I’m writing this late at night after yet another day of straight ten hours at the computer, uninstalling old software and reinstalling; changing passwords half-a-dozen times; resetting  security software; writing complaints  and copying log-files.

The web was supposed to make things easier.  It’s made it infinitely more complex, tiring, and dangerous.

The risk of battery or rape is not excessive for most middle-class people with some sense of self-preservation.

But the web instantly erases that modest advantage.

On the web,  you might as well be in a war-zone, crawling in the trenches, your mouth full of mud, while marauding soldiers grab knapsacks, kick open doors, and shoot up families.

Metaphorically, the web is not the wild west. It’s the front-line of  total war.

Despite changing software and connections, my security has been catching dozens of ad-ware and malware programs every day.

Today, it was spoofed mail.  Before that it was a deleted security device.

My wireless – always disabled – was mysteriously lighting up on and off.

Each by itself could  just be a  technical glitch,of course. The unknown devices I was worried about before have acquired names and a local habitation since…….

But the chance of every problem being technical is remote. Out there in the darkness, there’s always someone watching your traffic, waiting for your guard to slip.

Yet,  my esteemed readers don’t make things easier for me. They insist, not just on writing to me via email,  but to old addresses that have turned into spam dumps that I dare not erase lest some criminal recycles them for his sinister schemes.

When someone writes to one of them, it just means more spam, more hackers,  more head-ache  and harassment for me.

And it means you get blocked and your email falls into a black hole.  Which is where it belongs if you insist on thwarting me.

Headaches from enemies is one thing.  From my readers, it gets a bit depressing.