept and embrace it, turn a blind eye, turn the channel or turn it off. As Reagan once said “vote with your feet, or in this case your remote.”

When the Mayor of a huge city like Houston who is openly lesbian gets elected, I think that Hollywood has done a pretty good job of indoctrinating the masses.

The simple facts are that few of us care what folks do in the privacy of their own home. That is between you, your partner and your god. Most people simply don’t care, and if you read the bible you would understand that Christians are called not to judge others. They are taught to hate the sin, not the sinner. Christians are not your enemy!

“Sin” is where the rub is, and why the attack on religion.

If I had to guess I would say that is the reason that there is more animosity towards religion and God. If you “believe” you are called to live a different lifestyle “hate the sin” than if you simply do as you please.

The human race is under attack from every angle. Pornography for instance is now incredibly easy and prolific. We have legalized Pot in a few states and more people want it on the ballot in their state even though those that have done it, now say that it was reckless!

We have stuff at the box office which comes from such twisted minds one has to wonder what they were smoking when they wrote it. Even worse, people pay good money to go see it. Our moral compass is way off. The people driving this lack of morality, attack God, and those who follow him. The entertainment industry as a whole is giving the people what they want from pornography to violence to incredibly violent video games which are nothing more than simulators designed to desensitize one to violence.

We have programs that explain everything through science except how did it all get started? Science would tell you that there is no room for God and Religious folks would tell you that there is not room for science. Only when they each realize that they must necessarily co-exists, will they find the answers which they seek! Indeed if God has a language I believe that you will find it to be math!

Mrs. Parker, the same constitution that allows you to live your life as you choose, also allows Christians to live their life as they choose. By attacking organized religion and trying to get them to submit to the gay agenda “whatever that is” is biting off more than you can possibly chew. This is not Canada, we still have Freedom of speech.

Here is the problem. The Bible is what it is. The words in it are what Christians believe to be the inerrant word of God; the same God that judges them, will judge you! Unlike public opinion, the Bible is static, it does not change at some whim of bloated officials such as yourself. While atheist have made a religion out of being atheist; forcing the removal of God from Schools and public places, the Bible will not change.

Live your life as you like, causing others to stray has penalties all of its own; if you believe the words in the bible; and again, that is between the people who do it; and their God.

Denouncing God does not make him any less real but, if that helps you live with your life choices, so be it.

Not my Monkeys; Not my Circus!

If however; you use your powers of office to try and circumvent the constitution; than we have a whole other problem.

The constitution is not out of date as Ruth Ginsburg would have you believe; but a very timeless document that is just as salient today as it was when it was drafted. It was crafted in such a way to protect the public from people, such as you who abuse your power to fit an agenda.

The Gay community did not happen in just the last few decades, but way back before Jesus ever trod the sod. I know of no one that holds any animosity towards them but, if you choose to believe that people do, that is your problem; don’t make it ours.

Houston needs a lot of things and you can do a lot of good, taking on the church or religion or God is not what you were elected for, and I doubt that most of the people who voted for you would want you to continue on with this. Your foolishness is making national news and not only are you hurting your cause but, you are hurting Houston, and you are hurting the Democratic Party. Stop tilting at Windmills. If you are serious about turning Texas Blue, this is not the way to do it! If you want more people to accept gay people, stop making them look bad!

Pick your battles carefully…

-Best

Bash or ShellShock!

Bash!

Sounds like something out of Batman.

This however is no lighthearted matter.

Bash is a UNIX shell that has been exploited in a most dangerous manner. Shellshock, a program “virus” written to take advantage of a Bug in Bash could be used to take over millions of computers world-wide.

I talk a lot about anti-virus software and why you should really buy the best that you can but, still, “day in and day out” I get computers that are infected with tens of hundreds of viruses.

“Free anti-virus software is not worth what you pay for it!”

Free software is not taken care of remotely as well as that which companies that take in revenue can afford programmers to keep on top of it. Using free is foolhardy at best; and dangerous at worst. Why?

Let’s say that your computer becomes infected but, not to the point to stop you from working with it, maybe it just slows it down a little.

Meanwhile, lurking within the bits and bites of software there is a Trojan waiting to be activated from some nefarious ne’er do well. This person or people could use yours and millions of other computers to simultaneously attack systems in other countries, our country, and so forth. They might target government systems or air traffic systems etc. With so many computers attacking a system, it would most certainly bring it down.

