A reflection on delaying instant gratification

The many gigs I overlooked

As I was walking around Manchester last night, I realised that Take That was playing at the AO Arena for 4 nights, having been moved from the unfortunate poor launching of the Coop Live venue in Manchester.

When they launched in 1990, I thought the 5 boys were some of the sexiest boys on the scene, I appreciated them more for their ability to dance and bringing such great energy to their performances. In those early years, they played the gay clubs in London and elsewhere. Indeed, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, and Anastacia among others have played at these venues too. Gays were probably their first big fans.

I guess I was not too keen on attending overly crowded venues. The music in Heaven and Bang was also too loud, you could hear and feel your eardrums beating, and it became unbearable after a while.

Fixing the issues happily

However, what came to mind was the memory of how I refused monetary reward for helping fix computer problems which even led to greater appreciation and gifts. In Nigeria, as I worked for IT Systems on the ground floor, there were occasions when Deji Sasegbon Publishers upstairs who were in the race to publish the Nigerian Supreme Court Cases would have an issue and ask for an engineer to visit and resolve it.

I would go up, fix the problem in 5 minutes and be on my way when Deji or D-Shash, as he was known to all, would dip in his pocket to give me 50 Naira, which was a quarter of my salary, I refused the offer, waving it aside that the issue was hardly worth anything. This happened a few times and I think he took my gesture to heart.

I left IT Systems to go into self-employment that everyone around me thought was crazy, yet, I was comfortably earning 10 times my salary from IT Systems, just teaching people about computers and even so, desktop publishing.

The result of delaying gratification

Before long, word got around about this desktop publishing whiz kid and Deji invited me for a conversation about being a desktop publishing consultant for his firm. His offer was broad and generous, not offering employment, flexible hours, attending a few days in the week, guiding, and teaching his team, whilst taking on some projects. The remuneration was a stipend and my ticket to the UK was paid for, whenever I was ready to travel.

The stint got me a few other jobs along with a directorial partnership with a legal firm that veered into desktop publishing from traditional printing, we called the outfit NextStep Limited, and I had 30% of the firm. I made my first visit to the UK in a while under the auspices of our firm to acquire equipment and software for our fledgling firm. Sadly, our venture did not last because my partner was not accustomed to the personality and confidence of a self-assured young man. I got on better with Deji, in all respects.

After returning from my business trip to the UK, I began to plan for my return as I saw opportunities to thrive and succeed, despite the odds and the impressions others had for my lowly academic qualifications despite my rather advanced computing skills.

Free tickets as great reward

In any case, I found myself fixing what in my view were minor computing problems for friends and acquaintances, never taking money from them because I felt those issues were insignificant. This laid up store for other rewards. Two tickets for Micheal Jackson, Earth Wind & Fire, and Bryan Adams, amongst many along with tickets for innumerable West End shows, none of which I could normally afford, but I would receive as gratitude for my help.

Then there were gifts and presents, even offers to spend as long as I wanted at villas by the sea that I never took up because I did not appreciate the value of such gestures. I know better now. It made me reflect on how delaying instant gratification does lay in a store a greater reward from the appreciative and many never forgot to extend that generosity at any opportunity they found to so do.

Life matters more than work

Invariably, while money does matter, it is not everything. It informs why I have preferred working in Europe where we have workers’ rights baked into any contractual agreement including the right to holiday and much more. I appreciate that Americans might earn a lot more for the kind of work I do, but none of them can take up to 10 weeks off a year and still have enough for the enjoyment of a work-life balance that emphasises life helping work be more productive.

Building goodwill helps networking and references that make for the essential connections in work and life. I am thankful that what I have gained from many of these relationships has been worth more than money can buy. Cultivate relationships over remuneration, and the rewards will always follow.

Computers are not infallible, that is a fact

The choices I have made

I sometimes hope that in my professional capacity, I have done my best to help users and customers experience the best service and utility of information technology services and products I design or manage, there is a sense of professional pride in what I do.

