Indexer keeps crashing on Vista - Event 7031 on SearchIndexer.exe

The indexer on Vista is repeatedly crashing - in fact, it won't start up at all. As a first shot, I've logged all the information I can find in the hope it gets indexed. So far, the only report I can find of similar problems is in Chinese and from a beta build of Vista. More later

"Microsoft Windows Search Indexer has stopped working"
Event ID: 7031
OS: Vista Ultimate
Frequency: Repeatedly

"There is no content available for Event 7034, for this version of the Windows operating system"

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: SearchIndexer.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b667
Fault Module Name: mssrch.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Fault Module Timestamp: 4549bd4b
Exception Code: c00000fd
Exception Offset: 00007c40
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: f790
Additional Information 2: 174183f92d554d49550d71425f227859
Additional Information 3: 5f5b
Additional Information 4: bacee04fbe2fc1532fd17e15138538e7

Dennis Publications/Computer Shopper prize draw - closed before the invitation survey is sent out!

I've just had an e-mail from computershopper.subscriptions@dennisnet.co.uk which is fair enough as I am a subscriber of Dennis Publications magazine, Computer Shopper:

Tell us about our subscription service and give yourself the chance to win £25,000.

I want you to be 100% happy with your subscription to Computer Shopper. That's why we regularly monitor every aspect of our service to you, from the packing and despatch of your magazine, to how effectively we deal with your enquiries.

As one of our most valued readers, your views on the service are extremely important. So this month I'd like to ask for your help. Please complete our brief online survey and give us your feedback on how we can provide you with a better subscription service. To thank you for your time, as soon as you submit your completed questionnaire, we will automatically enter your name into a FREE prize draw to win £25,000.

Click through to the following web address now to give us your feedback and for your chance to win.

http://www.demographix.co.uk/surveys/TWHI-SO67/DXEY4AZF/?CSsolus

Thank you in advance for your help.

The problem is, if you click on the link, fill in the survey and take the trouble to read the terms of the draw, you discover, amongst much else that:

This prize draw will be held on 31 January 2007 and all entries must be received by the prize draw end date of 15 January 2007.

And yet the e-mail invitation was only sent out today - 28th January. (The full text of the terms is at: http://www.demographix.co.uk/surveys/TWHI-SO67/DXEY4AZF/?CSsolus)

I have written to Dennis Publications to enquire whether this was an oversight or a rather cynical tactic. I like Computer Shopper, and PC Pro (a sister magazine), and would have happily supplied feedback without the inducement of a prize - but if a prize is offered, the offer should be completely transparent. Much of the useful content in Computer Shopper and PC Pro relates to proper precautions and actions in the face of threats such a spam, phishing and internet scams in general: it would be ironic if the very publisher of these magazines appears to be employing some of these tactics...

...or may be this sort of thing is commonplace and deliberate. But how would that work assuming one person does end up winning the advertised prize? Comments and/or experiences anyone?

I'll keep you posted about any response from Dennis Publications.

SMS scam outfit - don't call 0871 872 3810...

I have just received an unsolicited text message:

We currently have a message awaiting your collection. To collect your message just call 0871 872 3810

The text apparently originated from +20105996500 - which would seem to be an Egyptian number - unless anyone else knows better. As I have absolutely no connections in Egypt, this at least confirms my suspicion that the text is a scam.

Anyway, this is not a call I'm going to make. There is quite a lot on the web about scams operating on 0871 numbers which can be quite expensive to call. If anyone would like to call this number as a public service, it'd be interesting to know how much you end up paying - and how long they keep you in a queue or on hold whilst the minutes rack up. Interesting.... but I'm not suggesting for a moment you do.

From 2008, Icstis will be regulating 0871 numbers - they are not currently considered or treated like "premium" rate lines - but the difference I suspect is merely one of degree. Details at:

http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_news/0871_countdown.pdf

In the meantime, there doesn't seem much one can do - except lodge a generic complaint to Ofcom. Their site tells you what they will and won't do in such a case:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/

Did Dan and Lucy pay off their mortgage?

So much of 'reality' TV focuses on or even sets out to provoke conflict between people who even if well-adjusted at the beginning, have morphed into thoroughly unpleasant human beings by the end. One suspects that produces tend to frequently skip this step and deliberately select the exhibitionist, the opinionated, the stupid, the vain or the downright nasty...

So last week's "Did they pay off their mortgage in two years?" on BBC2 was a refreshing change. We'd met Dan and Lucy, a Cornish couple with lifestyle and family life to die for, but pretty marginal income, before. But it was great to see them again (and record it this time), as Dan, an artists-blacksmith, worked hard to market his unique wood-burning stoves, and Lucy tried to get a better return on her yoga-teaching skills...

But I didn't care too much about the end result, or the time scales. This family was too grounded to get too upset about much - and the interest was not in the slightly artificial crises the producers tried to engineer. Rather it was a pleasure just to hang out with this delightful family (their two boys also came across as well-adjusted troopers) and watch them flourish...