My argument that I am trying to make here is this. Every day we hear of new virus’s that are being released or discovered. Using the “best” anti-virus software is not only a good idea for you but, it is also patriotic in that you really don’t want your computer to be attacking some government server.

Practice safe computing, use good anti-virus software and pay attention to your computer if it starts acting “wonky!”

Yes, “Wonky” is a technical term.. Ok, maybe not but, you know what I mean.

A trick that I do is run the little widgets that come with Windows 7 and 8 that display memory usage and CPU usage. When your computer boots from a fresh installation take note at where those needles are setting during normal usage. This is much like the gauges on your car. When you are going down the road, you know where the temp gauge should be and where the RPM, voltage etc should be. When they are acting “wonky” (not in their usual spot) you get it looked at. Your PC is no different.

“Shellshock” is particularly dangerous in that it affects UNIX systems, Mac’s and even Smartphone’s that use the Android operating system.

A lot of servers run UNIX; this might explain the recent hacks pulled off against Home Depot, and nude pictures of celebrities being taken from their personal accounts on “The “Cloud.”

Some of these programs can go un-noticed and sit idle for years before someone notices them. Generally when some “hack” is perpetrated than “White Hat Hackers” are called in to find out how. Forensic computer guru’s who know what each and every little file in a UNIX system is for example, and what it should look like, size and usage, might be called in to see; “what is wrong with this picture.”

The days when your Mac and your Linux / UNIX system were relatively safe are gone.

Do your backups and test them. No backup is complete until you test your backup! Make certain that your anti-virus software is of good quality, and up-to-date.

“Which is the best”

I know, I beat you to the punch.

First off, I buy my entire anti-virus software’s full price and am not in bed with anyone!

I have many different flavors as there is no silver bullet.

I use Esetnode 32 on my main system and, I use Trend Micro on my backup system. I also use Norton on my laptop although I have seen way too many machines which run Norton infected.

As far as mobile and iPad and iPhone, I use Trend Mobile.

Having said this, please understand that there is no warranty expressed or implied by this blog. For legal-ease, you should consider this and all my blogs “entertainment.” There are no warranties of usability or anything else.

Isn’t it simply pitiful that we live in such a litigious world that disclaimers have to be put on “blogs?”

All opinions here are my own, unless otherwise stated.

Now go take on the day!

-Best

Transportation Security Administration or “taking stuff anyway”

TSA

Transportation Security Administration or “Taking Stuff Away”

I must confess of having mixed feelings about this “administration.”

You really have no idea if they are screwing with you because it is purely: random” or they either don’t like something that they see, or they are bored, or they see someone that is attractive so they screw with them as a matter of spending a few more minutes with them.

I have written before how they have turned my luggage into a mixed up mess of what was once cleaned and pressed laundry into something that looked like they cleaned the hanger floor with it, and then shoved it back into the case.

This last trip I purchased the TSA approved lock and installed it onto a brand new piece of Sampsonite luggage. As this trip required clothing for ten days and all types of clothes needed for different events, I once again made certain that everything was packaged in such a way that I would have to do minimal ironing once there.

On the first leg of the trip I noticed that the brand new TSA approved lock was missing.

$17 locks labeled “TSA approved” gone missing is simply bullshit! I was loath to go and get another lock as frankly I think that the TSA locks being sold on eBay in lots could most probably be traced back to some TSA or airport employee.

Arriving at my location I went through the process of taking my clothes and making some sort of sense of them when I noticed that the zipper going to the lining inside the case was broken. For some reason whoever took the lock broke the zipper on the inside of the case which allows you to remove the lining for cleaning or what have you. No machine broke that zipper, that was some heavy handed person looking for something!

Usually when the TSA violates my stuff they leave me a nice little piece of paper inside, telling me that my bag was “randomly checked” … This was not the case this time, no notification that my clothing had been searched other than it looked like some child had packaged it.

Traveling sometimes is a necessary evil. Even if you are simply going on vacation, I must confess that I grow tired of submitting to “children with god complexes.” I know of no government agency that is not corrupt and this recent IRS fiasco did not help, and this one is no different. Why, they hire people who forget that they too are people, and should treat others the way that they would want to be treated escapes me. From the cop on the street to the man in the top office in the country, they need to remember that we are their boss and they work for us! While this in no way includes everyone; I would make the argument that it is becoming more inclusive than one hates to think.

If they are incapable of doing this, it may be time to privatize these things and hold these people accountable to us as the government seems to forget who their boss is!

