Vista?

Anne wrote, "I wonder if you think it is a good idea for me to upgrade to Microsoft Vista Home Basic?" Let's see, hmmmmm, how should I answer this question? Wow, I want to really be sure I don't mislead anyone as to my true feelings about this subject. Oh the duress of it all, the absolute stress of stresses. Okay here I go, here's the answer, it's coming soon, wait just a bit more, the answer is................NO.

Why all the drama? Well, I know Anne, she's a friend, and she can appreciate a good joke. Also, she had my answer before this was published. Here's the point. Microsoft has used the consuming public as beta testers for years. The second Tuesday in each month has become known as 'patch Tuesday' in tech circles due to the monthly download of repairs for Windows XP and other things. They also mislead ALL consumers into thinking they own the software. This is simply not true. It's more like a conditional rental. If you have done all updates then your machine reports to Microsoft what you have been doing with their product. Don't believe me?

Please go to MajorGeeks look on the left and select the category Anti-spyware. Scroll down and download the free version of Lavasoft's Adaware, SE Peronsal Edition. Install the program being sure that you check two items:

Search for negligible risk entries
Search for low risk threats

In other words turn the little red circles in to yellow ones with check marks in them. Now run a scan. Be sure and check the results under every tab at the top when the scan is completed. Those MRUs you see about Internet Explorer, Office, last documents, etc., are all being sent to Microsoft. Under Microsoft's most desirable conditions you computer also reports in when it is started.

This is all the handy work of that buffoon of buffoons Steve Ballmer. And none of this is illegal. Microsoft tells you all this garbage in the EULA (End User License Agreement) to which you agreed when first installing the program. It's real simple. They are spying on you. They want to make sure you aren't running illegal copies of their product. What's the issue? Hey, I thought I bought this product and, damn it all, I want someone to ask me when they desire to invade my privacy. Tell you what: Come to the Saltillo Beach House and kick down the door and enter. You will be handed a large bowl of whupass. Someone that enters my home in such a violent way will suffer the most dire consequences. This issue is on the same level. If they'd be upfront and ask instead of hiding all this voodoo in small text it wouldn't bother me for them to see EVERYTHING I do with a computer. Just don't sneak the hell around like some kind of greasy thief in the night.

Oh yes, please let me make no mistake and upset the Windows Nazis of the world anymore than necessary. I like Windows. I think XP Pro is a GREAT operating system (still like Kubuntu Linux and FreeBSD the best). Better a Bill Gates Microsoft world than a Steve Jobs Apple one. Still, some will send emails defending both. The whole point is that Microsoft is just now smoothing out the security and operation of XP. Resist buying Vista. Hell, they have 4 or 5 versions. How do you know which one to buy?

K the soap box goes back in the garage. If you are in disagreement, please feel free to flame on in the comments. This is my story and I'm a stickin' to it.

"The wrongful intrusion into a person's private activities by other individuals or by the government. Tort law protects one's private affairs with which the public has no concern against unwarranted exploitation or publicity that causes mental suffering or humiliation to the average person. The right to be left alone is not always superior to the rights of the public and it may or may not exist or may exist to a lesser degree with regard to the life of a public figure, such as a politician or other person in whom the public has a rightful interest. The right to personal privacy is encompassed as an aspect of liberty protected against government interference by the Constitution's due process clause. Some of the personal decisions protected from unwarranted government interference include decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing, and education. 431 U.S. 678. See privacy, right of; wiretapping."
~Answers.com

Transitions are Sometimes Good and Sometimes Fun

Ahhhhh it's Tuesday. And guess what boys and girls? Monday is behind us!! Finally got the tire situation corrected and am mobile once again. One of my clients picked me up for work and took me back to the shop yesterday. Thanks Perry! We are finishing a network changeover that has had minor glitches, all resolved.

There are two people from Canada here for the transition and they seem like happy, up tempo people, We had a timeout issue and one of their techs in Canada remoted in and fixed a problem that had (in the immortal words of Jimmy Buffett) plumb evaded me. Anytime there is such an undertaking, patience on the tech side and customer side is essential. Perry and his crew practice this concept. This has been fun.

