Erase, Reboot and Reinstall
I somehow came upon a virus on my computer. It was my own stupidity, I saw a file that I had not seen before. It appeared to be a file FOLDER, so I clicked on it.
My screen went crazy, and I realized what I had done.
What's worse is I know better!
So, now I have a rootkit installed on my computer and I can't remove it no matter what antivirus, malware remover, protector whatever I run.
I'm preparing to reinstall Windows, and I am trying to remember to get everything off the laptop that I need. Having been through this before, there is always something I forget. I'm trying to get everything that would be important.
I have a secondary drive that I store a lot of my things on, and I have a main stationary computer that we use for backups and media so that's where everything is going. Now I just have to wait as things backup.
I was lucky to find a few wonderful links on things to do before reinstall. Thought I would share with others who might need them.
Of course, you can always do a search for stuff like this- that's how I found these articles. Let you know later which were best.
http://www.pcuser.com.au/pcuser/hs2.nsf/web/3766D094A6F3FD83CA256EA80021...
http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2310p146id122115.htm
http://www.5starsupport.com/tutorial/vista-clean-install.htm
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/
http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2109p156id111652.htm
http://www.pcworld.com/article/105866/stepbystep_reinstall_windows.html
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/help/install-reinstall-uninstall
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Installing-and-reinstal...
http://www.reinstallwindows.net/
http://www.cyberwalker.com/topic/36
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ss/windows-vista-startup-r...
Duped- cleaning up my backup drive
My computer has a new best friend.
I am preparing to move, and trying to get everything into two places so that I have a fail safe in case of damage on the plane or during shipping. I've created a back up drive out of a ridiculously cheap external drive that I bought, and am copying things from the family's computers onto the drive.
A few things have come up as I have been making backups that have caused a problem.
A-Version Control: Steer clear.
This will probably only be interesting to programmers.
A couple of days ago, I found a bug in an open source package I use. I took a look at it, realized I could fix it, and went to the website for the software to find out how to submit fixes.
The website has instructions on how to submit, and some recommendations of version control software you can use to submit your fix.
I'm not a strong open source developer. I've spent the majority of my career developing on proprietary software that is closed source. I like the idea, though- especially when I find problems I can help fix.
It's like the internet got a facelift
I've been finding lots of cool tools out there lately. Probably because my laptop was in the shop, and I was working with my daughter's laptop which had little installed on it.
I started looking for tools and services, and was amazed at what awesome things are out there. I feel a little like a kid in a candy store for the first time. Wow, look at all you can eat (do)!
Wireless Encounters
Today I stumbled upon a cool little app that allows you to find WiFi nearby from your laptop.
It's funny I never thought to look around for these kind of tools before. Southern Sweden's free WiFi is a bit like an endangered species, and it's a huge irritation for me as a spoiled American.
In the USA, practically every coffee shop has WiFi, and usually it is free to attract customers. There's WiFi all over the place.
Yammer
Next in my series on useful online tools for developers (and other folks who work in offices): Yammer
From the Yammer:
"Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"
Here at work, we use Yammer to post an interesting bit of information, something funny, a request for information, or simply what we are doing.
Passpack
If you are anything like me, you have a lot of passwords. If you're not like me and you have just one password, you've got to fix it man! And fast!
The days of having one password that a person would use for every account he had, well, those days are over. I still know people who do it. I mean, not too long time ago, I used to do it!
I know it may shock and horrify some of you, but I even used to use one word passwords! Easy to crack passwords! Short passwords! I mean I was what would now be considered password STUPID!
Personal Productivity on the Web
Back in the 90s I was introduced to Stephen Covey's 7 Habits and associated Franklin Covey paper planners. For three years straight I used these products to plan tasks, events, goals, basically my whole life.
New (to me) Online Tools
The new job uses a lot of cool online tools during the work day. They all come together to make a nearly paperless work environment. Everything is electronic, except a few notes I have made in my personal notebook.
Back to the Grind
I have a short week my first week back to the grind of a daily work schedule. Friday is dedicated to health checkups and support meetings from our specialist care team in Lund for the kids.
So far, I have really enjoyed the job, even though the configuration of my computer took a little longer than I would have liked.