I was randomly going along at 4 in the morning when I was informed that I had a computer virus. I was told about this from a security program I had no recollection of downloading. If that wasn't obvious enough, the warning was laden with typos. When I tried closing out of the pop-up window, it popped right back up and I saw that it had begun scanning my computer and told me that I had several thousand infected files. I shut the computer off immediately. Turning it back on, I was hit with the same problems - it didn't do the "scan" thing because I didn't click anything that popped up, and I stayed on only long enough to delete my cookies and history on my web browser (You hear me, Czech Republic?! You'll find NOTHING on my hard drive now!!). This became slower and slower, and soon, my computer was almost non-responsive. I've turned my laptop off for, I fear, the last time.

It was an IBM Thinkpad, and I'm told that the average life-expentency for one is about 3 years. I'd been using it since the winter of 2006. However, while I was in the middle of doing the aforementioned deletions, I saw that the last time my hard drive had been backed up was sometime in 2005. So, the laptop got a good run. Farewell, Mobile Command Center One, you will not be forgotten.

This will not affect my art postings on here. I do all my art on a desktop computer, and I unplugged it from the internet back in 2007, so it's safe from harm, and I'll be able to use one of my family's laptops to sign on to the internet. I'm currently on my father's laptop. However, the fact that my laptop has been compromised in the first place means that I may have unwittingly infected other people. If I've sent you any emails or file transfers recently, check your hard drives. I don't want what happened to my laptop coming after anyone else.

Best/Dan

UPDATE: Took the computer to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. One way or another, I'll have the Mobile Command Center back. Either virus-free and usable, or fatally succumbed to its symptoms and in need of interrment in the back yard, cremated in the charcoal grill and nuried in the roots of the Deku Tree.

UPDATE - 3/31: They had to replace the hard drive, because the virus crashed the old one. I was told that "some" files were lost in the process of swapping in the new hard drive. I thought that maybe they'd lose a couple files in the process of transferring information over. As it turns out, they lost all the information. They lost everything, and my laptop has exactly none of my old files on it.

... Hurroo.