Perfect gift for your favorite couch potatoe

I saw this advertisement on TV tonight and almost fell over. If I had not been sitting on the floor already I would have probably wound up there as I was laughing. How about buying a Black and Decker Jar Opener for your favorite couch potatoe. I had flash backs of Jay Leno saying " How FAT are we Americans....." Have you seen the new Hardees Monster Burger commercial? I think that this burger has 4000 calories in one burger. Now we have Black and Decker Jar Openers as well? Does that mean we are REALLY that lazy now? LOL... God help us...

Bloglines Blog

Ok, for those of you that want to keep up with my BLOG here but do not want to figure out RSS readers etc I have started a new BLOG at Bloglines that will mirror this one. When I publish here and I have time I will publish it over at Bloglines as well. You never know, I might blog different content to both blogs just to keep you on your toes. LOL...

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/jcmoffitt

Merry Christmas



James Moffitt
http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt
moffittj@bellsouth.net

Christmas 2004 is almost upon us....

I am trying to get into the Christmas spirit and for some reason it is just not working.
I am not sure WHAT the "christmas spirit" is supposed to be per sae or HOW to find it but I feel that it must have something to do with a feeling of JOY and PEACE and HAPPINESS.
One of the things about growing up into an adult is that you find out that Santa Claus really is not the magical fellow that the weatherman always finds on weather radar each Christmas Eve as he is making his way from the North to the South giving the hope filled children a reason to go to bed. Now I know that the reason that the parents want the children to go to bed is so that they can put together all those hard to configure toys and finally go to sleep themselves before being awakened by the kids bouncing off the walls.

I suppose that since the magic is gone for me that atleast my children can enjoy as much of the Christmas season that is possible. Justin at the age of 9 and Kristina at the age of 12 understand that there is no St Nick and that mommie and daddy had a rough year financially and thanks to Food Lion they will actually have a Christmas gift under the tree.
I am glad that this is possible but I HATE the fact that our kids are getting Christmas because of HDST and Food Lion. I am hopeful that mom and dad can have a much more propserous New Year in 2005 and that we can find ourselve able to play Mr and Mrs Claus next year.

I am very thankful that while I might not find myself eaten up with the Christmas spirit I still have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful that God is still God and that He is still in control of our ultimate destiny. I am glad that our family is in good health, together under one roof and that we are able to enjoy the basic needs of life which is a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, food for our stomachs and a place to lay our heads at night. Once you get past the basic needs everything else is icing on the cake. Unfortunatley we live in a day and age that determines our worth and our happiness by how much junk we can accumulate and how much fun we can have. We find ourselves comparing one another with one another and falling miserably short in some areas and feeling like failures. If you never compare yourself to your neighbor or co worker and wonder why you have not achieved what they have or dont have what they have or look like they do then you are doing better than most folks. I sometimes find myself doing just that and it only causes me to be down in the dumps and feeling puny. So, instead of looking without I will chose to look within and just be thankful for where we are at.

The first two quarters of this year sucked financially but somehow we managed to survive it. October finds me with a better job in the I.T. industry which certainly took a LOT of pressure off the budget and still playing a major game of catch up. The year 2005 will find me filling my tiny little brain with semi useless computer jargon, acronyms and technology tidbits so that I can obtain little pieces of paper that show folks that I know NT stands for Nuclear Tomatoe. LOL... In the month of January I hope to take my A+ certification test and hopefully pass it the first time. The Network + will follow and then I will be diving off into the world of Citrix and Microsoft Server 2003. I just hope that I do not fry the last brain cell I have left. LOL...

Katy and the kids are on vacation until afte the 1st day of 2005 and I will probably plug along and not get any time off thanks to most of the holidays falling on the weekend anyway. The nice thing about that is that things have been a tad bit slow for me at work which has allowed me to catch my breath and do some studying.

My hope, wish and prayer for you is that you will take the time in the next four days to sit down and appreciate where you are at in life. If you have family take the time to reaquaint yourself with them. Sit down and talk to them, hug them and let them know that you appreciate them for who they are. Get in touch with long lost relatives and wish them a Merry Christmas. Yes, I know, people are not perfect and we all have to deal with our good and bad side. Just figure out a way to overlook the bad and highlight the good in the folks around you. Everyone will want to feel loved and appreciated this season and as I have said before this is not a happy time for everyone. There are folks out there that do everything that they can just to survive the holiday season. So, if you know someone that needs a friend and for someone to show that they know they are alive try to be that someone.

