randomness

[sam_gamgee]

Wasn't going to watch the Oscars, but ended up doing so anyway. And LotR swept the awards. Woo hoo! (Part of the reason will be explained below.) The Kodak theatre is part of the Hollywood & Highland complex that's attached to the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel, which is where nakedwesley and I were staying when we went out to L.A. last week. And we got to see the actual statuttes.

Must get this off my chest - The Jazz Singer WAS NOT the first sound movie. Movies had been using sound since the beginning. It was just that prior to The Jazz Singer, the industry didn't have the capability to do dialogue well (and for years afterwards, it was still a struggle with the mics and such). So The Jazz Singer WAS the first TALKING movie, but NOT the first SOUND movie.


So about a month or two ago, I downloaded something (not sure what exactly, but pro'ly something for mp3s) and it brought some crap with it. I went through and thought I uninstalled all of it and since it went away, I didn't think much of it. Then some of the stuff (namely, a couple of really annoying toolbars in Explorer) came back unexpectedly. So I spent an hour or so yesterday on the phone with John, my mom's new husband who works with computers, trying to get it all sorted out. After removing and then reinstalling programs, downloading anti-spywear, and doing some other stuff to try to fix it. The toolbars finally went away, so we were like, "Yay, it's fixed."

But it wasn't. They showed back up today. So my dad was on for about 2-2.5 hours or so trying to figure out how to fix it himself and ended up downloading this thing called 'Secure Explorer' which is supposed to block pop-ups, spyware, and active x. So I guess we'll see what happens. (And this is why I was watching the Oscars. I was waiting for my dad to get off because after being on for about an hour, he was like, "Okay, I'm done" and then decided to stay on and try to fix it.)

I feel guitly about this happening. Although, as my friend Michelle pointed out, it's not like I knew that it was going to happen.

Comments

[eatstake.livejournal.com]

Did you try Googling for the names of the toolbars and other crap that keeps popping up? I've been pretty lucky and haven't had any problems, but I have to clean my dad's computer up all the time and I find a combination of Googling for terms, Ad-Aware, and Spybot Search and Destroy usually do the trick, even if I have to manually go in and edit things that the programs don't catch.

downloaded stuff

[spikesleman.livejournal.com]

Someone (I suspect Jeremy) downloaded something called "internet optimizer" on my computer a while back. It's spyware and it took me ages to get it off. I finally got it off with Spybot Search and Destroy.

It wasn't your fault any more than it was Jeremy's (or whoever dl'd the thing to my 'puter).

I'm glad you finally seem to be rid of it.

[libralyte.livejournal.com]

kaaza, dear? (the 2.6 version) because I have a remarkably similar situation...and I'm rather afraid to uninstall. did you know they're now charging 99 cents to download a song?

[nakedwesley.livejournal.com]

You've seen my lovely 'my search' tool bar that just showed up one day and doesn't allow me to use other search engines.

I did research it and figure out how to get rid of it, but I kinda like it so it stays for now. Oddly, the same toolbar just showed up on one of my coworker's computer at work. Odd because we can't download or anything at work, and therefore we have no idea where it came from. Sneaky buggers, those.

Sorry you/your dad had to go through that, but it wasn't your fault. These things just happen sometimes. ((hugs))

Should have watched the Oscars just to see where we were, but we were out all night. Did it look familiar?

[sam-gamgee.livejournal.com]

Not for the toolbars themselves, no. But I did get the Spybot Search and Destroy and downloaded that onto my computer. And that did seem to help some at least. Thanks for the ideas, though. :-)

Re: downloaded stuff

[sam-gamgee.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Me too. (((hug)))

[sam-gamgee.livejournal.com]

I pretty sure it's not Kazaa, since a) I have Kazaa lite and b) I've had that since December and it's been fine. Whatever it is, I know came from something I had just previously downloaded. And, no - I didn't know that. But with Kazaa lite, you have to pay anyway, so I got a year's subscription for about $20.

[sam-gamgee.livejournal.com]

That is weird. Thanks, though. *hugs*

Some of the wide shots of the pre-show looked familiar and it looked like they basically closed down Hollywood in front of the theatre for the red carpet.