Re: Pro bono laptop repair, Monsieur Hire, and jam

lol...

Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |*
*


On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 4:42 PM, Mike Findlay <[email protected]>wrote:

> Justice wouldn't have made the joke in the first place.
>
> Mike F.
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Johne Cook <[email protected]>
> To: DADL (off topic) <[email protected]>
> Sent: Mon, July 25, 2011 4:38:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [DADL-OT] Pro bono laptop repair, Monsieur Hire, and jam
>
> Oh, groan. I get it. Bono, not bono. (Text doesn't do that joke justice.)
>
> Johne Cook
> | http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |*
> *
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Mike Findlay <[email protected]
> >wrote:
>
> > Do you do the same work for folks who like the Edge?  ; - )
> >
> > Mike F.
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Johne Cook <[email protected]>
> > Sent: Mon, July 25, 2011 2:27:33 PM
> > Subject: [DADL-OT] Pro bono laptop repair, Monsieur Hire, and jam
> >
> > Some people mark the changing of time by the seasons, others, by the
> > beginning and ending of sports calenders. I mark the passage of time by
> how
> > often I am 'volunteered' to fix Alicia's laptop.
> >
> > Alicia is sort of related. She is the younger sister of Mike Badtke, the
> > husband of my daughter, Ashlei. Alicia recently graduated from High
> School,
> > which means she still hangs onto the self delusion that she knows
> > everything. The fact that her mother, Cindy, approaches me on a
> semi-annual
> > basis to fix the laptop simply side-steps the issue, I think. Alicia
> > doesn't
> > have to confess her ignorance or her (fairly common) internet
> > indiscretions,
> > and I don't have to rub her nose in it. Cindy loves her daughter, and I
> > don't mind playing the geeky hero on occasion.
> >
> > I was approached on Saturday to help Alicia get her new iPod Touch to
> work
> > with the laptop on Saturday. The presenting problem was simple: the iPod
> > could not be connected to iTunes, because iTunes wasn't connecting to the
> > iTunes store. I noticed that she had three different antivirus apps, all
> > expired. As I expected, none of them connected to the internet to receive
> > updates. While digging into the issue, I noticed that the weather app in
> > the
> > sidebar also wasn't updating because it apparently couldn't connect to
> the
> > internet, either. However, her browsers connected to the internet just
> > fine.
> > And then I noticed the Frostwire icon on the desktop. I looked at the
> > amount
> > of battery she had left and closed the lid.
> >
> > I said there were more things going on than I would have laptop battery
> > power available to fix that day, and asked for the family to take the
> > laptop
> > back home and send it to church the following day with my daughter,
> Ashlei
> > (who lives near them and attends my church). I asked for them to send
> along
> > the new iPod and a power cord for the laptop.
> >
> > The problem was simple - the laptop was infected by virii likely acquired
> > during the downloading of songs on Frostwire. (The Frostwire service
> itself
> > is just another P2P app, however, songs people download are frequently
> > infected and young downloaders don't always know how to protect
> > themselves.)
> > I settled down for an afternoon of clearing out non-functioning programs,
> > disinfecting the laptop, and then installing new programs to keep her
> > laptop
> > secure.
> >
> > I spent much of the afternoon waiting for various lengthy processes to
> run;
> > I installed and loaded and ran and updated and immunized Spybot Search &
> > Destroy. I ran Malware Bytes. I unloaded all the non-functioning and
> > out-of-date antivirus apps and got one current one loaded. There were any
> > number of complete hard drive scans, both quick and full. There was a lot
> > of
> > time to kill while her laptop was performing various and sundry tasks,
> and
> > I
> > spent that time watching stuff. I got caught up with Suits (USA Network).
> I
> > went looking for a good noir mystery thriller to keep my mind engaged.
> >
> > And that's how I found Monsieur Hire, the obscure French-subtitled film.
> It
> > cropped up in one of my Netflix searches, and was described as just weird
> > enough to sample. I have a thing for good noir, and sometimes even
> > less-good
> > noir. I fired it up and watched the first five minutes, then five more,
> > then
> > five more. What saved it was how it suggested suggestive scenes (if that
> > makes sense) without ever being explicit. This is not an overt film. I
> was
> > just curious to give it some time to develop.
> >
> > I'm glad I did. Roger Ebert gave it four stars. I wish I'd thought to
> > research it first, because I could have perhaps committed fully to it
> > earlier, but as it was, it was on an every five minute bubble, forever at
> > risk being turned off in favor of something else (my back-up plan was to
> > finally watch Nic Cage in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which I still
> haven't
> > gotten around to seeing). There are times for mindless flicks, and times
> > for
> > something with foreign subtitles.
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_Hire
> >
> >
> http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900615/REVIEWS/6150303
> >3
> >
> >
> > Something socially aberrant happens, but it is so matter-of-fact that I
> > kept
> > watching. The movie wasn't about a fetish, although a lesser film would
> > have
> > been obsessed with one in its place. I thought I knew where the film was
> > going to go, and it kept subverting my expectations. The 'hero' wasn't
> > heroic, but was both completely sure of himself and completely
> vulnerable.
> > The girl wasn't a victim and yet willingly threw her at two completely
> > different men. The young man wasn't completely stupid nor predictable.
> The
> > inspector was a good man (or was he?) who had an interesting way of
> > conducting a murder investigation.
> >
> > About halfway through, I realized with a start that I was hooked. Because
> > of
> > the subject matter, I never would have sought out such a film, and yet,
> and
> > yet, and yet.
> >
> > After watching my fair share of mindless CGI-laden summer blockbusters,
> > perhaps I was ready for such a different kind of film. I was most
> impressed
> > by what the film left out. It was an elegant little exercise, and I have
> to
> > say that after getting to the end, it really left me impressed, and (in a
> > way) entertained. It really was about what is, and isn't, love. With
> > subtitles.
> >
> > Back to the laptop - strangely, McAfee turned out to be very effective
> > finding and removing viruses, but was too devoted to locking her system
> > down
> > so tight that it wouldn't connect to the internet, the original problem I
> > was there to fix. I finally wiped McAfee back off her system and replaced
> > it
> > with the free AVG, and all was good with the world. The afternoon turned
> > into twilight and I finally got the laptop back to the place where I was
> > able to connect iTunes to the internet to get her iPod Touch to work. By
> > the
> > time I was done with everything else, that was almost an afterthought. It
> > was by far the easiest thing I did all day.
> >
> > I arranged to meet Cindy at an Arby's restaurant to drop off the laptop.
> > When she pulled up, she asked how much I wanted. I demurred, as I always
> > do,
> > invoking the 'family discount.' She smiled produced a small, heavy paper
> > bag
> > containing two jars of home-made jam. The 'payment' didn't match the
> effort
> > or my time, but I was strangely touched. (As it happens, it's really
> great
> > jam, as only real home-made stuff can be. The love poured in helps in
> some
> > undefinable way.)
> >
> > I went through the drive-through and splurged on some dinner for us and
> > went
> > home to sit with Linda and catch up with Big Brother 13, a shared guilty
> > pleasure. I'm sure I'll hear from Cindy again about fixing Alicia's
> laptop,
> > likely in 2012. Who knows what new obscure treasure I'll dig up then.
> >
> > Honestly, I'm kind of looking forward to it.
> >
> > Johne Cook
> > | http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |
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