“Pinkus, why are you always asking me stupid inane questions that have absolutely no relevance whatsoever to job at hand?”

Mac smiled and laughed loudly. It was kind of laugh that could boil water in your fishbowl. He rolled back from his desk slowly in his ergonomic computer chair, and then whipped a super-quick 360-degree wheelie stopping with perfect precision, his eyes staring directly at mine with a look of pure mischievous intent.

“You know Pinkus, I often wonder if you’re actually a human at all. The planet Kleptar 12 definitely seems like a much more probable location from which your form popcorned out and graced our universe with your presence. I’m serious man, answer question!”

Pushing back from my desk in cubicle I tried to remember Mac’s stupid question. Had I ever been thinking of someone and then phone rang, that person calling on line?

“Of course I have, it happens once in a while. Why do you ask? You got one of your deep-space theories that reason for this coincidence is actually a sign that humans were spawned by giant mushroom people in another galaxy, or is it a hidden conspiracy where mutants on Pluto are controlling our minds with ectoplasm injected into our chewing gum?”

Mac didn’t seem perturbed by my comments, obviously he was getting quite used to them. A very serious look covered his face; this was a rare event in itself as Mac never looked serious. Normally a smile was permanently imprinted on his mouth, a chilly reminder that maybe I wasn’t as happy as I could be in this life. His face often appeared in my dreams, sometimes whispering sacred proverbs, other times just a giant head chasing me through a tunnel that stretched for eternity. Of course I never spoke of these dreams to him, I didn’t want him to know that he had any effect on me, if he knew it’d be like letting a bee loose in a field of wildflowers. I’d never get him to shut up.

“Have you ever heard of concept of a collective consciousness Pinkie old boy?” he asked in an unusually intimately sounding voice.

“Yeah of course I have. I’m a computer programmer like you man; it’s called Internet. Everyone with access to it has a means to obtaining as much knowledge as they like from anyone and anywhere in world. What, do you think I’m a complete moron or something?”

Mac’s eyes lit up, they gave impression a tiger was about to pounce on a helpless antelope. In this particular case Pinkus Brewster was antelope. It was at this moment Beatles’s famous song lyric “I am a walrus.” popped into my head. I really could have handled being a walrus at that moment. It would have made it a slightly bit more comfortable.

Many Americans accidentally stumble onto pornographic material while online. A recent story at CNN (see www.cnn.com for details) tells how a man was arrested for redirecting unsuspecting victims to one of over 3,000 pornographic Websites.

He used common misspellings for sites like Disney, Britney Spears, or Barney, so that people looking for those sites would find pornography instead.

Why would a pornography marketer go after people that aren’t looking for pornography? Because they can make more money by constantly finding new targets and selling to them. Young teenagers and kids are naturally curious, are developing physically, and are more likely to be addicted to pornography later in life if they are exposed to it while they’re young.

This is one of largest industries online, and it continues to grow rapidly. You don’t have to throw out your computer to keep your home safe from Internet filth. But you do need to follow a few precautions.

1. Keep your email safe. Many email services filter out emails you don’t want before you see them- check in with whatever you use now to see if they offer this. Another way to keep your email safe is to use two addresses, one for family and friends and one for everyone else. Guard your private email address closely. Use your public email address everywhere else. If it starts to get a lot of unwanted emails, stop using it and make a new one.