He’s alive!

With those two words Colin Clive introduced the creature to us. No, the monster is not Frankenstein; the monster is correctly called the creature, played originally, imaginatively and perfectly by Boris Karloff. (Greatest mime performance in the history of sound films, you can’t do mime in a silent movie, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has to its eternal shame never recognized it with an Oscar. Shame, shame, shame Academy. And you wonder why fewer and fewer people watch the Oscarcast!), and after two weeks of a miserable cold I feel much like Clive, “he’s alive!”

And in my self-imposed quarantine it appears that I have failed to take note it is a new year and time to once again sound the clarion for a piece of software you ought to have and use.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Yes, Malwarebytes, I know it sounds complicated and difficult but it isn’t and you should go there, right now and download it and install it and run it everyday.

Okay, okay, getting you to run it everyday is probably too ambitious but you really should run it often.

Why? I’m glad you asked. As the world become more cyber-connected we do more and more of our chores in the Ether. And boys and girls, it is a scary place, the Ether. There are viruses, bugs, worms, Trojans, no, not that kind, leave USC out of this, and no not the ones you used to go looking for on a Saturday night when you got luc…and villains of every sort and description. And like Uncle Sam, THEY WANT YOU!

Now don’t do that, hiding under the blanket just won’t do the job. You have to take the good with the bad and there are things that you can do to protect yourself, like Malwarebytes.

When you get an unwanted bit of nastiness and you probably will if you check your email or do banking or shopping online, it makes you feel hopeless and helpless and you hate the thought of unplugging the machine and taking it to the computer guru for a thorough cleaning, take heart, Malwarebytes can do it. And for the sixty bucks an hour that your computer-whisperer will charge, he’ll run Malwarebytes.

That’s right, that’s what you pay for most of the time. Someone with a little more experience takes your infected machine and runs Malwarebytes until the machine is clear of bugs, because you do have an anti-virus program installed, so it can’t be a bad bug, just one that is annoying and gives your bank account, phone and social security number to the Hairy Palm Porn Shoppe. You don’t have to ask, that’s bad.

So right now, before you get trapped by diner and your favorite programs, download and install Malwarebytes. It’s a free program. Just follow the onscreen instruction and you’ll be up and running in no time.

And later in the year when you get bit by a dead bee, don’t unplug and lug, run Malwarebytes.