Black Friday becomes Blacker!

There aren’t a lot of details yet, but news sources are saying that in Palm Desert, California, two people died after a shooting inside a Toys R Us. One story suggests that the shooting was the result of an altercation between two teenage girls. Apparently, a boy, listed as a juvenile, was responsible for the shooting and was detained.

[Via Gizmodo]

[ad#ad2-left]According to Gizmodo, two people are dead and I’ve looked at KMIR News 6 and There is no more information.  I do not like this years black friday it seems like Recession is hitting people harder than people thought!!  Not much else is known but this is going to be the worst Black Friday for a while.   I don’t think there has been any thing like this before.

Black Friday gets way out of hand!!! (No JOKE)

OK, Black Friday has officially gotten out of hand. A 34-year-old WalMart employee was trying to hold back the crowds at a Long Island store this morning at 5am, when they took the doors off their hinges and stormed the store. The man fell down and was trampled by over 200 people as he gasped for air. It’s sad and despicable, and it’s equally the fault of the dehumanized shoppers and the WalMart store it happened at.
[via Gizmodo]

[ad#ad2-right]This is a sad day when people are more interested in deals then someone getting stampeded by other people.   This happened in the Long Island Wal-mart.    I much prefer CyberMonday, where you don’t have to worry about someone getting killed.   I feel sorry for the people involved they now have to deal with there conscience.   I hope this teaches Wal-mart to do something different next year.  Next year they should have them enter one at a time in a line, every 2 seconds or so!!

Google Now lets you Video/Voice chat!!

After checking out some of what Google has been doing.  I find out that you can now Video Conference for free.  That is to say that you can conference with someone on line and do cloud computing.   According to Google:



To Get this Video and Voice chat Click this link

[ad#ad2-right]Now I might not a lot but this will be most likely be used in association with the new Google Phone, the G1. So I thought about how this will be used? This will be used in several ways. To keep in touch with family, to make it easier to telecommute and to Video Conference with associates from work. Google Model is “DO NO EVIL”. There is a flaw to this I am sure, this is a Internet Protocol to Internet Protocol connection and in doing so you create so much possibility of a virus getting through. There is no doubt that this is using flash. It also is know to make the infrastructure of a business weak. The Intranet of the business would be compromised. I am sure there are vulnerabilities in this and we will hear them shortly. I’d give it a week or two, remember the problem with Google Chrome and how un-secure it is. These are just a few of what would cause security headaches to all who work in the IT field. I just want to bring that up to prove a point. Google’s mantra isn’t perfect, it is what it is.

Taking back Program Controls : For the Beginners!

Graph of typical Operating System placement on...
Image via Wikipedia

So, let’s face it, this is one of the most annoying problems there are with programs.   Programs that you think are shut down but are actually still active in the Taskmanager.  So I figured I’d talk about some of the most common fixes for these problems.    Now as you know there can be any number of programs or glitches as they say, causing the problems.  So let’s talk about the why, shall we.

Most of the time programs don’t quit because they are waiting for some kind of response from the system or the System is waiting for the program to close by itself.  It could also be a problem with a Virus or Root kit?  How do you fix it?

Fixing the problem is somewhat just trial and Error.  It isn’t always the hardest thing to do but sometimes people overlook the easiest solutions.   So here are some easy ones:

  • Check to see if one of the Microsoft updates are causing the problem —  Sometimes you might not realize it, but having installed an update can cause problems like KB951748.  That one caused a major Headache for Zonealarm.  So it is wise to check each months updates when you start seeing problems, sometimes it could of been happening for a while but it can sometimes cause troubles.
  • Do a Hijackthis scan — Just in case it is virus this will tell you what programs might be the virus.  You will need to go Analyze the logs so go HijackThis Log Analysis Site 1 and HijackThis Log Analysis Site 2. Check the logs to see what viruses might be on your system.   Just Remember that if you delete something important to your system you will have to install the Operating System.
  • Boot into Safe Mode and Clean out your Prefetch Directory — Yes that is right, if you boot into Safe Mode and clean the cache you sometimes help fix problems.  You see most programs loaded in cache sometimes get corrupt and might cause problems.
  • Uninstall any programs that you think might problem —  This one is easily overlook because most people don’t realize that a program is loading up with your knowledge and might cause a variety of problems.  You can also check the Msconfig for that programs that might not need to be loaded up when you start windows.

These are just a few ways to fix the problem and I think if you do this most of your problems will go away.  There are of course other solutions depending on your system configuration.   As with any changes to your system, please talk to your computer care specialist if you have any questions.