Stupid Computer: Avast 2014

Right after I got back from Xmas, my main laptop started giving me issues, locking up after about 10 min. and requiring a restart.  I ran virus scan after virus scan.  No joy.  I cleaned it out, defragged, the works.  Nothing.  It would work in 'Safe' mode but that was it.  A month and a half it sat there, w/ me occasionally trying to figure it out. 

The whole time my netbook worked just fine.  Until yesterday.  Then it started locking up too.  Crap.  Both 'puters down would be bad, bad juju.  Virus scans came back the same. Negative issues.  So I started trying to figure out what I had done. The ONLY change I had made was updating Avast it's latest engine/version.  I broke out the Google-Fu.  Turns out several features in Avast 2014 are totally hosed and.... cause your computer to lock up every 10 min or so.  Disabling Avast (I have other anti-virus) and the computer seems to be working. 

Now this isn't some minor issue.  This is a glaring screw up, one that should have been caught had they even tried it on a separate computer.  I've had good luck w/ Avast the last few years but it's going to stay off until the get it unscrewed.  I bet I'm not the only one.

True Cook Plus. Huh?

Taking a break from guns and politics for a post.

 Picked up the new microwave after nearly a month of run-arounds w/ Sears' so-called customer service.  The manager at the store went out of his way to apologize, get me my new unit, and refund the money I shouldn't have had to pay in the first place. Anywhoo...

The new microwave has this 'True Cook Plus' feature on it which is supposed to cook your food to 'perfection' by entering a code.  I checked and didn't find one package of food w/ the code on it. Found a review stating you have to look most of them up online.

Has anyone had any experience w/ this 'feature'?  Is it of any use or as much of a waste of time as most things that are the 'latest technology' fads?  

Labor Day 2011 in Pictures

The day was beautiful. 70 deg and partly cloudy. So I invited a friend down and we hit the range.

Norinco SKS
Ruger 10/22
Czech VZ-24
RIA 1911A1
S&W M&P 9mm









I've built up and improved the backdrop a bit. Increased the size using old tires, gravel and hay bales. Replaced some worn out/shot out frames and added a second target stand for plinking cans etc.









Shooting.































Some 8mm hydroshock effect on a family sized can of tomato soup.












My buddy's been so long shooting bolt action he kept trying to cycle the SKS.

























"And I thought they smelled bad.....on the outside" - Han Solo


























































And the follow-up. Burgers, Brats and Dogs on the grill.











Now just to balance out the day, my laptop crapped out on me (I'm currently typing on my Netbook) w/ a broken power connector. My friend is a computer/IT tech and w/i an hour had found the requisite part w/ a promise of repairing it for me ASAP. Yeah. He's getting some ammo out of it, that's for sure. It's a whole hell of a lot cheaper than having to buy a new computer.

More Technical Difficulties

The recently added Twitter/FB links totally screwed up my stat counts so I had to find a better way. I found the 'help' page on why the share function didn't work and about an hour of HTML play later (I'm not Robb), I got it working. I also got the DOOTWEAR, Follow me and ISRA buttons automated.

Feel free to use them all liberally. Remember, the point of this blog is getting the information out there. You're all part of that as well.

Technical Difficulties

Turns out some of the buttons at the bottom of the posts haven't been working right. I think I got them fixed and updated. Went back the last couple of days as well.

Tweet

I Luv the Intertubes

I like collecting Camo. Some stuff is really hard to find in the states. So today I went searching around on the German Ebay and found a few places. With the help of some online translators (not perfect I know but better than my German) I've been talking to them about purchasing some items. I also used a site that provided up to date exchange rates to figure out how much it would cost and will be using some type of internet based payment.

What a wonderful tool.

Computer Upgrade..

Been there, done that, got the T-shirts, stickers, patches, and pins.

We are the Facebook.

You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

The Consumerist is reporting that Facebook has changed its TOS and now can use anything you post to it in perpetuity.

UMPC blogroll down

Yuri Orlov pointed out to me that the Unorganized Militia :Propoganda Corps blogroll has disappeared after what he says was a hacking attack on the site. I've e-mailed Linoge of Walls of the City to see if he knows what's going on.

Update: The site says "Sorry, we're down for maintenance. " and the blogroll seems to have re-appeared.

Only enough blood to use one at a time..

The curse on men from the beginning.

New scam uses disrobing blonde to trick unsuspecting Internet users

SAN JOSE, Calif. - In a new online striptease, the buxom, beautiful blonde who promises to remove her slinky scraps of lingerie doesn't want your money. She's interested in your brain. Really.
The creation of online scammers, she's trying to trick unsuspecting Internet users into helping the scammers break the online barriers that banks and e-mail services set up to thwart crooks.The striptease is the latest attempt to defeat so-called CAPTCHA systems, which is short for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Those safeguards require users to prove they are human by reading wavy, oddly shaped jumbles of letters and numbers that appear in an image and typing them out.

In the new scam, an icon of an alluring woman suddenly appears on a Windows computer infected by a virus. After clicking on the icon, the user sees a photo of an attractive woman who vows to take off an article of clothing each time the jumble of figures next to her is entered.

But the woman never fully undresses, and after several passwords are entered the program restarts, possibly enticing unsuspecting users into trying again.

"I never downloaded those images onto my drive"..

Oops! Lawmaker Shows Students Topless Gal

An Ohio state legislator surprised a high school class when the computer he was using projected a photo of a nude woman during a lecture on how a bill becomes a law.

State Rep. Matthew Barrett was giving an American government lesson Tuesday when he inserted a data memory stick into the school computer and the projected image of a topless woman appeared instead of the graphics presentation he had downloaded...

"I have no idea where these came from," the Democrat said.

Barrett said the data memory stick was a gift he received about three weeks ago from a legislative liaison from the state Library of Ohio.

I don't know which is more pathetic. That the Rep.doesn't just admit he screwed up when creating the presentation or that the police are actually conducting an "investigation".

State Rep. Matthew Barrett: "Damn, I hope I had those backed up"

Police: "Cool, hope there's some good stuff we can copy."

Windows Vista issues..

I discovered a major gap in Vista last night. I used the "Disk Cleanup" feature. The Home Premium Edition apparently includes User and Operating System files in its list of "junk" as it effectively formatted my hard drive.

I'm working on recovering as many files as I can but the file names no longer match the data on a lot of the files so I'll have to go through each one.

I'm going to have a long weekend.