Happy Holidays and God bless

Wi-Fi Networking News: R.I.P. W.E.P.

Just when you think your Wireless Network is safe. How many of us take out the wireless access point, turn it on and have the mind set of "set it and forget it"? Some of us even go to the length of actually turning on WEP. This article shows us where that functionality while better than doing NOTHING does not mean that someone can not gain access to your data. How scary is that folks?
The good news is that even with WEP enabled there are things that you can do on your wireless network that will make it much more difficult to gain access to your wireless network.




Wi-Fi Networking News: R.I.P. W.E.P.

Zafi worm variant hides behind Christmas cheer - Computerworld

BEWARE of the WORM.... LOL...

Read this article, good stuff. Be aware of receiving this in your inbox and be sure to DELETE it and DO NOT open it.


Zafi worm variant hides behind Christmas cheer - Computerworld

How COLD is it??

It is 28 degrees F here in Goose Creek SC. Good grief Grady what the heck is going on? The Eskimos left the freezer door open and I cant google their e-mail address to REMIND them to close it. Brrrrrrrrrrrr

I have 6 minutes before West Wing comes on and we watch our favorite TV president and staff do their thing. The TV president has MS and in this next show it will show his symptoms accelerating to the point that he is almost paralyzed. Then there is something about a HUGE asteroid headed for earth. Say do what?? Oh, never mind, its only TV. LOL...

Not much new going on here. Work, eat , sleep, FREEZE, thaw out, work, eat sleep, FREEZE , thaw out. LOL...

Happy Holidays from our family to yours.

NASA - The 2004 Geminid Meteor Shower

NASA - The 2004 Geminid Meteor Shower

Calling all star gazers. I am usually up between 11:30 pm and midnight watching Jay Leno so this will be the perfect time for me to go outside and check this out. We do not live in the city per sae so hopefully I can see some comets that night. As for Katy and the kids they will already be fast asleep so I guess I will have to see this on my own. Maybe I will take some pictures with the camera. That would be cool huh?

Happy Star Gazing everyone!!

Thunderbird - Reclaim Your Inbox

Thunderbird - Reclaim Your Inbox

Check out Mozilla Thunderbird, I am. I am certainly not a Microsoft poster boy and if the truth were known most I.T. folks owe Microsoft for providing them with buggy code that allows us to have jobs. Heck, if everything just worked then no one would need us I.T. folks around to fix things, right? LOL... What about cars that never blow up or leave us stranded on the side of the road? Where would the auto mechanics go to work then? McDonalds?

Anyway, we live in an imperfect world and we are imperfect people so therefore the stuff that we create become direct decendants of our inability to create something perfect. Our imperfections are cloned right into our creations and therefore there will always be a niche for folks that know how to fix things.

Is Mozzilla Thunderbird or Mozilla Firefox browser 100 percent free from bugs or being exploited by some script kiddie? No, of course not. However, from a support stand point I will tell you that because Microsoft (Mickeysoft) is such a huge beast that has consumed such large amounts of market share and usage that there are way more folks targeting their software than Mozilla.

I have been using Firefox pre release version 1 for quite some time and I have to say that I love it. The problem with using a third party non Mickeysoft application is that MS Office applications and other non Mickeysoft apps will always default to Mickeysoft applications (such as IE) because all of MS Windows OS and apps are fully integrated. So, there will still be that time when you are surfing the web or whatever and Internet Exploder will show up as the default browser. There are also the plugins and extensions situation. When I am using Firefox and I happen across something juicy that I MUST share with YOU via my BLOG I can not click on the Blogger plugin that I have in IE to port the goodie straight into my blog. That means I have to cut and paste my URL from Firefox into IE so I can do that. I guess that is the downside to using different applications that dont have full integration and support from multiple vendors yet.

Ok, back to Mozilla Thunderbird as an e-mail client. One of the things that I absolutely LOVE is that it has a built in Newsgroup Reader and RSS reader. Yes, Netscape has a newsgroup reader but it does NOT have a RSS compatible reader. Outlook 2003 is supposed to have a newsgroup plug in but the instructions on HOW to make this work is so complicated and vague that even I can not make it happen. I spent about 30 min messing with it and finally decided that I would rather spend that time in Blogexpress reading RSS feeds instead of messing with the plugin for Outlook.

