GuruNews, Volume 8 Number 45, 12-18-08

Thu Dec 18 20:47:25 EST 2008

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Vol. 8, No. 45                 

12-18-08

1 Christmas Shopping Guide, Part 3     

2 Oops!       

3 IE patch, Electro lives!, hacking school, Canadian bacon

4 Blast from the past       

5 Removing stubborn software

OK, we're down to the wire.  Christmas is a week away and all your gifts are stuffed in your closet waiting to be wrapped.  Or, if you're like me all your gifts are still sitting on store shelves, but that's a different story ;)

Time to make sure all of these things are going to work out of the box.  

Often things like batteries and USB cables are overlooked and certainly need to be on hand, but more modern gadgets mean more add-ons to purchase.

MP3 players should come with a gift card for a few songs, some mobile phones need minutes purchased separately so there's that, some console games are best played with controllers purchased as options. you see where this is going.

OK, that's it; we're done spending money.  Or not.

This year has been a hard one on many people, what with layoffs and plant closings and the general downturn in the economy.  A lot of families are living with parents or friends due to foreclosures, vets are being turned away for help with mental health issues and end up on the streets.  Shelters are full and soup kitchens are running low on supplies due to demand.

Haul some cans of food down to the local food pantry, take a couple of hams to the nearest soup kitchen, drop a large bill in a Salvation Army kettle.  Stick a couple of $50s in your pocket if you can swing it and visit the toy section at the nearest Dollar Store.  Strike up a conversation with the people looking at the cheap toys and slip them a little help if they sound like they need it.

Christmas is all about giving, it isn't about getting.  Take care of your own first but, if you can, help those less fortunate.  That's the true meaning of the season.

Best wishes, all, and Merry Christmas!

Editor's note:  The Gurus will be taking a two week break for the Christmas and New Year holidays.  The next regular issue will be 1-8-09.  Next year will start with the usual critique issue so be thinking of changes you'd like to see us make, new topics or columns you'd like to see, sections you don't read etc.

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

Microsoft goes out-of-cycle to issue a critical update to patch yet another remote code launch vulnerability:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/17/emergency_microsoft_patch/

Australian man builds giant Tesla coil in his backyard.  Crikey!

http://tinyurl.com/3tgaw5

As if the Internet wasn't dangerous enough, how about an online course in "ethical hacking"?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/17/internet

90% of email messages per day are classified as Spam.  10,000,000,000 of the 200,000,000,000 originate in. Canada:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/12/16/canada-spam.html

Download of the Week

If the holidays have you as stressed as I, perhaps a free game from the past is in order.  Once upon a time, there was this classic game series called Star Control. It was an action game, a space trading and exploration game--and then it was gone. The Ur-Quan Masters is a full recreation of that classic experience, and now playable on just about every platform. If you've ever fancied yourself as the next Captain Kirk (or Picard, or whatever), you need to try this one out.  Get it here: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/info.php.

By the way, it's been an honor to share a few insights with you folks.  I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, as well as a Happy Chanukka, a Joyous Kwanzaa and a Festivus for the Rest of Us.

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

Email Question of the Week

Q:  I bought Spy Sweeper over a year ago, then let it expire when I purchased Trend Micro Antivirus Plus Spyware. I go to Add or Remove Programs and highlight Spy Sweeper and click remove. My computer locks up and the only way to get out is to turn the computer off manually. I have tried this numerous times and each time is the same. Lockup. And each time I turn on my computer I get a large reminder that Spy Sweeper has expired and to renew right away. I use Mozilla Firefox 3.03 on a HP Pavilion Notebook PC. Please tell me what I am doing wrong as I am getting sick of seeing this evil software expiration notice!! Help! And thanks.

A:  The first step is to click on Start and Run and type in "msconfig" (without the quotes), then click OK.  Once the configuration utility comes up click on the Startup tab to the right and uncheck everything in the list related to Spy Sweeper or Webroot.

Click Apply and Close and restart the computer.  As soon as the screen goes black start tapping the F8 key once or twice a second.  Keep tapping until you get to a Startup Menu.  Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to get to Safe Mode and hit Enter.  When you get to the Desktop click Ok on the message about a diagnostic mode and System Restore.

Open My Computer and double click the C: drive.  Double click Program Files and look for the Webroot folder.  Right click on it and choose Rename.  Call it Webroot_Old or something and click once on the folder to save the name.

Now do a shutdown and restart like normal and make a not of any errors that come up.  If you get messages about files not found go back into MSConfig and Startup and try to find those files.  

Email me if you can't and I'll help you with HijackThis.

Kevin Mefford

pcguru at microdome.net

Contact info and legal stuff

If you have tech support questions or ideas and/or submissions for our newsletter please submit them by visiting www.thepcgurus.com and click on the "Email the Team" icon. 

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