It Will Be Cold. The World Will Not End.

DRUDGE REPORT 2014®

Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post

Drudge and Huffington have the same lead. This can’t be good. In breathless prose they build the tension. “Coldest Game in History?” asks Drudge. The cold air will “SMASH RECORDS,” yells HuffPo.

It’s 2014. We have advanced warning. We have central heat. The vast majority of us have appropriate clothes. And, we have shelter for those who need it.

The cold in the Eastern half of the country will be a pain. Few will find it fun. But, with a little preparation, even the folks at Lambeau Field will make it through none the worse.

Respect the cold. You’ll be fine.

hfd

IM Is Dead… Isn’t It?

At one point people were complaining there were limits to how many IM accounts you could follow. No more. IM has been hit hard.

Any time I’m on the computer I’ve got IM running. It used to be a great way to chat quickly and briefly with friends. Nowadays there are fewer than a handful of people I IM with!

At one point people were complaining there were limits to how many IM accounts you could follow. No more. IM has been hit hard.

On the phone with Stef a few nights ago I mentioned I’d downloaded the MEEBO messaging app on my iPhone. She wasn’t impressed. She said Helaine and I were the only people she gets instant messages from.

Mostly she chats with her friends via BlackBerry BBM and SMS. Even when she IMs with me it’s often just to pass a link while we’re talking on the phone.

How sad for IM. At one time AOL had such a stranglehold on keyboard-to-keyboard comms. Is there any business AOL is still doing well at?

There Are Too Many Places To Receive Messages

Can’t we go back to messaging by email or at least messaging in one place?

In the beginning when there was online communications but little Internet connection each online computer service had its own email within its own little community. If you were on The Source and I was a CompuServe member (71310,71) we couldn’t email each other!

I know. That sounds ridiculous today. Over time the web was born, everyone got interconnected and things were better.

Most people who’ve been on the ‘net any length of time have more than one email address. I’m not quite sure why this is nearly universal–but it is. We all have our favorite or most used address. There are always others.

Through GMail I have been able to consolidate all my email accounts so they’re received in one place. Write me at geofffox.com or my work email or any number of URLs I own and I’ll see your message via Gmail.

This was a very good system and I was very happy. But now it’s all changing. Once again we’re heading to numerous discreet messaging systems that don’t see each other.

Every day I have to check for messages on Facebook and replies on Twitter. I also get text messages and BlackBerry Messenger messages on my phone. I even use AOL IM a little. None of these interface (or do so easily) with plain old email.

Too many places to check, It’s just not productive. Wasn’t the goal to connect?

Stef’s Computer Slowly Limping Along

The computer is definitely not well. I poked and prodded. There are no simple signs it’s got a virus, but that’s probably what’s gone on, or possibly some out-of-control Facebook applet.

Oy! Stef was on the phone yesterday afternoon. Her laptop is running at stone age speed. She’s an hour and a half from here so I used Logmein.com for some remote access.

I’ve written about Logmein here and on AppScout.com. I used the remote access package they gave me for my AppScout story, but the free product would have worked–albeit, it’s tough to explain how to install it to my non-tech daughter.

The computer is definitely not well. I poked and prodded. There are no simple signs it’s got a virus, but that’s probably what’s happened… or possibly some out-of-control Facebook applet. The CPU was running at 100% but all the cycles looked to be assigned to programs that were supposed to be running. Maybe something is leeching onto already running programs?

I ran CCleaner (it was originally called Crap Cleaner) purged the caches and trash, checked the registry and rebooted. It came back close to it’s real self. I left a note for Stef and shut it down.

Unfortunately after five minutes of use today the problems were back. She’d started AOL IM and Facebook–nothing else.

Tonight around 7:00 I’ll jump back into her machine. Maybe there’s something I missed I can try? If not we swap.

I’ve got an older laptop which I’ll bring to Stef tonight (actually, we’ll meet halfway). As I type it’s running through some disk maintenance routines. It is much slower than her Dell–when her Dell isn’t slow itself.

It is frustrating I can’t find this problem. That’s something I normally do without much trouble.

How I Use The Web

I’m basically talking about bookmarks and email, but I also maintain a small VPN, using Hamachi.

