[plug] Wailing computer,whining owner.

[Richard Hardy]

	I log on,saunter away to indulge a leisurely breakfast, and am rendered
rigid by a continuous, high pitched siren issuing from the computer. I
wait,listening,anticipating a U-boat commander screaming, "Dive,dive,dive."
	Panic is abroad in the land of Linux RH7.1. Maybe Bin Laden has wrecked
the system.The wail continues. I rush back to the machine, resist the urge
to thump it. I scramble to Gnome Control Centre and Sound Events. Nowhere
does it say, "How to turn off irritating, unexplained, worrying alarm(?) I
get a message: The default DCC receive directory is your home directory, so
you chould change this at some stage. A box appears: ifc.xchat.org. I
recognise this as but another symptom of that glossolalia that I am
beginning to associate with all things Linux.
	I consider an e-mail to plug for help,but being roughly 50 years older
than our Clinton, I lack his insouciance.Asking basic questions of a public
forum peopled by dudes of formidable intellect, with a low tolerance for
whining, might approximate to undressing in a chilly room full of
strangers, all hissing "RTFM."
	No, I will re-install Linux for the 5th time in three months, with the
attendant stimulation of getting on line again, tweaking Netscape, and
downloading Staroffice. Ruminating the while on what a pain Bill and
Microsoft and Windows 95 are, I will recall that I have not had to
re-install Windows once in 3 years. RTFM,I think,but what particular howto
to look at? I log off. The noise stops.
	As I need to check my mail,and get some real writing done today, I guess
I'll face the fact that life is a series of compromises, and use Windows,
Eudora and Word. Tomorrow, if I recover my nerve, I'll tackle Linux once
more. That's once more in the sense of:
	"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;"