But I must be losing my geeky mojo.  It used to be I would search out and discover things for the simple joy of knowing about it.  I surprised myself today by finding a new tool (that I’m sure some of you…cough…Mike…cough) are probably already aware of and have been using for some time.

As a developer, I watch task manager a lot to see what is pegging my system or eating up my RAM.  If I notice my system behaving oddly or slowly, it’s almost always the first thing I check.  Usually there’s a run away process (yeah, I’m looking at you DLOClient.exe!) and I kill it and get on with life.  So if you’re like me, and you look at the process list with any frequency, I’m sure you’ve noticed a process (usually several) called svchost.exe.

Svchost.exe is used to run a bunch of different things as windows services.  Usually svchost.exe behaves itself pretty well, but sometimes one or more of the svchost processes will use an extraordinary amount of RAM.  Today was one of those times for me, and I finally got exasperated enough to find a tool that would tell me what svchost.exe was really running.

Which brings us to the tool I mentioned earlier.  It’s called ProcessExplorer.  I don’t know why the heck Microsoft doesn’t just ship this thing with Windows in the first place.  It told me everything I needed to know.  I should have searched it out ages ago.  Sigh.  I’m losing my mojo.

Anyhow, if you’re constantly checking your system processes, I highly recommend it.

Google Web Search, new and improved with Ridiculously Fast Indexing!

I’m impressed.

On the other hand, it’s kind of pathetic.  Why is it pathetic?  Because some schmuck(s) in Turkey (maybe?  maybe not.) took the time to hack my site, ’cause you know it’s such busy site.  I think I get…um…ten visitors a day, on a busy day – and most of them stay at my site for two or three seconds.  Oh, wait…I just said that.

So, to the TurkHackTeam – nice job.  You got in, you changed some stuff, and hey – the index.php file you swapped in actually was kind of nice – good design work and aesthetically pleasing.  Pat yourselves on the back and move on to bigger challenges, ’cause hacking my site ain’t that impressive.  It’s just annoying.  And really – not many people are seeing the results of your handy work.

What’ll happen if you keep hacking my site?  Nothing really.  I’ve changed my password, deleted superfluous user accounts (there was only one other one), and taken a few other precautions.  If you hack again, I’ll assume it’s a hole in WordPress and I’ll change my software.  No big deal.  Like I said, just annoying, and probably nobody is really going to notice besides a few friends of mine.

Fortunately, I have raw access to the database, and was able to change my email address back, and with that was able to get a new password generated.

Must’ve been some kind of bot – I can’t imagine anybody would be interested enough in my blog to hack it, unless it was some script kiddie doing it just to see if they could.  I’ve upgraded to the latest version of WordPress.  Hopefully the hole has been corked.

Ok, enough Orwellian nonsense.   I did add the Google Analytics code a couple of days ago.  We use Sitemeter for the Spindle And Wheel website, and I like it quite a bit – very easy to use, unobtrusive, free.  The only complaint I have about Sitemeter is that the free version only lets you see info for the last 100 visitors.  If you shell out six bucks a month you get to see info about the last several thousand visitors.  I heard about Google Analytics and thought I’d give it a whirl on my blog since it’s completely free and retains all the information.

It’s gathers all the same info that Sitemeter does, but I’m less impressed with it.  The UI is much less intuitive – you have to dig around to find the info you’re after.  I’m sure that once I get used to it that will be less of an issue for me.  My main complaint so far is that the Google Analytics admin site is over an encrypted connection.  And let me tell you boys and girls, encrypted pages over satellite based internet suck.  Very sloooooow.  My other complaint is that the information is only updated every 24 hours or so, whereas Sitemeter is updated real-time.

All that aside, I find it funny what search terms bring people to my site (my blog and Spindle And Wheel too).  In the last 24 hours I had two new visitors to my site via Google search.  The search terms that brought them to my site: “nordictrack support” and “advertiser for amazon widgets”.  It turns out my site ranks in the top three results for those search terms.  I actually ran the searches myself to see how the heck they related to my site.  Both terms came from reader comments (Jerome on the first one, Marie on the second).  Now that I’ve mentioned those terms in this post, I expect they’ll completely skew the results and put me at number one for those terms!  Buhuwahaha!

So, I think I’ll keep Google Analytics for a little while, just to give it a fair shake, but I may switch to Sitemeter.  I’m really just trying it out because I’m re-doing The Three Ring Ranch site (ported it from WordPress to Joomla).  We’ve got some sheep for sale and I thought it would be interesting to see who was looking at them, since we’ll undoubtedly be selling more of them in the future.

I’ve got my eye on you!

