I went over to my sister's place yesterday to pick her up and then she, my Dad, my stepmom and myself all went to the movies to see The Aviator (for me my second time), and then went to dinner. I really liked The Aviator the first time, and I would have to say I even liked it more the second time. I am rooting for Scorcese to get the Oscar for Best Director, since he's so long overdue for that it's pretty embarrasing.
After the movie and then dinner I went back to Rebecca's place to try to help her get her computer up and running since she recently signed up for DSL. As is my luck with any type of computer tech support-type endeavors, it turned out to be a much more complicated issue than it should have been, although it was not my fault. I got Rebecca's internet up and running pretty quick, only to find out that her computer is a "zombie box" and has been infected with some type of trojan or malware which immediately began sending out large amounts of internet traffic the moment it went online (most likely automated to begin spamming as soon as it went online). The major issue with this was that it was sending so much traffic that her connection was rendered basically useless otherwise, so I could not download anything to try to combat whatever was on the computer. As a result I'm gonna have to go grab her computer and will probably take it to Dave's place so we can wipe it clean and re-install the OS. I woulda tried that last night, but at some point long ago Rebecca threw away her XP disc, so we were kinda SOL there. You might wonder how her computer could already be infected like that if she just got DSL, and the reason is because she's had the computer for a few years and used to have DSL, but cancelled it over a year ago, so she evidently picked something up back then. Oh well, Dave and I will help her get it all straightened out and I'll get her using Firefox so she (hopefully) won't have to worry about stuff like that in the future.
Comments (4)
what a nightmare! i gotta tell you, it's weird to hear about all this spyware and malware and whatnot. what is it? i mean, i'll refrain from making any 'apple is better' comments because (a) there seems to be more than enough of that floating around right now and (b) i honestly don't know enough about the inner workings of computers to be able to make that statement. one thing i can say, though, is that having used only macs at home (with dsl) for a couple of years i have never encountered this stuff. and believe me, i'm knocking on wood that it doesn't happen anytime soon. sounds nasty.
Posted by elvispanda | February 1, 2005 4:04 PM
Posted on February 1, 2005 16:04
I will. "Apple's better" - there!
Posted by iendive | February 3, 2005 5:11 AM
Posted on February 3, 2005 05:11
Here's a great "review" of the new Mac Mini that you guys might want to check out which kinda ties into what we're discussing here. Please note that it is satirical, so don't get so irate reading it that you burst a blood vessel in your head. Here's a great sampling:
"The Mini boots up into a stripped-down operating system which Apple calls OS X, similar to the stripped-down WindowsCE OS found on many handhelds. The mini OS is going to be a significant hurdle for many buyers who are used to Windows or have favorite Windows software packages they need to use. Think of it more as a first computer for your daughter or niece than as a machine to get any serious work done and you’ll get the point of the Mini and its target market. It might also be the perfect computer for grandmothers or autistic children, for example.
The Mini has got some built-in software for basic computer functions, but it can’t do many common things as well as its grown-up brothers in the Windows world can. The little things can add up to big frustration for someone who might accidentally buy a Mini expecting it to be just like Windows. For example, there is no Outlook Express for email, but Apple includes a program called Mail, which is like a stripped-down email client that can’t execute scripts or open attachments without user intervention. Personally I find it annoying, but if someone doesn’t depend on emailing their coworkers vbscripts like I do, they might be able to get by with it. Secondly and possibly even more glaringly, there is no antivirus program shipped with the Mac. In today’s climate of non-stop worms, trojans and viruses, releasing a computer with no virus removal software is irresponsible on the part of Apple. The OS X comes with some system maintenance utilities, but essentials such as a defragmenter or a registry cleaner are notably absent. I would expect a Mini to get really slow and unstable within a couple months if you can’t perform any routine maintenance tasks on it." :lol
The article is classic, trust me :grin
Posted by Yams | February 4, 2005 11:24 AM
Posted on February 4, 2005 11:24
Here's another article, this one singing Mac's praises and wondering why the world has put up with Microsoft's incompetence for as long as it has:
"There is nothing else like this phenomenon in the entire consumer culture. If anything else performed as horribly as Windows, and on such a global scale, consumers would scream bloody murder and demand their money back and there would be some sort of investigation, class-action litigation, a demand for Bill Gates' cute little geeky head on a platter.
Here is your brand new car, sir. Drive it off the lot. Yay yay new car. Suddenly, new car shuts off. New car barely starts again and then only goes about 6 miles per hour and it belches smoke and every warning light on the dashboard is blinking on and off and the tires are screaming and the heater is blasting your feet and something smells like burned hair. You hobble back to the dealer, who only says, gosh, sorry, we thought you knew -- that's they way they all run. Enjoy!"
Posted by Yams | February 7, 2005 3:22 PM
Posted on February 7, 2005 15:22