(Sunday 16th November)Signing on to AOL the other day, I was met with the following pop up advert:
I would agree with that, as AOL are happily continuing to supply a broadband connection for the price of dial-up!
(Thursday 13th November)I don't think anyone in #quantum can believe the current PCA accusations after the dog's breakfast I made of trying to ftp into Tolien's site! Admittedly, it wasn't my fault the login wouldn't work and I also discovered that the version of Cute I'd downloaded contained a virus, but I didn't exactly impress anyone with my grasp of Windows FTP .....
Not for the first time, I wish I didn't have to work for a living, especially work full time. Never mind, at least I have a network again, even if I don't have time to sleep or eat (unless someone plonks food in front of me).
I'm sick to death of installing programs! One of the most irritating things I've found this time round is how difficult it is to get to the actual download links when obtaining freeware. Instead of a quick few seconds to begin a download, I seem to have had to navigate past annoying attempts to persuade me that what I really want is the pro version.
I love the button next to the smilies on Tol's forum - I suppose it must have got there installing one of the modifications. Pressing to see *all* the smilies brings up a box which says "hackingattempt1".
LOL @ Justin's PM .... only a mathematician could have written that! (iff this condition prevails then this that and the other etc). I'm going to end up breaking the *rules* because I don't understand them!
(Sunday 9th November)Decided I couldn't stand this lack of internet access any longer - especially after Michael got an email from CCL notifying me of some delay before the parts I'd ordered for a new PC could be delivered, so have bought a laptop. Keeping in touch with people I'd normally email or chat to online by text message instead was doing my head in! I hate text messaging and almost never use it as I find it a frustrating and time consuming way of saying nothing very much. And the speed with which some of these youngsters can message back is truly amazing ..... so I'm now broke, having spent a fortune on PC equipment over the last few days!
At the moment I feel completely overwhelmed with having to start from scratch with a new system and not even have my normal backups to restore from. You don't realise just how many tweaks and settings you fine tune over a period of many months, and to suddenly have nothing working the way I want it to and no ready access to the many programs I was used to working with, is hard to take. For instance, trying to get a mirc connection script to work last night ... normally I'd have saved this and simply copied it to a new program, but I wasn't able to. Already annoyed with the amount of time spent on this, I then set about trying to download kazaalite, only to find this was anything but simple - they seem to want you to pay for it now. Someone kindly sent the zipped file, but of course no winrar on the laptop. Sorted that out and started downloading some songs. Deciding to play them I then realised I didn't have winamp, and I'm still left with a measly 6 songs or something in a playlist that used to run to hundreds! I then downloaded MSN messenger and went to browse for a picture to display - of course, no picture files, nothing to choose from!
As it happens, what's playing at the moment is the Kinks, Sunny Afternoon, which seems somewhat appropriate :)
(Thursday 6th November)This is a mega quick edit as I'm using someone's logon for a university PC (running RedHat which is a new experience). Will say more on current problems when I have the time, essentially for the next few days I will have to grab internet access from wherever, as I don't have my own connection.
Simon Wells (or should I say MisterX of Ebuyerdotcon) you are a total shit!
(Saturday 1st November)Received an email from AOL which put the fear of God into me until someone pointed it out as a scam!
"BNFYQkkffB27805: Dear moiraatkinson,
Hello, my name is Keith Jinkings, on behalf of the AOL Security Department. We recently reviewed your account and found that your account is linked with malicious online activities. To validate you are the owner of the account please visit http://www.aol.com@beam.to/aolcheck to continue your membership with AOL.
America Online Member Services
Billing Department
Keith Jinkings
realname: Calvin"
LOL .... should have been obvious, maybe I've got a guilty conscience? :)
I've also been thinking recently about online contacts. It's strange how things change. There are people I regret losing contact with (eg Harley, Rottz, M3DU54, Anna) who seem determined to disappear from my online life and there's nothing I can do about it. And I have to say, that's not a problem, people are free to lead their own lives. Then there are people who I seem able to slip easily into renewed conversation with, sometimes the most unlikely people, as events have unfolded in the past which would have suggested continued contact would be extremely unlikely (eg Ashley). Although we may not communicate for long periods, there's a settled situation with these people where we can pick up and exchange occasional email quite comfortably. Other people remain loyal and easy to stay in touch with, easy to communicate with and enjoyable to talk to. In all these categories, with some of these people we are poles apart in "real life", but on IRC and through email, that's not important - who knows what changes the future may bring, for the moment, it's a case of just enjoy.
I admit I enjoy interacting with people (even awkward people) and I find it one of the most fascinating things about the net. I tend to be quite loyal and would almost always not be the person to sever contact with someone. Even if several months went by without exchanging messages, I would always respond to an email sent to me and pick up where we'd left off (eg Andy, Dave). Loyalty is a quality I value, particularly as contact over the net is such a fragile link with someone.
(Saturday 25th October)Managed to waste a good part of the day producing channel stats for quantum. Forget about the dates given (the channel was only created in August), several of the logs were in different places and overlapped, causing them to be skipped by the program, so I ended up putting in completely made up dates to get round this. The first log I analysed was right at the start of quantum, when there was only M3DU54 and myself in the channel. Since then, it's had quite a number of visitors - and apologies to a few people whose nicks are still left out for some reason when I combine logs, but appear when I do them separately.
