2011 — 9 June: Thursday

Who needs an alarm clock1 when there are noisy young builders working next door?

Actually, I've just returned from a Jumbo (frame) hunt before even having breakfast. Turns out my new green Gigabit switch only supports the biggest of the range of frame sizes, so I logged into the Buffalo Terastation — seems appropriate, going on a Jumbo hunt with a Buffalo — to select that size, did the same to the adaptor properties on Blackbeast's network card, and then slung my 1.05GB test file into the empty vastness of the Ethernet.

The transfer speed remained mostly steady at about 25.4MB/second (an increase over the rate using default frame size settings of about 5MB/second) until there were "5 seconds remaining" (according to Windows). Unfortunately, at that point there remained "five seconds remaining" for a very long time, and the final reported speed was just over 9MB/second. Since I don't generally play with such large files, I've reset both ends of the link back to their defaults.

Ever onward. The sky was blue last time I looked but is now thick with remarkably dark clouds despite the delicious "Brandenburg" currently playing on BBC Radio 3. It's 09:31 and well past time for some breakfast and another cuppa.

Mr Blue Sky

Computer musician

There's a nice article here on Max Mathews, who (I'd missed the fact) died in April, aged 84. I recall borrowing a book from the Hatfield Polytechnic library on early computer music pioneers. It had a flexidisc with one of Mathews' compositions — playing with "When Johnny comes marching home" by mutating it smoothly into and back out of another tune. Cool stuff for the time. Even on an IBM mainframe :-)

As my friend Carol...

... over in New York remarked, just a couple of days ago:

Christa in Old Windsor, late 1970s

Honestly, how did we ever hold down paying jobs? Days go by when I can't cite anything accomplished or, sometimes, remember how I managed to spend the hours at all. And I must clarify that that long list was things undone! I am seriously behind on your diary, but must note how much I enjoy the pictures of Christa. She really could light up the planet with her smile, couldn't she?

Date: 7 June 2011


No argument from me.

Aside to Christa

Odd, isn't it? All the time we lived here, if we wanted to go to an Ikea — not that I ever did — we had the distant choices of Croydon (including a visit to my ex-ICL chums John and Judy) or Bristol. Now I've just come back from a round trip to the new Ikea in Soton, getting well rained-on in the process, and buying the flexible carpet-guard I'd spotted last month). I then swung by my bank on the way back to pay in Uncle ERNIE's cheque to pay for it. Neat.

How about another cuppa, Mrs Landingham? After all, it's 15:56 already. (See above re citing accomplishments.) Pause. Nope, no cuppa yet. I've just spent a little over an hour cleaning out my main "Dyson". There's something strangely satisfying about this sort of task (particularly when it's complete). There's something strangely unsatisfying about interest rates sticking at 0.5%, too. (Not that I would have minded in the least during the 25-year period I spent in thrall to the iniquitous mortgage scam game.)

Rising damp?

I've just (17:55) discovered a damp patch on my hallway carpet...

Damp patch

... previously concealed under a "sacrificial" layer of spare carpet I kept on top. Some days, it seems to me the Universe is somewhat perverse.

My friend Brian the plumber will pop in tomorrow afternoon to survey his handiwork. Meanwhile, I await the arrival of my son and heir and his lady companion at some point later this evening ("after work, and after the rush hour"). I shall now tuck into my chicken salad — I'm too hungry to wait any longer — I shall also drown my sorrows, not with strong spirit, but with a dip into the "House" Season #1 pool. I think I'm in love with Cuddy. I just need to confirm my diagnosis.

  

Footnote

1  Not that I do, of course!