2012 — 19 June: Tuesday

I have to admit1 the responsiveness of BlackBeast with the overhead of the "Aero Glass" GUI reduced to an almost-minimum is actually noticeably faster.

No Aero

I'm not sure whether "Smooth edges of screen fonts" is synonymous with 'Clear Type' but wasn't even bothered to experiment. In other PC news, I've now repaired or replaced the MP3 meta tags of just under 43,000 music tracks. Not the funnest task in the world, taking about 18 hours and a fair degree of concentration.

Ouch

Remind me not to develop cataracts, or knee and hip problems. I gather these are not considered urgent, and are thus shuffled down the priority list for NHS treatment. Yet they each surely make Life more miserable2 than is strictly necessary?

Time (08:00) for cuppa #2 already. The first one barely touched the sides of a rather less sore throat than of late. Meanwhile, I patiently await the arrival of Mr DPD van man bearing the gift of FreeviewHD. The obsolete model I chose has already been further reduced (by a fiver to a mere £26-99) since I ordered mine on Saturday.

Vim...

... and vigour. I remember 'Vim' as a bathroom-cleaning product with an unforgettable smell. Rudis Muiznieks, who produced the 'Cectic' strip, has what could be called a more 'editorial' take. (Link.)

In a so far unsuccessful attempt a few minutes ago to track down the current resting place of more recent 'Cectic' material — apparently somewhere on its new home here — I was led deliciously astray by this wonderful Wiley Miller cartoon frame that both pokes fun at Intelligent Design in the Biology 101 classroom...

Alien DNA beam

... and simultaneously reminds me that our North American cousins use "alternate" where I, for one, would always insist on "alternative". But that's probably just me. I still recall getting quite ticked off at being ticked off for using "alternative" in a CICS manual in the dim distant.

If you can see this...

... as they say, then my Texan ISP has finished putting molehole back on the air. If not, not. Although my first guess was that Junior simply forgot to pay a bill, he called me — from Alton Towers, if you please — shortly after my lunch to warn me that the ISP is busy moving our little cluster of websites on to a completely new machine, and that all should eventually spring back into life.

More or less... He hopes... Eventually... "Sorry about that, Dad" (I interpolated that last bit.) The little blighter had seven days notice of this scheduled outage but somehow forgot to tell me. Kids!

Today's dalliance...

... with my old enemy — the 64-bit version of iTunes — must have lasted all of 25 minutes before I once again expunged it, and its several unwelcome Klingons. I'm now trying MediaMonkey for the first time in several years. [Pause] And an email from Big Bro suggests he may drop in for 20 days during July. Must be Air Show season again already.

  

Footnotes

1  Entirely predictably, I suspect.
2  I was impressed (and somewhat moved) by an episode of "The Mentalist" from late in Season #3 wherein a dying coroner made a rational decision to pop some poison pills while still capable, and while (more or less) witnessed by a law enforcement official to — get this neat irony — avoid ending up on his own autopsy table.