2016 — 2 June: Thursday
Before today's lunch date there will be, I hope, a short consultation with a chap who's good at clambering around on your roof and plugging the gaps through which rain can enter.1 This house maintenance skylark is but one of the dubious pleasures of Life, I find. Speaking of which, I updated some of my musings on life (and UK housing) last night. Having been reading the book by Benedict Anderson I was clearly feeling in an autobiographical sort of mood. Your mood may vary, but I suspect Big Bro may find my notes of mild interest.
I've just added...
... the latest build of the Clementine music player to the NUC, and it's rewarding me with Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" as I type. The version in the latest Ubuntu repository is not yet updated, by the way, so (having first tried, and failed, to install it from their Ubuntu 16.04 download button — there was a missing GStreamer, or some such message) I simply added the PPA details and installed it manually:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:me-davidsansome/clementine sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install clementine
Of course, there was then the usual mild panic in the world of Linux digital audio when silence initially ensued. In such cases, I find it often helps if I remember to switch on the Rotel power amp.
Meanwhile, Roger tells me...
... the Figg Tea House and Biscuit Barrel may now re-open for business, so (with luck) that's my Friday afternoon treat sorted tomorrow.
And Junior tells me...
... he resigned from his present outfit yesterday (throwing it oh-so-casually in as a conversational afterthought [probably in the forlorn hope of not worrying me] when he rang me last night). He probably mistakes me for his other parent! But since he'd already taken the entirely sensible precaution of (a) sorting out his existing stock options first, and (b) lining up his next employer next, and since he's well able to think these things through without my "help", I had nothing useful to add. Besides, why would I be worried? Christa and I raised him properly and he's a Big Lad of three dozen years now.
It amused me to hear he got the same 13% salary bump that I did when I switched from ICL to IBM in mid-1981. Though in my case, the comparison was less straightforward — I was supplementing my basic ICL salary by loads of freelance work.
It's a bit late...
... for me to start worrying about the Grauniad's relentless battering against the UK's ineffable class system, sustained as it undeniably is by the equally ineffable private education on tap for those who can (or who choose) to afford it!
Though, I admit, I've been reading the lady's prose for many years now. Since her 1991 collection of essays "Looking for Trouble", in fact. Christa and I (briefly) examined the prospect of Winchester for Junior. We were both put off, not merely by the extortionate fees, but by the robust military and religious ethos of the subtext in the brochures.
Having enhanced...
... my BlackBeast PC's graphics card to the same 2GB nVidia GTX950 that I put in Skylark, it seems a lot more sprightly than the previous ATI Radeon card ever did. Not really surprising, I guess:
I was reading all about customising KDE Plasma virtual workspaces in yesterday's issue of "Linux Magazine" (an uninspired title for a good magazine). KDE has a reputation for being just about the most customisable distro around. So I hunted down what I could find by way of reviews of Kubuntu (KDE on Ubuntu) — but found it all rather off-putting. As a consolation prize, therefore, I've upped the workspace count hereabouts to simulate some of their suggestions on a revised workflow. Not that much work flows around Technology Towers.
My roof consultation will "take it to the next level" tomorrow morning, I've just crashed poor Clementine, and I've truncated the life expectation of a number of brambles and nascent trees. Neighbours thought of dashing back to get a video camera to capture this unprecedented botanical venture; cheeky perishers. [Pause] I make that time for lunch!
Though not...
... a major-league fan of the "Star Wars" franchise, I will admit to having owned the £99-99 LaserDisc box set of the "original trilogy" (that is, Episodes #4 through #6) in its first reworked format. And I also had all three titles on their original UK PAL VHS tape and LD releases too. (I did have a young son at the time, recall.) I've seen some of Episode #1. I gave up on Episode #2 about 10 minutes in. Never been exposed to Episode #3. Now I've just been lent Episode #7 to try, on Blu-ray, no less. If it is as full of JJ Abrams' characteristic "blue lens flare" as, for example, "Looper" was, it will not detain me for long.
With an extra three network ports courtesy of my second Netgear switch, I've now relocated my Raspberry Pi2 in-house webserver down here, where I can keep an eye on it. All seems well.
One might think...
... with an estimated budget of $245,000,000 there would be some room in it to fund a decent "Star Wars" script. I watched 20 minutes but concluded it was simply a remake. If it's better than that, I'll never know. I caught up with last night's episode of "Free Thinking" instead. Much more interesting, and a lot less wasted money.