2016 — 2 May: Monday
The sun is no longer evident, let alone bright, the music remains cool, the first tea, hot. The fresh air and bird song coming in through the patio door are both welcome and relatively untainted by more noisome motorway, erm, artefacts. And I have still yet to confirm that Skylark can use the (shared) mouse and keyboard on the Kensington USB switch box since yesterday's wiring jiggles resurrected it. As Brian said, the box should work flawlessly if his two-year experience with the same model is any guide. He suspected the power supply until I described the "all lights on" behaviour.
Speaking of behaviour...
... my new (older) Epson scanner has a behavioural idiosyncracy1 I'd long since forgotten about — no power switch. Although I dimly recall having to fiddle about "round the back" to plug in the DC lead to wake it up whenever I used it under Windows I suspect most people leave it plugged in and press the 'scan' button on the front panel instead. With its current orientation atop the HP All-in-one the DC lead is now within easy reach.
Time for breakfast.
I've now confirmed...
... that Skylark behaves perfectly, both with the Kensington USB switch box and, indeed, with the Epson scanner that's now plumbed into it. Actually, Brian has pointed out that I misquoted him — the fact that "the lights are on" is not a sufficient test to rule out failure of the power supply. Happily, however, all is well. Nor is there any unplugging or replugging needed, either. Just the act of switching2 the Kensington away from, and back to, either target PC does the job of waking up the scanner.
En passant I've also learned that although you can log on to the Intel NUC from either desktop PC with NoMachine, each login disconnects any prior one. Perfectly sensible. Just as in Highlander "There can be only one!"
Oiling...
... my little wooden "found artwork" with another coat of Danish Oil goes much more quickly when using a brush to apply the stuff (very sparingly — a little goes a surprisingly long way). It's now drying on the back step more or less out of nasal range.
Time for a late lemonses cuppa, methinks. I've just downloaded an HD version of "The History Boys" — I've already replaced one DVD of it that I lost to an unknown borrower. Christa and I enjoyed this film together the evening before our penultimate trip up to dear Mama in Wombourne. Time flows on...
I find...
... the idea of a modern head of state knowing even just a little about quantum computing strangely uplifting. But my 'takeaway' quote is nearer modern truth:
... a perfect, gleaming artifact of a system in which truth is that which gets the most Facebook shares.
That's on a par with a most splendiferous rant by Trevanian in the supplement to his memoir:
Instead teaching had become a last-ditch back-up profession for the least imaginative, least confident, least ambitious. This unpromising material was pressed into a teacher-like shape by batteries of jargon-riddled education courses then sent out to instruct the next generation of youngsters, the least imaginative and the dimmest of whom, in their turn, became teachers of the following generation... and thus we arrived at the current state of public education in America, where most students entering university often have only a vague idea of the grammar and syntax of the language they speak (and in which they think), and no idea at all of how to plan, research and write a paper, or defend a premise, or prove a logical assertion, or write a cogent sentence, to say nothing of their almost total ignorance of geography, foreign languages, art, history... indeed of any culture beyond the pre-chewed MacKulture they derive from narcotizing mass media designed to by-pass the brain and impact directly on the central nervous system.
What have we here?
Mr Bezos keeps his people busy:
I have just managed to relocate my well-oiled (but drying) "artwork" inside a few drops ahead of the afternoon rain. One day soon I may even take a photo of it!