I’m not sure if I’m early, late or in-between on this, but I am using the Internet differently than I did six months or a year ago. This has a lot to do with my using three or four computers on a daily basis. It’s a pain for them to not be in sync.

The breakthrough was better, faster, more universal, high speed access. Now I clone my bookmarks and email and also maintain a small VPN using Hamachi.

To handle bookmarks, I’ve switched to Weave, an Adobe Air applet which run in Firefox 3.0. Every 15 minutes or so, it looks to see if I’ve changed anything on any of my machines and then attempts to keep them all alike. I could use this for usernames and passwords too, but I’m not quite ready.

The bookmarks have become more important under Firefox’s new ‘awesome bar.’ I’ve seen many bloggers speaking out against it, but I like it. It’s especially good at finding a URL based on my typing a few descriptive words.

For email, I use Gmail. I own a bunch of domains and have many email addresses (most rarely used). They all aggregate to Gmail, which responds with the proper return address.

Gmail is the first web based email I’ve found acceptable. You never have to delete a message. Archives are searched Goggle style, since that’s who owns Gmail. It even hosts my IM client, keeping copies of all my Instant Messenger conversations (Like AOL isn’t already doing this). They come in handy when searchable.

I use a few add-ons to increase Gmail’s value. I wish those programs, like Greasemonkey and Open Notebook, would sync up as easily as my bookmarks.

I often bring things to work I’ve produced at home. I have a 2 Gb flash drive attached to my keys. Most time, it’s just easier to move things across the network. I’m set-up to tunnel into my desktop Linux machine at work and place stuff on its drive for use later in the day.

The power of networks is growing.

Today’s Favorite Spam

“Nucklear!” Sometimes this stuff is just priceless.

Today was spam cleaning day. Over 2,500 pieces from my me@geofffox.com mailbox were waiting in my junk folder. I like to look and make sure nothing valuable gets ditched.

As it turned out, only one message had been improperly marked!

I got this one at least three times (safely in my spam box). The originator was separately listed as the New York Post, AOL and Washington Post. The content and message subject were exactly the same in all three:

CNN, San Clemente, CA – Major Problems have been occured at San Clemente Nucklear Power Station – 20-year old circuit breaker fails to close, creating a 4,000-volt arc and fire. Possible radiation leaks on 100miles area. Evacuation process has been started – View updated video

“Nucklear!” Sometimes this stuff is just priceless.

That last line, “View updated video,” was the link to the ‘real’ spam. It was an encoded link, so the receiving website could easily know which email elicited the click.

Obviously, when you write in English, but it’s terribly broken English, your scam isn’t going to be terribly successful. However, this has the potential to be the 21st Century version of yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater.

I’m trying to figure out what this says about spamming? Has the ongoing battle against spammers diminished returns enough that techniques have been pushed to the edge?

It’s true, spam will only disappear when it’s no longer profitable.

Shed No Tears For Netscape

When I first hit the Internet, there was no World Wide Web! Websites were textual affairs with named structures like Gopher, Archie and Veronica.

The world changed when Mosaic and then Netscape Navigator were released. The web became more akin to the printed page. Over time, Netscape Navigator dominated… until Microsoft caught on.

Ciao Netscape.

Yesterday, AOL (the current owner) announced it was the end of the line for Netscape Navigator. A few friends wrote to make sure I knew. And, they all wondered if I would shed a tear?

Nope.

Actually, I see Mozilla Firefox as the natural successor to NN. As long as Firefox stay’s in production I’m a happy guy.

Unfortunately, in the time between Internet Explorer’s ascent and Firefox’s birth, Microsoft decided not to bother following standard HTML and CSS protocols.

Things look different in Internet Explorer than other browsers… because IE does it wrong. But, since they have the vast majority of market share, the other browsers (doing it right) are looked upon as inferior.

Pretty sneaky.

Where was I? Oh, Netscape. Thanks for blazing the trail. I actually already thought you were dead.

Vista – A User’s Observation

Now that my laptop’s no longer brand new, I suppose I can talk a little about my experiences with Windows Vista. Vista is a hot topic on many geek boards.

