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

On Wednesday my laptop and Wii got stolen, after some idiot (me) left the bathroom window open, so sadly I won't be around much until I get a new PC. A cheap one, seeing as work is under administration giving me no job security.

In the interests of having something cheerful to say, I went to a bridge competition yesterday as part of the Leeds Uni B team and we did pretty well. Most importantly we finished ahead of Leeds A and did pretty well in the games against them. For those who understand such things we ended with +9 IMPs to their +3, having taken 18 in three hands when we played them.

Sorry to hear about the burglary .

I love playing bridge, but have never entered a tournament. But good luck with that.

Rats, Baggers. It's so disappointing when things like that happen. Do burglaries increase there around the holidays? They seem to do so here, which is the exact opposite of what should happen.

I hope the job doesn't run out on you. Keep a happy thought.

Well done for beating Leeds A. It's always a good feeling, isn't it.

That's awful about your things being stolen though.

I'm kind of surprised we beat them, as I thought they'd be pretty strong this year. At least there's no player who tends to make up his bidding system as he goes along and stop in 4C all the time.

Anyway, laptop is replaced with shiny new cheapish desktop. The screen seems huge to me, but 19" is the smallest the retailer sell. We had fun getting on the internet. And by fun I mean difficulty and irritation when I didn't know the pass key for the router. Tried installing the Beardie Media software, but it couldn't find my wifi dongle. (Look, it's right there sticking out of the back of the computer. Stupid software.) Housemate tried to find out from her settings what it was and ended up unable to get on either. Then she thought she remembered the password, but that didn't work. Eventually she found the bit of paper with it written on, and it was exactly what I'd been trying, but with two capital letters. Bah.

If it's just you and your housemate using the computer, why do you need password protection at all, Bagpuss?

This is for wifi, although I'm wishing my stolen laptop had been password protected - not that there's anything very interesting on it.

Does your apartment/house have wifi, or is there a communal wifi supplier for the whole area? I ask this, because the mayor of Boston, where I live, wants to install wifi everywhere in the city, so you can use laptops anywhere you happen to be.

No, it's a house one. We're with the company I shall call Beardie Media, who are not famed for the quality of their customer service, so I'm glad I didn't end up having to call them.

Good customer service is a dying art.

It will be when I'm out of work.

The out of work business worries me. Good luck with the job hunt.

I just realized that this thread is about burgulary, not burglary. I'm not sure what the difference is, though.

Well, you know how Brits add extra Us to words

I thought it was about burgularisation.

< seizes the second "u" and runs away with it>