WebDunnRight Design & Troubleshooting

You have seen the commercials – is your computer slow?  Is it not performing as it did when it was new?  Then use/try/buy our shiny product and experience magic!  Let’s stop and think just for a moment…your computer will never run like it did when it was new, unless you do a restore on it!  But in this post, I want to move beyond possible culprits that are touted on the commercial (viruses, adware, spyware, etc.) and talk about why your computer is slower – and it’s not because it is older!

The focus of this post is uninstalling programs.  I’m willing to take an educated guess that your computer is almost nothing like when you first bought it – from a software (and possibly a hardware) standpoint.  You may enjoy games and have downloaded stuff from the internet to play those games.  Perhaps it’s software to get music (not just Limewire or bit torrent stuff, how about iTunes…).  It could have been that printer software you installed, or the software packages that came with your digital camera.  Or maybe sports, weather, news or just about anything else you can think of – you probably have installed something to keep up with whatever your interests are.

And – there is a price to pay.  Almost everything we install today is asking to be run at start up, taking system resources and ‘slowing down’ our computers.  The standard user of a computer trusts the makes of these programs to take care of them and to install the right things with the right settings so they can be more productive.  Perhaps we trust too much – and I might argue that the software makers are counting on just that behavior.

Too often we look at these install screens and click on next, next, accept, next, and finished.  We never read the EULA (end user license agreement), and heaven forbid we change the default settings.  In fact, most of them only offer 2 choices – Automatic (and that is selected by default) and Custom (with the words for advanced users only – ostensibly to scare off folks that are not as computer savvy – that’s a large chunk of the population).

So the first item of business is to review what you are doing.  Stop and read it!  If we did this before we blindly installed software, we may change our minds.  The reality is this – it is easier to keep your machine ‘junk free’ than it is to degunk it later!  Do you really need this software?  Will you try it and then uninstall it if it is not something you truly will use (or need)?

In fact, why not try that custom install.  You would be getting away from the ‘DO ANYTHING YOU WANT TO ME’ mode of operation!  If they have packaged in a feedback program (to make your user experience better) or some toolbar – why not uncheck those boxes?  That leads to decluttering your machine right from the start!

If you really want to get down to it, even uninstalling programs does not get rid of everything software makers put on your machine.  If you want to be on hyper-alert vigilance with that, you may want to consider software such as www.revouninstaller.com – which is software that looks at what was installed, where it made modifications, and allows you to remove all traces of the software once you are ready to remove it.

My advice would be to stay away from the vast majority of the pirated / hacked / cracked software that you certainly can find out there.  You may be surprised what comes with installation of these items!  And often times what is installed so easily in ‘DO WITH ME AS YOU WILL’ mode is not so easy to remove.

I’ve touted this software before, and I’ll do so again here.  Piriform’s CCleaner is a handy tool to clean up your various temp files, but it also has a nice set of uninstall routines and a nice view into the programs being loaded into your machine on startup.  It may not be too late for you to obtain a better performance on your existing machine, but it is up to you to remove some of those unnecessary programs taking up valuable system resources.

Thanks for reading – and happy exterminating (of unneeded programs)!  If you have other insights or comments, feel free to leave them.  Until next time, take care.

It has been a nice, warm summer here.  One of the past times many partake in is fishing.  You know, you get some bait, stand on the shore (or in your boat, or off a dock… you get the idea) and you put the bait on your hook and cast out your fishing line in the hopes to lure in and capture an unsuspecting fish that could be a tasty meal.  There are many similarities – other than the sound of the words fishing and phishing – when it comes to scams that are known as phishing.

Here’s how Wikipedia defines Phishing:

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users, and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies. [cite]

Without attempting to get into many of the technicalities of phishing, let’s try to stay with the analogy of trying to catch a fish.  The fish is doing nothing wrong.  Swimming around in the water, going to and fro to hunt for food and return back to wherever their fish home is, they are just living life.

And then something catches their attention.  Now, since we’re above the water (and have already heard the analogy…) we know that the purpose of casting out a concealed hook is to catch a fish.  Fishing types tell me they use all kinds of lures and bait to increase their chances of not going home empty handed.  So the hook will be concealed, it will look like something appealing to the fish under the water, and it may even have the scent of what their real meal is (if the bait isn’t what their real meal is already).

So, now that the fish has been engaged (we got its attention), the lure needs to look similar to their expected meal.  We want the fish to act on what we have presented it with.  And there are times that the fish falls for the trickery we have placed before it – it strikes!  Once that has happened, the fish is going to end up as someone’s meal.  The person doing the fishing reels in the catch and … well, that is that!