Then, there are choices I would make about who to work for, and where I want to work, and when it appears, that I am contributing nothing useful to the situation, I do not wait around too long before I move on. I seek to improve systems where possible, where unappreciated, it is unnecessary to suffer ignominy when opportunities abound elsewhere.

I could not see myself working for Shell, the oil company in the 1990s as it was embroiled in activities inimical to Nigeria despite being offered lucrative contracts, instead, I found myself pioneering activities at British Petroleum. I can think of many other things and companies where I worked too.

In the system that concerned

Recently, I was working for a professional services company that had me posted to help manage Post Office infrastructure. I was aware of a long-running issue with computer errors that left postmasters and sub-postmasters being accused, prosecuted, and sent to jail for fraud. However, I was unaware of how serious the issue was until I listened to the BBC podcast The Great Post Office Trial.

Little did I know what a travesty and injustice the whole situation was, I was sickened by it all. To now learn that all the people charged have had their names cleared is gratifying, but it cannot compensate for how they were treated and the suffering they endured. [BBC News: Convicted Post Office workers have names cleared]

Leadership in the hock

Reverend Paula Vennells was the CEO of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019, when they pursued their staff so aggressively using the weight of the establishment over hapless postmasters and sub-postmasters to persecute, prosecute, and destroy literally blameless people who were told their individual instances of fraud and false accounting were unique and that nothing was wrong with the Post Office computer system known as Horizon. [The Guardian: Post Office’s aggressive pursuit of staff casts shadow over ex-boss’s tenure]

Even as the Post Office became aware of issues with Horizon, the establishment stood its ground about the infallibility of the computer system and used the preponderance of the premise to take people down. The CEO was unflinching and unquestioning of the situation with the view to protect the image and the brand of the Post Office admitting no liability or fault.

It took the concerted efforts of postmasters and sub-postmasters banding together, a journalist who kept on and the case, and finding support from members of Parliament and then the courts before the Post Office side of things began to unravel. The Post Office only beginning to settle more broadly with them when the Reverend had moved on to another bigger role in government and the NHS along with bagging a CBE for services to the Post Office and charity.

Accountability must matter

The scathing and excoriating opinions of the courts and the MPs involved made her position having moved on from the Post Office untenable that she has had to give up some of the high-profile positions. I do not think this would be the end of the story as justice has not been duly served and compensation for the loss of too much has not been adequate. The need for a more thorough accountability is more than essential.

Then I think about the months I worked within a team to improve the Post Office services on the Horizon counters, the times I visited locations to chat to postmasters about their experiences, the usability, and the testing of improved and enhanced products, by which time many of the issues had apparently been dealt with and I hope I did not give cover to error-prone situations that criminalised people who should have received more support than they were accorded. I even worked on improving the bar scanning system.

Some lessons to learn

In our little positions, we tried to make things better, but if there is any lesson to be learnt from this, it is that organisations should act truthfully and with integrity, that leaders should be more questioning and interested in the systems within their organisations where lives can be upturned, that they should not just listen to their reports afraid of admitting mistakes in their implementations, that computers are not infallible, that maintaining a brand at the expense of people will eventually destroy everyone involved and that this whole debacle was a disgusting disgrace.

I cannot have done this matter any justice; I am just distressed that I was remotely within a setup that impacted lives without any humanity. My sense of British fair play has been shaken to the core. Your listening to the BBC podcast The Great Post Office Trial will give a good idea of what went down. Prepare to be shocked.

Humbled by one's failings

Quick to the bad draw

You cannot be in the 33^rd year of a career without having stories to tell, not so much of your genius but more of your stupidity. I guess my first booboo was when I was a computer technician with an outfit called IT Systems. We had a few computer maintenance contracts with some big firms like International Merchant Bank, Arthur Andersen when it still existed and Elf Nigeria, the oil company amongst others.

