Thursday, August 14, 2008

Tacoma Farmers Market Computer Woes

I am still being vexed by computer woes. Something that got installed, by this evil anti-virus program AVG Free, called SpamCop, is preventing me from sending email.

If I leave AVG running I can send email. The cop lets me. But AVG Free causes my computer to go into overdrive with the fans blowing overtime to cool the CPU that's running at 100%.

So, when I get rid of AVG my computer is back to normal. Except for not being able to send email. AVG Free is worse than any virus problem I know of. Sad thing is I'd installed AVG Free before with similar woes. But I forgot. And made the same mistake again. Getting old and its attendant memory woes is a living hell.

I hate computers.

So, a bit before noon I escaped this ugly monster and picked up Kristin to head to downtown Tacoma to the Thursday Farmers Market.

This was a good Farmers Market. Lots of good food, flowers all over, music blaring, good smells, plenty of people and a lot of fruits and vegetables.

We got corn, a flat of blueberries, tomatoes and 2 totally natural chickens from, I think the name was, Mary the Pig Lady.

Because of spending what amounts to a week's wages in Lower Slobovia on the 2 chickens, Kristin got a very cool bag, for free, that is insulated with a zipper. Very handy to carry Mary the Pig Lady's chickens in.

I'm BBQing (grilling according to the Redstar Gals) the 2 chickens tomorrow when Lulu and her first husband come for din din again. I hope I don't burn them. I'm sure I won't.

It is supposed to get into the 90s today here!

4 comments:

Gar said...

I'm going to waste some good blog material here.
The way a lot of these email virus scanners work is by modifying your email client's settings.
Let's say you use outlook. It's easy to spell.
When you setup your email account, you tell it to go to mail.durangotexas.com and use POP for receiving and SMTP for sending. Ports 110 and 25 respectively.
But, your virus program wants to intercept all emails so it reads your settings and keeps them internally, but changes the ones in your client.
So, now your email client is probably setup with your email server being localhost or some such thing (instead of mail.durangotexas.com) so that your virus program can intercept all communications and scan them for viruses, but it must be running to work else your client will be talking to a port that no one is listening on.
If you know your original settings, you can go into outlook and set them back manually. Just modify your email account and put them back the way they were.
Uninstalling AVG may also work, but it won't be as much fun.

Durango said...

I've installed and re-installed that awful AVG thing at least 4 times today. The un-install F's up every time. I then remove all the registry entries I can find. Still can't get rid of that SpamCop. The settings are what they've always been in OE, so that ain't the fix. And on top of all that somehow this mess has muted YouTube videos. And on top of all that it is over 90 here this afternoon. I'm up in my Tropical Loft zone witn no A/C having trouble keeping cool. It's a living hell. And on top of all that I was told to make cornbread for dinner tonite, firing up a hot oven in this baking heat. On the slightly bright side, blackberries are finally ripe.

Lauri Evans said...

gar knows her stuff
and Durango...being you IS hell, isn't it?
What on earth did you do in a former life or this one to garner such serf-like treatment from your family and best friend? what happens when they visit you? do you make them use an outhouse in the cool, blazing heat of summer?
Perhaps you should leave sooner.
ox lulu

Anonymous said...

There are two A/C units in your loft. Can you find the "power" button on either? There is a remote control for the larger one, maybe I could tape it to your head. hehe.