E-mail, Newsgroups, web browsing and RSS feeds are all tightly related to one another and I for one am happy that there are products out there like Thunderbird that allow you to have all of the same functionality in the same interface.

If I find something else that is neat or a nugget of information about Thunderbird that you need to know I will blog it for you.

Handango Holiday Free App Giveaway

Handango Holiday Free App Giveaway

What better way to enjoy the holidays than to receive FREE software for your Pocket PC?
If you are a propeller head like me you are always one click away from some new and improved piece of software that is a must have for your mobile platform. So, with that in mind check this site every week to see what the latest FREE software is going to be.

Merry Christmas!!

PC-cillin for Wireless

PC-cillin for Wireless

Do you have a Pocket PC or a new digital cell phone that has a Windows or Palm operating system? If you do you are susceptible to getting a virus on one of these devices just like you can on your PC. So, install this FREE software to your favorite mobile device and be protected. I just did and it works great!

Trend Micro Enterprise Homepage (US)

Trend Micro Enterprise Homepage (US)

Do you have Live Update running on your Anti Virus software?
Have you run Live Update manually in the last week to check and see if there are new virus definition files available?
Is your Anti Virus subscription expired and if so how long have you been exposing your computer hardware and software to possible risk?

Every day I see computers who are infested with viruses, malware, adware, trojans and spyware. The number one reason these machines are infested is because the Anti Virus software that is installed has not been kept up to date. User beware! Your computer CAN and WILL get infected with something if you are on the Internet. Protect your hardware and time investment by protecting your computer. AVG offers FREE anti virus software and Etrust also offers one year free anti virus software as well. There are a lot of websites that offer free online scans too. Whatever you do about this do something. :)

Take care

Sedfield Middle School

Home

Last night we were treated to a wonderful meal cooked up by the PTO parents of Sedgefield Middle School and then we watched and listened to the Christmas musical that was put on by the 6th and 8th graders. Our Kristina was in the front row and actually got to do a solo. We are very proud of her and also of the other children who worked so hard at making this a special evening to remember.

Do you remember what I said a week or two ago about "dont forget the film". Well, its a good thing I took the digital camera with us because what tapes that I did have to tape the musical decided to give up the ghost. Atleast I hope it is a problem with the tapes and not the camera. I managed to tape about 30 min of the musical but when I got to the end of the first tape it said to EJECT the tape and when I put another tape in it would not tape. The tapes are about 3 years old so I guess it is time for some new ones. LOL...

DallasCowboys.com - The Official Site of the Dallas Cowboys

DallasCowboys.com - The Official Site of the Dallas Cowboys

WHAT about them BOYS ?? I thought for sure that they lost on more than one occasion and then they would start to make some plays and keep the ball moving down the field. I even chanted "Dallas sucks, Dallas sucks" during the game. hahahahahaha I apologize Dallas fans, I have just been disappointed on so many occasions when they seemed to have given up the ghost. Monday night football was certainly the Dallas Cowboys of old that I have been watching since 1969.

Go Cowboys!!!

Never forget the film

That is right, the next time you decide to take pictures at your favorite event make sure to check the camera BEFORE you take those favorite close up shots....

Yesterday, I discovered that after taking 40 + pictures that my Canon had a never ending roll of film. I noticed the counter was on 38 and even though I thought I would have been at the end of the film roll it still allowed me to advance the film but the number never changed from 38. I finally just walked outside to check the camera and sure enough there was NOTHING there. No roll of film. LOL...

I am glad that there were other folks there and that they did take pictures with their digital cameras. I also took a few shots that I will upload later. It rained all day Saturday and was overcast this morning but now it is partly cloudy skies and the sun is out. Atleast I will have a decent looking day when I go down to the County Office Building to work. I am sure that the tourists will be out in droves as well.

How about DEM Boys??

