More than just computers

I often say than I do more than just computer repair, but I imagine people wonder "what other things are there?"
So I thought I would tell you some of the other things I have helped people with.

One day, I was working on a laptop at a customer's home, and some of their friends arrived with a Wii game system. As I worked along, they were having trouble hooking up the Wii to their big rear-projection TV that used a stereo receiver for for the speakers.

When I had finished repairing the laptop, they were still having trouble getting the sound to work right. I went across the room and asked the husband if he would like my help; full of frustration, he said "Sure."
I took the RCA a/v cable that Wii comes with and started plugging it into the various likely plugs.

If any of you have ever seen the back of one of the huge projection TV's or worked with stereos. you know the multitude of various plugs there are. I didnt think there could be so many plug-ins.
After a few minutes of plugging and unplugging, we managed to get the sound working properly.

They paid me for the laptop repair, and thanked me for getting the Wii's sound to work and I left feeling good that I had not only fixed a laptop, but had taken the frustration of of setting up their evenings entertainment.

So if you need technical expertise outside of your computer, I can help.

Why does the computer work for the tech but not for me?

When I go to peoples houses to repair their computers, I always ask the customer to demonstrate the problem they're having.
Naturally, when I sit at the computer and turn it on, it works normally. Isnt that just they way things work for mechanics and repairmen? Of course it is; just like when you take your car to be fixed.

When this happens, I try to give the customer an explanation of why this may be happening.
"It's a peculiar form of electromagnetic radiation," I say. I call it the 'tech-field radius;' its the distance a broken object must be from a repairman who is intent on repairing it.

This description works for any repairman or mechanic.

One day I was at a customers house, an older gentleman, and he asked the question I had heard many times before, "Why...?"
As I was in the middle of my somewhat complicated technical-sounding explanation of EMF's and radiations and such, he interrupted me and said, with a very definite tone, "Nonsense! It's pixie dust!"

And that's now what I tell people. It just makes more sense.

Junk Emails

Question: When I get junk email and add the address to the "blocked sender" list, and create a rule to delete junk email when it comes in, why do I keep getting it?

If it were that simple to block spam, the spammers would have gone out of business long ago.

When you "block" a sender, the mail program takes your command literally and only blocks that sender. Spammers dont wait for you to block an address before they move on, they send their spams from dozens of different adresses all at once.

When you get spam, look at the sending address; are any two the same? Chances are, no.

When you create a rule to delete spam as it comes in, your rule has to be specific enough to catch the spam but general enough so that all of your email doesnt get auto-deleted.
This is hard.
Also, the email program will only delete mail that exactly fits the rule. Which means it catches maybe one in ten or less.

In order to get around all of the many creative ways to block spam, spam mailers have to be even more creative. This is why you keep getting spam. It makes people money.

Oh, that and stupid people. Those are the two reasons...

So now that you know that spam is a never ending flood of junk email that threatens to overwhelm the carrying capacity of the Internet, and that setting up logical rules to block the spam wont work against an illogical and highly creative enemy, what can be done?

Bayesian Filtering. If you are using any sort of Webmail (gmail, msn, aol, hotmail) this wont work for you unless you install a mail program on your computer.

Mail programs, called 'clients', are Thunderbird, Outlook, Pine, Eudora, etc. T-bird and Outlook have the most advanced spam filters. Thunderbird actively uses Bayesian filtering and will tell you how to make it work.
Outlook is very passive about spam filtering. There are downloadable add-ons that will give it Bayesian filtering, such as SpamAssassin, and SpamBayes.

I suggest Thunderbird; its the mail program I use, and once the filter gets going, I hardly see any spam.
The reason Bayesian filtering is so effective is that you teach it what you consider spam. As you go along, the filter will learn what to look for and will delete those emails that match the general idea of spam instead of the exact match.
In practical use, it will take about a month for the filter to be running at maximum efficiency.

In the never-ending battle against spam, isnt it worth the time?

'Indestructible' Rootkit Gets Upgrade

The Alureon rootkit has just undergone an upgrade according to Russian antivirus firm Kasperkey Labs. It has gone from version 3 to version 4.