The laptop itself is a joy to use. I know Dell is no longer the darling it once was, but this laptop performs just as well as I’d anticipated. With 2Gb RAM, a reasonably large hard drive and very high resolution screen&#185 it’s sweet.

Vista is not as nice!

Maybe it’s growing pains. Maybe it’s just no one likes change. Maybe things weren’t well thought out. Whatever the reason, Vista is nowhere near as easily operated as Windows XP was.

I know of at least three programs I want to run but can’t, because they’re not Vista compatible. I sense it’s not just these individual pieces of software, but whole classes of programs which have to deal with Vista’s architecture.

Kaspersky virus software (I have used the freeware AOL version) won’t load. Neither will Nero, the disk writing software. I used to use Nero a lot.

I bought a wireless remote control to allow me to control PowerPoint presentations from afar. They say there will be Vista software – just not now. The remote’s currently a paperweight.

My poker software from FullTilt is also Vista challenged. The sound and video are no longer in sync. Cards will come to me, I’ll make a bet and then the signal “ding” will sound telling me it’s my time to act… though I already have.

Just as troubling is Vista’s ‘improved’ security. As far as I can tell, all that means is asking me incessantly if I approve of what’s going. Usually, I know the correct answer. I assume less sophisticated users will not and just say “Yes.”

Microsoft has been advertising Vista as having a WOW factor, based on its Aero interface. I certainly don’t think there’s any functional difference with Aero. And, some programs have problems properly displaying in this Aero configuration. I have never seen a reason to use the 3D floating windows feature that Aero is known for.

There are more troubles when it comes to files. I still haven’t figured out how to allow my networked computers to write files to and from the Vista machine. One program I use, which tries to write data into it’s own directory, is thwarted by Vista’s security ‘features.’

Even worse, Windows Explorer has devolved to be less friendly and less usable.

Like I said, I like the laptop a lot. Using a free program from a Scandanavian developer, I now do most of my DVR watching on this machine. I’ve also used it with Photoshop and Picasa to manipulate photos with no regrets.

But Vista – it’s just not ready yet.

&#185 – I have one of those newer glossy screens. It is more prone to glare than the original matte LCDs.

Hooked On Consumerist

When it comes to customer/retailer disputes, the customer isn’t always right. Unfortunately, often times he is, after the sale, when consumers have almost no leverage.

Maybe that’s why I’ve become hooked on reading consumerist.com. It’s a guilty pleasure, like reading about Paris Hilton or sneaking a candy bar from the bag left over from Halloween (you think this is a surprise to anyone in the Fox house?).

I am often amazed by the reported (not verified) outlandishly bad behavior of America’s big merchants. And believe me, some of this is pretty mean.

On the other hand, I also see consumer weasels trying to game the system and then getting upset when they don’t succeed. Reading their letters of complaint makes my blood boil. Consumerist often treats them as legitimate complainers, though I wouldn’t.

Business weasels seem to outnumber consumer weasels. Again, remember where the leverage is after the sale.

I am curious how big business looks at sites like this? All of a sudden, the Internet has made one person’s word-of-mouth louder and opened up publishing to nearly anyone. Bad customer experiences trying to cancel AOL’s service, get a cable TV problem fixed, or expose customer neglect by airlines have been well documented with pictures and sound.

Do big businesses weigh the cost of this bad publicity and if so, how much weight is given to sites like this? Is someone from Cingular or Home Depot or any one of the sites often mentioned reading Consumerist as part of their job?

I can tell you from experience, no official has ever responded when I’ve written about a product or service I was dissatisfied with – but this blog gets minimal traffic.

‘Buzz’ has created today’s celebrities. It’s also responsible for web hits like YouTube, Craigslist and MySpace, which seemingly grew without organized promotion (at best with minimal promotion). Can buzz injure established brick and mortar companies too?

Read at your own peril. The site is addictive.

The Laptop Arrives

UPS arrived early yesterday afternoon, my new Dell Laptop in hand. After lots of anguish, and an email and call to Dell executives, I decided to purchase a Inspiron 640M.

