Well, I spent about 3 hours today helping a friend who has computer problems. Just your average, ordinary, non-demanding user who simply wants to dial in and get her email. This was part 2 of the fixup since I spent 2 hours over there the other day working on part one. And after 5 hours... it's still not fixed.
First of all - she is on dialup, yep the good ole 56K modem. I did install a firewall for her when she got the computer, but firewalls only work for some things. In this case, she had enough spyware on her system to be tracked by all those in the known universe. She had enough virii (don't care if it's a real word or not so don't yell about it) to infect all other computers in existence. She hasn't been able to update her service packs because dialup is simply too slow for that to be an option. Thus she arrived at the point where her printer wouldn't work and she called me.
At the moment I'd like to string up a bunch of people in this order... 1) virus writers - may you all rot in hell 2) spyware inflictors may your every move be cataloged and broadcast over the net for all to watch and laugh at 3) Microsoft operating system programmers who - even after all these years of practice, can't seem to fix the most obvious problems. May you spend eternity in a room fixing the constant stream of problems that regular users encounter. May you have to explain 80 times exactly what you're doing and how the system owner can do this too. May you then return home to find all these virii and spyware have afflicted your own system and you now have to do a total wipe and reinstall.
That's it - I'm done with computers for the night - I'm off to bed!
Comments