At this point I must point out a major, major flaw with the stats .... I don't stay permanently logged in, or even anywhere near permanently logged in. I have only had access to my own logs and there will be a lot of chat which hasn't been included at all, plus I'm obviously going to come out with the most number of quotes. In reality I doubt I've said any more in quantum than the like of cats_ or lostbuffer. Still, it's only a bit of fun. I just find it fascinating to see the random quotes that surface!
A big thank you to b0rked! Not only did this guy from adsl channel spend ages sorting out connection scripts with me last night, but he's just pointed out why the stats seemed devoid of colour .... I hadn't uploaded all the gif files. Then, he solved the problem of the stats giving everyone an op label regardless, even if they'd only briefly been given @ in the channel. And if that wasn't enough, he then pointed out a mistake in the URL when I set the channel topic to point to the stats. As a token of appreciation, I've left @b0rked :)
I've been trying to sort out the problem of AOL Communicator suddenly refusing to send mail from my Yahoo account. Emailing Yahoo resulted in an automated reply which included the following paragraph:
Now WTF does that have to do with the problem and how is enabling a whole heap of spam going to sort out the SMTP mail server ??? Buried within some fairly good advice, I think Yahoo hope people will just follow steps 1 - 5 and carry out those instructions without thinking. Personally, I find it patronising and insulting that they assume their customers are so gullible!
(Thursday 23rd October)Children are generally accused nowadays of being unable to use their imagination, and expecting to have all their entertainment laid on. If you believe what you read, today's youngsters spend all their time in front of computers or watching TV.
Well, this summer Emily and her cousin Jenny proved that kids are capable of quite a lot really. In what may be one of their last opportunities to enjoy a summer of long lazy weeks at Embleton, away from the trappings of a modern day existence and with some of the most perfect weather we've ever had in the UK, "Jemily productions" made a film based on Lord of the Rings. Called Lord of the Hula Hoops, they put an unbelievable amount of time and effort into this. Emily originally downloaded the script from the internet and they set about finding other kids to play the various parts. They went round second hand shops, buying props and costumes and made some very impressive hobby horses! "Mollom" (ie Gollom) was played by Jenny's dog Molly, and the rest of the cast were mainly children from the other bungalows. Indeed, one of the impressive things about the film was how well some of these kids had learned their lines - even those as young as 7 showed commitment and a general lack of messing around.
Although the sound quality of the film was a bit disappointing and shows where professional equipment makes a difference, the scenery and the costumes were spectacular. One of the funniest parts was the day they chose to film on the beach while the Phoenix Phourteen race was taking place. It's a race I've done myself on a number of occasions so I can imagine what the runners were thinking as they crossed Embleton beach!
Jenny's boyfried Matt spent many hours cutting and editing to produce the finished videos, incidentally capturing a snapshot of a summer that both girls will look back on in years to come with a lot of nostalgia.
When we were at the bungalow at Easter, Jenny, Emily and Neil were trying out some of their costumes, pictured here.
(Tuesday 21st October)Archived another page and updated one of the photos from Oxford with a picture taken of Tuesday night's formal hall. It arrived from my Dad as a massive PDD file (1,312 kb) but is now thankfully down to a more manageable 38k. Fortunately I had Photoshop to open the original!
Enjoyed what will be one of our last stays at Embleton this weekend. Arriving on Saturday afternoon I made the discovery that since the previous weekend the bungalow had been broken into. A tiresome, regular occurrence, it prompted the usual debate about security. Do we protect the place like Fort Knox, knowing that a determined burglar will get in anyway and just do more expensive damage? Or go to the other extreme and more or less leave the place unprotected, curtains open, with nothing of value inside. In fact, this time the only "loss" I could see was a pack of duracell batteries, plus we're obviously going to have to replace the deadlock. However, it must have been a disappointment for whoever decided to break in .... absolutely nothing they would consider highly prized. It has to be said that maybe it was an easy target compared to other bungalows which had shutters up - however, at this time of year, even if we had shutters we'd not have put them up yet.
Insurance is another issue. Frankly, we've never bothered. The fire risk alone to an isolated, uninhabited wooden bungalow on the dunes makes it expensive. Then there's the bother of having to call the police just to get a job number to claim - and to be honest, it's cheaper just to replace a window or buy a new lock than pay a premium every year.
So to anyone reading this who might think that the recent, inflated value of these bungalows means that their rich owners have left expensive possessions and alcohol inside, let me tell you DON'T BOTHER. IT'S NOT WORTH YOUR WHILE!
(Thursday 16th October)Just returned from an enjoyable few days in Oxford, which typically even now seem no more than a distant memory. None of the photographs featured are actually from this trip, as I haven't yet got any developed, but they're a selection from past visits. I'm pleased and somewhat relieved it all went according to plan ..... as I've written.
(Wednesday 8th October)The police are totally useless at times, only good for targetting motorists and investigating really serious crimes! My son had his car dented by some woman while he was at work the other day, and although he had a witness who had noted down the registration number, when he rang the police he was told there was "nothing they could do". True, it's only a small dent, but several hundred pounds to have repaired and not worth claiming on his insurance - not only would he lose his no claims, but the excess for a 21 year old male makes it prohibitive.
To read more archive weblogs, click here which will take you to the previous archive, which in turn contains a link to the one before that.
