Virus warning

There seems to be a worm going round infecting various systems and causing the PC to shut down, especially XP.
Read bibliogirl's last entry for the full blurb.

I won't be emailing before this is fixed as my laptop seems to be infected.

Thanks for listening.

Update: I ran the fix so hopefully this is sorted.
The Worm might be the W32.Blaster.Worm, according to the Symantec Website. I followed the instructions there and I'm not infected, might be a different virus, though.
I updated AVG but no luck yet so I won't be using my laptop for mail until this is sorted.

Vote Eric!

robinbloke, did you pay his membership fee?

If so, we can vote for him to be International Member of the Year.

On nominating Eric

Don't believe that I won't nominate someone else as well. Nominating him(and it's only a nomination, not a vote, I apologise for the typo) doesn't mean he'll get it.

There is no way I would vote for Eric, I never voted for him in any of the elections he was in but I think it's a laugh to nominate him.

This shows that a lot of nominations don't mean anything about whether the candidate actually deserves an award.
Take Mr Fuckwit (as a random name), who has a number of good chums in the society but hasn't done anything to warrant an award. All his friends are going to nominate him and if we're unlucky, he'll get it.

There aren't any rules who can nominate whom. However, where do you draw the line in a society where a lot of people are friends (and dire enemies)?

[Eric] I just realized something

If I hadn't had the idea to give Robin an adoption certificate for a penguin for his birthday three years ago, all this wouldn't have happened. Nobody would have made him member, no membership secretary would have given him #1000, the then NC wouldn't have awarded him MC13 and he never would have entered any election.

So, blame me!

X of the year - Can nominations ever be objective?

Leaving the silly joke of nominating Eric to the side, I've been thinking about this.

Everyone will nominate someone they know does good work. These tend to be people in your Domain as most often a member doesn't see much of the work of R and higher officers (unless you're an officer underneath or above them).

So for me, it's logical to nominate Robin as Coordinator of the Year because I know how much work he put in and how much shit he had to put up with.
Now, Robin's not just my DC and an AST of one of the local games, he's also a really good mate, who I hang out with regularly. Will I be accused of nepotism if I nominate him?

On the other hand, nominating someone based on second-hand information is tricky, as well. Various people have been suggested but while I know them and know of their work, it's not something I have insight on as I don't live in their domain/region or am not connected to the venue or subgroup of that venue they work in.

It'll never be completely objective.