So I just nuked my laptop..

And my tower is next. I thought I addressed the issue of my laptop freezing when I nuked Firefox, but they persisted. So I took the nuke from orbit approach and wiped it. I wasn't looking forward to it, but it was necessary. With my laptop almost literally going everywhere I go, I decided this approach would deal with any malware, if it was the cause. If it's a hardware issue, them I'm fückered...

While I'm doing this, I also backed up my tower for a wipe and reinstall. I think it's time for that, too. I had to turn off the automatic updates when the last round of updates caused my computer to stop being able to make new folders.... And while is safe for now behind a NAT router, It's something I should probably address...

In a semi-related story, I've discovered I like FS 2004 better than FSX. I don't have the fastest of computers, and I probably will never be able to afford one, and FS 2004 runs pretty decent on what I have....

So Google is updating there privacy policy....

And apparently its: All your base are belong to us. And there's no way to opt out. A lot of people have a problem with. I'm one of them. The only way to not have all of your information tracked everywhere across the Internet, is to delete your Google account. I don't think it'll be that bad really. To be honest, I don't even think it'll survive the extra-special attention the State Attorney General's office will inevitably give it. Nor will I think the FTC give them a free pass over this.

Also I should add that I don't see any personalized ads in the future. Something about all my computers and even my Android Powered HD2 all having a HOSTS file...

Paula Deen and I have something in common….

Paula Deen and I have something in common. We’re both diabetic. Yes, I know there is a fundamental difference between what I have (type I) and what she has (type II). But as she says, it’s not a death sentence. I’m coming up on 10 years of insulin shots (and needles still scare me) this year, and I’m not dead yet. I can’t go ape-shit on sugar anymore, and I should watch what I eat, but the world still goes around.

People are sure to rise in condemnation about this, especially given the food that she is known for cooking. but I won’t. The responsibility doesn’t lie with the chef who cooked your meal and put it on your plate. The responsibility lies with you. You ordered it. You’re eating it. And you should know better….

Taking a look outside

I think I now know the secret ingredient in Frosted Flakes: dynamite. That’s how I’m explaining the white stuff I see on the ground. Or is it raining cocaine? The roads haven’t been all that bad today (I live along Pacific Avenue in Pierce County, and that’s usually one the first roads to get de-iced/sanded when it rains cocaine). I take the bus to work, so that leaves me no excuse to call out. However, certain shifts I work fall outside of Pierce Transit’s operating hours, and I’m not too particular about walking upto 4 1/2 miles home in the snow. But I’ll discuss that with the boss… According to the weatherman, the worst of it will hit on Wednesday which is fine with me. I’m off that day….

So my neighbor at work…

There’s a portrait studio next to work. And I’ve become acquainted with the manager (it’s a small business). I noticed he had two computers on the front counter: one for actual production , and he had a second one with internet access that he just used to watch youtube. Last week, he did something stupid and downladed a ‘screensaver’. He then asked me to clean up after his misadventures on the internet. Even booting into ‘safe mode’ wouldn’t work. I thought I could try to fix it, but I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to ‘nuke it form orbit’. There is no virus that can survive the ‘format c:’ command. Maybe the next time I go up there (I’m off for the next couple of days), I’ll give it another crack, but I’m just waiting for the owner to bring in his windows disk. I burned a live cd (OpenSuSE KDE), but it didn’t work.

There was another business who wanted me to look at a computer, saying that they needed a cpu or a motherboard replaced (evidently I was a second opinion). I advised them to just replace the whole computer (with the way hardware is evolving, that’s probably the best bet)…

And on to my house: my tower (the WinXP box suddenly wouldn’t let me rename folders). I fixed it temporarily by using to system restore to go back to last week’s windows updates. When I’m not as busy, I have a feeling that a wipe/rebuild is in order. Ugh. I used to do it on a weekly basis when I had my pIII (running both WinME, WinXP, and SuSE). Now it’s just a PITA just to do one.

My laptop has had some issues of late freezing. Going on a wild guess, I unistalled/reinstalled Firefox, deleting all the user data (the only thing I kept were the bookmarks). I then reinstalled my extensions. No issues, so far….