Picture of the day.

Slightly drunk (and on a school night too!)

I�m_Sorry_Dave:

Paul�s new CD writer had arrived. Sarah had hardly put down the phone after telling him, and he was already at her desk. �Where is it? Where is it?�

�Jesus. Are you like this at Christmas.�

�I only get socks at Christmas. It�s no fun any more.�

�Here. It�s there.�

Paul examined the beige box he had coveted for so long. He frowned.

�What?�

�I don�t have a normal CD drive. What am I going to put the installation disks in?�

�The software�s on the network. In the PC Build drive. Here.� Sarah started down a tree of folders and directories at a speed which would lose most others.

Something beeped. Paul checked his phone. No. �You�ve got mail.�

�HAL�ll deal with it.�

�HAL?�

Sarah glanced over at her PC. �Honest Answers Language. I couldn�t think of a better way to get the name.�

�Huh?�

�I built a program which takes e-mails and answers them. It checks the sender�s name against a database of outstanding work and tells them what�s going on with their request.�

�You can do that? I haven�t even got beyond auto-reply.�

�I�m sure some people don�t even know they�re not getting it from me. I check the mails, but mostly HAL�s answered the question for them. Saves so much work.�

�Can I steal it?� Paul was hugging the CD writer to his chest like a long-lost teddy bear.

�Maybe. If you�re nice to me.