Author and IT Consultant since 1986

In Goodrich, Michigan, the water level in the Millpond has been a source of contention for over 30 years between residents, the Village Council, the DNR, and the DEQ (Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality). Now it seems that the dam is leaking, possibly requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) in repairs. My first newspaper article for Flint Area Media was covering this story, including some background as well as the latest developments. Please read the Goodrich Millpond story online at Associated Content.  Incidentally, because of a delay in printing, this is an AC exclusive for the time being.

I recently started writing articles for a publisher who puts out several newspapers local to our surrounding communities. The Davison Messenger, The Tri-County News, The Burton Banner, etc. Some of them were existing publications which he purchased, some are new startups. All are collectively published under the name of his company, ‘Flint Area Media’ (FAM).
Production problems and slow sales have caused some delays in getting the papers out regularly, but I have hopes that these glitches are temporary. The organization is currently moving into a newer, larger building, and I take that as a good sign.

Of course, I expect to be paid for the articles I write, but I’m also doing it for the excitement of seeing my byline in print. Plus, although FAM eventually expects to make all their articles and stories available on-line, they are not ready yet for that. In the mean-time, Mike (the publisher) has given me permission to post them on the 3 sites I write for (Associated Content, Helium, and Triond). I’ll place links in future postings.

A while back I wrote a story entitled ‘The Great Rodeo Trainers’, which was sold to a Helium Marketplace publisher with exclusive (I thought) rights. Now I see the story has reappeared on Helium’s website, so I’m thinking it was only sold with first publication rights rather than exclusive. I could never find it on-line, so I’m glad it’s back on Helium because it’s one of my favorite stories. Read The Great Rodeo Trainers and let me know what you think.

Anyone who’s used a personal computer for more than a week or two has undoubtedly noticed a gradual decrease in performance. There can be a number of causes for this, and a number of steps you can take to recover this lost performance. There are also a few preventative measures that can help keep your computer running at top efficiency.

Spyware and Adware – sources and removal
Spyware and Adware are two types of malicious software (AKA malware) that infect PCs. Spyware collects information about a user’s surfing habits, purchasing preferences, etc. and sends it to marketing agencies. Adware presents unwanted advertisements to the user. The source of infection can be email attachments or files downloaded from the internet disguised as or embedded within useful software. Some adware and spyware can also be picked up simply by surfing to certain websites.
Removal is usually accomplished with the aid of utilities written for this purpose. Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware are two long-standing products which offer free versions for personal, home use. Some objects embed themselves so deeply within the operating system that free tools cannot completely remove them. For those, or if you’re running in a corporate environment and want continuous updates and real-time protection, consider a commercial offering.

Unnecessary Services and Processes
The default installation of Windows(c) configures a number of services that run automatically whenever the system is booted, many of which are never needed by the majority of users. Stopping these processes and preventing them from running can free up significant memory and CPU utilization. There are utilities that can make the job of identifying and disabling unnecessary processes easier. Some of this can be accomplished using Windows’ services interface. Getting to this interface differs between versions of Windows, but it will be similar to this: Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Here you will see the list of installed services. For each one you don’t want to run automatically every time you boot up, right-click on the name and select ‘Properties.’ In the dialog box, set the Startup Type to ‘manual.’ If you’re sure you never want the service to run (for example, if you suspect it is some kind of malware), set it to ‘disabled.’ You can always change it back to ‘automatic’ if you experience problems. Once you’ve finished setting the startup type on any services you’ve modified, you should reboot your computer. Simply stopping a service does not always completely free up resources that may have been reserved. The following are some services that are rarely needed by most users: Messenger Service (has nothing to do with instant messenger (IM) software), Remote Registry Service (do you ever need to edit your registry from a remote location?), Error Reporting Service (pops up the annoying “notify Microsoft about this bug” every time something crashes), Alerter (no need for this), Fast User Switching Compatibility (even with this disabled, you can still log off and log back on as someone else), Telnet (if you must enable a command-line log on from a remote location, use a secure shell (SSH) service instead).
There are other services which you may be able to disable, and there are other (non-service) processes that may be started by Windows. You can see which processes are running on your system by running the task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del -> Task Manager) and selecting the Processes tab. These are started from registry entries, items in the Startup folder, and a number of other sources. With the task manager you can kill any of these processes (if you know which ones should be killed), but unless you find out where they’re coming from and remove the source, they will automatically restart. All these processes (including the services) can be managed with a program called Wintask 5 (liutilities.com). This tool gives you access to one of the most complete process libraries available, with the ability to identify, remove, or block undesirable processes. It costs about $30.00, but a free trial can be downloaded from the company’s website.

