2009 — 1 April: Wednesday — rabbits!
Here's hoping the "Conficker" worm hasn't infested my Window(s) boxes. The latest Microsoft malware scanner suggests I am not infected. There will be no pictures of Christa for a while. I'm doing some much-needed housekeeping and sorting out.
Sound audio policy
At least I've just cured my Oppo audio glitching by using the 5.1 analogue outputs (which are also needed, in any case, for full-range SACD and DVD-Audio, should I ever buy any). Mind you, the Onkyo receiver insists that only its "DVD" input can have such audio associated with it, so I've had to switch the Blu-ray onto the "Game/TV" input and the Oppo onto the "DVD" input that the Blu-ray had been on. Happily, the Blu-ray player's audio delivery via hdmi seems completely robust.
In case it's of interest, I note that — with all four hdmi sources active — I'm clocking the system at about five seconds to change between sources before I get back picture and sound. And (get this) if I switch off the display I lose sound from the associated input for about another 5 seconds. I'm pointing the fickle finger of suspicion at the protocol handshaking of this stupid hdcp "protection". (Or the Java sluggishness. Or both.)
But, that said, the picture and sound quality are truly excellent. G'night.
The sun has got his hat on
So, had I not been at the seaside just yesterday, I might even be tempted again. Alas, a small pile of domestic duties cannot be too long neglected, but I'm sure I'll find myself a little treat of some sort before the day is over. It's 09:38 and looking good.
I mentioned here a short film to keep an eye out for.1 Ms Rossellini is at her "vigorous copulation" (not my words) again. Of course, it could be an elaborate April Fool...
Idly browsing the whitepaper on hdcp 2.0 (get yours from here) I'm struck by one of Life's little ironies. The hdcp keys that Licensees have to imbed in my toys are obtained over the Interweb thingy, so delivery is protected by wrapping them in an OpenPGP encrypted file format. Sweet!
Pity this is not an April Fool.
It's a bit of a jungle out there... dept.
It would be a shame not to take the Canon out into the garden in this sunshine.
Compare and contrast with the shot from this time last year. More to come.
Little treats...
I'm back from a gentle ramble through some of my usual shops. (I had every intention, Christa, of getting a new pair of mocassins, but was put right off by the £45 price tag in your favourite shop at one edge of West Quay.) I settled for the following, and actually walked past one of the bookshops!
I watched the Lennon documentary when it was transmitted almost exactly two years ago. It's fabulous. Trouble is, I cut a DVD-R of it, with Mark Lawson chatting to "Nicholas Craig" (aka Nigel Planer). Do I now keep that DVD-R? Decisions, decisions. "Zack and Miri" is the new film from Kevin Smith, who generally makes me laugh. "Running with scissors" is from the Augusten Burroughs memoir (I caught a trailer which looked very enticing, but then Amazon let me down). The Linux magazine is just a regular read.
It's now 17:43 and once again sunny. I'm quite hungry, too, so will set about fixing that problem shortly. The washing machine is doing its spinning thing — nicely timed. Mike and I are hoping for another walk tomorrow, on the grounds that it's nice weather for it, it's fresh air, and it does us both good.
Frederik Pohl
You either know who he is, or you don't — I guess. Here's his blog. (Guess who's been reading the latest issue of Ansible?)