Technical jollity on computers and the intarweb...

As I type, Furtle's *BRAND NEW* PC is downloading the remnants of the current Warcraft upgrade. For some reason it's taking a while longer than anticipated - I suspect that at some point we will have to muck about with router and firewall settings to clear it up a little. Oddly enough it didn't seem to take this long when we loaded all the stuff on to my PC, but I guess there's always the chance that someone somewhere is dowloading The Titanic and snarfing all my bandwidth.

What I do know is that there is precious little left for me right now while this last gig and a half come down the line. Still it reckons that it's nearly finished, so maybe I will be able to get to websites unimpeded shortly.

We have been held back somewhat by the mutual jealousy between the computers. The iMAc is no longer connected to the Internet, but it is connected to the Mac Note Book via firewire and bluetooth and stuff and the Notebook in turn is connected to the web. I believe the iMac is relaying instructions to the Notebook and that the Notebook is carrying them out. What is happening is this: we have arranged matters so that both PCs operate as a home network so we can send files to each other and both use the printer instead of having to pass memory sticks around. This worked perfectly until the Notebook was woken up.That machine then proceeded to grab and claim the same IP address as Furtle's new PC. The youthful vigour of the latter was, of course, no match for the wiley competence of the Apple machine and we found ourselves with two machines that would not talk to the Internet and a home network that wouldn't network. We were then trapped by our own firewall. That is sorted, but I figure that there is still a setting or two that needs tweaking on the firewall to speed it up, but that's a job for another night.

The download has completed and in less time than it takes to report on these shenanigans, the update has installed itself and I believe that the game is now ready to play. I hope it's ready to play.

In other tech news, I have given up on Thunderbird and, reluctantly, have gone back to Outlook. At least that will work with multiple email accounts.

Tech, eh? Can't live with it, can't live without it.

Technical jollity on computers and the intarweb...

As I type, Furtle's *BRAND NEW* PC is downloading the remnants of the current Warcraft upgrade. For some reason it's taking a while longer than anticipated - I suspect that at some point we will have to muck about with router and firewall settings to clear it up a little. Oddly enough it didn't seem to take this long when we loaded all the stuff on to my PC, but I guess there's always the chance that someone somewhere is dowloading The Titanic and snarfing all my bandwidth.

What I do know is that there is precious little left for me right now while this last gig and a half come down the line. Still it reckons that it's nearly finished, so maybe I will be able to get to websites unimpeded shortly.

We have been held back somewhat by the mutual jealousy between the computers. The iMAc is no longer connected to the Internet, but it is connected to the Mac Note Book via firewire and bluetooth and stuff and the Notebook in turn is connected to the web. I believe the iMac is relaying instructions to the Notebook and that the Notebook is carrying them out. What is happening is this: we have arranged matters so that both PCs operate as a home network so we can send files to each other and both use the printer instead of having to pass memory sticks around. This worked perfectly until the Notebook was woken up.That machine then proceeded to grab and claim the same IP address as Furtle's new PC. The youthful vigour of the latter was, of course, no match for the wiley competence of the Apple machine and we found ourselves with two machines that would not talk to the Internet and a home network that wouldn't network. We were then trapped by our own firewall. That is sorted, but I figure that there is still a setting or two that needs tweaking on the firewall to speed it up, but that's a job for another night.

The download has completed and in less time than it takes to report on these shenanigans, the update has installed itself and I believe that the game is now ready to play. I hope it's ready to play.

In other tech news, I have given up on Thunderbird and, reluctantly, have gone back to Outlook. At least that will work with multiple email accounts.

Tech, eh? Can't live with it, can't live without it.

Madness

I wasn’t aware of it until I caught the Tube this morning, but my nerves seem to be stretched. I picked up the moment the alarm went off, that I would prefer another couple of hours in bed, but that’s hardly unusual. No, the side effect of having taut nerves is that my hearing seems (or rather seemed while on the train) to be unusually acute. This meant that the plum across the carriage who was seemingly intent on texting the entirety of the Encyclopaedia Britannica got my back up unreasonably. The keys on her phone were not, I think, that loud, but I could hear every letter and every correction she made and it was interminable. The glassy-eyed nimrod who sat next to me, listening to some repeated tinny tifter-tifter-cha-plunk-tifter-tifter on his iPod was clearly trying to remove earwax through the medium of sound. Thankfully he left to wander around north London in a dim world of unthinking bebop before we got to Archway. This left me still able to hear plum who was still diligently texting while we were underground, though the reverb from the tunnels damped the annoyance somewhat.

