Late posting this blog, nothing terribly much to report.
I've decided to escalate my recent cold to flu status, as it has been sorely afflicting me for the past few days. Flu bug Bob, has outstayed his welcome, joyless nasal precipitation, general facial crustiness on waking, opportunities to practise blowing my nose as a novel wind instrument, a sort of snottery flugelhorn, with fine burbling undertones. My IQ has dropped enormously, and energy levels have gone through the floor. Of course I am not one to feel sorry for myself, or moan on, well I am, but folk just make their excuses and leave.
I've just taken it easy this weekend, not doing terribly much. The weather has been fine and crisp, which for this time of year, is my favourite kind of weather. It is great to get out with the dog, and walk over frosty ground, avoiding the usual slippery muddiness. Even though I've not been out much, feeling the sun come in the windows, has a wonderful effect.
Watched Shoot Em Up last night, which I had got for my wife as a Valentine's present, I think Clive Owen was part of the appeal for her, but we do have a mutual weakness for mindless entertainment. In those terms, it is an absolutely fantastic film. A non stop romp from beginning to end, a live action Bugs Bunny film, with cartoon violence and logic.
Also been struggling again with backing up to one of my hard drives. Problems with backups stalling part way through, and just never finishing. After a lot of fiddling about it seems to be going okay. I think that you just end up getting into a vicious circle with these things, getting impatient, layering problem upon problem, which is something these complex systems really hate. Once things start going wrong the odds seem to be against getting them back on track again if you just start madly tinkering with things.
Anyway not entirely sure that I have got the the bottom of things, but the hard drive is indeed working again, I suspect that a dodgy cable had something to do with it. Keen to get to the bottom of whether the drive is reliable or not, while it is still under warranty, but these technical things are like one of those old style sets of fairy lights, where all the bulbs are in series, and just one dud bulb means the whole thing doesn't work until you have identified and replaced it. Who knows what little bit of technical doo hickery was to blame.
I do wonder at just how complicated all these things are becoming. Maybe we will all be having home IT consultants in future, the way we have plumbers now, popping round to do a bit of tech support for folk. I've got the job here, but I'm interested anyway and have the time and knowledge to do it. I'm not sure it would really be worth most people's time to get that involved in the tech support if all they want is a running system, but as soon as you get at all technical in what you are doing, you will bump up against a not inconsequential number of technical problems.
We probably also need people to come and set up our televisions too, I must confess to being totally lost of all the various options.
Also of note, daughter number two, the noisy one, who I love dearly, has been away elsewhere on a sleepover, so it has been possible to take a breath without her jumping in with something. Which has made the weekend a great deal more relaxing than it might have been. When you are down to your last brain cell, this is much appreciated.
Finally, the latest Mountain Goats album will be out next week, looking forward to it.
Sunday 17 February 2008
Thursday 14 February 2008
gym membership syndrome
Someone told me recently that downloaded films were becoming the new Gym Membership Syndrome. Which you can probably just about work out, but just to clarify, you join a gym, pay them money, but never have the time or the inclination to actually go, similarly you download the films, but never find the time to actually watch them.
Which meant that we then got onto talking about how we all used to tape mountains of programmes, creating wobbly piles of videos, indifferently labelled, and simply lost the will to ever watch them. I think I still have some episodes of Star Trek - the Next Generation up the loft that I've not got round to watching yet.
It is the same with those boxes that record tv programmes for you, you back up episode upon episode until the thing fills up with stuff you will never get round to watching.
I suppose that there are two sides to this, there is the feeling of worthiness, that this is something that you really ought to be doing, and the feeling of guilt that you never really want to admit that you aren't going to watch the stuff.
The big pile of unread newspapers, the unfinished books at the bedside, I suspect that gym membership syndrome is taking over the world, or at least taking over my house.
Onto other things, I've just installed additional sim memory to my laptop, seeing as installing to the desktop seemed trouble free. A little less trouble free this time, sims installed, computer failed to start up. Eventually figured out that it was just a case of not shoving the sims in far enough. I should have done them one at a time, and then that way, I could easily enough of shoved the new one in as far as the old one, which would have taken the guess-work out of it. You live and learn.
I'm intrigued at the idea of TimeCapsule, which would provide me with a wifi base station and allow me to back up my laptop without plugging it into anything. Maybe something to investigate in due course.
Otherwise, a busy week, more travelling than I would prefer, interesting stuff, but exhausting. Like a fine wine, I really don't travel well.
Which meant that we then got onto talking about how we all used to tape mountains of programmes, creating wobbly piles of videos, indifferently labelled, and simply lost the will to ever watch them. I think I still have some episodes of Star Trek - the Next Generation up the loft that I've not got round to watching yet.
It is the same with those boxes that record tv programmes for you, you back up episode upon episode until the thing fills up with stuff you will never get round to watching.
I suppose that there are two sides to this, there is the feeling of worthiness, that this is something that you really ought to be doing, and the feeling of guilt that you never really want to admit that you aren't going to watch the stuff.
The big pile of unread newspapers, the unfinished books at the bedside, I suspect that gym membership syndrome is taking over the world, or at least taking over my house.