If you have haven’t purchased a notebook computer in a while, or you’ve just pointed to one in a store, said “mine” and took out your credit card, you’ve missed a terribly weird experience.

No matter what you do, you’re never quite sure what you’re doing!

Dell’s site is that way – but so is HP’s and a few others I tried. There are lots of options, but many of them are only described in marketing hyperbole. What’s the difference between different processors in absolute terms? Got me.

Then there’s the matter of price. It’s tough to look at any price conscious website and not see a link for a Dell deal, that leads back to the Dell site. I configured the same laptop in a few similar ways and came up with wildly differing prices!

As I told the woman I spoke to at Dell, I didn’t want this experience to be like buying a car, or worse purchasing an airplane seat. I don’t want to make a purchase only to find the person in the seat next to me paid a lot less!

My laptop has a Core 2 Due processor, 2Gb RAM, CD/DVD writer, 120 Gb hard drive (which shows up as a 110 Gb hard drive) and a WXGA+ screen – meaning 1440×900 resolution.

That was the deal breaker for me, resolution. As far as I could see, there were no other laptops priced in the same ballpark as the Dell that gave me as many pixels on a 14.1″ screen. Pixels are important to me. I edit lots of photos.

Like I said, the laptop arrived and I am favorably impressed. I am not as gung ho about Windows Vista – and that might just be because it’s different.

In typical Microsoft fashion, I loaded some updates, which busted the Vista sidebar! I had to do a rollback.

I also now better understand the Apple commercial where John Hodgman (playing “PC”) is asked for permission to perform a variety of tasks on a steadily maddening basis (go ahead – watch the commercial).

My idea of security isn’t sitting at my door with a shotgun. That seems to be Microsoft’s answer.

At nearly every instance where I installed or tweaked something, Vista asked if that’s what I really wanted. Often it asked two times and sometimes three.

My friend Peter says some savvy users have turned this ‘feature’ off. Maybe me too, though not now.

Speaking of security, though the system came with a trial subscription for security software, I’ve been using the free version of Kaspersky’s virus scanner, given away by AOL. When I attempted to install it, I found it was not Vista compatible.

The battery life on the new laptop is much more than any I’ve ever used before. It looks like it will be at least 5 hours in real life. That means it becomes a DVD player for airplane trips – even cross country trips. That’s cool.

More observations later. Right now, I’m pretty happy.

Viruses – Never Say Never

Viruses are the scourge of the Internet.

Earlier this week, I told my friend Farrell (always searching for better, more vigorous virus protection) how I use none and had never been hit by a virus!

Oops. Somehow I got two at once!

I turned on my old laptop&#185 when I came home last night and there they were. I’d probably picked them up the night before, but they needed a reboot to activate. They didn’t come via email, because I don’t get mail on that machine. They must have come through Firefox or (more likely) Windows Media Player.

They were both sitting in the system toolbar at the lower right of my screen and one was popping up dialog boxes ever few seconds. The sentence structure hinted of slightly broken English. That was my cue it wasn’t what it claimed to be – a warning from Microsoft that I’d been infected and needed to download protection.

The first of the virii cleaned up with no trouble. In fact, it had an entry in the add/remove programs dialog, as if it were legit. The second wasn’t quite as easy.

I can’t tell you its name except to say its toolbar signature is a red circle with an “X” in the middle.

A little sleuthing turned up some older entries, but none seemed to exactly match my poison. What I caught was probably an adaptation of an earlier virus.

We’re talking about crooks and thieves here. They’re not buying their software at CompUSA.

On the inside, my virus was programmed to hide in plain site, creating a new, randomly named, program each time it ran. Find the virus, stop the program – it creates another.

I found what I think is the ‘seed,’ a program called winstall.exe, as a new entry in my registry. It was scheduled to run each time the computer rebooted.

I did some manual pruning, removing a line from the registry, then allowed AOL’s new virus scanner&#178 (actually the very highly rated Kaspersky anti-virus) do its thing. As is my custom in these cases, I ran it in ‘safe mode,’ then ran it again.

I’ll keep an eye on the little laptop to make sure it hasn’t been permanently compromised. I’ve heard of cases where the virus goes dormant for a while only to return when your defenses are down.

