Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Playing around with Tapatalk. I was hesitant to get it before, but since it's free now...

Hmm, it's a bit disorienting in that it actually removes blocked users posts instead of just leaving them blank.

[WT Sharpe]

Yesterday I vented in the Rant thread about my PC's white-screen problem. After unsuccessfully trying everything in the book to force my PC into Safe Mode, it finally dawned on me that I didn't have a PC problem at all: My monitor had bit the dust. So I ordered this model from Best Buy and picked it up a couple of hours ago from the store. The two super-nice things about it is the (1) it's a touch-screen, meaning now I can get smudges all over my monitor just like I do my iPad, and (2) Best Buy currently has it on sale for $150 off list, which ain't bad. The downside is that it still set me back $300 some with the taxes added, meaning I could have got a monitor the same size but without touch screen bragging rights for half the price. But, hey, where's the fun in that? Besides, this beast has a killer display. There is a huge difference in video quality between this beast and my old monitor.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Yesterday I vented in the Rant thread about my PC's white-screen problem. After unsuccessfully trying everything in the book to force my PC into Safe Mode, it finally dawned on me that I didn't have a PC problem at all: My monitor had bit the dust. So I ordered this model from Best Buy and picked it up a couple of hours ago from the store. The two super-nice things about it is the (1) it's a touch-screen, meaning now I can get smudges all over my monitor just like I do my iPad, and (2) Best Buy currently has it on sale for $150 off list, which ain't bad. The downside is that it still set me back $300 some with the taxes added, meaning I could have got a monitor the same size but without touch screen bragging rights for half the price. But, hey, where's the fun in that? Besides, this beast has a killer display. There is a huge difference in video quality between this beast and my old monitor.

I have a 23" AOC monitor doing 1920x1080. It was an emergency replacement for a failed monitor, getting the nod because it was available and could be brought home that day. It cost me $150 a year or so ago (and comparable models are cheaper now.)

I have no need for a touch screen. I wouldn't have minded higher resolution, like 1920x1200, but those get significantly more expensive. (I do occasional DTP, and the goal is a monitor that can display side-by-side 8.5x11 pages in actual size. The AOC can't quite do it, but comes close enough.

I assumed your issue was failed monitor from the symptoms when you first posted. That would have been the first thing I'd suspect, with video card a distant second, and virus not on the radar here.
______
Dennis

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I have a 23" AOC monitor doing 1920x1080. It was an emergency replacement for a failed monitor, getting the nod because it was available and could be brought home that day. It cost me $150 a year or so ago (and comparable models are cheaper now.)



I have no need for a touch screen. I wouldn't have minded higher resolution, like 1920x1200, but those get significantly more expensive. (I do occasional DTP, and the goal is a monitor that can display side-by-side 8.5x11 pages in actual size. The AOC can't quite do it, but comes close enough.



I assumed your issue was failed monitor from the symptoms when you first posted. That would have been the first thing I'd suspect, with video card a distant second, and virus not on the radar here.

______

Dennis

A virus was very much on my radar because whatever search terms I'd thrown into Google when looking for a solution resulted in the very first hits containing a warning of a white screen virus. It was only when I noticed that I wasn't getting a "no signal" warning from my monitor when I turned the pc off that it finally dawned on me that my monitor had gone to the great beyond. Originally I had planned to lug my PC into the shop. Sure am glad I didn't put myself through all those changes.

And, for what it's worth, the novelty of finally having a touchscreen monitor has already worn off, and the day isn't even over yet. But it's still a nice unit, even though I probably won't use the touchscreen much. For tablets, phones, and other handheld devices, touch-screens are great; for desktops, not so much. Constantly reaching up makes my arms tired.

[cromag]

My wife loves her touchscreen. Maybe it'll grow on you!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

A virus was very much on my radar because whatever search terms I'd thrown into Google when looking for a solution resulted in the very first hits containing a warning of a white screen virus. It was only when I noticed that I wasn't getting a "no signal" warning from my monitor when I turned the pc off that it finally dawned on me that my monitor had gone to the great beyond. Originally I had planned to lug my PC into the shop. Sure am glad I didn't put myself through all those changes.

Viruses aren't on my radar because I don't get them.

I'm contrary, and do not follow the revealed wisdom on this stuff. I do not run anti-virus or active anti-malware software on Windows.

My thoughts crystallized a while back. I had been running Symantec Corporate A/V, under a site license from my then employer. (The Corporate version never caused a problem. I would not touch the Norton consumer A/V product with a stick.) The version I was running had reached EOL, and would not get virus signature updates. I no longer worked for that employer, so a new version would be on my dime.

The only things Symantec had "caught" since I ran it were "false positives", like deciding after an update that some old MS-DOS programs I still used were infected and quarantining them. (Okay, figure out to tell Symantec "Don't scan this directory!", then reinstall the quarantined programs.)

I view viruses and malware as infections. Infections have vectors by which they enter the host. Ward the vector, and block the infection.

The primary vector for viruses is email. I use Gmail as my primary account, and it polls the others, so all mail appears in my Gmail Inbox. I prefer the web interface, and have no need for a local copy of mail, so my mail all lives on Google's servers, along with any potentially nasty attachments. Google has viewers for all common attachment types, so I can view attachments without downloading and opening them on my machine. And Gmail has the best spam filters I've seen, with perhaps one piece of spam every couple of weeks hitting my Inbox. Click "Report spam", and I don't see mail from that source again. And Gmail's spam filters catch the stuff likely to have problematic content.

