Chit Chat Thread for the week of March 2nd 2009

March!

March sure came in like a lion here in SC. 6 inches of snow. However, it's about all gone now, but is was fun for awhile. Kids had a great time. Big thing for the kids was to hook sleds behind ATVs and get pulled. Yes its dangerous but fun if you go very slow. Oh well, the snow has gone now - maybe next year.

It was a very persistent fellow. It would only allow a visit a website that was selling a fix for $50. My son had let his virus protection lapse so it did not catch it. He could not get to any web site so he gave me a call. I made a trip to his house with a copy of Avast!. (A free virus protection software) I was able to install it, but with some difficulty. The virus tried to keep me from installing software. It took avast! with and without upgrades, running boot scans twice to get rid of it. I wonder how much money these shysters are making from people who aren't aware that it is a virus that slows your computer to a crawl, and creates continuous bogus pop-ups...

The bright side of the visit, I got to play with my grandson while the scans ran and my son gave me his gas-powered weed wacker he no longer uses. Now I can whack the weeds the rain has bought...

enjoy the rest of the week. I pray they find those athletes that are missing off the coast of Florida.

Sorry to hear, geske.

I hope your car is fixed and back on the road soon!

It seems like a lot of the anti-malware software sold on the web are actually malicious programs in themselves and then try to get you to buy the software after they install badware on your computer. It seems to be a big problem right now.

I'm glad you were able to finally get rid of it, and hope your son keeps current with good anti-virus and anti malware apps from now on.

.... from a light freeze this past Monday morning, we're going to the 80's on Thursday. Before you know it it'll be Summer.

I really goofed off today. Cant belive i had to post on the Second page. Gezzzzzzzzz

I was just watching our local news here in Tampa/Clearwater and the Coast Guard called off the search at sunset tonight. Its not looking very good for them right now.

Some private boaters are going our tomorrow to try and upright their capsized boat and also do some searching while they are out there.

Meanwhile, Nick Schuyler's condition has been upgraded to fair, but is still in intensive care.

I have been keeping up with the news also.Had high hopes after they found one survivor it was just a matter of time to locate the others.

Walked to the polls in a Tee-shirt and flip-flops... (I had on pants as well ) No snow here... or rain at least today....

Go Blackhawks!

It's been nice in So. Cal. nice temps and no rain to speak of. It's better than Nebraska.

aophiuchus, I can sympathize with your son. I got the same virus on my laptop and tried to remove it with my software with no luck it got do embeded that I had to take it in and redue the whole hard drive. Not a good virus to get. Hopefully anyone that get's is will keep clicking on the red x until it is closed don't try to close or cancel with the buttons on the bottom. Glad you where able to get it removed.

I can't say enough good things about Avast! virus/mal-ware protection program and it is free for home use... All they ask is for you to register it. It was the only program that would install on my son's computer with that virus running... My son was afraid he was going to have to do as you did and reformat his HD...

Here is a free program that works great for finding virus and computer tune up.You can do a full scan or pick from column on left side of screen. http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

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it's the dog's fault

Hmmm.. More rain in Silver Lake... Just made it home from my a.m. hike when it started...

Get to the internet or load most of the anti spyware programs... It was a real pain...

Edit: So I would defiantly advise getting something while you can, if you get this virus, it will be to late to down load this or other free software...

But you can switch to IE and it runs... Thanks for the link... You can't be too careful...

Change you clocks - change your batteries.

Yeah, it's time once again this weekend for that rather stupid, twice yearly changing of the clocks in all but a few places...I could go on a rant about that, but won't...

Back to the "Change you clocks - change your batteries" - this weekend, as you change your clocks - take the time to change the batteries in your smoke detector, CO detector - diabetics: replace your glucose meter batteries... and change batteries any other battery powered device you count on to be there in the event of an emergency.

We now return you to scheduled programming...

Belated happy hump day everyone. I just finished doing my taxes, yeah!

55 degrees and sunny here in Cleveland. two days ago it was single digits, so the weather is a little fudged while making the transition in to spring.
30 day's will make all the difference around here as the flowers begin to pop up and those big huge buds on the trees begin to open.