There is simply no excuse for violating ones luggage and stealing the TSA locks that they insist that we purchase. If they break something along the way, they need to own up to it instead of just loosing the lock and not putting anything inside the luggage with an apology and some sort of claim form to get it repaired. Stuff happens and everyone understands that. To just ignore that you did it and let it go is unforgivable. Its like hitting a car in a parking lot and hoping that no one saw you do it. It is Bullshit!

All stations where this type of activity is performed should be under video surveillance so these people can be held accountable for their actions! This is America, not some third world country and it is high time that Americans stand up and say “no more!”

If we must submit to this level of scrutiny should the people doing the scrutiny not also be watched for abuses on their parts? I am talking about oversight. You know like the VA should have had oversight or the Damned IRS should have oversight. When you work for us you should be beyond reproach!

One government web site offers an excuse for the missing locks…

http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/damaged-locks-alert

My question here is this.

I have traveled for many many years using conventional locks. Never has my baggage been messed up or the lock been torn away as this article suggest. Now you are trying to convince me that because it is a TSA approved lock that somehow the conveyer belt tears it loose with no damage to the bag!? What utter bullshit! By the way, you are responsible!

These signs disavowing responsibility or liability on the backs of trucks, or in parking lots, alleging the parking lot owners are not responsible to damage to your car, or the sign on the truck saying that if they loose something from their truck that damages your vehicle “too bad” is BULLSHIT.” Their logic is if they tell you that they are not responsible, you will simply take your lumps and go away; is wrong. The parking lot folks are responsible and must carry insurance to that end. The truck hauling crap of any sort that comes off and damages your car is responsible and you can hold them accountable. AND YOU SHOULD! And guess what TSA, you too are responsible. The real question is, who is going to bring suite for a $17 lock? Or a $200 piece of luggage?

What if, I was to put a sign on the back of my car which said “I am not responsible for running over slow people who get in my way?” Do you think that the courts would exonerate me because I had a sign?

I really hate being lied to. Prevarication appears to be rife in our society and becoming the new American way! Every day, by people of all walks of life, lie to us; and it is Bullshit!

We can do better and accepting accountability for our actions is a really good place to start. Demanding better from our feckless government is a MUST!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-8-Assorted-TSA-locks-Color-luggage-strap-TUMI-Cable-Lock-NR-/261587356934?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce7d24d06

HEY DOJ, why not look into where these “lots of TSA locks on ebay, come from?

I realize that it is small potatoes but you must start somewhere. Americans need to regain some trust in the government and right now you guys are not doing so well. The little guy always seems to take it on the chin and nobody gives a damn. I do, and so should you.

-Best

A virus to end all viruses!

My favorite Anti-Virus software was sullied by something this week.

While downloading the hundreds of e-mails I get each day, my PC decided to “stall.”

One of the reasons that we “who know these things” get paid well for what we do is this.

When a PC, server or any other piece of computer hardware fails to act as it should; is that we go through a methodical litany of troubleshooting techniques, that we know to do.

This is a fairly old PC, is it hardware?
Is it software?
Is it operator error?

One of the first steps I do, is assume nothing.

The answer to the three above questions is “possibly.”

I check for viruses as that is what one does, checks for a virus. If there is no smoke or other obvious hardware issue, you check for viri.

The “only” way to do this properly is remove the hard drive from the machine, install it in an external device that hooks up to another “known good PC” with good anti-virus on it, and scan it. I could explain why but it would add several paragraphs, so just trust me.

One of the first mistakes one makes is use a machine that has the anti-virus on it that you already use. Hello…. If it is a virus and it got past your anti-virus what makes you think it won’t screw up this machine as well?

As a professional, I have several top of the line packages that I purchase and keep up as there is “no silver bullet.” I don’t screw with free, as free is not worth what you pay for it! Anyone that does is playing with fire!

This process can take hours, so I use the time to blow out the machine, check for bad caps, lethargic fans, change the CMOS battery, dust out the CD-ROMS and so forth.

As part of the process I noticed that the video card fan was running, but not up to speed. This was not an expensive card so I took this opportunity to upgrade it to something newer, faster, onboard GPU and a killer fan.

Problem: Newer video cards need more power than the old 300Watt Dell power supply can muster; must change the power supply as well.

Problem: Dell uses proprietary power supplies. Getting a higher power, power-supply from Dell, if they even make one for this PC, would be cost-prohibitive.

