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Vol. 6, No. 23
6-1-06
1 Memorial Day
2 Respect
3 OpenOffice virus, big box blunders, AMD+ATI?, lack of Asimov rules
4 Networking help
5 Gentlemen, start your engines
6 Removing Norton
As odd as it may sound I spent as much time away from computers as I could over the long Memorial Day holiday. I read, fiddled with vehicular widgets, watched TV and rented some movies, like that. I just wanted a break.
After lunch on Monday I wandered over to the local cemetery and visited my father, my grandmothers, a girlfriend who drowned, a high school friend who took his own life and relatives I was shamefully unaware had even died. A couple of hours wandering through a cemetery can give you some unpleasant surprises.
Needless to say when I returned home I wasn’t exactly in the mood for Seinfeld reruns or the evening news, so I started a series of CDs that seemed to fit the mood.
Engaging things like Evanescence and The Smiths annoyed my neighbors for a while but a couple of play-throughs of “The Wind” by Warren Zevon made me feel worse than the visit to the graveyard.
Songs like “Tourniquet” and “Girlfriend in a Coma” sound depressing, and in a way they are, but they also address real world emotions in a captivating way that grabs you by the throat and drags you along, like it or not. “The Wind” isn’t like that exactly. It’s much more homey, more the feeling of friends around a campfire with a guitar and enough liquid courage to sing out loud.
Zevon knew during the taping of this album that he was near death from an untreatable form of lung cancer and he made it his dying wish to finish it. It was released shortly before his death in September of 2003.
The lyrics of many of the songs on the album are quite haunting knowing that, most notably on the cover of Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” and on Zevon’s original “Keep Me In Your Heart”:
"Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath
Keep me in your heart for awhile
If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less
Keep me in your heart for awhile"
I bring this up because it saddens me that many of you will never hear anything by the artists I mentioned. This isn’t pop music and it’s not radio fare, but back in the day these songs and performers were quite popular on file sharing networks. A friend recorded a copy of “Werewolves of London” by Zevon to cassette back in the late 70’s for me and I’ve bought every album/CD he’s put out since. Troy turned me onto Evanescence and I’ve picked up a CD or two by them, and I learned of The Smiths from the old Napster.
No rant this week, but I will calmly point out that it’s a shame that the recording industry doesn’t realize the sales that a little sharing and word of mouth could generate. So much quality music is never heard because garbage like Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys get all the airplay.
I’m going to shut up now and listen again…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
Tech News of the Week
Stardust sounds sort of romantic, until you discover it’s the first macro virus that targets OpenOffice:
http://news.com.com/Stardust+virus+lands+on+OpenOffice/2100-7349_3-6078475.html?tag=cd.lede
Think your data is safe at the repair centers in big box stores? Think again:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/wlwt/20060601/lo_wlwt/9303216
And a bonus from last year:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4460522/detail.html
AMD may have graphics company ATI in its sights for buy-out:
http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3110
If your name is Sarah Conner you might want to read this guide to surviving an invasion of killer robots:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/books.html
Keep us posted on the good stuff…
Matthew
Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
www.mattstodayinhistory.com
Website of the Week
With the growth of broadband connectivity, more home users want to share that connection among all of the PCs within the household by establishing a small network. While Windows XP has greatly simplified that task, there are often stumbling blocks to the process.
If you’ve never set up a home network before, you might want to read about the process prior to undertaking the task. This site provides some great tutorials and tips, as well as troubleshooting advice:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/
Another site with very useful tips is:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/
In addition to tips, FAQs and tutorials, you’ll find very good product reviews for networking hardware here.
After you’ve built your network you should navigate to:
Here you’ll find hints, tips and tools that will help you optimize your broadband connection and check on the security of the ports on your various machines. The TCP/IP analyzer and the TCP/IP optimizer tools do a great job and the security scanner will alert you to port vulnerabilities that trojans and worms use most often. The tools at Speedguide are free downloads, by the way.
If you will take just a little time to read the information at these sites you’ll have a much easier time establishing your network, and enjoying the advantages it can offer.
Art Maley
Contest of the Week
For a change this week, how about something non-techy but with a distinct local flavor: Airfare, hotel accommodations, $300 in “spending money” and ground transportation to and from the Meijer Indy 300 at the Kentucky Speedway on August 13th. To be eligible you must be at least 18 at the time of entry and live in KY, IN, OH, IL or MI.
Oh, did I mention one of the three trip winners will also pick up a $60,000 RV?
http://www.meijer.com/racing/rv_contest.asp
Email Question of the Week
Q: I previously used Norton antivirus software. I uninstalled it and presently use F-Secure security suite from my local internet provider. F-Secure is somehow being blocked from downloading updates and I've been told that my computer may still have remnants of Norton. How can I get rid of them?
A: Try downloading SymNRT from http://www.majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymNRT_d4749.html. It’s the Symantec Norton Removal Tool and will sweep your drive clean of many Norton hangers-on.
Kevin Mefford
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