Stupid Trillian G-Mail plugin

I can’t quite get the Trillian G-Mail plugin to work. More than likely it’s something stupid I’m doing wrong, but it doesn’t show up in the plugins area at all. You’d think that the installer for the plugin would take care of everything and not force you to manually move files around. Stupid.

 

Perhaps I’m using an old version of the plugin…

Snafu Comics

Wow. Just found out one of my good friends from high school has his very own comic strip. What’s more, is that it’s hilarious.

Visit. Laugh.

Snafu Comics

Task opening every 10 minutes or so

I finally figured out what was flashing on my computer every 10 minutes or so. What would happen is I’d be using the computer (or not) and every so often this task would open for just a couple of seconds and then close. No window came with it, it would simply show an empty task on the taskbar for a couple of seconds and close. Normally, I’d think it was spyware or something, but it had been doing it ever since I installed Windows and the corresponding drivers for the LOADS of crap that I have.

The task wouldn’t be a big deal, but it’d knock me out of full-screen apps that I was running (Counter-Strike or whatever) and also would make the screensaver turn off. The screensaver thing was actually than an annoyance because it would never let the monitors get to the point where they’d go into power-save thus jacking up my power bill.

Anyway, it was the HP All-In-One software that was causing it. I just used MSCONFIG to close down everything it was loading on startup and it’s all been kosher since. My guess is that it was the auto-updater that was opening every so often, so I imagine that closing down everything was a bit drastic. Ah well, I’m a minimalist when it comes to stuff loading on startup anyway.

X-Radiation, anyone?

And here we have my desk. I’m such a nerd.

Virtual Device Drivers, Windows 2000 regedt32.exe

Well you learn new crap every day. I had no idea that there were two registry editors in Windows 2000 until today, and now that I do, I don’t have any idea why they would have both. Windows XP has combined regedt32.exe and regedit.exe. Why didn’t they do this with 2000? They both look at the same registry, and yet one can do things the other can’t, and vice-versa. Odd.

Anyway, I’ve got a new article up on how to fix this error: Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid when you try to run 16-bit apps, as well as Wordpad has caused an error in mfc42.dll

 

Aren’t I a workin mofo?

W32/Netsky.p@MM - infectin like a mofo

Well, made a new record today! I was cleaning a clients machine with my standard use of a SuperDAT and it found and deleted 10,659 viruses! Yes, that’s TEN THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE viruses! Most were the Netsky.p@mm, but some were Sober and Spybot as well.

One interesting thing the viruses did was crash the dial-up internet connection. Services.exe was what one was named, and I’m guessing that the ISP was blocking its outbound requests (the computer had no firewall of its own). When this would happen, it’d bring up and error Network-Device failure, make sure services.exe can access the internet. The message was more involved than that, but you get the drift.

It also closed down Hijackthis with a fake antivirus-software message stating that the system was clean, and everything was OK.

Interesting approach, I guess. The network-driver/services.exe one had me fooled for a bit because the virus author took the time to make it look like a quasi-legit error message.

Cannot Display Secure Sites

Once again I type about another stupid problem. Norton happens to be the issue most of the time, and I’ve included instructions on how to make Norton not block HTTPS sites.

How to fix IE and it’s “This Page Cannot Be Displayed” error on secure sites.

WriteSHIELD C2

I just got some screen protectors for my Dell Axim X30. Previously I had some Belkin screen protectors that I had purchased directly from Dell, and they completely sucked. In fact, I am just not a fan of Belkin anymore. My Belkin KVM is a complete piece of crap as well. With any luck the Linksys KVM I”ve got on order will work better.

Anyway, as for the WriteShield C2’s, I’m more than satisfied. I didn’t want to be able to tell that there is a protector on there, and with these I don’t. They’re also really easy to apply, as they don’t get all bubbly and gross by default. PocketPCTechs.com will definitely be getting my business again!