Thanks goes out to Perry, Lisa, Chloe, Wynn, Patti and our friends from the Great White North, Karine (gosh I hope I spelled her name right) and Robert. Y'all da bomb! Enough smoozin', now I must get ready for a long doctor visit.

"Change always comes bearing gifts."
~Price Pritchett

Through the Haze

Sunday morning and the high today is supposed to be 37F. It's a pretty day, but cold. I sit beside an eastward facing window and watch the world go by for a few moments every morning, coffee cup in hand. Mississippi is blessed with a wealth of animals, especially birds. It's also fun to watch the local pets cautiously avoid the yard. They all know that Arnold the Possum has laid claim to the beach house. Yes, a few precious moments looking out upon the world is fun. A mighty idea has crossed my mind this morning...when it warms up wash the windows.

Have been researching laser printers. Printers are a necessary nuisance. Better units are being built today, but the driver software is still horrible. Printers are made up of many different parts that move and all have inherent heat problems. In the world of computers, heat is not our friend. Ink jet or laser? Definitely laser. Look for an older model that is on closeout. The older laserjets tend to have less expensive refill cartridges. It's hard to admit, but a few "all in ones" are okay. They will cost you. If you have a business please don't buy one of these because how will you fax if the machine is on the blink? How will you copy?

Thank God I have friends and a great family. Had a blowout yesterday and spent almost three hours traveling 5 miles. Mudslingr answered my call for help and stayed with me the whole duration. Good to have a son in law that will spend his Saturday afternoon with me on the side of the road. This adventure could turn into a long story full of turbo whine. You're spared. Later.

"Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer."
~Billy Wobblynife

Karenware Rocks!

As hard as I try it seems the ability to find a few minutes to post has escaped me. There is a lot going on and hopefully things will slow down. The beach house is a mess and Arnold the Possum is even upset. He's laid siege to the dumpster/garbage thangy again. Working several network changes at one time and installing backup hardware makes for a long day. Not complaining, just explaining.

A site I haven't mentioned is quite sometime is Karenware. Find her free programs link on the left side of her homepage and take a looksee. Her backup program (Replicator) is one of the BEST on the web and it's free! She has a neat selection of gear and please take a moment to fill out her quiz. This is a great example of a site that's easy to navigate and full of great downloads. Hats off to Karen. Good job!

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."
~Francis Bacon, Essays, 1625

Rumor Spreadin' Round

Not an extreme fan of country music here. Some of it is good, but I am an old rocker from back in the day. Tonight I watched CMT-TV's Crossroads and was nailed for a while listening to Brooks and Dunn (they are a favorite in the C&W realm) and ZZTop. Wow. If you even like ZZ dial in and watch this great hour of music. The house was a rockin and it's good to see people from my generation still hanging on and cranking out great music. Hats off to CMT-TV n Ronnie, Kicks n Dusty, Billy and Frank. Rock on dudes!

"Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself."
~Beecher

Site Work

There is a site being developed by several local people that participate in GuildWars. Presently the title is Guild Wars Ammo. This is definitely subject to change. Anyone interested in helping out with this site please email me at cybersouth@gmail.com. Experience is NOT necessary. WE need people. Posting will be easy and developing the page will be fun. Let me know!

"One filled with joy preaches without preaching."
~Mother Teresa

Construction

Over the next few weeks posting here will be inconsistent. Several major network changes are taking place in the field and the beach house network is being revamped. Some web pages are being redone and this is one of them. Will consider all suggestions that will make Cybersouth a better site. Please bear with our construction crew. We are as busy as a bunch of Doozers at Fraggle Rock.

Thanks!

Dock

"God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me."
~Billy Wobblynife

New ZBoard Update

Ideazon has issued a new update. Please check it out if you own a MERC formfactor ZBoard. This is a much better engine than the last one. Seems several folks (self included) reverted to the older driver to correct problems found in the last version. The newest version corrects many problems and is well worth the small effort to download.

Basic guidelines for installation of this new driver are; uninstall old driver first, make sure your ZBoard is plugged in, install the new version, go into start programs and launch the new ZBoard engine and then do a restart. These steps will help create a solid driver installation.

