Machiaevellan Microsoft

     

For at least a week I’d been receiving impromptu visits on my computer from Microsoft.

Connecting to Florida

     When we arrived here in this new territory, connecting to the internet and acquiring TV were top of the list.

Rude Awakening

         I’ll admit I wasn’t at my best this morning when I stumbled downstairs to check my email.  We have an epic three-day drive to Florida on the horizon and unlike my usual night of at least 7 hours of sleep, I woke up at 3:30, 4:30, and then gave up at 6.

          I made a cup of tea and settled into my comfy computer chair. I clicked on the icon for my Gmail and was told:

 No – that password wouldn’t work.

Would I like to fix it through a message to my Yahoo email?

Nope – that password wasn’t recognized

I checked my email by way of my phone. A recovery code was indeed on my Yahoo account.

I tried to enter it into the Gmail request. No soap.

Not good.

I checked my email through my phone again. Now a different recovery code had been sent. Someone else was trying to get into my mail.

Why anyone would have a burning need to open sales reminders from L.L.Bean, Lands End, Kohls, and all the other messages I delete three times a day is beyond me. My email is resoundingly dull. Still, the whole thing creeped me out big time.

I packed up my violated laptop and hightailed it to our computer geeks. I arrived ten minutes before business hours, but if people are going to put an Open sign on their door, I’m going in. 

One of the owners immediately took me in hand (I’m sure my hyperventilating had nothing to do with that) and began walking me through my passwords, all of which apparently were too short and too obvious. She didn’t quite roll her eyes and sigh audibly, but “another dumb civilian” might as well have been Magic Markered across her forehead.

After facing the spectre of no access to either email or this blog, I have seen the light. Check your passwords, folks. There are computers out there right now twirling and beeping away in their efforts to get into our accounts. 

Go to How Secure is My Password? and you’ll become a convert. Passwords I thought were ingenious and inscrutable were basically the work of a not very bright pre-schooler.

As for me, I now have some fabulous passwords that supposedly will hold up against attack for thousands of years. Since there’s no way on the planet that I’ll remember any of them, I’ve cleverly written them down in a list that I keep near my computer. 

Don’t tell me I don’t know anything about security.

Me and Mr. Bell

As someone who's a member of the legion of dedicated phone toters, you'd think I'd be in a state of constant conversation. And yet I rarely use it for its original purpose. 

Fashion Watch

          So last night we were watching a cop show we’d found through our Amazon Prime account (Bosch, based on the Michael Connolly series. How could you not like a series where the main character is named after a bizarre 15^th century artist?).

Neither Rain nor Sleet nor Email

       This morning I was supposed to be paying attention, but I had chosen a seat facing the big picture window that looked out onto the parking lot.

Let's Hear it for Old-Time Shopping

I will admit that I have a tendency to do things too quickly at times.