Is Honesty always the best policy? September 13, 2008

The title of this post is the cosmic and philosophical question that has been ringing in my mind after this incident. I would mention to you events of this Saturday morning. You can decide what to make of it.

Friday night I went to bed quite late after watching Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda. I thought it was a very entertaining movie especially because of Will Farrel who is a wonderful comedian. Also loved his acting in another romantic comedy Stranger than Fiction. After the movie was over I listened to BBC World Service. After sentencing myself to the usual bad news of war, starvation, corruption, uncertainty, I went to uneasy and disturbed sleep at around 3:30am.

Saturday morning, I got up at 10:30am, tired and weary. A hot cup of instant black coffee assured me I was still alive. Being a nerd, I always order my little weekly grocery online. I had to pick my order before midday when the online pick up service closes. I drove to be there at 11:30am, rang the door bell that is connected to someone’s pager, a minute later the shutter opened, a tall well built man smiled at me. ‘Hey, How are you today?’’ I blinked through the haze of my insomnia but caffeine helped me respond, ‘Yeah good. I have an order to pick up for …..’’

He genially proceeded to my tray and lifted plastic bags and took them to my car. I thought of helping him and picked the last two bags. He went inside and brought out another small bag saying ‘Oh and this is also for you, it also has your invoice in it.’’ He asked me where I lived and commented that the online grocery pick up was a really good service. I agreed. He said goodbye by shaking my hand.

I drove to library and picked the audio book for John Updike’s Witches of Eastwick. I got home and took my groceries to my room. I was so glad to have the whole weekend to myself now. I just needed to kick off my shoes, get out of my jeans, pour me another coffee, lie back in chair, look at the cool cloudy gray day outside my window, and listen to the audio book.

But soon, I found that the last little grocery bag handed by the store guy had ‘oven gloves’ in it. I thought it might be some of those freebees they throw in occasionally. But then I also read the invoice. It belonged to some Jacqueline. The gloves cost about $8. I had no use for them so I thought I would throw them out. No, I thought later, I should return them, but I will do so next week. Then I thought of Jacqueline, maybe a young girl or a house wife, needing those things for her weekend cooking. Maybe she was having some guests over, I imagined things like that. My conscience convicted me. I could not sit down and relax until I had her stuff with me!

I drove back to the grocery store. They close at midday and now it was 12:15pm. I pushed the button that is connected to the pager the person on duty is wearing. No one came at the shutter but round the corner of the building that same guy- looking annoyed- spoke out, ‘Hey, I am taking some deliveries here. I can be with you only after that!’’

He turned back and started to walk off my sight. I stopped him, ‘Hang on! I just needed to return this bag, it does not belong to me,’’ I ran towards him and handed him the bag, ‘It belongs to someone called Jacqueline, not mine.’’ He inspected the invoice with a frown and grumbled in an accusing tone, ‘Well, it wasn’t in your tray, was it? Anyway thanks’’ He turned around impatiently and walked away. I thought I would tell him that it was the last bag he handed to me with a smile and a handshake. But then I thought it was all my fault that I wanted to play the good Samaritan.

I am not blaming that man at all. He was apparently a very nice guy. And by the time I got to him second time, he might have been stressed taking deliveries, maybe arguing with someone behind the building. My visit after closing time was unexpected and would have added to his annoyance. I am definitely not dealing with that man’s reaction. The purpose of this post was to deal with the question I put at the beginning. Is honesty always the best policy? Are there situations in life when we just need to shrug our shoulders and let it go? My day would have been much better and easy if I had not bothered to return that bag. But well, sometimes conscience can be a bitch.

On Internet Social Networking September 7, 2008

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

The New York Times had this extensive article on Social Networking websites. I wrote the following comment as my rumination on the subject. Surprisingly, moderators rejected it( to the best of my knowledge). Wonder why? Was it misogynistic? Anti Religion? Too religious? Would you know why? Anyhow, I am glad I can still post it and let the world read.

This article almost gave me headaches. It reminds me of Internet’s trillions of tentacles. Get to this Wikipedia link for a list of popular social networking sites for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

You get Facebook, then Twitter and then something else. Then another new site pops up providing the best of three and then yet again something else. It’s a NEVER ending quest. I think the book of Ecclesiastes in Bible was written when some prophet foresaw the internet and digital age of today: ”All things are wearisome; more than one can express…there is nothing new under the sun.”

Once a friend asks you to come look at his or her page, soon you realize you MUST register to view the page and you end up getting signed up for all the Facebooks and Twitters spread all over the face of this once green and blue but now all digital earth. Even newspapers (like Washington Post) and book sellers (like Amazon) offer social networking to their registered users.

Sometimes, a pioneering Social Networker (for some reason, They are ALWAYS women) invites the flock to some new social networking site (It might be Shelfari or Multiply or HeavenknowsWhat) and then gets sick of it and abandons it anyway, only to proclaim that the next one she’s found is the perfect one.

It’s like some lady Moses of the digital age messing about her flock through the eternal silicon valley of utter wastefulness and constant flux. But in this story there is neither Jehovah nor Jesus to save us.