I will be the first to tell you how badly the Dallas Cowboys suck when they are playing like they typcially do. I had to do a happy dance yesterday in my living room when Dallas finally woke up in the fourth quarter of the game to beat the Chicago Bears. Hey, I kinda liked the uniforms that they were wearing. Apparently those uniforms were a throw back of the unifroms they used to wear back in the 60's. Hummmmmm I watched them back in the 60's but I guess that is just a weeeeee bit too far for my mind to remember. LOL... Not that I am getting OLD or anything like that.

I am proud to report that I got pleasantly full yesterday but I did not over indulge myself.
Thanks to the good folks at the Meritage restaurant at 235 East Bay Street in downtown Charleston the Happy Days and Special Times group were served a feast fit for a king. My hat is off to the owner and staff of this fine establishment as they sacrifice every Thanksgiving to provide us with such a scrumptious meal. :) Our special treat was when Debby and Charlie finally arrived after their long trip from Boston yesterday morning. They said they had to leave the airport at 5 am and arrived in Charleston around 12:45 pm. Gosh, that is a long trip to say the least. We were all so happy to see both of them. I spoke to Charlie and he seems to be doing pretty good considering all that he has gone through with the 9 weeks of proton treatments he received for cancer. Flash told us that Charlie put his butt on the line every day for nine weeks. LOL... Flash is such a mess. We love you Flash and Charlie!!!!

Tomorrow we will spend the day at the Clarion Hotel as Happy Days and Special Times puts on their annual Christmas party for all of the Happy Days children. I am looking forward to seeing our friends (especially Gayle and Anthony) tomorrow. I am a quart LOW on playing spades. LOL...

Well, I guess that is it for now. Have a safe, blessed and warm holiday weekend.

God bless

Thanksgiving Wishes to you and your family !!

Hello Folks!

Can you believe it is already Thanksgiving Day 2004 ? Where has this year gone?
I wanted to take a few moments to wish you and your family a safe and blessed Thanksgiving day. Most of us, if not all are off from work , school or whatever it is we do normally as we pause to give thanks for the many things that we should be thankful for.

Today is the day that we focus on the good things that God has brought us as well as the bad things that have caused good in our lives. When we are walking through the bad things we sometimes fail to see how God is working in us and through us and developing our character , bringing us closer to Him and taking us into a higher walk with Him. So, as we are thanking God for our many positive blessings lets also remember to thank Him for the challenges, valleys , trials and tribulations. There is nothing that we can not handle with God in our lives. Amen ??

Last night as I watched the news I was reminded of several things. One thing is evident in that this year is no different than any other. Everyone seems to be gearing up for that time of the year that we call Christmas. Most folks are rushing around preparing for all of the holiday festivities, food, drink, purchasing gifts, giving gifts, taking vacation time etc. Several days after Halloween the stores were getting ready for Thanksgiving. A week before Thanksgiving the stores were in full swing with Christmas music. Just the other day my children put up the Christmas tree with all the trimmings and the winter wonderland village. While I think that it is wonderful that we can enjoy the festivities of the holiday season I think that it is important that in our hustle and bustle to create the right atmosphere for our loved ones that we take the time to stop and breathe deeply and take stock of what is going on around us. Take a few moments as you are out shopping in the next week or two and see how many truly peaceful and happy people that you will find all around you in the stores this year. I did that the other day and I was saddened that most folks were stressed out rushing here and there racing around with their shopping carts not paying attention to anything other than finding that special and perfect gift. Maybe we can be an instrument of peace and tranquility as we are out and about this Christmas season and help folks around us to just slow down and remember that this season is not about that special and perfect gift. Yes, I am going to say it. Jesus is the reason for the season. I am not talking about the god that we put in a box. I am talking about the God that created us and desires to have fellowship with us and to love us and to bring us peace, happiness, joy and purpose.

When we see folks rushing about all wrapped up in preparing for and getting to those special festivities we understand why they are stressed out and are not at peace. The only way we can find real peace, contentment and joy is to look to the God of peace who resides within us His Kingdom. The other thing that I was reminded of as I watched the news last night is that the holiday season is not a merry time for all. There are those folks out there that dread this time of year who suffer from depression or are living with the grief of losing a loved one. Sometime it is hard to remember that when we are so far removed from someone elses pain and suffering.

