Good & Bad

Welcome back and happy almost Friday.  Yesterday after lunch things got busy.  A large project dropped and that kept me occupied for the afternoon as well as part of this morning.  There is more work to do but not until tomorrow so it’s going to be a busy Friday.  The only good thing about that is it will be fast moving. 

Looks like the Groundhog(s) managed to build a new den, it is located on the corner of my neighbors fence and goes underneath a shed they have.  If they manage to tunnel and emerge in the neighbors yard they have a dog (I call him Sir Barks A lot bet you can’t guess why) that will shred both of them or so I think.  Amazon Alexa said that a Groundhog can easily defend it’s self against a small dog but their dog is medium to large so who knows, I don’t want to find out.  I saw the baby out last night getting its munch on.  It is common for them to have several dens so I’m not offended.  I like them and wish them no harm but kind of wish they would move on.  Kind of doubt that is going to happen unless someone traps them and rehomes them, I’ve given up on that idea way too costly.

Got in some early play time with the cats and took a shower before heading to bed.  I slept fine until around 5a this morning and then my bladder said it was time to get up and my brain said oh yeah that’s a wonderful idea.  Rudy was happy when I got out of bed but not so when I returned a short time later.  He waited patiently by my head until I was ready to get up.  I gave him some attention and he made some biscuits. 

My new hard drive arrived and I’ve got the data copied over.  Now I am compressing things to help save space and then I plan to format the recovery drive I was sent and copy the compressed data back to it so I have a local backup if it’s needed.  I can update it as needed, until I manage to fill that drive up.  This will be a process but if I stick with it I hope to be done by the end of the weekend if not before.  Then I can start having it all backup to the cloud as well, you can’t have too many up to date copies when it comes to data recovery. 

The weather for the weekend is spotty showers, doesn’t exactly make great weather for spraying for pests but if I can get the stuff down and it dries then I’m good.  It’s designed to fade away over the course of two months.

Got my first new promotional internet bill, glad I signed up for the auto pay discount because my bill is a whopping $2 less once they add on taxes.  Auto pay is a $5 discount but odd how it actually works out once the bill is generated.  It’s still cheaper than what I was paying.  The only thing I have noticed is that at two different periods I have had spotty connectivity where it’s solid for a while and then randomly skips.  It only makes a difference when I am working, my play streaming and browsing don’t seem to notice it.  The fix has been to reboot the modem and then the router.  I started a log since this happened again yesterday I’m looking to see if there is a trend.  If so might need a different modem even though this one is supposed to be brand new.

Well back to the fun that is work.  Hope you have a great day.  Take care!

Blowing in the wind

It’s Friday Eve again!  The only thing better is Friday at the end of the day.  Yesterday turned into quite a long day.  I was able to end work at my normal time but stayed in front of the computer.  I looked down and damn if it wasn’t 6p.  The cats pounced when I opened the door, they were vocal and you could tell they were hungry and unhappy.  I fixed all of that.  Finished off the left over pizza.  Had a small hand held snack size Cherry Pie for desert and made my way to my room. 

We watched some YouTube videos and hung out.  I got on social media and found out that one of my favorite YouTubbers that I’ve been following for years got hacked, his channel disappeared and his Gmail account was taken over.  He’s playing hell to try to get it back and honestly it doesn’t sound good.  As you can imagine he’s devastated.  This is where data backup comes into play so that you have your content always & forever.  The email problem all I can say is you get what you pay for.  Gmail is really nice but if you run into a problem there is no support.  I hope that he can get his channel and account back.  At least he still had his social media accounts, which is a good thing. 

This scenario is why you want to use different passwords for every account, make them long & strong as well as random.  Stick them in a Password Vault and any account that offers Two Factor Authentication, turn it on.  Nothing in security is fool proof but the more difficult you make it for a bad guy the less likely you will be a victim.  Changing your password on a regular basis isn’t a bad idea either but if they are truly randomized passwords that are long & strong then there is less of a need to do a frequent change.  The whole password & security thing can be quite overwhelming.  Especially when you climb up the age ladder.  Trying to explain this all to an older adult can be quite frustrating.

With last night running over time I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning and come back to work.  Thankfully, Thursday’s are usually slower days.  I’ve got a colleague taking care of some project work which frees me up and unless some emergency arises I can loaf all day long if I want to.  I’m not doing that but I am not exactly breaking a sweat.  I had my morning rush and worked through the items I wanted to accomplish today.  I’m just watching to see what comes rolling in and going from there.  I’ve got an afternoon meeting which won’t be much fun. 

Tomorrow I’ve got 2 people leaving and one of them is already being difficult so it won’t be much fun and I kind of expect a long day but perhaps that will turn around.  Right now I am focused on today and we will deal with tomorrow when it happens. 

The wind is a blowing here so I am not eager to set the trash out.  Hopefully, later in the afternoon things will calm down so nothing blows over and we can have a quiet night.

Looking forward to eating lunch, perhaps taking a nap or watching some TV and just in general pushing myself away from this computer.  My neck is bothering me a little bit as is my upper back.  I sat on the heating pad last night and boy did that feel good.  The only thing better would have been a massage from a human or a machine that applied enough pressure like a human. 

Not sure what frozen item I will microwave tonight.  Looking forward to hopefully finally diving into the Carrot Cake.  The sugar wearing off from that, falling asleep should be effortless tonight or so I hope.  Take care and be well.  I will talk with you all again soon. 

Afternoon Rambles

I’m trying to pass time and thought of a couple things that I needed to do.  I was unfortunately a LastPass customer and I left them last month and switched to a different password manager.  Which is highly suggested since they haven’t really been forthcoming.  I’ve not had fun changing all of my passwords, but that is a recommended task after you migrate away.  I remembered that I put in a security code for a couple accounts as well as security questions & answers.  This afternoon I updated the security codes and security questions. 

