And Another Thing!

Remember my HP-Mini netbook? I thought it was great for a short while, and then I was very reserved in my praise. The most I could say at that point was, "It's all right for what it is."  And then I downright hated the little sucker. More than once I resisted the urge to drop-kick it, but only because I'm a grownup.

It was impossibly slow and was pretty much just a plastic brick. So it sat in my suitcase for a while, until I needed to unload the suitcase to use it for my last trip, and then it sat on the bathroom floor collecting dust (true confessions), right where I unloaded it, for goodness knows how long. 

And then one day I had one of my epiphanies. I wondered if it was the freakin' Norton 360, which was maybe just too much for it, that was bricking it up. 

So I uninstalled the Norton 360.

And guess what? 

It's all hearts and flowers and I love that little cutie-pie again. Love, love, love. It's perfect for stashing beside my bed, so that if I have a blog emergency in the middle of the night --  for instance, I suddenly remember that I left it mid-sentence and never finished my post because I had to take Mr. Jefferies out for a pee or had to go watch the latest episode of LOST, or whatever. Or someone has sent me an upset (but polite? pffft) comment that I received via my BlackBerry at 3 a.m. when I got up for a pee (I just noticed there's a lot about pee in this post -- completely unintentional and irrelevant, I assure you) because I have inadvertently offended an entire country due to stupidly having spelled "hat" t-u-q-u-e instead of t-o-q-u-e, or something earth-shatteringly important like that. 

You know. There are those kinds of emergencies that frequently crop up in the middle of the night or when I'm traveling, and they're just so danged easy to fix, now that I have that little mini next to my pillow and I can pull the blog or the email up real quick without waiting for all eternity while Norton 360 tries to scan something that it can't even FIT on. Or Heaven forbid: to UPDATE. Oh, that rotten, nasty, malicious little word. 

Why the hell doesn't Norton say, "Sorry. Loading me onto your little mini laptop is like using an atom bomb to kill a mosquito, and you really should use a different anti-virus software"?  But no. It will say nothing of the kind and it will invade your little mini computer and make it entirely useless and make you feel like a complete idiot for having just thrown money away on yet another useless piece of crap.  

Sigh.

Why is nothing easy and real and straightforward?

Except me, of course.

But anyway, now that we have resolved our little misunderstanding, I again love the little bugger, and it's just such a great size, with a great-sized normal keyboard, and we're all good, even if we are maybe just a little bit stupid.

Here's a picture of it, with the Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside The Lines book and my BlackBerry for scale. 

Isn't it darling?

About the same size as Mr. Jefferies.

 But much less cuddly.

Comments

[noonie]

ROTFL... oh I so want to take this post to PC World with me today. Went trawling for new laptop yesterday and we had an argument with the sales guy about N... he was "Why wouldn't you like it?"

We listed numerous reasons, I had in tow my best friend who is a serious computer geek.

N is famous for sucking the life out of computers... not at first but after a few updates...

[Janine]

Yeah I know a lot of people that have had similar problems with N. Personally I use AVG free antivirus - have done for years and crossed fingers haven't had a problem. I have an Asus minibook - my problem is I went for the solid state version which only has an 8GB HD - keep running out of space for windows updates - need to do something about that....

[Connie G.]

The geek I sleep with (AKA DH) recommends Microsoft Security Essentials. He, too, says that Norton is a hog.
BTW, I have him read your blog on Tuesdays to see what Mr. Jeffries has to say, but thought he needed to read it today to see that we knitters can be techie, too :-)

[AnnaMarie]

I don't need any virus software on my MacBook. I wonder if that will ever change.

[Marilyn]

Norton is a pain in the a.. (ahem). It is almost impossible even on big computers.

DH has a HP mini and he loves it too! It goes on the tractor or combine with him in the summer and it is by his easy chair in the winter.

[Susan B]

Oh agreed. Norton is notorious for slowing down otherwise competent computers.

I use Spybot and SuperAntiSpyware. Both free. Both run scans when I tell them to and no other time. AVG is OK, but it runs a lot in the background and I find it intrusive on a daily basis.

Truthfully, I find that even though I am online most of the time, by being intelligent and judicious about what I click on, I don't get much spyware and haven't had a virus in recent memory on any machine I've used (work, laptop, home PC). Spyware happens so I run the above scanning programs on a regular basis to keep it to a minimum and keep my machine humming along like it should.

[gayle]

So, it was the equivalent of loading an elephant into the rowboat, then wondering why it was taking so long to get across the lake, eh?
I'm glad the little netbook turned out to be useful after all.

[sandy]

Things should come with warnings that they will absolutely ruin your device. There should be an advisory committee!
(gotta pee)

[Joan Rigg]

Much less cuddly and not nearly so cute.

[Heather]

And just to make you a little more creeped about Norton is that uninstalling it does NOT completely remove it from your computer. You have to go to their website and get the system removal tool for it to remove all the code it adds to each program.

[Debbie]

Norton slowed down my computer and caused me headaches for months. I uninstalled it from my computer and notified them that I was cancelling their service. Eight months later, they "renewed" service and charged a credit card account that had been closed for two years! It took me months to get everything straightened out. I will never again do business with Norton or with the bank that re-opened the credit card account without my permission.

[Judy]

I'm with AnnaMarie. Gotta love my mac! Glad your netbook is working. How's the laptop holding up after that little spill??

[kmkat]

As soon as you can teach the HP to do that adorable little head tilt that Mr. J. does so well, life will be perfect.

[DebbieB]

HA! I had to read this one out loud to the husband-geek.

[Rachel]

You do all that on a night pee break?!? oh my god woman I think you need a break from all this technology!

[Mary Fran]

Awww - I think electronics are adorable, too. I'm working with something pre-release right now that is down right cute.

[Cookie]

I never realized people actually used Norton. I'm glad you've rediscovered the love.

[Kym]

That little head tilt thing that Mr. J does is just . . . enough to steal my heart. Every time.

[Sheila]

Gotta go with the other Mac users. I've used one since 1997 or whenever the cute little fruitie iMacs came out. Love 'em!

Btw, as a Canadian I feel it is my duty to inform you that in reality either spelling, t-u-q-u-e or t-o-q-u-e, is correct and anyone who says differently is just being nitpicky. One is the way it's spelled in Quebec (with the 'u') and the other is the way it's spelled everywhere else (with the 'o'). Just make sure you pronounce it correctly or it could be very confusing. Example: "Do you know where I put my 'two-k'?" (pronounced like the number) not "Do you know where I put my 'toke'?" (pronounced like you just offered someone a bit of the herb). And now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.

[Elaine]

Mr J 'n my Mac.... love 'em both. But he is much cuter.

[elizabeth a airhart]

is this the si fi channel
beam me up mr jeffries

[Joansie]

Glad you figure out how to bring the love back for the notebook.

[emy]

Does the netbook runs graphics software ok? I was thinking of getting an all-in-one for my blogging needs and don't want to end up having to do my crop/edit/resize/re-color tune work on my PC at the desk!