Category: Life

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Yet another call of “I can’t retrieve email!” Always from Outlook users. If you use Eudora, Netscape – hell, even Outlook Express, you’ll get some sort of error message if it stops working. You can usually solve it by closing the program and starting it up again. But Outlook… Outlook will get into modes where it says it’s connecting, but it will never actually contact the server. Outlook will decide it needs to ask you for your password over and over again. And if you close Outlook, it’s not necessarily gone. Even “Exit and Log Off” doesn’t always do it. No, you have to reboot the %#@! computer. And if you’re lucky, you don’t have to track down the elusive Inbox Repair Tool (which might be in the Start menu. Maybe.)

I swear, if Outlook didn’t have the name Microsoft in front of it, no one would buy it. Maybe the latest version is better, but everything I’ve tried to use or troubleshoot is still just Schedule+ on steroids with email thrown in. Calling Outlook an email program is like calling a big clunky van a race car because you’ve replaced the engine. Outlook Express, for all its rampant security problems, is a much better mail program than its namesake.

Yecch!

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The world of email viruses has changed. In the old days, they would piggyback on the messages you sent, or make your regular mail program send them out while you weren’t looking. These days they send the messages themselves, so they pick a fake return address from the same source as its list of victims: address books, web caches, and so on.

The return address on a virus like Sobig doesn’t mean crap.

So why the heck are all these idiotic virus scanners (*cough* Declude *cough*) sending me messages saying “You sent us a virus!” when a cursory glance at the headers clearly shows that it originated on the other side of the planet?

I’ve already got the server filtering out the virus itself – I’m seriously thinking about filtering out the useless warnings.

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….because right now, they’re more fun than handmaidens. This took place in the car on the way home today.

Kelson: “I’ve heard 193, 195, and 196. Where’d those numbers come from?”
Katie: “Two minutes, five minutes, and ten minutes later.”
Kelson: “I mean, the deadline was Saturday!”
Katie: “‘Uh-oh, it was stuck to somebody else’s. ….It was stapled to the chicken.'”
Kelson: (smirking) “Peer pressure.”
Katie: “So we have one stapled to the chicken, one peer pressure, and two stuck to other people’s. So who turned in the chicken?”
Kelson: (laughter)
Katie: “I know, it was filling out the forms as it went.”
Kelson: “No wonder they’re so hard to read!”

…..kind of like my notes on this conversation…..

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193 people have filed candidacy papers for the upcoming recall election. Just think about it: if every application is verified, we could have almost two hundred names on the ballot, just for one office. And they’re going to be listed randomly.

Imagine how long the ballot will be. Heck, imagine how long the info pamphlet will be. Nearly 200 candidate statements.

Only a plurality is required. In theory, it would be possible to win the election with less than one percent of the vote. Of course, we’ll probably end up with only about 5-10 people who are seriously campaigning, so it’ll be more like 10% required to win, and some polls are already giving Arnold Schwarzenegger 40%. Come to think of it, the sheer number of names may be enough by itself to get him into office: he’s got greater name recognition than anyone else on the list.

Assuming people can find him in 15 pages of unsorted names.

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Well, none pleasant, anyway. I just spent the last 10-15 minutes in the computer room (with several co-workers) because it’s the only place in the office where the air conditioning is running. As far as we know it shut off during the (hot) weekend, and of course none of the windows open. (You won’t want to open the windows with Breathe-o-Smart!)

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