Regardless of what the security question is it’s best practice to have a different answer.  As an example if you grew up on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and the security question is What was street was your childhood home on?  Your answer should NOT be truthful but instead something random like 57 Chevy.  This is because it’s fairly easy for people to use social engineering to figure this out and because there are now tracks on the internet so it’s just easily attainable information.  The problem is it’s easy to remember the truth but it’s when you lie that you have a problem remembering, that’s where tracking stuff like this in a password manager/vault comes in handy.  The truth/lie thing is a tip I picked up from watching Judge Judy back in the day. 

In addition to doing this I remembered that back before Gator passed away I changed my emergency contact and beneficiary at work to my brother.  Given his reaction when I called to tell him about Gator and the fact that he no longer had my cell phone number, spoke volumes to me.  He really could careless about me.  It’s been that way my whole life but this cemented it.  This afternoon I changed everything back to my Thanksgiving friend.  If/when I meet someone or even make a closer friend I may revisit making changes.  I know my Thanksgiving friend won’t live forever so time is working against me there, because he’s up there in the age bracket.

Odd thing is that he, you and a couple other friends are the only people that know about Morea & Rudy.  I’ve not felt compelled to share that information with anyone else.  No one has asked me if I got more cats and I am sure that eventually it might come up, I’m not sure if I will share that or not kind of depends on the person and circumstances.  Not sharing information has it’s advantages. 

I was waiting for a specific time to roll around because I had a work task to take care of.  That time has passed and the task is done.  I am ready to head upstairs to be with the cats.  I know they will be eager to see me.  I’m finishing off the pizza tonight.  Last night was the first night where I had no extreme allergy symptoms.  Hopefully this pattern keeps up because that was no fun.  I’ll either have an Oreo Bar for desert or if I feel like it I will dive in for a piece of Carrot Cake.  I want the cake but I think of how much bread was in the pizza and for some reason that makes me want to change my mind.  I know it makes no sense because I’m not exactly eating healthy so it really matters not but for some reason that’s just how my brain works. 

Have a good evening and be well. 

Is change coming?

Hello and welcome back!

Things are okay at the moment. I’ve got a Meet & Greet setup for tomorrow with the prospective new cats. I went to see them this afternoon. One was sleeping and the other one was back in a corner just looking around. They are both pretty plump but if all they do is relax and sleep it wouldn’t be a whole lot different than having Gator around. I still have some reservations. Mostly if the timing is right or if I am moving a bit too fast for my own good. I know there will always be cats up for adoption. Have I really given myself enough time to grieve? I’ve kept pretty busy and had very little time to myself where I was all alone. Sure, working from home, I am alone but it’s not quite the same because my mind is focused on work.

Friday afternoon I got to looking at photos and videos of all of the family and I started looking for my goodbye letter to Momma. Turns out I never wrote one. I published a post on my blog and that was the extent of it. However, I embedded a YouTube Video of Charlie Puth and the song When I See You Again, which was written for Paul Walker. I played the video and just reached a point in the song where I cracked. I sobbed and let it all out. I know it’s healthy and I’ve got no shame about crying, it’s a natural emotion. Like any other emotion you can bottle it up but eventually it’s going to come out in one form or another. Might as well just let it go when it hits. It’s the healthy thing to do, kind of like when you need to sneeze or cough. I really honestly thought I was done with crying and that I was comfortable with the fact that she is gone but the truth is that it’s still raw and it’s closing a very long chapter in my life.

My life chapters have been long. They all have evoked every emotion possible and I’ve learned a thing or two a long the way.

Chapter 1 – Figuring out my sexuality & getting comfortable with it

Chapter 2 – Meeting my late spouse

Chapter 3 – The loss of Grandma

Chapter 4 – The loss of Grandpa

Chapter 5 – Moving out of my childhood home & in with my late spouse

Chapter 6 – Taking in Momma, watching her give birth

Chapter 7 – The loss of #1 Son our 1^st cat we had together

Chapter 8 – Taking in a stray & his friend

Chapter 9 – Losing my job, taking care of a sick cat, raiding my 401K and filing Bankruptcy

Chapter 10 – Getting Married then 3 months later losing my spouse

Chapter 11 – Starting to live on my own with 7 cats & a Bankruptcy that wasn’t mine. Losing a job and starting a new one

Chapter 12 – Slowly losing cats & the loss of my mom

Chapter 13 – The Pandemic how it changed me and my life, and Getting COVID and living through it

Chapter 14 – Losing Gator

That’s just off the cuff with little thought. There is plenty more to my entire story but those are kind of the high and low points mixed together. If you asked me a month or longer if I thought that my life would end after Gator passed, I would have told you yes. I did have intentions of ensuring that would come to pass. Why? Simply put I’ve got nothing to live for. The cats were my life and the reason why I got out of bed each day. They helped me hold on to what little sanity I have left. Now that they are all gone my heart has a huge crater of a hole in it, it hurts and there just aren’t words that can express how deep that pain is.

Yet I’ve managed to keep on going, despite accidentally almost doing serious injury or worse to myself when I fell into that damn jet tub. I’ve spent lots of money like it’s growing on trees because I simply didn’t care. It’s time to settle up and it hurts. Today I see a bit clearer and yeah, the trip to the hotel and the laptop purchase were necessary at the time but today I could easily live without both. However, that’s not the way it works. You spend the money today on credit, you have to pay for it when the bill comes due and while that might seem like a million miles away it’s here quicker than you know it. I’ve said it a few times before money isn’t an issue, what I did didn’t put me in financial dire straits. It stings a little but it’s kind of like a papercut it hurts for a day or two and then it begins to feel better.

