There are two great evils in the world (besides oppression and cryptic commercials), and they are the floppy disk and the computer virus. Let me explain.

Floppy disks, at, first, seem very convenient. They are small. They are tough. They are like the rare dog known as a fyce. Holding approximately 1.5 megabytes (MB) of data, they easily store a plethora of papers and other moderately-sized files. Transporting them is no big deal, as they could probably fit inside your sock.

However, anyone who has used these little demons extensively knows how disastrous they can be. After a few months, the storage capabilities of floppy disks become unreliable. They are easy to lose, confuse or erase. And last but not least, they are prime victims for virus infection.

Like normal viruses, computer viruses need a host to survive and grow. This ideal host is the promiscuous floppy disk. Exchanging data with any desktop it comes across, the floppies can infect an entire computer lab, campus or the world!

The virus that causes the most trouble for document creators is the macro virus, which infects primarily Microsoft Word and Excel files and of which there are over 2,000 variants.

Word allows users to create "macros"--short, simple programs that can automate various processes--and a macro virus is just a macro that is destructive.

Macro viruses such as "Concept" and "Wazzu" can do everything from preventing you from saving your document to actually destroying data. They are spread by the opening of infected documents, and often exist unannounced, wreaking havoc without taking credit.

Of course, one solution is to use an anti-virus program such as F-Prot (available for free from www.datafellows.com) to prevent and disinfect viruses. But, as the saying goes, one ounce of prevention beats 100 pounds of cure, and avoiding a virus in the first place is the best option.

So, given that floppy disks are ripe for viral infection, and recognizing that avoiding infection is the goal, the logical conclusion is to avoid floppies. But how?

To modify a popularized phrase, "the network is the disk."

Everyone with an account on fas.harvard.edu has at least 6.5MB of disk space in his or her home directory. Some of this space is consumed by Pine mail folders, Web page files and other configuration files. However, most users have enough room to store at least a few floppy disks' worth of data there as well.

In order to do this, the computers you work on must be connected to the Internet.

While working on your paper (or any other file, for that matter), save it to the computer's local hard disk. But before you leave, do not save it on a floppy. Instead, transfer the file to your Faculty of Arts and Sciences (fas) account.

The process is simple on both Macintoshes and IBM-compatible computers. On the Macintosh side, you need to use a program called Fetch. Open it, (it is usually located with Internet software) and connect to fas.harvard.edu, providing it with your username and password (just like telnet).

Once connected, you will be presented with a list of the files in your fas home directory. To put a file there, select "put," but be sure to remove any spaces from the filename before sending it.