UPDATE: Problem solved! (see comments). I am setting up a shrine to (the inappropriately named) Misanthropyst immediately...

One last plea for mercy and aid, from anyone who might know what's going on... I am doing a clean install of XP because I have corrupt sectors on my hard drive (history and many comments here). Apparently this is causing the OS to be unable to see many files and programs. Unfortunately it cannot see Outlook's constituent files -- and I really need to copy the .pst files in Outlook -- though the program itself continues to run. I have gone into a cmd.exe window, and it will bring up three .pst files in Outlook if I run dir/s *.pst. However, when I try to do copy outlook.pst D: it says the system cannot find the file specified. I tried to simply look at dir outlook and it says there are 0 bytes in that file. So. Any other ideas on how to copy, or am I doing it the wrong way, or is there actually a problem here with the system seeing the files even in dos (and therefore it's time to give up and stop wasting my time...)?  I should emphasise that I just barely know what I am doing when fishing around in a dos window! I don't know how to write vbscripts or anything fancy like that. If I have to just forget saving outlook then I'll begin to individually copy the emails I need. In the meantime I am going for a swim before my head implodes. If there are any workable suggestions when I return I will consider you a tech god and worship you daily.

1:11:31 PM  #   your two cents []

The Economist: The power of voice. Yet innovation in telecoms has not stopped. And it may be telephone services that help struggling telecoms firms to claw their way out of their slump. This time, however, the voice applications that are attracting attention are radically different from those that data networkers dismissed a few years ago. [Tomalak's Realm]
11:58:47 AM  #   your two cents []

EBay Bid for Calif. Town Closes at $1.8 Million. The frenzied bidding for a tumbledown Northern California town closed at nearly $1.8 million Friday on eBay. [New York Times: Technology]
11:52:51 AM  #   your two cents []

Rub a Dub Dub, Books for the Tub. Reading while taking a bath is no longer quite so hazardous. Just make sure it's one of several new waterproof titles on the market.  [Wired News]
11:52:05 AM  #   your two cents []

Here's a weekend project for geeks and geek wannabes! -- The idiot's guide to how to view cosmic ray tracks from the comfort of your own home. "Most of us are familiar with pictures from bubble chambers displaying the tracks of subatomic particles interacting. But what many people don't realize is that you can get similar results at home by spending about $40 on materials that are easy to obtain." [kuro5hin.org]
11:51:22 AM  #   your two cents []

Oscar Wilde. "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." [Quotes of the Day]
11:49:22 AM  #   your two cents []

The Twenty Most Annoying Conservatives of 2002 [thanks, Z]. And no, I haven't done the clean install quite yet. It has taken me several hours to get this far: backing up files yet again and again on weenie Zip drives. And checking old backups to see if I have (oh please, yes) files that the PC can no longer see, which is why I have to do the clean install in the first place. Sigh. I need an aromatherapy backrub. Or at least a stiff whiskey. It's nearly 1am -- I will face The Clean Install in the morning.
12:50:58 AM  #   your two cents []