Removing Viruses, Trojans, and Spyware!

A late night post from the Mac Man while I attempt to remove internet viruses, trojans, and spyware from a friend's computer. It's loaded. You boot up the machine and you instantly start getting flooded with pop-ups, fake security warnings, etc. Reminds my of one more reason I really enjoy my Macs.

The wife and I got a bunch of pictures and wall-hanging-things hung up Sunday night. Those are the kinds of things that I just don't think about, but they add a little character to the otherwise empty walls. 

My volleyball team won 2 of 3 games tonight, which was a nice change of pace from the previous few weeks. We started off undefeated for a couple of weeks, and then it went downhill fast, to the point that we didn't win a game for a few weeks. The ref has some sort of family emergency, so he left right before we were about to start. The people we played were good sports, however, and we were all pretty easy-going on calls.

The new iPhone was announced yesterday, as expected, and I'm super pumped. My contract with Verizon has been up since April and I've been waiting for the new iPhone to be announced to switch. The new version has faster internet (3G), GPS, and longer battery life, among other things. It costs a lot less up front than the old iPhone, but the data plan now costs more so over the span of a 2 year contract it really ends up costing the same. The math still works out in favor of it over my Treo, however, since Verizon's data plans are more expensive and a new Treo wouldn't be that much cheaper up front than the new iPhone. The release date of July 11th can't come soon enough, although I'm going camping that weekend and will not be near a store for the launch.

DotD: Musical pillow for $1.19. Just plug in your MP3 player and fall asleep to Kutlass.

Countdown

Just a few more hours until I'm off to TEC 69. And I'm STILL not done with my wheat. Seriously, I need to concentrate and stop blogging and chatting, or someone's going to be very disappointed. Good thing Northwestern is open until 9 and is just down the street.

I finally joined Facebook last night, but then again, I think all of you know that already. Oh, yes, I know I'm years behind, but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Even if that old dog is a computer geek.

Oh, and Cooper cheats at Scrabble. 20 points for sticking the letter 'p' between two 'o's? Seriously? That's an informal abbreviation, and you know it! I'm going to be dumping pop all over the conference room starting tomorrow and then we'll see what kind of words you use against me!

DotD: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Family Pack - $189 - Oh sure, people complain about Mac's costing more. But how about this? The full, no-features-removed-or-disabled version of Apple's next generation operating system, usable on up to 5 computers for less than a single upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. Or, get a single license for $109. No product activation and no license keys, and everyone gets the full version.

Bitten by a horseshoe

Camping last weekend was a ton of fun, even though Ms. Fiance couldn't make it. We were up at a resort on Mille Lacs Lake. Unlike the majority of the people we saw who stayed in cabins or RV's, we brought tents. Cooper and I shared my tent, which was quite spacious for just two people.

The four of us played horseshoes, croquet, 2 on 2 sand volleyball, went swimming, and went biking on the Soo Line bike trail. The bike trail was not my favorite thing. It used to be an actual rail line that was removed and converted to a combination bike and ATV trail, so it is perfectly flat and perfectly straight. There also wasn't a lot to see around us, but hey, it was exercise and we had fun biking on it as  a group.

The horseshoes, on the other hand, were fun. We played countless games, sometimes while watching the sun go down over the lake. The problem is that horseshoes are dangerous. Very dangerous. I had my camera along and was taking pictures of everything, including the games of horseshoes. I decided after awhile that I'd like to get a good action shot, so I squatted behind the horseshoe pit with the wooden  wall in front of me, and took a picture when Cooper was throwing a horseshoe towards the pit I was behind. I said to the friend next to me to tell me if I needed to get out of the way so I didn't get hit, but Cooper's horseshoe was clearly landing in the sand pit about 6 feet in front of me. I looked down at my camera, while still squating, to see that I had gotten the horseshoe in mid-flight. Sweet!

BAM!

PAIN!

Cooper's horseshoe had hit the sand in front of me, and then instead of settling in the sand, it bounced up, over the the wooden barrier, and hit me directly on the knee cap. Remember, he had just thrown this horseshoe about 40 feet, so it had a lot of momentum on it and is made out of solid metal. MOMMY!!!!!

I survived, but my knee was really sore the rest of the day. I couldn't really bike because it hurt to push down on the petals, so we moved biking to the next day. It even hurt when I was just sitting down. Luckily, my knee felt much better by the next morning, so we could continue with our biking plans a day late.

