Derek Weber’s Waste ‘o Web

Annoyances

Here is where I list the things that bug the H E Double Hockey Sticks out of me. It’s a bit of a ramble but pages like this aren’t meant to be coherent.

• People that don’t know everything

I don’t know about anyone else but that annoys me more than anything. If everyone knew everything, like I do, then the world would be a much nicer place.

• People that drive exceedingly slow

Just remember, if you see a blue Honda Accord (really narrows it down doesn’t it?) on the road . . . Treat it like an ambulance, just pull over and let it pass. Unless you see a cop. In which case just drive slow and don’t let it pass. I’ll thank you later.

• Cars

I love ‘em and hate ‘em. They’re a source of joy and aggravation at the same time. Check engine lights are the bane of my existence. Just give me something reliable with a warranty and a service center that can fix things right the first time without charging an arm and a leg please!

• E-Mail Virus Warnings

I can’t begin to describe how much I hate it when people blindly pass on false virus warnings. I don’t care how many exclamation marks are included in the e-mail, I don’t care how much they type in all capital letters, if you don’t bother to verify that the virus is indeed true DO NOT PASS IT ON!!! (notice I typed in all caps and used exclamation marks, that means I’m serious)
When you get an e-mail warning you of a possible virus, it is best to do the following before you do anything else. Stop what you’re doing, question “could this really be true?”. If your answer to the question is “yes it could possibly be true” then check out one of the following sites.
SARC - Virus Hoaxes This site is published by the creators of Norton AntiVirus (Symantec). This seems to stay relatively up to date about the latest virus hoaxes. Every time I’ve gotten a hoax in my e-mail I’ve been able to find it on this site.
The Symantec AntiVirus Research Center This site is also published by the creators of Norton AntiVirus. This gives you all the latest information about actual viruses as Symantec gets it out there.
These two sites are really all you need. Symantec is definitely the company to stick with since they distribute the popular AntiVirus program, Norton AntiVirus. It’s their business to keep up on what’s going on.
If you can’t find the supposed virus anywhere on those pages, don’t forward that e-mail out just yet. Wait a couple of days and then check the sites again. If it’s not on the site already that doesn’t mean you got some inside information that no one else knows about, if it’s been forwarded to you then it’s probably already found it’s way to millions and millions of other e-mail boxes. Give it time and it’ll either be proven to be a hoax or for real.
Never ever pass anything on based on the blind faith that the person that forwarded it to you has taken the initiative of checking it out for themselves.
With all this talk about virus hoaxes though, I should say that viruses are a very real threat to any computer user. The best way to protect against these is . . . That’s right! A virus protection program!
From what I’ve used I’ve found Norton AntiVirus to be the easiest to use.
McAfee is the one that a lot of people seem to use but the version that I’ve had experience with was very hard to update and I don’t think that the average computer user could, or would want to, go through all the steps that it took to update to the latest virus definitions. Not only that but you have to pay to get the updates.
Norton AntiVirus on the other hand is very “dummy friendly”. Just bring up the program, hit LiveUpdate and go through that process, restart, scan your hard drive, then you’re done. (If you don’t restart in there you’ll be scanning your hard drive using the older virus definitions) You can even schedule it to do Live Updates automatically.
The reason I place so much emphasis on updating the virus package is that, without updates, your virus scanner is totally worthless. If you can’t be protected against the latest viruses then there’s no point in having a scanner.
Then the other thing to do to protect yourself against viruses is to be careful of e-mail attachments that you open. If your virus scanner is up to date then you’re pretty safe in opening e-mail attachments (just use caution with .exe and .com files).
And so ends my ramble on virus hoaxes.