Thanks to Tom Walsh for pointing me to Microsoft's ProcessExplorer, and other sysinternals.
One heck of a lot more useful than task manager.
I continue to waste time tryng to diagnose performance issues that would be better fixed (a) by more DRAM, and (b) a PC upgrade.
E.g. 4 hours wasted today, due to a runaway IT process (BigFix.exe)
I wish I could say "Well, if that's how my employer wants me to spend my time...", but
a) it's my career time that is being wasted. It often seems to me that my employer doesn't give a damn about me wasting my time.
b) even if my employer did, the orgchart doesn't bill IT for time wasted by an engineer like me.
I think more and more about lightweight webpads, as opposed to using IT (not really) managed PCs.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Just because I am paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get me
My system is dog slow.
Microsoft RootkitRevealer indicates suspicious stuff. (Hmm... maybe a good reason not to upgrade to a newer CPU with VT support.)
My system got slow all of a sudden, when an IP issue came up.
Part of me wonders if my employer is monitoring me. It is, after all, their legal right. (But if they are, I wish it didn't impact my productivity so much.)
Part of me wonders if other miscellaneous bad guys have taken over my PC.
Part of me wonders how embarassing it will be if my PC is infected. Since I work in security.
But I have never pretended to be an expert about the ecosystem of PC viruses, worms, and other malware. I have never pretended to be an expert in detecting malware on my PC.
I have reasonably good, standard, knowledge and practices for how to keep a PC clean of malware. Those rules begin "no active content". Unfortunately, the very fact that I am using a Windows PC means that much of such standard BKMs for security do not apply. E.g. I used the preview pane in Outlook, back when various preview pane related security holes became evident. E.g. I tried for years to send only plain text email, but eventually gave up because of the number of people I correspond with who complained.
Yes, I will be embarassed if my PC has been taken over. But not unduly so. The very fact that a reasonably conscientious and security aware guy like me has to worry about this highlights WHY I want to make security easier to use.
Microsoft RootkitRevealer indicates suspicious stuff. (Hmm... maybe a good reason not to upgrade to a newer CPU with VT support.)
My system got slow all of a sudden, when an IP issue came up.
Part of me wonders if my employer is monitoring me. It is, after all, their legal right. (But if they are, I wish it didn't impact my productivity so much.)
Part of me wonders if other miscellaneous bad guys have taken over my PC.
Part of me wonders how embarassing it will be if my PC is infected. Since I work in security.
But I have never pretended to be an expert about the ecosystem of PC viruses, worms, and other malware. I have never pretended to be an expert in detecting malware on my PC.
I have reasonably good, standard, knowledge and practices for how to keep a PC clean of malware. Those rules begin "no active content". Unfortunately, the very fact that I am using a Windows PC means that much of such standard BKMs for security do not apply. E.g. I used the preview pane in Outlook, back when various preview pane related security holes became evident. E.g. I tried for years to send only plain text email, but eventually gave up because of the number of people I correspond with who complained.
Yes, I will be embarassed if my PC has been taken over. But not unduly so. The very fact that a reasonably conscientious and security aware guy like me has to worry about this highlights WHY I want to make security easier to use.
Standby Exit Speed
Continuing occasional notes about excess slowness coming out of standby:
This morning, at home while "hurrying" to find a phone conference number: 13 minutes from standby to where I could use Outlook to see the phone bridhe number salad.
Today, at work, after lunch: 14 minutes.
All these times are from standby, not hibernate.
This morning, at home while "hurrying" to find a phone conference number: 13 minutes from standby to where I could use Outlook to see the phone bridhe number salad.
Today, at work, after lunch: 14 minutes.
All these times are from standby, not hibernate.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Fear and Loathing of ... Powering up my PC to see my Outlook calendar
I positively dread having to check my Outlook calendar on my company PC.
This evening it took 12 minutes to get from standby to the point where I could see my calendar - and that 12 minutes was read off the PC clock, so missed 1-2 minutes of boot time.
---
It was better, briefly, when I was using my AT&T Tilt SmartPhone.
"Better", but only a bit - because I was never able to get Bluetooth synch working, and because IT doesn't allow peons like me to use push - it often was out of date. Everyone talks about synchronizing regularly, but only the truly obsessive do so, unless it requires no user action.
"Was", because my SmartPhone fell circa 26" from desktop to carpeted floor - and broke its display, which now displays a rainbow like collection of colors. ATT provides no support, apart from saying "Well, you could not even have bought a warranty from us when you bought the phone, but sometime this summer we will sell warranties for your next phone."
I have not even begun the process of gettingf the manufacturer, HTC, to homor its warranty.
Pity, because I liked the machine. This may be what I get for buying refurbed instead of new.
This evening it took 12 minutes to get from standby to the point where I could see my calendar - and that 12 minutes was read off the PC clock, so missed 1-2 minutes of boot time.
