Another half day has been lost to virus issues. While picking up my finally virus-free laptop at Best Buy last night I was talked into buying the respected Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0 software to guard against future problems. I installed it this morning and lo, within ten minutes my newly repaired, running-like-a-charm laptop had ceased all functionality. Nothing would click open; it was like the disk drive has been covered in cold maple syrup. I couldn’t even get into safe mode.

I had to take the damn unit back to the Geek Squad guys and explain that everything was fine until I took their advice and installed a software that they sold me on. An intense, intelligent guy who looked like James McAvoy except for the W.C.Fields nose said I should have uninstalled the other virus program first. (Which I would have, but it wasn’t in function mode because I hadn’t renewed the license so what could it matter?) Come back in six hours, he said.

Why is so much of life like this? Why do I keep delaying about buying a Mac? Woody Allen had it mostly right about the human race being divided into two camps — the horrible and the miserable. If I could clap my hands and send a misery rocket over to the software technicians at Kaspersky (the ones who forget to include a prompt reminding all installers to delete all previously loaded virus software, active or inactive, before proceeding), I would clap my hands. Cheerfully. With vigor.