Like the 1984 hit film ‘Electric Dreams’ where Edgar the computer shows slightly psychotic signs of artificial intelligence, our little flat screened work colleagues can sometimes seem to have a personality all of their own. Dave Morris, Technical Manager of Escape, the leading communication technology provider in the Northeast, talks us through the possible reasons behind some computer personality problems.

An Edgar: Edgar the computer was made famous in the 80’s rom-com ‘Electric Dreams’ where, after a computer nervous breakdown (short circuit), he becomes the computer equivalent of Meryl Streep in Fatal Attraction.
Dave says: “After a two year delay, Microsoft has finally released Windows Vista, which may be the remedy to overworked and overloaded computers everywhere. If you have several Apple or PC pals that are becoming very temperamental, problematic and are at risk of ‘doing an Edgar’ businesses should consider upgrading to this brand new software.
“Said to be the brainchild of a 10,000 person Microsoft development team Vista combines all the features of a business-focused operating system, all the efficiency features of amobility-focused operating system, and all of the digital entertainment features of a consumer-focused operating system, with far superior remote access and greater protection for business information with a new encryption drive.”

A Holly: Red Dwarfs computer Holly with an IQ of 6000 was highly intelligent, but more than a little temperamental. Unsure if it was male or female, holly also had a split personality and suffered from computer senility.

Dave says: “If your computer starts showing signs of a Holly personality it could be associated with a Worm Virus. The biggest danger with a worm is its capability to replicate itself on your system, so rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, having a devastating effect. For example, a worm could send a copy of itself to everyone listed in your e-mail address book. Then, the worm replicates and sends itself out to everyone listed in each of the receiver's address book, and the manifest continues on down the line. The end result in most cases is that the worm consumes too much system memory (or network bandwidth), causing Web servers, network servers and individual computers to stop responding.

“This is an increasing problem in the workplace, as a survey carried out by the Department of Trade and Industry showed, computer viruses are the single biggest cause of security problems for UK businesses. At Escape we equip our clients with Trend, a detection system which helps manage the explosive costs of virus outbreaks by preventing and minimising their impact.”

A Joshua: In the hit film War Games, Joshua the naïve friendly computer unwittingly puts the world at risk by almost starting a global war, more or less overnight becoming disruptive with great cost to his owners.

Dave Says: “Like Joshua, a company’s computer system can potentially cost them a great deal if something goes wrong. A really disruptive computer personality trait could be associated with Trojan Horse contamination. The Trojan Horse, at first glance will appear to be useful software but will actually do damage once installed or run on your computer. When a Trojan is activated on your computer, the results can vary. Some Trojans are designed to be more annoying than malicious, like changing things on your desktop, or they can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on your system. In 2007, 41 per cent of businesses are predicted to increase security by at least 10 per cent. Escape would recommend to increase security you should have the latest anti-virus software installed and that regular download updates should be made – it is a common mistake to ignore or dismiss anti-virus download updates, but these are essential to equip your software with the latest fixes for new viruses, worms and Trojan horses.”

“Prevention of any problematic computer personality is obviously better than cure. Software like FIDO can monitor your systems around the clock, checking items such as all Windows services, disk space, network devices, ISP services, TCP/IP port check, and even websites. When FIDO identifies a problem at any of our clients sites it automatically sends an email to Escape so that an engineer can be tasked to fix the problem proactively – sometimes even before the client is aware that there was a problem. Spotting problems early enables Escape to fix them before they develop into large, costly disasters.”
Escape, the fastest growing IT company in the north-east, is a leader in communication technology, delivering outsourced IT, telecoms and infrastructure solutions. To find out more visit www.escape-tech.co.uk