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2008 — 11 January: Friday

It's now 01:03 and I'm fed up! My hdmi efforts have been crowned with ABJECT FAILURE. For some reason, the Panasonic DVD Freeview recorder refuses to deliver an output signal via its hdmi socket that the iScan scaler can lock onto for more than a fraction of a second. My first thought, given that the iScan can't cope with "more" than 1080i, was that the Panasonic was panicking it by feeding 1080p. But, not so. I tried all hdmi output settings down to and including 480p/480i with equally stunning failure. Still, always look on the bright side of strife, I suppose I now have three hdmi to hdmi leads, and a 4 into 1 switch box whose bright blue LEDs make street lighting unnecessary. Who knows? They just may come in handy one day soon. I was by then sufficiently tired that I couldn't even be bothered to try the Helios,¹ and have now reset the Panasonic's output to RGB, and plumbed the Humax PVR² back into it. The results are superb, and here's the new system diagram.

Only readers with total recall will notice,³ of course, that now removed from the system are the Pioneer DVD player, the cheap Lidl DVD player that I used just for CDs, and the little Sony Freeview box. So I actually now have a spare slot on the Joytech switchbox and substantially less wiring clutter "round the back"... The Humax Hi-Def satellite⁴ is still fine, as is the Echostar box I use for digital reception of NPR (though our cousins are now in excessive election coverage, presumably for the rest of this year — why don't they just shoot the silly man, or indict him as a war criminal, and move on?) The Pioneer HD DVD is fine, too...

So, some "simplification" I admit!

More later... department

Time for a snooze. Seven hours or so of dreamless slumber and then what do I find? A splendidly grade "A" grey day with rain pouring down as if it has a reservoir to fill somewhere (probably in the bog garden [aka former pond] judging by the generic sogginess out there).

Probate for a reprobate... department

So, what better excuse to buckle down and sort out the next stage of this probate lark? I must say the letter from the bank's solicitor is impressively garlanded with typos, duplications, and (how can I put this delicately?) infelicities of writing style. We're moving well into the post-literate society, even among the so-called professional classes. I'm acidly amused to note that they also seek my permission to allow their external ISO quality auditors to inspect all the paperwork. And I'm equally acidly unamused to note that they promise to keep me informed of progress not less often than once every six months!

Still, at least they offer a wide variety of payment methods, so that's OK then.

First, a little something for the inner man. In fact, I hope Mr Postie delivers that rental hacking handset, too.⁵ I need every excuse I can find to postpone dealing with all the sodding paperwork of Christa's estate (all one side of A4 that I effortlessly reduced it to in mid-November, that is). I also still need to reply to the DWP folk who need to know my inside leg measurement (and more) before disbursing a smidgen of pension that they still (think they) owe to the poor departed girl. Or perhaps it was the winter fuel payment she was entitled to, being a lady of (above) a certain age?

Whip hack-away... department

Cool! My Panasonic HD DVD PVR is now a multi-region player (after, ooh, all of two minutes unhard work) so all that remains is to run Joe Kane's Digital Video Essentials DVD through it to make sure the plasma screen is optimally set up for this new "central" plank of my A/V system. Since it's still raining, what better time to do that than now? (There's some essential shopping to be done, but that can surely wait! Who needs food when there's a new toy to play with?) Or, this week, two:

I think the hacking handset (on the left, in case you were puzzled) wins hands down in the minimalist design packaging department. But the iPod (on the right!) isn't too shabby.

Quick expotition... department

Over to Winchester for some vital technical fiddling about, then back (via Waitrose) for some equally vital non-technical nutriment. Can you believe, I have just bought my first tin of fruit since before Christa died? I always enjoyed apricot halves, but I'm going for the version that claims to float them in fruit juice rather than syrup. And I've remembered to pop the bottle of champers into the fridge in time, I hope, for this evenings "drinks and nibbles". I shall be toasting the two-month anniversary of my Best Girl's departure from this soggy vale of tears. Two months?! Unbelievabubble.

Chain mail? In this day and age?

I've just received an email inviting me to boycott Esso and BP this year by shopping for petrol only at Shell, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Jet etc.⁶ The theory goes, by each of us passing the note along immediately to ten people "we" could reach about 300,000,000 consumers in eight days or so (a dubiously pyramidical proposition, but let's not worry about that too much, though I'm inclined to wonder how many people have email). If these two giant companies are not selling any petrol, says the theorist, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. Petrol tax, anyone?

Life imitates art

A story today about a couple whose marriage has been annulled following the discovery that they are twins. Code 46 anyone?

Before I go... department

Just before her death, Christa had a visit from our old chum (and honorary grandmother of Junior) Val from Old Windsor. I'm slowly working on getting Val into the habit of using email rather than pen and paper — I have trouble reading her handwriting, but don't ever tell her! Today, she confirmed what Christa had long thought about the occasionally therapeutic power of driving:

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Footnotes

¹  If you recall the Sunday evening/Monday morning A/V experiments, I would first have had to reset its own hdmi output though Mike did email me to say he'd subsequently found a handset shortcut for doing that.
²  On rare occasions, our beloved broadcasters manage to put out something worth archiving to DVD. Not often, I grant you, but it has been known to happen. Last night's FilmFour showing of Steven Shainberg's quirky "Secretary" would have been an example had I not bought it on DVD long ago.
³  And only readers who happened to access my system diagram in a 30-minute window yesterday(!) will ever have seen the fleeting appearance there of my "Logik" hdmi switchbox. If forced to estimate, I'd say the Venn diagram overlap between such readers is a null set. So I won't inspect the server logs when they're next updated.
There's always one! Brian J, bless 'im, claims to have spotted the fleeting appearance and is now claiming his prize: (Check you [sic] logs and you will find at least one person saw the Logik HDMI box. Indeed I started upon a (later aborted) note suggesting you need one further input to add to the diagram in place of the red "Study" in order to maintain symmetry.) "Interesting", he remarks "that you can't get this stuff all to play nicely together." Yes, isn't it?
⁴  I'm hoping this will be able to cope with the "Freesat" service that's due to launch quite soon now.
⁵  He just has! Notice how the sun seems to have come out?
⁶  Turns out I've been doing this throughout my entire (short) span as a motorist!
⁷  Like Val herself, in fact. I'm sure she won't mind me thanking her in public, as it were, for sending me her copy of Elegies by Douglas Dunn. I shall be keeping this until I, in turn, need to pass it along to comfort someone I love.