I was a repair tech that worked for both a zFotune 50 company and ran my own PC repair business. The hardest thing I had to do was tell a customer his data was lost because he did not back it up. I would refer him to several companies that specialized in recovering data from crashed hard drives. I could repair the device and reinstall the OS and that was it. I would tell him I wasn't responsible for his data. I seen grown men cry!!
Posts by macaroo
37 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Apr 2012
So you paid a ransom demand … and now the decryptor doesn't work
Are you sure you've got a floppy disk stuck in the drive? Or is it 100 lodged in the chassis?
Microsoft decides Internet Explorer 10 has had its fun: Termination set for January 2020
London Gatwick Airport reopens but drone chaos perps still not found
Voyager 1 left the planet 41 years ago – and SpaceX hopes to land on Earth this Saturday
Won’t patch systems? Never run malware scans? Welcome to the US State Department!
Equifax reveals full horror of that monstrous cyber-heist of its servers
No, Stephen Hawking's last paper didn't prove the existence of a multiverse
A Hughes failure: Flat Earther rocketeer can't get it up yet again
Fujifilm, Xerox throw each other a US$6.1 billion lifeline
Are you taking the peacock? United Airlines deny flight to 'emotional support' bird
Hawaiian fake nukes alert caused by fat-fingered fumble of garbage GUI
Dear US taxpayers, 4.5 BEEELLION of your dollars were blown on unapproved IT projects
Windows Store nixed Google Chrome 'app' hours after it went live
Giving up on IE
I have used ms's ie for years. After the latest out of band update it became very slow and unstable running under windows 7. I decided to try Chrome, what a relief and improvement. it is faster and more stable. Enabling the pop up blocker extension has eliminated all the nasty ads and sidebar annoyances from the most popular websites.
Universal basic income is a great idea, which is also why it won't happen

The Future???
Years ago, I read a Science Fiction story about a future time when industrial robots produced all the goods and all the people had a daily income from the government. The only catch was, the recitients had to buy the produced goods on a daily basis. The items only lasted a day, so they had to be replaced on a daily basis.
User asked help desk to debug a Post-it Note that survived a reboot

I love these stories
Some of my favorite: The woman who call Support that her coffee cup holder disappeared after rebooting her computer. It turned out she was using the DVD tray as a coffee cup holder. How bout the woman who had trouble controlling her computer using the mouse. After much discussion, support found out the mouse was on the floor under her computer. She was stepping on it as you would a speed petal on a sewing machine. Of course my favorite: the customer who called support about the Fat Al error being displayed on her monitor. She wanted to know who Fat Al was.
Logitech: We're gonna brick your Harmony Link gizmos next year
View on the Hub.
I own a LogiTech 2nd generation hub so I should be safe for now. It was an uphill battle to get the damm thing to even recognize all my TV related hardware. It wasn't until an unspecified firm ware update that the device started to function. Even though, it is limited in it's functionality. Customer Service and I got to know each other fairly well. As I stated on their website: it is a work in process; good idea, piss poor implementation.
Equifax fooled again! Blundering credit biz directs hack attack victims to parody site
Playing Games
I object with these pointy headed individuals playing games with our most private information. I have conceited that most of my information has been leaked and resides on the Dark Web to be used and resold many times in the future. I have put security freezes on all of my accounts, but the existing CC account are still exposed.
Credit reference agencies faulted for poor patching
Missed patch caused Equifax data breach
Revealed: The naughty tricks used by web ads to bypass blockers
Problems with Ad Blockers
The problem I see using an Ad Blocker is sometimes, especially a new article, will hang up while trying to load. I keep a copy of Windows Task Manager in the bottom task bar and use that to end the hung process. IE will restart and I will disable the blocker to read the article. It is a awkward process but works OK.
The Next Big Thing in Wi-Fi? Multiple access points in every home
Living in a high density area of my small city, several years ago I noticed an increasing number of WI-FI access points as everybody in the neighborhood acquired a basic bare bones wireless router. I also experienced an interference problem with my neighbor's wireless printer. I decided to convert to a dual band router and leave 2.4Ghz behind. Using a neat piece of software called ainSSIDer to monitor the bands, I was delighted to find I was the only person on the 5Ghz band. The only draw back is the shorter range of the upper band. All the problems solved.
BA CEO blames messaging and networks for grounding
US laptops-on-planes ban may extend to flights from ALL nations
One-way Martian ticket: Pick passengers for Musk's first Mars pioneer squad
White House to Feds: Stop buying new PCs, laptops right now
Hey, Facebook – these are the new Like buttons you should have used
China wants to build a 200km-long undersea tunnel to America
This whopping 16-bit computer processor is being built by hand, transistor by transistor
Apple stuns world with rare SEVEN-way split: What does that mean?
Systems meltdown plunges US immigration courts into pen-and-paper stone age
This reminds me of my years in the field with a now defunk computer company. When a major malfunction would occur with an extended down time. The Sales force would get nervous and start talking about a mass swap of the machine. Us techs with cooler heads would have to explain to them that you would be replacing one problem with many problems causing more down time. We would tell them to take the customer out to dinner, and a movie and let us Techies analyze and define the problem. and then fix it. Mass swaps of complex networking systems usually do not work well. and just prolong the disaster.
Microsoft to push out penultimate XP patch on March Patch Tuesday
Windows 8.1 update 'screenshots' leak: Metro apps popped into classic desktop taskbar
Beijing leans on Microsoft to maintain Windows XP support
Stay away from the light, Kodak! Look, here's $406m to keep you alive
Kodak's Future
After working at Kodak in Rochester NY for 25 years in IT, I can say that I had a insight into most of the departments of this once great company. Does anybody remember that they were the only one to grind a perfect mirror for the Hubble telescope? The only reason their's wasn't on the finished product was they insisted that a test jig be built to test the accuracy of the mirror while it was being ground. This put the cost of the mirror above their competitors. Also Kodak at one time had the leading technical and scientific employees in the black magic science of coating. This was all lost when film and paper production was shut down. It was a shame that this knowledge could not be applied to other forms of coatings; surface mount electronics, photo-voltaic cells, etc. I could go on for hours. The sad part of the situation was everybody heard the foot steps except upper management. They were too afraid of killing the cash cow. I rest my case.
So what's the worst movie NEVER made?

Worst Movie of a Lifetime
Being older than most, my viewing habits go back futher. I nominate the following as the worsed movies I have watch in my lifetime.
1. Planet 9...........doesn't rate as bad science fiction.
2. Attack of the Killer Klowns..........a circus horror show
3. Earth Girls are Easy............a lot of hard post teen bodies.....plot forgettable
4. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.......can't even remember the plot.