Goal and Direction

Yesterday two unrelated things happened that made me want to come back to my neglected blog. The first of these was an idea I had. My new idea was to basically take notes about computers that come into the shop. Not every computer, that would get monotonous, but some of the more interesting ones. I hope that by writing about my own experience with unique computer problems, other will be able to learn from my experiences. Personally I find reading about others experiences with computer problems, and what they did, more useful that reading some technical paper.

The second thing that made me come back to my blog was the editors note about blogging in the latest issue of Maximum PC. Will Smith (the Maximum PC editor not the rapper) is a writer I've come to really respect. What he said in his editor's note was exactly what I felt about blogging.

Since the dawn of the blogging era, I've been of the opinion that blogs should be highly targeted affairs, honing in on specific, well-defined topics to maximize the hard benefits for readers.

- Will Smith

When I read that it was like Mr. Smith was reading my mind. The first thing I thought of was my own blog and, "what readers?" My girlfriend is probably the only solid reader I have, and she reads it to get an insight to my life. My personal life is the last thing I want to write about because not even I find it that interesting. True, those that go back through my blog will find some personal posts, but over all I try to keep it on a geek related topic.

Will Smith goes on to read my mind even furthar by talking about the reason he quits writing in his blogs. He's limited himself to write about the blogs topic, and eventually looses interest. This coming from a real writer makes me feel better about my own lack of interest to write in my blog.

I thought about wiping everything in my blog and starting from scratch with my new goals in mind, but going back through some of the older posts I'm glad I haven't deleted anything just yet. I've decided to keep my bloggin history, as embarrising as it may be, in hopes that I will be able to see my progress (whatever the direction of the progress may be).

All in all one thing is for sure, my writing skills lack. I don't understand why some people can write a paragraph and eliquently elaborate their thoughts and feelings to everyone that reads it, but I can't put a sentance together that articulates a simple idea.

For the curious, Will Smiths new "write about anything" experiment blog is cleverly named notthatwillsmith.com.

Gateway Essential 933C

This Gateway has been in the shop before, so have many like it. Two big problems with this particular series, Power Supplies and USB ports. Which is really a bummer considering it doesn't have any PS/2 ports and can only use USB input devices.

Last time it was here because one of the three rear USB ports broke. The three rear ports are stacked on top of one another, and it's always the top port that breaks. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the top port, or just coincidence. The plastic piece inside the USB port that holds the four pins in place is usually the culprit. Some times the port just won't work anymore, other times the pins get bend and short out the computer so that it can't even turn on. In any case, the cheapest way I've found to fix the USB problem is to cut the pins off and put electrical tape over the port. These computers are worth what it would cost to replace the motherboard or solder new USB ports in place.

The power supply is also a problem, as is the case today. The computer still comes on, but gets exceptionally hot. No surprise to see it's the fan. I know if I really wanted to I could take this small power supply apart and replace it with any old 80mm case fan, but that requires dismantling the "not so cleverly" designed power supply. If it was simply a job that required me to take the case off, unscrew the fan, put a new one in place, and rig some wiring, then it might be worthwhile. The small power supply is designed so that I would have to remove the case and the circuit board that converts AC to DC power to get to the fan. No thanks, this customer can get a new power supply.

Unfortunately ordering a new power supply for this model is a pain. There aren't many left and sellers are hard to find. It seems that every time we order this particular power supply it's from a different vendor. Today I found it at http://www.alancomputech.com/6500527.html, and if the boss takes my suggestion we'll get more than one.

Dell Dimension 1100

This morning a customer came into the shop with a Dell Dimension 1100 stating the typical remark of "It just stopped working," though I have to give the customer credit. At least he was able to tell me it booted. Most of the time customers will tell me it doesn't even turn on when in all actuality it powers up and POST's just fine. Right from the start I knew it was software related, so I did what I always do with software problems. Fire up some msconfig and start turning things off. In this case I had to do it in safe mode, but after disabling everything under the start up tab and all but Microsoft's services in the services tab, it booted up just fine.

Software issues likes these are usually related to malicious software. I include viruses, adware, spyware, malware, just about anything you can imagine that any normal person wouldn't want. Malicious software being the obvious culprit I went straight to AVG's website to download their free anti-virus program. Opening IE was horrifying; I counted no less than six tool bars. How many tool bars do people really need? Personally I've done just fine with zero for years. Although I was able to connect to the Internet I was unable to download on the customers computer. Coming back to my bench machine I proceeded to download both AVG and their free anti-spyware program called Ewido and copy those to my trusty Corsair thumb drive.

