System Cleanup Tips for better performance

I just read an artcle on the Windows Secrets site about a test a guy did where he installed the 20 most popular programs from cnet and then uninstalled them. They slowed down the boot up time of his computer a lot even after being uninstalled.

He used three different cleaner utilities to try to help the situation and they all worked quite well.

so, for future reference, here's a short how-to.

He used CCleaner’s file and Registry cleanup routines in their default settings and it worked.

Without even downloading anything, you can use Windows cleanmgr to cleanup. Click Start, type cmd and click the icon to start a DOS prompt. Type cleanmgr and enter. This should run the Disk Cleanup util. You get more functionality if you start it this way. You should be able to delete most of the items on the list that Disk Cleanup gives you. I uncheck Hibernation, Recycle Bin (I sometimes have things in there I end up needing), and setup log files (useful -for me- diagnostics in there)

There are also two uninstall programs you can use to clean up. Revo Uninstaller, and there is a Microsoft Fix-It that will help uninstall crap at http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall

I've used the Revo Uninstaller in situations where the Add Remove Programs control panel applet is blank. I was able to remove programs even though the Add Remove Programs wouldn't work.

Microsoft used to offer the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, which can still be found for download if you search. I found it on the MajorGeeks website. But this utility is no longer compatible with current versions of Office. But I've used the utility to uninstall other programs, like the remnants of the VZAccess Manager for Verizon Wireless data connections, and the drivers for the tethered device.

Modulus mismatch, key file does not match certificate

Modulus mismatch, key file does not match certificate

I got this error message when trying to install an SSL certificate in Webhost Manager, the Cpanel hosting administration interface.

This error comes from not having the .key that matches the cert you are trying to install. When you go through the SLL certificate creation process, you have to generate a Certificate Signing Request(CSR). Your Webhost may do this for you, or you might have done it in Cpanel or WHM. In any case, the CSR contains the .key that matches your SSL cert. It's the Private Key.

Copy this and paste it in the box below the SSL certificate.

Note: When you paste in the SSL cert, as soon as you click outside the SSL text entry box, or <Tab>, the server will fill the key box with something. You have to "select all" in the second box, and then paste your key instead.

Solve Media's CAPTCHAs won't solve the problem that CAPTCHAs need to solve

Updated May 14, 2014

CAPTCHAs are needed in order to keep spammers out of your web site. Solve Media's CAPTCHAs won't do that, and here's why.

Location is everything, right? All the good locations for ads on web pages are already saturated, right? There is a post on Tech Crunch raving about a new advertising location. Solve Media uses the CAPTCHA as an advertising platform. Apparently they are having great success and Tech Crunch certainly seemed enthusiastic in their writeup.

But as a webmaster who has NEEDED a captcha I can tell you that their captchas are a waste of time.

One of the purposes of a CAPTCHA is to prevent bots from registering, and this CAPTCHA may work for that, but what about humans?

All of Solve Media's captchas can be solved by anyone who can read English.

You need something different to keep out the spammers.

There is a whole industry in India based around solving CAPTCHAs in order to get accounts on websites for spamming purposes. They register users on forums for hire. They advertise based on how many thousands of captchas per hour they can solve.

The only thing I have found that works to prevent the spammers is to use something like this: Sortables Captcha Plugin and load it with questions that only people familiar with your topic will be able to answer.

I have used this CAPTCHA on several video game related forum style websites, and it's easy to set it up using terms from the game. People who don't play the game, and who are getting paid to solve THOUSANDS of CAPTCHAs per hour won't be able to solve it, or take the time to figure it out, and bots can't solve it at all. How does it work for the people that want to register for the game related forum? Fine, just fine. I have never had anyone complain, and we get plenty of registrations, and zero spammers.

I think the Sortables CAPTCHA will work well for this purpose whenever your website pertains to a niche topic, which is very common. I'm sure you could think of a way that would also foil foreign culture CAPTCHA solvers even if you had a general interest site.

As far as I know, this CAPTCHA only exists for phpBB, and I wonder why, since it has been so amazingly effective. I hope that someone will take this idea and make a plugin for some other CMS types.

Websites that have contact forms won't get spammed by forum posters, but lead forms, sample request forms, or contact forms do get hit by spam bots a lot. For those types of user forms I use the Hivelogic Enkoder to obfuscate the form HTML. The Enkoder scrambles the form HTML into a bunch of crazy Javascript. Browsers decode the Javascript and display the form to a normal person using your site, but all the spam bots see is a...well, nothing. Bots don't decode it. They don't even know a form is there.

