I am not a conspiracy theory believer, however, I do think there are cover ups or at least attempted cover ups-- look at the Plexico Burress episode (NY Giant with illegal handgun who shoot himself in the "foot" leg) in the news lately.  That said, I wonder if my recent experience with some computer software might qualify as nefarious activity . . .

It used to be, in the good old days, that you would buy software and it was yours, it worked for good and eventually you might buy the upgrade.  These days not so -- now you buy the software, but need to re-up annually.  My utility program which includes internet security (I won't name the company), expired a couple of weeks ago.  I started getting annoying pop-up windows that I ignored (frequent readers know I hate aggravation and try my best to minimize it).

Then a curious thing happened, despite having an "excellent" wireless connection to the internet, my speeds seemed to drop, pages came up mangled, and some pages wouldn't load.  The other funny thing that happened is the annoying renewal windows magically appeared after some of these episodes.  I said to my wife, that if I didn't know any better. I would swear the "expired" software was causing these things to happen to force me into renewing . . .

Granted the other argument would be, well these are the things that the software was designed to prevent, but why did the renewal windows coincidently appear as if to mock me, as I pondered throwing the laptop through the window?

While I don't believe in corporate conspiracies of this nature, it still makes me wonder . . .

Wonder?  You might ask . . . Well I renewed the software for another year and problems magically solved . . .

One last thought:  If you wanted to sell a boat load of internet security and utility programs, might it not be in your best interest to promote or dare I say it, create the viruses?

(Cue the Twilight Zone theme music and fade to black)