2016 — 16 June: Thursday
Today's treats1 include a lunch date. Last night's treat was to finish off "Suits", Season #5. Apart from that, I shall be largely hunkered down in my bunker, with all windows closed against the mortar dust that's going to be swirling around Technology Towers again. The lads were already grinding away just before the 9 o'clock news bulletin that I could therefore no longer hear. It's already been agreed that the two cars belonging to the neighbour who's most nearly in the line of fire will be getting paid-for car washes, probably after tomorrow. (Unless the weather turns as nasty as currently seems possible; this is nearly summer, after all.)
Of course, if everyone actually used their garages to stick their cars in, this would be a non-problem.
I've just proved...
... that (unlike Skylark) if BlackBeast can't immediately find a display screen when first powered on, it goes into a blank screen sulk from which the easiest recovery remains a simple push of the 'reset' button. I'd half-deliberately left the screen 'pointing' at Skylark when I shut things down last night. Whether this behaviour is because BlackBeast uses a DisplayPort input whereas Skylark uses HDMI is something I haven't bothered to poke at (yet). Either way, I have confirmed one more thing that doesn't trigger the production of a core dump. In fact, that particular glitch now seems to have cured itself.
It's been asserted...
... that the wisdom contained herein includes the solution to the mysteries surrounding the ability to play almost all DVDs (and some subset of Blu-rays) on Linux PCs. Personally, I believe it's better to use dedicated hardware and baked-in software to crack that particular nut, rather than trying to bend a general-purpose PC to the task. Still, having skimmed through the steps and suggestions, I have no doubt it's feasible.
Santayana...
... warned of the perils of not learning from history. So, a brief history lesson:
When Blu-rays were first launched, I was using my seven-year-old 50" Pioneer plasma. I damn' well hoped to be able to continue using it, too, because (a) it had cost me £8,500 and (b) I knew it was perfectly capable of displaying a 720p hi-def analogue video input.2 But Blu-rays ushered in their Brave New World of HDMI connections and HDCP "content protection". My 50" Pioneer could not be back-fitted with an HDCP-compliant HDMI input so I started exploring ways around this.
A string of frustrating failures (mostly involving HDFury dongles) convinced me to buy a new, fully-compliant, screen and thus play according to this ghastly new set of rules. Hence the 60" Kuro which, admittedly, has a far better picture than the 50" did.
Breakfast beckons!
In what...
... possible Universe can this...
Calvin Harris has deleted all his Instagram photos of ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift after she was pictured kissing British actor Tom Hiddleston
... ever be defined as "News"? Just think: if the Multiverse theory is correct, there may be innumerable different Universes in which variants of this story are being pondered by variants of human beings. Now that is horrifying.
Next stop Barking?
Madness, madness, all around... nor any stop to think! (as Coleridge didn't quite put it).
This promptly led me to a more modern variant of Thoreau's 1854 "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation":
Well, you might well think that, Darian. I couldn't possibly comment. "What thin partitions..." and all that.
I suspect the slightly odd tenor of my thoughts this morning has been shaped, in part, either by the brain-rattling noises of the mortar grinding or, more likely, by learning overnight that 75 of my recent emails have just been collected and printed out for use as a reference document whenever a friend chooses to look back on — and assess her "progress" following — her first year of bereavement. Yikes! Careful what you write, David.
Mr Amazon Logistics...
... has just dodged some of the threatened heavy rain to hand over two promising lumps of entertainment...
I've been waiting for the Stross to become available in paperback since reading all its predecessors, and this is Season #2 of "The Americans" (which was recommended to me by Junior). It sounds rather like a harder-edged version of that splendid 1991 series with Nigel Havers and Warren Clarke: "Sleepers" — which I thoroughly enjoyed. Of course, I must first await the arrival of Season #1. Mustn't get ahead of myself!
Reading about...
... the Bank of England's reactions and predictions to an exit from the EU, I note that for the entire duration of their mortgage my son and his g/f have been faced with a Bank Rate stuck at 0.5% (and therefore a mortgage interest rate in the very low single digits). They have thus been able to come close to clearing their debt during the last five years. I reminded them at the weekend that my 25 years spent in thrall to this house-buying scam was conducted throughout a period when interest rates probably averaged 12% though with a loan that never exceeded £35,000. I suspect their house loan was around 7x to 8x that amount. How things change, heh?
The killing of an MP is despicable. It sickens me.
There's a...
... chilling line in the Exec Summary of the "Taking a New Line on Drugs" report from the Royal Society for Public Health that, despite its eminent good sense, will be howled at by a variety of ignorant loud-mouths:
Alcohol and tobacco use alone costs society more than all Class A drugs combined, and our policy priorities should reflect this.
Now, tell me which politician feels capable of grasping that little nettle?
No rush. Take your time. I can wait.