Sean's Blog

Over the last ten days, I’ve been working on a number of computer issues. More accurately, I’ve been working on a number of computers since the beginning of the year, both at home and at work, and I’ve been busy as a result. It just seems like there have been a number of issues.

My downstairs neighbor got a new computer, and there were a number of issues stemming from it, such as her cable Internet not working (because, despite what she was told, it was never activated, which does make it kind of difficult to use) or connecting a webcam that came (kinda) with the computer. It helps if they send one that works though, because after an hour or so, I found out that the second one worked no problem. Good thing it was a double pack.

My computer died sometime in the middle of last week. Meghan tried to connect her iPod and it wouldn’t work correctly. I tried mine and ran into similar issues. After reinstalling iTunes, and then having dinner and going for a walk, I came back to find my computer off. Unfortunately, it had been on when I left. Press the power on button: power on then off. Again; on-off. Again; stays on and everything gets power, but the lights that should come on, don’t. Now, a new motherboard, video card, PSU, and stick of memory later, I’m ready to wipe my hard drive and re-install everything.

The above wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the next day Meghan’s computer died as well. It would be easy to fix if it was a software issue, but it was the (45GB) hard drive; it was making a lovely click-click-click sound. All her school work was on there. Surprisingly, this occurred on the same day that I thought “I need to back up her hard drive” while considering recovering the data from mine before wiping it. (On that note, I’m going to have to look into raiding my HD, or review commercial home back-up systems.) Fortunately, her Window’s installation went stupid back in October, so I had a back-up of then on my hard drive. (I think it now sits on 3 or 4 different hard drives I have access to, just to be safe.) Also, since our downstairs neighbor got a new computer, I took the old one so I could eventually take it to Environmental Recycling, which also recycles computer equipment. Despite running Windows 98, it had an 8GB HD in it, which, when paired with the extra 6GB HD that was already in her computer, gives enough storage to at least get a basic XP installation up and running with what she needs.

This week, my mother called me regarding an issue she was facing with Google. Apparently, Google keeps track of what IPs go to what regions, so that google.com redirects to the correct localization. Apparenty, Google thought that the IP my mother had should redirect google.com to google.es. I won’t lie; I found this to be incredibly amusing. My brother, upon hearing this, choose to start IMing her in Spanish. Aside from the humor of the situation, this is something that’s common enough to require a Google Help Center article regarding it. All that can be done now is wait for the issue to get resolved, and have her use http://www.google.com/intl/en/.

Perhaps I’ll post about the computers I’ve had at work some other time.

Wintereenmas is upon us, starting today and going until January 31. Wintereenmas is a holiday to celebrate gaming, and was started by the comic Ctrl+Alt+Del. I may not be able to play LotRO on my computer this Wintereenmas, but at least I have the Wii and my work laptop, so I’ll be able to do some celebrating. May pwnage be with you all, and to all, a good frag.

This past week I’ve been checking my Firestats, and noticed that I was getting a lot of traffic for two of my articles about VB6. Unfortunately, all the traffic has been from one IP address, 64.22.107.90, and it’s all through the same Google search term of ‘vb6 protection’. A quick Google shows that I’m not alone in noticing the garbage traffic. Some sites apparently lack any sort of spam filter, or don’t bother to clean up the spam, as you can find some sites with multiple posts from different people using the same IP. Sure, people on the Internet don’t always have the same IP, but the fact that the comments that are posted tend to have nothing to do with the actual content.

Fortunately, I have Akismet protecting my site, so I didn’t get any of the comments added to my posts, but as I stated above, not everybody appears to be as lucky. With that said, I did all I could do, which was send an e-mail to the abuse e-mail for the IP’s provider, GNAX.net. With any luck, they’ll actually try and resolve the issue instead of just hoping or waiting for it to go away.

I’m curious what ISPs due when they get enough complaints regarding spam or malware traffic? Being the ResNet Coordinator at BGSU, when we get complaints we tend to block it (if it’s a large enough issue) but then we also try and get out there to take a look at the computer to get it cleaned up. I’m already operating under the assumption that the computer at that IP is actually infected with something that is making it send out the spam.

• Does the ISP simply cut the connection and send them a letter or phone call stating why? I doubt it, as they are a paying customer, but I also don’t see this happening as then what’s to stop the customer from canceling the service and going elsewhere? All that does is change the IP that the spam is coming from.
• Assuming they block access and tell the consumer that it’s been done, does the ISP then tell the consumer what they saw, traffic-wise, coming from the computer? This could help the consumer in trying to contact someone to get it resolved, but I’m guessing that this is something that isn’t done either.

So it goes. All-in-all, it just comes down to it being a regular day on the Interwebternets.

I was reading The Consumerist today, and saw a couple things of note.

First, Google gives a new meaning to taking a long walk off a short pier. In fact, a 3462 mile walk (see step 18). Courtesy of the Consumerist.

