Second Term Presidents

In 1951 the Twenty-second Amendment of the Constitution set a two-term limit on how many times a person shall be elected to the office President of the United States.

Ever since then each president who was re-elected has had problems that were significant enough that the chances are they would not be re-electable even if they could run for a third term. Could this be the jinks of the 22nd Amendment.

Many reasons could be offered as to why things seem to go down hill. It could be they try too hard on leaving a ‘Legacy’ or by now the media has had enough time to dig up some dirt. Not to mention that no sooner than they have won the election and they are already called a Lame Duck President. Even their own party will gives him grief on proposed legislation. By the second term the charm has worn off and reality sets in. In the case of President Bush the past few months have given us a Supreme Court nomination failure, Katrina, Fema, a spy in the White House and Bush using the No Such Agency to spy on us.

I propose a change to the amendment that would allow for no limit on terms as it was so stated in the original un-ammended constitution. However the third term would require more than a simple majority of the popular vote (and the electorial college requirements), say 56% of the popular vote and the four term would require 60% of the vote to win the election. Raising the bar would give each second term president real goal in order to win our vote and be re-elected.

Your Internet Cable Service may be running at Half Speed

About two months ago I started receiving email notices from my internet cable service provider which mentioned that download speeds had been increased to 6.0Mbts. Being excited about this I decided to check my actual speed by using one of many web sites that test and report your speed. To my surprise my speed had actually gone down and not up. The best numbers I could get at any time of the day or night where about 2.2Mbts (Mega Bits Per Second), which is about one third of the advertised speed. I’ll include a list of several test sites at the bottom of this article.

So I called Tech. Support and explained the situation. The technician then checked my cable modem from his remote location and found that I had far too much signal strength at the input to the cable modem and scheduled a service call.

The technician showed up on time the next day and replaced the cable running from the line strung between the two poles to the point where it enters my house. He also replaced the splitter which is used to provide a separate line for cable TV. Another check of the signal strength showed it was now even higher and further out of specification than before. There was no increase in cable speed. A second service visit was scheduled.

On the second visit another tech. replaced the signal attenuator on the telephone pole to reduce the amount of signal down to a value that was within their guidelines and also found a broken box located two telephone poles before my house. Still no speed increase. The technician did notice that I had an old modem and scheduled for a replacement to be installed.

On arrival the third technician looked up the model (DOXport 1110) of my current modem and found that it was obsolete and no longer supported. This was the modem that was installed when I first subscribed more than 4 years ago. The new modem (Motorola SB5120) he installed was defective and had to go out to the truck to bring in another modem. This was an older model (SB4200) than the modem that was defective but still newer that my original modem. A speed test showed about a 50% increase to 3.0Mbts.

Next we disabled my firewall (Zone Alarm), Anti-Virus software and other Anti-Spyware software I had running in the background. With everything disabled there was no increase in speed which at least showed these utilities were not the problem. Note that some earlier versions of Zone Alarm can cause a speed problem so you should update to the latest version of the freeware or paid version. We then bypassed my router and connected the output of the cable modem directly into the input of my network card, still no speed gain.

The tech. then connected his laptop to the new modem and instantly got a speed increase to about 4.0Mbts. Could it be my PC or some software that was the problem? I wasn’t satisfied with the current state of things and a friend of mine had an extra and newer model (SB5100) of the Motorola modem installed by the technician, so I asked Bill to drop it off.

Read on for the answer
The next day I called the cable companies tech. support department and together we tested my existing modem and then installed the Motorola SB5100 modem. Bingo, speed was now up to 4.2Mbts, definitely an improvement but still not 6.0Mbts as advertised.

Now I remembered some old tricks that use to work for Windows 98, but will not work for Windows XP which I'm now using. Still I searched the web and found a simple utility named Dr. TCP provided the final boost in speed. Using this utility I found that my TCP Receive Window was not set to any value, so I entered a value of 56940, leaving all other fields in this utility unchanged.

No reboot of your PC is necessary so I immediately checked my speed again and found I was now up to 5.0Mbts or more on a consistent basis. Keeping in mind that 6Mbts is a theoretical maximum under ideal conditions and finding that values greater than 56940 did not improve my speed I decided that a 250% speed improvement was not bad at all.

Just the other day I had a need to download a file that was more than 200Mega Bytes in size. My download speed was above 700KBts per second (5.6Mbts) from this web site.

Tools and speed test sites
Dr. TCP
http://www.dslreports.com/drtcp

Why and what is a TCP Receive Window:
http://cable-dsl.home.att.net/index.htm#WhyItMatters

Test your download and upload speeds in Mbts
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Test your speed in KBts
http://speedtest.rochester.rr.com/

Another test site and tools to use
http://www.dslreports.com/tools

One final note
My web pages now load noticeably faster, more importantly large file download times are more than twice as fast.

More on the Sony DRM/Rootkit issue

SEE Mark's Sysinternals Blog - Updated 11/16/05
http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/

Next version of Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal tool - 11/16/05
The December release of this tool will should detect and remove Sony's DRM rootkit!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
Source: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123543,00.asp

List of CD’s that contain the copy protection Rootkit:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004144.php

Sony/BMG Music’s new policy?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/index.php?p=701

Questionable Anti-Spyware products
Before you download what you believe is a good spyware removal tool read this:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Atlantic City – Does anybody live here?

Atlantic City N.J., you know the place, casinos, beaches, Miss America pageant and more. But does anybody live here?

Based on last night’s election results the winner of mayor’s race received all of 4,520 votes. Yes that’s the number, not 450 thousand, not 45 thousand but 4,520 votes. This is a city, not a small town with one traffic light or does everyone live elsewhere!

With this many votes the mayor has a mandate, a mandate to do nothing and still win the next election.

Source: http://www.nj.com/elections/electioncoverage

20 Years of Microsoft Windows

In November of 1985 Microsoft released for sale Windows version 1.0 which ran on top of DOS 3.0. So I though it would be interesting to list the cost and performance of a PC at that time and every five years thereafter to the present day. As a side note 1985 was also the year that Gateway computers was founded, then known as Gateway 2000.