Thank you for being a part of my life and the life of my family. You are in my friends and family distribution list because God has placed you there for a purpose. You are a blessing from above and I am so thankful that you are that special someone that God has created. You have added quality and quantity to our lives and for that I am eternally thankful. I praise God for my immediate family, and you who are a part of my extended family. I pray that God will bring blessings and peace and joy and purpose to you and your loved ones this holiday season.

God bless

Outfoxed by a spud!!

Yes, that is right, I was outfoxed or out smarted by a spud... LOL...

I came home last night tired as can be. I had promised to take the family out for dinner so I came home, changed clothes and announced that if Katy wanted to go out to dinner she would have to drive. In my new position at Advantec Global Services I spend a good portion of my days driving around in Charleston traffic. So, when I get home the last thing I want to do is hop back in the car and do it again. The general rule is if I make it home and take off my shoes we are going to be eating from mommas kitchen. I think that Katy regrets that and she does everything that she can to sweet talk me into staying out in the car and meeting me out in the driveway. LOL...

When I got home Katy told me that she had rescued two puppies from certain doom. That is my Dr. Doolittle for you. Katy was on her way home off of Old Backriver Rd when she came to a stop sign and saw two puppies wandering around in the ditch close to the road. True to her nature her animal protection instincts kicked in and she brought home to HUGE puppies. So, on our way out to go to dinner Katy notices that there is a car behind the fence where she found the dogs. We made a pit stop and sure enough the owner was missing his babies. So, off to the house we go to get the puppies and Katy's wallet and cell phone that she had forgotten earlier. This time we pick up the kids, two puppies and headed back out to deliver the puppies to their rightful owner and finally go to dinner.

When we departed Old Back River enroute to Redbank to head over to Los Arcos Mexican restaurant in Goose Creek Katy advised me that she had again forgotten her wallet and her cell phone but that she did have a potatoe in her purse. A huge potatoe that was left overs from a science project in school that day. No wallet, no drivers license, no cell phone but she has a potatoe. You know what that means, after dinner you know who was driving down the road AGAIN despite my best laid plans to STAY out of the drivers seat. Sigh.... That is how I was outfoxed by a spud... LOL...

Lug nuts anyone?

I have been told that when someone has a good experience they tell one or two people but when you have a bad experience you tell everyone you know. So, with that in mind I am going to "shout my bad experience from my Blog". LOL

Sams Wholesale club moved out of their old Rivers Avenue location in North Charleston to a new and improved site near the Charleston Convention Center and the Charleston International airport. I always get tickled at the name of the airport especially since the only international thing about it might be a coffee shop that has more than two flavors of coffee. I think that our airport has a sum total of 6 gates if that many. Come on people, International Airport?? Giggle....

Oh yeah, I need to stop chasing rabbitts and get back to "Lug nuts anyone"?
Last Saturday we decided to go to the new Sams Wholesale to get two new tires for the Caddy. I had replaced the other two tires several months ago and the tires on the back were starting to have the familiar "steel belt separation" problem and causing the car to vibrate when you get to a certain speed. So, I finally quit procrastinating and took the car over to have the tires replaced and rotated. Once we checked in we started doging the thousands of other holiday shoppers that had arrived before us. OH MY GOSH, I was astounded by how many folks were in there stocking up on this and that and then some.
I know this is going to fall under the TMI category but I am in the mens room taking care of business and I hear my name being called to come to the Tire Center. So, I think GREAT here I am all tied up STILL talking to mother nature and I cant get there. Katy hears the page and goes over to investigate. I finally get out of my conference with mother nature and go over to the tire center. Katy tells me that they are refusing to work on my car because lug nuts are missing off of the tires. I am thinking. You have got to be kidding me people. Sure enough, here comes the mechanic who advises me that ONE lug nut is missing off of the back right rear tire and therefore it is deemed an unsafe vehicle that they can not touch. I asked them to find me a manager who came and insisted that their policy states that if you are missing one lug nut your vehicle is deemed unsafe and therefore we wont work on it. Well, to say the least I am steamed at this point. Of course we had already paid for the two new tires. So, off we go back to where the OLD Sams Wholesale used to be to go across the street to buy a package of lugnuts that cost a whopping 2.99.

