Tag: computers

On technical difficulties…and movie trivia

You may or may not have noticed that I’ve been a tad quiet this week. I’ve not been taking a break from the blog…at least, not voluntarily. My internet went on a temporary vacation, preventing me from doing anything here.

That shouldn’t happen. I have uncapped internet. It’s 3G, so at times there are signal problems, but this wasn’t the signal. I know because Facebook worked fine. And Twitter. And all my programs’ automatic updates downloaded fine. But nothing else.

I don’t have a problem with Facebook as such, but it’s a tad frustrating to not be able to access anything else for forty-eight-plus hours. And Twitter is full of links. I couldn’t click on any of them. No Wikipedia. No Google. No news websites to read where I can be upset by the comments (actually that was a relief). No blogs! It was torture, I tell ya!

Thankfully, all’s back to normal now. Updating my browser seemed to do the trick, though I have no idea why the previous version which had worked fine until two days ago suddenly didn’t. I also don’t know why both Chrome and Internet Explorer (yeah, I was actually THAT desperate) developed the same problem at the same time.

Whatever the reason, I’m glad to be back. Though when I consider that I spent the first two-thirds of my life without internet it’s a tiny bit disconcerting that two days without it now affects me so. I might need to take an enforced internet vacation soon for the sake of my sanity.

But enough of that. Here’s a bit of movie trivia:

This powerful wizard from a galaxy far, far away was also a vampire, a dentist and a pastor and in real life caught Nazi war criminals before becoming an actor.

Comment with the name of the actor and all the movies referenced if you can figure it out. First person who gets it right wins a walk for two under the full moon on Saturday night (not with me, though, unless you’ll spring for my plane ticket).

On resolving technical difficulties

So, my day was fun. As mentioned yesterday, both my pc and my laptop decided they didn’t want to work anymore. I’ve had computer problems in the past (who hasn’t?) but always just one computer at a time. This is the first time that more than one ganged up on me at the same time.

After running virus scans, malware scans, registry cleaners, disk checks, a system file check and scrolling through a few hundred entries in the system log I finally found the problem. Turns out it wasn’t Microsoft taking revenge after all, but the latest update of the program I got from my bank’s internet banking site supposed to protect me against malware and phishing attacks. Unfortunately part of the ill effects of this update was that it made the computer freeze every time I tried to uninstall it and system restore wouldn’t work either (and in case you didn’t know, you can’t uninstall programs in “safe mode” as the installer doesn’t run there).

I was weighing my options between doing a clean re-install (which would have meant wiping my hard drive and starting from scratch), taking the pc in to the shop for a repair install (which I can’t do as I don’t have a retail-disc of Windows but only the one that came pre-loaded when I bought the pc), or performing a bit of percussive maintenance by invoking the title of my blog, when I came across The Windows Club. They had the answer in the form of an application that could activate the installer from within safe mode and I was finally able to uninstall the offending program.

I am very glad to report that since 12 this afternoon neither my pc or laptop has crashed once and I haven’t had to test whether or not a laptop and desktop pc fall at the same speed when dropped from a fourth storey window.

I still think we should be careful what we say online about Microsoft, though. I honestly believe they’re way more powerful than the world’s governments and a much bigger threat to privacy than PRISM.

Speaking of PRISM, click here for something funny. I promise your IP address will be recorded and immediately forwarded to the US Department of Homeland Security along with a photo of you taken by your webcam.

On experiencing technical difficulties

I have a (I think) quite excellent blog post half-complete for today. It has been half-complete for the past three hours. That’s how long my pc has been habitually freezing the moment I try to do anything short of simply staring at the desktop. I started up the laptop, but it’s doing the same thing.

Earlier today I made a rather negative comment (actually two) on a friend’s Facebook status regarding Microsoft. I think they saw it and now they’re punishing me. Either that or the last set of automatic updates were complete rubbish. I’d run system restore to undo the last update, but then the computer freezes. I’m pretty sure Microsoft is doing this on purpose.

Sadly, this means you won’t get to read that excellent post. I’m typing this on an Android tablet, so should be safe from Microsoft interference, but it’s a very cheap tablet, so I can’t edit the pictures I was intending to include with the post. Also, while I have a keyboard for the tablet it’s rather small and my hands are cramping up just from the few words written here.

So, I’m afraid you’ll have to be satisfied with this for now. I’m running every scan I can think of that doesn’t make the computer freeze, so hopefully things will be back to normal by tomorrow.

In the meantime, be warned: it’s not PRISM, Big Brother or even Santa Clause you should fear. Rather, fear Microsoft. They’re more powerful than you think!

On what happens when a spambot breaks down

Spambots. We all know and despise them. Every once in awhile we get these comments on posts that make these vague statements about how they liked our posts and then, in my experience, there’s usually a link to some sight that promises to increase traffic to your blog in exchange for a fee.

Apparently these bots also have a random message generator. I know this because one of them made a comment on my post yesterday. It made every comment that it can possibly make. At once.

Here’s just a little extract: Continue reading “On what happens when a spambot breaks down” →