Is it really 10 years?

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This morning was foggy and frosty.  Fog had mostly cleared when I captured this image.

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The effect was most evident on the asparagus fronds.

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Ten years ago today, I posted my first tidbit on Secondary Rds.  That first year was fun and exciting.  I posted every day and sometimes more than once a day.

Lately that has changed.  It has been about a month and a half since my last post.  I’ve thought about posts, but they haven’t made it to publication.

About the time of my last post, Sylvia’s computer began to have problems–serious problems.  I checked for the last full backup of her system.  The program had stopped working over a year earlier.  (Note to self: check backup status at least once a month.)

The rescue effort started as I began to save data onto a thumb drive.  I got it all except her email addresses.  The last time I powered up her machine, it took two and a half days to boot.

We talked about alternatives and decided to put her on the Linux machine that I was not using.  I installed the data from her Win 7 computer on the Linux box.  Configured everything for her.  It worked well for a while.  Then Sylvia said, “How can I print?”

So I went to install a printer.  The system asked for a password.  I tried the words I had written on the sleeve of the installation disk.  They didn’t work.  Now what?

Next try.  I had a Win 10 computer hooked up to my amateur radio equipment.  I pulled that out and started to transfer data files.  That computer died in short order.

Fortunately, I had ordered a new hard drive.  I installed that in the Linux box.  After downloading the latest version of Manjaro xfce Linux, I installed that operating system on the new hard drive.  Once again, things did not work right.  Aarrgh!

Crushed, I spent some time pouting and feeling sorry for myself.  Then I took my XP laptop out of storage, hoping that it would be my rescue.  It was another miscue.

Inspiration struck.  Sylvia had been using Win 7 on her [now dead] computer.  I had an installation disk for that same version of Win 7.  Using the code from her old computer, I installed it on the new hard drive in the Linux box.  Joy!

The process took about six weeks, but Sylvia is back in business.  However, she is still reconstituting her email address book.

Another week went into fixing the Win 10 computer.  I only had to re-seat the four memory cards.  I’ve removed Win 10 and am now using Manjaro Linux on that machine.

Sylvia’s old computer and my old laptop, both without hard drives,went to recycling.

What’s Next?

Then our daughter-in-law’s father passed away.  It was not unexpected, but it still was painful.

Returning home from visitation, Sylvia stopped by the grocery store.  While I waited for her I watched a sparrow land on a beautiful red Cadillac.  What happened next had the makings of a blog post, but sorrow overcame.

More

Then our church’s new website went live.  Others had done that, but then it became my turn.  Because we are moving to a new domain name, my task was to setup two mailing lists and some email addresses.  Sounds easy, but it is not.

Most folks and ISPs have spam filters set very tight.  Each person on the list must be contacted directly.  They have to add an email address to their address book or contacts list.  Then I can get an invitation through to them to join the new list.  That is still ongoing.

Future Plans

No big plans here.  We are taking it one day at a time.

Computer Woes

My last few weeks have been defined by computer woes.  Even this morning, it took several tries and a software update to create this post.  You may know this feeling.

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The recent round of woes began when I started exploring the possibilities of a divorce.  (Not from my lovely wife–that would be incredibly stupid.  How could I live without her?)  I’d like to part ways with MS and Windows.

Many of us were unhappy with MS dropping support for XP.  We went to Win 7 because of the reports about Win 8.  We were just over the hump in the learning curve when Win 10 was announced.  Some of you opted for the free upgrade.  And you went back after myriad problems.

I’ve decided not to go there.  There must be a better way.  Right?

Linux has been around for some time, but is there software available?  Yes, there are programs for most of our needs.

Linux comes in various “flavors.”  Son, Scott, was also looking into the same possibility.  We decided that Manjaro was the Linux version to use.  I looked into computers that I had at hand to use for a test bed.  Sylvia’s former (XP) computer had the hardware that would play well with the new OS.

Seven times, I tried to download the disk image for Manjaro.  Seven times, the download was corrupt.  While this was going on, the test computer died.  Aargh!

It was time for a day (or so) off.  That helped.

My former XP computer is newer than the recently departed test machine.  The processor has a 64-bit instruction set.  (It’s much faster)  Should have started here.

The 64-bit version of Manjaro, is now installed.  This is the “xfce” version, which means that the web browser, e-mail client, office suite and more were installed with the operating system.  It is working well.  I’ve just begun to test, however.

Is that victory that I sense?  Here’s hoping.

More Trouble on Secondary Roads ~ Updated!

My recent problems with an infection seems to have rolled beyond my computer into some Websites that I maintain. I’ll be back once I believe I have the problem fixed.

In addition to antivirus software, you should be protecting your computer with anti-malware and anti-spyware programs. There are several good products out there.

I evidently had passwords stolen from computer. I’m glad I never let the computer remember by online banking password.

Please protect your computer. You don’t want to go through what I’ve had to deal with over the past few weeks.

UPDATE

My local computer is clean and it has been since I removed the original infection. It appears that the trojan that came from an infected blog (No, I don’t know which one it was) sent my passwords to someone who has taken advantage of that.

My passwords have been changed, and I’ve replaced infected online files.

If you get a warning from this blog, please send me an e-mail via chuck@k8ch.net. I want to stay on top of this. Your Web browser may have an earlier (cached) version of this blog, reloading will clear that. My tests here and through friends show that it should be clean.

Earlier, I removed the antivirus program that I had been using. I’ve gone to AVG free version, which checks e-mail and browser for infections. Reviews indicate it is superior to the product that I spent $50/yr to keep renewed. Further, Lavasoft’s AdAware monitors the sites my Web browser visits.

One hosting company says that as much as 30% of malware goes undetected. For that reason, it is good to use more than one program to scan for infections. I am currently using (in addition to the above), Spybot – Search and Destroy and Malware Bytes. All of these are available for individual use at no cost. You can use Google to find the download sites.

Thanks. Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Misc. & Saturday Song ~ July 4th

Before going on to other matters, my blogger bud, Lin is having a Dork Off contest and I’m entered. If you love me, you’ll visit Duck and Wheel with String and vote for Chuck. If you hate me, you’ll do the same. Thanks, and I appreciate it!

I was hit yesterday with Antivirus System Pro. This is a rogue anti-spyware program. I’m not sure how I picked up the infection. I was doing EC and Adgitize drops when things went beserk. I spent the rest of the day (and night) getting it cleaned up. I went to Windows’ Task Manager and clicked on the processes tab. Then I closed sysguard.exe. That helped enough for me to run Spybot – Search and Destroy. After I post this, I need to do some more work. I’m still getting strange redirects and warnings that reliable Websites are malicious.

Learn a lesson and equip yourself today with anti-spyware and anti-malware programs. Spybot has worked well for me, but I also use Ad-Aware and Malware Bytes. Scan your system regularly.

All this has left me longing for a simpler time, and today we celebrate the birth of our great nation. For that reason, I take you back in time to listen to Kate Smith as she sings, what for me is her trademark song, God bless America.

Wishing you and yours a happy 4th of July. God Bless America!