I’d hate to have my computer responsible for sending out thousands of spam emails (as compromised computers often do) or interrupting my surfing with pop-up messages.

I’m upset I allowed this to happen to me! I’m supposed to be the guy who fixes other people’s computers and then, disapprovingly, shakes my head.

It wasn’t a virus as much as it was an injection of humility.

&#185 – This is a really old machine – a Dell PII 300 laptop with 256 mb RAM. It is ploddingly slow for many things, but easily handles web surfing and poker while I’m in the family room.

&#178 – AOL’s virus scanner is free, and you don’t have to join AOL to get it. I suppose its in their best interest to clean up the Internet as best they can.

How Do You Deal With It?

I like Noah Finz, our sports guy at the TV station. I like his wife, Kendra, too. I’ve known her a lot longer than I’ve known Noah. They are both technophobes.

Actually, being a little skittish in the face of technology puts them in step with most everyone, which leads me to what happened today.

Noah’s laptop was old. He wanted to upgrade to faster hardware, especially with a two year old, infant and very nice camera for picture taking.

Most people would have unplugged the old machine, plugged in the new and then forgotten what was left on the laptop. Sure, they’re networked together, but how many people know how that works? Few!

I popped in the car and headed to Fairfield County.

His Dell desktop machine was the most quiet PC I’ve ever heard – startling, since the trend has been in the opposite direction. It needed a Firewire and wireless network card. No sweat, except it only had two slots, one of which was already filled by a dial-up modem.

“Put this away,” I told Noah as I handed it to him in an anti-static bag. Truthfully, it will never be used.

The Firewire card was effortlessly installed suing native Windows drivers. The wireless card was more trouble. It didn’t conform to Belkin’s instructions!

It finally installed because I ad libbed. How do they sell and support these things when the installation process isn’t remotely connected to what’s in the instructions?

As with Helaine’s computer, this Dell came loaded with ‘nagware.’ I don’t want programs bugging me. Some are difficult to remove. Others are confusingly described. Most have limited lifespans, meaning you’re later expected to shell out more money for the software that came on your PC!

Hats off to Cablevision, Noah’s ISP. Their Optonline cable modem service has an automated configuration tool which set up Outlook Express correctly on the first try.

We installed Picasa, MS Office, the new free AOL anti-virus suite and a few others. Then it was time to move photos and documents. I couldn’t get his computers to speak to each other. I have no idea why, nor do I know how I finally encouraged them to have limited access to each other.

It just happened.

You never accomplish 100% on a mission of mercy like this, but we came close. Again, I have no idea how Noah or Kendra could have done this themselves, and they can’t be alone.

What do most people do? Or do people like me just drive around on weekends helping out and playing with little kids – they couldn’t have been cuter.

My Biggest Computer Repair Secret

I have no virus protection on my PCs at home. Pretty scary huh?

Actually, no. I’ve had a few minor run-ins, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed pretty quickly. Not using Internet Explorer, instead browsing the web with Firefox gives me minor protection, but that’s not the real answer.

The fact that lots of my friends have been infected implies the problem is more than just being susceptible. There is a certain innocence in the operator that adds to the threat.

Every friend whose every been infected has had virus software on board! Every single one. Sometimes it wasn’t activated, but it was there.

As far as I’m concerned, anti-virus software is nearly worthless. Test after test shows most viruses are released into the wild before anti-virus software has been updated. AV software is most valuable after the fact, when you’re trying to disinfect.

When friends call, there is one thing I always suggest first: Restore. This might be the best feature in Windows XP, though it is little known outside the geek community.

Windows XP’s Restore function turns back the clock on your PC. Any mail, saved data files and downloads remain. Any programs installed or changes to the registry (Windows’ index) disappear, though the files that could reinfect you do remain lurking on the hard drive.

If you’ve installed something awful, most likely it will become inert!

Restore is found by clicking the Start button and then finding your way to Help. It’s hidden in plain sight. That last sentence comes from experience. Everyone’s first reaction is, “I don’t see it here.”

Oh, one more thing. After restoring is complete, I do suggest at least one ‘scouring’ by an anti-virus program to clean out the junk.

