Smartalyx Computer Musings

As a consultant I get called in on a lot of projects. As an IT company I get called on a lot of problems. Over time I have noticed one simple fact and it bears worth sharing.

Some projects require many ‘chefs’ to be in the kitchen and yes it can get crowded. That is usually not a problem. However when something breaks or does not work as expected suddenly there is not a single knowledgeable ‘chef’ to be found. More times than not each ‘chef’ will point fingers at the others. This is where many small businesses fail.

read more »

I do love the product, but it looks like AVG is starting to report that iTunes files are trojan horses of the small.BOG variant. This is a false alarm. What this means is that the resident shield feature of AVG products will try to remove the files and in the process stop iTunes from working. So far I have not seen any song or video files get lost- iTunes simply stops working. The following video steps you through adding an exception for iTunes.

UPDATE: May need to add “C:\Program Files\Ipod” as well.

AVG and false alarm on iTunes

read more »

There it was a laptop on my recently organized desk just screaming to be abused. Or at least, treated like some lab rat. How could I resist- the DVD in my hand was screaming to be used on something- anything? So the two got their wishes and this is the beginning of their story.

Big huge note here: If you want to ‘replicate’ this procedure feel free, but as always do so at your own risk. The steps I take here will delete all data on the hard drive. I did not back up anything- after all Rat-meister laptop wanted to be abused. More importantly, this was a test machine. Nothing of any value was there anyway. So I say again- I did not back anything up. It is up to you to judge the value of your data. If you want it- save it. Moving on..

read more »