2014 — 16 June: Monday

I have no idea¹ why "Media Center" updates itself from time to time out of sequence with the, erm, "normal" update cycle of the monthly Patch Tuesdays. But since it only ever gets invoked indirectly when I'm downloading Amazon MP3s I refuse to worry about it. I did once make the mistake of running it directly (under Win8, that is) and will never knowingly repeat the experience.

Meanwhile...

... the stark emptiness of Mother Hubbard's cupboard, and the knowledge that I have a delivery on its way that will need my signature, and the drop in pollen levels, are all conspiring to send me out once again on a hunting expotition. Very much sooner rather than later.

Shock, horror

Our London mayor (who has — even he would agree, surely? — from time to time, been known to put his foot firmly in his mouth) has actually this weekend said something about our unsainted former top chap that I strongly agree with. As a chum remarked in his email to me "this² is very worrying":

I need a soothing cuppa.

For the next few days...

... I'll be using my BlackBeast PC with just one of its two display screens, and just its basic motherboard audio/video capability, having removed all three expansion cards (graphics, audio, and eSATA). This has already made it much easier to give the interior of the case the jolly thorough dust-sucking it needed. BlackBeast will now remain in this "degraded, but dust-free" mode until both its new graphics card and its two new screens show up here in Technology Towers. And for about five minutes thereafter.

I'm upgrading to the Sapphire AMD R7 250 Ultimate Fanless³ 1GB graphics card. And I'm replacing my present pair of 24" Dell screens by a pair of higher-resolution (2560x1440) ASUS PB278Q 27" screens. I'm sure I'll be able to put the extra 1,382,400 pixels per screen to good use. Assuming Win8.1Pro Update 1 can locate them all to switch them on and off. Reports (or howls of frustrated anguish) to follow in due course, no doubt.

To remind me...

... next time I need to go fishing for a window that has launched itself stubbornly off into the vacant space where a second desktop used to be:

My little parcel is now in the hands (and van) of "Express 24", on its way down from somewhere deep in North Yorkshire. Fingers crossed.

Footnotes

¹  Probably less, even, than Microsoft.
²  The fact that we both agree with BoJo on this occasion. Not that we worry (unduly) about Bliar's inner mental state of (I suspect) utter confusion and bewilderment that led him to sound off about what is, and what is not, the direct result of his guvmint's very ill-advised little blast of militarism a decade ago.
³  Since I don't play PC games (yet!) the fact that there's a restricted choice of passively-cooled graphics cards doesn't really upset me.