The scene: 9:30am, Sunday morning. Our hero got to sleep past two am due to annoying kittens and a large indian food dinner. The phone rings.
Alan: Hello?
Virus Infected Ex-Coworker: Hi there, did I wake you?
A: Not really… [yes]
VIEC: I have a virus on my computer and I was hoping that you could help me.
A: A virus? What is it doing? [<flashing back on a conversation with Dana about windows security a couple of days ago>]
VIEC: Well, it won’t let me run Norton.
A: Well, I was going to be coming into town this afternoon anyway…
VIEC: We’re going out this afternoon, how about this evening?
A: Uh huh…. well, give me a call then. [<sarcasm>… as it is my duty to be at your beck & call</sarcasm>]
VIEC: So I’ll give you a call at this number?
A: Uh huh.
click
So Dana, this is the sort of “real world” user I was telling you about. I’ve told her to run a virus scanner, periodically use ad-aware, use Thunderbird and Firefox, not to click on pop ups, attachments, to use kazaa lite instead of kazaa, etc etc, but this stuff still happens. That’s the sort of user that MS should have been and should be targetting to make more secure. Though they do keep people like me with a bit of extra income on the side I guess.
Anyway, so just over 7 hours of sleep on a weekend is good right? Right?