I contacted Gateway (my thanks to Lisa Emard, Gateway Media Relations) and she was able to provide the cost for a 1988 Gateway (which I’ve included in the list below), as it gives a good idea as to how much PC prices dropped when sold by what were then called ‘IBM Clone’ manufacturers. Note that Gateway stated “Completely IBM Hardware and Software Compatible” as not all PC clones were 100% compatible back then. Also by 1988 the Intel 386 processor was king of the hill and a 16MHz 386 PC cost about $3,600.00.

Note: The cost of the year 1985 was derived from various articles on the web. Pricing for all other systems (except 1988 as stated above) are based on actual advertisement from that time period, mostly in the Fall of each year.

1985 IBM PC AT – Approx. $6,000.00
8Mhz Intel 286 processor
512KB RAM
1.2MB 5.25 inch floppy disk
20MB Hard Drive
14” EGA Color Monitor – 640x350 resolution (64 colors) - $800.00
MS DOS 3.0 and Windows 1.0
Serial & Centronics Printer ports
IBM Dot Matrix Printer – $595.00

1988 Gateway 2000 Model A12 - $1,995.00
12 MHz 80286 Processor (Switchable to 6)
1 Meg 0 Wait State RAM (100 NS)
1 – 360K Floppy Drive and 1 – 3.5” Diskette Drive (Made by Teac)
40 MB Seagate ST251 Hard Drive
1-Parallel and 2-Serial Ports
101 Key Enhanced Keyboard (Keytronic)
14” Samsung EGA Monitor (640 x 350) with Sigma Designs Autoswitch EGA Card
200 Watt Power Supply and Battery Backed-Up Clock Calendar
8 Expansion Slots (6-16 Bit, 2-8 Bit) and Space for 5 ½ ht. Storage Devices
Completely IBM Hardware and Software Compatible, 1 Year Warranty
Not included in the above package was Windows 2.0 – Price $100.00

1990 Gateway 2000 - $5,295.00
25MHz 486
4.0MB RAM
1.44MB 3.5 inch and 1.2MB 51/4 inch Floppy Drives
150MB Hard Disk
16 Bit VGA card with 512K RAM
14” Monitor
DOS 3.3 and Windows 3.0
CD-ROM Purchased from Tiger Direct - $800.00
HP DeskJet 500 – List Price $729.00

1995 Gateway 2000 P5-133 - $3999.00
133MHz Pentium processor
256K Cache
16MB EDO RAM
1.6GB 9ms DMA Mode 2 EIDE Hard Drive, 1.44 Floppy
17” CRT Monitor + 64 Bit Matrox Millennium with 2MB WRAM
6X EIDE CD-ROM, 16 Bit sound card and Speakers with subwoofer
28.8 Fax/Modem
Windows 95, MS Office95
HP DeskJet 560C - $499.00 (Approx.)

2000 – Dell 8100 Series - $3,248.00
1.5GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
128MB Rambus 400 MHz RDRAM Memory
80GB Ultra ATA-100 (5200 RPM) Hard Drive
19” CRT Monitor, 64MB AGP-4X NVIDIA GeForce2 Graphics
12X DVD ROM and 12X CD-RW Drive
Digital Sound Card, Surround sound speakers with Subwoofer, 56K V90 WinModem
Windows ME
Printer, HP DeskJet 990Cse (2400 x 1200 dpi on photo paper, 17 pages per minute) - $399.00

2005 – Gateway FX-400XL - $3,179.96
3.0GHz Intel Pentium D (Dual Core) Processor
2.0GB (2048MB) DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Memory
500GB (Two 250GB Serial ATA II drives, 7200 RPM) and 1.44 Floppy drive
21” Widescreen High-Definition LCD Flat Panel display
16x Double Layer DVD+/- Read/Read/Write and second DVD-ROM drive
256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 7800 Graphics with DVI and TV Out
Integrated Intel 7.1 Sound with Logitec Z-2300 THX Speakers, 56K data/fax modem
Integrated Broadband Ethernet (10/100/1000 Gigabit) Network interface.
Windows XP SP2 with Backup CD, Price includes 3 years part/labor/tech support plan
Printer, HP Photosmart 8250 (4800 x 1200 dpi, 31 pages per minute) - $199.99

If you are interested in more detailed information of how Windows matured over the years see the article recently published by PC Mag.com.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1868492,00.asp
and Computer Hope.com at:
http://www.computerhope.com/history/windows.htm

Some PCs may have included some minor additional hardware, software and service contracts included as part of the advertised configuration but are not listed in this article. Printers were priced as a separate item. Windows was usually an option in the early years. Today Windows XP Home is standard and XP Professional is still priced as an option from a number of vendors for home computers.

Note: Configurations are for high end or near top of the line systems available for a given year, therefore some PC configurations may have cost more or less than the prices shown above. Today’s entry level PCs can cost as little as $500.00 and can go easily over $4,500.00 if you want all the bells and whistles.

Inflation factor
$6,000.00 in 1985 is the equivalent of $10,650.00 today!
$3,999.00 in 1995 is the equivalent of $4,975.00 today!
Source: The Inflation Calculator at: http://www.westegg.com/inflation

PC Security - November Update

Some Sony CD’s ship with sneaky (rootkit) software.
Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals, one of the PC security sites I mentioned in my last blog, has uncovered the installation of ‘Hidden’ copy protection software on a user’s PC without their knowledge. For general information about this see:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123362,00.asp

For detailed information on how Mark found this unwanted piece of software and what he did to remove it, read Mark’s blog: (http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog).