If you get the fishing analogy, then you should be able to apply it to phishing on the web.  The scam artists craft messages (for social networks, your personal or work email account, instant messaging, web ads and links, etc.) that are really attempts to mimic the real things we are interested in – and if we take the bait… well, I’m at least hopeful that you and I don’t become dinner!

So – to learn even more about phishing, why not try out a game link: http://www.onguardonline.gov/games/phishing-scams.aspx – the OnGuardOnline.gov site is a great way to learn about phishing!

I’m positive that some of you who have a website have – at one time or another – asked this question to yourself.  I’ve been sent this question by clients both at my ‘real’ job and as customers of my business quite a few times.  So – it’s probably time to address this in a general way.

I’m not really sure what you are experiencing, or even if it is you experiencing it alone or if the entire world is seeing the issue.  And, if the truth is told, normally I don’t have enough information to know what is being experienced.  Normally all I would receive is either the question of why a site is not responding, or if I’m really lucky I will be sent a generic 404 error message (but I don’t know what was typed into a URL so I would know what page was trying to be accessed).

Then I start to ask questions.  Are you the one experiencing this issue or are you reporting it based on third-party information that was passed on to you?  The third-party ones can be the most challenging!  Whomever these folks are that are experiencing the issue may be having issues with their home connections.  They could be experiencing issues with their ISP. There are many things that could be happening, however, we can’t know what it is without more information that is detailed – not just ‘someone can’t get to my site’ (too generic).

What I find is often times when a client is told this it is either my fault or the hosting company’s fault.  I would not jump to the conclusion that someone having access issues is the fault of the web host – there are too many variables in between them and the pages of your site to make that leap of faith!

When you experience issues, it could be a web browser issue (so you would try with another browser), a browser tool bar issue (blocking pop ups or other access to a site), a computer issue (malware, spyware, adware, etc.), a wireless issue, a router issue, a cable modem issue, a connectivity issue, or an ISP issue. It does not automatically equal a hosting server issue.

Of course, as the web developer, I do my due diligence.   After checking the server (and hopefully finding no problems), looking at scripts I have set up to be alerted of issues from external vendors, and ensuring your experience is not one I can validate by contacting the hosting company, it is then hard  for me to validate there is a problem on the hosting end. And since I may not (ok, normally I do not) have detailed information as to what was trying to be accessed, I will be hard pressed to even guess what may be wrong from others that are experiencing some issue (I don’t doubt some people have problems – I do refuse to say it’s the hosting providers fault, there are too many other things that could be the cause).

Having said all that – have you performed basic troubleshooting techniques to attempt to narrow down the problem?  If you are not getting to a certain page, have you tried to access that same page using a different web browser?  Have you reset your router (Lord knows the cable company tells you to do this on their automated recording over and over again!)?  Have you tried to access the page from a different computer (malware and badware often mess up computers to send you other places or stop you from going to normal places so you can only access the pages they want you to)?  Perhaps you could try to ping the site from your computer to see if it is responding – yet another great way to check the connectivity!

There are a number of ways troubleshoot this type of issue yourself, then provide the person you contact with steps you have already taken in your attempt to remediate the issue.  That is knowledge that will help to find out what the problem is so it can be fixed once – and hopefully – for all!  But my guess is you probably will figure out what the issue is before you have to contact others.  Wouldn’t that be empowering!

This year I (again) had the privilege to watch many of your kids locally graduate from High School and prepare to live the life of freedom!  Well, that is unless you count work and going to a place of higher education as freedom.  While realizing that – to many high school students – freedom is defined as getting out of the house/away from where they live, the fact of the matter is these folks are about to embark on the experiment of life.

By that, I mean they have been taught at home, church, school and by their friends what it means to be free.  And – responsible.  At least that is my prayer for them, that they also learned that there are consequences to their choices (both positive and not so positive – it really depends on the choices they make).

This article was brought on by reading the article “New rules bring online piracy fight to US campuses” by Eric Gorski (click here for the article link at Yahoo or click here for a PDF).  While I have written about piracy and doing the right thing previously, I’m certain we may not have thought about this from the perspective of what our kids learned from us.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are many cases where our kids haven’t learned ANYTHING from us in this area.  Many in my generation have no idea how to share files (music, movies, software, etc.) illegally.  In fact, many struggle to get stuff legally (hey, just telling it like it is, no harm intended)!  They may have seen us loan out a CD or DVD, but we probably never sent them a bit-torrent or directed them to our limewire share.

