Computers - the hard grind

Some years ago, after a scary computer moment, I persuaded Anto to buy a PC and set it up for office use as a backup machine he could switch to if ever needed. Last year he bought a hard drive to back up his data, so re-instating the office using a backup machine should have been a doddle. But unfortunately it wasn't. A standby system needs to be run regularly to be kept up to date, and that hadn't been done for a year or so - it was still running Firefox 2 point something, so old that it's auto-updating was looking for stuff on extinct web servers. It only took a few minutes to download Firefox 9, and AdBlock Plus, but there was also the need to install a new anti-virus program, and it took a lot longer to wait it installed scores of Windows updates, including XP Service Pack Three. 

It all worked without a hitch, but machine minding was time consuming and hindered other tasks required to re-instate a full working system - like updating system remembered passwords and new web oriented file transfer facilities which didn't exist when this machine was last put to sleep, but are now relied on daily. The worst task was getting a special commercial grade CD printer to function properly, prior to custom printing the first batch order of 2012. It chose year end to run out of ink, and fitting a new ink roll was a two person job. All this was required to enable a normal return to work after the New Year Bank Holiday. 

We called a halt to our unfinished business after twelve hours of work, and watched a DVD of the Swedish version of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' until after midnight. Not a good idea. It was not only complex but disturbing. It was a product placement tour de force on the part of Apple Mac, co-starring with the punk girl genius hacker leading character. If she could so easily penetrate the defences of others' Mac computers, extract confidential data and even control others' PCs remotely, isn't this an indictment of the so called 'inherent' security of Mac operating systems? Or else it's a statement of how complacent Mac users can be about security, because they're sold on the Apple marketing hype, and are less than vigilant about what they need to do to secure their machines.