[Shrek] Go get 'em Joe!

There is nothing worse to a writer than to see your work stolen by someone else.

Now I'm not talking about someone "borrowing" your words and then giving you credit, because there isn't much cooler than that. I'm talking about people just out and out stealing your words and then claiming they are their own. It's happened to me on the hockey and sports blogs I contribute to, and I've had message board posts "stolen" and added to newspaper/blog stories without credit being given.

Each time it's happened I've gone after the people responsible to get the credit I felt I deserved. The vast majority of time it just takes one e-mail and all is resolved, but occasionally it takes what would seem to be more effort than it's worth. But I do it anyway.

Now I don't know who "Joe" is, other than he's the writer that owns a site called Backyard-Hockey.com. It's a nice little site with lots of good stories that he obviously takes a lot of time preparing, and I read it whenever there's a new post.

So I was pretty disgusted when there was a post on backyard-hockey saying the Manchester Union Leader plagiarized one of backyard-hockey's stories. Now it did turn out that one e-mail set everything mostly straight, but it still amazes me that someone could be dumb enough to take content from a niche site and think that anyone interested in reading the information wouldn't recognize the information as coming from a blog dedicated to that topic. It also amazes me they offered no apology.

So, on behalf of the Union Leader, allow me to apologize to Joe...I'm sorry there are lazy writers that try to steal the content and hard work of others, and I'm sorry that what was once a proud newspaper but is now a shell of its former self couldn't say the words "we apologize" to you.

[Shrek] Out With The Old...

After years of great service, my computer finally needed to be replaced. It caught some sort of trojan/virus/badthing that I couldn't get rid of. Now I freely admit to not putting up much of a fight at the end, and even though Fiona and I were looking at new computers for a while now I was really wanting to buy one "on my terms" and not because I was forced to.

My trouble started when I caught one of those fake anti-virus trojans a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't the first time that happened, and I knew how to take care of it so excepting for the couple of hours it took to vanquish the beast it wasn't a real big deal. Or so I thought.

Turns out this latest version isn't as easy as clicking a few boxes and running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware in safe mode because it makes changes MAM can't find. So soon after, despite thinking I was safe, odd things like my Google searches were redirected to other sites and getting pop-ups for fake news sites was happening. Plus my already very slow machine was running at a snail's pace.

After reading about what was wrong on my machine I attempted to ask for assistance on a couple of computer help forums because the fix was beyond what I thought my capabilities are, but because of the infection I was unable to connect to either of the two help sites I use. Suggestions from posters on some other forums unfortunately didn't work either. When reformatting my "as close to obsolete as you can be without actually being obsolete" computer became the best option, I pretty much decided enough was enough and killed the computer myself.

So we have a brand new Windows 7 computer--which I absolutely love. Of course, my ten year old printer/scanner/copier doesn't work with my new computer, so I had to buy a new one of those too. And since Fiona and I decided on a wireless printer, our six year old router also needed to be replaced. To go another step, I gave Fiona the wireless mouse from my old computer only to find the mouse that came with my new computer wasn't very comfortable to use, so I had to buy Fiona a new wireless mouse so I could take back the one I gave her.

Oh, yeah...and my favorite game (Diablo 2) doesn't run well on Windows 7 because it was designed for much earlier operating systems. So I've gone out and bought a new game that I can play to death (Dragon Age). And I needed to replace all my old Hoyles card/board/casino games because those didn't run either.

All in all, a pretty expensive week.

BTW, you can find Malwarebytes Anti-Malware right here, and if you don't have the program on your computer you most certainly should. It's free, and very easy to install and use.

[Shrek] Step Away From The Computer

As if it shouldn't have occurred to me before, I have come to the conclusion that the internet is full of stupid people. It matters not if they are actually that way or just chose to act like they have no brain, the end result is pretty much the same. Stupidity.

So I have devised a "true/false" test that everyone should have to pass before they are allowed to use the internet. Failure to pass the test would result in you being banned from using the internet until such time as you have gained enough intelligence to use and communicate with others on it.

Statement #1: I believe everything I read is true. If you answered "true" to this, you fail the test before going any further. The internet is chock full of stuff that isn't even remotely close to being true. So if you are so feeble minded to think that just because it's in print it must be true, I suggest you stick to coloring books.

Statement #2: Big companies will send me lots of free stuff for sending chain letters to everyone on my contact list. If you answered "true" to this, please remove me from your contact list. There is absolutely no chance that any company will send you anything for forwarding e-mails to your friends. This also goes for those e-mails that ask you to add your name to the list in protest of something and them forward to your friends. How exactly do you think that "protest" e-mail will get to the people you want to complain to?

Statement #3: I feel the need to respond to any forum post that even remotely disagrees with my point of view. If you answered "true" to this, you may be too far gone to be worth further testing. And going one step further, if you can't identify a moron by what s/he posts on a message board then you're no better than that idiot you're replying to.

Statement #4: I can tell just by looking who I can give my personal information to over the internet. If you answered "true" to this, you should save everyone the time and trouble and just take a cash advance on all you credit cards, empty your savings accounts, and give the money to the first stranger you see on the street. You should mortgage your house while you're at it too, no sense in not going all the way.

Statement #5: I reply to every spam e-mail so they won't send me more. If you answered "true" to this, you really are stupid. By replying you just confirmed someone is reading their e-mail, resulting in you getting more spam. Oh, you mean there's an "unsubscribe" link you clicked on? Congratulations, you just guaranteed you'll be "subscribed" to even more mailing lists.

Statement #6: I download everything that is sent to me in my e-mail or I love to add all those free screensavers to my computer. If you answered "true" to either of these, just throw your computer away right now. It going to become a paperweight soon and there's no reason to wait any longer before tossing it away.

OK, so to find out of you passed, add up all the "true" answers you have.

If you answered "true" even once, you fail.