2009 — 11 August: Tuesday
Although I've had over a year to think about it, Christa, I'm no nearer to pinpointing where we were when I took this shot of you in or around August 1977:
Christa in August 1977 (somewhere!)
But it's too nice a picture to worry about such trivial details. It's been a day of some considerable audio/video frustration but it's now time (00:47) for some sleep.
G'night.
Friction ahead
I think today is going to be a day for getting the ladder out from underfoot in the hallway and using it to help me get up to, and remove a micron or so from, the upstairs window frame before priming and repainting it. Not a job I enjoy. And not a job I've done much in the past, either, let's be honest. But my decorative young decorating assistant1 (for whom, of course, I would hold the ladder, make endless cups of tea, etc etc) has — it seems — gone on strike, or left the building, or, well, died, actually. Dammit! But first, one of those cuppas for myself and a spot of breakfast. It's already 08:50 and I'm hungry.
David Pilling is the software guru of the Acorn world. But there's another one who is the Asia editor of the FT. The latter has been talking to Jared Diamond, whom I mentioned just two days ago. And the former has just been given an excuse to use the Subject line "The Beagle Has Landed" as he's just fixed a compression module problem on the Beagle board that "is an example of the OMAP Cortex ARM processor as used in the about to be available ARM powered 'netbook' computers". Something else to keep an eye on. It's 12:34, sunny, warm, and peaceful.
Colour space(d) out
In between sporadic bursts of sanding (an incredibly boring job, I have to say) I've been tinkering. I've just (finally) found exactly where the Pioneer plasma screen buries its colour space setting, so both hdmi input #6 and the Oppo Blu-ray player are now set explicitly to use YCbCr 4:4:4 (aka YUV444) to save one colour space conversion. Warned by Henry (my DVDO Edge expert), I (correctly) didn't trust the hdmi handshake between the Pioneer and the Oppo to be able to tell the Oppo that the Pioneer could accept this. It's a subtle enhancement, but satisfying. I have to say the 1080p demonstration sections of the Joe Kane Hi-Def Video Essentials Blu-ray are absolutely stunning.
I've reverted to multi-channel analogue audio output from the Oppo, letting it do its own surround sound decoding and bypassing the Edge completely for both video and audio. After all, the Oppo and the Edge contain precisely the same upscaling and de-interlacing technology. All my other video sources (1080i maximum) route through the Edge and its hdmi audio. I still remain undecided about the audio amplifier upgrading side of things for now. I suspect the Onkyo's days are somewhat numbered. And, of course, loudspeakers will be a whole different ballgame on top of that. I wonder how long I can survive on bread and water...
Later and still later
It's 16:04 and I need a cuppa. And it's now 18:11, I still need that cuppa, but the upstairs bedroom window frame is now thoroughly primered. The over-worked bod has been showered. And it shows signs of being hungry despite the awful smell of whatever passes for paint these days. I do not like clambering up ladders, but a chap has to do what a chap's late wife is no longer around to do for him. The alternative is to give employment to an artisan (that being the duty of a wealthy man). But last time we paid a painter he did such a lousy job, in such a great, slapdash, hurry that we basically decided to do this ourselves in future.
Aside to Christa
It's 21 months since you left us, my love. Incredibubble, as our friend Carol would say. Absolutely incredibubble. I'm half listening to a "semi-staged" performance of Patience though I'm unsure why the audience is laughing. The sky is clear of clouds — fingers crossed for an unhindered spot of primer drying. It's 20:11 and the kids next door are noisily out in their garden just as previous generations of kids a-plenty have been while we've lived here. Life, heh?