2013 — 29 October: Tuesday
Choral music may well have analgesic properties, but it still struggles to be heard this morning.1 Meanwhile, I have a country ramble to pack a lunch for, and some breakfast would come in jolly handy, too.
Just how...
... and when (for that matter) is one supposed to find the time to listen to all this? The biggest problem is knowing where to start. Still, at least I'm retired :-)
Personally, I'm...
... amazed that Wikipedia has lasted as long as it has. I've also never felt even slightly tempted to contribute, other than financially, although I do know such a contributor among my little circle of unintellectually-challenged chums (he knows who he is!). This is an interesting analysis. Source and tiny snippet:
After years of planning, the foundation finally unveiled Visual Editor, an interface that hides the wikitext and offers "what you see is what you get" editing. It rolled out in a
site-wide trial in July, with the expectation that it would soon become a permanent fixture.
But in the topsy-turvy world of the encyclopedia anyone can edit, it's not a fringe opinion that making editing easier is a waste of time. The characteristics of a dedicated volunteer
editor — Gardner lists "fussy," "persnickety," and "intellectually self-confident" — are not those that urge the acceptance of changes like Visual Editor.
Shades of Gordon Dickson's "The Final Encyclopedia" perhaps? Or even Asimov's "Encylopedia Galactica"?
In a moment...
... of weakness (I was feeling whimsical) I decided to explore some of the Modern Apps that lurk, neglected, in the deeper reaches of this Win8.1Pro system. I quickly uninstalled both Sports and Games without even bothering to pause. Then I spotted Scan:
"Not a bad start", thought I. Sadly, when I re-invoked it after turning on my scanner, all it offered was a "Scan" button that, when clicked, scanned whatever was on the flatbed (nothing, as it happens) with seemingly no ability to change resolution or image size and then saved the result as a not-quite-black 16.7MB PNG file called Scan_20131029.png of 2559x3501 pixels. I fear I need a little more control over my scans than that.
Still, at least I now know the maximum resolution of my scanner.
As I prepare to...
... enjoy my mid-afternoon, post-ramble (you've earned it after 7.2 miles) cuppa, it occurs to me that, if I had been:
- more aware of the pitfalls of the global capitalist system, and
- prescribed the glasses I already then needed to see more than two feet in front of me with any clarity, and
- older than about eight or nine years old2 at the time...
... then on being taken to see what I suspect was a school performance of "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" because Big Bro was appearing in it, I might well have laughed at Bertolt Brecht's line Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty often have a share in their misfortunes.
I must say, I take no pleasure from the earlier onset of dusk. I've just (at 16:37) had to switch on the first room light. And the Equation of Time ensures that it will get (much) worse before it gets better :-)
Finally!
I've just found out how to switch off the annoying (and stupidly-named) "Charms bar" and how to disable all the other grotesquely-inappropriate edge-of-screen mouse pointer behaviour that reflects (very poorly) on Microsoft's incredibly ill-advised decision to try to merge a non-touch-screen desktop system with a Tablet-oriented touch screen system. The trick was to use the Modern App "PC settings: Corners and Edges" rather than struggling to find where Microsoft has decided to hide these new controls in the "conventional" desktop.
At this rate, I'm in some danger of discovering how to boot directly to the Win8.1 desktop (not that the "Start" screen bothers me in the slightest). I actually prefer it to the previous sorry attempts and, besides, it's not exactly onerous to toggle in and out of it with the Windows key, is it?
Sadly (he added, ironically) I can still hang the flagship IE 11 web browser whenever I want simply by neglecting to start it in administrator mode. "Pathetic", is one word that springs to my mind.