Prevent Viruses From Disabling Your Protection.
This is one of the tricks I use, not previously mentioned because of some minor side effects when browsing web sites. PCWORLD has a basic article which will get you started without any of the browser side effects and it will stop hackers from disabling your anti-virus protection updates:
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,121213,00.asp

Note: I always make a backup of my original ‘HOSTS’ file (this file has no extension) before making any changes.
For a more robust approach visit: www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
Make sure you read the full description on this web page, then download the file named hosts.zip. Next make a backup of your original host file (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOST) which if you open using notepad should look like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

After making a backup (name it ORIG_HOSTS) unzip the file you downloaded and replace the HOST file with the one you downloaded. Right click on the file, select ‘Properties’ and check the ‘Read-only’ attribute box.

Note: Most likely your browser back button will not work on some web pages and you will need to click the pull-down arrow located just to the right of the back button to go back to the previous web page, note the number of adware listings your host file blocked when you do this.

PC Security - October Update

No PC is 100% secure, but you can make it considerably harder for hackers. This is an update to a blog posted in August of this year. What follows is a list of the tools I use (including the Internet links to the web sites for these tools), articles recently available on the web, and some additional information.

A new article from PC Mag.com
Contains a large number of tips, the main page displays a long list of bulleted items, click on the item of interest, read the information and use the print icon to make a copy. Warning, if you click on the next link at the bottom of the bulleted article you could end up viewing some additional and sometimes complex material. The first page of each bulleted item usually provides what you need to known.
www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1838690,00.asp

For users of wireless routers security is the first thing you should look into are freeloaders can not only use your connection but also gain access to what’s on your PC. If you know you are the only user connected to the wireless modem in your house, try the following tip: In Windows XP press the CTRL+ALT+DEL keys to display Windows Task Manager. Next click on the ‘Users’ tab, this will display the number of users connected to your PC, if there is more than one you have a problem. For more information on securing your wireless router read ‘Between the cable modem and my PC is a router’ below.

The following is an updated reprint of the August Article. All links have been checked to verify that they are still good.

Between the cable modem and my PC is a router.
This device allows up to 4 or more computers to connect to the Internet or each other. It isolates my PC’s IP address from the cable modem’s IP address making it a little harder for hackers to see the PC when they go hunting. It’s like using a PO Box instead of your actual street address. There are two basic type of home routers, hardwire (requires a cable between the router and the PC) and wireless (you can place your computer anywhere within about 100 feet of the router). The down side of a wireless router is that you are broadcasting a signal that anyone within range can tap into. If you’re local Internet service provider gives you a wireless router as part of the package they provide, then look into security. Here you do not want to use WEP (too easy too crack) for security but instead choose WPA/WPA2 which is far more secure.www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=router
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=WPA+security+tips
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wpa2&btnG=Google+Search

Install a software firewall.
This controls traffic to and from my PC and closes any unnecessary open or unused ports. Port scanning is another trick used by hackers. Open computer ports are like open windows in your house. Here I use a freeware program named Zone Alarm; the current freeware version is now 60.667.000. Using this tool lets you decide what applications or software can access the Internet and also blocks outsiders from accessing your PC. Zone Alarm also sells Pro version and Anti-Virus software; I have no experience with Pro or their Anti-Virus products. If you don’t not think a firewall is important then you should go to Gibson Research Corporation (http://www.grc.com/default.htm ) and scroll down to the page until you see the ‘Leak Test’ and ShieldsUp’ links, run these test, then you will see why you need a firewall!
www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

Use an Anti-Virus package.
Use this to scan and protect your computer and any email you receive. AV software is not a total cure for viruses or worms as it is a defensive software tool and the vendor must be aware that a new virus exist, they must then develop a solution and you must download the update to their software when it becomes available. All this takes time and the delay until a fix is developed and downloaded leaves you at a small but potential risk, but you are at a much greater risk without this software. Three of the more popular tools are Trend Micro, Mcafee and Symantec. These companies also have firewall products sold separately or in combination with their AV software.
www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/enterprise.htm
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp
www.symantec.com/index.htm

Adware/Spyware detection products.
Every time you visit a web site harmless cookies and sometimes other unwanted and far more malicious content is placed on your PC (www.sunbelt-software.com/CounterSpy-FAQ.cfm) . To this end I use three products to help me spot and remove it. Two are freeware (Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy) and the third and best (CounterSpy) is a low cost product which you can try free for a limited time. Microsoft also provides a free AntiSpyware software product, the web page currently unavailable so I have provided a link to their Malicious Software Removal Tool download page. If multiple members of your household use the PC to surf the web then it’s very likely that some form of Spyware is already on your computer.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=890830
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/
www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Startup Monitor
This little program develop by Mike Lin will warn you if something has been downloaded from a malicious web site to your PC without your knowledge and will secretly install itself the next time you turn on your PC. The only time you should legitimately see the warning displayed by Startup Monitor is when you are installing new software, performing a software update and occasionally your AV update or Microsoft security update. If this warning is displayed at any other time such as when you open an email message or when jumping from one web site to the next, then you can at your judgment deny the software from installing. Be aware that if you have ‘Automatic Updates’ turned on for any software on your PC this can sometimes cause a false warning. I have all my automatic update options turned off and update on my own terms, but you may want to keep it on so you don’t miss any updates.
www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

Rootkits
Rootkits are designed to be completely invisible to Anti-Virus software. Rootkit Revealer available at Sysinternals.com explains in great detail what a rootkit is and how their software is designed to detect the presence of rootkits.
www.sysinternals.com/utilities/rootkitrevealer.html

Other Software that I use
Warning: Some of these utilities require more than a passing knowledge of Windows and if used incorrectly can cause serious problems, however some are reasonably safe to use.
Cookie Viewer: http://www.karenware.com/ View the contents of cookies.
Autoruns: www.sysinternals.com/utilities/autoruns.html Shows what software starts when you turn on your PC.
Process Explorer: www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html Shows what process are running on your PC and provides a link to Google for any process you are curious about.
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer version 2.0:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Baseline+security+analyzer
Microsoft's Security Web Page:
www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx

Newsletters to help keep you up to date on what happening:
PC Mag Tip of the day: www.pcmag.com/tips
Brian Livingston’s Windows Secrets: http://www.windowssecrets.com/
Langalist: www.langa.com/join_langalist.htm
Scot’s Newsletter: http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/

Now after reading all this you may think I’m paranoid, but there are some computer owners who go even farther than I have to make their pc safe. Yes it takes time and effort on your part, but there are hackers out there with plenty of time and will spare no effort to gain control of or bring your computer to its knees, not to mention identity theft, using your email address list to spread viruses to your friends and other nastiness.

