Tech Support week

Hard to admit but I don’t really have any photos to show that we’ve been busy.  We just haven’t done much outdoors or momentous enough to photograph. The primary reason for not getting out is we’ve just finished our 16-day Carac skin treatment that keeps us out of the sun during the process and for the next 14 days for the most part.

AvastSo it’s indoor chores and thankfully quite a number of tech support calls and house calls. Seems a number of Macs have gotten some kind of Malware or Adware bug installed in their systems.  I’ve never felt the need to run or have any virus protection on my Mac but today I’ve installed Avast, free highly-rated virus detection software for the OS X systems. Avast Mac Download.  Before I tried Avast I followed an Apple Support bulletin that gave me the files to delete in the first reported case.  I later ran Avast and found still more files in the Firefox realm.

The symptoms in the first encounter reported was Ads popping up stating that you have a virus and to call an 800 number.  This machine also had pop-ups with various ads that would not go away or allow you to close the browser in both Safari and Firefox.  Searching the Web produced more problems than solutions, as many of the sites and forums actually recommend loading apps like MacKeeper, that contain similar Malware.  The only one that seems legit at this time is AdWare Medic AdWareMedic link which I’m testing as I type.

AdwareMedicAvast takes a long time to run if you have a large amount of data stored on the hard drive. After 45 minutes and 7% of the HD scanned it found 14 “infections”.  AdwareMedic produced a list of 16 files to remove in only several minutes and has a button to “Remove Selected Adware”.

I have to shut down the browsers to enable the Remove process for AdwareMedic, which I’ll do shortly.  Avast is 60 minutes in and still only 14 “infections detected” but 9 files it was unable to scan and 58% of the HD scanned.  I’ll report back on the outcome.

Oh, we did get in a couple of day hikes, Stanna warped the loom, and the garage got a short “sorting.”  Does planning count as worthy of mentioning?  We’ve traced our last two Swiss hikes (dark green lines) and have a number of ideas for this September (post-its).IMG_2551 We do enjoy getting your emails and “reports” so keep us posted.

Update: Steve Eliot comfirmed AdWareMedic’s recommendation

. . .  about a month ago, I was having  a lot of trouble with my iMac . . .  screen freezes weird things that I never saw before that would lock up my screen so that I couldn’t  do anything.   I finally used Apple Care.  They reported about the same problems that you were talking about on your blog.  They also told me about AdwareMedic  they said they run Adware the first thing in the morning before they do any thing else.

I immediately installed it on my Mac and so far I have only caught one bad item.   So I guess my machine is pretty clean.  I have also not had any of the recurring problems that I had a month ago.

Thanks Steve, for the feedback

 

 

 

Late May Early June

It seems like we haven’t been doing anything when we haven’t posted a blog. Normally there’s always time to sit down and write about what we’ve been doing and what we hope that you would be doing: having fun, exercising and getting outside.

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Right now we’re in Portland working on Daniel’s new house, rather his new old house, which was built in 1888. But before we get into the remodel in Portland let’s just tell you that we had a busy week just before leaving for Portland. Week before last Stanna’s IMG_2318brother David and his wife Pam came down from Denver. The weather cleared enough for us to do a great 5-mile hike right in one of Durango’s mountain parks. As you can see “Durango records wettest May on record” so it wasn’t possible to get out much at all.

Besides catching up with news about their family, grand-babies and recent wedding adding a fourth spouse to their five grown children, David & Pam took home some of our purged loot. Best of all is  knowing the 60-pound dish-packed box of Beekley China will have a home at their cabin in Estes Park.

IMG_2339First on our agenda in Oregon, before tackling the house remodel, was catching up with Polecat.  Don & Janice just happened to roll their only home into a Portland state park the day before we arrived.  We all had to get out, even in the rain, so we hiked a popular Multnomah Falls Loop trail.  They had eyed a fresh fish market earlier and hoped the skies would clear long enough for a fresh salmon barbecue.

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Daniel’s new house in SW Portland, located on a hillside overlooking the Willamette River, was built in 1888. His plan is a total remodel of the basement and two floors, that includes gutting of the kitchen and entire second floor. The short-term goal is to get moved in by August 30 and that would mean making the main floor totally livable with an entirely new kitchen.

IMG_2400We arrived in time to be involved with the demolition work in the upstairs: only took one hard day to take out every wall of the second floor. Gutting the kitchen was a little more involved and took about three days, because I had to remove appliances cabinets, plumbing and soffits. Daniel originally thought it would only require a 10 yard dumpster but I think the pile is now close to 20 yards.

IMG_2394Since his house is over 120 years old it had multiple layers of wallpaper, in some places as many as eight. We rented a steam wallpaper remover and it took a full seven-day rental to remove the wallpaper from the first floor walls that were over 10 feet high. Many places we could only get down two or three layers to an impermeable layer which Daniel is IMG_2369just going to sand and paint. Most of the interior construction is with lathe and plaster but the serious remodels show the various stages of sheet rock from the earliest types to the more modern.  The first-generation sheet-rock with the brown paper covering absorbed steam too easily and prevented us from taking off a layer of wallpaper directly attached to that oldest drywall.

IMG_2382IMG_2393 (1)This trip coincided with the end of school here in Portland so we got to see a number of functions for our granddaughters, the most interesting of which was at Sophie’s elementary school where she participated in a fifth grader “states float” parade and the final day “clap-out.”  Clap-out was pretty remarkable because all the younger elementary school students IMG_2450and parents of the fifth-graders lined the central school hallway as the fifth grade graduating students exited their classrooms and received a clap-out and high-five from all the gauntlet of well-wishers.

IMG_3464Our final project at the house was ringing-out and planing the remodel’s wiring. Lots to be upgraded and since they’re going to finish out the basement as well, a number of new circuits need to be added. Two weeks in Portland sure went fast.