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Blogs by Mari Atherton
Computers- Can't Live With or Without Them 12/13/2006 5:58:39 AM
Frustration to the max! That's what I felt last week when my computer got attacked by a super mega virus. One minute I was typing happily along, checking out things on MySpace and the next I was being bombarded with pictures of... well.. you know. And virus alerts. Lots of them coming at me from every part of my computer screen! "Warning! Virus alert. Click here to remove from system!" "Critical system error! Click here to sweep your computer for viruses!" "Trojan alert. Personal information compromised!"
Each message promised increasingly dire things if I didn't click on the button right away to clean my computer. With all of the varioous virus alerts popping out at me, it was hard to know what to do. I mean, it was obvious that I had a problem-- especially since at the second the virus hit me, all of my email disappeared into cyberspace. The temptation was there to hit every single one of the buttons and load up on all of the software so as to clean my system of this horrible thing, whatever it was.
But, fortunately my cooler head prevailed. As I studied these alerts, I realized that none of them came from any of the anti-virus software I actually have on my computer. This made me suspicious. So I pressed buttons, but not the ones on my computer. Instead I pressed my telephone buttons and called my daughter's fiance, who is my computer guru. I woke him up, but that's okay. He's a good future son-in-law. I told him about the various things appearing on my screen-- well, except for the pics of the you-know-whats. And he told me not to even think of pressing any of those buttons.
Whoo! Hoo! I did something right! Over the phone my genius future son-in-law took me through the steps of removing the virus from my computer. Turns out that if I had clicked on any of those buttons, I would have fallen directly into the trap set by the virus creators-- I would have bought software created by the very people who created my virus. Not only that, but I would have given them even more access to my computer when I downloaded their software. Not cool.
Well this virus packed a punch-- apparently it's a brand new one- so new that my regular anti-virus software didn't even have it on the radar yet. And my future son-in-law ended up having to wipe my hard drive, which was most definitely not fun. I'm still trying to put things back together from that.
But now I have my computer back so I can get back to work on the sequel to Merari. No more excuses. Not a single one.
More Blogs by Mari Atherton • Lighten Up! - Monday, January 22, 2007 • Good Intentions - Saturday, January 13, 2007 • A Whole New Year - Saturday, January 6, 2007 • Computers- Can't Live With or Without Them - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 • Excitement Abounds! - Saturday, November 18, 2006 • Context - Wednesday, November 1, 2006 • Rip Off Publishers - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 • Sequel to Merari - Sunday, September 24, 2006 • GenCon - Saturday, August 19, 2006