Plan B: What exactly is different about this power supply vs. the standard off the shelf power supply? The placement of the power receptacle is lower, and there is an off-on switch on a “generic” power supply. The case has metal where that would be.

It did not take long to modify the case to accept a generic, higher power, power-supply with a larger fan and double the watts! There is a tool called a “nibbler” that you can get that will allow you to remove small chunks of metal at a time until you make a suitable hole for the new power-supply. I also used a dremel tool to smooth the metal, so there were no sharp edges.

After finishing the hardware upgrade with a larger power-supply and a video card that is really meant for gaming; as well as replacing the CMOS battery, the diagnostic screen came up just perfectly. Removing lots of dust did not hurt things either. The drive was still scanning, so a wait was still in order. At 75%, Trend Micro had found no viruses….

Finally; about 3 hours after the start, the drive was pronounced clean by Trend Micro so now it was back to possibly a hardware issue, or was it?

Installing the drive upon boot up I was presented with the options of safe-mode or regular boot. Always choose safe. In safe mode you can poke around without all of the other files loaded.

Once booted in safe, I installed the new video drivers and was happy that “in safe mode” the PC behaved as expected.

Reboot to normal, normal quickly turned to atypical to say the least.

I like to have the widgets on my desktop that show me the processor usage and the memory usage. I know what they should look like so if they change, I can quickly react vs. waiting until things just die.

Watching the widgets, the processor usage would tank at 100% and the memory usage would gradually increase until the PC was non-responsive. That is the earmark of a virus, or a program that is behaving badly.

Manually shutting off the machine and bringing it back in safe mode I use something called CCleaner. I actually pay these folks for this program as it is that good! You can get it for free but anyone that writes a program like this I will support them.

www.piriform.com

I allow it to clean; which removes all kinds of crap hence “crap cleaner.”

I then run the registry cleaner and allow it to do its thing.

After that I go through which programs and services I want to allow to start than kill everything that I don’t recognize. I am different from the normal folk; as I recognize what those programs and services are. If you are not sure about this; research with another computer what you are killing. Failure to do so could result in you killing your operating system.

The trick is to get rid of all the “junk in the trunk.”

“Junk in the trunk”

I use the analogy of hauling rocks in your trunk.

Many years ago Lucy from the “I Love Lucy Show” and her husband made a movie called the “Long Long Trailer.” If you have not seen it I will not spoil it but, part of the plot is that Lucy wanted to collect a rock from each place that her and her husband went on their honeymoon, while pulling this travel trailer with a car that was probably ill equipped for the task. While the rocks in this case were in the trailer, the metaphor still works, as this car was now pulling more than it could possibly handle while traversing the mountains!

We do that with our PC’s every day! We load them down with all kinds of programs that live in the tray. We have lots of different things running at one time, and unfortunately we have to add to this load an anti-virus software and anti-malware software and god only knows what else, just to surf the web!

Depending upon your car, Mustang with a 5.0 or Prius, it will allow you to haul some stuff. As far as I am concerned, I want a PC that will get the job done and handle the software necessary to keep the computer safe and allow me to run production apps. I drive a full size truck with lots of power. My PC is not a gaming PC but, it could play WOW or some other graphic intensive game, if I so chose to do so.

If you are a gamer, you want a Ferrari or Lamborghini. I advise those shopping for a new PC to get one that will play games; even if you don’t intend to use it for that. Why?

If it will play games, it will run your production apps and the necessary stuff to keep it safe from the bad guys!

Having a sport car does not give you license to drive down the road faster than traffic or the speed limit; it merely gives you the ability to do so. Just because you have a PC with lots of power, there is no need to install a bunch of stuff like “weather bug.”

A PC is kind of like a baby. Every thing that you do to it or with it from the day it is “virgin software” changes it. Loading all kinds of stuff on your PC, even getting updates from the different software vendor’s “change it.” PC’s are very dynamic and that is why it is important to use the widgets like I spoke of earlier. Know what normal for your PC, and when it is not normal, get some help. When your car’s temperature gauge goes out of the normal range; you take it to the shop don’t you? If not, you certainly should. Someone needs to write into the operating system a “check engine light.”

Diagnostic software came about with the PC years ago; the first that I remember was PCTools.

After removing all of the junk, booting my PC back up into normal mode still left me with a PC that had a runaway program that slowly degraded the performance of the PC until it died.

