Obscure Mania

As some know, I’ve been harassed the last couple of months by some sort of “windows support”. Each time I tell them not to call, but I still get called. Finally, I started messing with them. Throw them off script and they hang up, fun but tiring. They are very vague about who they are, only saying “windows support”. They will say they work with Dell, where they probably got my name because my wife called Dell support one time and that’s when it started.

It is very obvious it is an Indian call center. Everyone has an accent, some speak and understand English more than others and they all have American names. These people are parasites preying on the naive and ignorant hard selling Software Maintenance Contracts. The smallest being for a year and the longest for a lifetime. They always start out saying that my computer is sending them messages telling them it’s infected.

Their tactic is to show you something harmless and tell you your computer is filled with viruses. Once they guided me to my \windows\inf directory and told those were all viruses. Another time the “tech” guided me to Windows Event Viewer Log and said all those were viruses. After I told him I cleared the log and the screen was now empty, I was told, I made the problem worse by moving the viruses to my motherboard and only their trained technicians could help. If I signed up for their service I would no longer need any sort of virus program. I’m sure they would sell me one or for that price it may have been included.

Today I’m on the phone for an hour with the first sales rep, supervisor and the “department head”, plus a “technician” in a chat in a remote logmein rescue session.  When I’m hesitating about buying, I’m given a link to Logmein Rescue, which is used by legit IT support to remotely access your computer. The supervisor / tech (whoever) guides me to the Windows product information number and the last six digits of the Product ID is the access code. It’s invalid because there’s a problem with my computer and they can give me an access code so a tech can fix all of my problems.

I start up a VM machine (for those that don’t know: You are running another version of windows within your computer. I use it mainly for testing or when I’m looking for viruses to troubleshoot. It’s a “sandbox” where you can do things without harming your real computer and operating system). A remote session starts up and the tech on the other end opens my browser to their website mywindowssupport.com and leads me to the part where you pay. It’s not a secure page and it doesn’t ask for credit card information, only a code of some sort. Looks like you’re supposed to give your information over the phone and not the website.

During the Logmein Remote session, it says it’s the Trial Version of Logmein Remote. When told them how can they be real if they can’t even use the full version of logmein. I was told it only said trial on my side because I didn’t have the right code (which I doubt) because the previous time they used something called ammyy.com

I’m telling the supervisor how they are scum and the longer I can keep them on the phone with me, the fewer people they can contact. After awhile I’m moved to the “Department Manager” that tells me how legit they are. I tell them they are all liars. While this is going on I start chatting / texting the tech on the remote session. I ask stuff like which Microsoft certification he has, because they are all “Microsoft certified technicians” with no response by the way. The supervisor tells me they are certified in “software support”. The manager finally tells me they won’t call anymore after I tell them they are going to go through the same BS every time they call me. I will make the time even if I’m at work to mess with them.

After that and everyone is about to hang up, I’m telling the tech in the remote session what an idiot he is. He then starts deleting stuff from the VM machine (which he doesn’t know he’s in), files in the windows\inf directory (which you shouldn’t do), he deleted all the shortcuts on the desktop, emptied the recycle bin, all the while I’m laughing at him and telling him he’s in a VM machine and he probably doesn’t know what that is. This went on until he disconnected.

Hopefully they won’t call any more, but I feel sorry for others that fall for this. They have UK, US and Australia flags on their websites so they are targeting more than just the US. I know it started with the Dell support call and Dell should be ashamed of themselves. I’ve only found a few other stories on the internet about these people but there needs to be more and pressure put on Dell and anyone else that sells our information to these vermin.

The only bigger disappointment after the Boson Network Simulator I could have was to expect any network simulator to be worthwhile. The Pearson Certification CCNA 640-802 Network Simulator on CD ROM had some great reviews. I want to be upfront with everyone, if you’re looking for a technical review at how accurate this simulator is or not, this isn’t it. This is from a student perspective trying to gather materials studying for his CCNA exams.

