2009 — 9 March: Monday
Tonight, another 35 year old picture of Christa. I had quite a fun time trying to rescue this from its poor exposure. I took it early one mid-summer morning in the grounds of ICL Beaumont:
Another interesting evening. Replying to my chum in Stockholm. Watching Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride and all its extras. And listening (again) to the programme about Daphne Oram.
Hardly any DVD artwork scanning, though. Just part way through the letter "E". Tut, tut.
G'night, at 01:11 — yawn, and it's cold, too.
Hello, sunshine!
The orange juice is down, the sun is up, the barometer is up, the wind is up, even I am (nearly) up. It's 09:26 — up to what shall I get today, I wonder? Nothing that gets me down, that's for sure. Douglas Adams was more nearly correct than he realised about the number "42" — consider the film that Channel 4 is showing (very) late tonight:
A mere 42 years after it was made. Oh well, back to work. No, wait, I'm retired...
Facing up to Facebook
There's a lovely piece here from which I just have to quote a snippet or two:
Time magazine recently declared Facebook more popular than porn. But who are they kidding? Facebook is porn. With porn, you watch other people take off their clothes and abase themselves in public. On Facebook, where there's technically an anti-nudity policy (thus defeating the whole purpose of the Internet), you get to figuratively do the same...
As if all of this isn't embarrassing enough for Facebook devotees, the most cloying writer in the world, West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, signed on, promising/threatening to write a Facebook movie.
More than somewhat later...
A (large) lunch was lunched; the last bit of the new toy jigsaw was picked up from Mr TASS, but temporarily put to one side while tea was taken with my main co-pilot out at Hillier's; a video demo was then mounted for young Roger Figg (who went so far as to pace out his viewing distance from the screen and ponder aloud the problem that would be posed by his chimney breast); something is now (19:29) needed by way of an evening meal/snack, and then I shall be free to set about installing the toy — a Humax HD Freesat PVR.
I shall use the existing satellite dish(es) for now, but have arranged to have them reworked to lose the Sky minidish, and point the 80cm dish at the Astra 2 cluster (for a more robust Freesat signal, I hope), to fit a quad LNB, and to refit, on the other side of the axis, the offset LNB I've been using1 for the last several years to receive the NPR Worldwide digital satellite radio feed from Eutelsat Hotbird:
Hotbird 7A at 13 degrees East European Widebeam Transponder 111 Frequency 10.722 Ghz Horizontal Polarization Symbol Rate 29.9 Msymbol Audio PID 1208
Well, that's the plan. Though I don't yet know whether a second LNB can be offset at the correct position to pick up Eutelsat. That LNB is currently on the 80cm dish, but the main axis of that dish is still aligned with the original analogue Astra (and German TV) cluster at 19 degrees. But what could be simpler?
This is all Arthur C Clarke's fault, you realise!
Even later
It's 21:19 and I'm now listening (upstairs) to the delicious "Little Steven's Underground Garage" from the downstairs Freesat system now that "Absolute Rock (aka Virgin Radio) has started carrying it. (Little Steve is the chap I mentioned whose dual life is/was split between the "E" Street Band and the "Sopranos".) Setting up the Humax Freesat HD PVR was a piece of the proverbial, though I'm afraid I've confirmed a) I need a slightly chunkier satellite signal (dropouts are particularly noticeable on the BBC HD channel) and b) there's an awful lot of complete tripe (and I do mean tripe) cluttering the airwaves by way of shopping, bingo, and religious maniacs. (Sorry about the oxymoron.)
Until I get the quad LNB sorted out, I'm restricted to watching or recording2 but not different channels. Given what's being broadcast, I think I can live with that.
I've removed the second Freeview PVR (the Pioneer that lacks hdmi output) and — for now — the original Humax Hi-Def satellite. I've also re-routed the cassette tape output into the minidisc recorder. Guess what? None of the current boxes is now silver! I reckon I've earned my next cuppa.