There is no longer a need to install ICQ if you have stubborn friends who refuse to convert. AOL Instant Messenger now allows you to add ICQ numbers to your contact list, and allows you to chat with them as if they were running AIM. Apparently you can even send them files and open a direct connection.
Give it a shot!
I still haven’t been able to sign into AIM using my ICQ number, but it gives me a strange error when I try. If anybody can figure out how to do it, please let me know.
I would just like to make mention of a fact I recently discovered. After squashing a spider with a block of styrofoam, I noticed a little pit in the foam where the spider was. Spider guts dissolve styrofoam!! Isn’t that wierd? Try it yourself with a styrofoam cup and a pesky little spider. Squish it with a flat area on the cup so that the spider’s guts get on the cup. You should see some pitting on the surface of the cup.
(note: this will work best with a spider that has a large backside)
Why does it do this? Well it has to do with the spider’s web making material. The spider’s web is made from some polymers we understand little about, except that it is a liquid inside the spider and it solidifies when pulled from the spinnerettes. That means it contains some sort of solvent keeping the web dissolved. Well, this solvent just so happens to also dissolve polystyrene – styrofoam!
Some other solvent with the same effect are gasoline, acetone, turpentine, and paint thinners.
If you or somebody you know is having trouble with windows restarting for seemingly no reason when you are connected to a network (or the internet), there is a solution.
Likely you are seeing a message box that says something about the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service terminating unexpectedly.
This is being caused by an internet worm that is taking advantage of a flaw in the MS RPC implementation. If you are crashing you have the worm.
There is a solution.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=823980
This article explains the flaw and contains links to the microsoft patch files for each OS.
My suggestion:
1. IMMEDIATELY enable the Internet Connection Firewall, before reconnecting to the internet. This will protect your computer from further attacks.
2. Download the patch files as soon as possible after the computer boots.
3. Immediately disconnect from the internet.
4. Now you can safely install the patch without having to worry about windows shutting down on you.
After the patch is installed you will need to remove the worm.
6. Download the Stinger cleaner utility from NAI here: http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
You should be clear!
Here are direct links to those patches.
Patch for Windows XP
Patch for Windows 2000
Patch for Windows Server 2003
Keep in mind that this will only prevent infection, and stop the resets, but it will not cure an infection. Various sites have tools for cleaning it off, but the best protection will come from having a virus scanner installed and running all the time. There are quite a few choices, including a free scanner that ranks very close to it’s commercial counterparts in effectiveness.
Good luck!
Did you ever have one of those days where everthing just seems wrong somehow? Like every person you know is being unreasonable (including yourself), and everything you try to do is hounded by annoying coincidence after coincidence. You have a number of things you could be doing, but can’t think of anything you want to do, or are allowed to do. You are broke and you know it. Nothing is fun. There’s not enough time for anything, and you have to go do something real soon…
The world is just plain stupid.
I really can’t stand it and I don’t know why. I’m angry and that worries me because I’ve got nothing to be angry about. I mean, there are a lot of little things – I have an entire internet course I’ve been putting off that I need to start, I could finish up the other one, I could clean my room, I could work, I could write code for this intolerable posting system, I could finish up some projects I’m working on, I could go for a walk. But wait, I have excellent reasons not to do any of it. I lack the concentration to do any coursework, or I think I do and therefore I do. It is too warm and humid for any physical labor without more ventillation in my room and I can’t afford that. Can’t rely on my parents to help either or they will think I’m using them for money. WHY? Because I didn’t visit home enough or call enough and then I decided to get married in a town other than my home town. So I’m walking on eggshells with my parents. And Lauren’s parents are another exaserbating circumstance altogether, but I can’t rightly get into that.
I’m sick of people smoking. I’m sick of the way the government is being run, but there is no alternative for me. Every single one of the candidates that could possibly change the current leadership believe that women should not have to deal with the consequences of their actions to the point of killing the result. Confound it, in most every instance of pregnancy it’s the woman’s decision to have sex. THAT is a woman’s choice. NOT killing the baby they created by being foolish. Then if they don’t want the child, THEY PUT IT UP FOR ADOPTION. “Oh, but it’s too emotionally straining blah blah…” HOW CAN THEY BE SO SELFISH? HOW CAN SO MAY PEOPLE IGNORE THE FACT THAT IT IS A HUMAN LIFE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT?