Thanks, Right Rev Jim, for a great tip!

"The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl."
~Dave Barry

RIAA = Nazism

It might be a mistake to mention these jerks. This is another in a long line of media scare tactics like the time they prosecuted the frightened 84 year old couple that were found not guilty. While the couple was on trial, reps for the RIAA stood in the back of the courtroom and laughed. Sorry bastards. Now they have a SWAT team?

Hey America!!!! Wake up and defend your rights as citizens! Don't buy prerecorded CDs! Download new music from the internet and eliminate this horrible terrorist group that is active INSIDE our country. You can at least try to purchase fewer recorded CDs. This is NOT an attempt to encourage piracy, which is against the law. It's just time to relieve the world of needless antagonists.

Thanks goes out to TechDirt for a great article (If you click on the above 'SWAT team' link give it time to load. Traffic is heavy.)

"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence."
~Frederick Douglass

Anti Vermin? It's EVIL!!!

It's called Smitfraud Trojan, Anti-Vermin, Pest Trap, System Doctor, Spy Heal and many other names. They pose as "goodguys", but no, they aren't even close. It will hijack your desktop, your Internet Explorer Browser, the Firefox browser, install a keylogger on your PC, steal and send your personal information to the bad guys. All the creeps that are connected with this garbage should be rounded up and gut shot in order to make death slow and painful. What baboons!

Why do people do these things? Why are we letting them get away with it? Have you contacted your Congressperson and complained? It's time to end the spyware, adware, malware, etc., infections and put ALL these people out of business. Our passive attitude has to stop!

How do you get rid of it? It's NOT easy. There are some combinations that seem to work, but the verdict is still out. After doing a Google search for 'anti vermin spyware' the number of hits totaled 17,900. And that's only one of the many names tagged to this horrible infection. It's all over tech help forums. Anyway, I spent several hours in research and have made an attempt to remove it from a PC. So far, so good. This is a high risk infection and needs to be eliminated ASAP. Don't let it linger on your PC. Formatting a hard drive for those that don't back up their data can be a nightmare. It's bad enough for those that do back up.

You're infected?? If you will contact me there is a list of sites being developed that will help eradicate this manure. There is no one stop fix...yet. You will have to use several different utilities to destroy it. Links to cure the problem will be posted as more knowledge is gained. This one is nasty.

"The devil's agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?"
~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

AVG Deadline Extended

Good news for AVG users. The deadline has been extended to February 18th. If you get the notice onscreen please don't freak out and think you now have to buy it. You can still download the Free Version. Read the info and you may consider using the commercial version which has a firewall, anti-spyware, anti-spam and many more features. The cost is very reasonable. If you can't afford it, the free version is possibly the best freeware available. Just protect thyself! And remember, we're all in this together.

"A bargain ain't a bargain unless it's something you need."
~Sidney Carroll

Time to Update AVG

Please remember to update your AVG Antivirus to version 7.5. The older 7.1 version expires tomorrow and definition updates will cease. You will have to uninstall the older version first. The new installation is fine for most people using the default settings. BE SURE and tell the install program to update from the internet. No biggy. The newer version is very polished and still gives us great FREE protection.

It's late and an early start in the morn is on the schedule.

"I don't think jogging is healthy, especially morning jogging. If morning joggers knew how tempting they looked to morning motorists, they would stay home and do sit-ups."
~Rita Rudner

LAN Party? They Just Get Better.

The soiree at the Beagle/Mudslingr home was a huge success. Many gamers were in attendance and online play was awesome. It was worth attending just to see some of the most powerful PCs in this area. We had several different games up and there was a new Wii system hooked to the home theater system. It was a blast watching folks use the Wii controllers and much laughter abounded. Yes, Wii is wayyyy more physically interactive than XBox or Play Station. This game will sell!

The food was tremendous. Gosh, so many things were available, where do I start? Mudslingr's Gumbo is gaining a reputation in the geek circle and Beagle's home made cookies were super! Alas, they are all gone. An older lardass dude sniped the last one. Beagle has also elevated potato soup to an uber level. Everything on the table was good and believe me, I sampled all of it. Good food, good friends, a chance to make new friends and a general positive feeling made for a well spent evening. Hey guys! Let's do it again!

