Who's Your Daddy

I can't believe how excited I am about this being back on tonight. My favourite TV show as a kid, and - who'd have thought - my favourite TV show as a 'grown-up'.

One skin, two skin, three skin... ...

Of course, I know that HIV/AIDS is no laughing matter. And yes, I realise I'm just being childish here. But when you consider the subject matter of this article, it's hard to suppress a snigger when you spot the name of the Director of HIV/AIDS at the WHO.

Vucking Vista

I'm starting to get to grips with Vista (tightly, around its neck). After a bit of what we in the technical profession refer to as 'fucking about', I've managed to get over a few of my main gripes.

I can now play DVDs properly, and the computer now boots up properly without insisting that I install drivers for my webcam every time. And all I had to do was uninstall McAfee Security Centre. And then try to install Norton instead. And then try to update Norton to a version that works with Vista. And then give up on that idea, and try to install Norton 2007. And then remember to uninstall the previous version of Norton first. And then get very annoyed when the previous version of Norton refused to uninstall. And then do a system restore to the point before I installed Norton. And then install the new version of Norton.

Piece of piss.

Vexed by Vista

My new computer arrived on Thursday morning. The computer is awesome. It feels ten times faster than the old one. For one thing, I don't have time to make a cup of coffee (and drink it, and wash the cup afterwards) whilst waiting for it to start up.

And isn't Windows Vista great? Isn't it?

Well, if you don't have any objection to your webcam no longer working, and you're quite happy to be unable to use your computer to watch DVDs that you've purchased, and you're not bothered by the minor inconvenience that NOTHING FUCKING WORKS, then... yes, Windows Vista is just dandy.

I'm seriously considering nuking Vista and installing XP instead.

Bunch of Bankers

Hurrah! I finally convinced myself to buy the new computer I've been lusting after for the last six months or so. There's not much wrong with the one I have, other than the speed, or lack of it. It's almost four years old* and starting to show its age.

I paid for it with my debit card, which seemed like a great idea. The money is taken straight from the bank account, without any need to worry about interest charges if the bill isn't paid in full on time. What could possibly go wrong? Right?

To celebrate, I took myself all the way across the road for a pint or two of overpriced Irish cider. Living almost directly across the road from the pub is convenient. Sometimes too much so. Today the owners had finally gotten around to repairing the cracked tiles on the steps leading to the front door. Since the main entrance was still closed off, I had to go in through the tradesman's entrance (stop sniggering at the back).

So. Anyway. After one or two pints or overpriced Irish cider, I had run out of actual money, and had to rely on plastic to bail me out. I handed over the card (yup, the same one I had used to pay for the computer) only to have it promptly declined by the fancy machine that takes your card, and calls up your bank to authorise (or not) your transaction. The machine instructed the 'mechant' to phone an authorisation number, which they did, and eventually passed the phone over to me to answer a number of 'security questions'.

Which, fortunately, I managed to answer correctly. Lucky for me that I know my own date of birth and the name of the town where I live. A couple more pints of the overpriced Irish cider and it might have been a different story.

I'm looking forward to getting my new computer. Assuming everything still works considering it's preloaded with Windows Vista...

* Although I've only actually had about two years' use out of it, but that's another story.

Old School

This old photo from 1975 resurfaced a couple of days ago. I'm in there somewhere, but I'm not saying where. As a small clue, I have a moderately gormless expression on my face. Although I don't think that narrows it down too much.

What I found more interesting (and this gives you a fair idea of what a sad individual I am) was the other side of the page, showing the TV listings from the days when there were a grand total of three channels to choose from. How ever did we cope?

Yep, the days when ITV1 was just plain old ITV. Long before ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. Still can't figure out why ITV needs 4 channels when they don't have enough programmes to fill one. We could ask the same question of the BBC, come to think of it.

What are the odds?

On account of a rail strike here, I'm working from home today. Or, I would be working if not for the fact that one of the servers at head office decided this would be a perfect time to go tits-up and refuse to accept remote connections. The one day when half of the Glasgow office is working from home and depending on the office network to be running smoothly. Wouldn't you know it?

One of the guys at head office is working on it right now, and hopefully it'll be up and running soon.

On the plus side, missing out the daily commute is a real bonus. I got to stay in bed until 8am, and as soon as I finish work*, I'm back home.

* That's assuming that I get to start it at some point.