Let’s talk about their generation.  Sharing (files, movies, music, software, etc.) is a way of life.  They have no money – so they couldn’t purchase items others had.  In the days of the dinosaur, they would have asked to borrow the item (a 45rpm, LP, Cassette, VHS, etc.).  Today, technology gives them the ability to share files with a few clicks of the mouse.

But what about the responsibility that comes with it?  I have written about the efforts of various groups (like the RIAA) to enforce copyright laws.  I would guess that many that read those letters have strong opinions about that group one way or the other, but the fact remains that ‘sharing’ brings consequences.  And the article above shows how far some colleges are going to both educate students and protect themselves from potential loss of finances (from being sued for violations or losing federal funding).

Perhaps now is a good time to honestly look at your habits in the area of sharing files, music, movies and other mediums that could bring undesired consequences into  your life.  Is taking the risk worth the reward?  If you produced software (or music, movies, etc.) and derived your living from that line of business, would you want others (easily millions…) to deprive you of the $$$ you should have earned by folks breaking the rules to obtain your product?

Why not do the right thing in this area.  It’s easy to do, just pay for it.  Wow…if we did that, we may be forced to not grab everything that is available!  True, and you won’t be opening yourself (and your digital life) up to badware, viruses, hacking, trojans, malware, adware, all the headache that comes from cracked ware.  And I didn’t even mention lawsuits, judgements, blacklists, IP banning, disciplinary action from your school / employer, and even the loss of your job.

Will doing the right thing diminish your standing among your peers?  If the answer is yes, perhaps you need to look around at those you are hanging with!  Do the right thing…

Travel teaches you patience and self-control.  As you may remember – I recently went out of town.  Many trips have little hitches – my trip had a broken plane!  Don’t get me wrong, I was pleased not to board and attempt to fly on a plane that was not fully operational.  So the flight was cancelled, and the other 58 folks that were on that flight needed another way to reach their destination.

I opted to fly into a different city about an hour away from my destination, then lean on the good will of my wife and son to pick me up.  So, it’s time to play the stand by game.  You play like this – you head to a gate that has a flight going to the same destination, and you wait to see if they have any available seats.  If not, you go to the next flight and keep playing.  In fact, you keep playing until you get to the ticket that has a confirmed seat for you to fly on.

You know – our computers are a lot like this.  We depend on them for so many things, our finances, building things (like web sites), playing games, communications on the web and e-mail, and so much more.  But when we hit a little hitch, we get all bent out of shape.  Trust me, I saw some folks bent way out of shape from things they just could not control.  They could not make the plane get off the ground, they could not berate the customer service staff into making a new plane appear, and they seemed like they just needed to let off steam.  People – life happens, and often life comes at us unscripted (even with our herculean efforts to adhere to a schedule).

And there are also times that our computers break.  They are made up of both software and hardware – and when hardware goes (like a hard drive or a motherboard) you don’t have any other option than to replace it.  Have you prepared for that?  You may have another plane…I mean, computer as a spare.  Most of us don’t – so we could run out and be the technician (fix what broke) or get another computer to replace the broken unit.  Even if you do that, what about your settings?  Your stored mail?  Your software (do you know where all those install disks are)?

Why not take the time today to look at your contingency plans.  Make sure you back up your important data (pictures, mail, documents, etc.).  Don’t get too frustrated when things go wrong, because eventually they will.  What are your plans to respond when that happens?

I recently had an opportunity to travel on behalf of the company I’m employed by.  The reason for the travel was to look at moving from a toolset we are currently using to a different toolset.  While I was aware of this move, I was not prepared to sit through the discussions that followed.

But before we get to that, please don’t get the impression that I was totally unprepared, totally incompetent, or totally Bambi-eyed when approaching meetings such as this.  I’ve been in this company for over (gulp) a quarter of a century, so I have some experience and knowledge of the culture, needs and expectations.

Back to the story.  I was a bit unclear on the purpose of the gathering.  I had imagined it would be a discovery or fact finding type of meeting among those that may not be in the application all that much.  Once I was there, I quickly found out others were uncertain as to the purpose of the meeting.

At the end of the day(s) it became clear that this was a bit more than a fact gathering meeting.  We were collaborating on pain points from various parts of the organization.  We were also sharing some of the modifications we had added to the similar tools that were being used through out the organization.  These are all good things, but I left with the sneaking suspicion that we may have done what countless others had done before us (and doubtless others will do well after this article is posted) – I suspected that we may have put the cart before the horse.