Everything I download comes from known-good sites that scan on their end.

So I said "Do I need to run A/V software?" and concluded that I didn't. I'd warded the vector.

Malware's vector is the browser. I don't run IE. I run Firefox, with the NoScript addon that blocks scripting unless the site is in a user maintained whitelist. It defaults to blocking JavaScript, but can block Silverlight and Java as well.

I don't run "active" anti-malware software that loads resident and does real time blocking. I do have the Malware Bytes scanner, and run it occasionally to do an on-demand scan. It never finds anything. I warded the vector.

(I also run Linux, where viruses are a non-issue.)

Antivirus and anti-malware software all assume you will be infected and attempt to treat the illness if you are. I find it easier to not get infected.

My strategy works for me. I know people who for whom it wouldn't work, like a chap who gets lots of stuff from Usenet "binary" newsgroups. He runs A/V, and if I did, I would too. They are yawning morasses of infection.

Whether it will work for anyone else is a question they need to answer depending on what they do, but they need to thing through what they are protecting against and what protection is required. They might just discover they don't need it, or need a different form than what they have.
______
Dennis

[WT Sharpe]

Been posting in P&R, but the time has come to do my wifely duties while the wife is out winning the bread. I hear dirty dishes calling. Bye for now.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Been posting in P&R, but the time has come to do my wifely duties while the wife is out winning the bread. I hear dirty dishes calling. Bye for now.

that must have been one hell of a dirty kitchen!:13 hours and counting@

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

that must have been one hell of a dirty kitchen!:13 hours and counting@

I'm tempted to say something very dark.

[Rumpelteazer]

Watching the pigeons doing acrobatic tricks to be able to eat out of the bird feeder I refilled a couple of days ago. Whilst their doing that the little birds do their best to ignore them and feed from both the feeder and the peanut thing. It's busy; there's a row of birds waiting for their turn sitting on my window sill.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

that must have been one hell of a dirty kitchen!:13 hours and counting@

Okay, smartie-britches. I did have a few other things to do.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Watching the pigeons doing acrobatic tricks to be able to eat out of the bird feeder I refilled a couple of days ago. Whilst their doing that the little birds do their best to ignore them and feed from both the feeder and the peanut thing. It's busy; there's a row of birds waiting for their turn sitting on my window sill.

When I was in grad school, I lived in a tiny 3rd floor apartment with tiny windows - which had sliding screens & 2" wide window sills. I used to put out bird food - the small guys had no problems landing and eating - but the pigeons were far too big - I used to watch them bounce off the window screen and then fall off the sill - they never stopped trying to figure out how to land on a sill that was narrower than their feet!

The shy cardinals got quite used to my feeding station - there were several nesting pairs that would eat in turn - first Mr. Cardinal, then the Mrs. - always left one parent on the nest. I slept in one Saturday morning and was awakened by Mr. Cardinal pecking at the screen and screeching at me! I guess the babies were hungry! It was quite nice to have a bit of nature while living in the city.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

When I was in grad school, I lived in a tiny 3rd floor apartment with tiny windows - which had sliding screens & 2" wide window sills. I used to put out bird food - the small guys had no problems landing and eating - but the pigeons were far too big - I used to watch them bounce off the window screen and then fall off the sill - they never stopped trying to figure out how to land on a sill that was narrower than their feet!

The shy cardinals got quite used to my feeding station - there were several nesting pairs that would eat in turn - first Mr. Cardinal, then the Mrs. - always left one parent on the nest. I slept in one Saturday morning and was awakened by Mr. Cardinal pecking at the screen and screeching at me! I guess the babies were hungry! It was quite nice to have a bit of nature while living in the city.

Years ago my father build up his scaffolding in the yard so the gutter could be replaced and never took it down. My sister and I now use it to hang various feeders and nets with bird feed on it. The two "city pigeons" living in our yard have no interest in bird feed, but there is now a different breed pigeon couple who do like normal bird feed.

Underneath my big feeder I have a dish attached because the little birds are picky and drop whatever they don't like (or fling it into my sister's bedroom if she's got the window open). The pigeons can land on that dish, I've even seen them balancing one on each side, but they've now discovered they can easily reach the dish from another scaffolding bar and if they stretch they
can even reach the feeding holes.

In winter there is also a jay that frequents our feeders. He hates the little birds because when we put up nets with peanuts in shell they pick open the shells and take out the peanuts. The jay spends a lot of time making a hole in the net and picking out a peanut, opening it, putting one peanut on the scaffolding bar he's sitting on, taking out the second peanut and gets the first peanut to take with him. Because of the little birds he often finds empty or half empty shells, which he angrily flings away.

[Rumpelteazer]

One of the new Weird Al videos made me laugh.

[WT Sharpe]

The wife and I just got back from a routine visit to the vet. Norton got a heartworm test ($48), a three-year rabies nooster ($25), and three months worth of Trifexus (combo heartworm preventative/flea and tick killer: $90). I had my wife let us off at the curb when we got into the neighborhood, and Norton and I walked the rest of the way. Here are some pictures I just took of the beast who takes all our money. If anyone's interested as to why the bed has no sheets, see this post in the Vent and Rant thread.