It was early in 1989, I was out on a maintenance run at Elf Nigeria when I used a disk that was supposed to do a disk drive head clean, the disk was given to me by a friend working in a desktop publishing outfit and we lived together, it just looked like an efficient tool for the job besides getting the dust off the innards of the computer case.

These foolish things we do

That disk introduced the Ping-Pong virus into Elf Nigeria and with it, all their computers became unusable with a green dot bouncing off the sides of the computer screen, it was not long before the fingers were pointed in my direction and a crack team spent the weekend reformatting and restoring data, I did not get sacked.

That was when we acquired our first antivirus solution and became the go-to company to fix such issues around Lagos. However, I guess there was no retribution for my foolishness at first we didn’t know anything about computer viruses, it was an honest mistake and like everyone else, someone had done something foolish before and recognised that this kind of thing happens.

Humbled by knowing me

Maybe also, they just liked me and that helps, having an affable, friendly, and approachable personality with a good working relationship with your colleagues means you do not get thrown under the bus at the first sign of problems. I can attest to many other mistakes I have made at work that would make me cringe at the thought of what was wrought by my hands.

So, I could understand when a colleague thought I had shopped him for having done something in error, tried to amend it, but the damage had been done. The evidence was there if you knew how to find it, and I did. As it was a puzzle put to the team the source of the problem had to be revealed to the team. I forewarned him of the situation before making the public revelation.

In the interest of kindred spirits, I spoke of some of the things I would rather forget that I did at work. I have known understanding, consideration, and dare I say, mercy from managers who could just terminate my contract there and then. Recognising that keeps us humble and helps us remember we are only human, striving for perfection and sometimes falling short. We live to learn and hopefully do better next time.

On celebrating a 30-year career in IT

Selling yourself, yourself

After graduation, I had no godfathers who could call their friends to get a job for their boy. I had somewhat passed the age of favours, sympathy or pity. I was almost a pariah to many but a few. Having lost 5 years of post-secondary education to multiple failures and kickstarts of life and career, I found new opportunities.

In fact, they were not opportunities, just a sense of daring. A new pair of shoes my mum had bought for me and a moment of epiphany. One night in early October 1988, I realised, I am the best representative of myself. So, I decided, that was what I was going to do, represent myself.

Walking the talk

I started out in Ikeja, walking the expensive streets one of which was named Cocaine Avenue which somewhat had a reputation for wealth acquired through dubious means. The same street had businesses catering to the moneyed, the influential and the well-connected.

Every few steps I took, led me to the door of another computer services business. I had the choice of pursuing a career in the electrical power end of things which is almost back-breaking work when I worked at the Flour Mills of Nigeria some 3 years before. Our every working day revolved around electrical motors, mostly high-powered drivers of turbines, belts, machines and much else. Those are memories I would rather leave in the past.

Confidence to access

My preference was to work on the electronics side of my Electrical and Electronic Engineering qualification. I immediately knew that it would pay less, but it offered a growing wealth of experience if I was ready for the challenge.

Without invitation or appointment, I walked into every business I could find, greeted the receptionist and politely asked for a job, stating I had just graduated. Everyone seemed to commiserate but had nothing to offer. I did not relent. Yet, I remembered a few years before that I lost a job offer to others who presented predatory opportunities to the gatekeepers of those businesses.

I did my Ikeja run for just over two days and in that time, I honed my introduction and conversation, working harder to present myself in a better light. My accent belied a foreignness, my demeanour some sophistication and my conversation, some uncommon politeness and maybe some confidence too. How do you walk into offices asking for a job and an opportunity to work and learn at the same time?

The sign welcomed

Having achieved no success in Ikeja, I boarded a bus for Lagos Island, when just opposite Baptist Academy on Ikorodu Road, I saw a big sign, IT Systems Ltd on a white building. I got off at the next stop and walked back on myself to this rather imposing building.

At the reception, I introduced myself and stated my purpose. She got up, went into the offices and came back out followed by a manager with whom I had a further conversation about my course, the projects I had done, my exposure to programming and my interest in computers. Then, I had worked with business machines that you programmed with assembler code and Apple 2c and 2e computers at school, programming in BASIC and FORTRAN 77.

