24 April 2004 ... Computer Stuff

Ah, the sweet joys of computer life.

And the tediousness of viruses. Arg!

Yeah, a couple weeks ago, SO's computer started acting up. He had five rare network viruses (virii?), the results of running Kazza and Limewire without any kind of antivirus software. (Hey, I told him... but did he listen?) (no.)

One virus was actively doing it's destructive thing. Fortunately, it was only messing with the operation of .exe files, I don't think any real damage was happening.

The removal was basically impossible, since SO doesn't have any antivirus of his own. So I did a FORMAT C: to clear things up. (P.S. Don't try this at home, kids... That's the command that will remove your operating system and all your programs and all your files and all your computer life!!) (Whee!) heh.

Couple days later, SO's computer starts having the exact same trouble with exe's. BAH, I say! Virus is back, and after I get over my annoyance, I figured out what I did wrong. His secondary hard drive used to be his only hard drive... it has a copy of Windows on it... and, a clean install of Windows isn't happening when it is checking for upgrade status... and probably copying every stupid thing from the old registry.

Duh.

So, anyway. Try, try, again. It's a good thing I enjoy playing with the FORMAT command.

I was looking at the User Guide to my antivirus software, trying to figure out what the license says about installing the software on multiple computers in the same household... It says one license per computer, you can virus check across a network If each computer has a license to the software.

So, crud. But not "crud" as in "cursing, I am mad" but "crud" as in "man it would have been so much easier". Eh. It's good software, and I really don't mind at all paying for an extra set of the program and subscription for virus definitions.

I also discovered in the User Guide that when you do the manual virus scan, there are different settings for protection. And the default is only medium. eh? Don't understand... If you're doing a manual scan, don't you automatically want the highest protection there is??

I bumped the setting up to the highest, updated my definitions, and then discovered a N__Sky hiding out in one of my IE sessions. Isn't that nice.

Things that I would buy:

• Flat Panel Monitor...
  just 'cause! But I want an upgrade. Been waiting patiently for the price of 19 inch screens to come down. Patiently. Waiting.



• DVD-ROM.
  'Course, I don't have a place to put it, I've got my main 52x CDROM and a secondary slow spin CD burner. Tho, the burner didn't come with software, and I'm too lazy to go out and buy some, so I've never actually burned any CDs. ha.



• The latest and greatest Logitech TrackBall.
  Because Tegan happened to the current one.



• One of those cool-o transparent cases with the neon lights in it!
  Those amuse me, but I can see into my computer anyway... Fiasco II the Computer has burnt out his CPU fan power connections, so there's a small room fan pointing at his innards. It's actually a brilliant setup, the room fan keeps the CPU cooler than it ever was. I think I run at 104°F (40°C) these days.



• Some really expensive digital camera.
  The current one is many years old. "How many megapixels?" you ask... None: I got the cam before megapixels were invented! haha. Also, the old cam does not have a flash, and that has really become a limiting factor.