My HAL appears to be in dire health. Defragging the bugger has not addressed the problem and McAfee assures me there are no viruses afoot. Nevertheless, Explorer locks up with alarming frequency, approximately as often as not. When this occurs, the entire HAL freezes up and the only way to restore normalcy is to perform a hard, manual shut down. The start up sequence then lectures me that I should always shut down my HAL through the proper channels, but, dear lad, were that possible I wouldn't have had to shut down the bloody thing in the first place. Cursed HALs. Oh, how I loathe them.

My HAL is very old and of limited abilities, but as HALs go I have nothing against it. It can't be blamed for being old and slow (Windows 98 is the most advanced version my processor will support), and until the recent unpleasantness it had never given me much trouble. And of course it holds priceless treasure: all the non-Publisher Newsletter files. If an alternative solution does no present itself presently, I fear we shall have to turn my HAL over to the tender mercies of the geeks.

I just watched The Empire Strikes Back and now I'm listening to Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Life is good.