In case you have yet to figure it out, I’m using this post as a form of therapy, which largely is why I got into blogging in the first place. It was to provide a window into my life to the outside world. Strangers that I’ve never met and for the most part probably never will. However, I did get a good friend out of it through some drama that her, I and a bunch of other people fell into. That common thread caused us to bond. I started to type about the drama but that part of my life is over. When I lost my spouse, my friend had experience in that as well and that’s the first time we talked. She lived in Canada and sadly she passed during the pandemic from something other than COVID. It was a sudden thing that just got worse quickly. She was the first person’s funeral that I attended virtually. It was very strange and didn’t really offer much in the way of closure. I spoke with her family and even sent them something to comfort them. We (her and I) had another common thread that brought us together and that was the love of pie. I was supposed to go visit her eventually and we would meet at a pie place. Sadly, that never occurred. I felt bad about it but as Ferris Bueller said “Life moves fast, if you don’t stop and look around once and a while, you might miss it”. Well said and that’s a lesson and a reminder we can all use from time to time.

You and a couple of other people in the world are the only ones who truly know how much hurt, sorrow and loss that I have experienced and how it’s deeply affected me. Having PSTD from the loss of my spouse and then losing cats and my mom it makes me hypersensitive and combine that with my struggle with death and you’ve got one very hurt person.

One can only cry so much and hurt so much. I want it all to stop. I want life to deal me a better hand with more sunshine and rainbows. Throw in a boyfriend, some additional friends and either my job to get better or a new one – even better would be to win the lottery and be able to quit. I’m ready for a New Attitude and a New Life a much better one. I’ve tried slightly before to turn things around and while I didn’t fully accomplish my goal there was a light sprinkle of happiness mixed in. Losing Momma was the start of when things went off a cliff. As I am positioned today the only other person(s) that can die are either people that I grew up with, My Thanksgiving Friends, Work Colleagues or My Brother. I’m not isolated from death but I’ve got a slightly better position than what I had when the cats were all with me. Any additional losses at this point will hurt but short of my Brother I don’t think that any would affect me as greatly as the loss of my spouse and my cats have. I kind of like that insulation and want to be alone but I know it’s not healthy long term, especially when I work from home so much.

In prison they use isolation as a form of punishment or reserve it for someone who has committed such a horrible crime or crimes. In that case you’ve got no distraction, your just stuck in a tiny cell and maybe get an hour a week for some recreation and/or a shower. With nothing but time on your hands and no distraction I can see how it can be so maddening and cause one to quite literally go insane. Yet here I am post pandemic alone and I’ve got my freedom, semi decent health and a couple friends. We don’t function as I think friends should where we get together frequently or do things together. Instead, it’s just someone to be with around the major holidays for comfort and if there is a crisis in my life such as with the loss of my spouse or a cat, they are there for me. However, it’s on a limited basis and there is only so much they can or will do.

Getting two chunky monkey cats would give me company and companionship, which I think would be healthy. It will affect my wallet more and draw me back to the vet that I really don’t want to go back to. It puts a couple of boat anchors or a yolk around my neck and I am encumbered. However, in return for the responsibility I get love, affection and companionship mixed in with a laugh or two here and there. Eventually that relationship will change and the cats will get older as will I. They will need more medical care as will I and I will be right back in the same damn position I was with each cat that I owned where I have to make a decision. That’s the part I want to avoid, that’s the part that causes all of the hurt & pain. Hence why I would kind of rather be alone, even if only a temporary thing and not a long-term thing. I wouldn’t have the responsibility and I wouldn’t have the possibility of something dying on me again.

You can pretty well take this to the bank, if I do it again regardless of how many years I get with them, when they pass then I am out forever. I won’t own another pet of any kind. Primarily because if things go like they are supposed to I will be in my late 60’s or mid 70’s and my health will probably be declining by then. I never really thought about that aspect of my life until I started looking over adoption applications and all of the information they wanted. One of the questions is for what reason would you entertain returning the pet and one of the responses is owner’s health has declined. Wow that’s me I’m going to eventually have serious health problems just like an elderly cat. Think of that, then think of being alone and well its not such a good combo. I can only hope that I will meet a boy, guy, man that will care for me like I cared for my late spouse for many years and through many health events.

I said all of that to fall back to my original opinion that if it’s meant to be it will happen. If for whatever reason this doesn’t work then I will take the warning and stop trying to jump back into cat city and take a break. It might be temporary or it might be forever, it’s kind of like just playing it by ear. However, I think that these two will fall in love with me and that I will wind up adopting them. While they aren’t the Tuxedo cats that I wanted and they aren’t as young as I wanted, they aren’t terribly old. I will know more after tomorrow’s visit and right now I am just in emotional soup. There is some doubt, stress, worry and wondering. Will any of it benefit me, of course not. But I stress out on anything major in my life and this is more than just two cats, it’s a huge financial commitment. Kind of like purchasing a car or a home and well that financial stuff is scary because you know not what lies ahead. While today I have no worry or concern, I am an At Will Employee and my job doesn’t come with a guarantee or contract as to employment. Cats or not, if I lose my job I am screwed and not in a good way. Again, I’ve got no worries or immediate concerns. Not that I am trying to will any bad vibes here but there is that damn black cloud that follows me like my shadow and it puts out some Monsoons from time to time.

On a different note, last night (Friday) I got a whim to try to reinstall Windows on my computer. I started at 8p and it was 2a before I was even close to going to bed. I fixed the search function in Windows and a couple of other issues that were looming. I had to fight to get some customizations reapplied but things seem really stable and good right now. Hopefully, they stay that way. It was just a reinstall of windows on top of what was here, it kept all of my programs and data. I was doubtful if it would work but alas it did, just took its sweet time and with the customization fight that is what took up the larger part of my evening. Nothing like me trying to solve a computer problem, I’m like a dog with a bone and don’t know the word quit. If my little furry alarm clock would have been here, she would have been screaming her head off at me. I’m really surprised that I actually made it to my therapy session. Which by the way went better than the last 2. I am kind of on the fence if I want to keep going now or just stop. I haven’t scheduled anything but I’ve got the ability to. I am entitled to 3 more sessions and I have to schedule the next one within 3 weeks of today or the relationship automatically terminates.

