Knox, TN February Meetings

The next weekday meeting for the Knoxville FanForce Chapter will be Tuesday February 4th at 7:00p.m. at Mr. Gatti's Pizza on Kingston Pike. We will basically continue to discuss and make progress on our goals for the year and have fun.

The first weekend meeting for the Knoxville FanForce Chapter will be Saturday February the 22nd at #1 China Buffet on Papermill Drive maybe a quarter mile away from the Mr. Gatti's pizza where we normally meet at 5p.m.. I can adjust the meeting time if need be but the date is final so if you just cannot make it at all that day, too bad.

Now I am going to rant, but it has nothing to do with you guys at all.

Alright, well I would have put this stuff up earlier yesterday but my Internet Explorer was effectively disabled by a combination spyware/adware program last night that basically acted like a virus. I didn't even have to install it or click on an ad or otherwise activate it in any way. It just simply exploited the Internet Explorer program and that is what is so aggravating to me. After some deleting and making some registry changes it's gone and so are a bunch of it's cousins, but I still am upset by the fact that such a large hole exists in a program so widely used as IE.

The good news is that you don't have to do what I did manually because there are programs out there that can do it for you if you catch it in time. If you have never used anything to check your machine for adware and spyware, I highly recommend that you do or you might end having to do what I did. Not only that, but if you get rid of that crap, pop-up ads literally go away and you will never need a pop-up blocking program ever again.

What I have learned last night is that pop-ups are a symptom of the disease and blocking them alone is not the cure. You have to get at the source of the problem which is the multitudes of adware and spywares installed on your machine without your knowledge or consent that literally hammer you with pop-ups and report everything you do online with your computer to other agencies including Microsoft and RealMedia.

See you guys next month!

 

any links to some software that prevents this?

 

A search on just about any search engine will yield results for programs that do this. I personally now use Ad-Aware by Lavasoft and another program called Spyware Search and Destroy to do the job, but there are many others out there. I am hesitant to give out links for this stuff simply because I have only recently installed them and while they seem effective, I don't want people to install things that could do more harm than good to their systems.

Another reason I don't want to do it is because using these programs can cause some programs to cease to function properly or at all once their spyware or adware component is removed. Kaaza, Windows Media Player, and DivX Pro are a few examples of programs that are like that and there are others too so you have to be very careful when using them.

If you are looking for solutions, check into all the available applications online, read up on them, and use them at your own risk.

 

Find and download KazaaLite... it has all the spyware stuff removed and hacked off... definitely worth it, along with AdAware...

Fenn

 

Just putting this back up so that everyone is aware of it. See you guys there!

 

I'm afraid I won't be at this meeting... Heather's father died suddenly this weekend, and the memorial service is Tuesday night at 7pm... Those of you who'd met or knew her, if you could drop by, it would mean a lot to her... Details are in the link below...

News-Sentinel article on Dr. Harris

Fenn

 

I didn't know the man, but you have my condolences. Perhaps you'll be able to make the weekend meeting later this month, but if not there is always March. Just don't forget about us though, we need to hold on to all the members we can.

 

John,

Please pass along my condolences to Heather and her family.

Barry

 

Just putting this back up to remind you guys of the meeting on the 22nd. I hope everyone can make it!

 

Looks like I'll be able to make it after all. Had planned to go to Cookeville this weekend, but I'm staying up here to study for a test, so I figure Sat. afternoon will make a nice study break. Is it still at the Number1 Buffet at 5?

 

Oops.. Double post! Read the next one please!

 

Yes sir, and I am glad you can make it! It will be cool getting to eat at a Chinese buffet I think. I haven't ate at one for 3-4 months and it's a nice change of pace.