WHEN YOUR HASTE AND POOR JUDGMENT FAILS YOUR COMPUTER

Using computers is yet another thing there to make me feel totally inadequate. I bought my first computer 30 years ago. I currently have four working ones and use them all. a lot. However, there is quirky reason that viruses get into my head, as well as the computer, so all the rules I have been taught escape me, like today. Just as one does the elimination diet for allergies, so should new software be put on your computer...one thing at a time, to make sure you know which one is fouling it up, since one is plotting to do that.

Well, I did the unpardonable. As is my wont, I'd save time and download a bunch of Mozilla Firefox add-ons then see which ones I wanted to keep. Naturally, one of them locked up my browser so that I could not get anything but a list of add-ons when I tried to reach my home page on Firefox or tried any URL. None of the uninstall or disable characters would highlight or work. The evil spirit had changed all the defaults. After groveling on the phone to my computer guru friend, I tried a few more suggestions before ending up uninstalling then reinstalling Firefox. Fortunately I had the handy, dandy Foxmarks add-on which kept my bookmarks on its server and synchronized them onto a second computer. All were there in a neat file; I just can't find a way to get them back onto my Firefox. My friend, who looks at detail far more than I ever take the time to do, spotted that when you click on Firefox on 'all programs', it offers to open in a 'safe' mode. That allows you to uninstall the culprits, if you can find them. Checking on which didn't destroy another computer, I was able to assure that a few add-ons were safe, at least.

My sanity has been saved by having a backup computer for the inevitable, when one goes crazy on me. One time all three separate backups of the same thing gave out simultaneously and it wasn't even a Friday the 13th! I figure I could spend all my time, save for when I need to brush my teeth, backing up to protect hours of work and data. Having participated in chats and email , I'm now also in Facebook...wondering how I will ever manage yet another learning curve. When did I ever find time to raise a few kids, work all those jobs, have all those hobbies and just live? It was clearly before computers invaded my life. My intuitiveness is limited to people, not computers. I know there are people who still don't have cable TV or a computer and seem to exist...whether happily or not is lost on me. They will never know the joy of instant gratification by Google. They will never enjoy not having to go to a Mall. The hours that can be saved by a computer are lost just as the joy of having pets is sometimes lost to the hours at the Vet's office, paying the bills, vacuuming up fur and hair, cleaning cat litter, washing rugs after an accident from either end of the pet, repairing the furniture that is clawed or chewed. Listening to my friends with pets I have learned to appreciate that computers, like plants, die quietly and emit no bad odors.

My computers take as much maintenance as my body, house, and plants take together. I run a firewall, anti-virus protector, spybot remover, registry and other cleaner and, with all that, I try to remember to back up the important things. Nevertheless, with all the precautions I use, every once and a while I get bitten and spend an evening like this one, restoring my browser back to a reincarnation of what it had been just a few hours before. I ran out of profanity, aged markedly, and all for what? It was so that I could bore you with the details. It is not an altruistic warning of things to protect you, it is a simple rant although you would be wise to save yourself time and download as little as you can, letting your greedy self stay locked in the past. 'If you got along without it for so long, you probably don't need it now' is probably not a bad motto to follow, I have learned with much pain and waste of time.