Blog Spam

Unfortunately the spammers have now driven their pastime to an all time low, by posting spam to legitimate blog pages. Google has no doubt found out about this, but what they will do about it remains to be seen.

Gas Down, Cholesterol Up

The cost of a gallon of gas is down to $2.45, well below Milk or OJ.
Cholesterol and fat on the other hand have been getting a big push from some fast food chains lately. It wasn’t that long ago fast food was countering the attack on their menu by adding low cal/fat choices.

Now the tide has apparently gone back the other way with the addition of super burgers, lumberjack special breakfast sandwiches and alike. Not only do they cost more than gas but can potentially clog your body’s engine if you fill up your tank to many times.

Chief Justice Roberts

At 3:01PM EDT John Roberts was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. For those of you who were watching the ceremony, you would have noticed that Roberts had his hand on the Bible and as part of the oath uttered the words “so help me God”.

Mister Chief Justice, take note that there will be an up-coming case about the Pledge of Allegiance, which has been changed twice, once to include the words “under God”. So how can a person who had his hand on the Bible and in effect asked for God’s help remove these words or ban the Pledge from schools.

Does this make me a conservative? No because I also believe in Pro-Choice. I do not side with any group, but choose what I believe is best, not left, right, liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat or Independent!

Two for the Price of One

With Katrina, the passing of Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist, Oil Prices, FEMA problems and now Tom Delay being indicted; the appointment of Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court and serving as Chief Justice is a certainty. Teflon Roberts is getting so little attention with all the other issues that he’s a shoe in.

But I would not want to be the next person nominated to replace the remaining open seat on the court. By then most of the other issues will still be there but to a lesser extent. Now that means the bull’s eye will be pasted on judge number two, whoever that is and he or she is definitely not going to have a free pass this time around.

Daylight Savings Time

The upcoming change in Daylight Saving Time recently enacted by Congress will save an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil each day, from the total of about 20 million barrels daily. Where the cost factor kicks in is that any gadget, appliance, auto, computer, alarm clock or anything else that has a clock which automatically adjusts each Spring and Fall for Daylight Savings will now be out of sync and require manual adjustment. The manufactures of these items will need to make the necessary changes for their new product lines before 2007 when the change is due to take effect.

There is good news for some of us who have dumb clocks; it will be just like it’s always been, Fall Back and Spring Forward.

Milk down, OJ unchanged, Gas up, Michael Brown DOWN

Milk was about 8 cents less yesterday, Orange Juice remained unchanged, Gas was up and down and up, now at $3.19. That means gas is giving OJ a run for the top spot on the price list. Michael Brown (FEMA) was demoted and is most likely on his way out, no tears shed here.

Cell Phone Relief Fund – Day 2

Haven’t received any response from my cell phone provider as of yet.

Today I decided to call my regular phone company who also is a cell phone service provider. Their response was that they do not have rollover minutes and at this time no definite plans have been made in the way of relief.

If you are reading this blog please call your cell phone provider and put the pressure on to help by donating minutes from your account or by some other means making extra minutes available to the people who need them.

Cell Phone Relief Fund

Help the victims of hurricane Katrina buy contacting your cell phone company and asking them to setup a relief fund.

This fund would consisting of excess minutes that have accumulated over the months (rolled over) which you would donate from your account into a general fund. These minutes could then be used for those individuals affected by hurricane Katrina who may not have sufficient minutes remaining in their Cell Phone accounts to make all the calls necessary to reach family members on a regular basis or take care of other needs. As you know once a user exceeds the minutes in their account, the cost of placing calls can go up dramatically.

I currently have more than 1500 excess minutes which would be enough to provide 15 needy people with 100 free minutes of phone time. After all at the end the year you and I loss these rollover minutes and they are lost and wasted so why not put them to good use!

For more information contact me buy posting a comment to this blog!
Better yet check your cell phone company’s web site and see if they have a disaster relief page, contact the appropriate individual and spread the word!!!

PC Security

Several days ago a friend asked what I do to keep my computer secure. First off no PC is 100% secure, but you can make it considerably harder for hackers. So what follows is a list of the tools I use and the Internet links to the web sites for these tools.

Between the cable modem and my PC is a router:
This device allows up to 4 or more computers to connect to the Internet or each other. It isolates my PC’s IP address from the cable modem’s IP address making it a little harder for hackers to see the PC when they go hunting. It’s like using a PO Box instead of your actual street address. There are two basic type of home routers, hardwire (requires a cable between the router and the PC) and wireless (you can place your computer anywhere within about 100 to 300 feet of the router). The down side of a wireless router is that you are broadcasting a signal that anyone within range can tap into. If your local Internet service provider gives you a wireless router as part of the package they provide, then look into security. Here you do not want to use WEP (too easy too crack) for security but instead choose WPA/WPA2 which is far more secure.
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=router
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=wpa+security
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wpa2&btnG=Google+Search

Install a software firewall:
This controls traffic to and from my PC and closes any unnecessary open or unused ports. Port scanning is another trick used by hackers. Open computer ports are like open windows in your house. Here I use a freeware program named Zone Alarm. Using this tool lets you decide what applications or software can access the Internet and also blocks outsiders from accessing your PC. Zone Alarm also sells Pro version and Anti-Virus software. If you don’t not think a firewall is important then you should go to Gibson Research Corporation (http://www.grc.com/default.htm ) and scroll down to the page until you see the ‘Leak Test’ and ShieldsUp’ links, run these test, then you will see why you need a firewall!
www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

