Byte by Bite

Mexican virus; Vista, leave laptop on

by Marv Dealy

Sometimes one of you faithful readers comes up with a particularly good laugh, and today’s comes from Mike Ayala, who runs the local California Highway Patrol out of Jamestown and drives a Crown Vic decked out like Darth Vader’s “get me to the hanger now” car. Mike writes that you’ll know you have the Mexican virus on your computer when the following appears on your screen:

“Buenos dias!”

“Jou hab yust receibed a Mehican byrus. Sin we no habe so good techniologically in Mehico, dees is a manual byrus.”

“Please delete all jour files and send these email to eberyone jou know.”

“Tank jou for halping me. Julio Manuel Jose Rodriguez-Garcia, Mehican hacker”

Thanks for that Mike, and I kept your email saying I could reprint that.

Another light note comes with a variety of error messages that supposedly can show up on your computer screen when you’re using the Japanese version of Windows. Thanks to my brother Tom for passing these along. (His wife Jeannine works for Microsoft on the campus, loves them and should be given a raise.)

The website you seek cannot be located, but countless more exist.

Your file was so big. It might be very useful. But now it is gone.

You step in the stream, but the water has moved on. This page is not here.

Windows crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams.

Vista

Now here’s something really frightening—Vista, Microsoft’s latest update to the Windows operating system—is inching closer to a shelf near you and already I’m getting emails asking “should I upgrade?”

The quick answer is not right away. What’s the rush? If you just have to have the newest from Microsoft, however, you’d better make sure your computer is capable of surviving the upgrade. You can run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor beta 1 (free from Microsoft) which will look around your computer and tell you what, if anything, needs to be upgraded before trying to load and run Vista. Download the Advisor free at Download.com among others.

I downloaded and installed the Advisor after not reading the License Agreement but clicking the radio button that said I did. The program installed fairly quickly and without problems, and next thing I knew the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor appeared on my computer screen.

It didn’t take long to scan my computer to see if it was ready for Vista to be installed, but I didn’t know that as there was a hidden “next” button at the bottom of the screen, which I had to scroll down to find. Meanwhile, the text at the top of the page appeared to claim that my system was still being scanned, so I sat staring stupidly at the monitor for a few minutes.

The Advisor came to the conclusion that I (gasp) didn’t have enough system memory (RAM). It wants a minimum of 512MB but 1GB is strongly recommended, so you get the hint here. Advisor also said I had to upgrade my hard drive controller.

Combined with my reluctance to be the guinea pig for the folks in Redmond, Washington I’ll pass on upgrading to Vista any time soon, considering I’ll also face buying more RAM for my trusty, yet aging Toshiba Satellite laptop. It does what I need just fine the way it is, and rarely do I scream at the blue screen of death. Which doesn’t negate the fact that Jeannie Tasker is right—I do lust after a MacBook Pro laptop.

However, there is no reasonable reason for me to upgrade the Satellite so that it will run on Vista, considering that I’d have to purchase the Vista upgrade, find the memory upgrade if it’s available for this particular model, and likely install a new hard drive with an acceptable controller, transfer all the data from the old to the new hard drive, and reinstall all programs I need, including some probable upgrades to those (assuming they are available).

If you’re looking at a somewhat older computer and considering Vista, I’ll wager you’re going to be approaching the same kind of decisions. Which makes it easier to wait until 2007 when Vista will probably be installed on new computers, anyway. Watch for after Holidays sales this year; ought to be some bargains on “old” Windows XP machines.

Leaving your laptop on at night

Reader Liz Craddock writes “I too love your column, even the ones that are way over my head. You talked about keeping a laptop cool, and I realized I’d found a use for this rack that came in my microwave oven.”

You’ll be pleased to know Liz that item also caught my Dad’s eye—he sent me pictures of him propping up a laptop with a toaster rack. But wait, there’s more—he had to go to the Mart*Mart to buy the rack, not having one that Mom would spare. I should have added that if you intend to make any kind of open faced sandwich in the toaster oven, you need to replace the rack before doing so.

Liz continues “This reminded me that I could ask you my nightly question. Having just moved into my tiny house, I gave away my “real” computer and bought a Toshiba instead, and I don’t know how to treat it. Should I disconnect it when I leave it for the night, or just turn if off and leave it sitting there with its little blue lights on?”

First, a Toshiba is a real computer, Liz. I use one every day. I’m guessing here that you replaced a large desktop/monitor computer with a Toshiba laptop in your tiny house. I leave my laptop on all the time, except when it’s hibernating. It performs system maintenance and backup functions at night, as well as scanning for malware and the like. If you disconnect the power while your laptop is running eventually the batteries will run out and the laptop will shut itself off. I’m not sure this would be a good habit to get into every night.

I have the monitor on my laptop set to shut off after a fairly short time of the computer not being used, to give the screen as much of a life as possible, but I think the wear and tear of turning on and off a computer outweighs the small electrical savings that might be realized for every day computer users. That doesn’t apply to big computer monitors, of course. And, if you’re off to the Riveria Liz, leave the computer at home, and turn it off when you’re gone that long.