Diary of a Network Geek

I hadn’t really planned on taking a vacation this year.

I mean, between all the time I took last year for chemotherapy and my lack of funds due to paying for all that, well, I just hadn’t planned on taking any time for myself this year. Oh, maybe the occasional long weekend, but that was about it. But, after reading this article on Hotjobs about taking time away from work… Well, let’s just say I’m reconsidering it. (And, no, the potential of winning a free trip to Tahiti, also on that article I linked to, did not have any influence over me!)

That first article suggests taking time off, even if you don’t leave the house, but just stay home and read. That was what got the wheels turning in my head. I have this giant stack of books, again, and I never seem to have enough time to read. I could take two or three days before a weekend and just read all day long. Heck, I could probably even do it more than once! Oh, the joy of a day spent reading…
Then, too, there was an article on the New York Times, linked to by LifeHacker, suggesting a number of less expensive vacations one might take. Though, I have to admit, the comments left by other readers were just as good as the article and, in most cases, less expensive than anything suggested by the Times. I particularly liked the idea of taking several days and being a tourist in your own town. There are so many things in Houston that I haven’t done! I’ve lived here ten years and I’ve never seen the San Jacinto Monument, for instance. And, there are so many museums! In fact, I even know someone who used to curate at the Menil. I could probably talk him into acting as a guide for me.
And, now that I have such a nice camera, think of all the opportunities to explore and take pictures.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"When I look into the future, it's so bright it burns my eyes."
   --Oprah Winfrey

OfficialJurySummons

Originally uploaded by Network Geek

So, I have jury duty Tuesday.

Look, I know this is my civic duty and all that, but honestly, I really, really hate doing this. The last time I did it, up in Illinois, I actually ended up on a “criminal sexual assault” trial. That’s rape, in case you weren’t translating from legal-speak very well. We ended up in a mistrial, a hung jury. In fact, we were sequestered overnight in an effort to get us all to move one way or another. It was a tough trial that took a week and changed how I look at the criminal justice system and my fellow man. And, let me just say, if I end up on a trial, I’m sure not going to let a defense attorney get us into a situation like that again! ‘Cause, it really was all that slimy defense lawyer being oily and tricky, in subtle ways.

Of course, that very sentiment may keep me off a jury this time around! But, I still have to show up and sit through the process. Well, I have a good book and, if I get out around noon, I have a friend who’s going to be down there at the same time, so we might do lunch. And, I plan to use the Metro Park-And-Ride system, which will be something new for me, at least here in Houston. Actually, it kind of shocks me when I think about it, but I’ve never ridden on a bus in Houston at all!

Well, I check in afterward, I guess, and see what kind of pictures I remember to take.

Hey, I upgraded to the latest version of WordPress, so if anything looks a little funky, it should correct itself shortly.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"While it may be true that the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach, sometimes it can be much more satisfying hacking your way through the rib cage."
   --Cara-Beth Lillback

No, this is not a new dance craze.

I have this little problem. I use programs that are, well, somewhat experimental and which occasionally crash. But, I’m also a little anal retentive and like to have my workspace setup the same way on my computer all the time. Usually, that means have to shut down certain programs and restart others in a particular order to get the icons lined up right on my taskbar. Well, now, I don’t have to worry. Why is that, you ask? Simple, because I found Taskbar Shuffle on ZDNet Downloads.

This free program lets you do what I’ve been lusting after for a while now: reorder the icons on your taskbar in Windows 2000/XP/Vista. That’s it. That’s all it does.
And I think it’s wonderful.

So, what CD did I buy?

Right, at least one of you noticed that the poll was still running, but my deadline for buying my Amazon.com cart had passed. Well, that may be true, but I still want suggestions for new music, so I left it up. Frankly, some of the suggestions have been intriguing, to say the least. For instance, both Fu Manchu and Disturbed are new to me, and not half bad, based on the samples I found on-line. But, Indigo Girls? Really? Or is someone making a joke? I mean, I assume the Britney suggestion is a joke, but I’m honestly not sure about Indigo Girls.

So, anyway, my point is that I’m still interested in suggestions and new music. Eventually, I’ll buy another CD, so keep voting, if you can. Please, feel free to vote from home and work, too!

Oh, right, and the CD I got was Snow Patrol’s Eyes Open, but they have others, so don’t hesitate to vote for them, still.

Finally a little justice!

Man, this trial has dragged out for years and years and years! But, in spite of apparently basing their entire income structure on suing people for copyright infringement, SCO now owes Novell $2.5 million dollars for doing just that. You’d think that a company that ended up primarily made of, and run by, lawyers would have been pretty careful in regards to the lawsuits they exposed themselves to if they planned on extorting money from people for intellectually property infringement. Well, I would, at any rate.

(Yeah, I know this is kind of old news, but, hell, I’ve been busy and this slipped by me until now.)

Is it even possible?

Well, frankly, I don’t know that there really is such a thing as computer security at all any more in these days of ubiquitous network access. I mean, it used to be that you could install a simple anti-virus program and sit behind a firewall and be fairly safe, but not any more. Now, with botnets and phishing scams and junk e-mail, well, frankly, you just can’t get away from it any more. In fact, now, the “hackers” are becoming so dumbed down that they’re using Do-It-Yourself “kits” that build some of the attacks for them! Just the other day, I read an article on ZDNet about something floating around the shadowier corners of the Internet that the nasties are calling a “DIY Phishing Kit“. So, now, it’s not bad enough that these scum-sucking bottom-feeders are out there trying to rip me off from the safety of their own home, or country, but now they’re making it even easier for no-talent, mouth-breathing, inbred miscreants to scam people out of their hard-earned cash! (Of course, long-time readers will know that I’ve made things harder for at least one phisher.) Man, that pisses me off!

There are so many people out there both creating these hazards to our digital lives and fighting them, that someone has suggested a uniform naming convention for all the security vendors to use when they refer to this “malware“. That’s all well and good, but all I really care about is keeping my systems secure. And, I’m sure you all worry about that, too. The problem is, in this tight economy, not many of us have much money to fight against these invisible baddies, not even me. Don’t let the advertising fool you, what I take in from the ads on this site aren’t even enough to pay for it, much less anything else. So, what’s a poor computer geek to do? Use free software, naturally.

PC Magazine has an article reviewing their “Top Five” picks for free security software. Personally, I can recommend AVG and Spybot Search and Destroy, even though they say Spybot is out of date. Also, I’ll add in Lavasoft’s AdAware, which is also free and quite good. I generally use both Spybot and AdAware to get rid of spyware. What one misses, the other catches. And, AVG has been around for quite a long time. They’re amazingly good, especially for free software.
Naturally, there are no guaranties when you use free software, but, then again, most of the paid software has outs in their EULA (end user license agreement), too, so why pay all that money? Keep in mind, these are free for personal use only. So, home businesses should technically use the paid software. We’ve all got to do our part to fight against these dirty spammers, scammers and thieves. The best place to start is a clean system. If you don’t have an antivirus program installed, get one. Fast.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Everyone deserves to be happy, but not if that happiness is dependent on imprisoning or enslaving another human being."
   --Unintentionally ironic comment left on a blog