Swine Flu

Naturally, the news of a possible Swine Flu pandemic is making the rounds of the Internet, and some wild theories are flying about.

However, memory made me recall that the strain of H1N1 that caused the Spanish Flu in 1918 was recreated in a the USA in 2004, and also in Canada in 2006/7:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6271833.stm
18 January 2007

The first paragraph of which reads:

Scientists who recreated "Spanish flu" - the 1918 virus which killed up to 50m people - have witnessed its remarkable killing power first hand.

Supposedly these were recreated in secure laboratories. But, for those of you who subscribe to conspiracy theories, perhaps there are 2 scenarios - (a) it somehow got out into the community; (b) the PTB have deliberately spread it. And why? To reduce the world's over population.

How long before the “Nut Jobs” start putting it down to UFOs and those pesky little gray aliens?

One More Sighting of the Falmouth Weird Creature

Well, I wasn’t going to continue to keep an eye on this story, but I found a new article in my local paper this morning. It seems that there was yet another sighting of the “Falmouth Weird Creature” back in January this year. But the young man who saw it has only just come forward as he felt it was ridiculous to have seen it. You can read his description here.

Computer Still Infuriating Me

My computer still isn't right. It's started to play up again just as it did before I put in the new hard drive. So if I don’t Blog for a while it will mean it’s gone down again. I've asked a few people about it, but I've come to the conclusion that if you ask 12 "Tech" people the same question you get 12 different answers :)

When I fixed it a couple of weeks ago I cleaned all the insides too. But I’ve now bought some compressed air to really clean the Motherboard and power pack, as well as the other fans and stuff.

Turning on my computer each morning I’ve been getting lots of noise for a few minutes before things go quiet. Of course, having mentioned that to a friend, I now find that it’s not making any of those peculiar noises at all. It certainly has a mind of its own, and I think it’s guessed I’m going to use that air on it!

Also my email client is working differently, even though I’ve checked the settings. It now wants to connect to the net when I open an email, even though I am actually connected. And if I leave it open when I’ve logged off I soon get a window asking if I want to connect again.

But I think I’ve worked out why my screen saver isn’t kicking in. It seems that if I’ve still got any other programs open that stops the saver from working. Or perhaps it’s something else as even before I log on for the day it asks if I want to connect.

Having checked out the cost of all the bits I’ll need to build a totally new computer I’ve come to the conclusion that it will cost as much as buying a new one. But doing that would mean having to get one at the cheaper end of the scale. So I still intend to build my own, that way I’ll be getting exactly what I want, as well as a it giving me a great sense of achievement.

Who’d have a computer – they’re often the cause of so much stress and frustration. But then, without one, I’d be totally isolated.

At least this weekend is a 4-day holiday for us here in the UK, (from Friday to Monday), so I’m going to take some time away from the computer and just try to relax.

Happy Spring Holiday everyone.