---
It was better, briefly, when I was using my AT&T Tilt SmartPhone.
"Better", but only a bit - because I was never able to get Bluetooth synch working, and because IT doesn't allow peons like me to use push - it often was out of date. Everyone talks about synchronizing regularly, but only the truly obsessive do so, unless it requires no user action.
"Was", because my SmartPhone fell circa 26" from desktop to carpeted floor - and broke its display, which now displays a rainbow like collection of colors. ATT provides no support, apart from saying "Well, you could not even have bought a warranty from us when you bought the phone, but sometime this summer we will sell warranties for your next phone."
I have not even begun the process of gettingf the manufacturer, HTC, to homor its warranty.
Pity, because I liked the machine. This may be what I get for buying refurbed instead of new.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Toshiba TabletPC back from Repair Depot
I've decided to continue recording every step of my travail with my Toshiba Porteger M400 TabletPC, in case others have similar issues.
Today, May 4 2008, I finally got around to working on my Toshiba Tablet PC, which I shipped back to Toshiba's repair depot 4/6/2008, and which UPS says they delivered to me on 04/18/2008. (Leaving it on my doorstep unsecured, I might add.)
12 days for Toshiba to turn it around.
16 days for me to get around to testing it out.
Why so long a delay on my side?
a) after wasting so many days on this machine, I am reluctant to waste more
b) I can't waste any more weekday time, which I must devote all to work (yes, even when I am nit at work). (Originally I had hoped to use this TabletPC as a machine that i could do both work and personal stuff on - a hope that I have almost abandoned).
c) the free time that I was willing to devote to PC maintenance was largely spent on my wife's TabletPC, installing a MIDI keyboard and Sibelius.
d) Basically, the amount of time I have to devote to maintaining personal computers is limited and quantized. When a PC doesn't work out of the box, it is annoying.
So far, this Toshiba has been the most annoying computer I have ever had.
The Toshiba Laptop Repair Summary (filled in by the Toshiba Technician, shipped back to me) reads:
Date Repaired: April 16, 2008
Technician: MXD4
(other form stuff)
Symptoms:
Unit had defective System Board and CPU. System Board and CPU were replaced, hard drive re-imaged to factory settings. Unit passed all tests. BIOS set, DMI updated.
tech - VistaU,Wifi,bt,2048 Ram,120g hdd,IT Signed,Missing Screws,Stickers,Worn Plastics,Scatches,has stylus,no acc.,S/N Correct on IT,Has System Guard (Last used:Never used),scr lcd mask/lcd top,stkrs faded/frayed,dust under lcd mask,paperwork,Warranty [...]
Glew comments:
"Missing Screws" - not me, probably from the Toshiba recommended repair shop (Northwest Computer Support). I have never opened this computer up - I don't want to mess up warranty.
Worn Plastics - ditto (I think he means the plastic parts inside the case, and/or the case. Given how often this PC has been in the shop for repairs, hardly surprising.)
Stkrs faded/frayed - none of the stickers I can see outside the box seem faded or frayed to me; if he is talking about stickers inside the box, well, again, not me, must be Tishiba or Toshiba recommended service.
Dust under lcd mask - once again, this was either done by Toshiba, the Toshiba recommended technician, or it indicates a design flaw that allows dust to get in.
"scr lcd mask/lcd" - I suppose I might have scratched these in normal use, but if so it almost definitely indicates a design flaw, SINCE I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO EVEN START USING THIS MACHINE YET. If it gets scratched when it has spent most of its time sitting idle, with only a couple of trips to work, ensconced in my Air Targus pneumatically padded bag, and where it sat on my desk unused at work because of these problems- well, again, this indicates a design defect, if it cannot stand up to such modest use.
I am happy to report that the horrible, incessant, clicking (as if the keyboard was stuck), no longer seems to be occurring.
At first, I had some hope that the excessively loud fan problem might have gone away: it was quiet, no fan, while Vista asked me the initial questions "What is your username? Password? Etc."
Unfortunately, somewhere in that sequence - around the time I set the desktop background or the timezone - the fan once again went into hyperdrive, and has remained loud ever since.
I started "re-installing" this system at 12:57 - actually a bit earlier, that's the fist time I entered. I wonder how much time overall it will take?
---+++ Create Recovery Disks
At the moment, I am creating new system recovery disks (just in case Toshina installed a slightly different OS image than the first time). 3 DVDs; done at 2:26 pm. I.e. roughy 1.5 hours for *that* task.
---+++ WiFi
That was fast... (Now that I keep my WiFi access code on my telephone).
---+++ Backup
I wasted circa half an hour trying to persuade the default Windows Backup to save a backup to my Buffalo Terastation. No luck - I seem to recall that a patch for Vista is needed, probably to disable Vista's quite reasonable new security for backups. Sigh.
