You may have heard about the Fidelity Investments laptop which contained the personal information of 200,000 HP current and former employees that was stolen recently. Yep - my data was on there. And here I thought that my relationship with HP had ended.

So I've spent the last couple of days printing out my credit report so I can see what accounts I can close to better track activity. Then I registered a fraud alert with Equifax. I had mixed feelings about that one, but I thought in the end it made more sense to do it than not to do it. Of course, I'll have to keep doing it every nine months from now until a few years from now if I want it to mean anything. Evidently it is not uncommon for identity thieves to hold off on using the data for a period of a couple of years to give their victims a chance to cool down from the panic period and get lazy about monitoring their accounts.

There's a lot of information about identity theft out there, but there's nothing I've read that makes me any less nervous about what could happen. And there's just not that much you can do except keep on your toes. I've closed down all inactive accounts, put password protection on my bank accounts, registered a fraud alert... I don't know what else I can do that makes any sense.

I keep hoping the laptop was lifted by someone who just wanted the hardware. But even if that were the case, by now the media has made it clear that the robber has made of with something very valuable indeed. The temptation to make a bundle on the black market would be great indeed. And whoever this person is, they are capable of theft. So selling other people's personal information for a price is something they would likely be capable of. I just don't see a silver lining on this one.

So keep your fingers crossed for me and the other 200,000 victims. Thanks Fidelity Investments, for you bone-headed data protection policies. (What the hell was that data doing on a laptop to begin with?)

Man. Where does the time go?

I haven't posted in ages. Between SAP, side work, family and friends I have had no down-time to speak of in months. Lynnie needs a vacation.

Plaguing my brother and I on a weekly basis are the ongoing computer problems he's been having across multiple machines over the past several months. I can't for the life of me figure out what the hell is going on. Our latest "theory" is faulty power, if you can believe it. I'm running out of guesses.

Each of the three machines we have used at his house demonstrates the same basic problem. All three machines are running Windows XP SP2. The only programs Paul uses regularly are Word, IE and Skype.

The first sign of trouble is always the same. The Virtual Memory Manager informs him that it is increasing his page file. (I always set it up so that Windows manages his virtual memory rather than specifying a size manually.) Windows chugs along increasing the page file and then usually additional error dialogues begin popping up. Often times it is helpcenter.exe that starts generating error after error and you can't close them all. Sometimes he'll get a "Welcome to Internet Explorer" dialogue as if he has just installed IE. It makes no sense at all.

Usually at this point, it is impossible to close all of the error messages. The three-fingered salute won't even work - you can't close all the error dialogues. You close one and another takes its place. Even trying to shut down from within Task Manager doesn't work. You end up having to force the shutdown. (God knows how many garbage files are strewn about his system as a result.)

Three machines each have the same behavior, but only at his house. When I swap out a machine I can never recreate the problem at my place.

No malware or viruses have ever been detected and I always install the latest definitions and run checks regularly whenever I'm there, as does Paul.

So I'm completely stumped. I thought maybe it had something to do with Skype and the VOIP wireless headset he uses with it since the problems started only after he started using them. But uninstalling Skype and removing the headset did nothing.

So if you're reading this and have any suggestions at all, I'd love to hear them.