Alert messages cascaded through the office like dominos. First, applications that no one had heard of were causing errors and being terminated by Windows. Then certain network applications stopped working. Next, the clipboard didn’t work. Finally, we were alerted that our system detected a virus and had no cure. We were calling out the progression of system failures to one another, a kind of role call for the cursed. Then the network administrator chimed in. Ominously, the virus protection on the network server was not responsive and he was bringing the whole thing down. We all joked that it probably didn’t have far to go.

Have you noticed that when you go to the doctor with a cold you are usually told: “it’s probably just a virus, we’ll just have to let it run it’s course.” Not so when the network administrator finds a virus. You can sense virtual klaxons going off warning of impending virtual doom. It’s like a PC ebola outbreak, as infected sectors are quickly quarantined. I pity our poor network guy. While we were sitting around waiting to be useful again, our network guy was running around trying to patch the crumbling damn with silly putty. Now I feel like I’m REALLY living in the world of high-tech. You haven’t lived until you have worked through a large scale viral infection. Now I feel complete.