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December 01, 2003

Ain't technology wonderful?

I begin to think that my PC has taken on a life and character all its own. For no apparent reason it hangs up. As in; stops dead and won't respond to anything - not even threats! I have had it checked by the experts, I have had it virus checked, purged, reloaded and all the other major things that can be done without a chainsaw and hammer, and still it does it. Usually just as you finish a long document or critical piece of work. Which, naturally, you haven't saved recently ......

The latest, is a strange difficulty with accessing my blog editing system, which, as some of you will have gathered, is run from Oz. Now why run a UK based blog from OZ? Because said UK based blogger is a complete technophobe and wouldn't know how to set up and run a server. So there! The problem I am told is a difficulty in communications links between the UK and Australia. Yeah? So how come my phone works without problem?

Anyway, the strange problem is that it takes ages to contact the server and then as long again to load the page. Those of you who run with AOL as a provider, will have experienced the frustration of having AOL decide that it has taken too long to contact the site, and simply cut you off! Or even better, to declare that you have been "idle" and then shut you out. I'd change providers, but I have discovered that disabling the AOL programme and uninstalling it will mean a complete reload of most of the programmes I run on here. It is easier to stay a bit frustrated and just find ways to beat the system than to do that.

Another little problem arises with my new CD writer. It works. It writes the files to the CD. Then it won't let me read them. I can see the file on the directory, I can read its size. I can't read the file! I am told this is because I am not "closing" the CD when I write something to it. Oh yeah? And how do you do that? There isn't anything on the tool bar with this programme that allows you to instruct the thing to "close" the CD! Even my tame expert has been baffled by this one.

Ain't technology wonderful? What would I do for amusement without it?

Pratchett's ant farm driven HEX at the Unseen University at least gives a message that makes a great deal more sense than the sudden death one that Microslosh have installed in everything. You know the one:

"This programme has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down!"

How do you plead? Guilty of being a geek who'se stuck with Microslosh!

HEX at least says it has an * Out of cheese error - Reboot from start *. Makes much more sense.

Posted by The Gray Monk at December 1, 2003 06:18 PM