The manager’s name was Felix Ogun, it was the 2^nd Friday of October and he invited me to start work on Monday. That was the beginning of a career in Information Technology that this month has lasted 30 years.

Privilege and opportunity

I owe my career to the many who were ready to give me opportunities where I had no influence or leverage, just potential and some self-believe. The self-believe is a product of parentage and the early education I received, it trained me never to be fearful of person, personality, office or position. Privilege and opportunity can confer status, it does not make anyone else any more a human being than you are; if you can and you must at the very least treat each other with consideration and respect.

My uncle and aunt, the Soyinkas, who when I was at the time failing even though I wasn’t stupid or incompetent, but in fact, with hindsight, clinically depressed and unproductive. They gave me a home, amazing support, boosted my confidence and gave me the latitude to grow into the person I have become. To them, I would be eternally grateful, for I blossomed, I thrived and I succeeded in their care.

Belief and agreement

Deji Sasegbon was a lawyer, he owned the office block in which IT Systems had their offices on the ground floor and he had his legal publishing practice on the first floor. They sometimes had hardware problems and invited us to help out. For each solution, he offered money, I refused. He gave me my second career opportunity, I became a consultant in desktop publishing with an unusual contract arrangement.

The cost of my flight ticket whenever I decide to leave for the UK and a monthly stipend. This opened doors to many other opportunities. IT Systems was a year of sponging up knowledge of hardware, software, systems, business practices and networks. By October 1989, I had enough knowledge and expertise to branch out as a self-employed consultant and my first month of work paid 10 times my last salary at IT Systems. D-Sash as we used to call him, passed away a few years ago, I never really got to thank him for the doors he opened for my career.

Potential despite threat

Clifton Bissick offered me my first role in the UK. Everywhere I went, I was told I did not have UK-acquired experience, even though the experience I had borne out of curiosity, self-development and eagerness to learn and understand put me well above the skills profile of many who had the acquired experience I was said to not have.

At the BBC, even though I was probably the best-qualified candidate for the role, the manager called me to say I was selling myself short and so he could not offer me the job. I think it was a euphemism for suggesting I was considered a threat to the positions of people who had become entrenched in that system. It hurt, but I looked ahead. Clifton and I are still in contact, he was my manager until August 1994.

Trust beyond capacity

Eoghan Doyle, if there was ever a manager who had more confidence in both my person and my skills long before I knew what I was capable of, he stands tall amongst all those who had that influence in my career. He walked up to my desk one morning and said, ‘Akin, I have something I want you to do for me.’ That is how I started working with Microsoft Systems Management Server from version 1.1 in 1996 and all its various versions and incarnations to date.

Many others in friendships and engagement were part of the extensive support system of my career, Kola Akinola, my best friend from when we were innocent and doe-eyed, Steven Bicknell, my first long-term partner who gave me stability in turbulent times of finding myself, John Coll who I was never qualified enough to work for but always had the time, the space, the advice and the pep-talk to help me along immensely – now of blessed memory.

To all these wonderful people, I can never be thankful enough, for with them I have attained what might have been impossible and beyond reach, I have succeeded where I might have been overwhelmed, I have lived experiences that are the substance of unattainable dreams. I have lived in wonder and beauty and much more. And we are still talking about work that brings new excitement and pleasure, daily.

One other thing I have learnt is, when it is no more fun, walk away from it.

Alan Turing: The Imagination Game

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of that do the things no one can imagine.” Recurrent quote in The Imitation Game.

Father and victim

In Sackville Park, Manchester sits a statue with a plaque at its feet, one line, less prominent but quite important, "Victim of prejudice." That was a bygone age where the other sexuality was criminalised and with it came the law, heavy and merciless in its application.

Yet, to this man we owe more than we can ever fully appreciate him for. It was his genius that gave birth to the computer.

