When we were hiking out of the bush (jungle) for two days in Papua New Guinea after a NT dedication in December 2010, our guides decided to continue with us because, as they said, "you are old and slow." That still brings smiles to our faces but also a warmth because of their care for us.
Jon experienced a different kind of "old and slow" today. Mey, one of ladies in Kupang for training, had a laptop that was loaded with viruses and Alvin, one of the two IT nationals, spent much of yesterday trying to remove them. Toward the end of the day, I heard the laptop send out a continuous stream of beeps but didn't get involved.
Jim, the instructor (from the Caribbean), brought the laptop to me last night saying that it wouldn't start. The short of it is that I was able to get the computer started and then began checking it out. I discovered the laptop was 11 years old (!!), had only 1 GB of memory (4 is normal), a very slow processor and small hard drive, an unlicensed copy of Windows 8, the network card was not working, that the antivirus software had been turned off, that another (free) security utility was on version 10 though the current version was 12, and that no operating system updates had been done for 2 years. The computer, as you can imagine, took forever to do anything.
Again, the short story is that I was able to hand the laptop back to Mey by mid-afternoon today, viruses removed, operating system updated, hard drive tested for corruption, an estimate on the cost to upgrade memory, and advise to replace the laptop as quickly as she could afford.
Big smile from Mey and from Jim. Now she can use her laptop during training. The sad part is that this is not an unusual situation we face in the field, where nationals use old equipment in harsh environments, where internet downloads are slow and costly, and a world where virus software is the norm.
Jon experienced a different kind of "old and slow" today. Mey, one of ladies in Kupang for training, had a laptop that was loaded with viruses and Alvin, one of the two IT nationals, spent much of yesterday trying to remove them. Toward the end of the day, I heard the laptop send out a continuous stream of beeps but didn't get involved. Jim, the instructor (from the Caribbean), brought the laptop to me last night saying that it wouldn't start. The short of it is that I was able to get the computer started and then began checking it out. I discovered the laptop was 11 years old (!!), had only 1 GB of memory (4 is normal), a very slow processor and small hard drive, an unlicensed copy of Windows 8, the network card was not working, that the antivirus software had been turned off, that another (free) security utility was on version 10 though the current version was 12, and that no operating system updates had been done for 2 years. The computer, as you can imagine, took forever to do anything.
Again, the short story is that I was able to hand the laptop back to Mey by mid-afternoon today, viruses removed, operating system updated, hard drive tested for corruption, an estimate on the cost to upgrade memory, and advise to replace the laptop as quickly as she could afford.
Big smile from Mey and from Jim. Now she can use her laptop during training. The sad part is that this is not an unusual situation we face in the field, where nationals use old equipment in harsh environments, where internet downloads are slow and costly, and a world where virus software is the norm.
Comments