2016 — 8 April: Friday
I powered on all three PCs this morning, leaving them to their own, erm, devices while I pottered into the kitchen for a tannin-filled cup of bliss. Re-entering what I'm now thinking of calling the Dojo, I was ready — I foolishly thought — for whatever they would fling at me this time.
After last night's "triumph"...
... of getting all three of the perishers to display perfectly on the Dell — and stay up for a couple of hours while I read my latest pair of books and listened to some nice music — I had woken this morning with the Bright Idea of making each desktop's background a different colour (to remind me which PC I was "on"). So, starting with what I now think of as "good, old, reliable BlackBeast Mk III", I thought "Let's have a black desktop for BlackBeast". No sooner thought than done.
OK. Next, the NUC. First, I need music. I fire up NoMachine on BB Mk III, specify the NUC 'connection', login, access the NAS, pick up my current BBC "Late Junction" sequence where I left off last night, fire up VLC, glorious music. Excellent. Right, now change the NUC's desktop background. I pick a sort of ghastly salmon pink (I won't be seeing it much, but it's certainly a striking visual cue). Done.
Two out of three. What could possibly go wrong?1
All this time...
... Skylark has been purring away, evidently just waiting to pounce. Re-use NoMachine on BB Mk III, this time specifying the Skylark 'connection', and... I get a previously-unseen message from NoMachine. "I can't find a display. Do you want me to create one?"
Now, this may have been my mistake, but I figured "Well I obviously need a display. Better select 'Yes' then."
I got a display. It was full resolution. It had the 'normal' background colour.
But instead of a full-width System panel along the bottom with my usual "stuff" on it all I got was a four-inch panel somewhere near the top left corner of the screen. It had my four Virtual Spaces, an "Xfce Whisker" menu icon, a "Logout" icon, and... nothing else. Nothing. Where's all my "stuff" gone? Beats me, Chief.
I dragged the panel back down where it belongs, made it full width, changed the desktop background to a vaguely Skylark-ian sky-like colour, and decided it's long past time for my next cuppa while I plot my next move. I refuse to concede defeat to this stupid bit of silicon!
I'm declaring...
... an end to my winter crockpots. I shall celebrate with some fancy smoked salmon. Meanwhile:
Deep in the psyche of this feudal-minded nation, with its monarchy, peerage and crown-protected tax havens, inheritance tax is detested by those who will never pay it. So misled have people been by the barrage of bogus stories about the taxman coming after their hard-earned savings that almost every home-owner wrongly fears small bequests will be snatched from their children. Labour voters are almost as opposed as Tory voters.
Liberal voters? Oh, that's right, we don't even get a vote!
Mr Postie...
... has just delivered a perfect excuse to change my focus for a bit. And grab some "lemonses", too. I finished the first title (in e-book format) yesterday, so "Sky Coyote" will be my next chunk of "Company":
Right!
I can now indict some not-yet-fully-defined combination of the 34" Dell and Skylark on combined charges of "failing to play nicely" with DisplayPort. An additional offence to be "taken into consideration" is today's latest sin — screwing up BB Mk III's formerly-perfect desktop just because I fired up Skylark first. To add gratuitous insult, this was with Skylark back on HDMI, too. OK, that's quite enough!
The NUC is now yet again back near the A/V stack, connected directly to the Rotel via HDMI, and already singing its sweet music controlled from a NoMachine session from BB. I have also re-enabled the Dell's "DDC/CI" capability (just in case!). Now — having re-established BB's perfect desktop — I am simply left to hope that next time I power on Skylark it will have the decency to behave2 itself.
It did. Yay!
I only even learned...
... of the existence of "wood finishing oil" (from Christopher) for the first time a couple of days ago when I asked him for some advice. So this afternoon, when I nipped over to Roger & Eileen for a cuppa and a chat I was delighted to be able to borrow Roger's copy of "Complete Woodfinishing" by Ian Hosker. I'm now feeling a little more sanguine about my chances of transforming my shapely bit of wood (picked up on Tuesday's walk) into the Thing of Beauty and a Joy to Behold that I can see (at present) only3 in my Mind's Eye.
Plus, I've been enjoying "Sky Coyote". And now it's already well past time for my evening meal, dagnabbit. I may be retired, but that doesn't mean I'm overburdened with enough spare time to do all the things I wish to do... I should know that by now, as I approach the end of my first decade collecting IBM's pension.
I enjoyed...
... today's pair of "Auto-Rip" downloads, too:
By Anna Calvi and Jocelyn Pook ("Untold Things"), respectively. I also have Ms Pook's soundtrack album to "Room in Rome" on order, but that I'll have to rip myself. When it turns up.