Thanks for everything.

"A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails."
~Roberts

Backed Up Anything Lately?

It's late Friday night and I am still working in the field; waiting for a backup to finish on a network that has not had a clean backup since June of last year. The DVDRW seemed to be doing the job properly, but after investigation it appears the unit has failed. The server is now being backed up to another PC on the network. This has taken around 4 hours to complete. I am whiney boy and tired. Gosh, I wanted to play Guild Wars tonight! Oh well there's always tomorrow, lol.

It's a good idea to always look on the disk and visually verify that the files are, indeed, there. Better yet, use two portable USB hard drives and swap them daily. You have an off premise backup in case of emergencies and the backups are fast! If you are using a tape to back up it might be time to consider upgrading. I do NOT like tape drives. Just don't trust something that I cannot verify visually. Besides, I've heard nightmares down through the years concerning failed tape backups.

Just be sure you backup your critical data. Don't act like a child and get mad at the tech. We told you so...remember?

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
~Tolstoy

Brief Intermission

My apologies to everyone for not posting this past week. There is a problem with the template for this page and it has been decided to scrap it (the template) and start anew. This is due to content placement and general uploading ability. Also, business this year has been long, involved and tiring. This is a good thing. Great start and I hope it doesn't let up.

Will try to get with Beagle this weekend and also talk to Chyna Moon about a new design. Several people have asked that the links, now on their own page, be put back here. I'm working on it. Please, please comment or email with any ideas you have for improvement and a note to Anonymous Apple Dude; no I won't take the page down. It'll stay up as long as I do. Later y'all.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."
~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

Possible Source of Road Rage?

Just finished an article about being able to connect a laptop from the car through wireless networking. The business section of the International Herald Tribune tells us that automobile wireless internet will be made possible by the Avis car rental agency. Can you imagine the commuter going to work with his heated coffee mug, cellphone chattering, electric shaver or lighted compact and lipstick, GPS giving directions, radio doing a traffic report and typing on a laptop? Possible nightmare? Well, duh!

This advance in technology brings to mind the fact that change is part of growth just as, "necessity is the mother of invention." Researching a quote on this subject if proof positive. All these years my goofy mind had the necessity quote coming from "Ode, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by William Wordsworth. It turns out that Willie didn't pen these famous words. Looks like Victor Hugo gets a lot of the credit for making an old catch-phrase famous.

The real question here is why am I reading poetry from the Romanticists era this early in the morning? Excuse me while I try to return to a normal subnormal state and read my daily dose of Dilbert.

"The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting."
-Dave Barry

Today Started with a Prayer

It's a new year. Glad to see 2006 finally behind us. Spent most of the year with my blood pressure out of control and started 2006 out by Mother having open heart surgery and my El Camino being stolen in the same week. Thank God for the friends that helped me through that time and the rest of the year!

Mother's surgery was a quad bypass and she's doing great! She drove down to stay 6 days with me over the holidays and spent a lot of time with grandkids and greatgrandchild. The woman is remarkable. Resilient is an understatement. I will spend today putting everything back in its usual place, lol.

The El Camino is gone forever. The police didn't even try to find it. They just don't care. Guess if I lived up next to the worst city in the USA I'd not be too concerned about some 27 year old vehicle owned by a "foreigner" from Saltillo. Memphis is horrible and it is dripping down into Mississippi. Willie Herenton, their mayor, needs the same treatment as Saddam. He has ruined what was once a beautiful, clean city.

Resolutions? Praying for more strength physically, mentally and emotionally. God help us all through a new year. With hope and endurance it should prove better than '06. Let us look forward with new found goals and not dwell on that which cannot be changed. Yes, yes! And I further resolve to stop eating potato chips and drinking whole Cokes. Even laid-in a store of 2 cases of Coke Zero. That's it! That's the ticket!

Here's an idea to help start the new year: Instead of whining about our President why don't you try praying for him? I pray for the democrats (even for the Hillarybeast to experience an impromptu exorcism) as well as Republicans almost daily. God knows they all need it.

Peace out!

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's."
-Henry Moore