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

I'm reading a very good book about the First Crusade at the moment. Although I'm not interested in battles and warfare, the Crusades were just so unusual and caused so much change in Europe that I feel they are worth reading about.

I'm taking notes as I go.

The Crusades fascinate me. You have to wonder at the depth of conviction that made people travel thousands of miles to go and defend Europe: particulary at a time when communications and travel were a lot harder than these days.

I look forward to the results of your notes, Gnomon

Second that proposal of fb's Gnoman.

Especially as I have such problems reading now.

have you recovered from the party yet. !

Now perhaps you can inform me how |I can remove an intruder called LiveUpdate whom I never invited onto my thread. Every time I open my computer it is there - but I have two other well known security systems which work perfectly. is there a committee which prevents these intrusions onto our space. it drives muy adrenalin amd probably my Blood pressure sky high. !!

sincerely,

Christiane.
AR80!

Christiane, LiveUpdate is part of Norton Internet Security. It automatically downloads information about the latest security problems, so that your PC will not be attacked by them.

What do you not like about LiveUpdate? You can set it so that it runs in the background without you noticing it, but this slows the computer down. I prefer to have it ask me do I want to run it, and then only run it every few days. What version of Norton do you have?

Yes, LiveUppate is one of the good guys. Welcome it in and it will do good things in quiet efficiency.

DEar gnoman,

thank you so much.

I felt as if I was being attacked by vogons or people from outer space. !!

I bought my computer plus all the new programmes in June last year. so my Norton should be up to date.

I now have a message telling me to switch off my computer otherwise the updates do not come. I thought it was going to make my computer crash. so now I can switch it off, and then hopefully, if necessary it can go on running . It just forces itself on one, and I have been in a state all day about it. !!

Thanks for your reassuring news.

Christiane.

About crusades, the more cynical of us can also read them as foreign sporting holidays, escape from oppression at home, or daring career moves ...

Personally I blame Pope Urban II and the christian knights refusing to stop killing people.

AR80: "I bought my computer plus all the new programmes in June last year. so my Norton should be up to date."

Not true. Anti-virus software should be updated frequently; probably at least once a week. It's designed to protect your computer from ever-changing threats.



Gnomon, I too look forward to the outcome of your studies.

TRiG.

Isn't it just weird that the pope ever acquired an army. Next thing they were at war with the Emperor, for centuries. Against all their founder's principles.

>>daring career moves ...


That's an aspect I'd be interested in. The Marxist view of history is (loosely) 'It's the economy, stupid!'. I wonder what were the economic conditions that drove people to go crusading? Certainly there were riches to be had by sacking Constantinople and the like...but that would (presumably) apply largely to the nobility. So what made the footsoldiers sign up? What were the conditions like at home? How were the harvests?

They were pretty rotten, actually. You had to commit the equivalent of about 5 years' income in advance and for that you got about a one in three chance of returning alive, with nothing. If you were really lucky you might get some booty. The 19th Century introduced the idea that Crusaders were in it for the money but this does not appear to be true - there just weren't enough financial rewards.

Dear recumbentman and gnoman,

Have just come across this again and found your reassuring news. I shall not "panic" again if I see it in all its glory again. The fact is that I really have problems with my short term memory and I hope |I remember the good news that you have both given me. !!

With a great many thanks to the two of you.


Christiane
alsoran80

Dear trig,

do I have to physically update my programmes or do they do it themselves automatically?

thanks a lot.

Alsoran80

AR80, you can set up your LiveUpdate so that it runs automatically and then you won't ever have to worry about it again. But I can only give you instructions on how to do this if it is the same version as mine. THat's why I asked you what version you have.

If you do indeed have Norton Internet Security, then down in the bottom right corner of the screen you should see a yellow disc with a smaller green disc on top of it. Putting your mouse pointer on top of it, you should see the words "Norton Protection Centre" appearing in a box.

Click once on the yellow disc. Wait. You should get the Nortion Protection Center main screen.

Near the top of this you should see a tab marked Norton Internet Security. Click on this.

You should now see a screen called Norton Internet Security Options. On the left side of this is the word LiveUpdate. Click on it.

Now you should see two boxes:

Turn on Automatic LiveUpdate -- make sure this box is ticked.
Notify me when updates are available -- make sure this box is _not_ ticked.

Now click the OK at the bottom of the window, and close the Norton Protextiion Center window.

You shouldn't be bothered by the LiveUpdate messages again.

Thank you so much dear gnoman,

I have a friend who has more courage than I have and shall get him to come and check that I am doing the right thing when I follow your instructions. !! !!

One does lose one's confidence easily now.

I must go and check the news on Zimbabwe. It is really tragic if it is true.
That poor belaeagured wonderful country - it breaks my heart.

Christiane
alsoran80

Hi Gnomon,

There was a very good (BBC?) programme recently that explored the motivation for the Crusades. There's a church in France that has a frieze depicting Heaven and Hell in graphic detail. At that time, hell was considered a very real place and people were genuinely in fear of it, which is why excommunication was such an effective tool for the church. But, there was a way for people to buy their way out of hell and to dodge the consequences of their sins and that was to go on a Crusade. Given that the only way for most people to acquire land, wealth & property at that time was to be a more ruthless murdering thief than the next guy, the nobility collectively were carrying a lot of guilt. If they signed up for a Crusade, the slate was wiped clean. (Robert the Bruce made Douglas promise to take his heart on a Crusade to atone for the murder of the Red Comyn)

What's more, once on the Crusade they could do whatever they liked as they'd effectively been given carte blanche for the duration. So they looted and pillaged at will,knowing they would get off with it.

Riches and plunder were important, but more in the way of fringe benefits. It makes sense to us in modern times to think it was the main motivation as very few of us really believe in hell and money is arguably even more important now than then, but 8-900 years ago, people were genuinely terrified of going to hell.

Dear SWL. ,

I have taken the liberty of going to your homepage and reading it. also all the wonderful entries which you have written.

Would you ind if I put you down as a friend, and then I can go back to them and read them conscientiously? I hope that you will agree.

It has been nice meeting you.

sincdrely,

Christiane
Alsoran80

>>It makes sense to us in modern times to think [money] was the main motivation as very few of us really believe in hell and money is arguably even more important now than then, but 8-900 years ago, people were genuinely terrified of going to hell.

OK...but just to stay Marxist for a minute ...there was a body with an economic vested interest in keeping people terrified. The way to get out of hell was to give them money.