2008 — 22 Mar: Saturday — what a Vista!
Yesterday's toy, should anyone wonder, is a dinky little HP slimline Media PC. It's due to finish installing Vista's Service Pack 1 in about 30 minutes. I must say, for a 64-bit dual core AMD 5000+ processor with 2GB of RAM, 256MB of dedicated graphics and a fast SATA hard drive, it is incredibly slow until you disable all the eye candy. At which point it becomes merely slow. It also claims to put out the 1,280x768 video signal needed by my plasma screen, but with no sign of success. It doesn't yet even manage to output an S-Video feed via its TV Out socket.
It's 01:17 and my patience is being sorely stretched. I've got a picture out onto the plasma, via S-Video, but only 1,024x640 or so. At least the scaler will lock onto this and zoom it somewhat, but the resolution is pretty dismal. I'm now creating a set of recovery discs (3 DVDs) that will (it promises) allow me to recover the system, although only to its factory default, not to the half-way usable state I've just spent three plus hours configuring it to. And not with the SP1 updates either, for that matter. What a poor piece of coding. I think later today I will be introducing this little toy to a dose of cleansing Linux to see how that behaves. I simply cannot believe how slow the system is. Is it the crappy graphics card, the crappy operating system? Investigations will continue. HP, by the way, ought not to invite me to register online, collect my data, and only then think to tell me their registration server is currently unavailable!
Plus points: it is dinky,1 it is well-nigh silent.2 And, erm, it is dinky! The keyboard and mouse are wireless, but unimpressive. I find myself ineluctably forming the conclusion (once again) that the Windows Media Centre facilities in Vista are no more ready for my living room than XP Pro Media Centre 2005 Edition was, and still no match for dedicated separate A/V units. Well, I've made my tiny contribution to the £9,100,000,000 retail result expected for this holiday weekend. And I've finally exorcised the ghost that was my desire to try the Aero interface for myself, too.
While waiting....
... for the third recovery DVD to be spat out, I might as well list the haul of four books popped round by Mr Postie the other day. I've already mentioned the DVDs:
- Selective memory by Katharine Whitehorn
— the journalist, and wife of thriller writer Gavin Lyall, known for quotes such as "Have you ever taken anything out of the dirty-clothes basket because it had become, relatively, the cleaner thing?" - The meaning of sunglasses by Hadley Freeman
— explains why only harpists should wear velvet! - The uncommon reader by Alan Bennett
— recommended by my chum John as well as being by Bennett (of course): "If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand" - The dog allusion by Martin Rowson
— a ridiculously talented man tells us about gods, pets, and how to be human
And so, at 02:38 or so, to bed. PC battles will recommence in a few hours.
Emergency Ward 10
What a (theme) tune to (as it were) wake up to. I haven't heard that for the 41 years since it was cancelled by Lew Grade (in what he said was his greatest mistake). Well it's now 10:00 and time to think about the next batch of crock-pottery. Chicken again methinks, but this time I shall carve it up before the frying that seals it, not after. Then quite a serious session of tidying up3 cables and worse up here before I turn my attention again to yesterday's new toy. How shall I best carve that up, I wonder?
Children spoiled by their parents are a problem in the classroom, heh? What a surprise. And what's the point of a driving ban if it can run in parallel with an associated prison sentence? Right, stuffed the crockpot with quite an adventurous mixture and set it to "gentle thermal agitation". Now I need to recover before I can face any brekkie, of course, so there's time to unpack the four DVDs Ms Postie gently knocked on the door to tell me about:
- A guide to recognising your saints
- Animal attraction
- Soylent Green
- Across the Universe
And something from the IBM Hursley Retirees Club, it seems. Suppose I should get dressed, too. It doesn't feel quite right reading stuff from IBM in one's jim-jams. An odd thought: I last saw Soylent Green in the early 1970s (before I met Christa) when I regularly attended showings at the St Albans Regional Film Theatre. I don't believe Christa ever saw it. Same goes for The Omega Man (though that has yet to show up). Funny stuff, Time. A slippery concept, to say the least.
