Month: November 2003

US Lawmaker wants to make Antivirus software LAW

From Yahoo News:

One lawmaker has a possible solution to the increasing problem of computer viruses: requiring all computer users in the United States to install antivirus software on their PCs.

“Is it time for the federal government to develop some kind of Internet security agency that would develop standards for all legitimate software, require automatic update and patching, and establish a base level for every single computer in the country?” Bass said during the hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

“Is there any reason why any computer in this country shouldn’t have some kind of antivirus software on it as a requirement?” Bass asked.

More fiero fun …

Had a fun electrical system problem develop the other day. First the CD player began to skip and restart, followed almost immediately by the radar detector shutting itself off and on again. I disconnected the latter and shut the former off as I was on the road to work and figured I’d look at it later.

Of course, upon starting the car up that night after work, I discovered that my headlights, parking lights, interior lights, radio and cigarette lighter were all non-functional. Not a good situation when the Ohio nights are coming ever so much earlier as winter approaches.

The eventual solution was to trace the wiring from the battery down to the starter, where the lighting fusible link diverges off. There I discovered the wiring wasn’t properly seated in the ring connector, due to the mechanic who replaced the fusible links in a previous post. A quick re-crimp and everything was all better.

This must be how non-computer geeks feel when they solve a computer question on their own without consulting a geek friend. 🙂

Internet Explorer status bar fix

One of my biggest Internet Explorer pet peeves is the annoying tendency for the “status bar” at the bottom to dissappear, requiring me to click on View -> Status Bar to get it back. I prefer to have the status bar present so that I can see where web links point to when I hover over them with my mouse pointer.

I found this as a solution to the problem:

  1. With (only one) IE open, click View, select: Status Bar
  2. Right-click on IE’s Toolbar and select: “Lock the Toolbars”
  3. Hold down the Ctrl key and click the close button (upper right)
  4. Right click on the Start Button to open Windows Explorer, click View, select: Status Bar
  5. Right-click on Explorer’s Toolbar and select: “Lock the Toolbar”
  6. Click Tools | Folder Options | View tab
  7. Click the “Apply to all folders” button. (Click OK if this gives you another dialogue question)
  8. Hold down the Ctrl key and click the close button (upper right)
  9. Reopen IE to any page, right-click on a link and select: “Open in New Window” The Status Bar should remain visible.
  10. Click on the Start Button, select RUN, and type REGEDIT
  11. Verify that these Registry entries exist:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
    “Show_StatusBar”=”yes”
    “Show_URLinStatusBar”=”yes”

It was a pretty intense

It was a pretty intense weekend as we had to wait to get word from the baby brother as to if he was okay, in light of the weekend crash of a US Army CH-47 Chinook, the same aircraft Nick pilot.

Hours later we heard his voice over a very poor telephone connection, much to our relief.

His mother won’t be happy until he gets back for his two week leave back here in the states mid-month.