COMPUTING

Firstly, I do not like animated gifs and flash snippets that move about in my peripheral vision while I'm trying to read some page or other. It's distracting, not to mention unnerving! So I've made sure that my animations rotate once, then sit there quietly, not being a pain! Of course, I could do without them altogether, but where's the fun in that!

I guess, like most, my relationship with computers borders on the love/hate variety. I need the things like crazy, and because of that am now utterly paranoid about backing my stuff up in readiness for the next screw-up. And I've had legions of those. Some due to my own lack of experience - and, sometimes, my downright stupidity - and the rest due to circumstances utterly beyond my current control.

Bottom line: I have to find a way to live with them.

WINDOWS XP

If you're running Windows XP, - (there might be a few stalwards left out there!) - here is a great site with info for tweaking your system: Lava Surfer and here's one chock-full of XP goodies: Kelly's Korner

WINDOWS 2000

I actually bought this operating system. legitimately. Something of a first for me. I installed it several times and it never seemed to go in correctly. Maybe it was something I did (or fiddled with) but it never worked well enough for me to leave it in. I even tried it in a dual-boot situation. No luck there either. So it sits there in my CD rack waiting for my next attack of the head staggers.

OTHER WINDOWS

Along with 2000, Vista was yet another operating system I paid full whack for. I had even less success with this one. Nothing was right about it from the very start. Even when I tried yet another dual-boot system it didn't want to play with me. I think it must have been my computer itself. Maybe it just was not up to the new concepts!

Up until that moment I had been running a hookey version of XP. Then, in a strange fit of something or other, I actually bought the CD. Then I did not have to worry about serial numbers and all the other hoops Microsoft have you jumping through to ensure their software is legit.

But - deep down - my heart belongs to Win95!

Like XP, win95 never put a single hoof in the wrong place, but it achieved that state of grace in a simpler way.

Mind you, I did climb on the merry-go-round with Windows For Workgroups (3.11)...remember that? No? And why should you. I must possess a simple mind.

UPDATE 2017: I now have Windows 10 and though there are issues (like,for instance, Microsoft imagining they know more about what you want than you do yourself!) things are much more stable.

VIRUSES

I see no point whatsoever in the malicious gremlins. I could understand it if the perpetrator was on hand to witness the mayhem he/she causes with the damned things, especially if it's passed on to someone they absolutely hate.

But these people see nothing of the trouble they cause.

Someone tell me where the satisfaction is in that!

Dealing with the damned things!

I used to run AVG(free) and I might still be using that, except that they began to insist that I upgrade to AVG(not free!). I certainly do not have a quarrel with them asking to be paid for such an important piece of software, but as long as there is free antivirus stuff out there, then I'm going to use it. (It's worth noting here that AVG advertised the free version on their own site! Which, as things turn out, was quite a clever ploy))

I was directed to Microsoft's own antivirus system: Security Essentials. This seems to do all AVG was doing, and just as well. (Some argue that it does the job better than any).

I'd be glad to receive some feedback on this subject. And so would a lot of other people, I suspect.

HOOKEY SOFTWARE

I'm not proud of it, but my computer is loaded down with the stuff. I have a friend who made regular trips to the Far East and was always coming home with CDs full of pirated software. What are you going to do, ignore it? MS Office, for example, sells at £100s. Would you pay those £100s...or would you accept it for nothing! That's all down to the individual, I guess. I must be slightly more shadey than I hoped I was!

I can only repeat...I'm not proud of it...but there it is!

A.V.G.- update

About a year ago I bought AVG, as opposed to running the free version.

As I've already said, the free version did what it was supposed to do - as far as it went. I finally realised that something better was called for, so I dipped my hand into my pocket and coughed up for the big one.

All went well for the first year. Then, suddenly, AVG began a campaign of "let's-see-if-we-can-squeeze-more-out-of-this-guy" Which was when AVG began to be a nuisance. I think it now wants me to buy everything it has ever invented. And, so far, it hasn't let up. I say this, because as an anti-badware thing, it is brilliant. But they are just as sneaky as the rest of them. The nuts-and-bolts of this are too diverse to go into here, but...be warned. If you want to be badware-free, then AVG will do it. But be ready for the snowstorm of other, more sleazy, stuff when the time comes.