It’s Friday!

I am once again off to York for the weekend, and shall most likely be returning late on Monday. I hope everyone has a fun weekend. If you get bored, may I recommend this site. But not this one (tanktops now available!).

Car Problems

My Renault Clio has been playing up recently. Let it be clear from here on in that I know absoloutely nothing about how cars work. Some kind of fuel is converted to energy which in turn allows me to move. There are things called carburettors, fan belts, catalytic convertors and batteries in the engine compartment. There's also a wheel that I turn (which is apparently directly connected to the other, bigger, wheels...being a computer person, this is a slightly odd concept; the handbrake works in a similar way, I hear.) And that's pretty much it. Based on this knowledge, I can say that my car has a cold.

It does, really. You get into it and after a minute of two it starts to shudder and shake. Poor love, just needs a bit of warmth. In a rare lucid moment, however, I last week booked it into the Renault garage for Monday 25th. I then promptly had to cancel this when I got calls from four separate clients with problems that needed sorting that day. I'm going to York this weekend, and was somewhat concerned that I might combust en route (cars do that, you know, I see it on TV all the time), so called in a favour at a Ford Dealership whose computers I look after. They had a quick look today and said that there's an electrical problem causing the car to stutter, but that it drives fine and I needn't worry about an abrupt one-to-one with Mr (or, more likely, Mrs) Entropy. I still have to get it checked out by the Renault garage, so I'll try to book it in for next week.

I've had the Clio for twenty-one months now, and it's had to go into the garage three times, including this one. The first was a problem with the airbags, the second a general 'service light came on' problem. I don't know how this compares with other cars, but I thought it might be of interest to anyone looking for a vehicle, as I imagine many of my friends will be within eight or nine months.

Hurrah!

It's arrived! And it works, too! I've even managed to synchronize with Outlook. Thank goodness for that I did actually record me opening the parcel, just in case. I made Jackie, Mum and Dad's accounts assistant, watch as an independent witness too. I'll be transferring my old number across so no need to update phone books, though I do have a temporary number for the meantime. If you want to know it, email me.

What Lies Beneath

The other parcel I received:

It's from Orange, and with a bit of luck contains a 6600. I am, however, ASSUMING NOTHING!!! I've got a couple of things to do today, including one I'm not particularly relishing, so I'm not going to open it yet. I shall have it to "look forward" to. I'm going to video the whole opening the parcel process. And if it's wrong, I'm sending it back with Special Delivery, GPS Locators, Car Tracking systems, and RFID tags. Paranoid? You bet.

Clever Software

I got two parcels this morning. One of them was a router. The instructions say:

Linksys highly recommends that you use the setup CD-ROM to install the Cable/DSL Router with 8-Port Switch. However, if you prefer to install the router manually, then follow the instructions in this Quick Installation.

A. Make sure all devices, including your PCs, modem, and Router, are powered down.
B. If you haven't already done so, connect your cable or DSL modem to its proper connection - the coaxial jack for cable or the phone jack for DS[...]
C. Using an Ethernet network cable, connect the LAN or Ethernet network port of the cable or DSL modem to the Router's internet port.

You know, I can't be bothered doing the above, I think I'll just use the CD like they suggest.

Desperation? – See Final Sentence

VoodooExtreme quote I just read:

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar has scans of the latest issue of PC Gamer UK that hint at Monkey Island 5 being in development:

When asked about a Monkey Island 5, LucasArts answer was 'No, we do not have Monkey Island 5 in production. Sorry.' Of course, two months before announcing Curse of Monkey Island LucasArts said this to a fan asking about a Monkey Island 3: 'At this time there are no plans to release a Monkey Island 3. Sorry.' And about Monkey Island 4: '[..] However, at this time there are no plans for a Monkey Island 4.'

It's kinda like paranoia, but in reverse. There's gotta be a word for that.

Quick Thought

Why does the woman in the advert need to talk to her bank after eight at night? What is it she's hoping they'll be able to do before the next morning? There is indeed another way: Internet Banking.

I got my TI-86 working, by the way. After removing and replacing the backup battery I got a very faint cursor, which after a few on-off cycles was able to be contrasted up. I think you'll find that last phrase is an official entry in the English Literature Professor's Lexicon, and I didn't just make it up just now. So now I can play Vertigo do complex calculations involving logs without having to invoke the Sony Ericsson calculator

A Disappointing Morning

Moving onto today, I had a kak morning. The first tutorial for my Astronomy course was today at Worcester Sixth Form College, from 10:30-12:30, so I left at about 09:45. The tutor had previously said that we had to be on time. I'd been told to head for Spetchley Road, which I found by about 10:20. I didn't know any more than that, except that the College was off that road. I spotted a College sign directing me down the road and relaxed; I wasn't going to be late.

Except the road promptly ended 300m later. The only turn off was into an estate with many collegy-type-looking buildings, but the sign at the front said it was Council Offices. Nevertheless, the documentation had said to head to the right to find the visitor's car park, and that was the direction the road went. Also, there was nowhere else it could be. So I drove around the estate for a while, but couldn't see any signs that said anything other than coucil related buildings. After taking a while to figure out which road would take me back out the way I came in, I went back up and down the road and came to the same conclusion. There wasn't anywhere else it could be. After another tour of the council buildings I was getting pretty wound up, which didn't help. It was getting late, too.

Eventually I left via a different exit and came around for another trip down the road. This time I spotted something. There was a small track going off to the left, directly opposite the College sign directing me further down Spetchley Road. An idea occured to me and a few expletives and a quick turn-around later my hypothesis proved to be correct. Some helpful person had turned the sign around 90 degrees. The college itself wasn't that big, and wasn't visible at all from the road. I hadn't even thought of looking out for it before this sign, anyway.

Unfortunately by this time it was 10:53 or so, and all the doors I tried were locked. So that was a waste of a morning. The tutorial wasn't compulsory, but I was looking forward to having a few queries clarified. I can still do that via the OU online conference software, though.

Presumably it was just a Sit

Sorry for yesterday's lack of postage; I was working in Henley until half 7 then didn't get tea until 9 and as a consequence was exhausted. I saw some of Mad About Alice in the evening. Hmmm. As a general rule: TV Show + Amanda Holden = I can cope. But, really, no. Jonathan Ross described it as the first thing churned out by the infinite monkeys. I think I managed to stand 7 minutes before switching over to Friends. As an example of the calibre of the writing, I present you with the following gem:

Woman 1: I just want something [a relationship] that's short and happy!
Woman 2: Well, date Bilbo Baggins!

Mere moments passed before my fingers were feverishly stabbing the channel-up button.