Let’s take this to our business world and specifically putting our business on the web.  We have ideas, many of them are fantastic and can be done.  Then, we just want someone to DO them.  We will even pay them to do it for us!  And that is where the breakdown starts – we may not have thought our ideas through.  And while this is not always the case, more often than not we may not have put our ideas into practice, so we have some level of experience in doing the idea we want to make available to everyone via the web.

So we get with our web design team (or individual) and share our idea.  We believe it can be easily done because we’ve seen other sites that do it (and we want it like that).  We may assume we can take text, images, and even code to make the site work (since it was done at the site we want to mimic).  So it should be easy enough to do at a reasonable price.

At this point, either the web design team will say ‘sure we can do it’ and just march forward, nothing more than ideas in their head, and plow ahead without a care for costs or time constraints you may have.  I’m hoping that is fantasy land for you!  Or, the design team may ask that we step back and gather requirements, review your business case, and refine the current delivery or service process you are currently using to best meet your needs.

And if you take the time to step back, actually go through the crib to tomb review of your existing or ‘to-be’ state as the end goal of business, you certainly will find that there are holes, areas for improvement, and perhaps even a phased approach to make it to the finish line of your project.  I’m certainly not advocating a never ending design and review of your business needs – I am asking you to work with your designer to make sure you get the best possible product from your web designer, and that may take more than a single phone call where you share your ideas and dreams!

Set your expectations high for what you can accomplish.  But also allow time for others to bring you back to reality in time, cost and resource needs to meet the goal.  As the Bible encourages us – count the cost (reference Luke 14:28-32).  Don’t shortchange yourself, your business, and pit your expectations that may have not been bounced against a reality check.  It will save everyone a ton of frustration!

OK, no sense in beating around the bush.  I miss the TV show It Takes A Thief (aired on Discovery Channel).  If you haven’t seen it, I would encourage you to catch it in reruns.  Essentially, John and Matt scope out the homes and businesses in a particular area (looking for the ones that are just begging to get hit) and then clue the owners in that a robbery is going to take place (with their permission).  Once it takes place, the payback is a security makeover for the place!

Why do you think they did this?  To legally get their jollies while helping others?  While some level of self promotion was involved, I tend to think they were wanting to get the public to think of the what-if’s where they were located.  You know the what-if’s:

• What if my home was broken into?
• What if my property was taken (how would I even know what was missing, have I documented it and – where appropriate – insured it)?
• What if my identity was stolen?
• What if they took my ______ (you fill in the blank)?

Watching this caused our family to change our behaviors – and to spend some money to up the ante for crooks.  We purchased a lock box for all our neighbor’s keys we kept (imagine the thief getting all of your keys to your home and the homes of the friends you house sit for).  We purchased an alarm system for our home.  We thought more about security and the what-if’s that we could face.  The show had that impact on our family!

So why do I type this to you?  Have you thought of the things you are doing in your environment that could potentially thwart a thief?  Some of the things you may want to think about have been addressed in my blog at various times (so be sure to look at older articles if they address something that you need a bit more information on), so the list below is certainly not all encompassing.  It is, however, intended to be a thought starter for you!

• What if someone stole my identity?
• What if someone used my credit card to make purchases without my permission / knowledge?
• What if someone broke into my house (and maybe they knew I was not home because I told the world where I was via my Facebook status)?
• What if my computer was stolen (do you encrypt your desktop / laptop)?
• What if all my data was erased from my computer (due to a virus or other badware)?
• What if someone was in my house and removed the various sticky notes all around my monitor / desk / under my keyboard with important username and password information?

You know, some things are very easy to guess.  I still am amazed at the clues that many STILL give away without thinking like a thief!  I see many friends that put easily identifiable information on their social networking accounts (do you REALLY need to broadcast your e-mail address, birth date, home town, and other information to the world – much less let everyone know you are out of town?).

Other things are just good practice many don’t think about while taking their computers to the Geek Squad for service or some other organization for disposal (and my point here is not to disparage any of these organizations – remember you need to think like a thief here! see confessions of a firedog / geek squad employee posts, or search for news items on data theft by the employees of ).  Do you know where your data may end up?

While I want to think the best of everyone I come in contact with, the world has a good amount of folks that may differ from me in their outlook of things.  John and Matt taught me quite a bit about what to look for around my home – from the eyes of a thief.  Have you looked around at your digital ‘home’ with a different set of eyes lately?