crazyscot

Nearly a year ago now, we set sail (as it were) on our Grand Adventure, and we aren't showing any signs of wanting to come back.

I am inspired by today's quake to ask, what do you lot think?

There hadn't been much seismic activity here really since January, but over the past few weeks there had been a handful of noticeable shakes. Then, this afternoon, the building shook for 15 or 20 seconds. 5.2. Quite sporting, really. There was no damage that I was aware of; frankly, anything that's not screwed down or hasn't already fallen down in this town isn't exactly going to budge for a "mere" 5.2!

I finally got round to replacing my aging CRT TV today with a flat-screen. Relatively cheap, practically entry level, a 26" tiddler compared to some of the giant beasts they had in store.

It has an ethernet socket on the back. The paperwork includes a copy of the GPL, and a URL I can download kernel (and other) source from.

When I powered on it asked me if I wanted to enable automatic firmware updates. It has Opera on-board and will apparently play YouTube and other net-based video streams - not to mention Sony's own content offering, but I'm not sure I dare plug it into my home LAN in case it tries to DRM anything it can get its hands on!

I suppose I ought not to be surprised, but from the fact that I'm writing this you may infer that I am. Where's my walking stick, and will those darn kids get off my lawn, please?

(I need a new icon for this post. My current "weird" icon isn't weird enough. I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't seen it myself.)

So there I was at work, just after 5pm, starting to think about going home. I'm using the WinXP machine on my desktop, accessing the company email (google-hosted via the standard web interface). All of a sudden, as I'm archiving off some old emails, the machine looks like it's shutting down. Uncommanded.

What?

No, it has locked itself. And only (some other user I've never met) or an administrator can unlock it.

Bwuh?????

My incredulous exclamations attracted my neighbour and my boss, who were both as utterly boggled as I was.

I picked up the phone to the helpdesk, who had gone home for the day. The duty chap took the details - was as surprised at the description as we were! - and asked if it was urgent. Thankfully I had already completed the urgent task that required me to run the in-house Windows software, so he took details and said they'd investigate in the morning. Fair enough.

In the meantime my boss went directly to one of the senior IT bods, with whom he has a good working relationship. He was sufficiently intrigued to decide that he would put delay his departure for the day and come and investigate. He has admin access and was able to unlock the machine (which, in the usual Windows way, forcibly ends the logged-in user's locked session); he proceeded to log in and start poring through the machine's logs; he's very intrigued and wants to get to the bottom of this.

But. I mean. What. I don't even know where to start. It was as if my Windows machine - a full first-class PC, not a thin client, nor a Remote Desktop server - had routed its keyboard, mouse and monitor to some other random machine somewhere on the network. This one takes the biscuit, the cake, the 1000lb weight, and the feather duster.

Um. So. While our IT people try and puzzle it out, any ideas, dear f'list?

As of today, we have a heatpump in our bedroom. Between it, and the insulation which is to be fitted soon, we might actually have a less-than-miserably-freezing winter.

We went to the grave site for the victims of the February 2011 earthquake.

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At long last, I have my NZ PPL. It took a while to arrange because they insisted on a full, thorough BFR, which took me six sessions to complete. I was worried that they were going to bounce my application, because I couldn't reach them on the phone to seek clarification over just what documents would suffice to prove my lack of transport offence history in the UK - but they haven't argued with the set I sent them.

The license itself is a plastic card, valid for life - though only useful while my medical and BFR are current.

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I recently finished reading Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane, former USAF officer and astronaut with three Space Shuttle flights to his name. It's a fascinating warts-and-all account of his time in the shuttle programme: the pressures and rivalry around crew selection, the effect it had on his family, nerve-racking launch scrub after launch scrub, the heartache of Challenger (and a chapter about Columbia, though he had long since retired from the programme by then) - and more intimate details about being an astronaut than you probably wanted to know! Well recommended.

I went to Hanmer Springs with my beloved and we ... ( Read more... )

Coming to the end of a week off, I find myself wanting to post something but not sure exactly what. ( So here are some random witterings, as a memory jog for myself. )

It's a first world problem, but what direction do the crystal balls of my f'list think about where the GBP:NZD exchange rate will move in the next few months? Longer term the difference will probably be lost in the noise as I plan to sell my Cambridge flat in probably a year's time, but I irrationally don't want to get scunnered by a rate that's about to change.

As I write this the rate is about $1.90 to the pound, which historically is a pretty strong situation for the Kiwi to be in. I have my own opinions about the economic strengths of the two economies, which I'll keep to myself so as to try to avoid prejudicing the responses...