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Halloween was much fun!

Cathy has the pictures.

We had a miscommunication with the 12 year old boys. Noah wanted to be with his friend so we dropped him off but the boys thought we were going to do his friend’s neighborhood then go to our traditional trick or treat spot. When we drove away, they didn’t call to ask about our plan nor did they call to tell us they were done with that neighborhood and ready to join us. Cathy made amends by purchasing a bunch of sale candy after midnight and stuffing the boys bags.

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AT&T – I offer you some free consulting

First, let’s begin with emailing from your phones. It’s a simple process and should never see an error like:

Your MSG could not be DELIVERED because InvalidPduContent

Soon we will discuss daylight savings time, servers and time stamping. And radiowave propagation.

Update: So far, it would appear that any SMS message over 160 characters causes this problem. Now, the thing is, the phone (a Motorola RAZR v3xx) is supposed to be able to send email as well as SMS. I believe it uses the same interface. So 160 characters doesn’t fly. Plus, the interface is supposed to take anything over 160 characters and automatically break it into multiple messages. Hmm. I wonder if that’s it. Perhaps it sends the first 160 characters successfully but fails to put the correct header on the next message so the later part of the email doesn’t get sent successfully.

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I’ve got myself a keylogger!

Maybe.. Windows security popped up to explain that I’ve got the Trojan-Keylogger.WIN32.Fung. Now, I’m typing fast and thinking slow. I may have just fallen prey to a popup ad because Windows security could only "enable protection" which when clicked took me to a … oh, this is pseudo phishing scam. That had to be a popup ad well designed to look like the windows security popup. It took me to an affiliate site for a free download or the ability to buy some software. I can’t believe I nibbled at that! None-the-less, I’m going to do a few scans and ensure the integrity of this machine. Back to work.

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Has FireFox forgotten you?

Many sites have the option to log in and remember you for a time period, usually a couple of weeks. For instance, Delicious, GMail, and Twitter all remember that I’ve logged in and only make me log back in after a couple of weeks even if Firefox is shutdown, crashed, or the computer is rebooted. That is, until last week when I noticed that every time I went to one of the sites I had to log in again even if I’d checked the "remember me" box. Naturally, I assumed a cookie problem.

As it turns out, if this is happening to you, a file called cookies.sqlite is damaged. Close Firefox! Right click on the START menu and open Explore. You may be navigating to some hidden directories so once Windows Explorer opens, go to the Tools menu and choose Folder Options. Go to the View tab. Make sure the bullet is on "Show hidden files and folders" instead of "Do not show hidden files and folders" Personally, I would recommend removing the check from "Hide extensions for known file types" Now navigate to this directory: C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ Note that C will be the letter of your drive where windows is installed and it may not necessarily be C. {username} will be the name you use when logging into windows. Once in that directory, find your profile directory. It will probably be the only subdirectory and most likely will be a bunch of random numbers and letters dot default like 2fwe34ccc.default. Go into that directory. Find the file cookies.sqlite and delete it. Restart Firefox and your problem should be solved.

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The Halloween Costume from Hell Lives at Target

So last night (Tuesday night) was interesting. Cathy and Amy drove to the high school around 4pm to pickup Sarah and shoot across the street to Party City for Amy and Evan’s costumes, only they were out of Evan’s size. They returned home for a quick freshening up before having to rush Sarah to a 5:30pm color guard practice at Hardin Valley Academy. Since I was supposed to be running the Knoxville Asperger Support Group at 6pm, and we only have one functioning vehicle, I felt it prudent that I drive (plus the girls were tight on time and I have this way of bending space and time…more through backroads and minding the traffic patterns than speeding mind you). We got Sarah to Hardin Valley on time and waited 15 minutes for her to give us the thumbs up that she was situated. We drove off with me hoping to get to the support group meeting just a couple of minutes late and Cathy hoping we’d skip the support group meeting and go to Party City in Turkey Creek instead.

Naturally we ended up at Party City where I bumped into a familiar face (but that’s for another post) and the signs indicated they had not sold out of the toddler sized pirate costume! Yea! But the employee came back to say they had none. Boo. BUT! The computer indicated that the Broadway store had a single one left. For those that don’t know the area. From our house to Hardin Valley is pretty extreme. From Turkey Creek to Fountain City are exact opposite corners of Knoxville. After several hangups and infinite holds, the Turkey Creek employee finally convinced the Broadway employee to put the costume on hold. As I leave the store, an employee is telling another employee who is on the phone with a customer, "No way! We don’t put any costumes on hold two days before Halloween."

Cathy puts an SOS out on Twitter. As we drive toward Fountain City, someone alerts us that there is a temporary Halloween store in West Town Mall. We are just reaching that exit so we pull off the Interstate and into the mall parking lot. I slow to 5 mph and push Cathy out the door. I circle the parking lot to keep the antsy children calm while Cathy discovers the costumes are far superior in quality to Party City, but alas, no toddler sizes.

We return to the Interstate and rush to the junction of Old Broadway, Tazwell Pike, and Broadway. After a painfully long wait, we screech across the 4 lanes of Broadway and into the Party City parking lot. Upon entering and saying I have one on hold, the costume people look at me like I’m crazy. A helpful employee comes to my aide and tracks down the costume held in my name. It is indeed the last toddler size pirate costume in the store. I quickly purchase it and go to the car. Cathy points out that it is a 2T! Ugh. We needed a 4T. I go back inside and they are quick to point out the no returns policy but I get a full refund anyway. A giant billboard over Party City says there is a costume store at North Peters (for you outta townies, that’s pretty darn close to Turkey Creek).

The children are getting surly. We grab McDonald’s and allow the necessary potty breaks.

We drive from BFE East to BFE West and find the North Peters store. It blows all the other stores away! Great displays and wonderful stuff but no toddler pirate outfits. They confirm that I have been to every possible costume store in town. Dejected, we decide to return home.

As we come off the Interstate at West Town Mall, we decide to check Target, a mere 3½ miles from our house. We find the best Captain Jack Sparrow costume in Evan’s size and it was on sale at 30% off! It only cost a quarter tank of gas and 4 hours of driving. We even remembered to bring Noah home!