Problem Solving

vic fortezza
3 min readAug 27, 2019

Approximately two months ago I bought an HP laptop that runs on Windows Ten. My only download was itunes, as I wanted to recover the 100+ songs that were stolen when my previous computer was hacked. I was hoping that would be the last download for a while. Why risk infecting the machine for something that isn’t really necessary? Unfortunately, the PC’s performance left a lot to be desired. The New York Post’s website began freezing, becoming useless. The same happened at games site Sporcle. My gmail account stalled for about a minute each time I went to it. Updates to the system didn’t help. I feared I’d bought a lemon or that my internet server was fiddling with the connection in order to force an upgrade. I also wondered if a hacker had somehow managed to infiltrate. I was skeptical about it being the browser. How could that be on a new device? This morning I got so disgusted that I decided to try Opera, which was the only browser that worked the last few years of the life of my previous laptop, a Dell. I particularly liked the way it blocked ads. To my chagrin, it was blocked, same as a download of Microsoft Security Essentials had been a few days ago. How in the world did something with Microsoft’s name on it not make it through? I searched for ways to open the path. The only way to do it was to sever the connection to Microsoft Edge, which would be final. Once cut, it cannot be restored. Of course, there was a warning that I might be putting the machine in jeopardy by making the addition. And there is always the fear that one has been fooled by a clever dummy site waiting to unleash a virus. I gave it a shot and I’m happy to report that the machine’s performance has improved markedly — at least so far. Why one browser would work better than another is beyond my comprehension, a matter for techies. I wonder if others have had a similar problem.

The floating book shop continued its recent run of good fortune. My thanks to the four women who bought eight books in Russian between them, and to the woman who works in the psych department of Coney Island Hospital, who has been on a writing jag inspired by her daughter’s pregnancy, and who was unable to resist The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology by Faubion Bowers and a collection of Middle Eastern poetry; and to Ira, who chose a pictorial on interior designs to feed his unrealized dreams, and How to Clean Practically Anything by The Editors of Consumer Reports; and to the local home attendant who selected a large book on French culture in French; and to the woman who donated five books; and to Lynn, who donated two more Stephen King novels. Non-fiction sells so much better than fiction, at least in English. Novels in Russian are pounced on.

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vic fortezza
vic fortezza

Written by vic fortezza

I was born in Brooklyn in 1950 to Sicilian immigrants. I’ve had more than 50 short stories published world wide. I have 13 books in print.

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