You may get a few actual humans that submit the form and ask you to help with transferring vast sums of cash from a former African dictator's bank accounts, but for my users this has been rather uncommon.

Note: I see that I have failed to capitalize CAPTCHA consistently throughout this post. And I don't care. I am lazy. What can I say?

Googlebot doesn't see embedded product descriptions from Netsuite

Googlebot doesn't see the content on your page if it comes from embedded javascript.

So if you embed your product description from Netsuite into static pages, Google will never index those descriptions. So it doesn't matter if you use SEO keyword terms in the descriptions. And it doesn't help to use keywords in the Netsuite descriptions. And it will hurt your product's search engine rankings unless you include a fair amount of keywords in other places on the page.

This isn't just about Netsuite. Any content that is embedded in a page using javascript is invisible to Google. I just discovered it while testing product pages with the descriptions embedded using the code from Netsuite WSDK.

At least according to the Webmaster Tools "Fetch as Googlebot" in Diagnostics.

Netsuite sucks: let me count the ways

Embedding the Add to Cart button in a static page. The embed code that Netsuite provides? 49 wc3 html validation errors in 44 lines.

Three good CSS and Javascript resources

Whilst writing HTML this week I ran across a couple nice resources

http://css-tricks.com/specifics-on-css-specificity/
For understanding CSS cascade - which CSS rules will apply when the document is rendered.

http://www.sohtanaka.com/web-design/mega-drop-downs-w-css-jquery/
Soh Tanaka has a bunch of great tutorials on CSS and jQuery javascipt.

http://css-tricks.com/downloads/css-stuff/
Also has a bunch of CSS goodness and javascript goodies.

"Good, Free Antivirus" question

Question from a reader:

Is there a good, free antivirus software I can download? I have the Verizon security suite, but I'm quite sure it's not catching everything. Barring that, what's the best way to clean the viral crap off my computer?

Are we talking about a program that runs all the time and tries to catch virii before they get installed, or one that removes them after?

For prevention, Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast seem to be the best free options.

Whatever VZ is using is probably pretty good too. None of them are perfect...paid or free.

For removal I would use more than one scanner to remove virii. Eset.com has a free online scanner. MalwareBytes offers a free scanner that you download and install.

In all post-infection cases, you want to make sure that the scanners are not identifying false-positives. Set them to notify but not clean (or delete or quarantine). That's why we use multiple scanners. If they agree that a file contains a threat, then we quarantine (remove...delete) it.

If you are talking general computer cleaning, CCleaner is good but it will help you remove things that you really didn't want removed. WinDirStat will show you what is taking up all the space on your hard drive.

Update on Fake Alert Virus Infections

Seems like everyone I know has been getting hit by this malware. Sophos reports that there are over a half million variations of this attack! Thus far, Malwarebytes and Combofix have been successful in removing it, followed by scan with multiple anti-virus programs using their free online scanners. I've had to boot the computers into Safe Mode (press and hold F8 while the computer boots up and choose Safe Mode with Networking) in order to be able to even run Malwarebytes but it works. Also, rebooting into Safe Mode has re-enabled the previously installed anti-virus programs to be able to run as well, such as Microsoft Security Essentials. MSE was also able to remove the fake alert virus in Safe Mode.

Combofix, while effective, just removes things and makes changes without asking you. It removed my custom Hosts file, which I then had to replace.

Fake Alert Attack and possible prevention

Computer was attacked TWICE today by Fake Alert virus while searching for pictures of art from Mali.

The first time, I clicked the X on the box that popped up to tell me that I supposedly had a virus. I got virus files in my computer this way.

The second time I just used the Task Manager to kill the browser without clicking anywhere in the browser window. No virus files made it into my computer.

It was interesting to have it happen to me. I've removed several of these infestations from client computers this year and I thought they were being infected because they weren't savvy enough to avoid the attack. But, it doesn't matter if you are tech savvy or not. I was using Chrome, had Flash and Java updated, and I have Windows patched. You just have to click on an unlucky link.

My advice is Don't Click on ANYTHING after the first fake alert pops up! Use the task manager (ctrl+shift+escape) to end the browser process without touching(clicking in) the browser window.

Confusing Analytics Duplicate Profile Instructions

So this looks confusing to me. The first paragraph mentions that we might not want to affect the data in our main profile, and the second paragraph says that the tracking code is identical and data will be imported simultaneously into both profiles.

in reference to: How do I create a duplicate profile in my account? - Analytics Help (view on Google Sidewiki)

Building Trust With Web Design 101

A link is a promise, the text of the link tells the user what they are being promised.

