All posts by Steve Case

Like a Cross Between Ballet and Speed Chess

I knew I might be in trouble when I clicked on a Google search result and the page that opened was crawling with ads. Then the page clicked-over to a different site on its own: To an article in Vogue I believe. The article itself didn’t look especially threatening, but that’s not a site I visit – and most importantly, I hadn’t done anything to be taken there.

OUTLOOK.EXE MalwareEverything seemed fine after that, but later I clicked the icon to open Microsoft Word and received a UAC (User Account Control) warning from Windows indicating that a program it didn’t trust was trying to start. Any time a Microsoft application isn’t recognized by a Microsoft operating system, something is clearly amiss. I’ve used Word zillions of times with no issue like this, which reinforced that something was wrong, so I didn’t allow it to start. The same thing happened later when I started Outlook, and then Java, underscoring that I had a serious problem.

Continue reading Like a Cross Between Ballet and Speed Chess

Low-Tech Advertising Works!

This morning I was driving along, minding my own business, when I encountered a dozen or more enthusiastic young people waving home-made signs for their car wash. My car was due for a wash, and I do like to support folks who are willing to get out there and work for a cause, so they had my attention.

Then I spotted the sign: The one that said Make Mom Happy and Wash the Car

That was completely unfair – but effective. 🙂  In fact, far more effective than a hand-scrawled sign has any right to be. If your neighborhood is anything like mine, you’ve passed hand-written signs guaranteeing to refinance your home, offering a lucrative work-from-home job, or perhaps something else that might sound a little too good to be true. I don’t pay them any attention; do you? Their rough nature doesn’t instill confidence that the people who created the signs are really in the business of high finance or sophisticated marketing.

Continue reading Low-Tech Advertising Works!

Under Construction – Again!

Construction sign that says "Diversion" suggesting that the road is under construction.
Sometimes the “Construction” sign is actually a Diversion

I’ll bet you remember not so many years ago when someone would grab a domain, put up an image of a shovel or some workers with the catchy title like and maybe get back to it eventually. A lot of the time that was just a diversion: It was a parked domain and nobody was really working on the site at all. Have you ever done that?  😉

Well, I really am working on the site, but I’m new to WordPress. This may be ugly for a while, but I’m going to leave it visible rather than putting up a hokey sign.

Maybe I will add a picture too. Michael E. Casey was good enough to post the above photo on Flickr and flag it Free Use. Thanks Michael!