And these things can of course become very obsessive. You must know what new ”moods” or ”twitters” or other updates there are. Even news websites and news aggregators act like twitters and heart beats of the world that get updated every minute.

Recently, Atlantic Monthly came with an article ”Is Google making us stupid” (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google) You bet it is. Reluctantly, I did an experiment to find out the truth. I actually switched off my computer (if I keep it on I must check all twitters and emails every 30 minutes)… so I switched it off (I was able to do it as I’d also gotten sick of the latest Spywares, Adwares etc. that afflicted my PC, by the way, my latest blog offers some good tips to fellow sufferers and surfers).

After having my digital contraption off… I was learning so much more in my spare time by simply being able to read books and sticking with the reading, newspaper articles, even just watching TV, listening to radio. And I relaxed a lot, enjoyed my coffee better… was able to productively and creatively think about many other things. Also, I was at peace.

You can do that too! Or else, Abandon hope all Ye who enter here….

3 Steps to kill most Computer Viruses and Spywares September 6, 2008

I have a feeling that many people who come across this post will benefit greatly! I was recently infected by very nasty looking and stubborn Adware that flashes a red Warning Sign as your Desktop Background! This nasty message reads like this:

“WARNING! Spyware detected on your computer! Install an antivirus or spyware remover to clean your computer.
Warning! Win32/Adware.Virtumonde
Warning! Win32/privacyremover.M64.”

This looks scary enough when this message has replaced your desktop picture or background! Usually I was able to kill most bugs and adwares (that other major free softwares failed to remove) with this very effective yet simple software called SmitfraudFIX. (If you download this, just make sure to run it in Safe mode otherwise it might change a few settings, nothing harmful though)

Anyhow, I spent whole Saturday searching for softwares and actually ended up buying one! I bought Malwarebytes which is actually free! Paying for it just gives you free extras (which are useful though) but with the Free Version you can both search and remove all Malwares on your computer.

I just wish to give you 3 softwares that will make your computer almost totally bug free and protected in future. You will notice that your computer runs a lot faster and internet speed is noticeably increased! So, here are 3 FREE steps to a happy, healthy and protected computer.

1.) Download Avast anti Virus program from Download.com– Another free anti-virus program is AVG but I have used Avast for over a year now and it is absolutely wonderful. It not only scans and removes bugs but also provides real time live protection. Almost every day, while surfing the internet it flashes warning signals for me and asks me to abort or delete some bug it has found. This is indispensable. Download it and run it once, restart and let it run again (second time) if it wants to, after your computer boots. In case you have a paid anti virus installed you may skip this but still I highly recommend it. Avast, in my opinion much better than many paid anti Virus programs!

2.) Download Spybot- Search and Destroy 1.6 from Download.com– I always had reservations about free anti- Spyware softwares as I think they’re not effective enough. But today, as I downloaded and ran this it just surprised me by the number of bugs it searched and destroyed, being true to its name. And my computer ran a lot faster after I’d done that. After you’re done with step 1, as with Avast, run it and then delete all the bugs it has scanned. Then on prompt restart your computer and let it run again as your computer boots. (This might take upto one hour!) But once your computer comes to life it will be a very happy, healthy and agile machine. Spybot may run everytime you start your computer but you can skip this anytime. Just let it run maybe once a week or fortnight for a great maintainence.

But guess what? After running SmitfraudFix and these two great programs I still could not get rid of the Adware I had on my computer. Most sites refer to as only Scareware that only sends you into panic to buy some other rogue anti-Spyware program. Others said that this particular Aware gets nastier with time and starts pop ups, key loggers (tracks whatever you type!) etc. So, I thought of buying an Anti- Spyware. Even the best Anti- Spywares are not 100% effective and they often don’t fix new bugs. I read some reviews of Malwarebytes that were very good. Some people swore that it fixed bugs that no other program could! So, I bought it (but later realized it would do the main job even for free!) But I guess for a program as good as this EVERYONE should buy it and support this wonderful project. So, anyway here is the third step.

3.) Download Malwarebyte’s Anti- Malware software from Download.com– AND YES! It works like a charm. It also takes a lot less time than other softwares. But make sure you do a FULL SCAN and not just the QUICK Scan. It fixed my bug, plus about 30 odd others and yet some other fake alerts etc. Just awesome.

So, again, go through these step 1, 2 and 3 by running these programs in chronological order and you bet you will come out a much happier person. Plus, Avast and Spybot provide real time protection which means malicious bugs will be prevented from entering your machine. Malwarebytes also provides live protection but I guess that’s only for paid version.

Oh and yes, I might mention that you must keep your firewall ON. I have XP and to check if you have your firewall on, Go to control panet, then ”Security Center” and then the screen will tell you if your firewall is on or not. If it’s not, you know what to do!

Good luck and please give your feedback in comments section to let me know if it solved your particular problem or just made your computer faster. Also, post comment on anything that you think novices like me or others can benefit from.

Cheers!