Computer Hysteria:  Why?        by Berry F. Phillips   July 2005       I remember being told of a graduate philosophy course that had only one grade, the final exam. The teacher went to the blackboard and wrote only the word, Why? Two students handed in their exam books and left in about ten minutes. Most of the students wrote for the full three hours because their entire grade was determined by this exam. There were two As. The first student, wrote "Because" and the second student wrote, "Why not?" Think of the courage these two students had to base their grade on one and two words respectively. However, I think for a final exam the teacher should have been reprimanded..      The subject of why regarding computers has always fascinated me. Why do so many computer users buy systems and never learn the potential of their computer? The answer has to lie in education. The fastest growing area of the Computer Club of Oklahoma City is the Senior Net Users Group who affiliated with our club several years ago.      SNUG is a nonprofit organization of computer-using seniors (55 and older). Their mission is to help seniors learn how to access technologies to enhance their lives and to share their knowledge and wisdom. While many computer education courses are very technical and theoretical, SNUG educates in a well-tested way that is designed to get seniors up to speed as fast as possible in exploring the total potential of their computers and getting the best return on their financial investment. It is a fact that, in your computer life, you will have more software problems than hardware problems. A computer education does not cost but pays you in lower tech-support bills, and costly downtime. Remaining computer illiterate in a technical age is a serious mistake. Join the Computer Club of Oklahoma City where our mission is computer literacy. All are welcome wherever they are on the computer learning curve.      Why do so many computer users not maintain their systems properly? Computer stores will tell you they are doing a booming business working on computers severely infected with spyware and viruses. Perhaps these computer users cannot afford commercial software alternatives to protect their systems? Don't they know there are excellent spyware and virus programs online that are automatically upgradeable to protect their system at no cost?      One problem I notice is often in a family environment where there are multiple users on the same system. One member of the family must be designated to do weekly and monthly preventative maintenance if their family computer is going to remain operable. Weekly, run updated spyware programs and virus programs and defrag your hard drive as needed. I like to use a trash cleaner and a registry cleaner also available as freeware. Once a month, do a disk check to make sure your hard drive is error free. Every three months I remove the cover of my computer, being sure that I am grounded to the case, and use compressed air to clean the micro dust accumulated which can cause your electronic components to run hotter and shorten their life.      Preventative maintenance on your automobile can keep you riding in the real world and on your computer surfing the virtual world.      "A word to the wise should be sufficient."     Berry Phillips is a member of the CCOKC and a regular writer for the CCOKC website and the eMonitor