Use an Anti-Virus package:
Use this to scan and protect your computer and any email you receive. AV software is not a total cure for viruses or worms as it is a defensive software tool and the vendor must be aware that a new virus exist, they must then develop a solution and you must download the update to their software when it becomes available. All this takes time and the delay until a fix is developed and downloaded leaves you at a small but potential risk, but you are at a much greater risk without this software. Three of the more popular tools are Trend Micro, Mcafee and Symantec. These companies also have firewall products sold separately or in combination with their AV software.
www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/enterprise.htm
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp
www.symantec.com/index.htm

Adware/Spyware detection products:
Every time you visit a web site harmless cookies and sometimes other unwanted and far more malicious content is placed on your PC (www.sunbelt-software.com/CounterSpy-FAQ.cfm) . To this end I use three products to help me spot and remove it. Two are freeware (Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy) and the third and best (CounterSpy) is a low cost product which you can try free for a limited time. Microsoft also provides a free AntiSpyware software. If multiple members of your household use the PC to surf the web then it’s very likely that some form of Spyware is already on your computer.
www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/
www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Startup Monitor:
This little program develop by Mike Lin will warn you if something has been downloaded from a malicious web site to your PC without your knowledge and will secretly install itself the next time you turn on your PC. The only time you should legitimately see the warning displayed by Startup Monitor is when you are installing new software, performing a software update and occasionally your AV update or Microsoft security update. If this warning is displayed at any other time such as when you open an email message or when jumping from one web site to the next, then you can at your judgment deny the software from installing. Be aware that if you have ‘Automatic Updates’ turned on for any software on your PC this can sometimes cause a false warning. I have all my automatic update options turned off and update on my own terms, but you may want to keep it on so you don’t miss any updates.
www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

Rootkits:
Rootkits are designed to be completely invisible to Anti-Virus software. Rootkit Revealer available at Sysinternals.com explains in great detail what a rootkit is and how their software is designed to detect the presence of rootkits.
www.sysinternals.com/utilities/rootkitrevealer.html

Other Software that I use:
Warning: Some of these utilities require more than a passing knowledge of Windows and if used incorrectly can cause serious problems, however some are reasonably safe to use.
Cookie Viewer: http://www.karenware.com/ View the contents of cookies
Autoruns: www.sysinternals.com/utilities/autoruns.html Shows what software starts when you turn on your PC.
Process Explorer: www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html Shows what process are running on your PC and provides a link to Google for any process you are curious about.
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer version 2.0: www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Baseline+security+analyzer

Newsletters to help keep you up to date on what happening:
PC Mag Tip of the day: www.pcmag.com/tips
Brian Livingston’s Windows Secrets: http://www.windowssecrets.com/
Langalist: www.langa.com/join_langalist.htm
Scot’s Newsletter: http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/

Now after reading all this you may think I’m paranoid, but there are some computer owners who go even farther than I have to make their pc safe. Yes it takes time and effort on your part, but there are hackers out there with plenty of time and will spare no effort to gain control of or bring your computer to its knees, not to mention identity theft, using your email address list to spread viruses to your friends and other nastiness.

High Gas Prices

One barrel of crude oil equal 44 gallons and yields about 20 gallons of Gasoline, plus other products such as Kerosene, Diesel fuel, Lubricating oil and other byproducts.
To refine crude oil into motor fuel is no small effort compared to what it takes to sell bottled water, milk or orange juice.

Not so long ago a gallon of gas sold for a dollar, named brand bottled water sold for $1.25, milk and orange juice even more. Today at our local supermarket bottled water was 99 cents a gallon, milk was $2.99, orange juice was $3.39 and down the road gas was $2.35 a gallon (Before I could finish this article gas jumped to $2.50 a gallon), that means milk and orange juice still cost more.

So what is the significance of this? Simple put, if you what more milk…raise more cows, more orange juice…plant more orange trees, more and cheaper gas … not so simple, now that China is on the move with a population of about 1.3 billion compared to about 300 million for the United States.

Something is UP in the World of PC Pricing

Each year in the Fall I update my list of what Money Can Buy, which simply put is how much does a well configured PC cost. Consistently over the years the cost has ranged between $3000.00 to $3500.00 dollars for a high end PC. Lately however after reading a number of reviews on the latest desktop computers the cost quite often ranges between $4000.00 to $4500.00 dollars.

I’m not entirely sure of what’s going on but it would appear there is a greater demand for high end gaming and power user configurations. So where only a few years ago 512MB of ram, 100GB hard drive, 128MB Video Cards, 17/19” CRT monitors and 3GHz processors were king of the hill, now you can buy a system with 2GB of ram, 360GB of hard drives (sometimes in a Raid array), 256MB multiprocessor video cards, 19” LCD displays and 64 bit processors plus any number of extras which drive up the price even more if you have the money.

So what does all this mean, about the same as it always has, in about 2 years your brand new top of the line system will be a mid-range $1500.00 dollar system and in 4 years it will be a dinosaur. The big question is, if you by it today will it run Windows Vista when it is released late in 2006?

Remember it’s your money and you only get to spend it once, so spend it wisely!

Second Thoughts

Late today I watched MSNBC’s Hardball during which various people who were close to Peter Jennings where interviewed. A particular statement by Ted Koppel in which he said something to the effect that most Americans knew Peter as being somewhat cool and aloof, but I think at least in my case what drew me to watch his evening news show over others was that you could see in his eyes or the tone of voice that he genuinely cared about the issues that confronted us.

Peter Jennings

Yesterday I had an urge to write to Peter Jennings and express my hopes for his recovery. Today I awoke to hear the sad news that Jennings had passed away. Each night over the past few months I would turn on ABC News and hope to see Peter’s face again, tonight the news will be hard to watch and especially sad for everyone at ABC.

Over the years I would eat dinner and make it a point to watch Peter Jennings not only for the latest news but for the special segments woven in to the coverage. In a few days for the first time I will do something I have not done in many many years, that is to channel hop during the evening news.

Windows Vista

Microsoft continues to pursue the protection of what it feels is the use of the word Windows or Win as part of an independent web site or newsletter.

