Once again my desktop PC has been invaded by some very nasty malware. I cannot even access the internet from it - all programs either wiped or hidden. I have a couple of drafts stored on Blogger - one follows, another to be posted Monday (I hope). After that - well I might be gone for quite some time. I have a horrible feeling my desktop is "compromised". These invasions are happening too frequently to be simply by chance. I have suspicions in several directions. May have to invest in Windows 7 and/or new machine. Windows XP, which I use, is a ten-year old operating system not up to fighting today's geeky cyber criminals.
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Area 51 and a Half
Sun is still travelling through dreamy zodiac sign Pisces and the sign's ruler, foggy, nebulous Neptune has just begun its long transit of the sign - an area in which it feels most "at home"....Neptune in Pisces has a distinct Area 51 feel to it, I reckon. It's the right time to feature a few strange photographs from my husband's collection of vintage "found photographs" at Lost Gallery (link in sidebar) and Flickr. He calls the section from which I borrowed these "Area 51 and a half". Clicking on the photographs should link to their Flickr location. After downloading the chosen few into Blogger draft I noticed that, with a little re-arrangement and a few added captions (different from any added by husband or his Flickr friends) the pictures could tell a story ~~~
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin......
Renowned physicist of the 1950s, Dr Serge Andropov had a secret laboratory where his experiments in 7-Dimensional Travel were proving more successful than he had dared to hope.
A willing volunteers, seeking a bit of fame, and a few dollars pocket money followed his instructions. "Walk towards the light!"
A few reporters had gathered, and were quite ready to snigger at another of the Doc's failed experiments, when.....
The young woman disappeared and almost instantaneously began to re-appear, but in a different setting.....
The doctor fiddled with his controls and the scene changed again.....
and again
But then......
What had gone wrong? And where was Dr. Andropov?
The good doctor was never seen again - except, perhaps, in the 7th Dimension.
25 comments:
GP: Sorry to hear about your computer. Small consolation, I guess, I am on my 4th in so many years.
Problem No.1 (not the hackers - as I suppose your'e not watching Russian porno): The struggle between Microsoft and it's competitors. Windows 7 is good, better even probably Apple (my next computer).
You might try UBUNTU, a UK based competitor to Windows. Don't know if your oldish Windows will install. I can't here in Brazil's wildernes, slow connection.
Best of luck - and who knows - it might just be the sun-flares...
PS: Nasreddin said: Riding along one day his donkey took fright and started to bolt (your computer going crazy?).
The other travellers (your readers?) asked: wwhere are you going so fast? Answer: Don't ask me, ask my donkey!
O so sorry about your computer. Nasty Mercury retro huh? I've got a hand-me-down MacBook Pro from my son and I've gotta say, because I'm not an Apple fanatic, it's a nice product. Hope you get it straightened out and are back up again soon.
Gian Paul ~~ Thanks GP. This is my third since arriving in the USA, 2004, likely to be moving on I fear to my fourth, unless I convince myself otherwise over the weekend.
:-)
Nasreddin has a story for all occasions!
Mac/Apple machines are too expensive for my taste and budget, so I'll stick to good ol' PC. Desktops for general use (non-gaming) are much cheaper than they used to be, and compete with the cost of repair and/or assistance to buy and install Win7 or re-install XP, re-format disc etc. Windows 7 is said to be better security-wise, something I sorely need.
We'll see. We've tried using a "rescue disc" this morning, but can't get the machine to boot from it.....so the machine is well and truly screwed up this time. Will take it to the repair shop on Monday for an estimate of repair cost, or other advice.
Am using laptop now, which is okay for reading etc, and accessing blog, but can't concentrate on any further post drafting until I settle on a way to proceed.
:-)
Ah well - worse things happen at sea - as they say!
Dine ~~~ Thank you kndly - I hope so too. This is the worst in a string of invasions I seem to be getting every few months. I think it's time to bail out and start over.
:-)
Should say "Diane" (laptop making fingers more buttery than ever!
Hi Twilight,
This is so cool! I ran across your blog in a Google search - glad to see you are still blogging. I started up the Dismaying Stories again on "To Love, Honor, and Dismay" -- drop by if you can.
Cheers - Andrew
Oh dear T, I can commiserate thoroughly having been without for a couple of days while the techiewizzes did their job. they got rid of it (and I've been on Windows 7 for over a year) but notice now I have a pop-up called Carrier.exe which I am not opening.
