Journal Entries - July, 2004

July 28, 2004

Be very, very careful to never believe any suspicious email messages, especially those that claim that your computer has a problem that will be solved if you run a piece of attached software. Yesterday, I received several email messages that claimed to be "from the team at ComputerBob.com." Each message was worded differently, but they all told me that "the team" had determined that my computer is being used by spammers to send out large batches of spam, and that I needed to run a program, "computerbob.com.zip" that was attached to each message. I immediately knew that every one of those messages was a lie, and that their attached program was a computer trojan -- a malicious program that claims to be something helpful in order to trick you into running it. How did I know? Because I AM "the team at ComputerBob.com." I will be very happy if and when the sociopaths who create and distribute computer viruses, worms, and trojans start receiving prison sentences.

My parents arrived yesterday afternoon, having made the 1300-mile drive in only 3 days. This is their first visit to our dream home in the Sunshine State, and we'll be having lots of fun with them before they leave next Monday.

July 24, 2004

Today, I received an email message from one of my favorite cousins, Mark. He wanted to tell me that his programming partner has developed two valuable pieces of software for Windows users. One is a Windows Product Key Code Viewer, and the other is an Office Product Key Code Viewer. They cost $7.99 (U.S.D) apiece, or $14.99 (U.S.D) for both, and they allow you to recover the long, cryptic Microsoft product key codes that you need whenever you install or reinstall Windows or Office. The following description comes from the Product Key Code Viewers site:

No, I haven't needed either piece of software yet, but I can assure you that my cousin Mark knows way more about computers than I'll ever know, so I'm sure that his partner's products work great.

July 22, 2004

If you're looking for site that is both informative and entertaining, try Computer Gripes. The following description comes from the Computer Gripes home page:

This Web site is devoted to what stinks about computer products (hardware, software, web sites); specifically to the problems I've experienced in using them. It exists because the errors, bugs, poor documentation, and occasional stupidity in the field drives me nuts. These gripes are not product reviews, which typically describe the features of a product and what's good about it. Instead they fill in the gap, focusing exclusively on what's bad about a product. The intention here is not to rate or judge products, in fact, I continually use many griped about products.

In other news, if you're looking for a free, cross-platform alternative to the Microsoft Office 2003 productivity suite, you'll want to read eWeek.com's recent review, Office 2003 vs. OpenOffice.Org.

July 20, 2004

Today, Google.com is offering a free 3.6MB download of Picasa v1.6 digital photo software for Windows, which used to cost $29 (U.S.D), before Google bought the California-based Picasa company. The following description comes from the Picasa download page:

In other news, it's a good thing we got a new roof last Friday -- we've gotten more than 12 inches of rain since then, but our dream home is still dry.

July 18, 2004

As you may already know, I still connect to the Internet through a dial-up connection, like the vast majority of people in the world. If you're in the U.S. and you use a broadband connection (cable, DSL, or satellite), CNet.com has a free online test that will tell you the speed of your connection, and how it compares to the speed of other broadband providers.

The roofers finished their work on Friday afternoon, less than 5 minutes before a heavy rain started. During the next 40 hours, our new roof sheltered us from more than 6 inches of rain.

July 16, 2004

We got heavy rain overnight, but the felt on the roof stayed waterproof. Right now, it's 8:30 in the morning, and today's crew of 6 roofers have already been working for an hour. Unfortunately, my video camera is refusing to record anything, insisting that it's too humid outside for it to work. I have a fan blowing on it in my garage, to try to convince it otherwise.

Now they've been here for 5.5 hours. They're nearly done shingling the entire roof, and are just about to cut the openings for the ridge vents. They had fiberglass material left over from a previous job, so after slightly pitching each of my flat roofs, instead of installing one layer of fiber glass on each of them (with hot tar), they installed two layers of fiber glass and hot tar on each of them, significantly increasing their expected lifespan. I got the video camera to work a few hours ago, so I've been able to continue videotaping the roofing process.

We have a new roof! It took the roofers 4 hours yesterday and another 6 hours today, but the job is all done, and it turned out to be just in time. As I videotaped the roofers finishing packing their trucks to leave, it started to sprinkle. Less than a minute later, it was raining so hard that it completely soaked me during the ten seconds that it took me to run under the eave of my garage. I laughed as I turned around and taped the roofers, driving away through the downpour.

July 15, 2004

Bam! Bam! Bam! The roofers (8 of them) are tearing off the old cement tile roof today, all the way down to its original 40 year-old, 1x12 solid redwood sheathing. There's a very impressive beehive of activity up there right now. They've only been here about an hour, but they've already removed about half of it. In the next few days, they'll install a brand new shingle roof with a lifetime warranty on the shingles and a 10-year warranty on the labor. I'm shooting video of them at various stages, so we'll have a record of the whole process.

Now they've been here for 2 hours. They've already laid two layers of felt on the back roof, and they're almost ready to start laying felt on the front roof.

The roofers just left, after only 4 hours. The entire roof is completely waterproof again, covered with two layers of felt, plus a layer of tar around the vent pipes. Before they left, they cleaned up the whole yard and ran a magnetic roller all around, to pick up any stray nails. If this weren't the rainy season, they would have also installed the new roof today, but since it rains for 30-60 minutes almost every afternoon these days, they'll come back early tomorrow morning to do the new roof.

July 8, 2004

Last night, I returned the new dinnerware that we had bought the night before. Yesterday afternoon, I remembered reading something a few years ago, about some imported dinnerware having unacceptable levels of leachable lead that, over time, can cause brain damage, birth defects, and even death. So, I did some more research and learned that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled our dinnerware three months ago because of lead problems. When I returned the dinnerware for a refund, the store manager told me that the sets that I had bought were from a newer shipment of the recalled dinnerware that has "acceptable" levels of leachable lead, as long as I don't put any acidic food in them (like barbecue sauce on the dinner plates, orange juice in the cups, or salad dressing on the salad plates), and as long as I don't leave food on them for more than 2 hours. I told him that, to any intelligent person, the only "acceptable" level of leachable lead in their dinnerware is no lead at all. I walked away with my refund, knowing that he is going to put that same dinnerware back on display for someone else to buy.

July 6, 2004

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I research the heck out of most things before I buy them. In the past several days, I did lots and lots of research, resulting in my wife and I buying many household items, including a microwave oven, a king-size bed, a set of dinnerware with a hand-painted palm tree motif, a set of drinking glasses, a set of pots and pans, a VCR/DVD player, a massive home entertainment center, a bathroom ceiling exhaust fan/light, and more. I also got estimates from 7 different roofers for the cost of putting a brand new, lifetime-warranted roof on our dream home. In our spare time, we went to Jim and Linda's house for a delicious filet mignon dinner, and went with them to see a very impressive fireworks show.