2014 — 15 April: Tuesday
Consciousness having been gently rebooted1 I can contemplate the rigours of the day ahead of me. Forgetting the numerous things I have doubtless forgotten (mostly because, erm, I've forgotten them) and leaving to one side (with a delicate shudder) the details of the myriad domestic administrivia of the daily round, I have two main tasks this morning:
- Restock Mother Hubbard's cupboard (and fridge) — boring but vital
- Advise Iris, over lunch, of the pros (and what seem to me, the cons) of her intended acquisition of an All-in-One PC — interesting and unusual
What a life, heh? :-)
For reasons partly...
... to do with turning up an old hand-written set of lists last night, missing dates from which I then started transcribing into my 'videos' database, I eventually chose as my evening ration of flickering pixels the 'feel good' film Happy, Texas ...
... which I noted had flown across the Atlantic into my collection on 8th May 2001. The other video title delivered to Technology Towers on that day was Mumford, which (it strikes me) I also haven't watched for many years.
The sun is shining, I've just been told, should I be planning a trip to the beach. [Pause] Back from the accomplishing of task #1, the greeting of a golden retriever (the only 'make' of dog that I've ever been nipped by), and the stowing away of goodies. Just in time for some breakfast and yet another performance of one of Christa's favourite pieces: Ma Vlast.
I am puzzled...
... by Microsoft's decision to cut adrift from security updates any Win8.1 system (though not Win8!) prior to last week's (faintly fraught, in my case — and I was by no means the only one) Win8.1 Update 1. (Such a catchy title.) It's not exactly an elderly operating system (I moved on to it in November 2012) but only the latest (and greatest?) will now be further security patched with effect from next month's Patch Tuesday. Dare I assume they made some awesome cockup in 8.1 that isn't present in 8, nor (any longer) in 8.1 Upgrade 1?
On which, I now appear to be running OK. Still, I was amused by this astonishing assertion:
Microsoft has been listening to customer feedback. Much of this feedback has been received and some of the results are being given back to our users of Windows 8.1 in the form of updates.
This strikes me as a neat combination of arrogance and chutzpah. Personally (though I miss the lovely "Aero" appearance of the Windows 7 desktop) I have no qualms about running Win8.1 Pro and have never been bothered by the "missing" Start button, nor by the (easily dismissed) Fisher Price tiles of the new interface. The silliest thing they did was force me to ask Mrs Google how to shut down the damn' system when they chose to hide the power options so effectively. Both OS-X and Linux have done much worse from time to time. Consider iTunes. Consider Unity.
Lunch?
Lunched.
Advice?
Advised.
Draft of new will?
Picked up, for me to review and amend. Somehow, it's already 17:31 and I'm left wondering how that happened.
"Mumford" watched?
Indeed so, and much enjoyed, too.