How Not to Ruin Your Computer

How Not to Ruin Your Computer

Since 2002, I've been writing tips on how to make computers work for us, how to secure your data and how to enable today's technologies in a safe and cost-effective manner. This month, the article will be different. This month, I will present false information in a humorous light and hope you realize the opposite is wise. This month's topic: how to ruin your computer and incur high support costs.

1. You don't need a firewall to hide your computer(s) from the Internet. ATT/SBC's offshored Level One tech support tells home customers they cannot support DSL connectivity if the computer is not connected directly to the DSL modem. Tech support tells people to plug the computer directly into the DSL modem. If a firewall is installed, unplug the firewall. A firewall cannot work, according to ATT/SBC's offshored tech support.

2. The Internet is a good babysitter. Kids are very eager to learn. They visit web sites with little regard to safety or security. They happily click "Yes" or "Accept" to a popup invitation for new software or access to a new site. This opens the door to viruses and spyware that corrupt Windows' ability to function and mandate a workstation rebuild. For more than 2/3 of the home-based computers I've rebuilt, kids had unsupervised Internet access.

3. Internet chat rooms are where honest and respectable people congregate. These chat rooms allow participants to create online profiles. They don't verify identities. Some pedophiles create online profiles that portray innocent web neophytes, only to discover they are really online predators. Who we think is Sandy, a 13-year-old girl from El Dorado Hills may actually be Bill, a 55-year-old beer-drinking slob from East Palo Alto looking for 13-year-old girls in a prosperous area.

4. Give the computer a coke and a smile. Ah yes, this brings up the old question: why do people eat and drink at their computers? Crumbs accumulate in keyboards and force keys to stick or stop working. Liquids create shorts. No matter the liquid, gracefully shut down the computer immediately and unplug the power cords. If the liquid is simply water, tea or coffee, you can usually mop up the spillage with a paper towel and wait a few hours for everything to dry. If the liquid is pop (being from the Midwest, I call it "pop" and everybody else from everywhere else calls it "soda"), replace the part. Pop has additional chemicals that can decay PC components and render them unusable. Pop is extremely destructive to both teeth and computer parts.

I refer this to your wisdom!