Posts from — September 2002

You are being watched. Chances are very good there is spyware on your computer. These are small programs that track your movements on the web and send back the information to various people. Most of the time they in the form of harmless cookies but others can do more damage. That’s why I regularly run Ad-aware.

Ad-aware will scan your hard drive and help you clean any spyware that may be lurking on it. I run it once a week with my full anti-virus scan.

Another good source of spyware removal is Spychecker. Type in a name of a suspected program and Spychecker will tell you if it installs spyware during its installation. The site also has some good tips and links to learn more about spyware.

William Gibson, the guy who wrote Spinrite has a very nice website featuring various security measures you can take to protect your computer. One of the files, Opt-out was particularly good. Unfortunately the program has expired and is no longer available for download. But you should still visit his site for some invaluable information concerning your computer’s security.

I ordered a Creative Labs Muvo MP3 player yesterday. It should arrive later this week. Since Pam took over my Sonicblue Rio 800, I got another one for myself. What makes this one different is that you transfer music to the device by plugging it directly into the USB port on your computer. It’s about the size of a cigarette lighter and has no display or any fancy features. What is does have is extreme portability, and 128 MB for about 4 hours of music.

Last week I upgraded to the new Windows Media Player version 9 beta. After using it for a week, I am very impressed. Even the jukebox features have been improved, enough for me to abandon the MusicMatch software I use now. But the best part of WMP is that it’s free.

So I have a cool new gadget. You want to look at it so I give it to you. Then you start to change settings on it and I ask for it back. You refuse and ignore me. That’s not a very good idea. Now I will hold you in contempt and not share with you any longer. You forget I may be of use to you sometime in the future, you shouldn’t have irritated me because I won’t soon forget.

Make your own “Axis of Whatever” - Just select three countries and prepare your UN speech.

I received my new DOCSIS cable modem from Comcast last week. I wondered if the rumors about them throttling back my speeds or stop NAT routing (sharing of several computers with one cable connection) were true. Before I got the new modem I ran the tests at DSL Reports. This site has several speed tests, tweaking tips and tricks and other downloads. When I ran the same test using the new modem, I noticed that I was somewhat slower. At least when I download large files. Everyday surfing from page to page hasn’t been affected.

Another good site with a bunch of information is The Navas Group. This guy has different ideas on how to tweak your connections. Navas says all you need to do is adjust your MaxMTU setting and you’re all set. He says any other tweaking is a waste of time. Go to the site and learn for yourself.

We FINALLY got out of the house this weekend to go to a movie. We saw Vin Diesel in XXX. It was pretty good and we both enjoyed it. The theatre was mostly empty except for the large and boorish slobs who chose to sit directly behind us. Why were Pam and I magnets for these losers? I hate when people in public places come into our bubble.

Here’s a list of the new shows I’ll be watching on TV this fall:

That’s right, there is nothing coming on new that appeals to me. Firefly on Friday nights maybe, Enterprise OK but that’s about it. I’ll have to look again in TV Guide’s Fall TV Preview to see if I missed anything. I don’t think that I did.

Wired magazine had a thing the new DVD recorders. Like TIVO units, they have huge hard drives to record hours of shows and they also have a DVD-R to save shows on a DVD-ROM. The price: $1200. I’m not ready to buy yet but you can be sure I will have one. Oh yes, it will be mine.

I call it pop. My Mom (from the South) called it soda. What do you call your carbonated beverages? See what others in the country are calling it at this site.

The new slogan for Motorola cellphones, “Hello, Moto” is stuck in my head. Hello, Moto.

We bought a new refrigerator and upon delivery found it didn’t fit under the overhead cabinet. So we went to Lowes, bought a Dremel and sanded the bottom of the cabinet down. Now the fridge fits like a glove. And I have a cool new rotary tool to use around the house.

The Gazette is a great site for news, articles and freeware. Check it out and I’m sure you’ll find something interesting.

I downloaded and installed Earth & Beyond beta test last week. Because of server problems, I haven’t been able to play until today. From the brief time I was online, I got hooked. I spent a long time configuring my character and ship and then going through the first training mission. The graphics are excellent and the controls couldn’t be easier. I am very anxious for the game to be released to the public.

On our way out to lunch this afternoon, we witnessed a terrible accident. Some old lady in a Mercedes lost control of her car and slammed into a pickup truck. The force of the hit caused the truck to spin over and land on its side. What makes all this bad is she almost hit us. My expert braking maneuvers saved us. We stopped to help the people, called 911 and filled out a witness report for the police. Amazingly when I called 911, the police and fire trucks were there in about ONE MINUTE. Awesome.

Our lesson to be learned was to always wear our seatbelts. The guy in the truck basically came out of it unharmed even after his truck rolled over.

I’m enrolled in the beta testing of a great new game. It’s a “massively multiplayer” online role-playing game called Earth & Beyond. Think of EverQuest only on a much larger scale.

From their site: “Welcome to Earth & Beyond, the first online role-playing galaxy. It’s your turn to pilot your own starship, adventure in a massive galaxy, and take part in a thriving community. Alien encounters, fierce combat, cutthroat commerce, new discoveries, perilous quests, strategic alliances, diplomatic backstabbing, and epic wars await you and the friends you meet online.”

The PT Cruiser went in for service this morning. The ordeal started with 2 recall notices and squeaky brakes. I called for an appointment and took it to the dealer first thing in the morning. They have a “courtesy” shuttle that departs at 7:30 to give me a ride to work. After waiting 40 minutes, the shuttle finally leaves at 8:10 with no apologies from the jerkoff driving the van. I arrived to work late and very agitated.

Later in the morning, I get a call telling me the parts are not in stock for both the recall jobs and the brakes need major work which will cost over $300. We just had the brakes redone 2 months ago but “this was something different.” Phooey.

I’ve had it with these alleged 5 Star dealerships. The only thing they do well is piss me off.

On a lighter note, Steve sent a cool link about old computer commercials.

Do you want to share a disease with everyone you know and never risk infecting them? If that sounds bizarre, check out this line of clothing and you’ll begin to understand. Who knew that Syphilis could look so good.

For a great cross platform reader for your PDA, checkout Peanut Reader. The neat thing about this is you can use it to read Palm-formatted books on your Pocket PC. Then you can go to Memoware and download a ton of things to read.

Here’s a great joke Pam sent me the other day. I thought it was good given the current state of the Telcom industry.
“If you had bought $1000.00 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.
If you had bought $1000.00 worth of Budweiser (the beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, then traded in the cans at a redemption center for the nickel deposit, you would have $107.00. Given the current conditions of the economy, my advice is to drink heavily and recycle…”