2011 — 6 February: Sunday
Waking up to Roxy Music1 I think it's time for an early reward. Put the kettle on, Mrs Landingham. This is (at 06:07 or so) about the only day of the week (and time, I guess) when the motorway is essentially silent nowadays. I would say "Hello, pension" but that won't trouble my account until tomorrow.
G'morning. A cursory glance at my server log shows me people are still interested in the late computing genius George Cogar. Crikey. I actually have a photo of him sent to me by his daughter in January 2006. (Pause, while I dimly realise it, and my correspondence with her, is all tucked away on my dormant XP machine — just talk quietly amongst yourselves for a few moments). Found it.
A small piece of computing history.
Is it dawn yet? Nope. It's 07:15 and I'm now wide awake.
Having been following...
... an ongoing flurry of forum chatter about a DTP program I still use (which originated on the Acorn RISC OS platform) it occurs to me that there really shouldn't ever be a need for this utility! But it wasn't me who called the Windows Registry a "nexus of incompetent, user-hostile design" — it was John Walker, now of Fourmilab... I've never seen the South Park movie, but he's performed an interesting audio analysis of the lyrics of a song from its finale.
Nice to see CSI (which I've also never seen) described as "grotesque fascist forensic-porn wallow" :-)
I assume dawn has dawned by now. It's 09:12 but drearily grey and a bit damp out there. Still, at least I can turn the lights off.
I didn't realise...
... it's possible to hold a PhD2 in "Natural Preservatives in Toiletries" let alone a PhD in "Essential Oils". (Source.)
I shall have a cuppa and then takes the Prius round the block to give it a trickle charge. If you don't hear me coming, that'll be me! In fact, we've just decided to risk the weather and get out for a short local stroll to blow the cobwebs away. [Pause] Just over six miles of blustery slight drizzle certainly works up an appetite. It's 13:47 and I'm hungry enough to eat one of the four deer we spotted.
Here are the first three:
I don't, generally speaking, have...
... too much time, or respect, for political leaders of whatever stripe, and in whichever country. But I see it's now one century since one example of the breed (Mr Raygun3) popped out to plague us:
... you will recoil with recognition at this damning pile of evidence proving that today's idiot-beltway hero-worship dingbat crap factory truly began in 1980, when the Washington press corps was presented with a narrative by Reagan's handlers: America wanted to "feel good again," and the empty-eyed smiling face of Ronald Reagan was exactly the way to "bring fun back" to a nation crippled by recession, unemployment, lost wars and humiliation in the Middle East.
How very different things were 31 years ago, heh?
Spiffy Maps
Coming soon, it seems. Cool idea. (Link.)
Later
It must be "later" as I'm getting hungry again. It's 18:26 and the "Freak Zone" is doing its freaky thing in the background. Meanwhile, having finished the newest Maupin (and re-read the predecessor to bring myself back up to speed) I was browsing around his 'official' website finding some interesting material. The two recent "Tales" are both very engaging (one being a first-person account by "Mouse"), but both are rather overshadowed by the consequences of getting older :-(
Food! Soon!