Tuesday, November 10, 2009

When Technology Goes Rogue

Last night we came home from our road trip (more on that tomorrow) to find a friend's email informing us that our computer - apparently feeling angry and betrayed by my absence all day - was sending out spam messages to everyone in my address book. Larry spent the next 3 hours (and let me tell you, after driving over 7 hours in one day, this was not what he had in mind for his evening activities) doing whatever magically tech-y things he does to erase viruses and build firewalls and generally batten down the hatches on both our computers.

[Ladies! If your husbands are ever similarly engaged, let me advise you - it is not the best time to helpfully mention that the clothes dryer is drying too slowly and maybe it's time to clean out the dryer vent pipe again. His response, as I can sadly attest, will not be a positive one.]

This morning I sat down to send an email to all my contacts explaining that actually, no, I was not trying to introduce them to an "international trade company" that sells "many kinds of famous electornic (sic) products." And I certainly don't think it is "really a good opportunity for us to do shopping." But, as it turns out, I never had a chance.

My contact list was gone.

Let that sink in for a few minutes. E-mails, street addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, anniversaries - all vanished. Evaporated into thin ethernet, as it were...

Sometimes things really are as bad as they look. But, as always, we've got a bright side - that Christmas cards mailing thing? This year, it seems, I'm off the hook.

13 comments:

  1. So the sonic boom of that head exploding the other day was yours or Larry's, eh?
    Technology. Great stuff.

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  2. Good for you. Look on the bright side of this thing because the dark side is depressing and will only end up eating away at you.
    You wanted to do a little cleaning out of the ol' address book anyway....didn't you? Anyway...what comes around goes around. Carma is a wonderful thing.

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  3. I'm not sure if I am relieved or not that I did not receive such a mailing from you!
    I'm looking forward to tomorrow's post. In the meantime, I'm living off cookies & tea -- the only 2 things I appear to be able to stomach right now.

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  4. You're scaring me. I really need to backup and cleanup my computer. I think your husband also deserves some awesome prize for the last 48 hours or so.

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  5. Time Warner said they were going to send me a Power Boost to speed up my computer. What they neglected to mention was that it would wipe out my entire filing cabinet of important saved documents.

    I can't believe the virus stole your contact list? I didn't even know that could happen.

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  6. I lost my address book in a move five years ago - Saved me several hundred dollars in cards, stamps and photos at Christmas.

    It's a blessing.

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  7. Oh no! Great silver lining, though.

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  8. Oh, I'm so sorry. My Mac crashed in April and I lost everything...including 5 years worth of pictures. I feel your pain. Since then, I've purchased a external hard drive and backup EVERYDAY! A very hard lesson to learn.

    Hugs,
    Kari

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  9. Well, since obviously my address is the one you're most dying to get back, I'd better quick go leave a comment so you'll have it.

    Seriously--I'm so sorry. And as a Sidekick owner, I feel your pain, although I only lost some of mine. If I reboot my phone like Microsquish keeps telling me to, I'll lose the rest of them...

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  10. In my house I'm the one fixing the computer, while JMac hovers over my shoulder asking stupid questions like "hey is there a program for this? how did this happen? how soon will you be done?" He's lucky he is still breathing after these instances.

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