The Befouled Weakly News
27 July 2008 Good morning on a promisingly delightful morning; yesterday was an absolutely glorious day – temperature in the high 70s/low 80s and a brilliantly bright blue sky. In short, the kind of weather that gets the British complaining about how hot and stuffy it is. Not much of any excitement this week apart from the arrival of SeamStress’s new computer which required a day’s worth of setting up to get them back up and running. Only one small “problem” presented itself during the restoration which could have been a considerable problem but which we were able to resolve with a bit of lateral thinking. Ben and David and the other more technically minded amongst us will recognise the problem immediately and would have come up with an equally elegant solution I am sure. However, when I reached the point where the problem presented itself I have to confess to being overcome with a slight sinking feeling, somewhat akin to a panic attack, I should imagine. The problem, very simply, was how to get SeamStress’s data from the old computer on to the new one given, you will remember, that the old one now longer worked. Still, the hard disk was easily extractable and I had imagined that I would simply set it up as a “slave” and fit it in the spare bay in the new computer. The extraction was extracted perfectly simply and so on to the next step. Imagine my horror and the sinking feeling of despair when I opened the new computer case to find no connections or cables which matched the hard disk I was holding in my hand. It seems that technology is continually on the move and the new PC had a SATA hard disk (or something similar) and I was holding an EIDE drive (or something similar – how the heck should I know?). Different cables, different connectors and, while I had a spare drive bay into which to fit the hard disk, I had no compatible cable or interface with which to connect it. Rather like having a VHS video recorder and hoping to be able to play back a Betamax tape – it ain’t gonna happen. The Dell hotline (who have been very good throughout, I have to confess) were, unfortunately, no help on this occasion – “The technology is different, Sir, and I am afraid to say that we do not have an option for you.” It was, while I was on the phone to Dell, that I came up with my solution (Ben, David and others of you are no doubt well ahead of me on this one); my computer uses “old” technology; my computer is on the same network as the new one. So, let’s fit the SeamStress hard disk into my computer, copy the data across the network and “hey, presto” we are up and running again with all our data intact. Naturally, my clients (Ms Playchute and her business partner, Sally) knew little of the sweat I shed and the fear I experienced during those ten or fifteen minutes while I held the old hard disk in one hand while staring at the new computer’s innards – it’s getting increasingly tough trying to maintain this illusion that I actually know what I am doing! The following I ran across on the BBC site - all you guys need to ensure that watermelon is one of your “five a day”:
And again, while I don’t normally include two news clippings, for some reason I found the following raised a chuckle, not so much that the poor child had to resort to the law to get her name changed but, indeed, the name that her parents originally gave her, not to mention names for twins which were not allowed:
I have to confess, Fish and Chips as names for a set of twins seems perfectly reasonable to me. And finally, Ms Playchute wanted me to include some photos of the flowers in her vegetable garden – enjoy. Love to you all, Greg The following “ponderisms” are from Dad: Can you cry under water? How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered? Why do you have to 'put your two cents in'… But it's only a 'penny for your thoughts'? Where's that extra penny going to? Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity? Why does a round pizza come in a square box? What disease did cured ham actually have? How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage? Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up like every two hours? If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing? Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV? Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground? Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway. Why is 'bra' singular and 'panties' plural? Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat? If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him? Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane ? If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat? Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs! If Wiley E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn't he just buy dinner? If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from? If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons? Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune? Why did you just try singing the two songs above? Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a haemorrhoid when it's in your butt? Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window? Back to Greg's Temporary Home Page
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