2007 — Day 91 - Do I dare to eat a peach?
Well, I have Big Bro's official permission to open up the scanner and have a little play with it. He also wants to talk to me about his backup strategy. How opportune that Novatech are now advertising a 500 GB SATA disk drive for around £90! He's currently "assembling" (no assembly required!) the rabbit-eared corkscrew we sent him for Christmas for his NZ pool-side drinking. ("Beautiful weather here, nice and warm, pool 26C, beer cold") But it's hardly any cooler here, it seems to me.
SPA? I don't think so!
I'm invited to nominate my site for SPA's (Snap Preview Anywhere) next list of top 100 sites — and me with a tiny Celeron-based web server, too! I don't think so... Still, it's always nice to be asked.
Steve rings the Bell again
In today's Guardian he brilliantly subverts that classic photo of the streaker at the England v France rugby match at Twickenham in April 1974. Cherie Blair plays the part of the official (Mr Grundy, according to Harold Evans' description of the event in his 1978 book Pictures on a Page) scurrying along with a raincoat to be the "matador of modesty".
There's also a nice obituary of Mollie Ivins. Plus a neat punchline in Doonesbury, so it's therefore still my preferred newspaper.
Final gift voucher gone
The last of the (many) generous gifts from my colleagues was the voucher from Argos that yesterday afternoon metamorphosed into a new electric screwdriver to displace the Black and Decker that I had inadvertently allowed to succumb to "battery won't charge any longer-itis" presumably by leaving it attached umbilically to what I'd assumed was a safe trickle charger (albeit for several years longer than our normal gestation period). Thanks, people. Now Junior can have his new curtain rails before he notices any change in "his" room.1
From where I sit...
Cheekily reading Micro Mart in WH Smith instead of forking out hard cash for it I see that their conclusion is "don't go near Vista for a year or so." And if you really want the Aero look (I do, I do), they say to go the (dreaded) Windowblinds route, and save a fortune. Plus, the Microsoft upgrade advisor has decided it doesn't like my (perfectly standard, does exactly what it says on the tin, three year old, USB 2) Epson 1660 scanner. And the chap with the Computer Gripes site has also taken against this money-making2 new venture. Finally, since chum Brian has also sent me a horror story about upgrades and keys, I think I shall continue to sit on my wallet.