2,205,774

That's: 2,205,774

That is the number of files scanned by my security software this morning. I find it a wee bit ridiculous. I am really not sure how I could amass over two million files, but it is a HUGE PAIN to scan all of them for viruses, bad bytes, Trojan horses, and whatnot that hackers could have snuck onto my computer via a download or how ever hackers are getting stuff on your computer these days - they (me - OK, I call myself a hacker ... but I am the 'Glinda' of hackers (the good witch in OZ). I am a good hacker - want to know things, how to do things, how things can be done to me, but would never hurt someones computer - I'm sure somewhere in my Computer Science degree obtaining I took an oath to 'do no harm' ... Anyway since I refuse to watch TV or play computer games - I have to fill my time somehow, now don't I?) ... as I was saying hackers are very clever and tricky - and the worst: adaptable.

I do feel I need computer security, feel naked without it when I am on the Internet - all those hackers out there just pinging your IP address to see if maybe they can surf their way in on something you are doing - and generally that something is something stupid. I have a web site and I can watch and see how many 'pings' I get (lots from little automatons that some hacker somewhere wrote to do nothing but go wiggle door knobs and see if it finds one unlocked - 24/7 never stopping, never sleeping, just trying to sneak in ...) and it is scary to watch what is out there stalking you! Do I sound paranoid? I am - there is a lot of scary people out there that seem to enjoy wreaking havoc and destruction and people make it so easy for them ... So I have computer security software and I hate it.

None of the big companies does a very good job at, when you decide you hate their stuff and remove it prior to purchasing another companies and installing it - fully removes itself from your computer. It retains its hooks in your registry and makes me more crazy than anything I do on my computer - fighting old, antiquated computer security software warring with the new computer security software ... but again - don't dare 'leave home' without it.

Back again to my two million files. When a girl gets a pimped out computer with over 2 terabytes of disk space and that girl is me - someone who takes a ton of photos and uses graphics (and is addicted to buying more graphics) and is heavily into editing very large .jpg, .raw, etc files - she is going to be called a 'disk space hog' and that is putting it nicely. Now when said girl decides to be smart and back her stuff up so that should her computer die from some Trojan horse my stupid computer security software slept through it sneaking in and killing my pimped out best buddy - my data will be safely intact - off on a big separate drive and all I would then need to do then is:

a) stop swearing, b) buy a new computer and c) download all my data and I would be back in business. So, I guess you get to two million files when you take a very large number of files and back them up two or three times.

Still - my weekly virus scan takes all Sunday night and half of Monday morning to complete - a pain.

Why am I writing a novel on annoying computer security software (Norton, Mcaffee, etc)? Because I am bored, and decided to remind anyone out there that values all those photos, letters, documents, scans, (your blog can be written to a file and stored off line), etc on their computer - I hope you have some sort of security, but that won't save you - backups are the way you will have your data forever....

Lecture Over