Anyhow, I was looking at one of the blogs I read regularly and there was an Amazon.com ad over on the right hand side of the screen.  Guess what book it was advertising?  Go on…guess!  Give up?  It’s called “The Roman Ritual vol. 1 Sacraments and Processions”.  This book is a little pocket-sized book that has a bunch of prayers in Latin for priests to use for various things like baptisms and blessings and what not.  How do I know this?  I researched how much one of these little books would cost (on Amazon) two nights ago.  Out of curiosity, I refreshed the website, and the next Amazon ad was “The Roman Ritual in Latin And English with Rubrics” which is the same book, with vol.’s 2 and 3 all in one cover.  Another refresh produced “The Roman Ritual three volume set”.  Another refresh produced some cd/dvd called “Island Roots, vol. 1 by various artists” which might actually have something to do with a post on the site (there was something about Tahiti a couple of posts back).

Looks like Facebook ain’t the only place tracking your movements.

So, we have satellite based broadband which works well enough, but last week around Monday evening, the satellite got sick and we lost connectivity.  Of course, this happened right as the leading edge of a serious thunderstorm started passing over us, so at first I assumed it was due to the weather.  The next day was very heavy clouds with rain again, and the satellite was still incommunicado, but again I thought this was due to the weather.  Wednesday dawned bright and sunny though, and still no connectivity – it was time to call tech support.  Sigh.

So, I call the support number (thanks Mike for getting it for me – since I couldn’t look it up online myself).  After listening to their whole message for about three minutes (because, you know, their options have changed recently and you better listen to the whole thing) I finally get to talk to a human being.  I found it ironic that their message goes on at length to tell you how much support is available online.  I’m guessing that 95% of the time somebody calls their support number it’s because they CAN’T GET ONLINE in the first place.  But I digress.

So, the first person I get to talk to is a gentleman named “Mike” with a very heavy Indian accent.  I’m betting “Mike” is not his real name, but it’s something to call him.  He has me pull up the diagnostics on my satellite modem, and sure enough, it’s not working…just like I told him.  He does a bit of checking of things behind the scenes and tells me that there is a problem with the satellite, that it’s being actively worked on, and that my connectivity should be back in two or three hours.  He says if it’s not back on by then to call back.  I thank him for his time, and he mentions that I may receive a survey via email about my support experience, and would I please take a few minutes to fill it out?  I think…sure, if I actually get my connectivity back, I’ll fill it out.

Three hours pass, and the internet is still MIA.  So I call back.  I listen to the whole silly spiel about how much help is available online (grumble, grumble) because I couldn’t remember what buttons to push to cut it off.  This time I’m connected to  “Steve” who also has a suspiciously Indian accent.  I tell Steve about my earlier call and provide him with the case number.  Steve has me run through the same checks that Mike did, and I’ll be darned if the satellite still isn’t having problems.  Sigh.  He assures me that it should be back on in two to three hours, and if it’s not back on by then to call back.  Oh, and by the way, I may receive a survey via email asking about my support experience, and would I please take a few minutes to fill it out?  Hmmm…that remains to be seen.

Three more hours go by, and still no internet.  I call support again.  Again I listen to the stupid message about how much support is available online if I would just go to h-t-t-p-:-/-/-m-y-h-u-g-h-e-s-n-e-t.com.  They’re very careful to spell it out for you.  FOUR TIMES.  This time I write down the sequence of buttons I push, ’cause if I have to listen to it again I’m gonna go nuts.  This time I get to speak to another Indian gentleman, that, to his credit, actually provided his own name, or at least an Indian name and not an American one.  Consequently, I have no recollection of what it was at all.  He walks me through the same diagnostics AGAIN.  And tells me the same thing AGAIN – two or three hours and the satellite will be back, and I should call back if it’s not.  Well in three hours I’ll be in bed, so I give it up for the day.

Thursday is another bright sunny day.  The satellite guys have had another twelve hours or so to work on it since the last time I called, but guess what?  No satellite.  I have to go to work (I took Wednesday off – not to talk with tech support, it just worked out that way) , so I resign myself to talking to them in the evening when I get home, and hoping that maybe, just maybe, it’ll actually be back on when I get home.  No luck – I get home from work, and their’s still not any connectivity.  Thursday turned out to be a busy evening though, so I never called.

Friday rolls around, and while we still have no connectivity, the status lights are different, so I think maybe they’re doing something.  Previously the error I was having was that the TCP Acceleration was not working.  Now it turns out that not only is my TCP Acceleration not working, my signal strength has dropped from 65 or so down to 8.  8 is not a good place for signal strength to be.  However, Friday was also a busy day so I didn’t call support.

Saturday morning – still no connectivity.  Signal strength is still down around 8.  I call support (HA!  I didn’t have to listen to the whole stupid message that time, ’cause I kept my notes!).  This time I get to speak with “Judith”, who probably sits right next to Mike, Steve, and What’s His Name there in Bangalore.  I explain things to Judith, and provide her with case numbers.  She runs me through the SAME diagnostics routine AGAIN, and lo and behold…I don’t have a strong enough signal.  Well, duh.  So she has me adjust a few frequency settings and that gets me a good strong signal, but the TCP Acceleration is still out, so Judith kicks me up to “advanced support”, but first she mentions that I might be getting a survey about my support experience via email and would I please take a few minutes of my time to fill it out?  Right…you just bet I’ll fill it out.

