The Weekly Geek

Kent will be on “The Gun Show” with Matt Canovi (KSGF 104.1 – Springfield) this Sunday (December 5th 2011) between 3:00 and 4:00, he will speaking about this topic and personal security with your technology. The show will also be avaliable as a podcast on Monday. You can listen via your computer at http://www.ksgf.com/listenlive

Lately we at IFix Computers have been dealing with more rootkit infections than normal. These internet nastiness are much more difficult to cleanup and cause a lot of havoc for the user and their networks.

Rootkits, worms, viruses, Trojans are all different forms of infections and can get on your computer in various ways. Gone are the days of you purposefully needing to download an infected program or open a link in an email. Today’s infections have been called “drive-by downloads” and quite often come from infected websites that you have legitimate reason to be there. The infections are called SQL injections and they have infected PBS, Intel as well as thousands of smaller web sites. The fix for the webmasters is easy and in the case of the big boys mentioned above they were repaired in a matter of hours. [Read more →]

Origionally called the 12 bugs of Christmas, I thought this was just too fun not to pass along.

For the first bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
See if they can do it again.

For the second bug of Christmas, my manager said to me
Ask them how they did it and
See if they can do it again. [Read more →]

Over the last two months I have received several calls of people who turned off their laptop, allowed their laptop to go into sleep mode or hibernate or even simply closed the lid when finished using it and on next use, the laptop would not come on.

Here is the quick way to fix this issue 90% of the time.

Unplug the laptop from the wall, remove the battery, now press and hold the power on button for 2 minutes.

Now plug back into the wall, DO NOT RE INSERT THE BATTERY.

Next press the power button, if this works, properly shut down the laptop, re-attach the battery, restart again, if it works YEAH TEAM! You just had a simple electrical issue.

If the laptop does not boot after inserting the battery, you have a bad battery, time to order another.

Until we meet again, have a virus free week.

I attempted to find a direct link to Seagates web site with this information, it came to me in an email from Seagate. We prefer Seagate drives but also use Western Digital (see my previous posts) as they are owned by Seagate.

Below is the text of the email to us partners.

“As has been widely reported, the severe flooding in Thailand is a tragic situation for families and businesses across the region. To aid in the relief and recovery efforts, Seagate is donating US$1 million across a few key organizations in Thailand. [Read more →]

Howdy one and all and welcome back to anther exciting and fun filled The Weekly Geek adventure!

I just wanted to finish my review of the ViewPad 10, dual booting tablet. In the first review I went over the features of the Android OS, in Part 2 I discussed the Windows 7 OS on the tablet, here I want to discuss the hardware and physical use of the unit.

As a reminder, I am not a ludite, I love technology! However when a 12 year old says “hate it” have to say, maybe this is not the dream product it appears to be.

When this was first released, we were promised accessories, to date, none have appeared. Now before you Google for accessories, read what you find, they are NOT for this model and the products that cover to help keep the divice safe do not have holes that align with the buttons and connections on the ViewPad 10.

Speaking of buttons, OMGoodness, really?!?! Three buttons to rule them all, three buttons to run it all, three buttons and that is all! If you purchase this device, plan of having lots of “oops”, and “oh man”, and the often “that’s not what I wanted you to do!” Give me, and my test users a break, three buttons, what a joke.

The card reader did format in Windows, still does not in Android, most likely not a hardware issue. No way to protect the tablet from bumps and scrapes, and three buttons.

SAVE YOUR MONEY  or buy this one from me!

Until we meet again, have a virus (and a ViewPad 10) free week!