First thing out of the box impression is that it’s pretty cool. But after the first couple of minutes, pretty cool turned into WTF? Every router and switch is password protected. Not only the equipment, but to get to enable mode, a password is required. Really? On a simulator? Every single muthr freakin time? Really? I can’t resize the window? I can slide the divider between windows, but can’t resize the entire window. Can’t maximize it, make it smaller or resize the program at all? WTF?

I bought the Boson Network Simulator as part of my CCNA preparation. I’m stating up front – this review is coming from someone just starting on their way toward CCNA and doing it on my own. No boot camp, no college courses, just several months of almost two hours a day of personal study and my personal investment in materials.

This is what I noticed about the Boson Network Simulator – I was planning on buying rack time on real equipment but figured a simulator would be good to start out with. Plus, I needed some lab exercises to follow and thought this might be a good source of material.

At first glance, honestly, it’s a little odd. The main screen for the Boson Lab Navigator has the list of lab exercises. Stand-Alone Labs, Sequential Labs and Scenario Labs, looks like a lot of good labs. The right side and most of the screen real estate is taken up by a video player. I was thinking – Cool, video instruction with the labs. Not so much. It’s one video for the product demonstration video. One video, how to load a lab (double click on a lab) and a brief tutorial about the interface and moving around. And that’s the end of the video instruction. Fine, when I bought the Boson Lab Simulator, no mention of videos was made, no big deal, only it’s a lot of real estate I see every day that is a waste of space.

I do like the ability to use your own telnet program to use instead being tied to the simulator interface. There isn’t anything wrong with the simulator interface, but I like having multiple windows open for different equipment instead of using one windows for everything. Just my personal preference. It took awhile to get the default telnet program to work (putty.exe), but it started working and no problems since.

How technically accurate are the labs on the Boson Network Simulator? I have no idea. I’m not going to critique the technical aspects of whether certain labs are right or not. I assumed the program was going to prepare you to take the simulator portion of the CCNA exam.  Maybe it’s just me, but except for a few fill in the blank questions on the labs, the lab exercises were just follow this script and watch what happens. Following a script may help at first, but at some point I don’t need to be told how to do >hostname Router1 and go into configuration mode by entering configure terminal. Any moron can read a script. I’m sure I learned something from this, but it was mainly what the responses look like, not how to perform a certain action on my own with no guidance, without a script telling me exactly what to type.

I understand using a word for word script at the beginning, but after doing the first dozen or so, you can stop telling me I need to enable, configure terminal and hostname router. There is no thinking for yourself, if you want to learn how to follow a script, these lab exercises are for you. Even the “Scenario Labs” were disappointing. With a title like Scenario, you would think you would be given a scenario and be able to complete the mission and be graded on it. Nope, more script following.  Do the commands exactly like they say and you’ll be fine. I’m no education expert, but I really don’t think that is going to translate to being able to be tested on the material without a script to follow.

After spending a lot of money on this, I was and still am fairly pissed. I was expecting a learning environment. Teach me a task, then let me do it on my own, grade me on it and correct my mistakes. After going through most of these labs, more than once, I’m sure I learned something, but the entire Boson Network Simulator was a big disappointment.

UPDATE: Version 9 is awesome. Ignore this review because version 9 was completely overhauled.

The CompTIA Security+ exam everyone says is one of the harder certifications to pass. It is, mainly because of all of the acronyms, a lot of the questions are kind of vague and unlike other CompTIA certifications you can take by themselves,  for Security+ you really need a networking background and preferably Network+.

I took a semester long course for Security+ at the local community college. I needed the credits and might as well add to the certification list. The class used the Microsoft textbook with a lab only because that’s what the instructor based all of his lectures on. It’s a good textbook, but a little outdated since the Security+ exam changed for 2008. He updated the material in his notes and we did a ton of lab exercises which gave us hands on configuring Windows 2008 Server, using Wireshark and installing and using certificates for digital signatures and encryption. This instructor had a practice exam for each chapter and also about a dozen practice exams for the certification which I’m sure helped a lot. The exam questions can be vague and multiple answers appear to be correct. You can usually take out two of the four as being totally wrong and decide between the other two. Rereading the question and paying attention to what the question is really asking will help also.