I type away literally oblivious of the real history of computing that Hollywood has attempted to serve us in film, one that opened in cinema theatres just over a week ago.

Of the film

Interest and engagement have gotten me have viewing The Imitation Game twice already, it is the story of Alan Turing and his work in breaking the encryption of the German Nazi Enigma machine.

One cannot say that the depiction in film is entirely true to the facts especially in the part where Alan Turing might well have been slandered in the film by being accused of being a spy.

The film itself is worth watching, it is interesting, engaging and somewhat plays around the youth, the genius, the sexuality, the persecution and the prosecution of the man, the man who died on the 7th of June 1954.

There is much acknowledgement of his seminal work, honours that have come posthumously and the royal pardon granted from 2013. [Computing Machinery and Intelligence – Turing, A. M. (1950)]

My crazy

This is not a film review, I somehow cannot help myself when I watch films, and I have to find something of the essence of life in the drama and the action.

I liked the line, "Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of that do the things no one can imagine," which passed from Christopher Morcom to Alan Turing to Joan Clarke and back to Alan Turing in the film.

However, the other bits that got me thinking in my usual penchant for over-analysing plots and plays are some of these things.

How crossword puzzles were used as a means to interview personnel for code-breaking, the conventional wisdom was to use linguists to decipher German code, Alan Turing however saw these as puzzles.

And so …

Somehow, what Alan Turing did was to eliminate chance from solving logical problems, at least that is one perspective to things.

Once the Enigma code was broken, the greater task was keeping it a secret and consequently, when it comes to tough decisions, who makes them and what goes into it? That was what Ultra was about and apparently that is why the allies won WWII.

That is why the Imitation Game was more like the Imagination Game for me, what he imagined became the reality of the world of computational power at the fingertips of mankind today. Alan Turing was an exceptionally gifted man, his homosexuality should never have taken such a genius away from us.

Other readings

Alan Turing: a short biography by Andrew Hodges

The Alan Turing Internet Scrapbook

Alan Turing: Victim of Prejudice, Champion of Modern Expression

My country of acceptance

As I left a Starbucks Café on Sunday, I saw two men sat quite close together in a posturing that could only mean they were at a rendezvous and they were probably lovers.

I felt gratified to live in a country of liberty, tolerance, acceptance, accommodation and understanding. This was a country quite different from 60 years before.

A great and different man

To a man, we owe much and yet he was different, persecuted and prosecuted but a genius, a gift to our world lost because the establishment frowned on an expression of himself that in no way affected the abilities he brought to his vocation.

To him we owe much for his contribution to the war effort during World War II for which he was honoured and as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century, the Time Magazine had this to say of him, “The fact remains that everyone who taps at a keyboard, opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing program, is working on an incarnation of a Turing machine.”

For Alan Turing is today, a man, pardoned, celebrated and appreciated as the father of Computer Science.

Celebrate humanity above all

We all have needs and in all of us is a sexual expression acted upon by reason of our sexuality which in essence does not deduct from our ability to perform with excellence in other spheres of life to benefit humanity as a whole.

And as I trekked back home, I stopped by at Sackville Park where I also paid my respects to Alan Mathison Turing, 1912 – 1954, who as a victim of prejudice with the knowledge and expertise he brought to this world gave us the democracy of expression.

Choose acceptance

I would not speculate as to what else Alan Turing would have done with his far-thinking genius and ability if he had lived for longer, but we now know that the world we had 60 years ago is far different from the world we have today.

For we have the capacity for understanding diversity to accept difference and the ability to exercise tolerance for the greater cause of our humanity, if we choose to be better than what age-old beliefs and traditions have constantly taught us to do.

We must happily or grudgingly come to a point where we are able to express gratitude for our shared humanity, where we would not prejudge before we understand or castigate before we embrace – we all have a duty to be examples regardless of our beliefs, of tolerance rather than bigotry, whether we would rise to that challenge is for each individual to decide.

