Further ramblings of a self-made pauper

For the fourth time in a little over three weeks, the IT system has collapsed - luckily, this time around not taking any important work with it as I had serendipitously just saved everything important.

Nonetheless, apart from the ironic continued functionality of the internet - the great time waster - and email, none of the data drives are currently working and the usual applications just cough up blood and expire.

It is no great tragedy this once. It is 5.40pm and I have 5 days away from the office ahead of me.

Starting this very inst

I was annoyed by technology right from the off this morning, well before I left the Carpathia to come to work.

After breakfast, as is my custom, I took my coffee upstairs to take a look at the news and LJ on my computer. The computer had gone into one of its periodic power-saving comas whence it can only be resuscitated by pressing the standby button enough to jerk it into life but without rebooting it. So far so good. Except that the mouse no longer works. Or rather the buttons and the scrolling wheel work, but the pointer stays resolutely immobile.

So: reboot.

Nothing; mouse still arsing around. Luckily I had my art pad and stylus, which meant I could navigate through windows without trying to remember the sorely neglected and mainly forgotten keyboard commands.

Dig out wireless mouse, change batteries and link it to the computer. The other mouse remains uncooperative, but now I have mouse function on the wireless. I then do as most people would and try random functions in My Computer. Nothing happens, nothing changes.

At that point I decide to write a grumble on LJ to ask you good chaps if you have any bright ideas. Then the internet connection dies. The router is fine, the PC is fine, Furtle’s PC is fine. The home network is OK, but there is suddenly no DNS and the ports are playing up. Some problem at PlusNet, I reckon. After 15 minutes of cursing, the entire system sponts and we’re back on line and I’m late for work.

Sometimes I miss the analogue life, particularly when technology fails and then recovers for no apparent reason. I think my USB mouse is still poorly, though. As usual, I have no idea why: it was fine last night.

How’s your day going so far?

...to something far more mundane: what is everybody's honest opinion of the performance of Thunderbird as a mail reader? I am getting sick of unannounced socket errors on Outlook Express that come and go like passing strangers, but which manage too to outstay their welcome by a number of hours.

I tried Thunderbird some years ago and gave up on it. Is the more modern version any better?

Assuming there is a more modern version.

I really like Firefox as a browser (despite the annoying memory leakage), but Thunderbird...

I had selected for today’s grumble the ever fresh and relevant Northern Line and the recent changes in the service introduced by London Transport that make East Finchley a terminus for southbound trains during the rush hour. Given that East Finchley is still ten miles from the centre of London, these trains tend to leave Totteridge and Whetsone virtually empty, while the more useful Bank or Charing Cross trains are packed to the gills and beyond.

I understand the concept of taking surplus trains out of service between rush hours, but during the rush?

That was what I was going to grumble about and I was moved top do so by voice post as I had plenty of time at Totteridge and Whetstone with three East Finchley trains in succession and an eight minute wait for something more useful. Except that I cannot now, it seems, make voice posts from my mobile, which is odd since that is the phone I have used in the past and which is registered on LiveJournal as the phone I should use.

It’s not often that I feel moved to treat you all to my dull-set dulcet tones, but sometimes it just has to be done. And I pay LiveJournal for the utility, so I am damned well going to use it one way or another.

So there.

Carry on.