Another boot to safe and than another boot to normal allowed me to quickly bring up task-manager before the eventual slow down, so I could monitor all processes “from all other sources besides just my login.” That is key as some services and processes will not show up under what you have loaded under your profile.

Long story short, ESET was the malfunctioning process. ESET would eventually use up over a Gig of ram and most of the CPU horse power and…the mystery still is that it was sending something over the internet or at the very least causing all sorts of network traffic. I no longer have a hub so loading a protocol analyzer on another PC would have only shown me broadcast traffic. I elected to simply uninstall ESET from “safe mode” and see what happened then. That fixed the problem. I installed Trend Micro and have run the PC for over a week with no issues.

My guess is that someone wrote a program specifically to attack the anti-virus software and ESET was not equipped to handle it. Next week or next month it may very well be Trend that fails. There are many on the market and there is “No Silver Bullet.” It came in through e-mail I suspect.

Moral of this sad tale is this: backup those things that you care about and back up often.

I would love to know what attacked ESET NODE32, so if anyone else has a similar story please share it. I will make certain to share it with my readers.

Call me paranoid but here is my suspicion. There are many different anti-virus programs out there all trying to get your dollar. There are some really good programs and than there are some programs that are not so good. While free is better than none, it is not much better. You get what you pay for.

I suspect and this of course is coming from a 30 plus year veteran of working with this stuff, that someone who works for or worked for one of these companies wrote and released this bug. Someone writes these things and if they don’t get remuneration from it, why do it?

Why in God’s name would someone sit around in their mother’s basement in their underwear writing programs that are meant to disrupt or destroy people’s software or ability to get on the internet or work or what have you? Sorry for the visual but I can just see some pimple faced kid with empty candy wrappers, half empty red bull cans and possibly an ash tray full of butts and old pizza boxes typing away at the computer till the wee hours, trying to outdo his buddy. I think I see roaches too…Another bug!

I understand writing software to steal an identity and sell those things to the highest bidder.

I understand robots to use millions of computer to attack some target with a DOS.

If a virus was written to attack a specific anti-virus package; that action would bespeak of an inside job, or possibly someone that had a grudge against that company.

Full disclosure: I do disaster recovery planning for companies. Having been in this field since before the Internet, Bill Gates and Mr. Jobs, I have seen much, done much, and carry a wealth of both computer and business skills and acumen with me to the clients site.

When I got out of school, the secretarial pool was still in vogue; and Greg Shorthand was still practiced. I put dictation equipment on executive’s desk and later computers, replacing the all day process of creating a document to the executive typing his or her own document or e-mail.

I am also a science fiction / fantasy writer who enjoys blogging…

-Best

The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Runway Theatre

For those of you who are into the theatre and who happen to be in the North Dallas area I have a treat for you.

In Grapevine Texas there is a place called the Runway Theatre.

http://www.runwaytheatre.com/TheGreatAmericanTrailerParkMusical.php

It is called this as it sits on the north end of DFW and frequently the sounds of Jets landing or taking off can be heard during a performance. This does not take away from the play and most of the time it is not noticeable.

The historic area of Grapevine has many shops and places of interest so actually spending more than an evening there can be a good use of your time. It is very close to DFW so, if you are in town for a day and have some time on your hands a quick cab ride to downtown for food and fun would also work.

Grapevine is rife with good restaurants, spending a Friday night or Saturday night in Grapevine is worth consideration.

Grapevine hosts a few restaurants which are landmarks. Esparza’s, which is a great Tex Mex restaurant has a long history of satisfying their guest.

http://www.esparzastexas.com/home

There are others which I have tried and I will do a better job of talking about them in the future. The cost varies, some are really overpriced; most are in the ball park of what you would expect.

If you are in the mood for something a little more traditional, try Tolbert’s

They boast a good chili and their fish is advertised as coming from Paris, Paris Texas…

http://www.tolbertsrestaurant.com/

Our usual evening consist of an early dinner with friends somewhere in the area, and then heading over to the theatre about 30 minutes before the curtain to visit with some of the other regulars and staff.

These people go out of their way to make you feel at home.

The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Critics love this incredibly irreverent, hilarious musical which gives a whole new loving image of “white trash.” When a new tenant arrives at Armadillo Acres, she wreaks havoc all over Florida’s “most exclusive” trailer park. The bonds of friendship are sometimes closer than the bonds of family. When Pippi, the stripper on the run, comes between the Dr. Phil-loving, agoraphobic Jeannie and her tollbooth collector husband, the storms begin to brew, and hilarity ensues.

