Month: February 2013

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A Heads Up for Windows Users

careful with computer use and practice safe computing, but you may want to pass this on to other Windows users, since the scam referenced in the linked article is aimed at that demographic.

Security alert: Bogus tech-support phone calls (https://windowssecrets.com/top-story/security-alert-bogus-tech-support-phone-calls/)

The article details the scam. I’ve actually received a call like this recently. It boggles my mind that whole call centers (I heard the typical cheap, mass call center sounds in the background) can be run funded by suckers who fall for this scam, but there you are: one born every minute, I suppose.

Microsoft offers a simple security audit (referenced in the article linked above) that can get casual computer users started.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2534555/en-us

Be aware: if you prefer managing your Windows Updates manually, the Fixit applet will tag that as a security problem. It’s not IF you are faithful in performing your manual updates.

If you want to perform a more detailed security scan, consider Secunia PSI (“Personal Software Inspector”– http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/). It’ll scan for any known security holes in installed software and prompt you to update the software. Good stuff, Maynard.

Feel free to pass this along to folks you feel might need the information.

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Not-a-recipe #Something-r-other

Yeh, I’ve done a bunch of these “not-quite-a-recipe” posts and am too lazy to either keep track or take count. So? 😉

Some time ago, I lucked onto a whole display rack of these things, running about 60% of WallyWorld pricing:

dehydrated-hash-browns

The display rack’s hanging from some wire shelving in our pantry, only a little over 1/2 full, now. Lotsa uses for that stuff, like

6 eggs, lightly beaten
a dab of milk/cream (with the eggs)
whatever meat that’s cooked up, cubed, shredded, chopped, whatever. Tonight I used some smoked “hot” sausage.
1/2 onion
some sort of veggie you think will go well
a couple of handfuls of some sort of shredded cheese.
a box of these hash browns, rehydrated either according to the package directions or just with water to the top of the package and nuked for a couple of minutes.
some salt and pepper

Sautée the chopped onion in oil. Cook your meat in the same pan (after removing the onion) if you haven’t already. Remove the meat.

Spread the rehydrated hash browns in the still-oiled pan (nice onion oil, now :-)).

Add the veggies, meat, onions and then the cheese. Pour the milk/cream/egg mixture over the cheese. Cover, lower the heat a bit (your stove’s different from mine. EVERYONE’S stove is different from mine. MY OWN STOVE is different from itself. Psycho stove. . . ) and let it cook away until it’s done. How long? What? You thought this was a recipe? Until it’s done to your taste.

Oh, the salt and pepper? That’s for seasoning to taste on your plate. I sometimes like some salsa or “piperade” sauce (no, I don’t know how it’s spelled. I just ape a sauce I used to have with Sunday brunch now and then at The Prospect in KCMO nearly 40 years ago, and I probably don’t even remember it right anyway. It’s a tomato sauce with peppers and onion in it).

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The Age of Being Stupid

One of the stupidest commercials ever.

http://www.ispot.tv/media/001/006/426/7kNk_360.webm

You may have seen it. VIagra commercial. Guy’s driving a pickup and towing a horse trailer down a country dirt road. Now, as anyone (with more than two working synapses in their cerebral cortex) who’s lived in areas with those kinds of roads knows, one only drives into mud as wide as the guy got stuck in if there is absolutely nowhere else to go. Why? I proffer the dumba$$ who stupidly stuck himself in that mud. Anyone with more active brain cells than the average head of cabbage who’s ever driven such a road knows to drive the high spots in such conditions, and the guy had options before he stuck himself to at least get a drive wheel on some better ground.

Moreover, he had driven in to load the horses at least once, so he had no excuse for not planning ahead to not get stuck. Unless, of course, his excuse is too many dead brain cells.

So, he knew enough to offload a couple of horses and rig a tow. Big whoopee. If he hadn’t been a nearly brain dead idiot, he’d not have gotten stuck to begin with.

And Viagra themes this commercial, “the age of knowing how to make things happen”. *feh* *Nu-uh* Looks more like they were making an ad for some sort of Alzheimer’s meds or an assisted living facility to me.

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I Am. . .

pro-choice

(BTW, I am also pro-choice on abortion. I believe that once a woman has made a choice to have intercourse and conception occurs, the next choice is rightly the baby’s. Let it become at least 18 before asking it to choose whether it wants to be killed.)

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I’d Be All for Gun Control IF. . .

I’d be all for gun control that means removing guns from the hands of politicians *gag-spew* and bureaucraps. . . and maybe even most law enFARCEment ossifers. Of course, it’d be good to have a codified way to distinguish between law enFARCEment ossifers and law enforcement officers who really do seek to PROTECT and SERVE and enforce laws EQUALLY with no differences between persons. . . including rigidly enforcing laws by regularly, consistently and vigorously arresting law enFARCEment ossifers, politicians *gag-spew* and bureaucraps who do not.

