h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What ho, all!

Ah, many a calling card!

*Gathers them up, and takes them outside the the gardener bot, whom (or is it 'who' in this case? Please pardon my grammar) he has a quick word with. A few moments later, the Professor comes back in a with a bag labelled "Calling Card Mulch - Montana Redhead."*
*He sets it on the table for MR to colect it. *
*Almost trips over a soapbox on his way to a sofa...*

Woah! I've been on too many of those things in my time on h2g2, so I think I'll leave this.
No, I've already discussed the death penalty a lot in PSHE (Personal Social and Health Education, I think), and don't want to talk about it again...

*feeling a bit rattled by the discovery that her anti-virus programme IS working*

It has never said anything - I was starting to think it was too old to recognize the modern viruses (but, on the other hand, I've never noticed any viruses affecting my computer) - when it suddenly made my computer sound like an alarm at a nuclear power plant!

I had my Yahoo Messenger active - and suddenly the siren went off, saying there's a virus in a file called update.exe received by YM. Obviously the noice wouldn't stop until I made a choice of action - I said 'kill file' because it sounded - and now my YM is closed. Dare I open it again?

You should be updating the virus definitions on at least a monthly basis. YM should be OK, but you may want to check settings to make sure that it queries you *before* it downloads anything. HTH

Marv

What settings?

Well, it depends which anti-virus program you're using. You need to search for an option where - if selected - it will ask you if you actually want to download a file or not. It helps stop hackers sending you files or files just being uploaded to your computer without your consent.
But YM will be fine.
Where did you get the file from?

OK, I guess this is a bit more complicated than I thought...

...when I opened YM yesterday, it told me there had been an updating, and asked if I wanted to update - I said yes, and it started downloading something, and then saying something about me having to restart the computer for the changes to take place, and I said NO! (in the middle of an interesting h2g2 conversation)...

...so I never restarted my computer yesterday, but turned it on today, and started YM - and WHAM! was told that the update.exe-file supplied by YM contained a virus...

...and as for the settings, my computer always asks me what I want to do with a file - open it, or save it, or cancel...

* a brief thudding can be heard coming from the vegetable bin *

*floats towards the fridge, and opens it*

Sporky, is that you? *elves have telepathic resources, you know*

As long as the file didn't run, you should be ok, T. And it sounds as if it was caught in time.

Hey there, Prof! Any more exams today? Or did you escape them?

Sporky, love, the ice cream is in the freezer, not the vegetable bin. And, besides, ice cream is always nicer if you're not cold. Come out and join us.

G7

Sporky, could you grab me a beer while your in there? Thanks a billion.

Oh. My homophone is on the fritz again.

As a side-point to the Oklahoma City bombing, in the latest issue of Time Magazine they are reporting that nationwide the number of active militia groups has plummeted from a high of 858 in 1996 to 194 last year.

A quote from a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center: "Tens of thousands of people got tired of waiting for the revolution that never came."

It appears some "good" came out of the whole sorry saga.

Heya G7! No exams for me today, only the French and German speaking tests going on during the morning. I have my French one on Friday!
My first proper exam is Geography, but that's in a few weeks.

I've posted a link over at The Other Place to a site which all you fellow computer whizzes out there could find quite hillarious. It's full of customer vs. tech support conversations, with some really funny outcomes.

Looney

Why would any "active" militia group own up to being active, surely the dangerous ones are those which appear to be doing nothing?

*decides to remain quiet on the subject of murderers and "active" militia groups...

T, I hope the interview went well. If you've a good reputation within the company then it can't be bad.
I did have a message on the answer phone telling me what I'd already found out though - at least I was told officialy

OP, you are almost certainly correct. The allegedly inactive militia will probably burst back into action following the next outrage by the cowboys entrusted with upholding law and order.

I have posted a few thought's on McVeigh's execution at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A546671

It's the same essay I posted on Lil's mailing list. May I humbly suggest the article's forum as a more appropriate place than the Atelier to discuss this matter.

Matina, a large bourbon and coke please.

Glug.

*bounds in covered in dirt*

Professor, dearest, thank you ever so much for the mulch...I've dug through the irises and daffodils, and I have just the place for it. All that dirt just made me so happy. It certainly didn't hurt that today was the last day of classes. Now only three finals to go, two of which I don't need to study for, and one I am going to spend all day next Thursday working on. I really want an A from this man. Did I tell you all that my professor has agreed to an independent study on the Inquisition? ("Oh, no, not the comfy chair!!!)

Wow, I really opened a can of worms on McVeigh, didn't I? The whole thing with the FBI is just sad...I am glad Freeh resigned. Time for some new blood, and maybe some ethics.
Might I make a few corrections? The Feebs did not kill anyone at Waco who did not fire on them first. Koresh was bound and determined to bring about the book of Revelation, and when the Feebs fired non-incendiary smoke and tear gas bombs into the compound, they set off Koresh's response, which was several areas saturated with gasoline. Koresh killed his own people, and did a good job of pointing the finger else where. Don't get me wrong...I think the Feebs went about that whole thing wrong, but Koresh wanted to die, and wanted to take others with him. Something to do with the whole apocalyptic religious tradition. After all, Jim Jones was one of Koresh's personal heroes.
And maybe I should clarify something...Susan Smith, the woman who drowned her two boys in a lake? I hope she lives to be 100 and suffers in tortuous guilt for every one of those days. What she did is so horrifying that it goes beyond the death penalty.
Do I make any rational argument? No, not really. And I think that's the root of the death penalty debate...there is nothing rational about it (this applies to almost every other heated debate, as well. You all know what ones I mean).
Well, then. That said, anyone else here as excited as I am that the Twins are actually doing well this year? About damned time!
(or alternately, how bout that cricket/ soccer/ rugby match?!)

Go the Twins, whoever thay are

In roughly eight hours time many of our British correspondents (and me) will be shouting at their TV sets while watching one of the showpieces of the British football (soccer) season, The FA Cup Final.

A likely score? Liverpool 2 Arsenal 1.

My rugby team, the Hurricanes, was bundled out of the Super 12 competition (NZ, Aus and SA) on Friday night. Sob.

Mercifully, the NZ cricket team is not playing anywhere.

Red, cheer for my Avalanche in tomorrows game one of the Western Conference Hockey Finals (tm).