This Bodes Ill

[robin_d_laws]

So I reboot the computer and what should I hear issuing from my speakers but a lengthy audio ad for an acne treatment? Yegads! No browser, no player, no evident process running, ergo no way to stop the freaking thing, except to reboot yet again. It didn’t reappear after that, but needless to say I am thoroughly steamed. Time to update my ad-ware

Comments

[ffutures]

Don't rule out other possibilities. I had a recurring problem with unwanted sounds for some time that turned out to be my cheap amplified speakers picking up radio transmissions from the taxi company down the street. Does sound more like a software thing though.

[david_chunn]

It's crap like that that made me switch to a Mac. My computer absolutely is an extension of myself. As I write my novels I backup frequently, but not everyday. And having to reboot and deal with viruses and all that crap is just a distraction. I want nothing in between me and the novel. I no longer have virus-checking and no longer have to run ad-aware on a weekly basis. I haven't been bombarded like that in seven months, and I rather enjoy that. I was so loyal to Windows until the point where I realized Mac OS X was nothing like previous mac systems and that Win was betraying me. (I lost a chapter of work due to my old computer and spent three days having to format c and reload windows for a problem that never was clear, three days I could have been working.)

[jcfiala]

It's kind of wierd. When I was a young boy, comptuers were a good and bright thing.

When I arrived in college, my first class in programming featured a virus - the original version of the programming IDE that was handed out to all of us was infected. Much red faces resulted.

Now adays viruses are really, lets face it, somewhat blah. Everyone runs virus-blockers that are more or less effective at keeping the things at bay. The real problem are rogue programs, slipping into our machines and making them advertise or hack for people who did not pay for them. Stealing our precious toys.

I really hate malware.

[notthebuddha]

I'll second McLuhan. What do my multiple PCs represent? MPD?

[mylescorcoran]

You're not alone:

"Internet features in modern paranoid delusions"

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/25/internet_features_in.html

And if the computer is an extension of the self, what does it mean when you switch hardware? OSes?