Technobuddy

By D

March 4, 2008 2:54 PM | Link to this

I hate to see the blog go as the exgange has taught me a number of useful tricks, but I am gald to see the regular column will remain.

One quick question on Grisoft - does it update virus definitions automaticly (as does Trend Micro on my home computer)or do you have to log on and update as yor remember to do so (like AdAware and Spybot)?

By Bill

March 4, 2008 3:21 PM | Link to this

Hi D, yes the updates are automatic - and best yet - frequent. I get commercial anti-virus programs free, but still end up favoring Grisoft’s AVG.

By RW

March 4, 2008 5:24 PM | Link to this

Maybe you should have used a router.

By Ann

March 4, 2008 8:27 PM | Link to this

Dagnabbit. I might not have been commenting, but I’ve had this on RSS for a long time.

By Ann

March 4, 2008 8:28 PM | Link to this

Dagnabbit. I might not have been commenting, but I’ve had this on RSS for a long time.

By Bill

March 4, 2008 9:41 PM | Link to this

It’s OK, Ann, truth is that I’m probably more comfortable talking to folks one-on-one by e-mail anyway.

So you’ll still be able to read the column, still be able to talk by e-mail — truth is that I wasn’t really a blog sort of a person.

By Beth

March 5, 2008 10:59 AM | Link to this

If there isn’t enough traffic, then why is the bandwidth high? Just wondering. I’ll miss this too, very much. Sorry Bill, your inbox just grew to twice it’s bloated size!

By Bill

March 5, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this

Thanks Beth, and the bandwidth mention was mine, not from the big shots. Basically it boils down to the fact that there was not enough traffic to make the blog worthwhile commercially.

Truth is, that this really has been fun for me. So I’ll miss it. But, like I said in the post, I’m not going away. So the converstion continues.

By MarkO

March 5, 2008 1:11 PM | Link to this

Bill, Your fan base is a lot bigger than the bean counters realize. A lot of folks (me included) appreciate your sage advise and most of us will figure out how to follow you over to your AJC column.

By Bill

March 5, 2008 1:18 PM | Link to this

Well, thanks Mark — I think the column probably works best as, well, a column and not a blog. And that’s mostly what I’ve done here, just paste in the column each week.

Far as I know, this isn’t a slam at the column, just a judgment that it isn’t blog material.

Truth is, I think my downhome style may be best suited for a column and not a blog. Most successful blogs are newsy and sort of trendy. The last time I was trendy was back when I bought a Nehru coat in 1969 (they went out of style so fast that folks were mistaking me for a priest within a month).

I’ve been really lucky. I love technology and people too. I get paid to mess around with technology and then talk to people about it. So I don’t have any complaints - other than about the weather and my inability to afford a round the world freighter cruise. My wife promises that for my ‘graduation’ present when I retire though.

By Gary

March 5, 2008 5:47 PM | Link to this

Hate to see this go as well. It was so easy using Firefox and it’s RSS reader to see if there was anything new or review prior listings.

By Bob

March 5, 2008 5:59 PM | Link to this

Hey Bill. I’m a long time reader of your column and the blog, Thanks for all the great advice! I’ll continue to find your column here but will really miss your posts. They are always funny, very helpful and full of common sense. Any chance you could you move the blog to your website? Bob

By Bill

March 5, 2008 6:49 PM | Link to this

This is sort of like being able to go to my funeral without dying - thanks Gary and Bob.

By Analyst Interrupted

March 7, 2008 12:59 PM | Link to this

Bill wore a nehru jacket in 1969? That’s only five years after the Beatles wore theirs. That’s coming close to the Beatles, I guess. It sure beats me. I’m a fat, aging baby boomer with glasses, (Fabb4eyes). That’s as close as I can get to Paul, John, George and Ringo.

I hate life.

By Bill

March 7, 2008 1:19 PM | Link to this

Yeap, Analyst, it’s easy to remember the time - 1969 - since it was my first job after college. I taught school in a tiny Missouri town - Mountain Grove - for exactly one year. I made $5,750 a year and bought a Cessna 150 airplane, an MG-B sports car and a TV. My fuel oil, used for heating, was disconnected for non-payment sometime in January.

By Analyst Interrupted

March 7, 2008 7:54 PM | Link to this

Bill, you’re talkin’ 1970 money. The multiplier is five. that means you were makin’ the equivalent of 30g’s now, man. You were livin’ the high life and you didn’t know it…..30g’s is more than I make now. I stay hungry. That way everything tastes good. I refuse to believe that selling out is worth it. Just because you made money at something, doesn’t mean you’re any good at it.