I got some good food for supper, have a little bit left over that will go good for lunch tomorrow. I should pass out rather quickly tonight because I have not had a nap all day long. It’s been pure sugar and caffeine that powered me along with a minor dose of adrenaline.

Going to make a quick call, maybe surf for some porn and then upstairs and relaxing followed by eventually bedtime. I plan to be an early riser tomorrow, get breakfast out and hit up the grocery store. Then try to kill time until I need to leave for the Meet & Greet.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for not only reading all of my blather and rambling but just being there with me on this journey that we call life. You are appreciated! Take care and I’ll be back with an update on how things go.

Giving up on Windows Search

I went through a mountain of steps to try to reset and repair file indexing in Windows 10, none of which worked.  I still get a grey flash and then can’t type in file explorer.  I could upgrade to Windows 11 but I am not a fan and until I am forced I won’t be upgrading. 

I looked for free alternatives to Windows Explorer search.  The top recommendation I found was a product called One Commander (https://www.onecommander.com/) it’s free for personal use.  It take a little adjusting but I think it’s my new best friend when it comes to searching, at least for now.

Just in case anyone of you encountered this problem I thought I would share the solution I found.  It seems to work pretty well.  If you perhaps know of a fix for Windows 10 that I might not have tried feel free to leave it in the comments, if your solution resolves my problem I will give you a shout out.

Computers there great but only when they work correctly!

April 2nd

I was listening to a tech podcast today and heard something new. Apparently, you aren’t supposed to ask any of your voice assistant for phone numbers. A guy called in and said that his mom asked one of her devices for the phone number of Amazon Customer Service and she called the number that was provided. It turned out to be a direct number to a scammer, who gained access to the woman’s Amazon account and placed a large order. They also went a step further and conned her into giving them access to her computer. The bad actor was on the machine for about an hour before her son found out what was going on and pulled the plug.

What the host of the podcast hypothesized is that the voice assistant went to the internet and spat out a number that it found as a result of the query. Anyone can make a website and claim to be a large company, get it into the Google search results and viola.

The lady had an Apple Computer and they are rather impervious to malware but that is not to say there wasn’t anything on the machine. More than not, there is probably at minimum a RAT (Random Access Trojan) on the machine so the bad actor can remote back in to the machine as needed. Best and safest bet is to blow the machine away and start over with a fresh new copy of the Operating System and then restore your data. This is yet another good case for why you should regularly back up your files, you never know when and/or how a disaster will strike. I feel sorry for the lady apparently this is the second time she got duped. These types of scams seem to always affect older folks who aren’t as hip to the tactics that bad actors use.

I have the number to Amazon Customer Service. I had to dig for the number years ago on their website. I found it, called and found myself having to reach out to them again within the next month. Since it’s not easy to find the number I wrote it down when I found it and added it to my contacts so now, I am always prepared. What I find amazing is that when you call (since it’s a toll-free number) they know who you are, have your account and just ask you to verify a couple small things then the call takes off from there. I some how think they have a voice print recorded and they use it to match against the caller to confirm identity despite the verification questions. I can’t prove that 100% but being a technology company, it wouldn’t surprise me. They already know my voice from all of the stuff I ask Alexa, despite the fact that I have never setup a voice profile so the device can get to “know me better”.

Interesting times we live in and you just can’t be too careful today. Kind of sad in a way that you have to watch out for silly stuff like this but it can easily wind up costing you a small fortune, especially if they get access to your bank account or a credit card.

====SWITCHING TO NORMAL MODE NOW======

In other news keeping with the daily blathering’s. The cat seems to know when the weekend is around because she bothered the hell out of me all night last night asking for food multiple times. I was so glad that I made my haircut appointment late in the afternoon. It gave me a chance to relax a bit and work in a small nap.

Made it out for my haircut. Didn’t exactly feel the greatest, my stomach was doing some strange things. However, after my haircut I went to grab up the mail. Then on to the cat food store. They had less on the shelves this week than last week. Then on to Target to grab some litter and found Trout Cat Food so I grabbed that up. That was Gator’s supper and she was quite thrilled with it.

I am behind on my weekend tasks but thankfully I still have another day and I do believe it will all come together. I am currently working on my bed clothes. They sound like they are about done so I will have to go up to fetch the next load of laundry. Then when ever it is that I do get upstairs for the night I will work on the dishes. That should put me in better shape.

I plan to grab breakfast and groceries tomorrow as per usual. Then I have the rest of the day to do with as I please. I didn’t venture out tonight for supper. I looked at the menu for the new burger place I’ve talked about. Turns out they really don’t have much of a menu. They have a $6 milk shake which I do think is quite expensive. It’s starting to sound a little more like that scene from Pulp Fiction.

Friday was one hell of a day at work. A surprise person who added herself to the mix of people that made Friday their last day. Not that we couldn’t take one more but it is far better to have ample notice to plan and prepare, sometimes you just don’t get that. There are far more people leaving than starting and we are losing some people that I consider to be good talent. That Great Resignation movement is very much still in full force and my employer isn’t hurting at the moment. The more people that leave make much more work for me, so I look at it as job security. I learned this week that we are also planning some major technology changes that will likely cause upheaval with our end users but then again change does that. It also means there will be some work for me since I am involved with onboarding and offboarding.

I put in a time off request for a couple days in May so that I can go see my doctor. It’s a Thursday/Friday combo as I always do. I am working from home normally on those days but a break is always nice. I look forward to being in his office again it will be the first time this year since I had COVID and that prevented me from going over in person. I am interested in lab results to see what is going on inside my body and if my A1C is still in check. I took my sugar this afternoon just before I was leaving for my haircut and got a reading of 82. That is low for me so I ate something and grabbed a piece of hard candy as I walked out the door. That helped perk me up a bit. I tend to slack on regular eating on the weekend in the hopes that I can shed a pound or two, sometimes my body goes with the flow and other times like today I don’t exactly feel the greatest and have to eat.

