Sigh...some romances are too good to last, and lo and behold, both my ancient eMachine and my acer laptops died on me during the holidays, both apparently with power issues. So...there I was in the lovely Shenandoah mountains enjoying what I expected to be a week of catching up with certain computer-based activities, and...no computer. Suddenly, my complaints about the slow "free wifi" offered by my host disappeared.
The first machine I found with a built-in WiFi modem was a Dell Inspiron 15-inch, perhaps soon to inherit the nickname of "the AntiWebBook." But dual Intel Pentium processors and Windows 7 built in are not to be sneered at (not to mention at least a dozen applications showing up in the Belarc Advisor scan that I can't yet identify). And that cool processor/memory gadget in Windows 7 is running below 50% a lot more often.
What did this new year disaster teach me?
My gradually-increasing anal-retentive tendencies were rewarded generously. What I had saved, whether on thumb or external pocket drives, was extremely useful in building up the new machine to "my standards," including Firefox, MediaMonkey and a host of other necessities. What I didn't have, I managed to download. Slowly. So - new year's resolution #1? Save everything INTO the Documents folder ("Downloads," "My Music," "My Pictures," ad infinitum), then copy THAT folder off to SOMETHING before bedtime.
On arriving home, restarting the household network and getting a week of clothing into the washer, some vague nagging voice said, "You haven't run the anti-virus program thoroughly on the new machine - and hey, when was the last time you did a full scan on the old workhorse desktop?"
Guess what I found? Half a dozen trojan horse files in the BROWSER TEMP FILES! Hmm...and these didn't trigger an alert when they arrived because...why? Because. Deal with it.
So, resolution #2 - even with all those snappy commercials with the PC customer who wants faster start-ups in Windows 7 - we're going to begin EVERY log-in with a quick scan, and run a full scan every week, preferably during early a.m. snore-time.
Boring resolutions? You betcha. But now is not a moment too soon for you to actually DO what you know you should do.
So (I hope) - the NEXT time I need to rebuild a machine, having a "Downloads" file FULL of up-to-date necessities will save time. AND keeping the machine clean will be worth the daily exercise in patience.
The cynic in me is wondering what will break next. The pragmatist in me is interested in fixing my desktop sound card and figuring out how to deal with a thumb drive (with no switches) that magically seems to have decided it is now read-only. Wish me luck.
Your ever-lovin' Unclejack
UnclejackDC@Yahoo.Com
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