Bought a JackRabbit

Surprise, surprise, bought a gadget today. This one was good value and definitely a sensible purchase though. Even number one sone agrees. It is a nifty little external DVD ROM drive and CD burner for my tablet PC. It also plays DVDs through the telly. I don't think it ever really caught on properly, which is why they were being sold off sort of cheap. It is rather nice when you go up town with an idea of what you want and find exactly the thing at a very good price. And it is shiny too.

Number one wife (that so does not sound right) went out tonight to a pop concert. I stayed at home to look after the kids (that sounds wrong as well). Anyhoo, my wife watched Bryan Adams during a cloudburst and I watched Terminator 3 with the volume turned up loud. I think that, on balance, I won on that one. She could have bought me a T shirt for a mere 22 quid. Mercifully she rang up first so that I could ask if I could have the money instead....

 

Ready for Departure

Trying to get ready for the trip to Amsterdam next week. I think that I've done all the things that are required. The good news is that in this connected world I can probably recover from most problems because I'll be able to work using the network in Amsterdam just about as efficiently as I do at home.

 

May I call you Sir?

Had occasion to use a telephone support line today. "And shall I call you 'Robert' or 'Mr Miles'." Er, well, unless you are talking to several people at once you can just call me "you", seeing as we are on the telephone and I'm the only one at this end. And anyway, what's wrong with "Sir".

I think I'm turning into the "retired Colonel" type.

 

Gmail

Number one son has managed to blag a Gmail account. This is the new, fangled, email thing from those Awfully Nice (tm) Google people. It looks very good. I'd quite like one too. So now I'm in the awful position of having to ask him for something (an amazing reversal of fortune) in case he ever gets a referral. I think I have the upper hand though. How much food, water and board do you think such an account is worth?

 

Results and Resits

Most of the students have got their results now. Some are coming in to say thanks. It is kind of depressing to think that I may never see them again as they go on to great (and better paid than me) things. Others are coming in and asking when the resits are. Ho hum. If anyone reading this has a resit I should remind them that the key to passing a resit is past papers. Get hold of the last three years worth of exam papers. Do every question on every paper. Then sit down with a book and mark them. If you are on one of my modules you can even send your stuff through to me (or bring it along) for comments.

If you do this, and make sure that you resubmit any coursework reassessment, you should find that you can get through and move on with your course.

 

The Busy Light

I like my computer at work (perhaps more than is healthy). I use it every day and see it as the tool by which I do my stuff and express myself. Perhaps in olden days peasants had similar feelings about their ploughs. And maybe their horses. But there is one aspect of the machine which drives me bonkers. This is the hard drive light. I have a machine with a reasonable amount of memory. And nothing I do is particularly difficult for the machine to manage. And yet I keep seeing the hard disk light lit, which to me means the computer is saying "I've decided to stop working for you and instead shuffle some data around for no good reason".

First thing in the morning is the worst time. It sometimes takes me as long as 3 or 4 minutes of hard drive light before I get my machine back and am able to use it. Now I know that we live in an impatient age. And that I could probably get along fine if I just went off and got a coffee whilst the machine sorted itself out. But to me the hard drive light just screams bad design at me. There should be no reason why the operating system needs to do that shuffling. Smug number one son says that it is all down to Windows XP, and that Linux machines don't do that. I'd love to be able to find out whether this is true or not but at the moment my plough of choice is made by Microsoft. Hmm. Perhaps I'd better go and get some more memory.

 

BBQ Gazebo

Went round to my sister's for a BBQ today. Boy did it rain. Boy did we not care. They've got a gazebo which sits nicely over the grill. It was really pleasant to sit out there in the dry with the rain tippling down past us just a foot away, sipping a Becks and watching the food cook. We do need the rain, but I think we got around a week's worth.....

Anyhoo, the food was good, the company was good and a great time was had by all.

Yep. That seems hot enough to me...