Could it be that Microsoft's next version of Windows named Vista is infringing on Paramount Pictures VistaVision? And there may be other companies with Vista as their name, part of their name or product!

After all the use of Win in a title is a part of the word Windows as Vista is part of VistaVision!

TV POPUPS

I’m sure you have all noticed at one time or another the cable station’s logo at the bottom right of your screen. Then they started adding small animated objects for upcoming shows. Soon the objects grew larger and more elaborate to the point of being distracting.

Lately some have not only grow very large in size but also come complete with sound effects which obliterate the audio of the show or movie that you are watching. These ads have now reached the same level of annoyance of web based popups.

Anyone know how to develop a blocker?

Going, Going, Gone ….

The battle seams to be heating up concerning which maker of color inkjet printers, inks and photo paper will last the longest without fading. As to be expected each manufacture states that best results are obtained when using their inks and paper.

However as most everyone knows there are third party inks and paper available for most printers. Test results from internal and outside labs using different methods of accelerated photo ageing (no one standard method has been agreed upon) show that inkjet photos can last as little as a few years to more than 50 years. No recommendations here, it’s up to you to research and make the decision on what brand to use!

Storage longevity is not a new issue!
I recently found this out having dug up some of my old photos from the dark storage areas where they were unseen and forgotten about for a long time. The black and white photos going back to the 1940’s still look good. Polaroid photos from the early 1960’s varied, some were now almost black, so dark you can hardly make out the subject; some had faded to white, while others still were in very good shape. Prints made from negatives generally were still in very good shape but a few had also faded, some also very badly. I’m now in the process of testing various brands of software that include in some form or other an option or options to restore these old photos, more on that subject at a later date.

Back to today’s digital world.
Let us not forget that a digital image must be also stored on some form of media for a short or long period of time. Media such as a Hard Disk, CD-R or DVD are also a big variable as far as longevity. Don’t forget file formats (BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, Etc.), forty years from now which one will still be around?

So when you go to the swearing in ceremony for the next Supreme Court Justice just remember he or she just may outlast your photo. Then again based on the decisions they make over the years, you may or may not want the photo anyway!

For a recent report on Inkjets:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121752,00.asp

It’s a Strange World Out There

CNOOC wants to buy Unocal Corp. and LUKOIL has started selling gas in our local area.

CNOOC of course is based in Communist China and buying Unocal means selling a company from a Democracy to a company that is Communistic. Joe McCarthy would be rolling over in his grave.

LUKOIL is a Russian based company and almost all of the local Mobil gas stations in our area are now Lukified.

What better way for China to win a war, the economic and final war. I ask you this; would China allow U.S. based companies to buy out critical Chinese owed companies?

So far in recent months IBM Personal Computers and Maytag have been targets, who’s next after Unocal?

For more information on CNOOC:
http://www.transactioninfo.com/cnooc/about.php

For information about LUKOIL:
http://www.lukoil.com/

Supreme Lunacy

Well once again the Supreme Court has convince me that they are out of control and are no longer part of the checks and balances created by our founding fathers but have now set them selves up as above all else. There latest ruling “that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development” only serves to prove my point.

Coming soon to the Supreme Court nearest you is the Ten Commandments, one of which starts by saying: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house!


For additional information see:
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050623/D8ATDSD80.html

Sooner or Later I’m Gonna Get Ya!

Well it looks like another company spilled the beans or should I say had a Big Fat Security breach (about 40 million worth of info) concerning credit card information.

While not much detail is available, apparently CardSystems Solutions Inc., “CardSystems is a registered agent for Merrick Bank Corporation, South Jordan, Utah and The Provident Bank, Cincinnati, Ohio. “ of Atlanta, GA. Is working with the FBI to investigate how this occurred.

The two most common types of security breaches according to many security experts are caused by ‘Hackers’ and inside personnel.

If your company is connected to the internet then sooner or later a hacker is gonna get ya. In plain terms if your computer is connected to anything other than a wall outlet then your exposed. If you are required to store or ship data media then it should be password and encryption protected.

Yes you can tout how your company uses the latest security tools, but lets face it those tools are all defensive in nature which gives the hacker the advantage because they are offensive and always finding new ways to accomplish their goal.

So like many of us I called my credit card company(s) and was assured that they did not use CardSystems and was not affected, one card issuer is still investigating. So I guess I may have dodged the bullet this time, but did you? Call your card issuer and find out!

Time Forgotten

Eastern War Time, the early beginning of Daylight time. Railroad Time, each railroad set its own time based on location and destination. The International Date Line “the imaginary line on the Earth that separates two consecutive calendar days”, which if you could stand precisely in the middle of, you would be neither in yesterday or tomorrow.

What they haven’t named yet is ‘Airline Time’, you know the time lost waiting in line, flight delays, sitting on the runway, circling for a landing and finding your luggage. And last but not least ‘Blog Time’, you will notice this blog has never received any comments and therefore the blog time is nearly indeterminate.

For more information see:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/us_tzones.html
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/d.html
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/international_date.html
http://www.fremo.org/betrieb/timezone.htm

Would you walk down a dark alley at 3:00AM?

The chances of making to the other end without a bodyguard would not be good!

Unfortunately the internet has become exactly that, a dark alley. According to a recent report (http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single3709 ) the survival time is down to 20 minutes once you connect an unprotected pc to the internet.

This means you are subject to:
Viruses, worms, ad-ware, spy-ware,

Rootkits: (http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/rootkitrevealer.html)

Phishing, (typically a fake email indicating that you must update your credit card or banking information by clicking on the link provided)

Pharming:
(http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,120268,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp )

Turning your pc into a Zombie:
(http://antivirus.about.com/od/whatisavirus/a/zombiepc.htm )

And god knows what else.

For more on how to protect your pc see Brian Livingston’s Windows Secrets article:
http://www.windowssecrets.com/050113/

I'm Back

A lot has happened in the last 45 days, in no particular order:
Prince Renier: The fairy tail of a prince and a girl from Philadelphia. Made Monaco what it is today.

