2006 — Day 19 - yes, I still remember where I was...
.. on that remarkably black day in 1963. And I cried listening to Mary Martin singing on TWTWTW, too.
Ahem. Tip of the crooked hat to Peter A for pointing out that "Mary" was actually "Millicent" — was that his thousand cents' worth?
In happier news, I have just (well, several hours ago now) treated the newest PC to a 250GB external USB2 Lacie drive and got the usual one penny change from a £60 note. I similarly treated my Amstrad PCW (CP/M 8-bit Z80 box) to a 20MB external hard drive back in 1985 and paid just over £500, which was more than the PC itself cost! Staples were also selling off a neat SanDisk Cruzer Micro MP3 Companion. You load your Cruzer USB stick with MP3s, slot it into this "Companion" and, bingo, you now have an MP3 player. Not bad for less than £5.
Plus an excellent interview of Terry Pratchett by Mark Lawson, following the fascinating piece about Doomwatch — which I have actually never seen. Its transmission coincided with what I like to think of as my Polytechnic period. I was in digs and had no access to TV. Can you imagine?
Tip of the Hat
To Andy Dean, for his ISP recommendation. I feel a saga coming on, but it should be fun.
Oops
Sadly, it's back to Staples today to return the 250GB drive. Its power supply was dead on arrival. Since it delivers a mixture of 5 and 12 volts DC via a weird plug there's not much I can do to work round this. Still, the drive looks good. (Think miniature silver version of the monolith from 2001.) By the way, when did it become possible to buy fifty blank DVD-Rs in Tesco for £8-98? That, and the remixed Beatles music album Love at £8-72 have nearly made my day. Now, if the replacement Lacie drive behaves itself I shall be one happy bunny. Hang on a tick.
The bunny is emphatically not happy! I suppose it's conceivable that both Lacie drives came from the same dead batch, but what are the chances? Oh well, back to the store again tomorrow. I find myself thinking of that Flanders & Swann song about it all making work for the working man to do...