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End of Life Decisions, Planning
Good article describing remarkable differences in how people in the medical field view treatment for life-threatening illness: How Doctors Die « Zócalo Public Square It turns out they often don’t make the same decisions that are recommended to patients, and appear to place much higher value on quality-of-life factors.
Rogue Anti-Virus Removal
Over the past few years I’ve had a number of clients who have been hit with ‘fake’ Virus alerts/warnings that are intended to alarm the user into scanning their system and eventually paying to have the fake virus removed. I have found the safest way to deal with these is to get the computer re-booted [...]
How to switch to Microsoft Security Essentials Anti-Virus
Most of my clients and friends want an Anti-Virus solution that’s simple and cheap, and I have found myself installing Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) on more and more Windows systems. It has a small footprint, doesn’t drain a lot of resources, and automatically updates. It’s also free ;’) Please note: MSE will not install unless [...]
Seagate ST35000620AS Failure
I received a call from someone with a two year-old Hewlett Packard Pavilion Slimline who told me the system would no longer boot. I started talking him through some troubleshooting procedures so I could get a better handle on what was going on when he read an error to me that appeared on his screen: “Error- Non-System [...]
Feelin’ Irish?
Lyrics | Dropkick Murphys – I’m Shipping Up To Boston lyrics
And now, for an existentialist moment…
What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, ‘This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass [...]
A friend to my Daughter and I
Published in Morning Call on February 6, 2010: Susan R. Kernechel, 49, of Coopersburg died Wednesday, February 3, in her home. She was the wife of Calvin Kernechel to whom she was married for more than 24 years. Born in Philadelphia, she was the daughter of the late William and Willetta Dolly (Schmitt) Pashley. She [...]
Magellan Roadmate Loose Power Plug
Recently I received a call from a friend of mine who said the power plug on his GPS had “fallen off inside….” and he asked if I would be interested in taking a look at it. I thought: “Cool, a chance to take apart someone else’s stuff!” Or something like that… Once I had it [...]
1999 GMC Yukon Intake Manifold Gasket Leak
I noticed some time back that my Yukon was stumbling under loads, and tried several repairs and diagnosis techniques without success (I don’t have access to a scanner/reader), so I nursed it along until one evening it was really acting up, and as I looked in the rear view mirror to see if anyone was [...]
Please avoid Symantec/Norton
In the late 90′s I started questioning the quality of Symantec/Norton products as they started showing a large amount of support time (while IT Director at a Video Game Company supporting over 200 workstations)… Norton support was lacking, and we often had to uninstall their products to get our employees workstations up again. This required [...]
