BZZZZZAPPP

27 April 2011.  BZZZZZAPPP!!   So that, I thought, is what it sounds like when you plug a 115 volt computer into a 230 volt outlet.  We had just made the mistake of plugging in one of the new computers before switching the power supply to the proper Tanzanian voltage.  Yes, the computer’s power supply was fried, and who knows what else inside.  It caused a bit of distress at the time, but it couldn’t dampen our spirits for long.

Yes, the long-awaited donation of computers has finally arrived from America.  Nine of them.  Enthusiastic “thank yous” to Perkins Coie LLP and my friends John and Lucas for the great gifts that you have given.  Today Bahati and I had a grand time opening the boxes, converting the voltage switches (all but one!), turning them on, and installing antivirus software.  I marveled at how fast these computers booted and installed the antivirus software.  Oh, these are going to be a huge improvement.      

The students gathered around, trying to get a look at the new equipment.  The most curious one asked me to show him how to make the connections.  As I did, he asked questions.  “What does USB mean?” he asked.  It took me a few seconds, but then “Universal serial bus,” I said.  “What does that mean?” he pressed.  He got no answer from me to that one.  After the BZZZZZAPPP he asked, “Why is the voltage different in America from Tanzania?”  Again, I had no good answer.  It was a good time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

3144 Very Bad Viruses

21 April 2011.  As of today, the AICT compound is closed for the Easter holiday.  When combined with Easter Monday and a national political holiday on Tuesday, things won’t reopen until Wednesday.  So we get a whole week off for Easter.  Except Margaret—the clinic remains open on their regular schedule, so she will be working as usual. 

Recently I was told the computer shipment from America is to arrive today!  It is supposed to be coming by car from Dar es Salaam.  But since the business offices are closed until next Wednesday, I’m not sure what to expect.  It would be really nice if they do arrive today.  It would give me a few really quiet days to get them ready for use.

Yesterday my neighbor, an AICT pastor and leader, came by with his computer .  He had some virus problems he wanted me to fix.  I started with my usual routine, loading Avira antivirus.  But when I tried to connect it to the internet on my broadband DSL, the computer didn’t recognize the connection.  That was just the first of many things that didn’t work right.  So I ran Avira without the update—it was a very recent version anyway.  To my utter astonishment, it discovered 3144 virus infections and moved them all to quarantine.  When I then tried to perform some basic tasks in Windows , they failed.   After many frustrations, I uninstalled Avira and installed Avast, another free antivirus.  I ran a boot scan in Safe Mode, and before it was half-finished, it found hundreds more viruses.  The main culprit seemed to be called Win32:Vitro.  I did a bit of internet research and soon concluded it was hopeless to try to remove this vicious virus via a simple antivirus scan, so I terminated the scan and closed up the computer.  This morning I told my friend the bad news.  He must try to save all his files and documents first, then reformat and reinstall windows and all his other programs.  I know this is an enormous problem for him.  Like most computers I see in use here, this was a used computer that he bought—it came with Windows XP installed, but he has no disks for a reinstallation.  And the same is true for all the other programs he has been using. 

Since I had been using my computer and my flash drive to load the antivirus programs from my computer onto his computer, I was suddenly gripped with fear that I had infected my own computer with this nasty thing.  I immediately shut it down, booted in safe mode, and did a complete system scan with Norton.   It came up clean, so I slept easy last night.  But my neighbor may not sleep so well.  This morning he told me his Easter morning sermon (and everything else) is on his now unusable computer.  Pole sana!