Side note:
Disappointingly, as I used the customers computer I saw a familiar "G" show up in the system tray by the clock with a bubble that said something to the effect of, "Your default search engine has been changed." Now I'm a big fan of Google and anything they do, provided it stays on the Internet. Gmail, Google Video, and Calendar is just the tip of the online miracle iceberg Google can preform. Anything Google makes as a download, on the other hand, I'm not a big fan of. I'm not saying they make bad software, I'm just saying Google's IE toolbar feels just as dirty as Yahoo's and Google Desktop Search feels just as clunky as Microsoft's. Googles downloadable programs make me cry a little inside because they came from the same place as the ingenious Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Google Earth is the only minor exception to this rule, but I find Google Maps, the online equivalent, just as useful. I am interested to see how much cooler Google Earth gets now that I know about Google SketchUp, a program designed to make 3d models for the 3d portion of Google Earth.

Getting back to the Dell, no surprise to see a lot of spyware was found. Fortunately there were no viruses, but it'll take some time before I find out if removing all this spyware does it any good.

Side note:
Ironicly, the reason I was having trouble downloading AVG Anti-Virus and Ewido on the customer's computer had more to do with Grisoft's website than the customer's computer. Turns out they were updating to release AVG Anti-Virus 7.5. The new AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 is very similar to it's predecessor, but Ewido has been renamed to, go figure, AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5. I'll take this opportunity to play with the new AVG.

After taking a few moments the only differences I really see are visual. I like the new visual changes, but I like to know about the more substantial changes. Checking out the Grisoft website I found this short list of new features.

• Improved virus detection based on better heuristics and NTFS data streams scanning
• Smaller installation and update files
• Improved user interface
• Windows Vista ready

I'm glad to see they made the installation file smaller. The small foot print AVG leaves on a system is exactly why I recommend it to customers over other anti-virus programs like McAfee and Norton. For those, like me, wondering what the heck heuristics are check out wikipedia's two articles on it.

Later in the day I got a custom built machine still running Windows 98. I was able to use AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 on it. However, AVG's new Anti-Spyware 7.5 program requires Windows 2000 or better.

Without all that spyware, this Dell is starting to run normal again. Usually I run a couple of different anti-spyware programs. Grisoft's and Lavasoft's respective anti-spyware programs are my preferred choice, but sometimes I mix it up a bit and try new ones. Spywarewarrior.com is a great site to make sure you're trying a legit program and not some Internet scam. I also check with that sight for computers that come in with questionable anti-spyware programs already installed. I also took the liberty to remove some programs that are rarely used from the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. I used to be very hesitant about this, but over the years I've found most customers don't care about what I take out. Usually I only take out programs I know shouldn't be there, free trial programs, and rarely used programs.

Clorox® ToiletWand™

Hands down, to date, the most innovative invention of the 21st century.

Official Web Site - Bet you didn't even know there was one.

An Official Review from about.com's housekeeping section.

The Pros and Cons from the review...

Pros	One of the easiest cleaning products you'll ever use. Really works well on dirty toilets. No need to touch toilet water, or cleaning solution.
Cons	Cost is more than a non-disposable toilet brush. The cleaning heads are not flushable and must be thrown away. Heavily stained toilets may need a harsher product.

I would like to take this time to rebuttal the cons from this particular review. Disposable products generally cost more since you buy them over and over again. I believe the point of this product is to be disposable so you don't have a toilet brush sitting around somewhere. The cleaning heads are not flushable because you're not supposed to be flushing anything down there that's not paper anyway. Finally, if you're toilet is that dirty you have probably never owned any kind of toilet cleaning product before anyway so don't bother starting now.

I approve the Clorox® ToiletWand™™ for the use of bachelors who want to make a good impression on any one who would be found in the bathroom of their bacheloror pad, and for married men who want to earn brownie points with the wife. It takes all of a couple of minutes to clean a toilet and you don't have to mess with any blue liquid.

Digital Old People

A lady came into the computer shot the other day who's husband had just passed away. She was wanting to back up the data on his computer to a CD. It was interesting to me that, as old as she was, she had files, records, even journals in a digital format.

As interesting as that is, it's even harder to imagine how much digital crap I'll have when I'm her age. My digital life began to accumulate from the time I was in high school with homework assignments and pictures. I still have saved games from Ultima VII. Ten years later my electronic storage has increased exponentially. Who knows what will become of it all tomorrow...