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

Please, please could we have a snail. Very useful for "at a snail's pace"

Some of us have had snails for a long time ..._@o"

There's also a sad/tired pointy-shelled one ..._<@o¬

Sef, where's the piccie?

shloop, shloop, shloop!

..._@o" ..._@o" ..._@o"

Am I really that thick, or sight deficient? All I can see are:

..._@o"

or to separate them in case you are seeing the real thing:

...x_x@xox"

take out the x's & that's what I'm seeing.

Or is this basically ALL there is for a snail

If so, can't we do something about it

Exasperated

"Or is this basically ALL there is for a snail"

I think it may be time for a you-youngsters-today-you-don't-know-you're-born rant.

Them there text smileys were good enough for us pioneers when we invented them back in the early 1980s, before the rest of you even had an internet.

[Turns and slowly shloops away]

........................................_@o¬

for your info, my first home computer was a "Newbrain" - bet you've never even heard of it!!!

I first worked on a BBC at GEC, just before they gave me an IBM, the department where I worked was developing S/W for a certain aircraft (which later got cancelled).

I've been "retired" forcibly from work since '89, but have always had a home computer.

I just thought things had managed to move on - especially with all you experts around - a snail is only a little thing to ask for .....

Don't suppose you remember the TV tennis game, eh?

Yes, I remember the TV "tennis" game. We had access to one early on - though it wasn't mine and I don't know what became of it in the end. I *have* occasionally wondered but the person whose game it was is hopelessly senile now. The Apple II used the TV for output too. It had a built-in keyboard but we had to make input "paddles" for it out of big rheostats. There were a number of other customisations done to it too, eg a speech synthesiser. Those were moderately sane modifications on the whole. The early computer my brother built himself had (electrically live) strips of bean can for a keyboard...

Ah, those were the days!

Do y'know - I've switched off, gone to bed & then got up again, because this conversation got "reported" & I got worried!!! I think I mentioned a few things I shouldn't have, so came back to find someone to apologise to!

I really know nothing!

But, more importantly, I hoped you hadn't ignored the smileys in my last message and thought I was ranting!

Oh, you are definitely more advanced than me - I've only worked on the machines - never got to the intracacies of how they were put together - terrified now of adding anything hardware-wise

That game drove me round the bend though & the "unnamed" computer had so many instructions to put in before you could type anything - similar to what's used on here! ... and I had to type 50 page or more reports & things.

Anyway, must go to bed now - other half will really moan at me in the morning.
Take care

I know NOTHING about computers, but if tis a case of drawing one, cant we just steal the msn one? I'd love to have a snail one too - for some reason I had a drawing at the end of my cot in hospital when i was born, and it has sort of stuck

Sb...._@o¬
PS. the sound of the shell cracking is also slightly disgusting/unnerving/amusing