Computer Safe Guards

On 1^st July 2010, after the 2^nd semester ended I got my new computer as I finished my grade 9. As I didn’t have any internet connection I thought I’ll not get any virus so I didn’t install any antivirus software or any anti spyware software. So on the next day I went to my friends place to tell him that I got a new computer and get some good 3d game from him. He used to download games from internet and save it on portable storage device. He gave me his best games downloaded ever to try it on my computer and see the graphics as I had the best graphics card of that time. After I went home without thinking anything I plugged in the portable storage device and copied everything he had. I saw him formatting the storage device for me so I didn’t think about any virus to transfer. Some of the games worked fine on my computer except FIFA 11 which had an autorun.exe file corrupted. So I thought It can be the up loaders fault. I avoided the game and played rest of the game for the whole day. I was having a great time next day with my friends at a mall so I didn’t get time to go on my computer to play games. I knew that I am going to have internet today when I reach home. So I stayed out late the whole day. After I came home I felt too tired to turn on the computer and go on msn. I thought I’ll check it out later. But as I was tired I forgot about my new computer and internet. I went straight to bed. When I woke up next morning my brother told me the new computer doesn’t work.

First I thought he was kidding but when I tried to turn it on, the boot menu showed error. I freaked out thinking that I messed up my computer playing game for 8 hours straight. Then I called my friend from whom I got the games. After he checked it, he said there is something wrong with the motherboard. I was upset the whole day. I didn’t have anything to do. My mom was angry on me so I didn’t go out or hangout with my friends. Later at night I was reading the article on computers when I noticed the word Trojan horse. First it seemed that it can’t be Trojan horse as I read the article. But by the end of the article the details seemed it can be the virus. So without thinking any more I downloaded kaspersky on my brother’s laptop. Next morning I went to my friends place to see if he had virus in his computer. First the antivirus took a long time to install then the software freezed every 5 minutes. After the computer was restarted for a couple of times the antivirus started working. It showed 28trojan horses and 52 other suspicious programs. I knew what was wrong with my computer.

Then finally I went home and installed windows 7 ultimate 64bit version which came with my computer. As soon as I finished installing the windows, I installed the antivirus kaspersky to see if the portable storage had any virus on it. After it finished searching for viruses the file FIFA autorun.exe was detected as a Trojan horse. It took 3days to figure out what might have caused this new computer crash though the reason was just a virus that I got from my friends computer.  

Electrical Waste

E- Waste is one of the major problems that the world is facing. E- Waste or electronic waste includes cell phones, computers, parts of computers, portable players etc. It is one of the fastest growing sources in the North America. There is no doubt that electronics is useful and fun to use. But every year 2 million ton of e- waste are used for landfill in United States of America alone every year and around 50 million tons world wide (source: Internet). Less than 15% of the e-waste is recycled every year. There are some companies that recycle the e- waste and sometimes sell things to raise fund for the company to run it. These companies are: Free Geek, ER International and Best Buy.




Free Geek: This Company was found in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. This Company disposes all kinds of electronic waste such as portable players, computers, computer accessories, monitors etc. Their motto is to help the needy get nerdy. This company also offers a numerous classes to volunteers and other publics. Their mission is to promote social and economic justice by:
 increasing access to computing and communications technologies
 providing education, training and job skills
 promoting the use of Free and Open Source Software
 reducing the environmental impact of electronic waste



ERS (Electronic Recycle Services): It’s a company that securely removes all electronic waste and disposes it. They make sure that all personal data are securely destroyed if not formatted or doesn’t work properly. This company disposes all kinds of computers, monitors, phone systems, cabling and other office electronic equipments. They also offer some services such as:
 E-waste Removal
 Secure Data Destruction
 Asset Re-marketing
 Asset Tracking
 Hard drive & Tape Degausser
 Items We Collect



Best Buy: It is one of the international companies which collects electrical waste and recycles it. Geek Squad which is an electrical waste collect company works for best buy to collect e- waste and recycle them. Most electrical wastes are refurbished so that they can be used by others. Geek Squad collects all most all kinds of electrical wastes which includes portable players, television, monitors, printers, cell phones, cabling etc. It is a profitable company which sells stuff and fixes it.