Nice weather for Florida today and looks like 80 for the next week.Happy days are here again.

It's going to be a beautiful day in Silver Lake...

We got snow last night and more expected this evening and again sunday night into monday.

I got it too. What a pain!! I used Spyware Doctor to get rid of it, but it took me about 2 weeks to be happy with the way the computer is running.

Slows it down is an understatement. There should be a way to send it back to the originator and slow their computer down.

Oh well, glad I got rid of it and glad you got rid of it for your son.

Have you guy's tried Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware?

Key Features

* Support for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista (32-bit only).
* Light speed quick scanning.
* Ability to perform full scans for all drives.
* Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Protection Module. (requires registration)
* Database updates released daily.
* Quarantine to hold threats and restore them at your convenience.
* Ignore list for both the scanner and Protection Module.
* Settings to enhance your Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware performance.
* A small list of extra utilities to help remove malware manually.
* Multi-lingual support.
* Works together with other anti-malware utilities.
* Command line support for quick scanning.
* Context menu integration to scan files on demand.

http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_...

I use it. It gets a lot of praise and is good software.

Another good tool is PC Tools Threatfire. It does a great job at preventing malware from getting on your system.

It got a great review from Maximum PC mag.

It is available for free from www.pctools.com

As a final note PC Tools software seems to very greatly in quality depending on the application. Their anti-virus app received very low marks.

It got up to 37 degrees today with drizzle. Now everything is a slippery mess again.

The snow on the side of the road is dirty from sanding and looks horrible.

I think I'd rather just have it keep snowing until the middle of April. Then it can get warm and hopefully melt quickly.

This next week is supposed to alternate between rain, snow, freezing rain, sleet, etc. This change to spring is pretty nasty.

I've had good luck with AVG's anti-virus software (free version) and also with Lavasoft's Ad-Aware (also free).

Thanks for the heads-up, I didn't realize it was this weekend.

Lucky me, I'm one of ten people who get to return to the Cleveland Auto Show to see if we win a new car (Acura TL). I have a 90% chance to lose!

At least I get to return to this year's auto show for free. Since I'll be in the area at that time, it's not an imposition at all.

BobDee, thanks for the link. that is the same one that they had to use to get rid of the antivirus 2009 that I got on my laptop. It was the only one they had that would get rid of it.

had to correct some spelling

I see that WSPA's antenna tower collapsed, too. SC got it worse than we did (about 5 inches in central NC).

Go Cubs

Good luck, I saw the car myself.
I think that the admission should have been free anyway, stimulate the auto industry. The Dealers should have picked up the ticket and packed the house everyday. Heck the Spitzer's could have done that single handed, they sell every car made and have a dealership for them.

Yep...I remembered.

Weather is cooperating with the Spring theme. We hit 60 yesterday and it's already in the 40's at 11:AM (which would have been 10 AM if I forgot to change the clocks!)

They say another 6 to 12 inches between tonight and tuesday morning. It's been in the high 40's all week and just about melted all the snow. Remembered to move time ahead.

I would rather have snow Flurry's or snow than rain, It been in the 60's last few days. Now it's in the low 40's and lots of cold rain (2+").

I guess if it had been snow we have gotten 24"+ and I don't have to shovel the rain. March rain makes people miserable, where April showers bring spring flowers. Go figure.

It's been raining for 2 days in S.E. Michigan. People drive slower in the rain than when it snows. Go figure.

No one seems to slow down for the rain, they don't slow don't for the snow either though.

It' been raining for over 2 days in northern Illinois / my sump pump is running all the time!

What is with all this snow in Horseshoe Bend, Id? I thought Spring was here.... Maybe next week

Congrats to USA baseball team over Venezuela and Canada.

How did I get so old?

Hey panama, you can't be that old. I went to Fort Clayton Elementary in Panama CZ in 1966. So... how did I get so old?

We're not getting older, just more people are catching up to us.

Funky weather pattern here in Chicago. It was in the 60s last week, but we should be back down to the teens for a low by the end of the week.

Woo hoo!! #100, I made it before the new one.

Toronto 3 days ago 18 deg.C today snow and ice, great. enough is enough already...