A stroke of luck and some good sense saved me on that one. It immediately alerted me to the problem. The program safely removed the virus before it could cause a major headache. We now have a set of three computer rules in our household that are not flexible. My kids have told their friends never to e-mail anything but text.
Photos are taboo.
No disk is loaded into the computer without first being scanned for a virus. We've found that we can all live with these rules. But more important, so can my computers. Joel Smith is a Detroit News business writer who reports on high-tech and computers.