ProcessExplorer - yay

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.

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.

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.