Onto other things, I've just installed additional sim memory to my laptop, seeing as installing to the desktop seemed trouble free. A little less trouble free this time, sims installed, computer failed to start up. Eventually figured out that it was just a case of not shoving the sims in far enough. I should have done them one at a time, and then that way, I could easily enough of shoved the new one in as far as the old one, which would have taken the guess-work out of it. You live and learn.
I'm intrigued at the idea of TimeCapsule, which would provide me with a wifi base station and allow me to back up my laptop without plugging it into anything. Maybe something to investigate in due course.
Otherwise, a busy week, more travelling than I would prefer, interesting stuff, but exhausting. Like a fine wine, I really don't travel well.
Saturday 2 February 2008
bouncy kwix menus
A quiet week, getting settled into my new post.
Finally bought myself a new mobile phone, my sister has been teasing me on the current brick for some time. It has started to make odd chirrups for no real reason, so I felt that it was probably about time to upgrade. Also took the opportunity to change from a monthly contract - on which I have been getting a rebate, to a pay as you go phone. I generally use the mobile through clenched teeth, with an austerity that keeps my calls down to half an hour a month.
So the delights of phoning call centres, visiting mobile phone shops and speaking to bored looking assistants, and negotiating PAC codes. I know that me buying a cheap pay as you go phone is hardly going to get them breaking out the champagne, but seeing as the whole high street seems to be full of mobile phone shops these days, you might have thought that a bit of old fashioned service would not have gone amiss. Anyways, I seem to have got it all sorted out after a few phone calls and a couple of visits to shops. For interest I have switched from O2 to Orange, as Orange seemed the perkier of the two.
My new phone is the usual fairly standard model, but does come with a camera and one of those round buttons that let you drill down the menus. Anything that relies on ingenious key combinations generally seems to me to be the invention of the devil, brings on the stupid red mist, and I instantly become completely incapable. I am pretty good with computers, but I must confess to being a complete phone luddite. So I did want one with pretty colours and icons, on the basis that I might be able to figure out how to phone someone from the phone book, which I must confess I never really figured out on my old phone, despite having any number of phone numbers in the phone book. Like many folk, I just relied on replying to people in my call history.
I also got the extra RAM for my desktop that I'd ordered from Crucial, and this morning, spread out a couple of towels, and placed the desktop computer face down, and then opened up the bottom and firmly/gently took out the now redundant ram stick, and put in the new pair of sticks bringing it upto a more respectable two gig of ram. I must say that it does seem a lot quicker and more responsive than before, so that seems to be thirty quid well spent. It should also future proof the computer for a bit longer, making sure that it remains usable for that bit longer, it usually seems to be a lack of Ram that renders my computers redundant eventually.
I've ordered more Ram for the laptop, which promises to be a little more tricky to install.
Nothing much else to report, it is exceeding cold, I've got the bouncy kwix menus fixed on my website, with a little help from Isaiah at YourHead.
Finally bought myself a new mobile phone, my sister has been teasing me on the current brick for some time. It has started to make odd chirrups for no real reason, so I felt that it was probably about time to upgrade. Also took the opportunity to change from a monthly contract - on which I have been getting a rebate, to a pay as you go phone. I generally use the mobile through clenched teeth, with an austerity that keeps my calls down to half an hour a month.
So the delights of phoning call centres, visiting mobile phone shops and speaking to bored looking assistants, and negotiating PAC codes. I know that me buying a cheap pay as you go phone is hardly going to get them breaking out the champagne, but seeing as the whole high street seems to be full of mobile phone shops these days, you might have thought that a bit of old fashioned service would not have gone amiss. Anyways, I seem to have got it all sorted out after a few phone calls and a couple of visits to shops. For interest I have switched from O2 to Orange, as Orange seemed the perkier of the two.
My new phone is the usual fairly standard model, but does come with a camera and one of those round buttons that let you drill down the menus. Anything that relies on ingenious key combinations generally seems to me to be the invention of the devil, brings on the stupid red mist, and I instantly become completely incapable. I am pretty good with computers, but I must confess to being a complete phone luddite. So I did want one with pretty colours and icons, on the basis that I might be able to figure out how to phone someone from the phone book, which I must confess I never really figured out on my old phone, despite having any number of phone numbers in the phone book. Like many folk, I just relied on replying to people in my call history.
I also got the extra RAM for my desktop that I'd ordered from Crucial, and this morning, spread out a couple of towels, and placed the desktop computer face down, and then opened up the bottom and firmly/gently took out the now redundant ram stick, and put in the new pair of sticks bringing it upto a more respectable two gig of ram. I must say that it does seem a lot quicker and more responsive than before, so that seems to be thirty quid well spent. It should also future proof the computer for a bit longer, making sure that it remains usable for that bit longer, it usually seems to be a lack of Ram that renders my computers redundant eventually.
I've ordered more Ram for the laptop, which promises to be a little more tricky to install.
Nothing much else to report, it is exceeding cold, I've got the bouncy kwix menus fixed on my website, with a little help from Isaiah at YourHead.
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