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

The new Dell laptop kept crashing Internet Explorer every 15 minutes or so. I downloaded the free Mozilla Firefox browser which has a surprising 21% market share.

The download went well and Firefox imported all my Internet Explorer favorites, cookies and homepage. So far it hasn't crashed and it politely draws a little red line under any words that I misspell. I like the interface, which, among other things, has a Refresh page icon that I was missing in the latest Internet Explorer browser.

It's free. It's better.

Welcome to Firefox!

IE is problematic. It's a tossup whether their patches do more harm than good. One of the latest 'fixes' is the prime suspect for all the crashing.

Plus, Firefox has 'tabs'.

Hi Phred and Santief.

what does "tabs" mean?

Hope you are bothj well.

From your posts I gather that you are quite pleased with the election results. I watched it all day and thought it was quite fantastic.

I read the news every morning in his special page and am fascinated to see how he is governing. Very very democratically.

sincerely,

Christiane
AR.80

Hi Christiane,

As far as I can tell, "tabs" in Firefox are little icons that track the sites you visit most often and let you switch to those place more quickly.

Phred

Thank you so much Phred,

How are you all? I have loved reading about your Christmas and all the things that you did and where you went to.

It is interesting because my brother, who is a psychiatrist who lives in Canada and his wife go down to Sarasota regularly. In fact i believe they now have an apartment there.

go well,

Christiane.

Hi Christiane,

I read about your possible boat trip to Cape Town. It sounds exciting.

There are lots of Canadians here in Sarasota this time of year. You can tell them by their accents and also because they like to wear wide suspenders to hold up their Bermuda shorts.

We're keeping busy with tennis and reading lots of books from the local library. Today I'm having an operation to have a "blue nevus" removed from my left shoulder. The surgeon has offered complete anesthesia. I laughed and told him that normally I would just hack it out myself with my fillet knife after a few shots of whiskey, but unfortunately I am left-handed so I need him to do it. I have no idea what a blue nevus is, but he said it was much better than a melanoma.

Anyway, we're looking forward to our spring and summer travels at the end of March. The days are melting away quickly. Old friends have invited us to the big Gasparilla celebration Saturday. I hope this time we won't have to wheel Mike or Steve home on the drink cart.

On Sunday it looks to be warm enough for a couple of "drift dives" on the coral reefs in Palm Beach. Gordon and Bruce will drive over with me. They are relatively new old friends who like the smell of diesel fumes in the morning.

Mrs. Phred and I are planning a Canoe trip this week up the Myakka River to photograph some 'gators and maybe a pink Spoonbill, if we get lucky.

So that's about how it's going, thanks for asking. Winter's almost gone. The leaves are coming out strong on the Oak trees.

Bob

Too prolix.

Dear Phred,

what lovely plans. My goodness, Mrs. Phred is brave to go near those Brrrr, animals. !! I would be scared stiff of them!1

Yes our plans are fine. However, I am getting slightly cold feet about being sea sick. I think that probably round the Cape and the Bay of Biscay must be amongst the worst seas in the world. apart from the one down in the very south of South America.

My brother and his w3ife are very keen tennis players. It would be funny if you came across them playing tennis. I must tease him about hi suspenders, - if he wears them. He probably does - or doesn't I do nto know. !!They would be speaking English except that my brother looks like a Frenchman!!They also play bridge.

I just know that they have an apartment at Sarasota.

The whole of England has come to a standstill because we are covered in snow. "!! i think it is fascinating, and it is even floating/drifting onto my balcony with the slight wind off the channel. / It truly looks glorious. Sounds funny to hear you talk about going diving.

With all good wishes.

Christiane
AlsoRan79

This coming weekend the temperature in palm beach will be in the low 80s. The water temperature is holding at about 76 degrees, so a light wetsuit will be comfortable. Sunny skies are forecast.

Which is why so many folks spend the winter in Florida.

It would be nice to spend the winter in Florida. As it is, it's snowing here and has been across the country. My day has been spent travelling from the southeast to the northwest. Only a couple of hours delay in the end but it could have been worse. The countryside looks nice under the snow as long as the trains are moving. Problem is quite a few are not moving, the journey could have been much worse.

The Doctor says no diving until the stitches come out a week from Tuesday. I told him that salt water was good for wounds, but he said that he didn't want any strange cooties to ruin his good work.

Phil, the snow in England sounds lovely. Maybe next winter we can do an exchange and you can live in my RV, play tennis and drive my Toyota? I will live in your place, take the train everyday and do your job? Let me know.

Tabs are what happen when you press ctrl-t... wait, you were kidding about that, right?

Florida is lovely! I am now addicted to Florida vacations. I need an income to match my developing tastes. What's a girl to do?

Win the lottery, marry a multi-millionaire?

Nice as the exchange sounds Phred, you know what I like what I do and where I live so I'll have to pass on the offer. If I am ever out somewhere you may be then I'll have to call and say hi, maybe even a few more words than that.

We've been getting loads of snow in NYC - maybe I'll take you up on the offer, Phred?

All you need to do is ace my classes in biochemistry, physical rates processes, thermodynamics, and engineering math methods. Oh, and pay what tuition is left after scholarships. In return, you have access to my room and all the amenities therein (excepting the laptop - that I'm taking), as well as my mother's cooking . You can also borrow my friends - they're nice and fun. And though this is a wrench, you can even be president of the AIChE chapter on campus in my stead.

All I want in return is to exercise your RV a little, preferably down south.

Whattaya say?

The Mother's cooking part is tempting...See if you can find somewhere in NYC where we can get some facial molds done so I don't arouse suspicion whilst taking your exams.

Dear Phred,

Could you bear to write exams again? I could think of nothing worse.

Christiane
AR80

Grading exams is much worse than writing them.

Facial molds, facial molds... is that something I can look up in the Yellow Pages?