For the most part, the computer is a toy. I know that there are all kinds of useful things to do with the computer. Like I can look at my bank account online and I can get maps online and email is a good thing to have and all that. And once upon a time I did some real writing on the computer. I used to spend several hours a day on the computer trying to get that novel published.
But let's be truthful. We don't spend that much time on the computer doing anything useful. Or, at least, we don't spend that much time on our home computers doing anything useful. We surf the net, we blog, and maybe we download episodes of TV shows that we missed. The useful stuff takes up maybe half an hour a day if we have a lot of emails. The rest of the time is spent having fun, or at least wasted doing things that are supposed to be fun.
So I suppose that I could do without the computer. I could tell my friends that I don't have one and if they really need to contact me that they'll have to use the telephone, and I could actually write down the amounts in the checkbook, and I could just buy a regular map. And on occasions when that just won't do I can borrow a computer or use the one at the library. If I gave up blogging and downloading TV stuff, I could probably do without a computer and in the long run this would probably save me time and money.
But I don't really want to do that, do I?
Even before I was having serious problems with my husband, there was always the computer to argue about. Not serious heated arguments, but he was always spending too much time on the damned thing, and he was always wanting to spend money on the damned thing when we had actual necessities that needed to be paid for first. And of course he is always wanting to buy a new computer, and he broke our agreement not to buy another one when he bought this one in 2002, after we had bought two used laptops the year before. And he wants to buy a new one now, but I won't have it, because he still owes my mother a lot of money and I will not discuss buying a new computer until he pays her back.
But he wants to buy something to replace part of this one, which isn't going to cost as much as a new computer, and I'm thinking about it. If it would actually fix whatever is wrong with the thing. Maybe fixing this one wouldn't cost too much.
And lately it is even worse. Whatever it is that prevents those stupid pop-ups doesn't seem to be working this week. Sometimes, when I type in an address, I get that message that the address cannot be found and I should check my Internet connection, etc.... Except that it appears in a pop-up screen over the very thing that I was looking for, so why the message? And there are other pop-ups. Some of the pop-ups seem attached to particular web addresses. Whenever I go to read the blog of a certain British lady, I get a pop-up for Horny Singles. Not what I was looking for at all. I'm not typing in the wrong address, and the British lady's blog is still there, but I have to close a page about naughty twenty-one year-olds before I can read it.
So I have about had it with this thing, and I guess that I will be going to the electronic store in the near future and watching some of our money get spent on a replacement part for this toy.
Either that or just give up on the thing for a while.
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13 comments:
Wow. Sounds like spyware. Some nasty program installed on your computer that you or your husband never wanted there, but it installed itself anyway. I've had the exact same sort of thing happen. It can be pretty tough to get rid of, but I used this
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
Lava Soft AdAware
to get rid of it.
It has probably hijacked your web browser, telling it to fling popups at you when you choose to go to web sites...
I use Lavasoft, it's free & it's good. It's not my blog is it????
I find my computer an absolute lifeline when I'm stuck in the house, and as I work in software design obviously I need a computer to do it on.
Both your blog and the horny site start with the same two letters. The rest of the things that are connected make no sense at all.
I've had three blogs I visit that begin with "in". The one you are reading, my own, and a pretty bad one that is gone now. Often I would type "in", and select the automatically-filled-in one in my browser, and often I end up at the wrong one by accident. I guess that is not the best way to choose a web site to go to.
Well, that sort of thing happens, and you sometimes click on the wrong one by mistake. I had named the blog something similar to the other blog so that someone might find mine by mistake, but I had no idea how often people would end up at the other blog by mistake.
But this is different. I go to read dame's blog, and I type in the address and I get her blog, but then I get this pop-up thing over it. And I didn't click on the wrong address or anything like that, just end up with two different sites.
The thing about typing "in" was an aside, actually, and is not related to "malware"
I know exactly what you mean, and when I have had the problem, I got web sites popping up regardless of what ever else I went to... even if I went to other sites. It's a piece of spyware, possibly a browser "plug in" that makes your browser act this way.
Here is a good page about the problem:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2004/04/63280
It's technical, but unless you are going to pay someone to clean it off for you, you or your husband might have to do some pretty technical things to fix this.
Soz, I posted the same thing 2ce, I deleted 1 now.
I haven't allowed any ads on my blog, so guess it must be spyware.
Well, I didn't think Dame Honoria was one of the Horny Singles. She has said that she'd married. And if she is horny, that is none of my business.
But that particular pop-up does seem very fond of her blog.
I don't really get the whole business of pop-ups. I don't think that anyone ever buys stuff from pop-ups, so why do they keep annoying people with them?
I couldn't live without my computer - I watched something on TV last night about addictions and some woman on there was addicted to a game on her PC. I'm not addicted to games, but I do like to spend some time at the beginning or end of each working day writing a piece for the trade magazines, or something for my website, or reading other people's blogs.
As for your pop-up problems, it does sound like a spy- or malware problem. I've never used the Lavasoft product so can't comment, but I do use Crap Cleaner, available at www.ccleaner.com and that is pretty good at sorting out crap on my computer.
Making money off of pop-up ads is like making money off spam. It costs them almost nothing to spew spam and popups. But every once in a while, some moron answers the ad and gets the product, which makes the whole thing pay off.
So then you get more popups and spam...
Computers are excellent........until the moment the damn things break down!!
They are supposed to be easy to fix, but me thinks that Microsoft and the rest are lying :-)
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