Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

About an hour from now I will be going on the air with Coby Mach on 1400 KLIN to discuss LB583 which I posted about earlier this week.

There is a public committee meeting on Thursday in the State Capitol regarding the bill, and I would encourage anyone with opinions to be there to testify. I know I will be!

This post is the eigth in a 10-post series about the all-new version 2 of the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) computer maintenance software from Schrock Innovations. You can win a FREE 2-year subscription by simply posting a comment on any of the MCHE posts. Only one free subscription will be given away, so post multiple comments or questions with your valid email address to increase your odds of winning!

A major strength of the 2005 Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) was its ability to strip away all unnecessary files from your hard drive in order to maximize your available disk space. The all-new version 2 of the MCHE does the same thorough job that its predecessor did, although it is a bit smarter about when it deletes the temporary files from your hard drive.

The 2005 version of the MCHE deleted your cookies, temporary files, Windows patch uninstall files, and in some cases more every time it was executed. The all-new MCHE version 2 deletes the same items – once they have “expired.”

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This post is the seventh in a 10-post series about the all-new version 2 of the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) computer maintenance software from Schrock Innovations. You can win a FREE 2-year subscription by simply posting a comment on any of the MCHE posts. Only one free subscription will be given away, so post multiple comments or questions with your valid email address to increase your odds of winning!

A major problem with many anti-malware programs is false detections. A false detection is when a program tells you a file pr process is attacking your computer when in fact it is not. Our software engineers have invested significant effort in creating systems that prevent the MCHE from making a detection mistake. Their approach was to tackle the problem from two different angles.

First, it is incredibly helpful to have as much information in our detection database as possible. That is why the MCHE learns from every piece of malware it removes. Each time a threat is resolved on your computer that has not been encountered before , the MCHE takes a fingerprint of the file or files it removes. This fingerprint is called a hash. Rather than scanning for a particular file name, the MCHE scans for these fingerprints and therefore reduces the risk of making a detection mistake.

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This post is the sixth in a 10-post series about the all-new version 2 of the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) computer maintenance software from Schrock Innovations. You can win a FREE 2-year subscription by simply posting a comment on any of the MCHE posts. Only one free subscription will be given away, so post multiple comments or questions with your valid email address to increase your odds of winning!

The all-new Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) version 2 has a supped-up scanning engine that leaves the 2005 version choking in its dust.
Our software engineers designed the scanning engine in the new MCHE to scan and remove malware from your hard drive with fewer memory and disk writes than the 2005 version required. The result is a hard drive scan that is 200% faster and a lot more thorough.

As soon as a malware infection is identified on your hard drive, the MCHE checks its database to see what other files are typically found with this infection. If any of those files are present on your hard drive and they match the SHA-1 hash on file, they are removed as well. Many malware programs simply remove the executable files or registry entries associated with an infection. But with the all-new MCHE version 2, every file associated with an infection, significant or not, is removed. This helps reduce the risk of reinfection by removing any dormant delivery devices (for example a .zip file that extracts on reboot to reinfect your system).

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Senator Priester of Omaha is hoping that a new committee will help him get his E-Waste recycling bill (LB583) on the floor for debate and a vote.

The bill has been introduced several times in previous sessions, but has always been bottled up in committee. In my opinion LB583 is an unenforceable bill that will directly harm the sales tax engine of Nebraska – its small businesses. We will all be better off if this bill gets bottled up again.

First, a fair introduction. LB583 is intended to stop electronic waste from entering solid waste landfills. If the bill passes, all manufacturers both inside and outside the state of Nebraska would be required to pay a fee (a tax) to Nebraska to be listed on the State’s list of compliant manufacturers. Then the manufacturer would have to pay the state another tax based on the tonnage of listed equipment that is shipped into the state. This includes computers, televisions, and just about any device with a screen that is 4″ or larger.

As a consumer under this bill, when you are finished using your television or computer you would take your e-waste to a state-authorized recycler rather than throwing it in the trash. The recycler would take your waste, recycle it, and then submit a claim for payment to the state – you would not have to pay anything to recycle your equipment.

The bill’s first line of enforcement would fall to the retailers (like Best Buy and Schrock Innovations). Before a retailer could sell any listed item (like a television, computer, or automotive component) that retailer would be required to check the state’s list of compliant manufacturers. If the manufacturer has not paid the state’s tax, then the retailer may not sell that manufacturer’s goods in the state.

Why This is a BAD Bill

This bill would be a disaster for Nebraska’s already-struggling manufacturing sector as well as most small businesses because:

• This bill is unenforceable
• Manufacturers outside of Nebraska (and outside the US) will not comply
• The Bill is Vague Regarding Who a Manufacturer is
• It will drive up the prices of electronic goods
• It will decrease selection of electronic goods in Nebraska
• It will result in a net loss of sales tax revenue for the state

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Yesterday Josh added a new help article to our Do It Yourself section on the Schrock DIY Page. This new help article will show you how to power cycle your computer and Internet router step-by-step.

Many problems with Internet connectivity are caused by confusion between your high-speed modem and your computer. By turning everything off and then restarting things in a specific order, you can solve many of these issues without the need for a technician’s visit.

You can view our latest tutorial on how to cycle your computer and Internet connection here.

Last Tuesday was patch Tuesday – the monthly event that rolls around the second Tuesday of each month where Microsoft releases security fixes for its products. If you are running windows XP and have not already done so, you should check out target=”blank”>Windows Update and get the 12 critical update you need for your computer.

But if you are running Windows Vista, you will be pleased to know that there were no critical updates for your operating system at all. In fact, a new toy is available for Vista Ultimate Users who update!

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This post is the fifth in a 10-post series about the all-new version 2 of the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) computer maintenance software from Schrock Innovations. You can win a FREE 2-year subscription by simply posting a comment on any of the MCHE posts. Only one free subscription will be given away, so post multiple comments or questions with your valid email address to increase your odds of winning!

There is nothing more annoying than having your home page continually hijacked. There are a number of malware applications that attempt to change your browser’s home page to point to a page of their choice. The 2005 version of the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) did not have a mechanism for protecting your Internet Explorer browser from a home page hijack.

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If you use µTorrent (from BitTorrent, Inc.) to obtain files and media from the Internet, you may be missing an important update that could leave your computer open to a hijacking.

For a little over a week now, “dirty” .torrent files have been circulating on the Internet, secretly worming their way into µTorrent user’s hard drives and exposing their PCs to hijacking attempts. BitTorrent has released an update (to version 1.6.1) but failed to notify any of its users that the update was even available.

µTorrent does not have an automatic updating system, so users must manually upgrade their µTorrent software to protect their computers. This particular vulnerability will circumvent most anti-virus software, making a µTorrent attack a very attractive target for would-be bot network builders.

This post is the fourth in a 10-post series about the all-new version 2 of the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE) computer maintenance software from Schrock Innovations. You can win a FREE 2-year subscription by simply posting a comment on any of the MCHE posts. Only one free subscription will be given away, so post multiple comments or questions with your valid email address to increase your odds of winning!

Throughout the short history of security software, companies have benchmarked the evolution of their products by tacking a year after the name of the program. We did this with the 2005 version of the Maintenance Checkup Home Edition (MCHE), just as Symantec uses a year to differentiate their products (ex. Norton Antivirus 2007).

Every year, security companies talk about the latest and greatest advancements in their newest software version in an effort to get their users to purchase the new, full version rather than extending the subscriptions for the out-dated products they already have installed. For example, users of Norton Antivirus 2005 might decide to save some money by renewing their 2005 software and as a result forgo the software advancements available in the newer Norton Antivirus 2007 product.

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