It is Labor-Day weekend and a lot of college students are headed off to school if they are not already there. My oldest son packed up this morning. My wife and I helped him load his car and it was funny to see the things he is bringing. His school is less than an hour away and so he didn't need all of the normal things most kids bring. For instance, all of his ski stuff is still at the house because he won't need it until almost next semester.
It didn't take too long to load his clothes in the car. It was everything else that took a while. The bulk of the things he is bringing are electronic items. While most kids are happy with a laptop, my son has two: one for work and his personal computer. I know that when I headed off to school, I brought a lot of books. My son had two. He put them next to a three-foot stack of video games and his DVD movie collection, which made for a hilarious picture. He also is bringing a second computer monitor and laser printer. Then there is the PlayStation 3 to play all of his games on.
Fortunately we didn't have to help him load his 40-inch television as that is already down at school. His older sister and her husband have been borrowing it during the summer. They will be sad to give it up but knew he would want it back.
I do confess that I am worried about my son at school this year. He only has three semesters left but his packing list looks more like he is an entertainment major instead of a computer science one. Hopefully he doesn't let all of his electronics distract him from his studies.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Windows Technical Support
Lately I have been getting phone calls from a company claiming that my computer is sending messages to their server and indicating there is a problem. When the phone calls first started, they claimed to be from "Windows Technical Support." I promptly informed them that I don't have any computers running Windows and that they should stop calling me. Did that stop the calls? Nope.
Two weeks ago I files a complaint with the Do Not Call registry as this company was not smart enough to mask their number from caller ID. Did the calls stop? Nope. The company continued calling with a "Blocked" caller ID number. Normally I wouldn't answer such calls but the marina in California where I keep my sailboat also has a "Blocked" caller ID number and so last week I answered the phone thinking it was them. My wife was lucky enough to be in my home office when the call came and it went something like this:
I answered, "Hello, this is Matt."
The female voice replied, "May I please speak with Matthew Bennett?"
"This is him."
"Hello, this is Susan with Computer Technical Support."
I noticed they had changed the name of the company somewhat but thought I would try to be polite. "Yes, and why are you calling."
"We noticed that your computer is sending us data that indicates it is having some problems."
I was intrigued but knew it was the same people that have been bugging me and so I asked a very important question, "Oh really, what kind of computer do I have?"
"It is a computer running the Microsoft Windows operating system."
While that would account for most of the computers in the world, I don't have a single computer that has booted into Windows over the past 2 months and so I replied, "You are a liar. My laptop is a Mac and my desktop runs Linux." I may or may not have said a few more things before I rudely hung up on her.
I was relaying this story to one of my work colleagues and he responded that it is a scam and they got his mother recently. While they only billed her credit card for $90, there is a chance they will use the credit card number for other purposes and so my colleague had his mother cancel her card. After all, you can't really trust a crook to only steal $90.
If you take a step back and think about it, Microsoft technical support wouldn't bother calling you if it noticed a problem. They have much quicker ways of taking your money and don't need to rely on telemarketers posing as technical support. Besides, you might just ask them about a real problem you are having because there are so many.
Two weeks ago I files a complaint with the Do Not Call registry as this company was not smart enough to mask their number from caller ID. Did the calls stop? Nope. The company continued calling with a "Blocked" caller ID number. Normally I wouldn't answer such calls but the marina in California where I keep my sailboat also has a "Blocked" caller ID number and so last week I answered the phone thinking it was them. My wife was lucky enough to be in my home office when the call came and it went something like this:
I answered, "Hello, this is Matt."
The female voice replied, "May I please speak with Matthew Bennett?"
"This is him."
"Hello, this is Susan with Computer Technical Support."
I noticed they had changed the name of the company somewhat but thought I would try to be polite. "Yes, and why are you calling."
"We noticed that your computer is sending us data that indicates it is having some problems."
I was intrigued but knew it was the same people that have been bugging me and so I asked a very important question, "Oh really, what kind of computer do I have?"
"It is a computer running the Microsoft Windows operating system."
While that would account for most of the computers in the world, I don't have a single computer that has booted into Windows over the past 2 months and so I replied, "You are a liar. My laptop is a Mac and my desktop runs Linux." I may or may not have said a few more things before I rudely hung up on her.
I was relaying this story to one of my work colleagues and he responded that it is a scam and they got his mother recently. While they only billed her credit card for $90, there is a chance they will use the credit card number for other purposes and so my colleague had his mother cancel her card. After all, you can't really trust a crook to only steal $90.
If you take a step back and think about it, Microsoft technical support wouldn't bother calling you if it noticed a problem. They have much quicker ways of taking your money and don't need to rely on telemarketers posing as technical support. Besides, you might just ask them about a real problem you are having because there are so many.
Monday, August 4, 2014
Sailing Log
Saturday I went sailing on the Great Salt Lake. Every time the boat goes out, an entry is made in our log book. This week I noticed that we are getting to the end of the book and so I stopped by the local boating shop on the way home. I couldn't find their log books and so I asked one of the sales people for help. She said that their selection was very limited because everyone is moving to computers to keep track of their boating adventures. Nothing matched what I was looking for and so I figured I could just order something online.
Saturday evening I pulled out my laptop and did a search for log books in the hopes of finding the exact same book we have used for our previous 2 log books. Unfortunately it is out of print and while I could order the book from Amazon, it will cost me $122! It is only worth about $20 and so I kept searching. Unfortunately I can't find anything that matches exactly what I am looking for and so I am going to have to make my own. It will be as simple as purchasing waterproof paper, printing log sheets on both sides of the paper, and having it spiral bound at Kinkos/FedEx.
Now don't get me wrong. I love computers and think they are great for keeping track of information. However they don't really mix with water. We ruined a perfectly good laptop when we sailed back from Hawaii. The computer survived the 21-day trip but was useless afterwards. While you can purchase water-resistant laptops, they are expensive and completely unnecessary when compared with the low cost of waterproof paper and a cheap pen. This is one of those examples were we try to apply technology to a problem where it is not needed.
Saturday evening I pulled out my laptop and did a search for log books in the hopes of finding the exact same book we have used for our previous 2 log books. Unfortunately it is out of print and while I could order the book from Amazon, it will cost me $122! It is only worth about $20 and so I kept searching. Unfortunately I can't find anything that matches exactly what I am looking for and so I am going to have to make my own. It will be as simple as purchasing waterproof paper, printing log sheets on both sides of the paper, and having it spiral bound at Kinkos/FedEx.
Now don't get me wrong. I love computers and think they are great for keeping track of information. However they don't really mix with water. We ruined a perfectly good laptop when we sailed back from Hawaii. The computer survived the 21-day trip but was useless afterwards. While you can purchase water-resistant laptops, they are expensive and completely unnecessary when compared with the low cost of waterproof paper and a cheap pen. This is one of those examples were we try to apply technology to a problem where it is not needed.
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