Rated R *

Other than some language and suggestive situations, the show hardly should be rated R. I would rate it PG 13. I don’t know any teenager who has not heard those words but again, your mileage may very. Having said that, it is a laugh a minute and the cast and crew did an excellent job. These are people that I would like to get to know... Some plays that you go to, you are looking at your watch wondering when it will be over. I have been there and so have you. This was over too soon for me. One of the friends that went with us who admitted to not liking musicals, wanted to come back and see it again. That to me was a breakthrough in and of it-self as if one musical can touch someone; maybe that will be open to others. This was not Rogers and Hammerstein. There was actually a live band for this performance which sincerely added to the quality of the play.

It is not unusual for the cast to come into the seats and involve the audience; so if you feel like being a possible bit player, sit on the isle and take your chances. You never know if you will be involved in some small way.

One thing of note: this is an all volunteer production. If you have time and would like to get involved, you can do anything from make popcorn to act, you have but to show an interest.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

– Voltaire

*Taken from their web site.

Who are they and why do we care?

Hollywood joins into the political; arena with messages in just about every show they produce. Aaron Sorkin produced a show called Newsroom which at the very onset looked as though it was going to be a “right leaning show,” which shocked me. The first episode actually had staunch republicans passing around the rant by the leading man Jeff Daniels aka Will McAvoy.

The entire first season was in fact an attack on the right, taking on the tea party; making them appear to be a joke which diminished them in the eyes of many people who cannot differentiate between fact from fiction. One of the reasons this country is so screwed up is the fact we have far too-many who watch the Daily Show and “believe” that John Stewart is actually disseminating the news! They do not know that this is comedy, written for entertainment!

The Newsroom I think was supposed to be about how the media works and journalism works but it failed with its biases. I stopped watching it after the first season as I think Sorkin went too far in trying to make the right look lame.

Some would say that HBO and the Newsroom could not affect that many people but again, not true. Even Aaron Sorkin admitted that he did not really know what he was doing when he crafted this program but, here is the truth to this. Someone passing them selves off as Jeff Daniels has a twitter account under the name of Will McAvoy who commented on many political things.

This 28 year old “liberal thinking person” who is a fan of the Newsroom, borrowed the personage of Jeff Daniels aka Will McAvoy and has sent out 41.9K tweets, posted 214 videos, follows 1.943 other “tweeters” has 74.4K followers and has 1,704 favorites. This nobody, is helping to shape this country by affecting the votes, minds and opinions of the uneducated or gullible voter. This is subterfuge using technology, and the people are clueless.

His tweets have been re-tweeted by thousands who believe that they are indeed re-tweeting the thoughts and opinions of Jeff Daniels aka Will McAvoy! He is still doing this today, now, this minute!

I would contend that this type of activity should be illegal, but your mileage may vary.

We should most certainly care is this type of thing has an effect on the world.

The Company Store

Talking with people fresh out of college, or even some that have been out for a while, I have found that most are falling prey to unscrupulous companies that are working around Universal Health Care by hiring practices that are, well just wrong.

In order to protect the company from spending too much money on labor they are working these people at part time jobs. Instead of hiring enough full time people to do things in a normal fashion “during daylight hours” they are in fact working several part time employees in several shifts.

While shift work is not unheard of, the amount of part-time employees is.

These companies, mostly retail, are hiring these people at just over the minimum wage working them for just under the amount of hours that would be considered full-time. In this fashion they don’t have to give them any type of benefits’ including health care. They don’t accrue vacation time and they must often find at least two jobs to make ends meet. They will in actuality be working more than a 40 hour week and possibly work a 50 or 60 hour week for multiple companies.

The carrot seems to be a verbal recognition of their “potential” for a management position “down the road.”

The other carrot is “in retail anyway” that they offer them discounts on any merchandise. Knowing something about this; their margin is most likely 40 points and since a lot of this “stuff” comes from China, I would bet that their margins are closer to 60 or 70 points with the larger stores getting larger margins.

The discount to the employee is anywhere from 10% to 30% meaning that the company still makes money on the employee purchases. I know a lot of folks that work in retail who work for a particular store because they like what they sell. This is probably a trait among those who work in retail.

What is it like where you live? Do the food service industry companies treat their employees the same way?

Which companies treat their employees well?

Which are the worst?

