Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Weekendery

We spent the weekend at the Home Improvement expo at the Farm Council Grounds. That sounds so banal. 'Farm council grounds' brings to mind sharing space with livestock...

Anyway, we had a lot of visitors to our humble little booth. We split the space between CallYourHelpDesk, and Cartridge World. I would try to engage folks by asking, "Do you have a computer question?" A lot of people did.

And it didn't hurt that we were in the paper over the weekend.
have a look

So far, several people who met us over the weekend, or saw us in the paper, have come by and tried our services. It can only go up from here.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

What Next?

We've been exhibiting at the Home Builder & Improvement show at the Farm Council grounds in Saline. Pretty good crowd - a lot of people stop by to chat about computer issues. I'm trying to attract attention by soliciting their PC questions... most people still look askance and wiggle away. Some talk and talk and talk... but thats OK.

O, btw, go get yourself a look at the Sunday AA News, business outlook section, p10. Not near Ann Arbor? Go to
the web site .

I think its pretty cool.

We'll be at the Expo through today, Sunday. I'll also spend a couple of hours at the Washtenaw Business Expo at the Four Points on Tuesday (3/24).

Come on up and see me sometime...

Saturday, March 14, 2009

O Noes! We R Hacked!

I saw this dire warning this afternoon:


What to do?
Well, lets examine it for clues.
1. Windows Internet Explorer will not scan the PC for viruses, so we know we're being duped.
2. The word choice in the dialog sounds like it was translated directly from another language. Hilarious.
3. OK or Cancel? What would you choose? I chose to go to Process Explorer (or use Task Manager) and cancel iexplore.exe. Kill it right off. Choosing either OK or Cancel will yield the same result in that either click will be captured and launch a web site that downloads the payload. Then the real party starts.

As a precaution, I ran AVG, Malwarebytes, and Super Anti Spyware. All scans showed that there were no infections.

The moral of the story is to be ever vigilant and not to rely completely on the automated processes like security applications. Use common sense. Or you could always call me and ask.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Checking in

Well, I've successfully avoided posting for about three weeks! W00T!

Sorry, but it occurred to me (ok, it occurred to others to tell me) that my blog was getting a tad, shall we say, Dull? Yes, we shall. It was dull. Anyone want to read about the hard drive or CD I installed? Viruses defeated? PCs and networks set up?

I think not. Not all the time anyway. So I'll break the fourth wall and let you in on what else I've been doing. Its a bit more exciting.

I've joined the Saline City Environmental Commission as an interested community member. I don't actually live within the corporate boundaries of the city, so I can't be a sworn member, but I'm still very interested in the environmental affairs of the city.

I do live within York Township, so I've joined the township environmental commission. We've got a really interesting program on tap for our Earth Day workshops. More info can be found on the township web site or on Facebook. I've created an event page for it; get on Facebook already!

I'm the chairman for our annual Friends of NRA Banquet; it is held on Wednesday, April 22. Funds raised at this event help us at Tri County to have educational and recreational events for the community, for no or low cost. Tickets are on sale now, but don't delay.

We at Cartridge World are manning a booth at the Home Improvement Show at the Saline Fairgrounds, March 20-22. We're also at the Greening of Milan Expo, April 20-21.

Looking to May, I will help organize the Taste of Milan event, on the 14th, then immediately drive to Nashville for our corporate annual meeting, 15-17th.

June, we at Tri County host Women on Target the 13th. Its a good over view-type event for women of all ages who might not have any experience with various shooting sports, but are curious. Since I'm a NRA Certified instructor, I always help out.

In July, we have Celtic fest on the 9-11th. I'm helping with gate control this year.

August, Saline Summer Fest will feature a 5k Run. I've done a few runs, and am proud to have been approached to help out.

See? Lots of interesting things going on. Arguably, I might be stretched a bit thin. We'll see. I'll update status on the goings on of these various events and commissions as things happen.

It won't be boring. Promise.