computer lessons

All these years of using computers have taught me a lot. And most of
my lessons were costly.

1. Don't delete a compressed drive. When my computer was
still a Pentium MMX, I compressed the drive to save space. But I
learned later that compressed drive meant my computer would be slower.
I deleted the compressed drive when I couldn't uncompress it. Guess
what? I had to spend for the reinstallation of softwares :)

2. Beware of downloading and opening exe files. It could be
a virus. One time, an officemate downloaded an application that has
the Mcdonald's logo. We opened it. It showed Arabic characters.
Next time, a woman's face with very red eyes appeared. My boss and
other officemates were shocked to hear my screams :) Me with my fear
of ghosts, one can't expect nothing less :) I forgot which anti-virus
software I had in my computer then – McAffee or Norton. Whatever, it
couldn't kill the virus. So my officemate who downloaded that file
paid for an online removal of the virus.

3. Back-up or die. When I was on a study leave, other
people used my office computer. Another time, an officemate
accidentally downloaded a virus. On the first account, I lost 3 years
of files. It should have been six years but others were recovered.
In the second instance, I only lost two weeks. Still, that's two
weeks of data.

4. Return your laptop to its safe place. Believe me, it's
so expensive to repair a busted laptop.