2007 — Day 100 - farewell, Big Bro
And a safe return from the French ski slopes for Junior...
The scanner has been deemed satisfactorily faster than its Minolta baby brother, which has no support or driver for use under Windows XP. How's that for magnificent obsolescence?
In a change from our scheduled programme, we showed him the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair though he later hinted he may have seen it on an aircraft (or two). That's the hazard of being a globe-trotting international aircraft trouble-shooter, I suppose. I still enjoyed it again.
The Works turned up trumps
They may be stacked to the gunwales with cheap remaindered stuff that nobody could possibly ever have wanted even in the first flush of full price, but browse their shelves and be amazed:
- Always look on the Bright Side of Life by Robert Sellers. A perfect title for an in-depth examination of HandMade films, which began by ex-Beatle George Harrison's money "saving Python's 'Brian'" as it was simply a film he wanted to see
- Ghost Ships by Robert McNab. Looks like a fascinating account of a voyage by three famous Surrealists just before 1924. Well, two Surrealists and the lady who was to become Dali's muse...
- My life as a spy by Leslie Woodhead. One of those bright lads who, during his National Service, ended up at the Joint Services School for Linguistics being immersed in the Russian language prior to a posting in Cold War Berlin. Other alumni included Kenith Trodd, Michael Frayn, and Alan Bennett
And, continuing the cerebration in town, we can now add to the list:
- Clue — the 1985 film by Jonathan Lynn and John Landis. Excellent cast and a vintage year; here's hoping
- Volver I forgot to mention this arrival in yesterday's post
- Why software sucks by David S Platt. Subtitled "and what you can do about it" which is a tad on the hopeful side, I suspect
- Moving to free software by Marcel Gagné. Now here's a smart idea: outline all the excellent free software1 available for Windows, give each item its own chapter on how to install and use it, bang it all on an attached DVD, and reserve to the final chapter (on Ubuntu Linux, naturally) the dénouement that it's all basically available on Linux too.
- Photoshop Elements 2: Top 100 simplified tips & tricks by Denis Graham et al. Not quite as patronising a title as the yellow and black "... for Dummies" titles. PE2 isn't free software, of course, but since I'm now the proud owner of a legitimate copy of same thanks to a certain Big Bro and his Nikon scanner (he already has PE2 from an existing software bundle so it was going spare) I wasn't about to say "No"