Faking Geek
I was chatting with someone I'd just met online last night about how I'm not really a geek; I like geek-y things, but don't actually know enough about most subjects of geekdom to be a true geek. Rather, I think that I fake it pretty well. This afternoon has been a premiere example of that.
I finally got around to trying to do something about the problems my computer's been having for the past weeks and weeks (and probably longer). Not the least of reason why being that it randomly restarted itself -- not once, but -- twice while I was in the middle of various things. Luckily nothing that was important or got lost.
At the suggestion of angus_mcnitt, I reinstalled Spybot Search & Destroy. I'd had this on my computer initially; it stopped working a while back, so I uninstalled it, but never got around to the reinstall. A few hours ago, the reinstall was initiated and completed with no hassle or issue. Ran it immediately, and it found 113 "problems," though all in the form of suspect cookies. I don't see how cookies would be slowing my computer down and making it restart (maybe part of that Not Geek Enough thing), but I let S&D fix them anyway, for good measure. Ran it again immediately out of curiousity: 90 problems; fixed. Before running it a third time, I thought maybe I should see about fixing my antivirus software, too.
Along with S&D, my computer came to me with AVG Free antivirus. Some weeks ago (before? after? who knows?) it would not come out of an error state. It kept telling me that my virus database was out of date. Though when I would try to make it update, it then told me there are no updates available. Some quick poking on the internet tells me that v. 8.5 is current, whereas I'm running 7.5 (oops). Maybe that's had something to do with my problems. Download upgrade, install... Nope.
It turns out that the version of Windows that I'm running is apparently incompatible with AVG 8.5 -- guess that was the problem, eh? But look how convenient: here's links to how to upgrade to the appropriate service pack to solve the problem. Download update... Nope.
I can't access the Windows upgrade from Firefox, only from Internet Explorer (bastards). Luckily (?), I have IE on my computer already. At least that's one download I didn't have to deal with :P
Now can I upgrade Windows? Nope.
(at this point, I start to go slightly hysterical at the combination of humour and frustration)
Oh look! Windows Update needs to be updated! (WTF?)
Done, and done.
Now I need to restart for those upgrades to take effect. Let's see what else I need to update once I'm back.
Silly me thinking I could take care of this in an afternoon (proof that I'm Not Geek Enough, perhaps?). I just fake it well: since I can manage to muddle my way through all this crap, but have no idea what ANY of what I'm doing actually means :P
I finally got around to trying to do something about the problems my computer's been having for the past weeks and weeks (and probably longer). Not the least of reason why being that it randomly restarted itself -- not once, but -- twice while I was in the middle of various things. Luckily nothing that was important or got lost.
At the suggestion of angus_mcnitt, I reinstalled Spybot Search & Destroy. I'd had this on my computer initially; it stopped working a while back, so I uninstalled it, but never got around to the reinstall. A few hours ago, the reinstall was initiated and completed with no hassle or issue. Ran it immediately, and it found 113 "problems," though all in the form of suspect cookies. I don't see how cookies would be slowing my computer down and making it restart (maybe part of that Not Geek Enough thing), but I let S&D fix them anyway, for good measure. Ran it again immediately out of curiousity: 90 problems; fixed. Before running it a third time, I thought maybe I should see about fixing my antivirus software, too.
Along with S&D, my computer came to me with AVG Free antivirus. Some weeks ago (before? after? who knows?) it would not come out of an error state. It kept telling me that my virus database was out of date. Though when I would try to make it update, it then told me there are no updates available. Some quick poking on the internet tells me that v. 8.5 is current, whereas I'm running 7.5 (oops). Maybe that's had something to do with my problems. Download upgrade, install... Nope.
It turns out that the version of Windows that I'm running is apparently incompatible with AVG 8.5 -- guess that was the problem, eh? But look how convenient: here's links to how to upgrade to the appropriate service pack to solve the problem. Download update... Nope.
I can't access the Windows upgrade from Firefox, only from Internet Explorer (bastards). Luckily (?), I have IE on my computer already. At least that's one download I didn't have to deal with :P
Now can I upgrade Windows? Nope.
(at this point, I start to go slightly hysterical at the combination of humour and frustration)
Oh look! Windows Update needs to be updated! (WTF?)
Done, and done.
Now I need to restart for those upgrades to take effect. Let's see what else I need to update once I'm back.
Silly me thinking I could take care of this in an afternoon (proof that I'm Not Geek Enough, perhaps?). I just fake it well: since I can manage to muddle my way through all this crap, but have no idea what ANY of what I'm doing actually means :P