7-3-i-search-merlina

= Viruses Against Viruses = = = by Merlina I wondered for a long time, if viruses can cure other viruses. Viruses can mess up your computer but they can't be cured. I got interested in the topic because I have had many viruses on my computer. I have viruses that I do not know how to cure and I am interested in this topic. My computer viruses gave me the idea to do my project on this topic. I became interested in this just in time because a virus was in my computer and i became interested in them when we began the project. Have you ever had a virus that you could not fix?

It was a great experience finding information about computer viruses. My computers always had viruses and this was always an interesting subject to me. Interviews, research and much more was involved in the journey of the research for my I-search. I had a lot of sources to help me with my I-search. I searched for computer repair stores near me where I could find somebody to interview. I learned a lot in the repair shop. The man from the store told me that many people took computers in to get viruses fixed. There are also some books and websites that were very helpful in my research. I found a lot of information on the website, [|Howstuffworks]. This website as well as others was very useful information-wise.

When I was looking for information it was helpful to look on Google and Yahoo for places I could call, e-mail, or go to for an interview. One of the places that mostly helped me was Best Buy. They have many people who know a lot about computer viruses and it helped me learn a lot. They let me have an interview with a person from Geek Squad. He told me that he became interested in working with computers when his computer had viruses and he wanted to learn how to fix them. After talking for a little while more about the viruses of computers and how they worked, I asked my topic question. This was the one thing he had difficulty responding to. He thought that it was difficult to respond to my question because there are different types of viruses that respond differently to different things. One thing that was helpful about his answer was that he told me, when he had a bad computer virus, he did cure it. He told me that he had put the same virus in the computer again and he got rid of it. Next, I went to a computer repair shop near my house.

At this store, I learned more information about curing viruses. I called the shop and asked if I could get an appointment for an interview for a school project. The person who answered told me that he could talk to me for a little while. I went to the shop and there was a woman who was the person I interviewed. I first asked her some questions about how she became interested in computers. She said that all her life she saw her father working with computers and fixing them. She loved to help her father fix computers at home and at his repair shop. She was always interested in this and followed a career in computers. After we spoke about this for a while I asked her if she could answer my topic question.

She asked me if I knew anything or if I had learned anything about it yet. I told her about my interview with the man from GeekSquad. She told me that she did not have to use the same type of virus to cure her viruses. What she did was insert virus that was the opposite of the virus on her computer. What she meant by opposite was that she had a virus that was not very easy to cure and inserted a virus that was easy to cure. According to her, this causes a neutralization and makes the computer go back to normal. She compared this to adding a negative number to its opposite for instance, -3+3=0. This woman also taught me a lot about viruses but both, the man from GeekSquad and the woman from the repair shop said two opposite things. So I decided to try this out on my own.

It was perfect timing because my computer had a virus. I took it to the repair shop and I asked if they could teach me how to put a virus in my computer. It was difficult because I wanted to test using an opposite virus and the same virus. First I decided to test the strategy of the neutralization, it sounded reasonable to me. This approach actually worked! The virus on my computer was cured, but I still wanted to try out the other tactic. So, the woman at the shop assisted me in re-installing the virus. Then I tried the second strategy. It also worked just as well as the other. It was fun to learn and actually experiment with fighting viruses with other viruses. I learned a lot from my experience, and my topic question was answered. Viruses can be cured with other viruses and there are many ways techniques that are used to do this.

In my journey about finding if you can get rid of a virus with another virus, even though viruses are hard to get rid of, if you work hard, you can stop them. Fighting a virus against another virus can actually get rid of a virus. It may sound difficult to do, but it is pretty simple. While doing my I-search, I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot. It was very interesting to learn so much about viruses and also have so much fun doing so. I interviewed some people who really helped me find out more about viruses and some who helped me answer my topic question. There were many things that helped me out and others that didn't but I still found out a lot and got my topic question answered.   Brain, Marshall. "Howstuffworks "Computer Virus Origins"" __Howstuffworks__. 1 Apr. 2000. 9 Apr. 2008 < [|http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus1.htm>.]
 * Works Cited**

" [|http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/.html.]" //The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.// © 1994, 2000-2006, on Fact Monster. © 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Fact Monster. 09 Apr. 2008 < [|http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0813134.html>.]

Wikipedia, ed. "Computer Virus - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia." __Wikipedia__. 9 Apr. 2008. Wikipedia. 9 Apr. 2008 < [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Virus>.]

Gregory, Peter H. __Computer Viruses for Dummies__. Indianaopolis, Indiana: Wiley Publisher, Inc., 2004.

LEARN THE NET:Computer Viruses." Learnthenet. 8 Apr. 2008 < [|http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/37virus.htm>.]

Computer Viruses: What are Viruses." Microsoft. 23 Oct. 2006. 8 Apr. 2008 < [|http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/basics/virus.mspx>.]media type="custom" key="819589"