A mind of its own February 4, 2007

Some readers of this blog might wonder whats been happening with me for the past few days. Okay, now I know that its too far away from the truth, but sometimes there is no harm to keep one’s hope alive about certain things. 

 So the newest thing that’s happening right now, is that my computer has gone all berserk again. This actually happens very regularly with about 6 months of a time interval; the only thing is that the problems that happen are so weird that I sometimes have to rethink the meaning of technology. 

So, here I am with the computer which looks quite harmless while its turned off. When I turn it on, suddenly the Menu screen of the monitor appears without any reason whatsoever. When I press the EXIT button on the monitor, it refuses to leave and stubbornly remains visible in the middle of the screen. It vanishes suddenly and this appearing and disappearing is continued on its own wish. It seems that the Monitor has a mind of its own. 

Now, after a lot of shedding of sweat and blood, I give up. Beggars cannot be choosers, as they say. Its as if the Monitor reads my mind; it understands the fact that it is isn’t quite getting on my nerves as of now. So, the next thing what it does is, it switches on the Brightness screen and automatically reduces it to zero. Now, I am quite befuddled with this situation. So, I use the control and try to increase the Brightness to normal. And quite automatically, my monitor (the king of my room) switches it again to zero. This tug of war continues for a few minutes or so and then as you might have guessed it, I give up.. 

The Monitor continues to unleash its mind-boggling weapons on to me by showing the Brightness screen which is now zero. As if laughing at me and saying… “What now?” I still continue my work, without looking at it, and that makes him much more angry I guess.

 So, the Monitor switches on the main menu screen again, and now more determined than ever it touches upon every menu feature, randomly without stopping. The readers will note, that everything is happening automatically without any human touch. So now, the main menu screen changes from Contrast, to Brightness to H-center to H size to V center to V side, Language, Recall and what not with Supersonic speed. 

Like a valiant knight I had fought until now. But such an act on my computer screen totally diminishes my existence. For the computer, it is quite evident, does not think me worthy enough to sit in front of it. I graciously accept my defeat and turn off the computer and wait for my master to be cheerful again and to be benevolent enough to grant me some uninterrupted time so that I may perform my menial job.

 And now reduced to a powerless individual, I hunt for the answers to such unexplained acts to no avail. May be its karma…

Congratulations Nina. You have been officially WGA’d August 23, 2006

I assure you, this story goes through amazing twists and turns, but ends in brutal tragedy. If you are one of those looking for happy ending, this is the best time to stop going further.

So, its been a year since I got my IBM Thinkcentre PC. Its for another thing to discuss within 7 days the CD-Rom refused to work and for the next 5 days I had to live in that constant gloom of uncertainty whether I would get a replacement or not.But everything worked out fine, I must say (touch wood), with the ‘technical support people’ 

After a year, the Norton Antivirus subscription expired. On my first impulse, I wanted to renew it, but it entailed not to mention money and also calling my “very friendly” technician. I decided against it. After a downloading one of the free antivirus programs available, it was a smooth ride. The antivirus has been catching attacks left, right and centre. Following the IP address of my nemesis led me to Delhi. So, if you are reading this- ‘Please I am a poor soul, unemployed and absolutely penniless”

Ok, now back to the real thing. For about a month I have changed my settings in the “Automatic Updates” I checked the box “Download updates but let me choose when to install them”. And for a month, I have been ignoring these “Windows Genuine Validation Tool updates”. Something in the back of my mind told me that I shouldn’t install it, in fear that something was not right.

Ofcourse, since I am such an impulsive person, I turned the Windows firewall and along with the Automatic Updates on yesterday, without any reason. I still haven’t found out what exactly I was thinking, may be I wasn’t even thinking at all.  After finishing, I turned off my computer. Of course the friendly message appeared. And there was a little message “Turn off if you don’t want to install the updates”, which I did not select.

So in the dying few moments after I clicked on “Turn off”, I said , “Nina, shouldn’t have done that, girl.” And all was lost…So, now in Microsoft terms, I am a “victim of software counterfeiting”. I would say, a prisoner of Microsoft, officially tagged as an absolute loser, a social misfit in the virtual world and an “invalid” .  Yeah, you got me… 

I assure you, this story goes through amazing twists and turns, but ends in brutal tragedy. If you are one of those looking for happy ending, this is the best time to stop going further.

So, its been a year since I got my IBM Thinkcentre PC. Its for another thing to discuss within 7 days the CD-Rom refused to work and for the next 5 days I had to live in that constant gloom of uncertainty whether I would get a replacement or not.But everything worked out fine, I must say (touch wood), with the ‘technical support people’ 

After a year, the Norton Antivirus subscription expired. On my first impulse, I wanted to renew it, but it entailed not to mention money and also calling my “very friendly” technician. I decided against it. After a downloading one of the free antivirus programs available, it was a smooth ride. The antivirus has been catching attacks left, right and centre. Following the IP address of my nemesis led me to Delhi. So, if you are reading this- ‘Please I am a poor soul, unemployed and absolutely penniless”

Ok, now back to the real thing. For about a month I have changed my settings in the “Automatic Updates” I checked the box “Download updates but let me choose when to install them”. And for a month, I have been ignoring these “Windows Genuine Validation Tool updates”. Something in the back of my mind told me that I shouldn’t install it, in fear that something was not right.

Ofcourse, since I am such an impulsive person, I turned the Windows firewall and along with the Automatic Updates on yesterday, without any reason. I still haven’t found out what exactly I was thinking, may be I wasn’t even thinking at all.  After finishing, I turned off my computer. Of course the friendly message appeared. And there was a little message “Turn off if you don’t want to install the updates”, which I did not select.

So in the dying few moments after I clicked on “Turn off”, I said , “Nina, shouldn’t have done that, girl.” And all was lost…So, now in Microsoft terms, I am a “victim of software counterfeiting”. I would say, a prisoner of Microsoft, officially tagged as an absolute loser, a social misfit in the virtual world and an “invalid” .  Yeah, you got me…