The Karma Pixies have decided that today should continue to be surreal. Our economist, who seems unable or unwilling to understand and embrace the concept of holidays (he books half days leave and works until 4, or full days leave and comes in late afternoon) has struck again. He booked this week off for a holiday in Spain. He bought the airline tickets and booked the hotel.

He changed his mind last night and is currently at his desk.

This place gets you like that. Still, mercifully there is no-one listening to an iPod within the range of my ears…

Madness

I wasn’t aware of it until I caught the Tube this morning, but my nerves seem to be stretched. I picked up the moment the alarm went off, that I would prefer another couple of hours in bed, but that’s hardly unusual. No, the side effect of having taut nerves is that my hearing seems (or rather seemed while on the train) to be unusually acute. This meant that the plum across the carriage who was seemingly intent on texting the entirety of the Encyclopaedia Britannica got my back up unreasonably. The keys on her phone were not, I think, that loud, but I could hear every letter and every correction she made and it was interminable. The glassy-eyed nimrod who sat next to me, listening to some repeated tinny tifter-tifter-cha-plunk-tifter-tifter on his iPod was clearly trying to remove earwax through the medium of sound. Thankfully he left to wander around north London in a dim world of unthinking bebop before we got to Archway. This left me still able to hear plum who was still diligently texting while we were underground, though the reverb from the tunnels damped the annoyance somewhat.

The Karma Pixies have decided that today should continue to be surreal. Our economist, who seems unable or unwilling to understand and embrace the concept of holidays (he books half days leave and works until 4, or full days leave and comes in late afternoon) has struck again. He booked this week off for a holiday in Spain. He bought the airline tickets and booked the hotel.

He changed his mind last night and is currently at his desk.

This place gets you like that. Still, mercifully there is no-one listening to an iPod within the range of my ears…

Words!

A sombre-looking and fubsy man with much to be sombre about has just wandered around the office distributing an oppugnant leaflet intended no doubt, to be roborant but hopefully not fatidical.

Oh, I give up. These words are too hard to remember, even when they are written down in front of you – you have to keep referring back to them both for spelling and to ensure you’ve picked the right one from the list.

The Times is highlighting a number of words that, it is claimed, are obsolete and in danger of being omitted from the next edition of the Collins Dictionary. Because the silly season is not quite over, the paper is giving readers the option of voting to save some words from the caliginosity of history, by showing where they are still in use on a semi regular basis. They wish us to separate out the nitid from the olid and recrement that in turn should be vilipended.

I think it says much that only two of the words I have slipped into this griseous (there is a third) opus have sailed past the spell checker without raising a hair. The caducity (a fourth) of the remainder is clearly apodeictic.

Give me another five minutes and I shan’t be able to remember, except possibly from context, what these words mean. Clearly this abstergent (a fifth) exercise is overdue.

It’s all done far better here: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4799560.ece

Words!

A sombre-looking and fubsy man with much to be sombre about has just wandered around the office distributing an oppugnant leaflet intended no doubt, to be roborant but hopefully not fatidical.

Oh, I give up. These words are too hard to remember, even when they are written down in front of you – you have to keep referring back to them both for spelling and to ensure you’ve picked the right one from the list.

The Times is highlighting a number of words that, it is claimed, are obsolete and in danger of being omitted from the next edition of the Collins Dictionary. Because the silly season is not quite over, the paper is giving readers the option of voting to save some words from the caliginosity of history, by showing where they are still in use on a semi regular basis. They wish us to separate out the nitid from the olid and recrement that in turn should be vilipended.

I think it says much that only two of the words I have slipped into this griseous (there is a third) opus have sailed past the spell checker without raising a hair. The caducity (a fourth) of the remainder is clearly apodeictic.

Give me another five minutes and I shan’t be able to remember, except possibly from context, what these words mean. Clearly this abstergent (a fifth) exercise is overdue.

It’s all done far better here: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4799560.ece