The whole point here folks is that I was inconvenienced by having to drive my UNSAFE vehicle back to North Charleston to buy something that cost next to nothing to drive back to the store to have tires put on and ONE NEW LUG NUT so my car would have its new tires, tires rotated and make it SAFE according to Sams Wholesale. Good grief Grady, is there something wrong with this picture? I understand that Sams Wholesale is not in the business of providing the general public with Auto parts. However, if you are going to have a policy that states that ONE missing lugnut is going to make your car unsafe in their minds and their policy states they wont work on it WHY can't they have a kiosk with lugnuts for different makes and models of cars? Does Sams Wholesale NOT sell anything else for cars other than tires? While I am ranting and raving over the sheer stupidity of this ridiculous policy let me share one other thing with you. When you buy the new tires and go to drive it down the street you will notice that the BLUE junk that is on the white walls is still there. Sams Wholesale does not provide you with the simple service of washing the blue stuff off. That is an extra service that is no longer provided. If you want the blue junk off the white walls you can go wash it off yourself. How special is that folks? How long would it take to slosh a rag or brush around in a bucket of water and wash off the blue stuff? All of 45 seconds MAYBE? The bottom line is this customer service is a thing of the past. Do you remember the gas stations where you would pull in, sit in your car and the attendant would fill the gas tank, look under the hood and check your fluid levels and the air pressure in your tires? Well, you guessed it, you had to dig back in those dusty brain cells quite a ways back huh? Now , we are lucky if the gas station has a restroom sized floor space where the attendant sits on the inside and has one of those automated drawers that you put your money in while you look at each other through 5 inch think bullet proof glass. Now they have gas stations that are fully automated and there are NO employees around whatsoever. If you need help for whatever reason you can pick up your cell phone , walk over to the street away from the pump and dial a 800 number that is probably not toll free anymore and leave your message requesting help into a voice mail box that is probably never checked. Now, that is customer service folks. LOL....

Sams Wholesale and other merchants need to get a clue. Customers want to buy their goods and products but we do not care to be made angry over stupid policies nor do we care to be totally inconvenienced and have to drive all over Gods creation trying to purchase a 2.99 package of lugnuts just to appease their policy and make them feel safe that I am not goint to sue them when one of my tires falls off the car because of ONE missing lug nut. LOL... One missing lugnut does not make a vehicle unsafe people....

Well, I think I feel better now. I see that it is time for me to quit blogging and go do the shower and shave routine and throw myself into my caddy and drive those two new tires with matching lugnuts down to Ashley Phosphate road to my office so I can provide world class customer service to my customers today.

Have a great day ya hear !!!

The Recovery Console in XP is different than using a "Recovery CD"......

Just this week I am sitting at my desk and the receptionist sends me this call. It goes something like this. "Ring Ring" Hello, this is James, how may I help you? Yes sir, my computer says it has a Trojan Horse. Yes Maam, apparently your anti virus software has detected a virus on your system. Ok, what is a Trojan Horse Virus and why do I have it on my computer? This question was followed with several other questions along the lines of "this is a new computer that I just bought and is under warranty and now it is broken because of this stupid virus that I had NOTHING to do with happening." line of thought.

I allowed the customer to ramble for a few more moments and then I interjected with the following ideas. You can get rid of the virus on your computer by updating your virus definitions on Norton Anti Virus and then allow the program to rid your computer of this pesky virus. I made the mistake of using the term "auto update" for Norton Anti Virus and got lost for another 5 minutes trying to explain to the customer how she could use this feature manually to update her virus definition files. My efforts were quite futile and I finally just gave up on that train of thought. My irate and frustrated customer still had it stuck in her mind that her computer was under warranty so therefore the computer manufacturer was at fault and she wanted ME to come to her home and fix it for her for FREE. When I explained to her that the computer manufacturer would not warranty the Operating System (XP) nor any other software on her hard drive she commenced to ask me what an operating system was and what is software. At this point my attempts to help were going no where. In hopes that this customer would just go away I tried to use the "scare" tactic and told her that if I came out to her house (schedule permitting this week) that I would have to charge her an additional 35.00 trip charge vs if she brought the machine to me. When I told her that I could not drop everything I was doing to give her immediate assistance she was put out and told me she would go elsewhere. Picture me having a deep sigh of relief at this point. Ok , I am sorry maam, good luck with your virus problem, I hope you get it resolved. Click, the line goes dead and I dont give it another thought.