It is insidious, this assault on our computers.
I do hope yours gets fixed. My fellahs did it for $77 - so I hope you have the same lightness of bills.
XO
WWW
Another plug for a Mac — they may be a bit pricey, but what cost all the stress? My white macbook is going strong — 5+ years, never a problem. Before that a sweet little ibook. A fairly baseline macbook air at Best Buy is 700.00 less than I paid for my white macbook. My husband's 2 yr old pc laptop is slow as molasses and he just had the hard drive replaced. And that's his third computer, compared to my one -
If you are considering a 4th computer in 12 years, you may want to re-think the Mac. My little Mac Mini is 6 years old and I have never had a problem with malware. It replaced a 2-year-old PC that had constant trouble. I have used Macs since the 80s and NEVER had a malware problem.
Sometimes you have to pay more for quality.
Andrew ~~ Hi there - you surfaced again! Thank you for the heads-up! I shall enjoy a trip to yours shortly.
:-)
Wisewebwoman ~~~ Thanks WWW. Yes, using the an internet filled with would-be criminals is getting more & more like dodging the traffic on a busy interstate highway! :-(
Anonymous ~~ Thanks, yes, most Apple fans say much the same.
Maybe, in my next life, I'll remember to join the Mac fraternity from the get-go. ;-)
Kaleymorris ~~ Yes, I do realise that a move to Apple/Mac would be the wisest way to go, and do realise quality has to be paid for.
This snafu has come hard on the heels of a couple of other large outlays. I broke a tooth on 1 January, entailed having a crown fixed (mucho $$$$), the recent car incident we had, though insurance covered a lot of the expense, still left a goodly sum for us to pick up.
Consequence is....I don't feel like lobbing out something in the region of $1,500 for a Mac when I can get a good PC with new operating system installed for less than a third of that.
But.....I will certainly give this some further thought over the next few days.
Maybe digging deep would be the wiser option.......or not.....
Fun stuff Twilight! That's what these old found photographs do for me too. They just seem to speak sometimes.
anyjazz ~~~ Thanks! No doubt our watching TV's "Fringe" got me onto this train of thought. ;-)
JUNO ~~~I notice there's a comment from Juno among the list of published comments in the gubbins of Blogger, but it hasn't published uner the post here.
Sorry Juno - don't know what happened, but thanks for your suggetion (3rd so far) that I should invest in a Mac.
Not sure finances will sensibly allow it, but giving it some thought, whil waiting for word on possible repair or scrapping of current PC.
:-)
Money-wise you are right, but frustration-wise ...
Your best argument against a Mac may be your Astro software.
Just want to point out that Mac Minis are considerably less expensive and are quite reliable. Just depends on what kind of demands you are going to make of the computer. Don't overlook them when doing your homework.
I agree with GP about Linux. Ubuntu will install on an old computer. I would vote for Firefox as the browser of choice.
Both are absolutely free.
You can download and burn a demo disk to try it first also.
Not only that but it is possible to have both operating systems and chose what one you want to boot.
In case you want to look more at it here is the URL of the Ubuntu site:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download
Kaleymorris ~~~ Yes, the astrology software replacement would entail another outlay of at least $300, maybe more nowadays - I'd considered that too, K.
Thinking now (only thinking mind you) of trying to re-format the OS myself (with help from Himself).
It would save paying the computer shop, and I'd buy Norton360 to insert immediately. Himself swears by it and never has problems. I've had Norton problems in the past so swaer against it - but will give it another go if I get the chance.
If I can get the computer back to its original state, having lost some, not all, data (some is backed up) I'll carry on using the machine for a while longer on XP Pro.
Have a feeling the thing will refuse to boot from the Re-installation disc though, but we'll try. It wouldn't boot from an anti-virus rescue disc.
Moggsy~~ Hi there! Many thanks for your thoughts on this and for the link.
If I can get the machine working again with a re-installation/reformat I'll take a careful look at Linux or Ubuntu as a 2nd OS.
Same applies if I have to buy a new machine. :-)
As we're in a quite aggressive political arena over our way, this sort of thing goes on. I tend to run different sites with the same blog - difficult for them to take out all of them at once.
Once they've had their fun it usually comes right though.
Sympathy.
James Higham ~~ Thank you! While online we're all targets of one entity or another I guess.
Just got to live with it. :-(
Honourable bye, sweet chum :)
It's still funny stuff.
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