Optimize the Hard Drive(s)
Most people realize that they have to defragment their Hard Drives periodically or disk performance will suffer. Windows’ built-in defragmenter does an adequate job of defragmenting most files, but it has it’s limitations. Certain system files (including the registry) won’t be defragmented. Also, with this utility running, you can’t use your system for anything else. This program is actually a ‘light’ version of Diskeeper (diskeeper.com), which also comes in commercial flavors starting at about $30.00. For that price you get more efficient and complete defragmentation which can work in real-time, utilizing unused CPU cycles (so it doesn’t slow your system down).

Clean the Registry
The last thing I generally do when optimizing a system is to clean / optimize the registry. This removes references to obsolete objects and redundant entries, and repairs broken links. Again, this is accomplished with a utility. Remember to back up the registry first by using the File->Export menu option in the registry editor (regedit). The best type of utility for cleaning the registry is one that can defragment as well as clean it, something like RegistryBooster 2 (liutilities.com).
All of these optimization steps either require a utility or can be made easier with one. You can acquire free utilities or commercial variants. If you’re going to consider commercial software, you can save money by buying a suite. You can usually pick up a package deal for significantly less than the cost of individual components. Some, like PowerSuite from UniBlue, will also analyze and set the optimum parameters for your systems memory, CPU, and network configurations. Note that Powersuite includes a task manager, spyware removal and protection, and the RegistryBooster 2 registry cleaner, but alas, it does not include disk optimization.

Two of the worst causes of problems in personal computers these days is the prevalence of spyware and adware. Spyware and adware are types of malicious software (AKA malware) that infect PCs. Unlike other malware like viruses and trojans, spyware and adware don’t exist to cause damage directly, but to collect information about a user’s surfing habits, purchasing preferences, etc. and send it to marketing agencies (spyware), or to serve advertisements to the user, often making them appear as if they are normal pop-ups encountered while surfing the web (adware). Both these types of malware consume CPU cycles, memory, and network bandwidth, causing degradation in system performance and stability. Severe infections can make surfing the internet impossible or even render the entire system unusable. On top of that, spyware serves as an invasion of privacy, because the data collected can be used not only to target you with unwanted advertising, but quite possibly with identity theft as well.

The source of these infections can be email attachments, or files downloaded from the internet disguised as (or embedded within) useful software. Some adware and spyware can also be picked up simply by surfing to certain websites.

Removal of this type of malware is usually accomplished with the aid of utilities written for this purpose. There are free and commercially products available, each with their own set of strengths. Spybot Search & Destroy (safer-networking.org) and Adaware (lavasoft.de) are two long-standing products which offer free versions for personal, home use. Running scans with both these products, one after the other, will allow you to effectively remove most malware. Some objects however embed themselves so deeply within the operating system that free tools cannot completely remove them. There are a number of other tools available for dealing with these nefarious objects, each customized for the particular type of infection they’re designed to combat. For example, CWShredder (us.trendmicro.com) was designed to remove a rather insidious form of web browser hijacker, which redirects your searches, changes your home page, and creates bookmarks to other sites. Another tool for combatting hijackers and other malware is hijackthis, also from TrendMicro. Both of these tools are for experienced, technical users. You have to know specifically what you’re looking for. This is especially true of hijackthis, which will happily let you remove components that are actually quite critical to your system.

For these infections that are harder to find and kill, or if you’re running in a corporate environment and want continuous updates and real-time protection, you should consider a commercial offering. Adaware Pro sells for $39.00. The cost of the corporate edition of Sypot S & D is not given on their website.

An ounce of Prevention
A strictly commercial product (with a free trial) is >SpyEraser 2 from Uniblue ($29.95, uniblue.com). In addition to the ability to remove most spyware and adware, it offers real-time, continuous protection against becoming infected in the first place, and automatic daily updates. A free scan of your system is available from their website, as is an award-winning process library that can help you identify potentially dangerous processes that are running invisibly on your system.

Whether you decide to collect a set of free utilities or take the plunge and purchase a product depends on your level of expertise, the amount of free time you have to investigate and learn to use the various tools, and if you want or need the technical support that comes with a commercial product. In any case, it should be clear that you have to do something to combat spyware and adware on a regular basis if you want to keep your system running efficiently.

As reported a few months ago, I wrote a series of articles for an anonymous Helium Marketplace publisher related to PC Optimization. Well, they bought one – an article written ‘on spec’ about the benefits of a paid-for registry optimizer. Since I had an inkling that the publisher is Uniblue software, I made sure to mention their product. I did not mention it in the article, but my choice for free registry optimizers is CCleaner. Aside from that omission, the article has valid information concerning features to look for in a registry cleaner. An excerpt follows. For a limited time, the article can be read in it’s entirety. Once Uniblue publishes it, it will be removed from Helium, since they bought exclusive rights to the content.

