Skip to main content

Computer Virus Woes

So, this past weekend I was looking at funny pictures. I highly recommend the site PetsWhoWantToKillThemselves.Com. It had me giggling all day as I kept thinking about some of the photos on there.

At any rate, over the course of the day, I determined that there was some sort of virus, malware, or rootkit installed and my AVG Anti-Virus started going haywire. Wanting to take no chances, I quickly backed up my files and decided it was time to wipe out my computer.

Of course, it is always tempting to try to salvage it to avoid doing crazy reinstalls of everything, but I decided that in this case it would be better to just go for broke. Being an IT guy, I was able to do it myself, but it totally took the whole day, even though there was no real issue or crisis to it. It just takes a really long time. And one thing it made me realize is that I should get back into doing that more often because the money was decent compared to the amount of effort it took.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

On Buying a Lifestyle...with a Fixed-Rate Mortgage

Despite all of the back and forth about sub-prime mortgages and the housing bubble, I am feeling just fine. The reason is that when purchasing, I followed some old advice: Don't expect to flip. In general, I've been told by many people that you shouldn't buy a home unless you plan to hold on to it for 7 years or longer. If the market does well and you decide to sell, fine. But if you want to be sure not to lose money, don't buy something that you only want for a year or two. I've been in my current location for more than 3 years. I like it. And I have no intention of leaving in the short or medium term. It seems to me, that real estate, like any asset class, has its ups and downs. But as a practical point, I don't look at my home as an asset per se. Rather, I consider it to be a fixed expense that I need to survive, much like food and water. Therefore, as long as the payment is reasonable and it functions to keep me warm and sheltered and comfortable, that is a...

Do Better With Your Time

Recently, I've been extremely busy with some work commitments. The interesting thing for me is that this increased work activity has really helped crystallize some of my feelings with regard to time. And these ideas are a critical part about my view on personal finance. I'm curious to know if others feel similarly. Time is money. That is, Time, in some way, contains energy. Money, is also energy. In the act of working, I am able to compound and increase the amount of money that I have. I am exchanging my time and effort and thought which are components of my work, for the productivity that I produce. And this production gets me money from my employer. However, the first dollars that I make each day, week, or month are the most valuable. Then the ones that I make at the end are the most valuable. (Forget about taxes for a minute.) The reason is, the first ones help me have a place to live and food to eat. And the last ones are the ones that I can use to really improve my life lo...

Quantitative Easing Round Three

It appears that we have another round of Quantitative Easing in the works. If you've been listening to any of the money shows over the past several months, you'll note that most of the major players were not anticipating that! However, a recent update from the Bernanke indicates that the possibility of Quantitative Easing Round Three (QE3) is a very real one....but not in the near term. This article from International Business Times does a good job of explaining the thought process around a possible QE3 and why the timing is not likely to be now. All that being said, the CPI is up and the price of energy is skyrocketing. It is not an easy thing for people to get to work in cars that are not efficient. However, that is not stopping people from certain segments of the political/media spectrum from announcing dirty secrets about Clean Energy . I find that Google News has a great mix of stories from all over and this story -- the increased energy costs is certainly one to watc...