The original version made it so that Microsoft could not download Windows Updates in an attempt to get rid of it. When Windows updated, the rootkit caused a Blue Screen of Death, so Microsoft modified the updated to scan for the presence of the rootkit and, if present, Windows would not be updated.

Alureon 4.0 now has the capability to infect 64-bit machines, create its own web hosting service within Windows (through DHCP), to remove any other types of rootkits or malicious spyware from an infected machine, to prevent any other malware on an infected machine from using the Internet, and the ability to spread itself via its own encrypted Peer-toPeer network.

But, there are defenses against this malicious software.
The first defense is not to be infected in the first place because you have up-to-date and effective anti-virus software.
The second defense against it is to format your hard drive and re-install Windows.

Aren't computers fun?

You can read more about this here, and here.

"1 Little Trick" Ads Are Credit Card Scam

I'm sure you have seen the "1 Little/Simple/Weird old Trick" ads on the edges of websites; in fact, they may be the ad that "ate the Internet."

As it happens, the Washington Post is reporting that these ads (and others like them) are doing nothing but taking advantage of people's gullibility when it comes to ads on the Internet.

These ads have the cute (or gross, depending on the ad) animation that attracts your attention, then it promises a free sample of a miracle cure-all. After you have clicked on the ad, you go to a website that looks like a consumer reporting site that boasts endorsements, sometimes from celebrities like Oprah and Rachael Ray, often will have an article from someone claiming to be a skeptical consumer reporter who then goes on to pitch the product.

Once you have read all of this, you are shown how to order your "free sample." What you arent told is what that free sample will cost.
Usually, the tiny fine print will tell you that the sample will cost $79.99 for Shipping and Handling, and every month you are billed another $79.99 until you call and cancel.
But, the article goes on to say, just try to cancel over the phone. After multiple hang-ups, you may just succeed.

So, the conclusion is, dont click on any ad that promises something that sounds too good to be true, because it probably is.

The article is here.

Inside Your Computer, Part 3: CPU

Part three of this series will look at the CPU: The Central Processing Unit.

If the power supply is the lifeblood of a computer, and the motherboard the part that keeps it all together, then the CPU, also called a "processor" or "chip", is the brains of the operation.

The CPU handles all of the instructions of the computer. It tells all of the other parts where to go and what to do. The CPU is assisted in this task by the chipset (more on this later).

The primary function of the CPU is to execute software instructions. Everything in the computer, hardware and software, is processed in series' of steps. The lines of code that make up all software tell the CPU what needs to be done and in what order.

There are four basic steps the CPU does(which are explained in greater, and more technical, detail here): retrieve instructions from memory(RAM) or storage(hard drive) and place them into a holding area(cache) to await processing.
After retrieval, the instructions are broken down into their various part and handed off to the parts of the CPU designed to execute those parts.
After decoding what instruction need what done done with them, the CPU will execute those instructions, and send the results to the output area.
Finally, the CPU will assemble all of the executed instructed and sends the result back to the working memory where the operating system works with them.

Modern CPUs do so much processing so quickly that they generate quite a bit of heat. So much heat, in fact, that you could fry an egg on an uncovered CPU(provided the egg was less than an inch square, and could be cooked in the 30 seconds or so before the CPUs casing broke from the heat).

Because CPUs generate so much heat that they would cook themselves to death, two measures have been implemented to keep this from happening: a thermostat, and a heatsink/fan combination.

The thermostat measures the CPUs temperature and will turn off the power if the CPUs temperature reaches a dangerous level.
The heatsink and fan combination are whats used to keep the CPU cool. A heatsink is a block of metal that conducts heat away from the CPU and allows the heat to dissipate in the outside air. Its like your cars radiator.

The fan usually sits on top of the heatsink and pulls air over the fins of the heatsink and blows it away from the CPU and motherboard.

Any questions?

Announcement

As you can tell, I have changed the background of my blog; I felt the old colors were a little dated.

Since I am now "blue-skying" ideas for this blog, I thought a little blue sky in the background would be nice.