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Success feels so good…

July 27, 2012 /

After spending an entire day (between customers) trying to restore a Dell laptop computer, I thought I’d have one more go at it today. It is a few years old, but in its day (in computer terms, years are like decades…) it was a blazing little machine. It arrived completely dead.

Fortunately, I had a restore disk that was included with an earlier purchase and it brought the little Dell back to life. Everything, that is, except an internet connection.

I scoured the web from my other machine, trying to find the necessary files that would enable a connection. Scattered everywhere around the internet were similar searchers looking for the same file, same machine. There were several solutions offered, and I downloaded them all, hoping each time that it would be the last. This morning when I fired up the store computer, it advised me that some program on the machine was trying to connect with the internet.

One of the files I had downloaded (and it didn’t even contain the right file!) was a rogue program intended to communicate with some other Borg unit or something. The program, disguised as a downloader, is called MediaGet. Don’t get it. Don’t let it onto your machine. It turns out it was developed in Russia (nothing against Russians, but I keep thinking of James Bond and 007 and this is a lot like a spy program). Here is what another web site said about MediaGet:

P2P.MediaGet is a malicious bittorrent client that pretends to be the actual file the user wants. It uses a timer within the installer to proceed with installing adware like Babylon toolbar without the users consent.

I removed the program immediately after being advised it was trying to connect to the internet on its own.

Presumably, the other people who were searching like me found their solution. Viewing the posted queries is almost depressing. The frustration was obvious in the posted comments. I can tell you, I was mightily frustrated yesterday. Every curative I applied failed. I gave up about 7pm.

This morning, I thought I’d try it one more time.

I scoured through the search results, bypassing the links that I had visited yesterday. Page after page of people searching for the same file for the same computer had posted notes. Many had similar situations to repair – dead machines, hard drive failures, downgrades from Vista to XP. No one had a clue as to where to find the file.

Finally. In no uncertain terms, someone had writted the words “This is the file.”

http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R174291.exe

I’m repeating it here, in case anyone else is trying to repair a Dell Latitude D630 and cannot connect to the internet.

At this moment, I’m sitting here looking at the Google search screen on that very machine, well connected to the internet, with a grin on my face.

Running the bases…

July 19, 2012 /

Sometimes there are surprises. Surprise! Bought some tables but three turned out only to be the top part, missing the base. Here’s what I’m looking for, bargain-priced. Maybe someone has some taking up space that they could part with…

Ya’ never know if you don’t ask!

Smarty/Bossypants

July 18, 2012 /

The title is Bossypants, but it could have easily been called Smartyhead. Comedian Tina Fey is a funny woman. Maybe a little smart-alecky, but that’s what we expect of comedians. She’s obviously a bright woman. Maybe it could have been called Smartypants.

She had a lot to say when she sat down to write.

Just short of two-hundred pages into the book, Ms Fey addresses her readers on a subject, and then presumably realized that her public isn’t necessarily comprised exclusively of women. She compares applying her newly bought contact lenses to activities required by feminine hygiene products.

“If you are male,” she writes, “I would liken it to touching your own eyeball and thank you for buying this book.”

Since I am a male reader, I appreciated the recognition while bearing up under her condescension – not that I particularly cared to visualize the analogy she had offered to women readers. I think I caught the drift of it. But I’m guessing she didn’t expect men to read the book.

It’s for the most part entertaining, as would be expected from a comedian. Humor isn’t the sole focus though, and that’s where it bogs down a little, particularly for the men. Birthday party planning, breast feedings, bad dates. I wasn’t looking for slapstick, but I was caught off-guard by some of the contents.

There is a how-to section regarding comedy performance. I guess there are up-and-coming comedians who might read the book for insights in honing the funny-skills. Personally, the guidelines for improvisation are wasted on me. I don’t see myself – near future or long-term – trying out a humor routine in front of an audience.

Similarly, the topics she covers in the space given to her Boss experiences have already been covered in greater detail by business management and human relations authors. Her insights are interesting, but seem wedged in and slightly out of place in a memoir (That’s how the book is categorized on the back cover).

Bossypants speaks to female equality, maternal issues, and Oprah. ESPN is not mentioned once. Therein lies the appeal – or lagging interest – depending on perspective. (I didn’t really expect sports jokes. There are some places that might have benefited by the inclusion of one or two as a distraction from the strict female orientation.)

Still, Bossypants is a quick and easy read, offering plenty of familiar cultural references. Some of the funniest lines are those throw-away types:

Two peanuts were walking down the street and one was a salted.

That’s her token joke, one she says she included for book buyers expecting a humorous read.

I guess that is enough for me.

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