Honey's computer was attacked by a vicious virus early Saturday morning. When I came down stairs, Honey was scowling and clicking and mumbling at the screen. I tried to sneak by the office door, but he heard me and called me in. "Take a look at that." he said. "I can't get rid of it no matter what I do. I can't get my e-mail. I'm not on line and it says I'm on line. I'm blocked." I looked. The screen was dominated by a legitimate looking anti-virus company selling anti-virus software. But when I clicked the x, nothing went away but the company's legitimacy. 'Buy or you'll never use this computer again. Heh, Heh, Heh.'
Some heavy weight Anti-virus thug made Honey an offer he couldn't refuse. software they were holding Honey's internet connection hostage while enticing him with pornography Honey thought interesting and wanted to see more.
Slapping his hands away from the keyboard, I said, "Over my dead body. Put your hands where I can see them and move away from the vehicle"
"Dr.Bombay. Dr. Bombay. Come right away!" I gave a quick call to Microsoft son who agreed this was a stick-up and recommended his favorite software. Told us to go buy it,but didn't tell us how to get rid of the monster first. Since he didn't say anything about that, we figured the new software would just do it for us. We dressed and ran to Best Buy. Back home, we tried to install it, but the monster was too big for Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 too. Call the guru!
Al showed up on our doorstep at 9:30 Sunday morning. He couldn't do a thing on site, had to take the machine with him.
He returned it yesterday. Hundreds of dollars later,virus free and secure,the three year old HP laptop was humming away on Honey's desk like nothing had ever happened. But Honey wasn't happy. He was poorer, full of regrets he hadn't bought a Dell when the HP motherboard went bad a month ago--and he paid them hundreds for a new one all for the sake of economy.
By the time the computer guru pulled out of the driveway and the computer calamity weekend came to a close, Spring Woods was the only painting I cared to work on. The painting wasn't as demanding as Mice. The reference photo looked like a breeze. The get acquainted sketch was too. The session would be relaxing.
Like hell. Woods was demanding. No sweeping gestures, just broken lines and dots--lots of dots. Yellow, magenta, red,violet,blue, green-- By God, I was painting pixels!
So did the pc guy reset the laptop back to factory? . btw, your Xmas cactus is gorgeous... how old is it? I have never seen one that huge- all those leaves...wow.
ReplyDeleteIt's old. I bought thirteen or fourteen years ago. It was a tiny thing. If brackets fell off, I just stuck them in the dirt and a new plant popped up. I summer it out of doors in shade and winter it in the basement where its cool, but the having to keep it cool and in the dark for it to bloom isn't true.My studio is in the basement; I'm down there all the time.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what he did. I stayed as far a way as possible. But now we both have Viper and Al's got our
check.
Viper? never heard of it.. I am surprised your boy didn't mention Windows one care.. that helped me in the past and its a free virus scan that Windows has. Its an intense scan.
ReplyDeleteLucky the computer came back intact - hope you didn't lose any files.
ReplyDeleteThe painting looks complicated but really nice. Love the bold strokes.