Computer Purgatory

Well there, Garlic Fans, we have to, once again, stand before you, head bowed, a bit, murmuring into our shoes, about the trials-and-tribulations we've experienced, leaving The Garlic barren of any new material.

In a phrase, Computer Purgatory.



Last Tuesday, as we were settling in, rolling up our sleeves to start pounding the keyboard, a little icon popped up, indicating that "You're computer is not fully protected".

Clicking on the small McAfee icon did nothing.

Hmmm ...

So we clicked on the larger, shortcut McAfee icon, and, again, nothing.

Went into the Program Menu, clicked the McAfee icon and - wait, you know this answer - yes, nothing ...

So that prompted about 5-6-hours of running malware and spyware scans, which turned up ... nothing.

Shutting down and rebooting - nothing

Completely turning off the computer and restarting it - nothing.

So Tuesday evening, we make the call to Comcast, batter through their evil voice-mechanized telephone system, get a live person, get transferred to the Internet Department, and then, once problem is stated, transferred to the Comcast-McAfee Department (CMD for short, going forward).

First CMD person encountered, reeking of being in a country not the United States starts running me through her script, with all the ebullience she could muster, yet you could, if you listened closely, hear the "Insert Customer Name Here", and plowing through, despite my requests to allow me to just tell her what the trouble is.

When we get to that point, I am told the problem rests with Internet Explorer (which I don't use), and I was given instructions to remove IE 8, and then (and this is the part I really liked), call the Microsoft Hotline (she provided the number, once I calmed down and ceased ranting), to get instructions on how (and where to find) downloading IE 7 (or IE 6), which she confidently exclaimed was compatible with McAfee.

On Wednesday AM, I did such, and said Microsoft Hotline person exerted themselves with Herculean muscle, pointing me to their website.

So, IE 8 removed, IE 7 downloaded and installed, reboot and, once everything is back up, click on the McAfee icons ...

Drumroll, please

Nothing!

So, back to calling Comcast (see above), live person, another transfer, and we land with CMD Person #2, also located in a country not the United States.

This CMD Person #2 wants to show me how smart he is, telling me to forget all that stuff about Internet Explorer and to read him all of the programs loaded on my computer.

A HA!

CMD Person #2 pulls the needle out of the haystack and says I have to remove Malawarebytes Anti-Malaware and SuperAnti-Spyware, as they are the culprits.

I reply that they have been the most helpful programs, removing, with ease, any trojans and other garbage ... CMD Person #2 confidently boasts the McAfee will do that ... I retort that I had McAfee and got a trojan, which prompted me to use either, or both, of those programs to remove said trojan, the one McAfee didn't get.

CMD Person #2, feeling trumped, perhaps, decides to get snide, and blames my troubles on the "Third Party Software" I use, meaning the McAfee program provided by Comcast as standard service ... I shoot back that, doesn't McAfee stand behind its' product?, prompting some verbal stumbling by CMD Person #2, and the additional instructions to also remove "Windows Live One-Time Safety Scanner" and, wait, you're gonna like this, call the Microsoft Hotline (Hey, I already have that number!) to get instructions, once removed, of cleaning up any pieces of it that may lay behind in my Registry, or other locations.

Were into Thursday now, do the removals and call Microsoft Hotline, transferred to Live Care Department, and a good souled person advised all that was needed was to go to the Add/Remove Program and remove it.

Complete that, reboot, start-up and still no McAfee, and dreading calling the Comcast-McAfee Department again, fearing further instruction from them will leave my computer looking like it went through a Looney Tunes repair shop.

So, on Friday, bolstered by a few cups of coffee, we make the call and CMD Person #3 (yes, not in the USA) gets on the line, and before he can do anything, I recount for him the above, and he's not going to shine me on.

[Note - I was remiss, in the above, on adding, that with each step, I also had to remove the McAfee program, and then, after performing the the various steps, go back out to the Comcast website and redownload McAfee]

CMD Person #3 was quite emphatic, and I thought I heard a mumble of WTF!, as I retold him the previous steps.

I was advised to reload Malaware and AntiSpyware, remove McAfee once again, run those programs, reload McAfee again and all should be fine.

That was Friday night and Saturday morning (sure enough, there were hundreds of shit files now on the computer) and once everything was done, clicking on the McAfee icon opened up McAfee

Hooray!