The weather is warming up a bit and feels much more like Spring than Winter. However, were at the odd point in the year where one day it’s great and the next day you’re in the deep freeze. I just hope that we have much more of a spring before the hot days of summer are thrusted upon us and we are forced to turn on the AC. For the last number of years, we have a very short spring and go straight into summer. I heard one of my neighbors today mow their grass for the first time. It’s getting close for me but I think it is a task that can be put off for another week or two. My lawn guy already reached out to me and I told him to start when it needs it. I am watching closely so that I can track it for payment purposes.

Happy April everyone. I hope that you survived April Fools Day and didn’t get too many pranks played on you. Enjoy the weekend and be well, we will talk again soon.

Hot Tip– Google Chrome Security

If you use Google Chrome and would like some additional security protection, read on. 

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, most of us know about security threats and the dangers of the web.  Chrome has a lot of built in security protection, but I discovered some additional protection that you can enable for free. 

It all starts with the 3 dots, click this icon in Chrome

Now click on Settings from the menu

 

Then Click on Privacy and Security 

 

You should notice the selected radio button is on Standard, this is the default when Chrome is installed. 

You want to change it to Enhanced protection

As indicated when you choose Enhanced Protection, this will give you Faster, proactive protection against dangerous websites, downloads, and extensions.  It will also warn you about password breaches.  The only caveat is that you have to allow your browsing data to be sent to Google.  This is so they can analyze where your going, to figure out if it’s safe or not. 

Let’s not kid ourselves they are also going to be using it for analytics as well.  I figure there probably spying on me already why not take advantage of some advanced free protection. 

That’s the Tech Tip du jour.  Hope you enjoyed this and that it will help keep you even safer on-line.  Happy surfing!

** UPDATE **

If you feel wary about this, you can always download BRAVE (www.brave.com), which is a better browser (their marketing claim).  It’s based on the Chrome browser but takes out the tracking. 

Also Microsoft’s new Edge browser is also based on Chrome I have heard good things about it as well. 

 

 

Meh

Feeling so-so today, a bit better than yesterday. I still have some sinus issues present but at least my teeth aren’t hurting, which is a good thing! My gum is still irritated by the tooth that was worked on but I hope that with a little bit of time it will get better. The mouth seems to heal it’s self rather fast but it’s also quite vascular. I feel a bit warm but just noticed that it’s getting a bit hot in here.

Gator started crying last night and spending time in my bathroom. I don’t know what was going on. I woke up at 5:30a from a confusing dream and she started. I also see evidence this morning that she was in the basement at some point over night. She ate like a starved little girl this morning, so maybe she was just hungry but it seems rather odd. Marv didn’t want to eat at all this morning, par for the course but by dinner time he should be chowing down. Turkey seems to have fallen out of favor here, no matter when I serve it or what else is flavored with it, neither of them like Turkey anything. Got to love picky appetites, it keeps you guessing and frustrated.

Last night I was playing with my ear buds trying to get the audio pause out of them. When I am on a call just when someone is about to say something important or funny the audio drops out for a short bit, enough to where you miss what they said and can’t put the pieces together. I looked online for fixes and tried everything that I could find but it seems that perhaps I just got a defective pair. Considering the price point I have opted to return them, sad to say. I am upgrading though to a pair that costs even more. The new pair will be here on Friday, they have an app so you can install firmware updates, check the battery and do more. It’s more visual control. They also have Alexa & The Google Assistant built in (but I could careless). I am getting them to be able to listen to music and talk on the phone. The game plan is to maybe start walking on the treadmill and what better way to pass time than listening to music, an audio book, podcast, etc. The talk on the phone part is where work would come in. What I am returning are the JBL Tune 120 TWS and what I am getting as a replacement is the JBL Live 300 TWS. The music experience on the 120 TWS is great and I’d keep them if it wasn’t for the audio issue. Both come in different colors and I of course chose Blue. Something to look forward to on Friday! If the new pair gives me any trouble at all I am done and will opt out of the ear bud game entirely.

On the work front I got word yesterday that my two weeks of vacation have been approved. I have something to look forward to in the middle of October and then again at the early part of December. What will I do with that time off? That’s a very good question and right now I have no idea and no plans, other than my follow up doctors visit in December. Would be nice to sail away from reality for a while though.

This week seems rather light at work and I’m thinking that’s because next week is when I am next on-call and usually that is when all of the preverbal shit hits the fan. I hope I am wrong and next week is just as easy breezy as this week has been thus far. I also realize that there are two more days left in this week and that at any moment things could go south. I just hope that doesn’t happen as everyone can use a break. I’ve got a video meeting in a bit that will drone on for about an hour and then the rest of my day is wide open. Put the phone on DND and take a nap, that sounds nice. Then throw in some TV and lunch, wow what a nice afternoon. Let’s just see if that comes to pass.

I found a freeware program called Winaero Tweaker. It lets you modify a lot of things in windows from large to small. One of the many tweaks I made was I put seconds on my desktop clock. By default, seconds aren’t shown just the present time. Now I can see seconds and it’s really neat. Give it a google if your interested. There are some settings in there where you can wreak havoc on your system but you can always click the undo button to remove all tweaks. I did make a couple minor tweaks but the clock one by far I think is the coolest.

Keeping with Technology News, Apple apparently pissed off a bunch of people by saying that it’s releasing IOS14 today along with other OS updates. Normally the Apple products roll out and then everyone else gets the OS updates after the fact, this year has been nothing but different for everyone and I guess Apple thought why not be different. I’m looking forward to it but also kind of don’t want to upgrade just yet in case there are bugs. With Apple you can’t easily if at all rollback to the old version if you don’t like something or if something goes awry.

Well that’s all I know at the moment. Hope your doing well and staying afloat in this crazy world. Hard to believe it’s the middle of September! Each day closer to the election – at least the political ads will stop after that monumental event is done, regardless of who wins. I really dislike political ads in general. Take care and I’ll talk with you peeps again soon!

Holy Cow, stressful day!

