2009 — 15 February: Sunday
It turns out (Junior now informs me!) that both the email and the web servers were relocated, and the necessary DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate. I certainly haven't been able to login to my web server for nearly 24 hours, though occasional emails are still trickling in. And I've also proved, by using my Google mail account, that my normal email processes are still more or less in place.
Still. No reason not to have another picture of Christa, even if it's only for my own enjoyment:
Behind her, sitting on top of a Hungarian "Videoton" loudspeaker1 with those terrible "DIN" connecting plugs, is our little 9" portable monochrome Sony TV. I remember that, when I treated us to a 13" Sony colour set a year or so later, it came to just £20 less than the credit limit2 on the only card I then had (a Barclaycard, as it happened). And the retailer initially rejected the transaction.
G'night.
Still no web server...
I enjoyed reading this piece about Clive James, particularly when I noted the title of the book nearest the photographer!
A man of good taste. Another such — Stephen Fry — has just informed me that "the dog's bollocks" (which apparently originated in the world of typesetting as a way of describing the combination ":-" that has now, thank goodness, dropped out of use except [of course] among ill-informed would-be writers who know they know better, such as me in earlier years) is an example of the world's first self-cancelling cliché.
Lunch has been lunched; having nipped out on the foody trail I rediscovered the existence of microwaveable chips which, combined with ham, peas, cheese, potato salad, pickled onion and tomatoes makes for a perfectly adequate middle of the day(ish) meal that has the added benefit of taking about five minutes to prepare. This neatly fits in with the time needed to make an accompanying cuppa, of course. Meanwhile, web access is still not working and (worse yet) the new email server is already being blacklisted by Hotmail as a "policy" decision. Grrr!
Considering how many times a day...
... UK citizens are under TV camera and other forms of surveillance by all those trusty servants of our State, it's a little ironic to consider that, after today, section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act of 2008 comes into force, and (for example) should you happen to elicit or try to elicit and then publish or communicate information about upright individuals such as your local friendly police constable (I suspect taking a snapshot of her might do the trick, even if she has retired) you can end up paying a fine and languishing in the clink for up to 10 years. (Source.) Still — at least the fine won't exceed the statutory maximum!
Section 77 further imposes on us the duty to turn ourselves into unpaid extra members of the intelligence services, though it's mercifully unclear to whom we report our suspicions. Ho hum.