I am requesting that all of you that I often correspond with drop a personal note to me and include your current email address. Please don't post it here, just send the note to:
Steve@ExoticRainforest.com
If you have either of the other addresses I sometimes use please don't use them at this time. I am especially asking that all of the botanists and scientists as well as others on this group that I often ask questions of send me their addresses. Here's why:
For some weeks my computer has been crashing. I have a good anti-virus program and subscribe to a company that fixes any problem with the computer via the internet. I've always found their service to be great..............costly, but excellent. Two days before we went to Fort Worth for the MidAmerica Chapter meeting on October 30 the computer totally shut down I called the company and they were able to fix the problem but the next day it was back with a vengeance. They ended up working on it for 9 hours and could find nothing wrong. The total system began to cascade downwards starting with a disabled keyboard. Dr. Croat was here at the time and heard my moaning and groaning! That was due to the fact I had just worked for days to prepare a new AV program to give at that meeting. Obviously, I had to give another one that was less suitable for the meeting. By the way, I now have that one back!
Since they could find nothing wrong, the company that does the online repair suggested I take the computer to the shop since it was their opinion there was something wrong internally. They suspected a number of things including a bad keyboard but after 5 days in the shop found nothing wrong! Nothing!
What they did find was three viruses and one was the major cause of the problem. I talked with Steve Marak who is a programmer as well as the operator of Aroid l at the meeting in Fort Worth and he told me about a new virus that can hide from almost all anti-virus programs and loads right at startup. Interestingly, my computer had been slow to load up for some weeks.
As a result, the service company had to totally wipe my hard drive to get rid of the problems. I have the computer back and it is working fine now but I spent all day reloading programs and still have some to go. I have all my files backed up on Carbonite and they are now downloading everything back on the computer but it will take another 44 hours to get them all installed again! That after 5 hours today!
I just want to make sure I have all the email addresses I need to stay in touch in my many friends in the aroid world as well as work on the projects for my website. If you will be kind enough to send me a short personal email with your name and address I will appreciate the help a great deal!
Other than that, if you start experiencing your computer beginning to be slow at startup or the keyboard does not want to work, GET HELP!
Thanks!
Steve Lucas
www.ExoticRainforest.com _______________________________________________
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