During the last two weeks before the actual certification I read Security+ Get Certified, Get Ahead by Darril Gibson. Mainly because it is up to date and I always have more than one source for my certifications to give a broader understanding and in case one source misses something. The Gibson book was really good. Easy to read with larger print than most, easy to understand and I especially liked the “Remember” boxes on every other page to highlight points in the chapter. It made for a quick review the last day, I read over the the Remember boxes, the sample questions in the book and other practice quizzes I had the instructor gave me. The Gibson book actually covered a few things the class missed that were on the test, not many, but I know  it helped on one question.

It’s a good book by itself, but I’m glad I had the other class and practice exams. The only bad part of the book is there was no CD, so the chapter quizzes were only on the hard copy in the book.

Security+ is a tough exam only because you need a networking background and you really need to know all of the acronyms regarding security and encryption and it’s a tough subject to begin with.

This is such a cool android app. It shows all the apps I have installed on my G1 and will remain updated any time I install or uninstall anything else. You can share your apps with this cool widget in your blog or by URL http://www.appbrain.com/user/wayne318/apps-on-the-phone This can be either private or public. Too cool. H/T to TWIG (This Week in Google) Leolaporte’s list and Gina Trapani’s list. Now that android is growing, this is a great way to share cool apps among your android friends. Smarterware.org Names are mainly for my own personal notes since I can’t figure out how to search for people on App Brain yet. Link for my list.

I’ve been using Crossloop for my remote control access software for a long time, but I’ve switched to using Team Viewer. It not only does remote support, attended or unattended support, I can switch to meeting or presentation mode, file transfers and a lot of other features all in one program.

It seems to be fast and secure. Remote sessions can be one way with the remote keyboard locked or not. Remote sessions are fast and just like being there. It’s comparable to Crossloop with secure remote requests, you can ask for support give your support person the id and password and not have to worry if he can log back in later when you’re not there. Team Viewer not only does support requests with id and password, but I can set computers for remote unattended access and have all my computers available online from anywhere.

I can get rid of two tools and only use Team Viewer. Crossloop I can drop and I can uninstall Logmein from all of my computers and friends’ computers. I can also not worry about getting something like Go to Meeting, because I can do presentations as well and have complete control who can participate. Team Viewer is a great program, so anyone asking me for support will be asked to go to TeamViewer.com and download the small program. After downloading, you don’t have to install permanently, just run the program and no administrator privileges are needed.

Simple, easy, fast and many tools in one program, no monthly fees like a lot of remote access, support and meeting programs. I’m still exploring all of the features, but so far, it’s an incredible program.

Made by a friend of mine showing how to disassemble, test and repair a hard drive. Not responsible for any data loss.

I was going to twitter or facebook this, but it became too long. My wife wanted to go and it’s her birthday this weekend, so we went early on a workday for most. I could have gone or not even though I’m the same age as Michael and listened to all of his music growing up, I wasn’t emotionally attached to what became a spectacle.

The theater had about a dozen people in it, perfect timing for us. Hopefully the weekend will have more people, other wise it will be on DVD next month, but it really is worth going to see. Micheal Jackson was such a talent on stage and an incredibly talented creative genius, no matter what you thought of him.

That would have been the concert of the century and hard for anyone to beat. The footage is from the rehearsals, but the only thing missing was the audience. You see different costumes and sometimes everyone is in casual clothes, but the talent and the show is still definitely there.

Throughout the entire movie I was thinking about what a waste his death was. Wasn’t there anyone that could have said something? How about someone saying, “No more!”  How about, “Look what you’re doing to yourself?” How about just being there for him and not being the leech everyone around him seemed and still seems to be. Seeing Joe and the brothers on TV now makes me so angry I either have to throw something at the TV or change the channel. Talk about disgusting leeches, and now the brothers are going to go on tour? That’s got to be the sickest sort of profiteering there is. His entire family could have died and no one would have noticed and now they think people will pay attention to them now because Michael’s gone? Or even because they happened to be related to him? Absolutely sick.

Granted, an addict is going to do what they want and not always listen to those around him. From what I’ve heard, he shut out those that did try and help. The doctors he went to should have said no, but someone else would have said yes, so it might as well be them profiting.  What is it with doctors that can’t or won’t say no to celebrities. All of the doctors that wrote ‘scripts for Anna Nichol Smith knew they were doing something wrong as well.