One day goes by and after a service call I come back to the shop to find ..... You guessed it, my pet trojan horse was waiting on me. We get a LOT of boogered up computers in our shop that have spyware, spybots, adware, malware, trojans, viruses of all types. All of these programs do one of two things. They always eat up all your system resources. That means that they start up when the operating system starts and they populate the area in your system tray with cute little icons. Some of them are so clever that they dont even put an icon in your system tray and you dont even know they are there unless you go looking for them. The other thing that these programs love to do is to track your activities online and send information back to webservers who are logging this information for their owners. Another thing that these programs do is to use your smtp server of choice to e-mail copies of themselves to all of your friends and family in your Windows address book. If you are lucky you will have a virus program that will have its very own smtp server built in and it will start mailing itself out automatically without even using your e-mail client.
Then there are those pesky boot sector viruses that destroys your boot sector and the next time you log on your computer comes up with the dreaded "Invalid system disk " Insert disk and hit enter error. I will get back to how this happens later in the story...

Two hours later I have installed Spybot Search and Destroy and discovered and deleted over 110 nasties on her computer. Norton Anti Virus is so messed up all it can do is pop up errors saying that the subscription is expired and that it can not find specific executable files and therefore it can not run anyway. Two clicks of the mouse and Norton is fast asleep not to bother anyone again. I install AVG anti virus which is free and find over 202 viruses on the hard drive including our friendly trojan horse virus. The ugly thing about programmers is that they write most of their nasties with Windows Operating Systems in mind. Do you ever wonder why support people say "you gotta love Mickeysoft software". LOL.... One of the things that you have to do when you get rid of trojans is that you have to turn off "system restore" on all your hard drives, then logon as administrator and delete all of the files in the \\system information volume\_restore directory to get rid of all the A000876c112ax*.exe files which automagically run themselves every time you start your computer OR have to use a system restore point from the past. To say the least doing these last steps can be kind of tricky at best.

Remember that this computer came in to have the "trojan horse virus" removed. That is all that was requested and even though I did remove the trojan horse virus I also did several other things in an effort to further protect the client such as installing a free anti virus application and installing numerous Windows Updates from Microsoft for the Operating System. I call the customer and tell her that even though I worked on her computer for longer than 1.5 hours that is all I was going to charge her for. When I told her how much that would be she launched back off into the thoughts of her computer being under warranty. You get the picture. I am sorry but HP does not warranty the software on your hard drive maam.

Yesterday afternoon here comes my customer with her teenager daughter in tow. (Sorry this story is so long... LOL) I happened to be standing by the receptionist when the customer came to pick up the computer and the customer made sure to have me tell her daughter what NOT to do to KEEP this from happening ever again. The poor dear was embarrased out of her socks. I gave the daughter the basic run down of how to traverse the Internet safely and to be sure to stay away from P2P networks like Kazaa etc. I told her to be very careful of trading files via IM programs like ICQ, Yahoo IM, AOL IM etc. I told her to stay away from IRC channels and the like if at all possible. Run auto update regularly and schedule regular virus scans and backups of your data. The whole time the mom is "are you getting all of this", " are you getting all of this". LOL. Yes MOM I get it ok....

At this point the bill is paid and they are off to cyberspace with their newly cleaned machine. Mind you, I only did those things mentioned above. I did NOT fix every software glitch that was on this machine. The expectation from the customer however was clearly different as I wound up on the phone with her again this afternoon. Ring ring, call coming from the receptionist. I answer it and say , "hello this is James, how may I help you". Hello this is your customer (name not mentioned to protect the not so innocent) calling you back. My trojan is still on my computer. Why do I have a trojan on my computer after I paid you to remove it. The customer launches into her new found information after calling HP. I called HP and they told me that I did not need to bring the computer to you after all because all I would have had to do is to reboot the system and fully recover the computer from there. I do not need a recovery cd to do this. All I have to do is hit the F10 Key. I said, Maam , did you try that? Customer says, no , I did not try it because HP told me I need to make sure I have an anti virus software installed before I do because if I do not then I could be back in the same boat within hours. At this point I am thinking, no really ?? LOL....

