2015 — 18 September: Friday
A positively balmy 20.2C with the patio door wide open. Mind you, it's already after 10:30 as my journey back to the day's ration of consciousness more or less completes. The first mug of hot tea did its job. And I have both another confirmed lunch date, and an afternoon tea-and-biccies session, to look forward to. Good job I'm retired.
Meanwhile, I've given up...
... trying to use the mouse-with-tiny-tracker-ball set I was lent by Len to try as an experiment yesterday. Some eons ago, I suspected the cognitive dissonance between my constant use of my wonderful RISC OS ARM-based PCs at home and the not nearly so wonderful OS/2 (and NT [and Windows]) Intel-based PCs at work might become troublesome. I therefore deliberately trained myself to use a giant trackerball and three button "gizmo" with the RISC OS PC and with my left hand.1 It was a useful device.
Lack of a central scroll wheel on the newer device is just too damn' frustrating. But then I still miss the RISC OS world I spent 13 years in, too. A lot more than I miss IBM — they certainly never gave me a gorgeous 34" widescreen monitor. (Nor did their pension! I needed a considerable boost from dear Mama's recent legacy for that.) Looking at what few trackerball devices are available at affordable prices these days, and bearing in mind my understandable need for them to work properly under Linux, I shall be sticking with my not-so-bad little HP mouse for the moment.
Why...
... does this not come as a surprise, I wonder? Clergymen against liberalism... "Laissez Prayer" indeed. Source and snippet:
In his first inaugural address, Roosevelt had celebrated the expulsion of the money changers from the "temple of our civilization," and called for replacing the "mad chase of evanescent profits" with
a return to more noble social values. Spiritual Mobilization begged to differ, insisting instead that profit could be the cornerstone of a moral vision.
The group was backed financially by conservative businessmen — such as J. Howard Pew, the president of Sun Oil, and Charles White, the president of Republic Steel — and many corporations, including General
Motors, Gulf Oil, International Harvester, and Chrysler, all drawn to the group's strident opposition to the Social Gospel.
How the (never terribly) mighty...
... have now fallen:
Grayling's torture only ended with the intervention of the SNP's Pete Wishart, who wanted to know why parliament was taking a week recess for the Lib Dem conference the following week when that party only had eight MPs. As none of the glorious eight were in the chamber, Grayling could only shrug...
(Link.)
Having just snaffled...
... the last pack of cinnamon hot cross buns — in Waitrose, on my way back from my free lunch with Iris (that ended up costing me both a new pair of wellies and a plastic mug that claims to be impossible to tip over) — in case niece #1 likes them as much as her Dad does, I can now concentrate on digesting said lunch before replenishing my supply of bonhomie over with Roger and Eileen.
[Pause]
Eileen supplied the bonhomie. Roger, alas, had just been whisked (earlier this afternoon) into hospital for a quick MOT. Interesting times. And the name I've been advised to look out for as I hunt down my mythical perfect glass cup (or mug) is "Luminarc", says Iris. Thanks, ladies. I shall now see if I can tip over...
... my nice, red, untipoverable "Mighty Mug".
Now here's...
... a happy thought!
Any half-way intelligent AI will keep its mouth shut around humans, I suspect. I know I do :-)