My body will not suffer

From trouble to resolution

Another long day at work, it started at 7:00AM, a simple change that should have ended in 2 hours had us clutching at straws well after 3:00PM.

Whilst we did not have full knowledge of the multi-faceted system, it was quite difficult to guide the troubleshooting systematically.

A lot of people are a lot more computer savvy than I am, I concede that but sometimes the background from which you have come into Information Technology can be of interesting significance.

Very few people I know have come from an engineering background and there is a particular discipline and rigour that is lacking from other fields in terms of deduction, analysis, building and dismantling components of systems, abstraction and other nuanced thought processes about inputs and expected outputs at different stages.

It is almost a frustrating exercise in trying to align the thinking and analysis but I have learnt to adapt, interject the conversation with pointers that might well be breakpoints somehow the picture begins to take shape and hopefully begin to make progress, the key to keeping it moving is keeping it calm and collected.

Anyway, in the end, we deduced where the problem was and were soon close to resolution.

No intrusive procedures

As the day grew to a close the call I was expecting arrived, my treatment advisor called to inform me that after conferences between my medical consultant, the neurologist, the laboratory and the they review of the results, the invasive procedure will not be required.

Treatment commences tomorrow morning and I can rest easy that I do not have to challenge the preponderance of medical opinion just because I asked that they review their original conclusions.

It was a nerve-racking experience for me but I think I had the right premise, the consideration that I am the one most affected by the decisions made, it is my body; researching the condition and the available options to get clued in about what the suggestions are and engaging the medical personnel to review the seemingly unfavourable option for a more comfortable situation.

I am happy about that. Phew!

Way past the day of the jackal

The dogs of war

Whilst his books are a riveting read, I cannot say that Frederick Forsyth [1] is a likeable person by any stretch of the imagination.

However, that is beside the point, by happenstance during one of his researching escapades for material he was in Guinea-Bissau in 2009 [2] just when a violent coup d’etat was being played out.

For most of what has appeared in his many books, Mr. Forsyth is a fundamental security risk to many governments and institution that it was too difficult to consider his presence in Guinea-Bissau at that particular time to have been a mere coincidence.

Mr. Forsyth has been known to dabble in attempted forced regime change in Africa before, his repentance was suspect.

The veteran

For a man meticulous in detail to a fault in his plots and intrigues, it was interesting to learn that he was still quite “old-school” when it comes to technology that he neither uses a mobile phone nor computer.

Upon his “learning” of the events in Guinea-Bissau, he had to borrow a phone and dictate 1,000 words of copy, though it is not clear if this was to his wife or to the Daily Express, a newspaper in the UK that he writes for.

Except if he were speaking in Shibboleths and codes, it is possible that interested parties could have eavesdropped on his conversation and for their own ends.

One would thing a person of his stature would have moved with the times and probably had a computer and a mobile phone both with encryption and some sort of scrambling device.

The day of the jackal

In a Hardtalk interview [3] with the BBC, Mr. Forsyth accuses US spies of attacking his wife’s computer just around that time though he has no forensic evidence to provide of that claim apart from presumably informed sources he calls ‘friends in low places’.

It brings to mind the recently screened episodes of Sherlock [4] on the BBC which carried the deductive and investigative acumen and partnership Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson into contemporary times from the late Victorian times with finesse.

Many would agree that ideas need to evolve with the times to find new applications with newer tools rather than be fossilised in period settings good for nostalgia and historical analysis, it would appear that Mr. Forsyth from the reading of the articles has forgotten that the day of the jackal is over and he should be dealing with a new protocol of modern times.

Sources

[1] Frederick Forsyth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] BBC NEWS | Africa | Author stumbles on G-Bissau drama

[3] BBC News - Hardtalk - Frederick Forsyth: 'US spies attacked my wife's laptop'

[4] BBC - BBC One Programmes - Sherlock

Your mum inadvertently uses your computer

A text for help

It was an SMS which was a half-panic text about his computer being infected by a virus and inquiring about what he had to do. Please can you advice? It ended, indicating a sense of calmness in the midst of the turmoil that could lose you your data in an instant.