Pope John Paul II: I’m not Catholic but he was a great Pope and a great man. You may not all agree with my position but don’t judge less yee be judged.

Terry Shiavo: The courts and all their judges looked like idiots. How much effort and sensibility would it have taken for a judge to order a team of independent experts to evaluate her condition before making a decision?

There have been many others worthy of mention so my apologies.

Snow Shovels

Well it snowed again today, which is the fourth significant snow storm this year. The local TV news stations did their usual coverage of people buying milk, bread, rock salt and snow shovels. Milk and bread seamed to be in good supply but as the rock salt and snow shovels were hard to find as most places were out of stock.

Now it is understandable that the rock salt would be gone from the shelves but snow shovels. This is not news, it seams every storm drives people out to buy snow shovels. What I would like to know is what did they do with the shovels they used during the prior three storms, for that matter what about last year?

Maybe they take their frustration out on the shovel and beat it to death or it could be they leave them in the driveway and run over it with the car. Kids could be secretly using them to slide down the local hill or the neighbor decides to take back the one he let you borrow last year. Whatever the cause, being in the business of manufacturing new or finding lost snow shovels could make you rich!

Adware/Spyware

Imagine it’s the mid 1950s and you open your front door (today’s browser), to get a breath of fresh air. You close the door and turn around and find that the walls are now papered with advertisements all over the house. What you don’t know is your phone has now been bugged and there is person hidden in the bushes next to a window watching every thing you do.

Would this be an allowable or acceptable practice back then, I think not. So why should the equivalent of this kind of action be an acceptable practice on your PC in today’s world!

For more information link to WindowsSecrets.com/050127 Brian Livingston's Windows Secrets Newsletter dated 1/27/05.

Blogging the Boss

Don’t look now but your boss could be reading your blog.
End result is you could be fired! As more than one unfortunate person found out the hard way when posting comments about their managers.

The trouble with managers is there are as many bad ones as there are good ones. I say this with experience having been in and out of management and technical positions too many times to count.

You start working for a company in technical capacity and you soon find out that you have little control of what goes on around you and or your job. This makes you think that the grass may be greener if you where a manager. You could make things change for the better, both for you and your fellow employees. Unfortunately is just doesn’t work that way, at least not all the time as you (the manager) discover that you also have a manager that you report to and his or her ideas/plans don’t necessarily agrees with yours.

Warning:
Any managers that may be reading this blog, then read the next part very carefully.

One of my first jobs started out as a tester on the production floor. About once a month the president of the company would tour the facility and take time to talk to some of the employees on an informal and one on one basis. The amazing thing was that he knew your name and the name of each of nearly 1000 employees. The company was sold and as time went by I eventually reached the Operations level of management, which in simple terms meant that on any given day I was responsible for the entire plant. I never forgot the simple but meaningful lesson of taking the time, no matter how busy things got, to talk to the people that worked at our location and other companies I work for over the years.

What makes a good or bad manager?
My experience tends to the ‘Leaders are born and not made’ theory. Far too often an individual who has demonstrated excellent technical knowledge and achievements time and time again finally receives a promotion to a management position. At this point they become like a fish out of water, floundering and jumping around on the beach in a desperate search for something that will save them and their project. Unfortunately no amount of management training will save them; it only serves to prolong the agony for them and everyone under them. In the end desperation settles in and they begin to take it out on the employees as a form of relief. Sometimes it can be so subtle that it hardly noticed by anyone except for the person in the center of the bulls eye. Other times it reaches the point of intimidation, threats, abusive language and on and on.

Now here this!
A good manager treats their employees as assets, just as valuable or more so than capital equipment. They help them when they need help, they provide training to sharpen or broaden their skills; thus making them more versatile. A good manager will reward them for doing a good job, even if the only thing they can do at the time is to say: thank you for a job well done. Most importantly they do everything possible to make an employee’s job rewarding and a success. You see if your employees succeed then you as a manager succeed.

A bad manager is one that takes their frustration out on their employees, belittles and berates, screams and threatens, makes unrealistic demands, offers no help when asked, spends more time trying to climb the ladder than manage the tasks given to them, is never available when you need them and always around making small talk to their pet employees totally oblivious to the rest of the team who feel like their in the dog house. They often arrive in your section or department offering great things for the future but seldom deliver, moving on to their next assignment and leaving behind a shambles.

Let me finish by leaving you with a real story.
It’s about a small group of engineers I was asked to manage. They where looked upon as I soon found out with extreme disgust by every other manager in the plant. Every Monday I would attend a meeting along with other managers, which was held by the plant manager for the purpose of reviewing the schedules and tasks given to them from the previous week. This person would take delight in running everyone up and down the flag pole for things that did not go as planned. At first I was an easy target and received more than my fair share of his foul language. Over time as I re-arranged the tasks assigned to my group to better match their skill set we were able to meet everything asked of us, thus I was no longer one of the poor slobs that had to endure the plant managers wrath.

One day after completing a particular hard set of tasks on time and in budget, I wanted to show my appreciation to the team, but had no money to give them as a bonus, or even a framed letter of appreciation. So I called everyone for a short meeting and thanked them for a job well done. After the meeting one employee approached me and said “Jim you are the first manager ever to say thank you”. Having known these engineers for a long time, even before I was there boss and had meetings over the years with each of their pervious managers, some of which I had held in high esteem, I was shocked in disbelief and said not even John (not his real name) and he said no, not ever.

Remember: it cost you nothing as a person to say thank you every once in a while!

The Jack Rabbit

Just because you are 30 years old and have a fast car doesn’t mean your have good driving skills. Take for example the typical jack rabbit that all of us have seen buzzing down the highway at 80 to 90 MPH, weaving in and out of traffic, getting stuck multiple times behind a slow car because he or she made the wrong lane move. You see they don’t think four or five moves ahead like in a chess game but jump at the first opening they see. The end result for all their hard work is that they may have a ten second lead on the smarter drivers who pick their moves carefully.

