First, thanks to everybody who offered suggestions about my virus/trojan addled machine. I tried most of them, all without any luck. At some point yesterday I realized that in trying to knock out the virus/trojan, I was spending more time than I would simply scraping and reinstalling.

I rethought what I was trying to do - this is a secondary machine, and I keep it as a windows machine because I need a native windows box to access the Sony ebook store - their crappy software won’t work in my Virtualbox Windows install on my main laptop. So I dragged the stuff I wanted to keep over to the linux partition, then scraped and reinstalled XP on the Windows partition. I then installed all the latest updates, added the latest version of Comodo Firewall, AVG antivirus, and Malwarebytes. I’ve got a clean install of Quicken on the machine, an up-to-date install of Firefox, my fave windows solitaire program, and that’s about it.

At one point, I gave some thought to simply going out and buying a new desktop machine - I was sorta interested in one of the Sony all-in-ones with a Blu-Ray player included - it could function as both a computer and a tv and blu-ray viewer in my small home office. But then I thought, no, we’re in the New Depression, and I want to do my part to make sure the Lightbringer has a tough time of it - so no new thousand buck Sony gadget. Instead, I bought another gig of ram for the current machine, and let it go at that. Well, except for the wireless HP all-in-one Officejet I got at Costco for $140 bucks, and boy, is it ever a gem. I continue to be amazed (though I shouldn’t be) at the way Moore’s Law has changed everything about the computers and ancilliary equipment I have used since 1965.

Stripped of all the cruft, and even with AVG on full tilt and checking every file/action, the clean install of XP runs fairly decently on this P4 2.8 gig machine with 2 gig of ram.

Next, I’m going to install the latest Ubuntu onto the linux partition on the machine. Just because I hate the notion of having a machine entirely dedicated to Windows. Besides, as Martinra points out, having a linux install on a machine is of great value when the inevitable Microsoft farkup occurs.

Anyway, thanks again for making my Christmas season a bit more merry. I managed to throw my back out hauling crap out of Costco for Xmas yesterday (what a madhouse), and so today I’m indulging myself with a witch’s brew of ibuprofen, muscle relaxers, esoteric herbs, and, well, scotch. Good scotch. Very good scotch.

The haze is pleasantly enjoyable. I’ll be looking in here off and on, (and for those who enjoy watching me post half-bombed, this is your chance….) but before the fog descends entirely (both figuratives and literally - this is San Francisco, after all) I want to wish you all a merry Christmas, or just a wonderful holiday season, if you prefer. I especially extend my fondest wishes to all the DP editors, who have done yeoman’s work these past couple of very rough years. Thank you and bless you!

Okay, that’s it, except…I may post some Christmas dog pics later. What’s a holiday without pet pics?

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