Except for highlights you couldn’t escape from, I didn’t watch the funeral because I knew it was going to be such a freak show. It is incredibly sad that things had to end like they did. The man must have had some serious demons to deal with. Can you be that talented and not be seriously eccentric.

Back to the movie -They were filming rehearsals anyway at Michael’s request, probably for the DVD extra so a lot was available. All the great songs from Billie Jean, Beat It, Man in the Mirror, a few new ones and a stage production of Thriller. Incredible talent everywhere from the band and dancers to the man himself, it would have been a heck of a show. Great, great stuff.

This is the documentary about the “Atomic Age”. The beginnings of the Atomic bomb testing, deployment and how it changed the lifestyle of the country. It includes all of the newsreels and propaganda films of the era. My question after watching it was after dropping the two bombs on Japan, why was more testing needed? Purposely putting soldiers and civilians in harms way telling everyone there’s nothing to worry about.

Testing in the middle of the Pacific around the Bikini islands, the wind shifted unexpectedly and other inhabited islands were affected. Of course the Army sent a response crew to take care of the natives all the while explaining how there were only minor injuries while the film was showing sores and rashes but everyone is fine except for any future illnesses they might encounter and quote, “the 236 natives appear to be well and happy” as a medic is pulling hair out of a guys deformed head.  Nothing to worry about except in Japan where they threw out and brought fish back from market that had radiation, but I’m sure people were fine.

A military exercise outside Las Vegas that sent troops into an area just after the bomb blast to see how fast troops could get in and secure the area if they had to. Watch the military telling troops there was nothing to worry about and watching those troops running toward a mushroom cloud. What’s worse, who knows how many of those troops died years later from the fallout they received?

One odd thing (among many) was that there was an MP (Military Police) standing next to the interviewee while he was telling the reporter what he went through and showing his radiation detector and then the news report how the wind shifted and now Saint George was going to get some fallout, but there was nothing to worry about. The winds shifted again? Darn the weather.

Earlier a news conference reporting about the senseless execution of the Rosenbergs and how Ethel Rosenberg was still alive after her first electrocution and needed two more was really sad.

It’s edited showing newsreels and the propaganda films put out back then showing what we know now is the silliness of bomb shelters and radiation suits for kids, it also shows the ignorance of the government wanting to test something they knew nothing about on innocent soldiers and civilians and telling everyone there was nothing to worry about.

The cover of the Atomic Cafe listed on Amazon says it’s a comic horror film. Yeah, kind of. It’s comical in that we really lived like that and it’s a horror film from what the government was trying to convince us of. What was a little sickening was how the politicians and others said God was on our side including all of the pastors and reverends interviewed.

I had to watch this for the history class I’m taking and was going to leave the link but it’s behind a user id, so probably shouldn’t. It’s available at Amazon and probably most public libraries. I checked and it’s definitely in all of the Las Vegas libraries.

Update: Found on Youtube and Google Video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOUtZOqgSG8
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1126269724766604475#

It’s what I was trying to point out in my last post, My PC Has Virus. You can have a bullet proof system with a great antiv-virus program, but if you download something you could be toast.

Trend Micro CEO: hackers hitting AV infrastructure
By Robert McMillan
October 23, 2009 06:28 PM ET
IDG News Service – It’s become an all-too-common scam: A legitimate Web site pops up a window that looks just like a real security warning. It says there’s something wrong with the computer, and click here to fix it. A few clicks later, the victim is paying out US$40 for some bogus software, called rogue antivirus.

The rest of the article is worth a quick read. What happened to my virus? I did it on virtual machine so it didn’t really affect anything real. Between school and work, I’m still playing with it.

The Real Fix

For an ordinary person is to backup your data and reinstall Windows. If you don’t already have a backup, it’s usually safe to backup only your Document folder, just none of your program folders. Reinstall with a quick format should do it. If not you don’t have a backup or your backup is infected, then you’re getting into the paid part of the program and finding someone that can boot into Linux or a specialized program on CD or bootable USB and cleaning it that way.