We have brains that need feedin’. We read. We watch. We absorb. But most of it stinks so bad, most of us would just as soon hang ourselves as read or watch any more. Good comedians are one in a million. Try to name five. See? Good actors are one in a million. you know it. Good writers are one in a million. I would rather just cease to exist than to sell out to a persuasion which would color my every thought and ruin me. Life is short. Comfort is thus short. Stay hungry. Stay lean. My retirement plan is to make my own beef jerky. Got it? Good. then drop it.

By Bill

March 7, 2008 9:34 PM | Link to this

Forget the multiplier, it wasn’t much money - I promise. That’s why I spent a Missouri winter using an electric blanket and an extension cord as my heating system.

Although I have to admit - since I remember this - going to Max Pamperin’s grocery, where everyone ran a monthly tab, and ending up paying about $80 a month for food. And since I was a single guy in those days that was mostly steaks, pork chops, etc.

And when you paid your tab at Max’s in lovely Mountain Grove, you were allowed to pick out a free bag of candy as a reward.

By Bikini Bimbo

March 8, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this

You had juicy steak and chops? The luxury of electric blankets? Listen very carefully, sir. You were upper-middle class. Nostalgia has colored those halcyon days of your youth as poverty. You were better off then, than a third of all americans are now. There has been a savage disconnect between the haves and half-wits, of which I am the spokesman. We are dirt poor, and we didn’t pay attention when they went over the math in middle school. We have been disenfranchised by a foreign-bought government that sees us only as economic collateral damage, and the acceptable casualties in a corrupt capitalistic surge of a multi-tiered silent coup that turned our politicians into corporate puppets. We need healthcare for our sick. We need education for our dumb, (with teams of tutors working around the clock at the Teletubby level in Peoria). We need food for our…okay, we’re fat, okay? We’re fat. Poor people are fat. Are you happy now that you made us feel bad about our bodies too?

A revolution is coming sir. A revolution which started when Bush Sr. didn’t know what a upc code was or what a poor american thought about. Our choices were narrowed down to two when we were born: paper or plastic, and now, most of us who cant afford food, and must shoplift to stay fat, our choices are, “probation or community service”.

Vote for Totie Fields in 08.

This was paid for by the Fat Chicks for a Better Deal

pass the chicken, pass the peas, pass the potatoes, pass the corn, pass the butter

By marie

March 8, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this

I am thinking of buying XP Pro or XP Media for three computers. I looked at Newegg and it asks for reciepts for motherboard etc. I don’t understant any of this. I was told I could purchase a 3 license XP disc. Where? How?

By Lulu

March 9, 2008 11:27 AM | Link to this

Bill Husted is leaving? I feel a song coming on…..

“Those google days, of spam e-mails and hi-tech swells are gone.

But in my drive, I know they still will click rom and rom.

But how do you flame someone who has taken U from logons 2 U-tube. It isn’t e-mail but I’ll try.

If you wanted yahoo I would write across the sky in jpegs that would soar a thousand bytes high

to sir with love

By Bill

March 9, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this

Hey Lulu, don’t start writing songs yet - or my obit, grin. The column continues, so do I (unless the traffic on I-85 gets me). You’ll still find the column online in the business section and in print in the newspaper.

By Lulu

March 9, 2008 12:45 PM | Link to this

Oh, that IS different.

nevermind.

By Karen

March 24, 2008 3:07 PM | Link to this

I just purchased a new Dell computer with Trend Micro PC-cillin installed. Is this recommended or should I stick with AVG free, Norton . I run Windows Vista. Thank you

By david brown

March 24, 2008 4:07 PM | Link to this

I have been using different versions of Sandboxie for nearly 2 years now and it seems to be a terific software. Do you have any Comments, Tips or Advice on it?

By Mary Connealy

March 25, 2008 12:22 PM | Link to this

ACK! I was sent here with a question. Are you still here? I recently found some old files saved on a disk in Lotus Word Pro. These are at LEAST 1997. So ten years old. I can’t open them on any computer I’ve got. Is there anyway to open them? Could I buy Lotus Word Pro, I found it for $18 online. Load that onto my computer, then open these files?

By Jan Price

March 25, 2008 7:20 PM | Link to this

Bill, I just tried to check for an update to Zone Alarm 7.0.408 and after checking the ZA and cnet.com sites, can only find the free version in 6.5 on cnet. The 7 series is a suite. Did ZA stop releasing the free version?