Right now (and this changes) my favorite is from AOL… really. AOL’s Active Virus Shield is a rebranded version of the top rated Kaspersky program, but it’s free.

I guess even AOL realizes less of this garbage is good for everyone and will save them money in the long run.

On The Tech Support Trail

One of our photographers at work asked me if I’d take a look at his PC. He’s not a computer guy and has two sons who play games. It’s a guaranteed recipe for computing hell!

His wife is a sainted woman – she gets a free pass!

The computer is a Quantex! I had a Quantex too. What’s left of it is in the attic, in pieces.

They were nicely priced PCs, back when Quantex was in business. This is a Pentium III, running Windows 98.

Tim complained about “Blue Screens of Death.” Confirmed!

Actually, the biggest problem with this PC… with so many PCs… is how much is installed that wants to start every time the power button is pressed. Each little app takes a small amount of the processor’s capacity. When you’ve got dozens of these puppies starting up, there’s not much computer left.

What’s the expression? Bleeding to death from a thousand cuts?

It was sluggish, with the mouse jerking around the screen. There were BSODs at random moments.

First step, I went in and stopped as many programs as I could (and recognized) from starting by themselves. Then I started to pour through the installed base.

I didn’t want to uninstall the boy’s games. I may not have to.

There were at least two virus programs running. I’m not a big fan of McAfee. Every computer I’ve ever ‘deloused’ has McAfee on board! The other one I’d never heard of at all.

In went AVG AntiVirus – it’s free and it seems to work. I also ran AdAware.

As I removed bits and pieces of ‘stuff,’ the computer became more responsive… faster. I continued to poke around.

There were six versions of AOL’s software installed. I removed five.

It doesn’t look like any critical updates had been installed since… Oh, hell – it didn’t look like any had been installed, period. This is very common.

Tim’s machine will live to fight another day. It’s just a shame that his machine’s fate is shared by so many others.

If I were recommending a machine for someone without kids who play games… someone who wanted to surf the net and send email… I’d suggest Linux. I know it’s nerdy, but it gets the job done nicely and (at the moment at least ) it’s impervious to evil.

Super Bowl XL – I Watched All The Ads

How’s this for a shallow life with little purpose – I’ve just watched all the ads from tonight’s Super Bowl!

I wasn’t paying total attention during the game, so I actually went online to find a Super Bowl ad site.

Of course there’s one. There are probably dozens more.

Amazingly, in order to watch the commercials on AOL, you are subjected to additional ‘interstitial’ commercials.

So, here we go with a little summary of what I liked, in no particular order.

FedEx Cavemen – Can an ad be stupid and clever at once? This one was. I especially enjoyed the CG animation at the end where the caveman kicks a prehistoric animal and is then crushed by a giant foot.

Sierra Mist – Kathy Griffin, Michael Ian Black, and some guy I recognize by can’t identify. She’s very funny, and this ad is all about her.

Sprint Crime Deterrent – one guy actually throws his cellphone at the other guy. Priceless. It’s a great payoff to an otherwise ‘laundry list’ spot.

DisneyWorld – If Oscar winners can bring a little piece of paper on-stage listing all the people they want to thank, athletes can practice saying, “I’m going to DisneyWorld.”

Budweiser Clydesdale – I find most beer commercials sophomoric. OK – I don’t drink, so maybe I just don’t get it. The little Clydesdale pushing the wagon, secretly assisted by a larger Clydesdale, was very sweet. A sweet beer commercial!

Poseidon – Does this movie really need to be remade? Where’s Gene Hackman or Shelley Winters? Anyway, as your meteorologist let me be the first to tell you, tidal waves are barely noticeable in open water. They only crest nearshore.

Sprint Ringtones – Is there a more overpriced commodity than cellphone ringtones? Still, this commercial from Sprint took it all with tongue-in-cheek, especially the homage to Benny Hill featuring (what sounded like) Ronnie Aldrich’s original Yakety Sax.

Hummer H3 – I had no idea where this spot was going. When one monster got pregnant, I was really stumped. Giving birth to a Hummer was a reasonably good payoff.

Early this evening, to help fill time, a football game was played between these commercials.