It Was the Bottom Of The 9th And Virus Was Up 4 To 1 Over Computer...

Yes, yes, yes.  I wrote last week or so about a neighbor's laptop that was filled with viruses and nearly impossible to fix.  Well...my neighbor brought that laptop over to my house early last week...and I went back to work.

With the help of several antivirus and anti malware programs, I was able to clean out the laptop.  It is about 98 % totally clean.  Only it's browser settings remain tied up.  It's hard drive disk, and various programs and files have been thoroughly cleaned.

It was touch and go for a while.  I even thought that the hard drive was going to fail, but it held up.

Even after this malware removal program did it's job thoroughly, there were still many more problems buried deep within files on the machine.  It would take a 4th software, a more restrictive and thorough anti virus to really dig in and find the various infections and start cleaning them out.  Here's what that software discovered:

So it's the bottom of the 9th, Computer at bat...and they have hit a grand slam against the Viruses.  Now it's just up to the home run hitter to round third base and step on home plate to make it official.

Thanks to my neighbor for trusting me with their machine.  I learned a lot.  Once I fix this browser issue, I hope that all will be better for them and this machine.

Best Places To Buy Tech

Some of my friends, neighbors and coworkers are always asking me "Where do you get all of your gadgetry from?"  And I tell them from reputable retailers on the Internet.  "You do?"  "Yes, I do."

Now I don't always buy everything from the Internet.  Sometimes I do like to see things hands on.  However, by and large, I don't shop at local stores anymore.  Not unless it's a mom and pop neighborhood establishment.  I love to support those guys for local business economy.  But there aren't any stores like that selling electronic gadgets.

I have some of my favorite Internet retailers right here on this blog.  Newegg and Amazon.  But I cannot forget Ebay as well.  I think I need to get them advertised on here as well.  Oddly enough, one retailer that I've purchased from is Apple themselves.  I had carefully chosen two items from their refurbished department, which carry FULL ONE YEAR APPLE WARRANTIES just as if you bought them off the shelf in the store.  I purchased two iPad 1's from there which saved me $400 at the time that I got them.  I put them in Otterbox cases and have never looked back.  They have worked flawlessly the past 2 years and have now been handed off from me and my wife to our two youngest kids, 6 and 10.

My wife now has an iPad 3 and the rest of us are using Android Tablets alongside our Android phones.  I also recycled a few phones in the past couple of weeks.  I have quite a few more to go.  But it's nice to be able to know that I'm doing something (recycling) that may actually help our environment in the long run.  You should always look at the different opportunities to trade back old technology gadgets and get some sort of trade value for your next purchase, or at the very least to help protect our environment.

I'll be writing some more information on ways to save with your tech purchases very soon.

A Virus Attack Right Before My Eyes

Last night (7/14/13) I went to neighbors house to try to fix a multitude of problems. It appeared as if the Machine had not been updated in quite sometime.  In addition it had a lot of excessive software installed.

The virus basically takes a photo of you and uses some official FBI looking logo, freezes your computer and tells you that you have been caught downloading child pornography.  Yep.  A rather disgusting and very sick thing to say or do to someone who's trying to erase a virus from a computer.

Needless to say, I was unable to get rid of that virus off the computer.  We did figure out that the virus warning was a hoax.  We tried one of the online solutions, but the virus is too persistent to allow you to get to take it off.  I'm suppose to give this computer another try this week.  It's going to either be me or a much superior techie.  All of this happened because they handed over their computer to their kids, teenagers, who downloaded everything - including a virus onto this machine.

But this does bring me to this point, we are the adults, we spend a lot of money to purchase these tech items for ourselves and our families.  If we really took say...15 minutes here and there to learn about the devices we use everyday.  Don't start bellyaching that it's too hard to learn this stuff to me.  I personally think that learning about today's computer's is 1000 times more easier than it was 5 or 10 years ago.  With just a little time spent, anyone can get a good working knowledge of the machines that we use in our everyday life.  Had my neighbors taken some simple steps in regards to their laptop use, they would not have this problem today.  Sit down and learn a little something folks...because the computer age is here.

Busy Gadget Summer So Far

Hellooo!

It's been a busy three weeks.  First, I broke my samsung Galaxy Note2. I dropped it from my waist at Dave and Busters and the screen broke. Luckily I had a phone contract renewal coming up. So I use the renewal to purchase a galaxy 4 and it is great. I am actually using it to dictate and type this post. At the same time friends have come to me for advice on cell phones.

Getting them to look at Androids is usually the same process. At first they are overwhelmed. Then they learn what to do. They see that it is much easier than I thought earlier. And then you can't stop them. They literally fly through the phone.

IPhones are great.  Androids are extremely flexible. Windows Phones and Blackberries are nice follow ups. I have used them all and in my humble opinion I still believe the Android to be a superior machine to the competition.  Each his or her own.  Let us consumers enjoy this high-tech battle in front of us.  The world around us has clearly changed.

End dictation.