My most important tools

About a week ago, I accidentally clicked on a link that installed spyware on my lightweight Sony Vaio. Although I knew almost immediately what was happening I could not disable the processes. It locked me out of the task manager.

I recognized the links and pop-ups that claimed to fix the spyware and tried not to click on them. It was almost impossible to avoid them. I was so frustrated. I tried to fix the problem and get rid of the spyware by using Spybot and other Spyware programs. After reading about Ultimate Cleaner, I realized that I would probably have to edit the registry. I was tired and afraid I would make a mistake trying to clean up the registry, I decided to hand the computer over our helpdesk. They kept the computer several days trying to rid the spyware. They got rid of most of it, but a pesky little remnant was still there. I decided that it would be okay to start fresh and re-install the software to the factory settings which meant that I also had to re-install all my packages.

The helpdesk installed our site licensed MS Office package and offered to install the other programs supported by our technology unit. I turned them down and am installing these programs as I need them.

Over the last couple of days, I have installed programs as I needed them. I supposed that these are the most important tools for me this week.

1. Installed MS Office (university site license). I am currently working on a few documents that I need to finish and they are in MS Word 2007.
2. Installed McAfee anti-virus software (University site license).
3. Installed Witty. I wanted a desktop Twitter application. While I was very happy with the usability and features of Twhirl, it seems that Adobe Air is giving me problems on my Vista computer so I am trying Witty which is a .NET application. The features are nice; it has an automatically spell checker.
4. Logged into my Google Reader account and made Google Reader my homepage.
5. Logged into Twitter web page and made it my second tab on my homepage.
6. Installed Pidgin. I needed to have instant access to colleagues and family.
7. Installed our email client, Novell GroupWise (University supported enterprise system).
8. Installed our VPN client.
9. Installed Windows Live Writer and pointed it to my blog.
10. Logged into my del.icio.us account and installed the del.icio.us toolbar because I wanted to share a bookmark.
11. Installed Acrobat Reader because I came across a PDF I wanted to read.
12. Logged into my Google Analytics account.
13. Logged into my Feedburner account.
14. Installed Jing.
15. Logged into my Flickr account.
16. Logged into my Facebook account.
17. Created a Twitpic account. This looks like a neat way to share photos from my phone.

The applications and pages I need to log into that I have not had a reason to, yet.

• Slideshare
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• IRVanView
• Adobe Acrobat Professional (University licensed)
• ma.gnolia My friends have sent me invites. I have not created the account yet.

Interestingly, almost all of these applications are online applications and pages that I stay logged into. Even though I had complete access to them at the house, not having access at home made me feel out of touch -- like I was being left behind. I was also frustrated because I could not communicate as easily or as often as I wanted.

I am certainly glad to be back into the swing of things.