Palm 755p reboots whenever I access a memo, part three.

Alright, so the Palm 755p started rebooting whenever I accessed a particular memo. Different idea this time. Instead of deleting MemosDB-PMem from the internal memory space and then restoring all my memos, I just fixed the one memo that was busted.
I did a regular hotsync first.

1. I copied the contents of the memo from the Palm Desktop into a temp Notepad document. I deleted all the trailing spaces at the end of the memo in Notepad.
2. I deleted the memo from the Palm Desktop.
3. I performed a hotsync, Hotsync settings: Memos - Desktop overwrites handheld. This removed the corrupted memo from the palm. In the hotsync settings I only enabled Memos, in order to save time. 
4. Then, I copied the contents of the memo from my temp Notepad document, pasted into a new Memo in the Palm Desktop. Another hotsync, (set to Synchronize, or Desktop overwrites handheld), and the memo is back on the Palm. Now I can access the Memo and the Palm doesn't reboot.
5. Don't forget to return your sync settings to synchronize Palm and desktop, and to re-enable all the apps that you want synced.

This is by far the easiest way to recover from the problem where your Palm restarts whenever you access a memo.

Palm 755p reboots every time I access memos

I've had this one before, and last time I just re-installed the VZ updater for the Palm 755p.

But the Updater is a major process that requires a cable. Palm has not seen fit to release drivers that allow us to connect our 755p's to Vista 64bit using a USB cable.

So, what other options do we have, Scotty?

I dialed the Palm System Error Log number #*#377# and found that MemoMain.c was at fault, but I didn't know if the Memo database was corrupt or if the Memopad program was hosed.

I considered doing a hard reset, but instead I used the advice in this post: Treo 755p - suddenly resets when I try to open Memo, which was to delete "MemosDB-PMem" from the Internal memory space using the free FileZ Palm app.

It worked. Memos accessible, no rebooting. Vista 64bit to 755p connection problem workaround.

But it was late, and I skipped a step, which made a mess for me. I didn't set the Hotsync conduit for Memos to "Desktop overwrites handheld".

I lost all of my Memo categories and all my hundreds of Memos got dumped into one big pile on the 755p and the Desktop. Oh sheet! What a mess.

Now, I am not certain that if I had set the Hotsync to "Desktop overwrites handheld" that it wouldn't still have messed everything up, but it seems like it woulda helped.

Windows updates disable my Wifi

I have an Intel WiFi Link 5300 AGN wireless card in my Laptop.

I just downloaded a big batch of Windows updates and when my computer rebooted I couldn't connect to the network. My Wifi card was disabled in the Device Manager.

What the heck is up with that? This is exactly why I hate applying Windows updates to my computers. They very frequently cause problems. But you need to get them to help protect your computer from security threats.

Luckily, and by pure chance, I had downloaded fresh drivers from the Intel site recently. So I ran the setup and my wireless came back.

One time I ran Windows update and it ruined Office. Which in turn ruined IE and Outlook. One of the Office files had gotten corrupted....ahh...this is one of those things I should have blogged about right after it happened.

I couldn't find my stupid office CD's to re-install. (Move several times, change computers, put your software in various boxes in storage, this is what happens) None of my friends or contacts had the same version of Office; I needed retail, they had business. So in order to get my computer back I ended up going to the torrent sites.

Computers suck. How is your avg person supposed to be able to deal with this kind of problem without paying for hours of tech support, or getting another retail copy?

sufficiently advanced stupidity

While doing research on Google Apps for domains, I came across this repartee in a comment thread:

Evil?

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity" ... or something equally non-evil.
Steve McLeod
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
@Steve McLeod

True, but sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
Giles
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Gave me a chuckle.

Original post: Joel on Software: Don't ever use Google Apps for anything important

Best Spam Comment Evar

I got this comment the other day:

Hey! I think about these things all the time for example if you bought land do you own it all the way to the core of the Earth? If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is it naked or homeless? Why is bread square but most sandvich meat round? I liked your site it gave me some more things to think about!

The commenter linked to some haxxor site in Russia...but, I give points for the use of actual funny, even if it was recycled.

Wordpress Flickr Manager Broken? Possible fix for you

Hey, I am remembering to write this one down right after I solved the problem. Aren't you proud of me?

So, open source software is great. All those free apps, and free doodads you can run on your website! Shopping carts, project management sites, wordpress plugins...Yay!

