I've got a laptop at home that got blitzed a few years ago by the blaster worm. It never worked the same again, even after I went to Microsoft Update, downloaded the programmer do-overs and installed them. It sat mostly in its case for a couple of years, except when I used it for cropping and printing digital photos offline, which would usually come to a grinding bad end after a driver error message.
But, hey, it's an expensive VAIO with multimedia editing software on it, so I decided to rehabilitate it over the weekend. BIG MISTAKE. Trust me, you'd rather sit through Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust.

Of course, these days you've got to make sure any machine you connect to the Web has updated security -- anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, and an operating system that's not holier than a Jarlsberg cheese. You've probably read WebWatch preaching about this before.
My first step was to go through the routine of downloading a bunch of critical updates from the MS site. (Watch out for all the pop-up ads trying to take you off-site and sell you registry cleaners you don't need. Why wasn't my Earthlink Pop-Up Blocker keeping them at bay?) At the same time, I uninstalled AOL and some other useless software that came with the machine. I think this is what got me in trouble.
When I rebooted, you guessed it, I got the blue screen of death and had to take the machine into safe mode. Stuck there, I couldn't fix the problem. So I dug out the system restore disks and spent the better part of a Sunday evening wiping the hard drive and restoring it to how it shipped. (Fortunately, I already removed all the files and data I wanted to keep).
I installed a free antivirus program (Avast!, you've read about it here before) to protect from all the malicious software floating around the MS site, installed Spybot from a CD, then went back and downloaded 21 different critical updates, patches, software removal tools and other things. On a 56K modem I had to leave the computer overnight.
The next morning, everything was downloaded and installed. A dialogue box was telling me it was time to install Service Pack 2.
Before you do this at home, read this. Then read this and this.
It took me more than 24 hours to download Service Pack 2, and another 12 hours of the installations running at a glacial speed before I got frustrated and pulled the plug. (The dialog box on the MS Update site said the process would take 90 minutes over dial-up). When I tried to reboot the laptop, I got a dialog box telling me I needed to uninstall the service pack because the interrupted installation made the system unstable. By the way, guess what the number one cause of installation problems is? Spyware on your machine!
The bottom line: I want the security updates from Service Pack 2. I don't want a machine-thrashing virus to take this laptop out of service again. So I just ordered the CD from Microsoft online -- forget the Microsoft Update site, life is too short. I'll let you know how things go, assuming the laptop doesn't wind up in the bottom of the frog swamp across from my house in the process.
"To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart." -- Daniel Patrick Moynihan, via the Black Donnellys

Posted by Beau Brendler at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently I did an interview with a reporter from a West Coast newspaper for a story on shopping portals -- it hasn't run yet and we'll tell you when it does. I can make a point to this blog's readers without stealing the story from the paper: Make sure you check the privacy policies at online shopping malls and portals before you use them. Why?

Remember that one of the ways these sites make revenue is by collecting and aggregating user data and passing it on to stores in the "mall" (or to whomever wants to pay). You're going to have to give away a fair amount of information to register for the bonus programs offered by these portals, so glue some toothpicks to your eyes and actually read the privacy policies. Some of the ones we looked at for the story are ambiguous. As to whether the various types of points, bonus bucks and green stamp promotions are really worthwhile -- do they save you money? -- we'll revisit that question later.

Posted by Beau Brendler at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)