2012 — 6 November: Tuesday
It's a good job1 that I'm not nearly obsessive as some folk. Source and snippet:
I start out conventionally enough, alpha by author. But while I take account of the first letter of the writer's surname, I have other ambitions for my shelves that transcend the conveniences of mere
alphabetical accuracy. It's impossible for me to place one book alongside another without thinking about the authors, and how they would feel about their spine-side companion...
I thought I was alone in my craziness, until I confessed it to a friend whom I consider a model of sanity in most respects. "That's nothing," he said. He confided that he had a "punishment shelf" in his
garage, reserved for writers he does not like.
That could never work for me. Besides, my garage already has enough to accommodate:
- my car,
- a Black & Decker Workmate (older [by far] than Peter) that it is my ambition — one day — to learn the trick of assembling,
- several heaps of Peter's sports junk from his already-distant University days, and
- my potentially Nobel-winning collection of spiders and their webs
It's 07:04 and will soon be time for breakfast. I shall let the frost disappear before I venture out.
Meanwhile...
... I think (I hope) I can now declare myself "very pleased" with Windows 8. The upgrade process was essentially painless (and nearly flawless). Obviously, starting from Windows 7 Ultimate made things a lot easier. The (dare I say?) compromises made to suit touch devices of more limited capability can be easily swept under the carpet and desktop "normality" restored with, nonetheless, some useful improvements over 7, which was approximately infinitely better than Vista. There was little wrong with XP, of course, apart from its ever-longer-in-the-toothness. Time to move on.
I don't miss the iMac, and I was never particularly happy with Ubuntu desktop, given the Windows-based applications I use daily. It's still a shame that the Acorn RISC machines bit the dust, and I find a great irony in the ubiquitous nature of ARM technology now being embedded in so many of the hand-held toys favoured by today's younger citizens. Now there's even a RISC OS port for the Raspberry Pi.
The (somewhat) more primitive alcohol-based technology mounted on the wall outside my front door tells me (albeit only after I have physically inspected it) that local ambient has soared to a mere -1C (at 08:40) and the bright sunshine is doing its bit to remove the frost on the road surface. Still early days.
Recall...
... that "RoboHornet Pro" web browser assault course? (Reminder.)
Now that I have my grubby mitts on IE 10 I've just repeated the test with that, Chrome, and Firefox, all refreshed to their latest 'public' builds:
I've been busy working up...
... an appetite for lunch (which, at 13:49 is feeling long overdue) by whizzing over to the End of the Hedge (with Brian as my technical consultant) to pick up, bring home, and (successfully) install, one of those dinky little USB-connected digital TV PVR tuners — following the abject failure of my venerable Nebula TV box. I'm currently listening to Harry Shearer, who's shown up as a guest on "RadMac":
So I've now got a digital TV/radio recorder on my PC, from where it should be a doddle to archive anything that catches my eye or ear. SD only; the hi-def variant isn't yet up to speed with UK terrestrial digital HD. No matter.
Of course, the 'Aero'-style skin now looks at odds with the rest of my Win8 desktop. <Sigh>
Clever!
I may have missed a trick on Win7 when I last adjusted my ClearType settings. It didn't seem to be possible to tune my two displays independently, but it certainly is on Win8. Excellent. In more depressing news, I've just lost the bonus rate on one of my savings accounts. I've failed to trigger Uncle ERNIE's generosity this month. And it's already cold and getting rather too dark out there and it's not even 17:00.
But in much more cheerful mid-evening post-delicious-crockpot news, I've just snaffled the last copy of a TV Series I've been wanting to get my sticky fingers on for 35 years: Washington: Behind closed doors. My goodness, that dates me! And I've just managed to finish watching "Sleepless in Seattle" which was always going to be a bit of a minefield in these post-Christa times. Brilliantly constructed film. (Shades of "An affair to remember", of course, which I long ago bought for her delectation.)
Time (20:34) for my next cuppa, methinks. And to put on another layer of clothing. Brrr.