I recently had to go and do some emergency white goods/appliance shopping at a local out of town retail park. I was in one of the big electrical/computer/domestic appliance stores, waiting (what a surprise) to be served at the laughingly entitled Customer Service desk. This was quite near to the display of laptops that they had for sale, and as I am always interested in seeing what is on offer, I was perusing the display nearest to me. There was a family group there too, also looking at laptops. I have long ago stopped giving people advice in shops about what not to buy, but I was interested to listen to part of their selection process. Without a word of a lie, this is, verbatim, what they said:

“Let’s get this one – the laptop bag is better than that one”!

This caused my radar to start tingling, but the next comment kind of took away any further action or comment that I might have been capable of:

“How long is the memory in this one?”

I’m seriously thinking of getting an ibook – 900Mhz G3 with extra RAM and Airport – just waiting to confirm the price. Although it wouldn’t be as fast as that PC over there (points figuratively to the desk on his left), it would be faster then this imac here. I’d probably use it as my main machine, especially when I get the wireless network sorted

I’m giving serious thought to joining a band again. I need a guitar combo that isn’t too heavy (or too expensive) I’ve been reading reviews of Behringer modelling amps, but would need to get my hands on one before buying.

Well, a little fiddling and a lot of frustration later, we seem to have a working broadband connection, running close to the advertised speed (2Mbps) Yippee!

The loss of a great talent – please check out his music
http://www.chriswhitley.com

Fantastic larruping guitar.

Been reliving part of my childhood. Listen to the theme tune!

I was at a secluded angling club today. I wasn’t fishing- I’m not a fisherman. It was cold and clear at first (9.00am) It got misty later. Pix at flickr (see top of page)

No, this is not my day job. Or my night job. or my weekend job. (And I have lost some weight since the summer when this was taken – honest!)
Just don’t let me show your childen across the road – I cannot guarantee their safety!

Well, after a long period of time without broadband (long for me at least – almost 5 weeks) I am now a customer of Homecall. They were already providing my calls and line rental, so their 2Mb offer seemed to make sense. Got the modem, got the CD, got up early on “Big Switch On” day to sort it all out. Everything installed easily, username and password fine, soon online and yes, it seemed faster. Took the modem out of the picture and replaced with a DSL modem/router. Set this up, got connected easily. Plugged 2nd computer (an Apple imac – always 1st in my mind!) into router – instant shared internet access. Yippee! Caught up with three bazillion emails (apparently I am the heir to a small country in Africa, with a sex organ that would scare King Kong’s mother).
But then the real test. Children, particularly teenaged No. 1 son, plus online games (Counter Strike something and World of something else) And then the complaints started. “This is crap! No better than before! Dad, sort it out!!!”
So I checked all wiring, plugs and sockets, ran a speed test, which featured a lot of bars in the red area when they should be green. Replaced broadband extension with a heavy duty one with loads of copper in the cable. Ran a Broadband optimiser, ran the speed test again. Appalling figures again. So I am not the flavour of the month at home, particularly with No. 1 son. Gotta get this sorted. Any ideas anyone?