As I’ve discussed before, computer security is an important part of running a functional system. Many people have asked me after my initial posts about how to remove viruses on their computers after a catastrophic infection. I held off on recommending one tool, but after yet another computer cleanup, I finally have a recommendation:

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

My other roommate’s computer also became afflicted with a rogue anti-virus (this one was dubbed “Antivirus Soft”), and after using this program, everything was removed successfully, without having to revert to a system restore. The free version just removes malware, but doesn’t actively check for it—so my ClamWin recommendation still stands. These two together are a terrific toolset.

So not even an hour after I posted my response to idealibertarianist’s survey, my roommate came in asking for help about a programming assignment. When he pulled in his Vista laptop, I noticed that there was an overzealous antivirus program that kept popping up. I asked him about it, and he told me that he never installed it.

Uh-oh.

idealibertarianist:

If you guys could facebook/tumblr message me with your answers, that’d be awesome.

Okay!

Survey:
On a scale from 1 to 10, how good would you say you are with computers?

10

Do you know what to do if your computer suddenly stops working or won’t turn on?

Dig through some drawers to find the OS install disc.

Do you know what to do if you can’t make a program work properly, or do what you want it to do?

Yes.

Do you think your computer is properly protected from malware and viruses?

Not per se, but I’m at a lesser risk than most because I keep up with security blogs, know how to dodge scams and vulnerabilities, and have a Mac.

If you use an anti-virus, please list it.

For when I load Windows 7 on Bootcamp, ClamWin is my antivirus of choice.

Do you know what to do if your computer is running slowly?

It’s daemon-hunting time. Pull out the kill -9.

If there were a short, low- or no-cost class that would explain how to do the above things and more, would you attend?

Probably not.

Here’s the most evil thing Photoshop does that you have never heard of: EURion constellation detection, also known as CDS. Want to know what it does? Download this JPEG and open in Photoshop. Having problems? You shouldn’t be.

In laymen’s terms: Photoshop will not allow you to open up a picture of any paper currency. Apparently, this has been happening since 2004. I understand not wanting you to duplicate money, but this is ridiculous. And how did I find this out? My friend tried to make a satirical picture with a $10 bill in it, and Photoshop wouldn’t let him.

This angers me to no end because a professional tool like this should not be trying to prevent you from doing something so basic with certain types of images. Even worse, I hear that some scanners will try to ruin your image if it thinks you are scanning in currency, and certain printers will ruin the colors if it detects “currency-ness”. I’m more frightened, however, of the implication of Photoshop always checking what I’m sticking into it. This could lead to a new level of Orwellian thought-crime previously unimaginable. Lead the protest, people! This is FUBAR!

One of these days, I’d love to upgrade a computer and have it just work.

The Mac operating system is usually the most painless, and don’t take this as a “This should just work! Die, you stupid ***********!” rant. For every one thing that goes wrong, there are about a hundred things that didn’t. But today was one hell of a day of things going wrong.

I just got a 13” 2.53GHz MacBook Pro last night. Great machine, great specs, plus Snow Leopard. Everything was painless last night—a two-hour session yielding my iTunes and Aperture libraries and all the programs I need. I wake up the next morning and pull open iTunes. “Song could not be located.”

What.

Apparently, half of my songs were still pointing to my external hard drive, although I could have sworn that I had already checked for that last night. But it’s not all of them, just some of them. Completely arbitrary. What do I do? I hit “Locate”, and point to the new file, hoping that iTunes will be smart enough to figure out that that is where all my other iTunes files are. It isn’t. iTunes wants you to go through each one of the songs individually. Screw that, I’m writing a Python script.

I happened to know that iTunes writes out an XML file of its library that you can access with Python’s plistlib. Astute readers will ask, “Hey, Ross, why didn’t you just use ‘Consolidate Library’?” Well, the files were already on my internal hard drive. Everything was copied over correctly; it’s just that the paths were off. I write a script that renames the paths. But now iTunes is complaining that some of the files don’t exist.

What.

Even though the XML file is minutes old, some of the paths in the plist file are just dead wrong. The plist claims there are no track numbers on some of the paths, but the filesystem disagrees. I still don’t get this. However, I dutifully write some logic that checks for these scenarios and finds the correct path. This actually worked for most files, except for a few that I had to correct myself.

The upshot of all this? I still had to rebuild my iTunes library, since I had lost most playlist information, and both my iPods had to be resynced. Ugh.

Later the same day, I need to print something out. I have an HP psc 1350 All-in-one—an average printer from about five years back—that still works great. It is also, unfortunately, one of the few printers that Snow Leopard does not support.

What.

This printer has worked with the default drivers since I’ve had it. My Ubuntu machine can talk to it out-of-the-box, for crying out loud. After much Googling, I find that installing the drivers from HP’s website should work. The drivers from three years ago. Okay, sure. I install them, but find that the damn software keeps popping up a Setup Assistant every time I turn on the computer. How do I make the madness stop?

I find out that in a mislabeled section of HP’s support, there are more recent drivers. I have now downloaded those, and they appear to be working. BLUH.

So the moral of this story is: don’t upgrade optimistically. You will be disappointed. Stay tuned though, because I’m still playing with Snow Leopard’s Grand Central Dispatch, and it’s shaping up to be pretty neat.

I’m blogging from my new 13” MacBook Pro! Woot!

I’m finally installing Snow Leopard on my family’s Mac Pro. I’ll keep you posted.