My day started off early at 2a when thunderstorms woke me up. There was no going back to sleep it was a serious storm. I did my usual, got up had a Diet Coke and grabbed a couple Oreos. Watched TV and waited for the sugar to help lull me back to sleep. That happened around 5a. Then the cats had to have their breakfast so I was back up at 6a and of course the storm was still raging. I fed them and hopped back in bed.

I finally got up around 9a and just got started with my day. Since the storm was going there was no way I was leaving to get in the rain just to get groceries. Instead I started by taking care of some weekend work tasks. While they were processing, I cleaned up my home PC and rebooted it. It came back up and I logged back in at work, the job I had running was done. I checked and of course as I predicted my co-worker hasn’t bothered to log back in and do his part like he was supposed to. I’ll hear some lame excuse tomorrow and then he will be working on it all day. It’s such a disappointment, I expected more from him. Boss man called and we chatted about it, I just chalked it up to something probably came up.

I went back to bed but there was no sleeping even though I was tired. I opted to get up and eat some lunch around 12:30p. Then got dressed and headed out. The sun was shining and I was happy about that. The grocery store was packed to the brim. There was however a larger selection of prepared food to choose from. I got some Italian dishes and a Burrito. Nothing terribly exciting but hey if push comes to shove, I can always hit up a drive through or call in something and pick it up.

I made the mistake of playing with the gutter outside and got attacked by Mosquitoes, I knew I should have stayed in the house but I wanted to try something out. It’s a temporary fix and I will need to find a better solution, but that involves a trip to the hardware store and that is put off for another day.

Then on to unpack the groceries and as soon as I was done, I got an alert that a machine on the network came in contact with a virus. This is actually the part when my boss reached out. He is a micro manager at times. I know what I have to do but he decided to micro manage and I did things ½ ass. Of course, he called back about a half hour later to “check on me” and wasn’t terribly happy with the course of action I chose. I didn’t want to bother the user because it’s hell to get someone to call you back, especially on a weekend. I knew that our AV product cleaned things up, it’s in the log – but that isn’t good enough for him. You have to run a complete scan. Gee if you are going to that extreme might as well replace the machine, I mean AV can only tell you what it sees (detects) but if you think there is something lurking the only sure way to certify that is to build a replacement machine. That’s a huge inconvenience to the user and I almost issued the command to have that done because the fucker wouldn’t call me back once I reached out. Of course, I send an all clear email because I took over the machine and got the scan done. Then the fucker has been pestering me all afternoon but since he’s an “unknown” caller he goes to voicemail but won’t leave a message.

Now it’s time to take care of a title change aka a promotion. I got that done and then opted to do something I never ever do when I am on-call. I turned off my home computer. It is up 99.99% of the time. It’s great for ease of use. However, if you don’t give the machine a break now and then you run the risk of blowing a fan or power supply, at least that has been my experience. Well when I started it back up hours later, I got an error message that the CPU fan wasn’t detected. See what I mean.

I got the machine to start backup, and took the case off. All of the fans were spinning. I turned it off and watched at start up. The fan on the CPU wanted to start spinning when power was applied but it froze. I got an error message, told the machine to boot anyway and then the CPU fan started up. This machine is 6 years old and that is well beyond the lifespan of an average home desktop computer. While I know that I will need a new machine eventually I am trying to put it off as long as possible. I did some shopping on-line and have an idea of what to expect if I opt to pull the trigger.

By now the day has gotten away from me. I had to start cleaning the house and physical activity caused my sugar to plummet like a rock. I kept pushing through until I just couldn’t take it any longer and then got to the kitchen and started consuming food like mad. Then time to rest. Watched a little TV and then got up. Time to put out medicine, I do this task once every 3 weeks and I hate it with a passion.

I wanted to write a completely different post that I have been suppressing and need to just get it out to feel better but here I sit bitchin. As if all of this isn’t bad enough my MS Office Suite decided to become corrupt so I had to reinstall it.

It’s been a busy and stressful day. I am glad it’s time to call it quits. Looking forward to some Chocolate Chip Oatmeal in the morning. It’s a new flavor and I had to try it. Hot cereal (what I can eat) all blends together after a while. Plus, I eat so fast that I really don’t enjoy it because I am rushing so much. I did this prior to COVID. I had a small amount of time to gobble and then it was shower time and after that it was get dressed and get out the door. You never know what traffic will be like and better to be ahead than behind. While I will likely not have to worry about traffic for the foreseeable future at some point the game will change and life hopefully will return to a state of normal.

Best news that I have to offer is that I have some time off coming the start of next month. I still have a morning task to preform at work but that usually only takes 30 minutes. Then the rest of the day is all mine and hopefully no one will bother me. Of course, just as I got approval, I learned that another co-worker is taking time as well for surgery and that kind of took me by surprise. He’s older and I just don’t have a good feeling about it.

Well I need to get away from this screen because I will be back here and trapped in the morning. I’m glad that that cats are so forgiving. Let’s hope I don’t catch too much hell when I go upstairs. Now it hits me I’ve still got to deal with laundry. Oh joy, the cherry on the cake of my day. I suppose it can always be worse no matter how bad it is.  Best part is that tomorrow is a brand new day and we start fresh.  Hopefully things won’t go off the rails. 

Here’s hoping that you had a better day than me. Were in for lots of stormy weather this week and I think with that will come some sleep interruptions but hopefully not. Talk with you peeps again soon. Take care and be well.

Passwords & Security

Good Day, I hope that this finds you doing well.  Today I thought I would switch things up a bit and write a Technology article.  

Everyone has at least one but probably more than one account that requires a password.  Passwords are like physical keys in that they are a bit of a pain.  As you evolve you will undoubtedly have to create passwords for more and more accounts.  What is the best method?  How many characters should I make it?  How will I remember it?  When should I change it? 

