Re: Where do I begin?

Well to continue on here. I managed to install Spybot,Adaware and Avast (antivirus). That was only after going into "safe mode". It was the only way to get the PC do anything. Upon restart the antivirus found a boatload of virus's. I deleted them out and upon start up the antispyware warning I was getting disappeared and the PC was running halfway decent. I also ran Adaware and Spybot which found a whole bunch of other stuff. Ran Ccleaner and cleaned out some more stuff. While running Spybot today I get the infamous BSOD which is pretty rare on XP. Now I'm doing an error check on it to try and clear that up.It's still a work in progress.

Where do I begin?

Well I was able to spend about an hour on my wife's friends PC today. First off I'm not sure as I've had a PC that has been so slow. It's not the hardwares fault either . It's got 2.8 Ghz Pentium 4,80Gb HD, 256mb RAM. Every function takes its sweet time after you click on it. It's also got an expired antivirus. Also a pop up telling me I've got a Windows Security Alert with misspellings (obvious give away it's spyware). I'm still fighting to get it running. Did I mention it was slow? I'm sure I can get back in shape but it may take awhile.

Back in business

Well sort of. If you'd noticed I've been in kind of a lull here lately for actual PC project. Well I landed one. The computer is from a friend of my wife. I didn't get a first hand description of the problems. Apparently it is thought to be a virus or perhaps a spyware problem. Not to mention an overall slowness of the system(don't we all want a faster computer?). It's a Dell Dimension 3000 tower with Windows XP Home Edition. I just got it today and haven't had a chance to go through it. I'll try and share some details as I go through. It sounds like a good candidate for a tune-up.

Star Wars according to a 3 year old

I found this at Geeks are Sexy blog. She's adorable and probably has more understanding of the movie than most adults. It's hilarious!

Best Buy sued $54 million for lost laptop

Personally I'm no big fan of frivolous lawsuits but this one may have some merit to it. Raelyn Campbell brought her laptop in to be repaired(under extended warranty). She never saw it again. After many months of trying to retrieve the laptop Best Buy originally low-balled her on compensation. She felt insulted (and she should). The computer cost $1100 + $300(extended warranty). They offered $900 (in form of a gift card). That doesn't even cover the original cost never mind the lost personal data,pictures, software, and aggravation of many months of the runaround. Now she's even has to worry about identity theft also. She doesn't actually expect to get that amount but would like to see an explanation of how all this happened in the first place. I wish her luck!

To read more about this click here.

Writers block

Admittedly I've dropped off the number of posts I've been leaving here. This is partly due to that I'm back in school now so my time is more taken up by other things and also a bit due to that I haven't done a lot lately as far as PC repair.

I did go over to a friends house to help his wife with a few things on her computer. What we ended up doing was troubleshooting her printer. The printer seemed fine but wasn't printing anything. After I reinstalled the software I realized that the cable going into the computer was installed upside down. When I reversed the printer cable it worked just fine. Like the saying goes, check the obvious stuff first. She was kind of embarrassed but even I had missed it the first time around. The only other thing we got to do was set her up with Gmail(Google email) account.

Personally I've been fooling around iTunes lately. With the new larger drive I've finally got the space to rip my CD's onto my hard drive now. So far I like it very much and I've even bought a few songs from them. The interface is fairly simple to figure out. It runs fairly well without any major problems.

Evolution of Logo's

I thought this was a pretty neat site about the evolution of some tech companies logo's . Of the more interesting one's was about the original Apple logo featuring a picture of Isaac Newton under an apple tree. The original artist sold back his stock share which was at that time 10% of the company. I imagine that guy is kicking himself now. Which they then changed the logo to the more familiar rainbow apple.

Again I found this through my friends at Geeks are Sexy blog.

Breeding mice

Last night I had some free time so decided to go through computer stuff and clean out my stuff. I'm still not finished but I've made some progress. One thing I didn't realize how many computer mice I've collected. I believe I came up with at least a dozen. I think they were breeding in the storage bin the were in. Most I think are older than my five year old(soon to be six, just ask him,lol) son. Most were of the two-button variety with a couple of scroll wheels thrown in I kept those and earmarked the rest for disposal or recycling. The other thing I had just as many of(if not more) were PC power cords. I also had a smattering of IDE cables and few odds and end adapters. Parallel printer cables that I don't have any use for anymore since 99% of time USB cables are used now. I tend to get things as hand me downs and I hate to throw things out that work even though they maybe outdated. Computers are generally speaking outdated as soon as you open the box. Just don't ask me how many outdated computers I got that's a whole story in itself. Any way I've got a few errands to run and I should go. Super Sunday wouldn't be right without saying....

Go Patriots!

I would like an Internet please.

I forget how how I came across Computer Stupidities but I do find some of the comments hilarious. It's a collection of odd and sometimes puzzling comments from consumers,technicians and more.

Can Bill Gates save Yahoo ?

It was revealed that Microsoft has made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo. The bid value is estimated at $44.6 billion. What this would mean for end users like me isn't clear but it would be interesting to see how this plays out. I've been a long time Yahoo user but lately I have noticed I've been enticed to start using more of what Google has to offer. We'll just have to wait and see.