While we did, through all this, sneak on each day, to post the "On This Day" posts (and, the special Sept 11th one), we stayed off the computer, so as not to further contaminate the computer, so we have been terribly behind in our reading.

Additionally, we have a few things percolating on the homefront, and still under siege of allergies, therefore, we couldn't muster up the creative energy to get back on-track this weekend.

Hopefully, we can still salvage September from this sad-sack beginning and get back to business.

So, once again, thanks for visiting (remarkably, traffic has remained steady, if not slightly better) and reading The Garlic

Nolan, On Think Progress, vs. Comcast and O'Reilly ...It's Not The Whole Story

This is one of those low-buzz, barely on the radar stories of lowly local news guy who takes on Bill O'Reilly and gets fired.

Sounds good, right?

Barry Nolan, who has been around the block, of CN8 Comcast, in Boston, took umbrage of Bill O'Reilly getting the Governors Award at the local New England EMMY chapter annual gathering.

After railing about it to his colleagues in the industry, Nolan simply handed out flyers to the attendees, quoting O'Reilly from his Sexual Harassment lawsuit, that he settled for millions.

Naturally, the enormo-corporate giant, seat-paying, Comcast suspended Nolan, for two-weeks, for said action.

Today, on Think Progress, they have a guest post from Nolan, explaining "The Story Behind My O’Reilly Protest".

All fine and good ... Anyone that beats up on the Pinhead-of-Pinheads is okay in our book.

But don't shed too many tears for Nolan.

While, almost certainly, the O'Reilly Protest contributed to his firing, there was another action Nolan took, that he doesn't mention in his Think Progress guest post, which likely had just as much, if not more, reason for his firing;

Nolan accepted, while on suspension from CN8 Comcast, an assignment from the television rag, Extra (who Nolan once worked for), covering the breaking Ted Kennedy brain tumor news.

It's all here, in a streamcast from the local WGBH-TV program, Greater Boston;

Greater Boston, with Emily Rooney: CN8's Barry Nolan is fired

Nolan says in the interview with Rooney (yes, daughter of cranky Andy) that he emailed his bosses at Comcast, seeking permission to do the 'Extra' assignment and they replied back that they "preferred" he didn't.

Nolan, in faux outrage, says he would have "preferred" he wasn't suspended, so, with a "To-hell-with-it" attitude, off he went on the assignment.

Now, maybe, and especially if O'Reilly and Fox put some heat on Comcast, that the suspension would have turned into a firing, that they were just setting the stage to axe Nolan.

However, not being in the industry, I'll take a wild stab here;

That, when you work for one media company, they don't want you going off and doing work for another media company

Especially not cool, when you're already in the doghouse.

Nice try at riling up the masses, there, Nolan ... Keep banging away on O'Reilly, but chill out, or at least, be up front, on all the details of your firing.

Editor's Note: Slow Boat To Posting ...

Good Evening Garlic Fans

Just a note to say we've been stuck in the much-dreaded Computer Hell the past two-days, though, not completely singed.

The issue has to do with a computer, operating at a snail's pace (causing, for instance, it taking nearly three-minutes-plus for a single email to drop in; and it going to error message and constant recycling if multiple emails are arriving).

Needless to say, I have been as frustrated as a superdelegate waiting for this campaign to end, and spent the better part of yesterday, running scans, tests, reloads, etc, all to no avail.

So, I called the "Big Bad ISP Computer Company", full expecting, as happened last month, when this issue first surfaced, of being dumped over to "Larry" in India, and enduring "Larry" reading down his sheet of prompts ("Are you at the computer? ... Is the computer turned on?").

It was painless.

A test email showed the technician that I was not exaggerating, and he then "pinged" my modem and it sounded like he said, a low, mumbled "Oh shit".

It be the modem, he indicated and the earliest I can have it replaced is Saturday (for some reason, the problem, or the modem is not such that I could unplug everything, go to their service center to return it, get a new one, come home, plug everything back in and be back in, presumably, operating business in less then 2-hours).

In the meantime, I can, likely (and that has been erratic) have normal operations - all I have to do is turn off my virus protection.

So, I will stagger and endeavor to get back up to speed on the posting (beginning this evening) and, hopefully, keep my sanity (yeah, right, like I had that to begin with).

As always, many thanks for coming to The Garlic!

Peace
JTD