Midlands calling
I was just about to nip out for some more basic foodstuff, a new light (much brighter) for the kitchen, and a replacement one for behind the TV when I got a call from dear Mama's neighbour in Wombourne. Thanks, Steve! He tells me there's no immediate problem, but plenty to talk about and now to think about. It occurs to me, not for the first time, that growing old on your own is an immensely difficult process, even if it merely creeps up on you. Being miserable, lonely, and bitter doesn't predispose people to feel warm towards you, either. And harbouring grudges for reasons lost in the mists of antiquity... don't get me started down that path!
That's all going into a box until I have more time to deal with it. Meantime, let's get on with the shopping for the necessities of survival, shall we? It's already 13:12 and Time isn't hanging about.
The best thing about standards... dept.
There are just so many to choose between. So I found both a new kitchen light and (with some relief) a couple of replacement fluorescent low-energy strips to fit behind the TV, only to find that they are (as near as dammit) exactly 1 cm shorter than the originals. Thank you, General Electric and your Chinese manufacturers. So now I also need a couple of replacement holders for the blessed things. Of course, one only discovers this back at home. And, yes, I did measure the things first. My little shopping list clearly states 12" (30cm) and the offenders are equally clearly marked 300mm. I suppose they do still make holders, yes?
Of course, Christa was up against changing standards every day with all her patents work. Thinking back, it's been a long time now since I regarded technology as occupying the solution space rather than the problem space. This is exemplified, I suppose, by my grapplings with Vista last night. The amount of computing power needed to support a rich visual user interface for a single user easily exceeds the power of mainframe computers a mere quarter of a century ago. (I also used to derive some quiet pleasure from watching IBMers in meetings, years ago, fiddling with their laptops [as it were] in endless futile pursuit of the perfect pitch.) I draw your attention if I may, to Dr Thomas K Landauer's entertaining 1995 book The trouble with computers from which I quote:
Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of computer applications are designed and developed solely by computer programmers who know next to nothing about the work that is going to be done with the aid of their program. Programmers rarely have any contact with users; they almost never test the system with real users before release.
I see the good gentleman is now associated with products such as the "SuperManual" and — better yet — the "Intelligent Essay Assessor" that "automatically assesses and critiques electronically submitted essays". I'm relieved to hear that it "has built in detectors for highly unusual essays". Wonder how it reacts to Montaigne? I see we've moved on a long way from those overly-primitive software tools I clashed with.
Whether it's the weather... dept.
Christa, it's snowing! It's 18:00 and there's a blue sky at the front of our house, a rather murky grey-brown one at the back, the sun is shining, and there are a few flakes of fluffy stuff being whizzed around in Nature's own Dyson. It's also very cold outside, about 4C or so. But the crockpot's contents are simmering up a storm. I've also only just realised that my new Panasonic DVD HD PVR has the first episode of the fourth series of House sitting on its drive just waiting for me to press "Play". I kept thinking this wasn't on until Sunday as Channel 5's useless website failed to reveal the actual day of transmission last time I looked. Digiguide email to the rescue. I seem to have missed a new series of Gavin & Stacey too. I think I'll survive.
So, having delicately slurped down a decent-sized portion of nutritious hot stuff (chicken, pork, broccoli, carrots, spuds, onion, tomatoes, garlic, wine, stock) followed up with some pineapple chunks and blueberries, and a cheery phone call from Junior pointing me to Amazon S3 for online backup, I think I shall chill out with Hugh Laurie and a cuppa for a while.
Farewell, Charlee
In a poignant reprise of my own farewell to Junior in our old / his new Aygo five months ago, today my main co-pilot bade his own farewell to Charlee...
Here's a reminder of my first adventure in Charlee, a year ago. Toot, toot!