I had to throw a lady out of the shop this morning. She used to be one of the census takers, but that operation completely shut down eight months ago. She came in to drop some junk off and proceeded to lift the gate and walk behind the counter. Whoa, lady, get outta there, no unauthorized personnel. I don’t care what you used to do, rules are rules. She got lippy, so I instructed her to leave the building. She got even more lippy, so I dialed 911. Trespassing. (She wisely left before the police showed.)Strange, some women. You have to be something really special before you get away with giving me any smart talk. You know the type, thinking because she’s a she, that gives her some kind of power over all men. Wrong. Just the weakest specimens, the ones they deserve. I suspect she had been drinking. It was 9:30 AM.
While all this was going on, I was testing my live Karaoke equipment. How I cobbled it together from spare parts is beginning to tell. Components never designed for such usage are now requiring constant attention. Anybody else would have just gone out a bought a Karaoke system. But they would not have anything like the understanding I’ve got of how it all works together. This knowledge will pay off soon. Meanwhile, I’ve got a burned out monitor, a third laptop and a missing flash drive I set down in front of my own eyes ten minutes earlier.
I was hired for an afternoon show and had to use my old set. This is the first thing I have to change, for sometimes I get people asking for bands and music I’ve never heard of. I need new material and there seems to be no getting around the capital outlay for a 26” monitor. Those puppies are heavy. I’m hoping to offset the weight by trimming down other gear, as you know.
The gig was a wake for some man I never met. I was hard pressed to play several hours of slow, quiet music. Things picked up later. It was a nice ceremony and toast to the fellow and they had a small alter with pictures and flowers set up by the stage. What can I say? This was a first for me. Makes you wonder how you will be remembered. Me? Oh, I’ve got a blog.
Wallace called last evening about a computer virus. Folks, let me tell you again, you must learn to manually operate your antivirus software. It is not good enough to just have it installed on your computer because it will sit there getting outdated. Anybody who got married too young knows exactly what I mean. Wallace’s case is common where the owner of the computer thought they had antivirus protection from their portal company.
Fact: the places that “assure” you anti-virus protection mean only when you are on their home site. Got that? Again, got that? Chances are you visit such sites (AOL, Shaw, etc.) solely to get your email, then you move off the site. You are not protected from other sites unless you have your own private anti-virus program and you know how to use it. Both conditions must be met.
The popular SOHO (small office home office) brands of anti-virus ware are, in any order: AVG (Anti-Virus Group), Trend, Norton and Symantec. (Norton is owned by Symantec.) The best of these is currently Symantec, and it only catches 63% of the viruses. The good news is it catches the vicious ones. The bad news is don’t go thinking because you have one of the applications you are protected. When was your last scan? When was your last update? If you are trusting the answers to some whiz kid who told you he set it on automatic, you are not protected. Scans should be done manually at least once a week.
Another thing to beware of is these companies often advertise “free” versions. Nothing is free. The fact is, these free scans do only that. They scan. They report the viruses but do not remove them. It only looks that way. At this time AVG is the worst offender, as their trial version (AVG Free 8.0) looks identical to the real thing. It fooled me for a week until I noticed some fine print in one of their obscure log menus. You: quit being a cheapskate, go out and buy a real anti-virus application and read the instructions.
$200 please. And don’t go behind my counter.
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