I tried to explain to the customer that there is a difference between the "recovery console" in XP which you get to when you hit the F10 key upon OS boot up vs the "recovery CD" that the hardware manufacturer gives you to "fully restore" your computer to factory default configuration when you first buy it. I tried to explain this to the customer but she had the thought pattern of "I should have never brought my computer to you because I still have all these problems that you did not fix and you did not tell me that I could do a full system restore by simply hitting the F10 key so therefore you really ripped me off and need to give me a full refund". The customer tried to get me to make an assertion or affirmation that her perception was correct but I firmly but gently told her that her computer did not have a trojan horse or virus of any type when it left the shop. I also told her that AVG was a free anti virus software and that while it was FREE it certainly was not the BEST software product out there and that we could have sold her Trend Micro Anti Virus for 49.95 which would have been a more costly solution. I also advised her that just because you have Anti Virus software running on your computer does not mean that your computer will NEVER EVER be bothered again by a virus infection. What it does mean is that the software is in place to stop a MAJORITY of KNOWN virus infections in their tracks. Again, this was an totally unacceptable concept to this customer.

At this point, when the customer was unable to convince me that her computer problems were still my fault she advises me that she just wanted to call me and tell me what HP just told her so I would be "in the know" for future reference. Yes maam, thank you for the phone call, good luck with your "full recovery" of your system. Have a nice day. Click. The line goes dead and away goes our clueless customer thinking that hitting the F10 key will get rid of the viruses on her hard drive and RESTORE the computer back to its default factory configuration. Can you imagine what the phone call will be like tomorrow when she calls HP Tech Support to find out that she misunderstood what they were trying to tell her about the "System Recovery Console" vs the Recovery CD that I told her to order. LOL....

I think that tomorrow I am going to forward my phone extension at work to Microsoft Tech Support just for the fun of it. LOL

The leaves are falling

As chicken little would say "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". Except in this case it is "the leaves are falling, the leaves are falling". The leaves on the trees are turning golden brown and are slowly coming off their branches. The temperature right now is 46 F with clear skys and a slight wind. I am SO HAPPY that the dog days of summer are turning into Fall days instead.

The new job has certainly kept me busier than anyone expected. I was told that when my predeccesor was there for the last 4 or 5 weeks that things were DEAD. That certainly is not the case with me. I have been busier than a one armed man in a windmill having a paper hanging contest. I have been doing everything from PC repair to helping customers with Network connectivity and services problems. The challenge has been to go from being out of Information Technology for a year and a half to wading back into it with both feet hitting the ground running. The other day I had to go to a customer site with an Exchange 2000 server down. The company had been without e-mail most of the day and they were depending on Advantec Global Services to help them get it back online. My boss , who is the senior engineer here in Charleston, was out of town so I hopped in the car and ran over there to help the client. Between myself, two engineers at the client site and a Microsoft engineer on the phone we were able to resolve the problem. It appears that the Exchange Information store that holds all the e-mail for the company had exceeded its 16 GB limit and therefore crashed. We wound up doing a change in the registry on that server to give Exchange an extra GB of space for the database so that the company could temporarily get the e-mail server back online and empty out some folders to reduce the size of the database. All in all it was a sucess and the customer was back in business with e-mail services and it was a learning experience for all that were involved. When the call originated earlier that morning I had guessed correctly what the problem was but was unable to give them the answer they needed to fix the problem. Now, I know how to fix it. :)

I am happy to report that the Ford Escort Station wagon that Katy is driving is holding together nicely (knock on wood) and that my Cadillac has not developed any mechanical failures in the last two week. PRAISE GOD for that folks!! With us working 4 jobs between the two of us we have NO time to be messing with car repairs. I am still searching for a better car for me because I know that I know that my high mileage car is eventually going to need some more maintenance to keep it running. Hopefully I can find something before the Caddy breaks again. It appears that when I can put together between 1000 and 1500.00 that I will be able to get into a much newer car. Until then we will just have to manage.

I am SO HAPPY that the political advertisements have FINALLY stopped. Whew, how ugly is that? How could any of us believe or understand who was the best candidate with all of that negative propaganda being thrown at us from every imaginable advertising source.
As for me, it was a bit overwhelming to say the least. I am just glad it is over for the next four years. :)

Well, enough of this drivel, it is time to get ready for church and back to the work grind for the week. Hope all goes well with you and yours and that you folks have a wonderful week. Remember that God loves you and so do we!!