Second, someone at the Consumerist got a copy of the Geek Squad Troubleshooting Manual. When I read that I thought two things: I have less training I need to create now, and most of my staff can go work at Geek Squad.

I fell behind with reading some of the non-personal blogs (instead of those of people I know), and had to comment.

Scott Karp, on Publishing 2.0, commented on this post on SearchEngineWatch, and said:

the Office Live team tells me that 45% of small businesses don’t have a Web site at all.Congrats to Google for trying to do something to bring more people onto the Web.

Do these businesses have running water, a phone line, or electricity? If you’re a business without a website in 2006, how likely is it because you couldn’t find a reasonably easy and cheap way to make a website?

I couldn’t agree more with his comment about the percentages. Day in, day out, I hear commercials on the TV for AOL and Time Warner about cable connections, etc, and sometimes I even hear about Time Warner business class, and I’m not even a business. Then there are the Spring/Nextel and VerizonWireless commercials about expanding their networks for both personal and business connectivity. I’m sure that some of this has to be sinking in with business owners. They have to have a child, niece, nephew, neighborhood or friend-of-the-family kid would they talk to about making a website. Or contact the local high school or college; there has to be someone there who could help.

With all due respect, I’m sure there are many good reasons why some businesses don’t have websites, but I’m very skeptical that the absence of Google Web Page Creator is one of them.

I agree with that comment as well, especially the end. I cannot fathom a reason why a small business would not have a website. Small businesses are, or so I thought, started by people who have a desire to do things that others have done, but better, or create a product that they think there is a need for. If they’re willing to do something that other people won’t, they have to be thinking differently. I would thus imagine that they would be willing to not just consider making a website, but to entertain the idea a bit more and get one made. But what do I know, right? I’m just a 26 year old working in the technology field on a college campus in the Midwest.

That’s probably it right there: 20-something in a tech job at a university. My view about what should be is part of the minority. As Scott Karp has mentioned on some of his posts before, people who use the Internet and World Wide Web every day for both work and pleasure are part of minority. Sure, there are a lot of people using the Internet/www (I’m going with Interweb for the rest of this post), but many are just casual users, people who check their e-mail, stocks, and weather, look at pictures, and then continue on their way. I use the Interweb a lot, after all, when I come to work, I:

• check blogs (again, both personal and non-personal types)
• read webcomics
• occasionally check the news
• read e-mail
• look stuff up on-line
• open GAIM so I can see who’s on my AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! buddy lists

With the exception of webcomics, the items listed are for both personal and work reasons. Even webcomics are useful, in that a handful deal with Interweb related things, typically recreational things, such as video games and current events. When I’m in the office, the Interweb is right there.

I decided to check the Grounds For Thought website to see what it looked like. Not too bad, but it’s been that way for a while now. So, I sent the following feedback:

In regards to the website, I’ve checked back every now and then and noticed that it really hasn’t been changing that often; that it has not been updated. I’m thinking that completely redoing the site would be a bit much, but perhaps creating a weblog through a site such as blogger, and adding a link to that blog in the menu. On that site, you could add the specials for that day, such as coffee selections, and perhaps even list any of the special events you will be having. Sure, there are better ways of doing this, but I have no idea what your webhosting service supports.

Sure, not the best suggestion, but a simple one that doesn’t require daily editing of HTML code. I’m just glad to see that they have a website. That’s better than Cucina Di Betto or Cohen and Cook (not sure how to spell it, but this is close), as I couldn’t find much of anything in a quick Google search. How I’d love to go online and see the specials at Cucina Di Betto.

So in conclusion, I find it hard to believe that almost half of small businesses may not have a website, but at the same time, I can easily find that to be true. The day is almost over, so I’m going to wrap up the few things I have still open and get ready for the weekend.

From a post on MercuryNews.com:

The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.

The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.

I actually came across that site while reading a post about it at SearchEngineWatch.com. This site does a good job about talking about what the post on MercuryNews means, such as this isn’t about privacy, yet, but whether the government should/needs to ask the search engines for this information in the first place. After the initial article, there are 15 updates of varying nature, including one (Postscript 11) that attempts to show why the math part of this is based on is flawed.

I did a little bit more research on the Google OS, and found a handful of articles/sites. These are listed for as much your use as mine.

• Google OS rumours abound in vegas
• Blogs buzzing with Google PC report
• Google operating system – this one is about 9 months old, but it was worth the read.

Really, you could always just Check Google News for more.

I came across a blog in the dwindling afternoon hours at work called Read/WriteWeb, and I found his post about the Macworld Keynote worth while. I glanced over and saw a recent post called Google OS = Moby Dick, and I had to read it. It, in turn, linked to another article about the possibility of a Google OS. All articles were worth the read. I’m going to have to look into that more.