After all that hard work the jack rabbit now takes the same exit ramp that you do, hits the brakes going into the first turn and now you know you got the rabbit, I guess the turn scares rabbits at the speed they are going. You know this exit; it’s a long S turn and you enter buy accelerating slightly and banking to the right, passing the jack rabbit. You accelerate more while going up the incline, jack rabbit is mad because you passed him, but rabbit is in the wrong gear and can’t catch up as you go up the hill. You set yourself up for the next part of the S which is a fairly sharp left hand turn. This turn has those orange night time reflectors imbedded in the road to mark the left hand edge of the lane. You enter the turn and hold the car just to the point were the left front tire just touches the edge of each reflector making a slight ticking sound. Nearing the end of turn you let the car drift out and across to the outside lane and enter a long down hill straight. About halfway down the straight you look in the rear view mirror and see the rabbit is just coming of the turn, a full 3 tenths of a mile behind you.

Now you enter onto another major 8 lane highway and rabbit is working his way back up. Ahead the road divides, go straight and you enter local traffic, keep left to take the high speed bypass. By now rabbit has passed you again and enters the bypass, which is a sweeping left, rabbit brakes again entering the turn, you speed up and try to pass rabbit on the outside lane in the turn. Rabbit isn’t going to have any of this again so rabbit guns it, but you know something rabbit doesn’t, so you keep the pressure on rabbit until just before the turn enters a long downhill straightaway. At the last second you back off with a smile on your face and let rabbit pass you like a bat out of hell. Rabbit who is now doing about 80 mile an hour suddenly discovers what you know; the state police car waiting at the end of the down hill. Flashing lights and a few seconds later it’s all over for rabbit who will be waiting for about 10 minutes to hear those famous words “Have a nice day”!

Outsourcing Is Bad

There are a number of companies that believe that Outsourcing is the key to profitability and the cure for all ills. If fact, the ideal goal would be to outsource all U.S. based jobs to countries with significantly lower wage rates. The logic would be that with no employees to pay, except for a privileged few, there would be nearly infinite profit.

But wait, with no employed U.S. citizens, who would have any money to buy their products, certainly not the people employed at their outsource locations as they are paid too low of a wage to afford what they make.

Think this is all a bad joke, take a look around your house and see how many item you own that are still made in the United States. Oh sure the name may be that of a company based here, but where is the item actual made?

For my money any company that outsourcers more than 50% of there product or gross earnings should not longer be considered U.S. based and therefore are subject to tariffs and other trade restrictions so as to truly level the playing field.

Outsourcing Is Good

I read a blog (shar131.blogspot.com) recently about a person who went through the same horrible experience I’ve had several times when calling Dell Technical Support and in all fairness, other companies for help.

I’m also aware that President Bush made a comment not so long ago about the outsourcing of jobs is good for the United States. Well Mr. President then I would suggest that you outsource your cabinet members, think of all the tax payer money you would save and you can simply place a telephone call or email for advice and receive something close to gibberish like the rest of us. Of course if they tell you there are still Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq (gibberish) you can always escalate the call priority and ask for their supervisor!

Red and Blue America

The meaning of a word changes

Over time the meaning of a word can change. I have always believed that translation of old documents can and do sometimes end up misinterpreted. The end result is that one little grain of mustard seed can sprout a lot of controversy. Don’t believe me, than take for example and old 1934 movie titled: ‘The gay divorcee’, the censors then objected to the word ‘Divorce’ and added and extra letter e at the end. Back then (only 71 years ago, imagine what several centuries can do to a word) gay meant happy or cheerful. Today a movie with that title would mean a completing different subject to most movie goers.

Now we arrive at Red and Blue America. During the election coverage the color red was used to indicate the state went Republican and blue was used for the Democrats. Let us go back about 25 years in time and place ourselves in a meeting being held by Red China’s chairman, the purpose to watch carefully the U.S. election results. The results are in and after seeing a sea of red states on the map of the U.S., one of the party members exclaims: Look at that, the whole country’s gone communist. At that time if you said to someone ‘he is a red’, it didn’t mean Republican.

As for me there are three colors on the U.S. flag, so next time I’ll vote White!

Tower of Bloggle

According to one web site there are in excess of 6 million blogs out there. Some simple math would show that if it took on average one minute for a person to read each blog, it would take more than 11 years to read the most recent entry of each blog. This assumes that language and lack of sleep is not a problem.

So if anyone reads this blog, I guess I’ll see you back in the next decade or so, then again maybe not!

Where’s The Beef

(or in this case the WMD)

Well the U.N. couldn’t find the Weapons of Mass Destruction, the Bush team couldn’t find them, so they tried again with the same results; NO WMD.

Now I think everyone knows about spent nuclear waste, nobody wants it in there back yard, the stuffs too hot. Nuclear energy plants, especially the older ones have at least one reactor that too hot (the radiation permeates the place until its longer safe to work inside).
So if there were any nuclear programs how did Iraq cleanup a site so there was no residual emissions to measure? Chemical weapons can be disposed of by incineration or other techniques but there always some measurable waste. Bio weapons, sure you could dispose of them by releasing the agent into the air or water but I think there would be a trail of death.

If you want to find WMD look no future than the U.S., some of our allies and some countries not considered allies. You can find more information about VX by searching GOOGLE using the key words “Material Safety Data Sheet -- Lethal Nerve Agent VX”.
The manufactures name on this data sheet: Department of the Army!
Or if you like search on “Radioactive Waste”.

So unless the Government releases some documents under the freedom of information act (without the blacked out sections) that proves to the contrary, which I doubt. Then what we should have done was to turn Iraq into another Cuba, an isolated nation.

FBI - The Virtual Case File

Well it hit the TV news today that the FBI's Virtual Case File project is in trouble again. Perhaps they should have consulted with Google on how to find information.

All Good Things (or bad)

The saying is that “All good things must come to and end”, but they must have a beginning also. Who is this poet anyway?