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This content was removed per the purchase agreement.  The original article can be read here, with someone else’s byline.  They can do that because they purchased exclusive rights. –Jp

This article was originally published by Triond on their web site ComputerSight. I thought it was time to reprint it here, so it appears below in its entirety.

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Configuration Management (‘CM’ hereafter) means a lot of different things to different people. Weighty tomes have been written describing the goals, policies, procedures, benefits, pitfalls, and a variety of definitions of CM. One recent CM plan I worked on is a 20-something page document attempting to detail this information and how it relates to the client’s projects.Most of the information available can be boiled down into 4 key concepts, or what can be called the 4 cornerstones of great CM. These concepts represent ideals. The challenge is in the implementation, so that the policies, procedures, and utilities developed support these ideals, or at least the intent behind them.

1. Version Control : Everything is maintained in a Version Control tool like Serena’s. Some agreed set of items (Configuration Items, or CI’s for short) stored within the tool represent baselines. In other words, they are the set of revisions currently in production. They are not necessarily the most recent revisions.Builds intended for deployment to any post-development environment (QA, Test, Prod, whatever) are always pulled from Version Control, and never copied directly from a development environment.
2. Separation of Duties and Least Privilege : Actually, these are two principles lumped together because Least Privilege is not possible without Separation of Duties, and Separation of Duties is pointless without Least Privilege. The former simply means that no single person has independent responsibility over more than one area of a system.For example, developers change code, perform unit test, etc., but do not deploy or promote such code to any non-development environment. CM people promote code, but do not develop applications, nor do they approve code changes made by developers (although they may participate in code reviews).
   DBAs have database privileges, but don’t develop application code nor act as system admins. And so on. The Least Privilege principle simply states that no person or running process has more access or system privilege than they need to perform their normal duties or functions at any point in time.Access or privilege for either people or processes can temporarily be increased during the performance of some activity as necessary, then immediately restricted again. Policies implementing these controls make allowances in both these principles for emergency situations.
3. Auditing : CM personnel periodically conduct audits of applications, systems, and procedures. Any updated application software or configurable item should be traceable to an approved change request, as well as through the entire set of existing quality control, tech review, and change control procedures.This includes not only application executables but database configurations as well. All items are compared with their baseline counterparts in the Version Control repository (ie; the revisions marked as ‘Production’). Discrepancies are reported as non-compliance issues and investigated, and will generally lead to procedural changes designed to eliminate future non-compliance.
4. Automate, Automate, Automate : This one is an over-riding theme for how we accomplish all this with limited resources. Checking items out of and into Version Control should be quick and painless, and integrated into development IDEs (Interactive Development Environments) if possible. Code promotions are scripted. Database changes are scripted. Auditing utilities are scripted.These scripts themselves are subject to review and kept in version control. Tying it all together gives us reliable, secure systems built with verifiable, repeatable and efficient processes.

My family and I recently took a break from Michigan’s cold and rainy early spring and vacationed in Arizona. We flew into Phoenix, rented a car, and set out for a number of destinations, all of which were great for R and R.

First we visited some good friends in Lake Havesu City. Matt and Tee showed us around Lake Havesu, and Matt particulary proved to be a fountainhead of knowledge about the town and it’s history. For example, Robert McCulloch of McCulloch Oil (think also, “Chainsaws”) basically founded the town, and he paid to move the London Bridge from London To Lake Havesu. Yes, the London Bridge. Matt and Tee were great hosts, and took us tooling around on the Colorado River and Lake Havesu in their boat. Most of us got our first glimps of California there.

After a few days we headed on down to Sierra Vista to visit my Dad and his two dogs, Bonnie and Lucky. We also met his friend (GF?) Marita. Sometimes we just lounged around and enjoyed the weather or swam in the pool, but we also went hiking in the neighboring mountains. Even though she is not a native to the territory, Marita proved to be delightfully knowledgable about the local flora, pointing out to us alligator cypress, manzanitas, prickly pear, and other species that grow there.