Why?

I hear a lot of people complain about how they can’t make ends meet and minimum wage needs to be raised to $15 an hour.

The economy took a hit and the unemployment numbers were off the charts. A lot of folks who are now employed are working these types of jobs that are really intended for kids in school and not college graduates. That is why they are minimum wage, because they were never intended to provide a living wage. On the flip side, these companies are now getting college graduates for pennies on the dollar.

Minimum wage does not need to go up to some astronomical number, as that will tank the economy. Every action that congress takes has consequences.

“Universal health Care,” you know that 2000 plus page bill that we have to “pass before we read it;” had consequences. The people who crafted the bill and the Democrats’ who pushed it down our throats will not be affected by this however. They actually crafted language into the bill to the effect that exempted them from any of its mandates. Why would you vote for people like this?

One of these consequences now has people working as slaves for minimum wage jobs that are for school kids. Companies are not in the habit of loosing money and getting bailouts unless you are “too big to fail,” aka a campaign contributor. They work their business so that they make money. If they do it right they not only make a profit for the stock holder and all of those who took a risk. Their end goal is not to provide employment, just make money. Employees are a necessary evil, as far as they are concerned.

Congress needs to fix this. Companies will not fix this themselves, because they have no reason to.

I would argue that language needs to be crafted in a bill that would only allow a company some small percentage of part-time employees, and the same should be true of “contractors,” which is another way to scam the system.

Capitalism

People don’t create companies because they want to give people jobs. They create companies because they see a need, and they know how to fill it. Employment opportunities come when the need is great enough that they cannot fill it by themselves.

Mechanization takes away many jobs. Today the grocery store is a good example of job loss through technology. Self-checkout kiosks are everywhere. Either you as the customer check and bag your own groceries, or you wait in a long line where a minimum wage clerk will check you out. They purposefully (so it seems to me anyway) only have a few working the register so that there is a wait.

I am one that will wait in line as, I want there to be a need for this person behind the counter. The stupidity of this is that the kid behind the counter gets angry with you; because you won’t do the self checkout! I am trying to save this idiots job and he is angry because he has to do it! This is the attitude of this generation today. Once I get out of school I go to the company of my choice and go get the corner office, boss people around and get a big paycheck! One has to wonder what they are teaching is school. I am thinking it is how to roll the perfect joint.

Robots have been taking jobs for years in the automobile industry and other manufacturing. Robots can work longer than 8 hours, don’t belong to unions, don’t need healthcare, don’t go to the bathroom, need breaks, and a host of other reasons to automate could be made. There is also an ROI and a TCO. With employees that is not the case.

An argument could be made that these robots had to be created by workers, software engineers etc. To that I would agree. The rub is that many of these things were done outside of this country. While most reasons to do this are economical some would argue that Americans are not smart enough to do it. Looking at school from when I was in school to now I would agree that something needs to change in the methods and materials that we teach. Some of these kids today are real “low information people.” It is like “Hey, don’t confuse me with the facts!”

Unless you can put groceries on the table with things that you purchase from the retail outlet from which you work, buying things from them is something you should most probably resist.

They tell everyone that they see management potential in them, and get them to “commit in their mind” to working months without so much as a raise. They don’t get them to sign a contract or anything, they simply lead them to believe that there is a future for them. After several months of being a slave, you come to realize that the light at the end of the tunnel was nothing more than a lighting bug.

You are quasi self-deluded and are “nudged” into thinking that this is going to turn into something. Some companies do promote from within and Enterprise Rent a Car comes to mind. These folks start you out cleaning cars and work you up from the bottom. If you have it within you, that is a good company.

What other companies are out there that treat their employees well?

Ask around I would like to know. We can make a list…. I would seriously like to give credit where it is due.

Here is the catch my young friends; you only have so many years to live. Life is not eternal! One day you will wake up and realize that there are so many things that you wanted to do; and now it is too late. It will be that day when the epiphany hits you that there are more days behind you, than in front of you. That will be the day that you will get serious about your faith, if you are not already.

In school the weeks seem to never end, when you have a dead-end job, the weeks also seem to drag on. When you have a job that you like “time” seems to move a little faster.

When you get out of college at 22 or so, the world is your oyster. It is not long before the grand children are left with you while your kids take some much needed rest from working and raising kids.

As you look into their young innocent faces, you remember with fondness the days that you were that childlike.

I titled this piece “the company store” because when I was young there was a song on the radio that told the tale.

