Curing you computer

I have had to clean some computers lately which had viruses of all sorts on them. Technology is great when it works, but can be so frustrating when you computer is sick. I wish I could tell you "give this pill to your computer and call me in the morning", but that is unfortantly not possible. The people that create these viruses and malware are always finding ways to beat the things in place that protect you computer. So..

Sometimes you have to do a combination of steps to remove the evil stuff. I would suggest starting with the first link in the list and following the steps there. Once you have cleaned you machine, the best thing you can do is keep our operating system (Windows or other) up to date with the latest patches, run an antivirus program like AVG (keeping it up to date).

Most important don't open email from people you don't know and don't click on any popups from websites saying that you have a virus and they will scan you computer. Both of these will usually end infecting you computer with something you don't want.

I found the following links @ http://www.atribune.org/forums/

• Hijack This Guide
  
• Ad-Aware
• CWShredder
• HijackThis
• Spybot
• Zone Alarm Firewall
• AVG Antivirus
  
• Spywareblaster
• How to Go into Safe Mode
• Show Hidden Files
• Peper Trojan Removal ToolChanging the Hosts File: Keep the Popup Parasites Off
• Turn Off/On Windows XP System Restore
• Turn Off Unnecessary XP Services (XP with Service Pack 2) (recommend SAFE configuration)

Microsoft Word Virus Scanning.....

A friend was having problems with her Computer. She said that Word was always starting in safe mode. I took a look at her laptop and sure enough it was always starting in safe mode. Not only that but it was always scanning for a virus, even when opening a new document.

I. After some research, apparently it was suggested by Microsoft to always run Office products in safe mode. This was said to keep us safe from virus infective files. I found a way to stop this from happening. You can add “/a” to the end of the command which starts Word. To do this:

1. Right click on your desktop, select “New” and click on “Shortcut”.
   
2. Browse to where Word is located, usually "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE".
3. Add “ /a” (a space then slash a)
4. Click Next.
5. You can rename this or just click finish

Now you have a word which will load really fast. The reason for this is that the “/a” will not have word load any addins. Note: this will also not load any macros or preferences you have set. This is not an issue for most users.

II. The second issue was the virus scanning that was happening. This is due to installed third party anti-virus programs like Norton. These programs have setting, which tell them to scan documents when opening Microsoft office documents. This can be turned off. You have to find the settings in you virus protection software and turn off this option. My personal choice is AVG as a virus protection. I have posted here some helpful links and utilities I have use for virus/malware removal and protection.

References:

• http://en.allexperts.com/q/Microsoft-Word-1058/Word-opening-safe-mode.htm
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

Horde eMail

I was asked to look a an eMail application for my mom. Her company was set up with Horde for their email. I was not familiar with this application, but I gave it a shot.

Their main issue was that their deleted email was not being deleted. They would select an email(s) to delete and select to move them to Trash. The emails were still showing, which is very annoying. Also they were not able to send "formated" email.

After looking at their settings, I discovered that their admin did not set up a trash folder for the deleted email to be sent. So I set one up and demonstrated the deleting of emails. Now to the formatted email issue.

After some searching, and the Horde.org site was down at this time, I found out that Horde does not support "formatted" or Rich Text emails. I did find a work around. If you have a gmail account you are able to change the from email address on emails being sent from you gmail account by adding the alternative email address to your account and verifying the email. Once this is done you are able to select what email address you want to use for the from email. The only thing is that in outlook it might show as "From yourusername@gmail.com on behalf of customaddress@mydomain.com".

For a free email server application, Horde is a good and somewhat powerful. The Horde Project is always adding and improving their application. In fact the new groupware feature would be great for companies. Check them out at www.horde.org.

Also I found only a couple of tutorial web pages, they are:

• http://www.demodemo.com/tutorials_horde.html
• http://www.yronbay.com/emaildoc.htm

A side note she had Squirrel Mail available for them to use as well. This is a very simplistic email interface. I did notice that the address book form Horde was not available in Squirrel Mail.

Third Heaven?

I came across a reference to a "Third Heaven" in 2 Corinthians 12:2, while reading the Bible in church. I was told we should not only read the passage that the preacher is referencing, but also read some verses before and after to give more context to the verse. That is how I found this interesting reference to the "Third Heaven".

2 Corinthians 12:2
NIV : I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.

KJV : I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

The "Third Heaven" seems to refer to "the sky, outer space, and then a spiritual heaven", the levels of heaven.

For more on the "Third Heaven", check out the references above or this link, heaven, which talks in depth about the third heaven and references to heaven in the Bible. And this article "What is Heaven like?" also describes the three heavens.

Also I found that some think that this "man" was Paul. He talked about himself in the third person to communicate on the same level with his audience, the Corinthians. (see http://www.crivoice.org/thirdheaven.html)

This is cool stuff and it is all in the Bible.

Content Show/Hide

I did a web job that I needed to show and hide content on a web page. For example (read more). After a lot of Google'n I found code which did the job:

Toggle navbar

Toggle BlogArchive1

Click here to toggle this

blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah

<a href="#" onclick="return toggle_visibility('foo');">Click here to toggle this</a>
<p id="foo">
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
</p>

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function toggle_visibility(id) {
var e = document.getElementById(id);
if(e.style.display == '')
  e.style.display = 'block';
if(e.style.display == 'block')
  e.style.display = 'none';
else
  e.style.display = 'block';
return false;
}
//-->

</script>

Toggle Comments below

Lock Work Workstation with a Click

I came across a quick way to lock workstations. Follow these steps and you will be able to lock your workstation with the click of the mouse.

1. Right click on you desktop and select New -> Shortcut.
   
   
2. Past the following into the location:
   %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
   
3. Click Next.
   
4. Give the shortcut a name like "Lock Me".
   
5. Clck finish.
   
   
6. (optional) Drag this short cut to your task bar next to Start.
   

Now you can lock your workstation with 2 clicks on the short cut. If you did step 5, you will only need 1 click to lock the workstation.

Killing Ants

Awhile back I had some ant hill pop up in the yard. I did not have any poison on hand so like any other geek, I searched online for a easy, cost affective and kid friendly way to get rid of the little pests.

After some time searching, I found a mixture that everyone has available and works pretty good. Soap and Water. Yes, this actually works! I just squirt some dish soap into a typical gallon pressure sprayer, fill with water and spray the ants.

Apparently, the soapy water fills the breathing holes and they die. Also it will remove the trails that they leave behind to guide the other ants. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Below are links describing this method and other to get rid of ants.

• http://www.antremovalandcontrol.com/soap.html
• http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/pest-control/how-to-get-rid-of-ants
• http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Ants
• http://www.thefrugallife.com/ants.html
• http://www.thebestcontrol.com/bugstop/control_ant.htm
• http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s-2-9-119,00.html
  

Kids dot com

My kids have been going online more and more. With all the stuff on the Internet, both good and bad, I needed a way to limit/protect them. I did some research and found a good program called Kid-Surf. It is a browser which has a main page of configurable links. It comes preloaded with age-appropriate links. It also has a timer to limit their time online. Take a look at it at Kid-Surf.com.

Got Questions?

One day I had a question in my head. I could not remember how it got there, probably the radio. The question was "Did Jesus have siblings?". I am not a theologian so I have to look this stuff up. Like most people I used the modern research tool of Google. In my search I came across a lot of references to this topic, but I found a site that answered not only this question but a lot of others I have about the Bible. GotQuestions.org is a great site to answer a lot of questions about the bible and life. Check it out!