Duffbert's Random Musings

1 - Nice Alex! I wear many shoes too... Dev, admin, hardware, but I keep warning people that space is tight. You know, I learn something new, but that means that something I already know has got to go. ;-) I hear you. That's why I try and be patient with my auto mechanic. It's easy to put myself in his shoes! I have a problem car, and I can't expect him to be a Pontiac expert. He has to know a general bit about every car, but I can't hold him responsible for my particular car because I didn't take it to the Pontiac dealer.

2 - Actually, Ad-aware was one of the first programs I installed as part of the first cleanup effort. It was amazing how much stuff it found. In fact, that is how I found the hijack stuff. I left the freeware version on the machine and now run it every couple of weeks or so to kill off all the Gator stuff that my kids seem to respond to on a regular basis!

3 - He he! I think that almost all of us know the feeling ;o). For some reasing IT people is considered to know ALL about computers. In my case, I started to build my own computers, so I go and buy the parts and there I go!. But that doesn't convert us in technicians. I remember a tale that says... Q: How many developers you need to change a bulb? A: None. Is a hardware issue. .::AleX::. Dominocode.Net

4 - I've had the same problems... In work, in fact, we had a person complaining that Lotus Notes kept "hanging"... which I knew must be a lie ;-) After looking at her machine, I found that she had CRAPPED it up! Several hundred adware, gator, and the like apps wreaking havoc - to the point where they killed LAN traffic. Scary stuff. I used this app: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ And it fixed it painlessly! Check it out! -Chris

5 - I'm really big on educating people while I'm fixing their stuff... if I teach them ONE thing while I'm installing stuff for them, it's how to read everything carefully. Half the time the install contains checkboxes of what its going to install, and people just click 'next'. I always tell them if they don't know what it is, uncheck it. If it's really vital for the program to run, it will ask them to install it when the time comes! I never used to say this... but now I think it's a necessity due to sneaky spyware.

6 - LOL, okay, you got me. :-)

7 - Point well taken, Jess... But have you ever tried to "educate" a 14 and 16 year old? Especially when you're the "dad" and don't know anything (just ask them)???? :-)

8 - It's scary how much stuff people install on their computers without thinking about it. My dad's computer is always running slow and when I go to look at it there are loads of applications that he has downloaded and installed like Gator and BonziBuddy and the like. I now use a bit of software called RestoreIT. When I first installed Xp on the machine and I had all my software installed it created a compressed image of the hard drive and stored it in a seperate partition. Now if anything ever goes wrong I can quickly restore the partition using a boot disk and I'm back up and running in no time at all without having to go through loads of installation routines.

9 - In my house, "Dad, the computer doesn't work" seems to be the latest way to try to get out of doing homework. Seriously, I think some of the most recent problems have been the results of my twelve year old deliberately sabotaging something in order to avoid typing up a report or doing some research on the web. The next time that that the computer just happens to "break" the night before a big assignment is due, I'll come right back with "Well, you can use my office computer while I fix the family computer". Although my office computer is normally off limits for everyone but me, I'll make an exception to see if eliminating it as an excuse will result in the family computer suddenly becoming more reliable... What's even worse is when your wife and/or kids volunteer you to fix the neighbors' computer, and it turns out to be 12 year old 486sx running Win 3.1! Aaaaaargh!

10 - I've been able to stave off the "the computer is down" excuse as both kids know that my personal laptop is in pristine working condition, and if they ever break it I will hurt them badly! :-)