I dominated at croquet, to the point that we decided to change the rules a bit on how many extra shots you could accumulate by hitting other people's balls. Of course we were playing croquet out in an open field in the middle of the day after playing sand volleyball and swimming, so at this point we realized that we were getting crispy. Oh yeah, we kind of forgot to put on that sunscreen I had brought with me...

We did an awesome job with our food. The highlight of the weekend's cuisine was Saturday night. We built up a big fire and then cooked corn on the cob and a special potato, carrot, and cream of chicken concoction by wrapping everything up in tin foil and sticking it directly in the fire. It took awhile to cook, but boy was it good! We also cooked some pork loins on my gas stove, so in the end, it was quite an extravagant meal.

We played a little poker Saturday night as well, inside the screened-in part of my tent. Everyone lasted quite awhile, but as the night wore on, it was getting really cold. I was in the final two, so I decided to just bet everything on one hand, and ended up losing by a hair. Oh well, great fun!

Our last camping adventure took place on our way home Sunday. We stopped by Grand Casino initially just for lunch. It was my first time in a casino, and Cooper's as well. I watched everyone lose a couple dollars at the nickel poker machines, too odds-inclined to actually play a game myself. Total lost between my 3 companions: $9. Total time spent playing games: An hour? Not too shabby.

I, however, won the big one. There was a 2 cent poker machine behind where the others were playing and I saw that it said there was half a credit available. Someone had apparently left and decided cashing out a penny wasn't worth the effort. I thought otherwise, especially since it gave me a story to tell about my first casino trip. I went over to the machine (no one had been there in the 15 to 20 minutes we'd been in that area) and hit the cash-out button. A paper slip was printed saying I had a $0.01 credit. Sweet! I had Cooper take a picture of my glorious winnings, and later went to the automatic cash-out machine to claim my winnings (I didn't want to waste an actual human's time at the counter). I then took another picture outside showing my new-found riches with the casino in the background. 

So yeah, if you need some good luck, ask for me. I'm the guy that wins money at the casino without actually playing a game!

DotD: Buffet lunch at Grand Casino - $9.99 - Great food and plenty of it. And then free pop while you walk around afterwards.  And then for me, free money at the casino!

Keeping it cool

Well, many hundreds of dollars later, my car has a brand new radiator, upper and lower radiator hoses, and a complete coolant flush. It feels happier, I feel poorer, and the world is at equilibrium again.

I took my car to the same shop that I used recently for new tires and an alignment. They took a look and called me with what needed to be done as well as an estimate on the damage about to be incurred on my wallet. The quote was much higher than I had anticipated, so I called another shop in a nearby town that some guys at work had recommended. I told them exactly what needed to be done (thanks to the conversation with the first shop), and asked for an estimate. Theirs was $263 cheaper.

Now I had a conundrum. I had taken my car to the first shop because I could drive there with my limping car, since it was only about 3 miles away. I had to stop once and refill the engine coolant along the way. Even doing that, my temperature guage was fully in the red for half of the trip, and to the absolute farthest point of red by the end of the journey. I was not going to be driving it much farther, so if I took it to another shop, I'd have to have it towed. Plus, I would still owe the first shop just for looking at the car.

I called the first shop back and told them about the much lower quote. He hemmed and hawed a little bit, and then said he could do everything with the exact same parts as before for $140 less. I asked what was different this time. He said he just added in some price matching and coupons. Thanks and all, but why couldn't we have done that the first time?

I ended up letting them go ahead and fix the car, since by now the still $123 difference would have been completely eaten up by paying them the diagnostic fee and towing. Picked it up after work, good as new!

Is it just the car industry that acts this way? I don't go to McDonald's and have to negotiate for a better price. It really makes me wish I was more mechanically inclined. I can tear apart a computer, build one from scratch, write you a software program to balance your checkbook or perform automatically scheduled backups, but I often have no idea where to begin when something goes wrong with my car.

Yes, I can change a headlight, change the oil, change a tire, and maybe even put on new brakes by myself now that I've helped with that before. But the expensive stuff, not a chance.

DotD: Expert Painter-Parents willing to come up and help paint for free. I have 6 rooms, 2 hallways, and ceilings for all of those to paint this weekend. All in all, we'll have about 12 gallons of paint and primer hanging out at my place ready to be splattered everywhere.

And a bonus for you today, 50 Verbatim DVD+R discs for $5.99 after rebate.