Best practices are not to use anything simple.  Most people use something that is easy for them to remember but also easy for others to guess.  At least one of you reading this article has a password that contains at least one of the following … a current or former pet’s name, your house number, part of your social security number, a spouse’s name, a crushes name, part of your name or the numbers 123.  Passwords are personal so folks tend to personalize them.  They aren’t license plates and no one should ever know them.  What to do? 

Your best bet is to sign up for a password manager.  This is essentially a vault where you can securely store multiple passwords the advantage being that you only have to remember the master password aka the password to the vault.  Be careful because if you lose the master password you will lose access to your vault.  Some password managers will choose random passwords for you to use on sites/accounts that you need.  Your best bet is to make a password lengthy 16 characters or greater to be more specific.  Some older systems won’t allow for super long passwords but use as many characters as possible.  Change your passwords on a regular basis.  Every 60 to 90 days is good but at a minimum 1 time per year.  Whatever password your using, do not tack an extra character on the new password, make it totally different. 

There are many password managers on the market.  I found an article that PC Magazine put together that outlines the Best PasswordManagers for 2020.  Give it a read and hopefully it will help you make your choice.  Most password managers are free but paid versions offer greater features and they aren’t terribly expensive.  If you have the extra cash I would recommend paying for the extra features. 

The best approach in security is to have layers.  In addition to having complex passwords it is also best to enable something called Two Factor Authentication [2FA].  What is that? 

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is sometimes called multiple factor authentication.  Adding one more step of authenticating your identity makes it harder for an attacker to access your data. This drastically reduces the chances of fraud, data loss, or identity theft.  This is typically something physical.  Back in the day businesses used small devices that fit on your key chain called RSA tokens.  Today you can use a cell phone and have as many digital tokens as you need.  Usually this is a 6-digit number that randomly changes every 30 seconds.   

In order to take advantage of 2FA the provider of the account needs to have it available for you to use.  Most financial institutions, some health care providers, some email providers, both Google and Apple as well as other organizations take advantage of 2FA.  If it’s available I suggest enabling it. 

Some organizations use SMS or text messaging to send a code to your cell phone.  This is old school and has been proven to be insecure but if it’s the only option offered take it, as it’s better than nothing. 

Just like Password Managers there are multiple 2FA managers.  I recently learned of an app called Authy and it seems great because the key advantage is that it lets you backup your data as well as run the application on multiple devices which makes it a bit more convenient.  Personally, I like a push notification to my phone and then to acknowledge yes, I approve or no I reject rather than having to look up what the present 6-digit code is.  But that is a personal preference. 

I found an article that outlines the Best 2FA authenticator apps in the hopes that it will assist you in making a choice. 

I’m looking to avoid a potential headache from posting this but I want to be polite at the same time.  Suffice to say that I work in IT to generate an income/living and to have a career.  I am not looking for side work.  I actually avoid it like the plague because as soon as you touch a machine the next time something goes wrong, you get the blame.  If you have a generalized question or two, I don’t mind providing some feedback or my opinion but I don’t want to embroil myself in any issues.  Hopefully, you understand.  I don’t expect anything like this to happen but I want to put it out there to be safe.  I do hope that you find this information useful and helpful.  That is the purpose/goal of this post, as well as to educate/inform.  

Take care and I will talk with you peeps again soon!  Be well.  

HEARTBLEED

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have no doubt heart about the Security Flaw ‘Heartbleed’.  There are plenty of articles on-line that you can Google to explain it better. 

The best thing to do is change your passwords.  However, prior to changing your passwords, you should run each website that your logging on through a heartbleed checker.  If the company hasn’t taken the proper measures, your password could still get compromised. 

You can find a website to check sites against and get a free password manager from the fine folks at Last Pass .  Last Pass will help you generate secure passwords and automatically fill them in for you, so you don’t have to remember a million passwords.  You only have to remember one and that is to login to your Last Pass account. 

Another step you can take ….

If you subscribe to Yahoo Mail or GMAIL they both offer something called 2 Factor Authentication.  This means that you have to have a password plus a random code that is generated each time you login.  The code is sent to your smart phone via a text or a phone call.  You may also see some other sites offering this, if it’s offered, turn it on and use it.  This is your best defense to keep all of your information secure. 

I just spent a couple hours and changed all of my passwords.  It’s not a fun task but it’s something that we all need to do on a periodic basis.  I think we should have a National Change Your Password day – not that it will get anyone a day off but just to remind you to do something that really needs to be done. 

Happy Easter!

PC Tip–Quick PC Setup

Did you get a new PC for the holidays?  Do you setup computers for a living?  Well I heard about this great new site, you can select multiple pieces of software, then download a single file.  The file will install all of the software you chose (it’s all free stuff) without any toolbars or other options you don’t want.  I used it today to setup a machine and it’s a true time saver.

Totally free unless you want to upgrade to the pro version.  Check it out at http://ninite.com/  I think you will really enjoy it.

Now it’s off to Relaxation Land.  Talk with you peeps later!

PC Tip - FBI: Hundreds of thousands may lose Internet in July

by LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press

Posted on April 20, 2012 at 11:17 PM | Updated today at 4:18 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer.

Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.

Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.

"We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get `page not found' and think the Internet is broken."

On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two Internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March, giving everyone opportunity to clean their computers. But it wasn't enough time. A federal judge in New York extended the deadline until July.

Now, said Grasso, "the full court press is on to get people to address this problem." And it's up to computer users to check their PCs.

This is what happened:

Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the Internet's domain name system.

The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address -- such as www.ap.org -- into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.

The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least $14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their Internet browsing.

When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie's clean ones. Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about $87,000.

The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique Internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The U.S. has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.

Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.

FBI officials said they organized an unusual system to avoid any appearance of government intrusion into the Internet or private computers. And while this is the first time the FBI used it, it won't be the last.

"This is the future of what we will be doing," said Eric Strom, a unit chief in the FBI's Cyber Division. "Until there is a change in legal system, both inside and outside the United States, to get up to speed with the cyber problem, we will have to go down these paths, trail-blazing if you will, on these types of investigations."

