Oddball Posting Challenge, and Other Conundrums
When the Oddball Update first went live, I posted ludicrous amounts of stuff on here. Actually, the same could be said for my old web domain. After a while I sorta ran out of things to post about, either that or the novelty of the site had worn off to the point where updating the world on the same kind of mundane details didn’t seem as important to me. Well, this morning I got into the office, looked at my phone display and saw it was the first of July. For some reason, I wasn’t expecting this. June’s over already! Perhaps it was because there were only 30 days, but I think I just haven’t really been paying attention.
It hit me right at that moment that something interesting to do would be to challenge myself to make at least one post on the Oddball Update every single day of the month. Especially after the spartan activity here for the last couple of intervals, it might be an interesting way to rejuvenate the site. And, it would probably make for some pretty hilariously insipid posts, given that I’m sure nothing groundbreaking is going to be happening every day of July. Plus, I commonly seem to forget to post things on the weekends, especially Sundays. Will I be able to pull it off? Let’s see, shall we?
In other news (and this can constitute the official “post of the day” for July 1st, heh heh), I got a phone call from my dad this afternoon, seeking some computer help. My parents have one functioning computer at the house—a Dell notebook that my dad bought my mom for Christmas back in 2000—and the machine is in a state of certified mass chaos. It’s still operating on the original, vendor-provided install of Windows 98SE, which, after four years, I’m sure any computer expert worth his salt will realize means the cruft factor has long since spiraled out of control. Add to that the sucker punch of a crapload of spyware, trojans and other malware, and you’ve got a system that begs for mercy the instant you so much as click the mouse.
It’s tough for me to figure out what to do with this problem, here. Given that I live in Florida and my parents live in Michigan, it’s tough for me to actually solve anything. Trying to clean all the spyware and junk off a system from 1500 miles away just ain’t happening. And unlike Windows XP, Windows 98 has no procedure for “remote assistance” logins, so I can’t exactly just drop on in and fix it up from my workstation here. I’d need to be at the machine, and given all of our upcoming travel plans, it’s going to be a while before I can get back to Michigan.
The one hope is a trip we’ll be taking in August. One of my wife’s friends is getting married in Chicago in August, and we’re thinking about flying into Detroit and driving down to the event. If we do that, I might have enough time to try to do something about my mom’s computer while I’m in town. Hehe…it’s quite amusing to think of packing up my new notebook computer backpack with an “emergency first aid kit” of utilities, boot disks, partitioning software and other goodies as I head off on my way to make a computer house call. Humorous indeed, but in today’s world, when just browsing the web can deliver you a payload of spyware with one mouse click, I’m sure there are a lot of other tech-savvy folks like me making housecalls a lot like that.
Running Windows 98 without a reinstall for years is trouble enough, but the killing blow, in my estimation, was the new DSL connection my parents got last month. When you introduce a computer to an always-on Internet connection—especially a Windows machine which has not been keeping up with Microsoft’s security patches, as this one hasn’t—you instantly open the door to a deluge of evil malware that seeks only to screw up your system. Add to that the lack of any kind of firewall, and we got problems.
Since I cannot in good faith allow these procedures to continue unchecked, any “house call” I might make would have to include more than just removing the offensive software crap. (Besides, even just removing the stuff might not cure the system’s ills—an OS reinstall might be the only way to correct 100% of the problems now.) Part 2 of the activity would have to involve preventing this sort of thing from happening again, or at least making it less likely. That would mean installing all available security patches and hotfixes from Microsoft, switching to the Sun Java VM instead of the Microsoft one, installing a software firewall like ZoneAlarm or KPF, and updating definitions on all protective software applications.
The biggest challenge will be to implement good security while at the same time making the system useful enough—and keeping all of these new protective measures sufficiently out of the way—so that my parents can actually still use the computer! That’s always the biggest challenge any of us “techie relatives” face. I’ve had it happen before where I installed a firewall and some AV software on another relative’s computer, and it wasn’t a month later when it had all been disabled because “stuff wasn’t working while it was on.” (I never was able to explain that, given that it was all working at the time I left. I think there’s some kind of conspiracy against us Good Samaritans out there.)
Anyway, it’s 4:37 in the afternoon, and I’m itching to get home. Here at the office, a lot of people are away on vacation for the holiday—including the CEO, V.P. of Business Development and our most active sales person—so as you might guess, there’s not a heck of a lot to do, and what’s left isn’t being done with a huge sense of urgency. I’m going to enjoy my three-day weekend, that’s for sure—although my wife and I don’t have any specific plans. It’ll just be nice to relax.
Heh…speaking of relaxing, normally there’s a particular restaurant I might suggest visiting over the weekend, but that place closed down inexplicably last weekend, with no fanfare and no explanation. Yet another of my favorite restaurants, vanished without a trace! (Former Michigan staple Bill Knapps was the first in this disturbing trend.)
Anyway, that’s it for today’s post! 30 more days of non-stop posting to go.
Categorized as Life