It's 4:58 am. I've been up all night killing a virus on my wife's PC. You know the drill: safe mode start, download anti-virus updates, run scan, wait, wait,wait. You may know the drill, but I don't. As a long-time Mac user, I rarely encounter viruses. And "the drill" didn't go as diagrammed, either. Killing this virus (which was a tenacious system-spoiler masquerading as security software) required some tagental thinking and lots of gerrymandering, including home manufacture of an ethernet crossover cable (tedious),and of course, plenty of watching status bars creep along.
It had been quite some time since I'd wrestled with a computer problem.While this could be attributed to improved technology, I strongly suspect it was just a streak of good luck. And it gave me a bit more empathy for my students, who assert computer problems on an ongoing basis (especially the night before a project is due). While I still believe that good backup habits can eliminate the worst effects of nearly all computer "disasters", the unexpected, unavoidable, and unfortunate are going to happen sometimes. It's the price we pay for all our hi-tech conveniences.
I think it's fortuitous that I had to spend a sleepless night solving a computer problem. As a result, I'm likely to be a bit more careful and vigilant in the future. Mac users tend to become smug. Being humbled occasionally is probably a good thing.
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