Well, I hope my magnanimity in sharing this event is shared by my friend because it might well be my first real computer-usage related blog.

In fact, I really should have written much in this area since I wrote so much along these lines in my Masters programme and I do have 21 years of experience behind me.

However, stemming from a series of conversations with my friend about his computer and protecting himself from embarrassing situations, I have knocked up this little piece and it pertains mainly to Microsoft Windows systems.

If anything, it makes it safe for your mum to use your computer when you happen not to be around to prevent her seeing things she should not and you trying to explain yourself out of the impossible.

Updating an antiviral dosage

In times past you needed to protect your computer from viruses [PCHelpForum] [Wikipedia] [DirectoryM] that could destroy or mangle your data – you cannot scrimp on this – you MUST install an antivirus utility and always keep it up to date.

There are free offerings like AVG [AVG (Download)] or subscription offers from Symantec, McAfee or some other outfit, it is your first line of defence.

It is generally inexcusable to have an unlicensed operating system especially if you use the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows because its popularity lends to people finding ways to exploit its vulnerabilities – software is NOT perfect workmanship, it is generally a work in progress.

There are critical and security updates as well as service packs, you must always ensure your system is fully patched. Enable the reminders in your installed applications so you get informed when something needs to be updated – this also goes for drivers of devices installed in your system.

Pull up the drawbridge

People would always want to attack your system which is most probably always connected to the Internet, preventing that from happening requires that you enable your firewall [Wikipedia]. Your firewall is like a drawbridge with a sentry that check who goes there before allowing access.

You can make it more restrictive ask it to prompt for programmes trying to access the Internet which are not the usual email to Internet browser applications.

Your firewall must always be ON.

Gifts of suspect providence

So, they cannot get on your computer through the means of viruses or by your firewall and they try a Trojan horse [Wikipedia]. You visit a suspect site and inadvertently download some software or you receive a silly email that promises you a winning for a competition you did not enter – you double-click on some file and your computer grinds to a halt.

Meanwhile, the inadvertently installed programme is harvesting your usernames, passwords and even keystrokes then sending that information out to a computer where the malevolent can attempt to access your emails, bank accounts and do something so despicably evil with your personal details.

This is called malware [Wikipedia] and neither your antivirus application nor your firewall can handle this – you need a spyware [Wikipedia] remover and this is where Spybot – Search & Destroy [Safer Networking – (Download)] [AOL Video – (Tutorial)] is going to be your best friend.

What had happened was that a spyware programme masquerading as an antivirus toolkit needed an update had installed on his system and hijacked the Microsoft Security Centre giving the impression his antivirus was out of date.

Deceptive Antivirus

One look at the malware called Antivirus 2009 [SpyWare.com] [Wikipedia] leaves me both disgusted at the malevolent intend and impressed with the social engineering qualities the programme contains that the unsuspecting would have handed over all their information without knowing what had happened.

Through going to his Control Panel he was able to see that the Microsoft Security Centre was fine but being cloned and interfering with the normal operation of his system.

He downloaded Spybot – Search & Destroy which thoroughly searched through his system and completely removed every trace of the malware and any other suspect material.

Things you cannot share with mum

Finally, if you have been visiting places you cannot tell your mum about the built-in ability of Internet browsers to remove cached data would not suffice, it still leaves copious amounts of data that any smart guy can check to see where you have been as your face goes redder than beetroot.

To save your blushes you should get CCleaner [FileHippo (Download)] [YouTube – (Tutorial)] and run it regularly on your system – it rids your computer of any traces of where you have been, cleans your computer registry of obsolete or invalid data and offers a clean interface for removing applications.

These are not necessarily endorsements of the products mentioned but they are tools I have used for years to keep both myself and my computers out of trouble.

Maybe I should stick to writing my regular kind of blogs.