Now, he said, every time the agency gets near the end of a cyber case, "we get to the point where we say, how are we going to do this, how are we going to clean the system" without creating a bigger mess than before.

------

Online:

To check and clean computers: http://www.dcwg.org

Awesome PC Tip

If you are anything like my partner, you are particular about your Desktop.  Icons have to be arranged a specific way and in a specific order.  Then something happens and all of a sudden your icons rearrange.  My partners blood pressure shoots up, he screams, yells and cusses.  To say he is upset is an understatement.

Well fear no more.  There is a new free program called Desktop Restore.  You download and install it, then right click and choose Save Desktop.  It will then do exactly that.  So when the next icon crisis comes up you just right click and choose Restore Desktop and presto all of your icons come back and then you can take a deep breath and relax.

This is for Windows Users only.  You can get the program again free of charge from www.midiox.com and it’s called Desktop Restore.

I put it on my partners machine this afternoon and then called him in.  I told him his PC could do magic and he said what kind of magic.  I said the icons can arrange themselves by name.  I then clicked sort by name and he panicked.   Then I sensed the blood pressure rising and he screamed why did you do that, it will take me hours to put it back to normal.  Then I said well the trick isn’t complete.  I right clicked and choose Restore Desktop and you could hear the sigh of relief and then he asked how I did that.  I told him and he was so thankful.  I love to get his heart racing it’s kind of fun, just as long as it doesn’t stop in the process.  I can’t tell you how many times he has had to rearrange his desktop, so he was very thankful that I did this.

Now for my usual disclaimer, proceed at your own risk.  If this program should happen to mess something up or something goes wrong in the process it is not my fault.  Good luck and enjoy!

Bonus PC Tip

My partner was having some printing issues today and that got me to thinking, folks know about updating their operating systems (ex Windows Updates) and they know to update Programs (ex Adobe Reader) but do they know to update their printer, probably not.

Most all modern day printers have Firmware updates.  That is software written specifically for your printer.  It can include bug fixes, improve printing, conserve ink and lots of other things.  To find out if your printer has a Firmware update get the make (ex HP, Xerox, Lexmark) and the model number of the printer (ex Desk Jet 410, Platinum Pro 905) and then browse to the Manufacturers web page.  Look up your specific printer and then look under a tab that could be labeled Software or Software/Downloads, you may find this under a different tab as well.  If you locate Firmware look at the date on the file if it’s recent then you will want to download the file and follow the instructions included for updating. 

The most important thing is do not do a firmware update when there is a chance you will loose power.  So if there is a storm in your area or you are experiencing brown outs, because if you loose power while the update is in progress you very well will destroy your printer.  That’s right it will become an oversize paper weight.

While you are at your Manufacturers webpage look to see if there are any other software and/or driver updates.  I personally wouldn’t mess with a driver update unless you are having problems printing or communicating with your printer.  Other software updates should be okay.

Just like in my last PC TIP, this is information.  If you choose to move forward you are doing so at your own risk.  So if something goes wrong it’s not my fault.  Chances are pretty slim that something will go wrong, but the possibility still exists.  So I have to put in this disclaimer. 

Earlier this year I had some printing problems with my Lexmark printer.  Turns out the print head was shot.  I called Lexmark and they sent me new ink and a new print head.  I had already installed all of the latest software and firmware updates.  I used to go through ink like a normal person would drink water.  Now I get much better printing and my printer doesn’t consume ink like it used to.  Needless to say I’m very happy.

Happy Computing!

Tech Tip

From time to time, I share Technical Tips on programs or things you can do to help your PC.  If you have a question, feel free to ask.  I may or may not know the answer but I will get back to you.

Recently I learned something that will help extend the life of your PC.  Now if you just bought your PC no need to do this.  If your PC is at least a year old or older then keep on reading. 

Every PC has a fan, in fact on mine there are 3.  One is on the power supply (can’t touch that).  One is on the Heat Sink and the other is just a general fan to help keep the heat down inside the case.  Ventilation is the best thing for your PC.  You ideally want to keep your machine off of the ground, even if only 1 inch.  It helps to cut down on dust.  Make sure the sides are not blocked so your machine can breathe.

Now back to the fan, powered the machine down and disconnected everything from it.  Then took it to a different area where I could work on it.  First, I blew out all of the dust with an Air Compressor, you can also use canned compressed air or if you want to be fancy and can’t stand dust (I should have done this) use a vacuum but be careful.  You need a soft brush attachment and/or a crevice tool.  Once that was done, I unplugged the fan from the Motherboard and then took out all four screws.  There is a sticker on most fans, carefully peel that off and underneath you will find an oil reservoir, use some 3 in 1 oil (be sure to use this and NOTHING else) and apply a couple drops.  Don’t use too much.  Wipe off any excess and then carefully put the sticker back.  If it won’t stick, use some tape.  Then reinstall the fan, hook up the power back to the motherboard and all is done.  This is something you need to do on an annual basis.

Why?  Well over time the lubricant that was inside the fan, will wear out with run time and heat.  The ball bearing inside the fan will then grind away and your fan will shoot craps.  All modern PC’s will shutdown if they get too hot.  If your fan does go out on you, you can pick up a new one at your local computer supply house or even Best Buy.

I did this first because I heard of the tip.  Second because my machine was making some odd noises.  I didn’t see any obvious causes and this fixed it.  It’s all quiet now except for the occasional subtle click of the hard drive.  Just like the day I brought it home some 5 years ago.  Wow, it’s been a good machine and I hope it keeps on going for a while longer.  It’s not like I can afford a new PC right now.

A few words of CAUTION.  First, if you try this your doing it at your own risk.  I’m not responsible for anything that goes wrong.  This is merely friendly advice.  If I was doing the work myself and something went wrong, that my friends would be a whole different story.  So please be careful if you do try this!

I hope that you found this helpful and that if you try it, your PC will be happier and much quieter too.  Take care and Happy Computing!