Tennessee Ernie Ford 16 Tons

Some people say a man is made outta mud

A poor man’s made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that’s a-weak and a back that’s strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said “Well, a-bless my soul”

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin’, it was drizzlin’ rain
Fightin’ and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol’ mama lion
Cain’t no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin’, better step aside
A lotta men didn’t, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don’t a-get you
Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

Many of you reading this wont know the tune, so I am posting a link for you..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joo90ZWrUkU

Years ago the company indeed had a store.

Typically these were in small towns that employed most of the people in that town. They were remote enough that they could price their goods in such a fashion that they were not competitive. There were no Wal-Mart’s back then. This led to the store extending credit, thus keeping the employee indebted to them. Once you worked for the mine; in this case, you were there until they buried you. You either died of black lung, or cave-ins. It would be interesting to know how many coal miners actually died of old age.

There is a lesson in this and I wonder how many will figure it out.

Guys, when you don’t know history you are doomed to repeat it, time and time again. Either the schools are inadequate, or the books are lacking or possibly there is an agenda to give folks just enough information to be productive but, not enough to think. As always I would appreciate your thoughts. Keep it clean, respectful and so forth, and we can talk about it.

-Best to you…

Crazy Stuff

So my neighborhood has some new social media outlet which facilitates neighbors actually communicating with each other via the computer or phone or what have. Lord knows that we would not want to actually see them and talk with them in person… So, we have invented a way to become even more xenophobic.

One of the recent post regarded “wrong way parking.”

Essentially; if you are on the right side of the street your car must be within a few inches of the curb, actually facing the way the car would be traveling if it were in motion, which it is not; but just in case, it must be facing the correct way.

New Rule, no one with OCD can work in any areas of government that make up stupid rules for others to follow. My desk is messy and I like it that way!

It is actually funny because this post has generated a lot of interests. People are actually concerned about which way you park your car. What’s next; you can only drive a certain make and model of car that is of the same color as everyone else’s. They could be color coded for which street you live on!

If we don’t call people out on this shit you may very well have rules like this; your grass must be cut on the same day of the week as everyone else’s and it should be no more than 1.27 inches in length and no less than 1.26.

All trees must be no taller than 30 feet and all of the leaves that are not green must be removed and bagged accordingly, we will not tolerate loose leafs blowing down the road.

All homes must have 2.5 bathrooms, be of similar build and color and be no closer to the street than 40 feet and no further from the street than 40 feet 1 inch.

This is just nuts. As long as you get your car far enough off the driving surface of the road, who gives a rat’s ass which way it is facing! Me personally, if I had a hummer, I would do this. I would purchase a large boulder and place it in my front yard, than I would put the hummer half way up the boulder and park it.

It is also interesting to me that people will ask for recommendations for auto repair or carpet cleaning or what have you, the responses are illuminating to say the least.

For instance, someone asked for a recommendation regarding auto repair for a specific model and make of car.

The mechanics that got the most recommendations were the people who work on commission! The more shit that they sell you, the more money that they get! I guess they are really good at what they do because these people were adamant about selling you on their guy vs. someone else. My guess is that these folks are a franchise chain and the advertising dollars spent selling that brand has more people going there instead of seeking out the independents.

Some of the other conversations include protracted discussions about pets, stuff they want to get rid of and get this, strange vehicles driving through the neighborhood.

Not only are we becoming xenophobic but paranoid. This really happened. A delivery vehicle drives down the street with some company logo on the truck and it is a “strange vehicle.” I just know the police love getting these calls.

I was walking the neighborhood last year as it was a pretty day. I was just walking the sidewalk enjoying the day when a cop stopped me. When he motioned me to his car I laughed and said, “Was I speeding?” He was not amused.

You got to be kidding me; I can’t walk the sidewalk in my own neighborhood without some Gladys Cravats calling the police! I live there! Good thing that I had my ID and could prove that I was indeed a resident. Oh yes, my teenage daughter was walking with me, so I know we must have looked like criminals…

Your mileage may vary but as for me, I think I want to move to the country where I don’t have someone peeking out their curtain at me; watching my every move.

But, text me sometime and say hi… Don’t bother to actually come out of your house and shake my hand, I might bite!

Yep, country living, front porch, iced tea and an old dog to keep me company.

Saw a funny post the other day that fits. It is a picture of Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry, I think, with the wording, “too many assholes and not enough bullets.”

-Best