After holding for a minute or two, I’m connected to John, and by golly that just might be his real name, ’cause he sounds like he was born and raised right here in the mid-west somewhere.  John runs me through the SAME DIAGNOSTICS AGAIN and then checks a few things behind the scenes.  John decides that there’s actually something going on.  He sends a request to update something with my account to the network operations center and tells me that I should have connectivity again in about a half an hour, and if I don’t I should call back.  John says nothing about a survey.

I wait another hour just to be safe, but I still don’t have any connectivity.  So I call back AGAIN.  (And I bypassed the spiel again!).  And I was connected to the Indian call center again.  This time to “Joe”.  I tell Joe what’s going on, and give him the case numbers.  He runs me through the diagnostics AGAIN, and has me fiddle with the frequencies AGAIN.  And then he decides that I need to talk to advanced support, but he let me know that I might be receiving a survey about my support experience, and would I please take a few minutes of my time to reply to it?  I’d be happy to Joe, in fact, I can’t wait until I get that survey, because at least that would mean my INTERNET CONNECTION WAS ACTUALLY WORKING AGAIN!!!!  Deep breaths…sorry, I’m better now.

I speak to another advanced support person – I can’t remember her name, but she was another native speaker of English.  This lady was great – she wasn’t taking no for an answer, she wasn’t going to let my stupid satellite modem beat her.  This is an attitude I greatly admire in a support person.  We tried a LOT of things, and after something like two hours we finally got my modem talking to the satellite, and downloading new system files.  She tells me this should take about 30 minutes and as soon as it’s done we should be back online.  She thanks me for my patience, and I thank her for her help, and I hang up.  Thirty minutes goes by.  The system is done updating, everything on my satellite modem says it’s functioning properly (and by now I know how to run the diagnostics myself), but guess what?  No internet.

So, I call back AGAIN.  Guess who I get to talk to?  It’s “Mike” from back on Wednesday!  He doesn’t remember me though, even though I’m sure his name is attached to the case numbers I provide.  I tell him what’s going on, and guess what?  That’s correct!  He runs me through the diagnostics.   He then forwards me to advanced support again, but not before reminding me about the survey.  I get connected to Joe.  No, not “Joe” in India, this is another Joe that grew up speaking English.

I tell Joe all about it, he starts to run me through the diagnostics, but then some inner sense tells Joe that this really doesn’t need to be done again.  Maybe it was because he said “Ok, let’s start by opening Internet Explorer” and I responded “I’m already looking at the diagnostics page, and the results from the testing that Mike had me do a couple of minutes ago says everything is fine”.  Joe was a smart guy and moved on to the next step.  We checked other things, both on the modem and on my laptop.  We tried things from another computer in the house.  Joe had the “this stupid thing isn’t going to beat me” attitude too though, so we kept digging.  Finally Joe got in touch with somebody at the network operations center, and it seems that the satellite thought I should be talking on one frequency, and the servers down here on Earth though I should be talking on another.  Joe puts me on hold to work with the network operations center folks.  This takes about 15 minutes, but Joe comes back every few minutes to let me know they’re still working on it.  I won several hands of solitaire while I was waiting.  Finally Joe is back, and we have to run through the modem registration process again.  Finally after being on the phone with Joe for about an hour, I can actually get on the internet.  I thank Joe, Joe thanks me.  Joe says nothing about surveys.

And that my friends, is why calling tech support sucks.  If I ever do get one of those surveys (I haven’t yet), I’ll be sure to let you know how I respond to the answers.  I hope there are places for comments.

So, I’m reading the article, when all of a sudden, this big picture of some stupid looking dude slides out of the top of the screen and covers what I’m reading.  My immediate thought is WHAT THE F…cough, er, um…HECK!  The goofy guy disappears back into the top of the screen, only to slide out on the left side and cover what I’m reading AGAIN!  This is so much worse than a pop-up that I can’t even describe my irritation.  It wasn’t triggered by anything – I didn’t hover over the actual ad on the right side of the screen, or click or anything.  This goofball just appears out of nowhere.  I was so disgusted that I didn’t even finish the article.

You know the worst part?  I’m guessing marketing people will really LOVE this and we’ll start seeing this crap EVERYWHERE.

Ok, rant done.  You may now return to your normal lives.

A co-worker named Darren commented on it today.  His personal message said: “186,000 Miles/Second(300,000 km/s for Roy): It’s Not Just A Good Idea, It’s The Law!”.  For the curious, Roy is another co-worker that is from Holland.  He was giving Darren a hard time about using British units of measure. 

I suggested furlongs/fortnight instead.  I did the math (’cause I’m a geek), and DANG!  That’s a lotta furlongs!

We now return you to your regular programming.

I got the above link from Slashdot.  It’s got gizmos from the amusing (see the desktop rocket launcher) to the useful (like the usb flex-light).

Not a bad idea really to plug devices with low power requirments into the USB port.  I better go slap patents on the USB powered nose/ear-hair trimmer, the USB powered electric shaver, and the USB powered electric tooth brush charger before somebody beats me to it.