Yes, I am a postin’ ho today. I’ve let things I meant to share build up lately, but really, I’ll try to spread the rest of them out over the next few days.
I want some new LJ icons. I’m graphically impaired and can’t make them look like I want.
I was hurting too much to go to Petco to finalize the adoption of Karli (formerly Iris) with sambear and curiousmay9. That wasn’t exactly a tragedy, as the lady from the rescue group wasn’t actually at the designated Petco for some reason. So that’s been rescheduled anyway.
I tried Panda AntiVirus and uninstalling it totally FUBAR’ed my system. I had to reinstall Windows, and I am still reinstalling various applications. I am TICKED! I can’t find my Macromedia install media, which means I can’t reinstall HomeSite and some other apps properly (don’t have the serial numbers elsewhere), which means that I can’t do some homework and web updates that I need to do.
I’m back to Norton Internet Security Pro, the trial of the 2004 version. I was getting messages generated by MyDoom, but neither NAV 2003 nor Panda were screaming about them (of course, I didn’t open the attachments!). So yes, it’s time to upgrade.
NIS Pro is expensive, but I’m going to look around to see if I can find a student discount price for it.
sambear finds the software firewall highly annoying. I think that it adds an important layer of security since the hardware firewall doesn’t really control outgoing communications (say, from a trojan or spyware). (No, we don’t go filing abuse reports about supposed “intrusion attempts.”)
The 2004 version also adds a spyware module. I’m not yet convinced that it is as good as Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware, or SpySweeper.
I am, however, coming to the conclusion that I need to do a full antivirus and anti-spyware scan with some product other than the one(s) I keep running all the time at least once a week. Nothing seems to beat the combination of different products.
I wish central administration for antivirus, anti-spyware, patch installation, and the like were affordable for home users. We only have three PCs running Windows now (not counting curiousmay9‘s work laptop), but sambear and shadowkatt don’t share my level of reasonable paranoia regarding such things. It would be far easier if I could just push such updates to them.
Oooo—this just came through my email. HomeSchool Mania. I want the Caution: Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Xtreme Homeschooler tees. Well, okay, I’m not actually wild about their designs, but I like the slogans and want them on better-designed shirts.
I also want a bumper sticker someone on no_pity mentioned seeing: Want my parking space? Have my disability! I haven’t yet found a source, though. A Want to use the scooter? Have my disability! button for use while on a scooter at big stores like Home Depot and Target would also be nice.
I haven’t seen the “print them yourself” bumper sticker labels around lately. I did find some for sale on a couple of websites. Does anybody know if they’re any good? The ability to make my own bumper stickers would probably be very dangerous.
FreeCycle moderation was taking up too much time, so I added more moderators. There are 2000+ members on the list I moderate, and that’s WITHOUT any real publicity! Two of the new moderators do nothing but take care of pending subscription requests since we ask that people tell us where in the Atlanta area they live when they join the list.
I would happily pay for a Yahoo!Groups-like system that gave me the ability to set things like “nobody can go no mail” (use special notices) or “show me all the people on moderation” and a way to add comments to member listings. The web-based features are nice enough that I don’t want to move all my lists to our own server, and the familiarity of Yahoo!Groups is important when dealing with the mostly-non-technical members on these lists.
It’s really the national FreeCycle moderators’ list that’s crazy. Hundreds and hundreds of messages a day, despite having the list configured to that responses default to only going to the poster! I understand that the list is full of passionate, opinionated people. I fully acknowledge that I’m part of the problem. Some of the messages, though, are clearly “me too” crap or things that are only of use to the original poster. If it were up to me, that list would be in full moderation for a while. I certainly don’t have time to volunteer for that, though!
bonesteelmom and dracofrost‘s father1Tell me why he doesn’t have an LJ of his own, dracofrost? are helping with the CHE list, which is lovely. hopeevey is my backup on the MagickStitches2I did NOT name the list. I took it over at the request of the founder. I don’t put a “k” in “magic” myself. It’s silly. Don’t bother to explain. I know why some people do it. I still find it silly. list, which is a major help to me.
I need another mod for the AtlantaStitchers list. It’s pretty low-volume, but I would like to have someone take care of things when I can’t get around to them.
Oh, yeah—I got an email yesterday from CNN, wanting to do an interview this week (not about FreeCycle, probably about internet safety). I need to respond but haven’t yet decided whether I really want to do it. It’s sorta old news for me.
