View 264 June 30 - July 6, 2003 (original) (raw)
Monday June 30, 2003
I am on the final stretch of Burning Tower, and it's column week. There was considerable mail over the weekend, some of it quite interesting. See the topics at the top of the page or just go to Saturday and read on...
I just got this:
Norton AntiVirus found a virus in an attachment you (jerryp jerryp@jerrypournelle.com) sent to [deleted by JEP]
To ensure the recipient(s) are able to use the files you sent, perform a virus scan on your computer, clean any infected files, then resend this attachment.
Attachment: PB080005.exe
Virus name: W32.Klez.H@mm
Action taken: Clean failed : Quarantine succeeded :
File status: Infected
It was sent from the person whose name I have deleted. I sent the following reply:
I did not send that. Someone who has you in his address book has a virus that sent that, and since I am also in his address book it was able to fake my return address. This is common practice of Klez.
Please disable whatever software that is sending these scare messages. Some people will actually panic on getting this.
And there is a lot of mail today, reopening the subject of Republic and Empire; quite enough to take up your time for the day.
I am finishing this from San Diego. I get here by train, with driving from the Solana Beach station courtesy of former Chaos Manor Associate and long time friend Peter Flynn. Roberta had a minor accident and I came down to be sure all is well and to drive her home tomorrow. She's fine barring a heck of a headache, but I don't have any of the mail that came today: I left Outlook running back at Chaos Manor. Alex has since turned off that computer, so I'll get mail from now until I shut down in the morning to drive back up.
It's still column time, and time to finish Burning Tower, but I fear I have lost a day. I tried working on the column on the train, but the smooth ride I recall from previous trips was replaced by a very jerky and bumpy ride this time. Not sure why. Different track? Different train? In any event I got a few hundred words done, but it wasn't as easy as it was before.
I am once again working through a dialup connection. I have to say that it's not as bad as I thought, and this page seems to refresh fairly quickly.
This would be a good time for an essay, but in fact I'm a bit tired, and I suspect anything I said now would be silly.