While we were staying with my Dad, we took a day trip to legendary Tombstone, where the gunfight at the OK Corral took place in 1881. The movies always portray the Earps and Doc Holliday as the good guys, standing up for law and order and trying to protect the town’s citizens from the outlaw gang known as the Cow-boys. The truth is, the Cow-boys (with the possible exception of Ike Clanton, an abrasive loud-mouth) were actually well liked by most of the towns’ people. They brought money into the town, whose principle business was saloon keeping, and they rarely carried out their lawbreaking in town.
On the other hand, the Earps were seen by many as opportunists, setting up gambling a establishment and using their connections with the law to play favorites. Nevertheless, the story is rich with drama, action, intrigue, and conflict that persists to this day. I was inspired to write an article, Surprising Facts About the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Oh, and feel free to check out all the pix from the Arizona trip.

Someone posted a challenge to the writers on Associated Content to come up with humor articles to be posted on the April 1st, April Fool’s Day. Being somewhat of a fool myself, I accepted the challenge, along with a dozen or so of my fellow AC writers. The results are compiled in a Squidoo lens – I’ve included the link below. My entry is printed here for your convenience. If you like it, consider voting for it on Squidoo by following the link.

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Foolin’ With Your Kids
Not only is it our “birth”-right to play jokes on our children, it is also our sacred duty, and one that my wife and I take very seriously. After all, how else will they learn patience? How will they learn humility? How will they learn to fool and embarrass our grandchildren when the time comes?
Embarrassment
There are numerous ways to embarrass your kids. Some kids are embarrassed by the mere presence of their parents when they’re hanging out with their friends. This should be exploited whenever possible. Accentuate whatever traits you possess that your kids find embarrassing. If possible, combine these traits for maximum impact. For example, if your singing embarrasses them and they can’t stand old country music, pull up to the school to pick them up with your windows open, belting out “Lovesick Blues” at the top of your lungs. Volunteer to chaperon the high school dance, and show up wearing the same pastel-colored velvetine tuxedo you wore to your 1979 prom. While there, offer to teach your daughter, her date, and all her friends how to do the “Electric Slide.”
Embarrassing your teenage kids is almost too easy, and can be done pretty much anywhere at any time. Whip out the baby pix showing your son in the buff. Say things like “Aw, my little man is growing up. Looks like he’s finally gotten over the ‘girls have cooties’ phase.” These are especially good when your son is spending time with a new girlfriend.
Tall Tales
Getting your kids to fall for some things is a little more challenging. When my son Stan, who’s now 13, was about 5 years old, he was asking me about the various knobs and buttons on the dash of my car. I went through the radio, windshield washers, fog lights, etc. Then, adopting the soberest countenance I could muster, I pointed to the emergency flashers. “You should never, ever, push this button.”
“Why not?” he gravely asked.
“That is the ejector seat.”
“What’s a ‘jector seat?”
So I explained what an ejector seat was, and how after it was introduced to the public in the James Bond movies, people started asking for them in their own cars. Responding to this demand, the car manufacturers began making them options that anyone could get when they bought a new car.
He was nervous, but fascinated. “So what would happen if I pushed the button?”
“A secret panel in the roof would open up, and a super powerful spring would shoot you right out. The car would keep going, so you’d land in the road and probably get run over by that truck behind us.”
“Wow. Does Katie know about this?” he asked. Katie is his older sister, and I wasn’t sure whether he was worried that she might push the button on him, or excited about the possibility of pushing the button on her.
About a year later, I was again driving with my son in the car, and I had forgotten all about the ejector seat conversation. Not him! We needed milk, so I stopped at the corner store. I told him I would be right out, and to keep the doors locked and not let anyone in the car. He says, “Don’t worry, Dad! If anyone tries to get in, I’ll just slide over into your seat and push the ejector seat button! Boy, won’t they be surprised!”
“Um… yes. But keep the doors locked just in case.”
A few months later we were once again in the car together, and I needed to use the rear defroster. I accidentally hit the emergency flashers button first. They flashed a couple of times before I turned them off and turned on the defroster. My son jerked is head to look at me, eyes wide as tea saucers. I knew what he was thinking. I said, “Boy, it’s a good thing that ejector seat has a 5 second timer! I remembered to shut it off before it flashed 5 times, thank God. You were almost a goner!”
“Da-ad! Why did you do that? You almost splatted me on the road!”
“Sorry pal, I just hit the wrong button. It won’t happen again.”
My wife said that some day when he becomes the laughing stock of his driver’s education class, he’s going to come home and kick my butt. Maybe so, but I won’t be alone. Not long after this last exchange he was basically tattling to his Grandma about me almost splatting him on the road. We had to surreptitiously explain what was going on. Now she’s completely in on it with us. My daughter on the other hand tried to tell him that we were all making it up. When she wouldn’t sit in the passenger seat so he could “prove” that we weren’t (mainly because she couldn’t be bothered to move), he became more convinced than ever that she was lying to him. [click to continue...]