In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. As more people flood the Web, that’s becoming an especially tall order for those with common names.

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Boy do I know this. Search my name, and you get “The Hammer” Matt Wreggitt (”the other” Matt) from some radio station out of Toronto. Though I suppose my name googles well enough, as you still get hits for my site on that first page. For a while there a page that I created almost 10 years ago was beating “the other” Matt in the google results.

If your web savy enough, with your websites you can play with the meta tags to better associate your name with that ever your doing. The more key words in your meta tags the better, and the more those key words show up through out your site is supposed to increase the page rating of your site with the search engines.

My Mom and brother Chris got a dog for the family yesterday. They have been looking for a dog for the past few months. They type we got was a Boston Terrier. They asked me for my opinion on a dog. I didn’t really care. If we were getting a dog, I would have preffered a larger dog like a Lab or Germain Shepherd. Oh well, I guess the trade off is that Boston Terriers aren’t suposed to be a very yappy dog. I’ll post some pics once I have the time to resize the onese we have

I recently started a new job at a local computer store. By nature I am a realy big computer geek, as you see in my resume I have posted, I am well educated. But the one thing I find schools don’t teach are the small utilities that are very usefull in day to day computer repair, and maintenance.

Over the next few blogs I will discuss the various tools I have been using on the job. This blog will be dedicated to Spyware and Adware removal. Adware and Spyware is begining to be the bane of the user’s existance. It is horrible. This stuff gets installed on your system when you install other apps that you use, and when you visit websites. This shit runs in the background and bogs your system down to the point where it is unbarable to run anything.

It gets worse too, because it doesn’t take just one program to get rid of it all, it takes quite a few. I find running 5 different utilities the key to getting rid of everything. I start out by running Ewedo. It is an app you will have to pay for, however we here at the shop have been getting by with just using the trial version. I run a complete scan with that, and remove everything it finds.

The next app I run is Spybot Search and Destroy. Again I run a full scan with this, and remove everything it finds. The next app I run is Adaware. Run a full scan and remove everything it finds.

Then run hijackthis. Its an application that scans the registry, and running processes. It lists everything it finds, not just keys and processes for spyware and adware, but keys and processes for legitimate software, and windows apps and processes. If you are unsure of what to remove, I suggest saving a log and finding a site that will proccess the log file for you, and tell you what to remove. If you do know, go nuts. Google is also a good thing to use if your unsure what an exe is from.

Once your finished with these 4 apps, the 5th one to use is TuneUP 2006 or whatever the current version is. Run a scan on the Registry. This will display any broken links and problems. Fix the problems and run a complete can again. Run it untill it doesn’t find anything at all. Once you finish with that, run the Registry defragger that comes with Tuneup. This will optimize your registry.

Btw, I don’t forget to update all the software before running the scans. This will help to increase the chances of you being able to fix the problems. Another thing to help you out is to run these scans while in safe mode, with networking. When loading windows in safe mode, windows cuts out a lot of the startup processes, and just give you a bare minimum system with all the admin tools available to you, so anything that will reinstall itself once its removed will most likely not reinstall itself.

Once you reboot, run the scans again. If you find anything, you may want to consider running Xoftspy, and SpySweeper ontop of the other applications.

The reality of it though, is that you can’t do enough to get rid of this shit. Once your finished, install Windows Defender, I find it helps a lot to prevent you from getting spyware and adware installed on your system, though if it gets overrun with spyware and adware it fails. I will update this blog with a few links to the software. Much of the software I have talked about are trial version and only work for a short while. But we usually only need to run this stuff once in a while

Ok, so I haven’t posted anything new over the past few weeks, or worked much on getting you guys the final few days of the algonquin trip, or even pics and vids from the trip. I just haven’t really been motivated to really do much lately. I’ve been concentrating more on pounding the pavement for a job, with not much luck so far. Read the rest of this entry »

I created a new chat channel on the GameSurge network for the blog.

Come join #technicaldifficulties on GameSurge.

Came across this a few weeks ago.  For a decent batch of ice tea take 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil.  When it comes to a gentle boil, remove the water from the heat and put 4 bags of your favourite tea in the water and let sit for 20 minutes.  After the 20 minutes take the tea bags out, and ring the excess water out of them.  Then put the freshly brewed tea in a pitcher, and add 7-8 cups of water.  To serve, add a teaspoon, or tablespoon of sugar to the bottom of a glass, and fill the cup with the ice tea.  Add whatever additional flavoring you like, and some ice.

This is the best brewed ice tea I have ever had.  I would suggest trying blends of teas as well.  So far I have tried Orange Peyko alone, half and half of Orange Peyko and Green Tea, half Orange Peyko, quarter Green Tea, and a quarter Sleepytime Tea from Celestial Seasonings, and the batch I made today was the same as the last batch but using a Chai Tea, with cinnamon, cardimon, and cloves instead of the Sleepytime tea.  All have worked out perfectly.

If you try this recipe with other teas, let me know how yours turned out, and the type of tea you tried.

This is the tent I took camping back in May, and the recent trip I just got back from. Its a nice little tent. With a few modifications it can be a great tent. The spec’s for the tent are as follows. It weighs

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Day 3

When I woke up on the 3rd day, I was feeling kinda sore from the slant I slept on. The guys and I ate breakfast, and kinda lazed around the site for a bit. The trip out to Queer lake wasn’t a long one. Our

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Day 1
I’m back from the 7 day holiday up in Algonquin Park. Nick, Phil, Neil, and I went up to Algonquin on June 30th. We left around 5 or 6 am and arived in Huntsville around 9:30/10. We picked up a canoe

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June 30th - July 8th

July 8th: Day 9
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