Continue reading “I’d Be All for Gun Control IF. . .”

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Fun lil mini-project

Mini-project: Cleaning up and configuring a used, but otherwise nice, older Vaio desktop for use by a (very nearly*) first time computer user who’s nearly 90. Purpose of the computer? “I want to be able to do email with my children and grandchildren.”

A worthwhile use for a computer, but it doesn’t require all that much. So. notebook or desktop was the first question. (Tablet or “smart” phone? Nope. Nixed by user.)

There were several barriers to a notebook: cost, screen size, cramped keyboard and any kind of touchpad were some of the stated barriers. But size mattered, in some senses, as well because of limited living space.

Nice discovery: a nice-sized, high-resolution (1080p) TV with an analog video computer input that sits within pretty close viewing range from the user’s most comfy chair. Desktop that’ll fit into the user’s entertainment center? The right fit.

Internet access. Limited, fixed income. Relatively high medical expenses (relative to fixed income). But. The assisted living facility does sport a wireless network with Internet access, and the wireless password is in my password book. . . Now, if only the user can access it from her apartment, Internet access is solved. Hmmm, a small parabolic dish to improve reception and transmission from a 5db base antenna on a wireless adapter? Could be.

Other minor concerns:

Would have preferred a Linux OS with desktop links to Internet/Email, but (sort of computer literate) adult children would not be all that comfortable helping the user with that OS as an environment, so some sort of Windows environment. Oh, dear. It is a slightly older computer. Only 512 MB RAM, and only room for expansion to a max of 2GB (one pair of expansion slots effectively X-ed out, because one of them is has a small issue: broken clip). That’s not all that bad, since the computer’s limited to a 32-bit OS, anyway. Maybe Win7 wouldn’t be best, though. So, WinXP Pro, 32-bit it is. (Hmmm, seems to run very nicely with the 512MB it has. With installation of software blocked, it might just do as is! But. . . another 1GB would only be about $25. Decisions. . . ) Fully updated, WinXP Pro SP3 will certainly serve the user well enough and be familiar to family who may want to mess the computer up. *heh*

After those trifling concerns were met, the rest has been easy-peasy.

Necessary software:

A decent browser (Opera) configured with useful extensions (WOT, LastPass, Adblock Plus) and Speed Dial selections (the user’s webmail address, several sites fitting user’s stated interests, etc.). Links on desktop to Internet/Email.

Basic security software–Microsoft Security Essentials.

OpenDNS set as DNS resolver, and free account set up for customized filtering.

Irfanview–better for viewing family photos than the XP built in viewer.

TeamViewer8 for the most computer-savvy relative to use for remote management.

. . .and a few other little details, like the mini-manual with outlined user tips.

With a little luck on the Internet connection (via the assisted living facility’s existing wireless network), I think this will serve the stated needs pretty well.

Fun lil mini-project.

(Kudos to JDS and MES for the donation of the computer.)

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Zero Interest

So, I decided to give the first epi of “Zero Hour” a shot. Big mistake.

Let me digress. Gentle readers, you know my opinion of Dan Brown’s “works”. I’d generally rather read something written by a rabid baboon than subject myself to one of his pieces of feces. “Zero Hour” was conceived and written by a less talented aspirant to Dan Brown’s mantle who’d been lobotomized and suffered a stroke, then was gotten drunk and slapped upside the head and given a crayon to scribble with.

But I praise it too highly.

Gagamaggot. It made me want to scoop my eyes out with a spoon.

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Easy One

Not even going to hint at this book’s title. From the first paragraph of the prologue:

“. . .light of the two moons surrounding the planet. . .”

WTFugeddaboutreadingit?!? Trying to imagine how someone could even THINK of “two moons surrounding [a] planet” is not something I want to deal with any more than I want to deal with a book written by someone who could even possibly imagine such a turn of phrase, let alone actually use it in a novel.

Book has a “four star” rating out of five on Amazon, which tells me that there are a LOT of stupid people reading and rating books on Amazon. Or else all the raters are the author’s mother under different screen names.

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Just Read a Book Blurb. . .

. . .for a “Free! Save $12.95!” book. You tell me:

“This is a story about loss, overcoming adversity, and the triumph of the human spirit. . . “

Right. Nuh-uh. Not reading a thinly-disguised (or not at all disguised) touchy-feely crap. Clicking on by. . .

*meh* I purchased another 18 books this last week that ALL looked like much better bets than the one described by the blurb that began with the above off-putting remark. *heh* Three “new” purchases were from the book cart at the local library, picked up today when I returned the ones I checked out last Saturday. Between all the books in my own library, “discoveries” (mostly its new acquisitions) at the local public library and ebooks, I have quite enough books lined up to read without messing about with someone trying too hard and going all “emo” in my eyeballs.