Except when they break and the developer has stopped working on them.

Wordpress is a great piece of open source software, but I have seen two of the plugins I rely upon for clients go unsupported in the past year.

The latest one is the Wordpress Flickr Manager(WFM), which makes it easy for people to post their own pictures on their sites without having to ftp them and figure out what the URL is for the image. (Note: Wordpress has a native image uploader now, but the Wordpress Flickr Manager still has some advantages. One, it has a built in Lightbox javascript pop-up image display; Two: if the site owner will add tags and a link to the proper blog page in the image descr. on flickr, it becomes another source of traffic for the blog/site.)

WFM hasn't been updated for the latest versions of Wordpress, so the built in Lightbox function isn't working anymore. You can still insert Flickr pictures, but the Lightbox effect doesn't work, and you can't upload pictures via the plugin.

However there are fixes!

First of all, you need to edit some files in the plugin's folder. I don't have to tell you to use a text editor like Window's Notepad, or Notepad++ (Free Code Editor), do I?

In order to fix the Lightbox not working issue, edit wfm-lightbox.php and wfm-hs.php and remove the @ characters from the file. (2 in each file). Those php files are in the /js folder inside the plugin's folder. This solution was found here: Plugin Broken With WP2.8.

In order to fix the upload issue, comment out line 139 in FlickrCore.php like this

Change this:
echo 'Content-Type: ' . mime_content_type($filename) . "\r\n";

Into this:
// echo 'Content-Type: ' . mime_content_type($filename) . "\r\n";

This 'solution' was found here: Uploads don't work local. I have no way of knowing what commenting out that line really does, so use at your own risk.

 

Replacing RAM in Inspiron 2600/2650

My Girlfriend's computer died.

It was sad.

We cried.

Then I started troubleshooting. It would sort of boot up....ahhh, I can't remember. I need to write these darn blog posts right after the incident.

Anyhow, I thought maybe bad RAM. I used the <God Voice>Ultimate Boot CD</God Voice> to do a memtest and yeah, bad RAM.

("BAD RAM! Get back under the trailer!" )

Luckily I just happened to have a spare module hanging around. I got my jewelers screwdrivers and started taking plastic bits off the bottom of the laptop. And Lo! There was only one RAM stick accessible by this route. WTF? And, it wasn't the RAM that I needed to replace. ARGH! Where the heck did they put the other RAM, and what kind of muttonhead engineer would put it in a place where you can't easily get to it?

I unscrewed all the rest of the screws on the bottom of the laptop, and then, when the bottom didn't come off easily, I paused.

1. This was not going to be easy to take apart. Laptops can be a real pain to get apart, and back together again. Like, 4 layers and little plastic snap tabs, and tiny hidden screws pain.
2. Upgradeable parts are usually easy to get to.

Even though it is against the Man Code to read directions, I have learned through painful experience that it is usually faster to follow directions than to try to strike off into the wilderness of little plastic snap tabs.

So, I found this site: How to disassemble a Dell Inspiron 2650. This guy is SOO awesome for going to the trouble to post all the pics of the Inspiron 2650 disassembly procedure. I just wanna click all over his Google ads. But he doesn't have any

Turns out that the RAM module was pretty easy to get to. I just had to lift out the keyboard which was actually fewer screws than those that hold the bottom plate on.

The new RAM is playing nicely with the old RAM and the old computer is humming along nicely on its mission of email and web browsing.

Palm 755p Error Log

Dial #*#377# to see the Palm 755p Error Log. Helps with troubleshooting spontaneous restarting of the palm device. My palm started rebooting when I accessed a certain item in the Memos. Then this problem got worse, and it started rebooting when I accessed ANY Memos. I see on teh intarwebs that people experience this sort of problem with restarting from corrupted txt messages, corrupt downloads like ringtones, or email attachments.

I am trying to update the vzw software using the desktop updater that verizon provides for the Treo 755p.

Update: the updater, and restore via hotsync worked. Now I just need to get the phone reprogrammed or see if I can get *228 to work.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset verdict: 1.92 million?!?

Heh heh, like they will ever see that money. It's ridiculous. If I were in her position I would just laugh. What are they going to do? They can't take her car, they can't keep her from renting a house. They can garnish 25% of her wages. They will never see more than a few thousand dollars of this award and the obvious overkill in the award just makes them look horrible in the public eye. I wish the entire music industry would fail, big bank style, and publish zero new albums next year. This would be of great benefit to our society, as then people would go listen to live music, or, land sakes, make their own music at home.