Why are rich kids so selfish and rude? Why don’t parents ever take responsibility for their foolish decisions? Because it’s hard to face the fact that you screwed up. And the fact is they never mean any harm (usually…). Often they are just trying to do what’s best, but it turns out what’s best isn’t authoritarian at all. Whoops! Now my kid can’t make decisions on his own.
I’m also sick of what churches are becoming. A gay bishop? How can a church; ANY church allow people who are openly gay to be leaders of the church? Completely ignoring what the Bible has to say about it. Oh geez, it was just a suggestion. BULL CRAP!!! God doesn’t say things if he doesn’t mean it. Do you know what sin is? It is man not trusting in God’s word. It’s not so simple as “sin is breaking the 10 commandments” and trying to weasel what God really meant and how it cannot make sense; it means when man starts deciding that he knows better than God. God’s commandments were not written in the imperative – they were not commands. What? They were statements of fact. Analogous to our physical laws like gravity and inertia, they are statements of how things are. God said “people do not kill other people.” He did not say “You there! Do not kill people or face my wrath!” It is a statement of the order of the world God created, and sin causes man to question that order. Sin causes man to stop believing God. For example, a parent tells their child that people do not jump out of windows. The given consequence is that you will fall. If a child questions their parents and jumps out of a window, the consequences are clear – pain and possibly death.
The consequences are exactly the same with God’s laws. The difference is that He sent his son to take the fall for us. We don’t have to suffer and die in hell for our actions, so long as we believe, repent, and are baptized. That’s really not so bad.
But NO! Man cannot accept that gift. For some sick reason, man would rather twist God’s word than admit wrongdoing. So suddenly no homosexuality and no sex outside of marriage were just suggestions to stop the spread of disease at the time, but are obsolete now. That is disgusting. That is man denying the Word of God, denying God’s forgivenes, and therefore taking his sin onto his own shoulders. Guess what? Man cannot carry his own sin. That is, he goes to hell, plain and simple. What can he do? Easy! Accept God’s gift of forgiveness and all it entails – believing God’s word.
So I’m sick of churches, I’m sick of smokers, I’m sick of drunkards, murderers, spoiled rich little brats. What else?
Oh how about a money grubbing school that put itself in a bad place through poor decisions, and is making the students suffer because of it. Putting an administrative hold on an account because of 3 CENTS??? That is the stupidest darn thing ever. Or how about ignoring the student polls regarding the childish intervisitation policy (no people of one gender in the other gender’s room after 11:00pm or before freaking NOON!!!). Or the fact that the morons in security close up the main building at 5 on fridays (or that they close it at all) requiring you to walk outside through the snow or rain or whatever to get change for laundry, or to get to the computer labs. They could just leave it open. It would mean they couldn’t watch movies all night though.
Or how about the cafeteria that will not change their disgusting pizza sauce and during the summer gives the stupid camps SIGNIFICANT quality priority over the summer workers. Or the cougar den – the retail food place that has abysmal hours, closing at 10:30 even though the school website still says they are open till 11:30; closing at 2:00pm on friday (or is it 1?) and NOT BEING OPEN AT ALL ON THE WEEKEND BECAUSE OF THE LAZY CRAP THAT WORK THERE.
Or the student bank, which has decided that counting money to cash checks and give change it too hard on their fingernails, so they’re not going to do it anymore. Ot that when it’s 3:25 and you need change they won’t give it because they close in 5 minutes and have already started counting down the drawers… ALTHOUGH THE OFFICE WILL BE OPEN FOR THE NEXT HOUR. In fact, the sign on the door which they are too lazy to change still says that the Student Bank hours are till 4:30.
I have to go eat so I am done ranting for now. I feel a little better though.