Hooray for PC Hell and Quantcast
By druneric
I think . . .
I'm so skeptical of so much on the Internet these days , , , and so should you, as says Stephen Colbert. Especially for those of us who are not computer geeks (and I mean that in the nicest way. Some of my best friends are computer geeks.), it's difficult to know in advance the kind of mess to which an Idiot is apt to fall prey. I Google everything, and sometimes that isn't even good enough.
While reading someone's hub I noticed one of those little ads to the side intended to lure the reader to a site called Webfetti. I'm telling you, I'm even cautious these days about clicking onto ad sites, but I bit because it sounded cute and harmless. The Webfetti webpage says you can decorate and icon and avatar your blog page to death with all kinds of cute stuff FOR FREE!! I was tempted, but before biting I Googled Webfetti. After scrolling down past all the Webfetti ads I reached a hit that said, "How to uninstall Webfetti from your PC," posted by pchell.com. The mere title of this Internet company filled me with glee. PC Hell! I was instantly infatuated. I went to the site and it was full of useful information on getting rid of "free" stuff that slows your PC down to the point where, unless you absolutely have all the time in the world to spare, you'd be daft to accept the free download. When I finished wiping my misty eyes at having been rescued by my new PC Hell boyfriend, I haughtily ran a Google background check on him. Hey, a non-geek girl has to look out for her best interests. This search led me to the Quantcast detective agency. Quantcast gave me hope that PC Hell was an okay guy--not a masher or predator.
Then I did a HubPages search through my new Quantcast detective agency and they made HubPages sound so good I became suspicious and paranoid. I suddenly wanted them to investigate Google-dad, but what if they told me he is indeed a good, harmless and benevolent creature? Could I believe them?? Or worse; what if they told me Google-dad was having an affair with Fox.com? Well, at least with the negative comment I could once again trust my detective agency. Fear began crawling across my mouse-holding fingers. I wanted to run back to Google-dad and whine, "Have you been telling me the truth all these years or am I going to find out that half of the stuff you told me was just stuff to make me feel good--like the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny?!" And then I remembered! HubPages is connected to Google-dad. OMG! What's a nice non-geek girl to do?
It's every non-geek for him/herself these days. I'll just have to make sure I carry plenty of virus protection at all times--and so should you.
Geek Love
Comments
Wow. I didn't know that about Macs. I guess it's not really paranoia, but I've become really concerned lately about the thousands of internet transactions I've made where I've used my SS# and bank account. Oh well. At the moment I have nothing to steal, but . . . I don't know--it's scary.
D--
Nice hub and sooooooo true. I am lucky to have my "geeky" husband who looks out for our computers. How he knows what he knows I'll never know, but he has saved us many times from invaders and criminals.
Hope I never have to face the "crap" without him. I'm too connected to my computer to give it up.
Thanks for warning.
--M
Me too! I admitted to someone the other day that I spend at least 4 hours a day at my desk. Fortunately we've got at least 2 geeks in our family, but I'm still a little pananoid, no matter what. I mean, there seems to be a neverending supply of "bad geeks" out there inventing new worms and viruses. It's apparently like a game to some of them. Creeps!
OK...my dad was a government physicist I am about as far away from that as I can get I do not have mechanical/technical/Geek ability...it's just not in my make up and now I'm a little frighten, I have top notch virus protection, same with add ware etc etc...now I feel like I'm lying naked in cyder space, and innocently saying take me. do me, use me... rape my inner most self. And I mean that in the most metaphorical way possible. But now I am more ticked off than ever about what little I already knew. Because I thought this was a safe place.
Sandman--I shall try to comfort you; my geek nephew-in-law to be assured me that it is still difficult, even for the best hackers, to steal information. Not impossible, but highly unlikely because of encryption codes. So we're as safe as we can be, usually. He did agree that Macs are harder to hack. Is that better?
goldentoad 3 years ago
That's why I only come and reads hubs I know are safe. Its all one great big machine and the viruses are all over infecting and I don't understand how PCs get them but Macs don't. I click on nothing, just to stay safe.