May 20, 2013

           The days here will not return to the usual pace until this band is flying. This is, for me, a really sad photo. This is JP and I at the old estate last week. He wanted wanted my opinion on one of the few portraits still on the wall. This is upstairs in the landing above the living room, which is located a storey below that railing. We are looking at the picture but I’m a judge of other things than old paintings. Nice frame. But why sad? Because that is the only house I know today owned by one family for so many years.
           My family, who got laughed out of every town we ever lived in, moved at least fourteen times before I got out of high school. Fifteen, if you include the time they, well, never mind that. Behind JP and I is the coral stone fireplace, with a matching other side in the family room. The many Xmas pictures taken from above that may appear in this work were taken from roughly where I’m standing here.
           ZZZZzzzzzzzz. I slept in past a buy point in silver. Silver had dropped below $21 for the first time since 2010. It had recovered before I saw the flashing light on my desk. No problem, since my program also tells me how much to buy and I’m not out that much. But I’ll be watching silver like a hungry hawk for a while. Could this be the awaited Euro-crunch? Mediterranean Europe hasn’t gotten anything right in five hundred years so I expect them to screw this up, too.
           It was so quiet today I read the musicians room on CL (Craigslist). That site serves the purpose of keeping the local dough-heads busy attacking each other. I wonder if any of the commercial and religious posts that choke that site ever get any business from it? Oddly, the site does evolve slowly, like now there are increasing numbers of posts against bad guitarists, something documented here since 2005. Florida guitar players think they are perfect and have the right to step on anyone else in the band.
           Most complaints are about the guitarist’s attitude, not his musicianship. I tend to dislike both. In my books, playing a bad song is just as wrong as playing a song badly. Guitarists have terrible taste in music. Craigslist has many ads for “pros” who only want to stand in, not join the band. This results from the egotistical view that there are ready-made bands out there looking to “back up” itinerant guitarists. No start-ups, say the ads, they want to know how many gigs you’ve got lined up. Such ads tend to run for years without much result.
           There are instances where restrictions are good, such as all-girl bands, or younger groups wanting some one under 24. But mostly, the Craiglist crowd are dreamers. How about that Texas band that specifies the bassist must be over six feet tall? What’s with that? I’ve learned that it is only the flakey-brained original bands and ne’er-do-wells that have to eternally post for bass players. Fact is, Florida, all the really good bass players are taken. What is so hard for them to understand about that?
           I repeat my chuckle about “original” bands that list their influences. It sounds like so-and-so, but other than that, it is original. These bands play the numbers game. They grind out so many songs that a tiny few actually make the charts. Or they hit the market during a slump. That’s how tunes like “ABC 123” sneak in the back door. To me, a hit is something you like the first time you hear it. That’s what is lacking with music today. The music has to be drilled into their heads before anyone likes it.
           Why is it that it’s already 2013 and 98% of the computer viruses left in the world infect only MicroSoft operating systems? Gates obviously cleared out while the going was good. I’ve been getting calls from former clients over redirects, meaning Yontoo, which tends to hit AOL browsers that use the dreaded Google Chrome, in every case spread by MicroSoft products. I have a call-out tomorrow.

ADDENDUM
           Because you’ve been so nice and telling all your friends to read this blog, I will tell you how to use SpyHunter4 for free. No, not the game, the anti-virus program. These days, most viruses are disguised as spyware, so you can call them anything you want. Unless you put them on your computer, they should not be there. Last I heard, my computer was my property, which makes everyone else a trespasser.
           The problem with outfits like SpyHunter is they scan your computer and then hold their hand out for money. The price is not stated before they waste your time. That’s not free, Enigma. That’s a delayed sales pitch. And, the worse part about buying anything on-line is that you cannot do it without giving out the exact information you don’t want on their damn files.
           So, go to (no link here) www.enigma.com and find their latest offering. At time of writing, it was called SpyHunter4. Make sure it is an ordinary exe program, in this case SpyHunter-Installer.exe and download it to the special directory you created for all downloads. You do have a special directory, don’t you?
           1. First – create a restoral point on your computer. What did I just say?
           2. Run the SpyHunter installation program.
           3. NEVER auto-install, step through to make sure you only install SpyHunter.
           4. Run the scan, it will list the spyware that’s installed on your system.
           5. When you hit “Fix Threats” or “Fix Selected”, they want money and your private info. We don’t expect Enigma to work for free, but they should show they equally respect your time by stating their price on the cover.

You should end up with something that looks like this:
So here is the workaround. Examine the list of infections. Technically, you could [painstakingly] open each list, regedit the file, and delete it. But here is an easier way.

           A. Right-click on the infection title. It is highlighted in pink (above) and you can only highlight one line at a time.
           B. If you see a pop-up that says something like “Go to registry…”, that is what you want. (If you see nothing, go on to the next line.) WARNING: if it says “Add to Exclusions” you do NOT click on that.
           C. Left-click on the "Got to registry..." pop-up and watch the fun. SpyHunter ripples through your system to find the offending file. Be patient, these infections are well-hidden.
           D. When you have the file on your screen, find the [Delete] command and delete.

That’s it. I’ve intentionally left out a few intermediate points figuring if you don’t know what they are, you should probably not get into your computer this deep. Then run the scan again to see what else you’ve uncovered. If I was Enigma, at this point I’d ask for $50. But I won’t. However, should you take it upon yourself . . .
           Repeat the scan until you are clean. Keep in mind some viruses need to have their directories deleted in cmd mode, or they will keep coming back. I hesitate to give DOS commands, but if the directory will not delete and keeps coming back saying something like “not empty”, use the RMDIR [directory name] /s. The /s switch will kill anything. (Anything, it seems, except the hated Outlook Express.) Use with caution.
           Also, as well as your registry, check if the virus has created its own directory in your Program Files. If so, delete these directories last or they will just get re-created by your registry within moments. Wait, that is unclear. What I mean is kill all the registry files first, then after that if there is a directory with the virus name in your Program Files, delete it as the last step you take. If you delete it any sooner, it will just reappear.
           If all else fails, repeat the above instructions in safe [F8] mode.