I'll skip on this, while moving on to other necessary tasks.
---+++ Software Updates and Configuration
In this day and age, one of the first things you have to do is install all software updates and security patches.
Now, which should I do first? My Virusscanner, or Windows? ...
---++++ Virusscanner - McAfee
McAfee updates itself almost as soon as connected. Then requires a reboot.
Unfortunately, this is the Adware McAfee that comes preinstalled - 60 day trial, pay later. I'll have to uninstall it and install the virusscanner I get free from my ISP. Unfortunately^2, my company's "free to employees" virusscanner does not support Vista.
It is rather sad that McAfee's user registration does not allow you to have special characters and punctuation in your password.
Grrr... I follishly logged in with my "existing" McAfee account - which, of course, expired. So now I am naked on the Internet, courtesy of Toshiba reinstalling my system. I wonder if I can sue Toshiba if I am hacked before I get properly secured.
I'll install Windows security updates, and then go and find my real virusscanner.
Time: 3:09pm.
---+++ Windows Updates
On this new fresh system: 55 updates, 113.3 MB total, need to be installed right away.
Hey, wow! it looks like Comcast has decided to ration my bandwidth - since downloading these security patches makes me look like a net.bw.abuser. I'm still downloading, but really slowly.
3:44pm - restarting after Windows update completed. 35 minutes to do this upgrade :-(
---+++ McAfee Try #2
Uninstalled the adware McAfee,
installed (again) the free McAfee available through Comcast.
(Urgh: have I made myself a target by confessing that I use this version of McAfee?)
4:19pm: I have finally got a virusscanner running.
Looking through various security alerts: should I be running both McAfee and Windows Defender? I don't know. What's the harm? Slowness...
4:42pm: ok, all the security and virusscanning stuff is on.
Moving on ...
---++ Create User Accounts
As soon as the basic install is done, I create an unprivileged user account for normal access.
4:52 - that's done. On to installing the software I usually use.
---++ Installing Software
Software I depend on:
* Cygwin
* Firefox
* mozex plugin
* Quicken
* some sort of Office software - probably OpenOffice, since Microsoft Office is too expensive to buy yet another licence for
Software I am thinking about using
* Thunderbird (had installed it for first time just before TabletPC started misbehaving)
Software that I want to install:
* VmWare
Software I may need to work on my TabletPC:
* Microsoft Visual Studio
* the chip company's /C++ compiler
It is rather sad that admin privileges are required to install so many of these.
Urgh: McAfee decides to deny access to Mozilla Thunderbird. Now how do I persuade it not to do this?
Installing Cygwin, of course, takes hours and hours.
Calendar
Today, May 4 2008, I finally got around to working on my Toshiba Tablet PC, which I shipped back to Toshiba's repair depot 4/6/2008, and which UPS says they delivered to me on 04/18/2008. (Leaving it on my doorstep unsecured, I might add.)
12 days for Toshiba to turn it around.
16 days for me to get around to testing it out.
Why so long a delay on my side?
a) after wasting so many days on this machine, I am reluctant to waste more
b) I can't waste any more weekday time, which I must devote all to work (yes, even when I am nit at work). (Originally I had hoped to use this TabletPC as a machine that i could do both work and personal stuff on - a hope that I have almost abandoned).
c) the free time that I was willing to devote to PC maintenance was largely spent on my wife's TabletPC, installing a MIDI keyboard and Sibelius.
d) Basically, the amount of time I have to devote to maintaining personal computers is limited and quantized. When a PC doesn't work out of the box, it is annoying.
So far, this Toshiba has been the most annoying computer I have ever had.
Repair Summary
The Toshiba Laptop Repair Summary (filled in by the Toshiba Technician, shipped back to me) reads:
Date Repaired: April 16, 2008
Technician: MXD4
(other form stuff)
Symptoms:
Unit had defective System Board and CPU. System Board and CPU were replaced, hard drive re-imaged to factory settings. Unit passed all tests. BIOS set, DMI updated.
tech - VistaU,Wifi,bt,2048 Ram,120g hdd,IT Signed,Missing Screws,Stickers,Worn Plastics,Scatches,has stylus,no acc.,S/N Correct on IT,Has System Guard (Last used:Never used),scr lcd mask/lcd top,stkrs faded/frayed,dust under lcd mask,paperwork,Warranty [...]
Glew comments:
"Missing Screws" - not me, probably from the Toshiba recommended repair shop (Northwest Computer Support). I have never opened this computer up - I don't want to mess up warranty.
Worn Plastics - ditto (I think he means the plastic parts inside the case, and/or the case. Given how often this PC has been in the shop for repairs, hardly surprising.)
Stkrs faded/frayed - none of the stickers I can see outside the box seem faded or frayed to me; if he is talking about stickers inside the box, well, again, not me, must be Tishiba or Toshiba recommended service.
Dust under lcd mask - once again, this was either done by Toshiba, the Toshiba recommended technician, or it indicates a design flaw that allows dust to get in.
"scr lcd mask/lcd" - I suppose I might have scratched these in normal use, but if so it almost definitely indicates a design flaw, SINCE I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO EVEN START USING THIS MACHINE YET. If it gets scratched when it has spent most of its time sitting idle, with only a couple of trips to work, ensconced in my Air Targus pneumatically padded bag, and where it sat on my desk unused at work because of these problems- well, again, this indicates a design defect, if it cannot stand up to such modest use.
Clicking Better ; Fan Still Loud
I am happy to report that the horrible, incessant, clicking (as if the keyboard was stuck), no longer seems to be occurring.
At first, I had some hope that the excessively loud fan problem might have gone away: it was quiet, no fan, while Vista asked me the initial questions "What is your username? Password? Etc."
Unfortunately, somewhere in that sequence - around the time I set the desktop background or the timezone - the fan once again went into hyperdrive, and has remained loud ever since.
Time Spent Re-installing for the 3rd or 4th Time
I started "re-installing" this system at 12:57 - actually a bit earlier, that's the fist time I entered. I wonder how much time overall it will take?
---+++ Create Recovery Disks
At the moment, I am creating new system recovery disks (just in case Toshina installed a slightly different OS image than the first time). 3 DVDs; done at 2:26 pm. I.e. roughy 1.5 hours for *that* task.
---+++ WiFi
That was fast... (Now that I keep my WiFi access code on my telephone).
---+++ Backup
I wasted circa half an hour trying to persuade the default Windows Backup to save a backup to my Buffalo Terastation. No luck - I seem to recall that a patch for Vista is needed, probably to disable Vista's quite reasonable new security for backups. Sigh.
I'll skip on this, while moving on to other necessary tasks.
---+++ Software Updates and Configuration
In this day and age, one of the first things you have to do is install all software updates and security patches.
Now, which should I do first? My Virusscanner, or Windows? ...
---++++ Virusscanner - McAfee
McAfee updates itself almost as soon as connected. Then requires a reboot.
Unfortunately, this is the Adware McAfee that comes preinstalled - 60 day trial, pay later. I'll have to uninstall it and install the virusscanner I get free from my ISP. Unfortunately^2, my company's "free to employees" virusscanner does not support Vista.
It is rather sad that McAfee's user registration does not allow you to have special characters and punctuation in your password.
Grrr... I follishly logged in with my "existing" McAfee account - which, of course, expired. So now I am naked on the Internet, courtesy of Toshiba reinstalling my system. I wonder if I can sue Toshiba if I am hacked before I get properly secured.
I'll install Windows security updates, and then go and find my real virusscanner.
Time: 3:09pm.
---+++ Windows Updates
On this new fresh system: 55 updates, 113.3 MB total, need to be installed right away.
GLEW IDEA: I'm pretty sure I've discussed this in public already: we are fast approaching the day when a newly installed computer should start off with all Internet access disabled, except for a dedicated path to download updates as quickly as possible, with nothing else able to access the net.
E.g. it should be running a mini-OS at this point.
Hey, wow! it looks like Comcast has decided to ration my bandwidth - since downloading these security patches makes me look like a net.bw.abuser. I'm still downloading, but really slowly.
3:44pm - restarting after Windows update completed. 35 minutes to do this upgrade :-(
---+++ McAfee Try #2
Uninstalled the adware McAfee,
installed (again) the free McAfee available through Comcast.
(Urgh: have I made myself a target by confessing that I use this version of McAfee?)
4:19pm: I have finally got a virusscanner running.
Looking through various security alerts: should I be running both McAfee and Windows Defender? I don't know. What's the harm? Slowness...
4:42pm: ok, all the security and virusscanning stuff is on.
Moving on ...
---++ Create User Accounts
As soon as the basic install is done, I create an unprivileged user account for normal access.
4:52 - that's done. On to installing the software I usually use.
---++ Installing Software
Software I depend on:
* Cygwin
* Firefox
* mozex plugin
* Quicken
* some sort of Office software - probably OpenOffice, since Microsoft Office is too expensive to buy yet another licence for
Software I am thinking about using
* Thunderbird (had installed it for first time just before TabletPC started misbehaving)
Software that I want to install:
* VmWare
Software I may need to work on my TabletPC:
* Microsoft Visual Studio
* the chip company's /C++ compiler
It is rather sad that admin privileges are required to install so many of these.
Urgh: McAfee decides to deny access to Mozilla Thunderbird. Now how do I persuade it not to do this?
Installing Cygwin, of course, takes hours and hours.
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