GOOD OLD STUDY FRIENDS

After a bit of diversion and distraction, I put on a metaphorical set of blinkers, shut my ears to the outside world and spread out my books on the desk.  It is a long time since I have purposefully studied anything, and I was determined I was going to study, come what may.  It was a surprise to me to find how quickly I became happily absorbed in what I was doing.  I found it easier to position my books across the desktop and use the depth, placing me at the centre of  it all.  I decided to write in good old-fashioned pencil. Every now and then, when correcting something, I cursed the rubber for being so chunky. It's one of those tolerant rubbers that does not leave a trail of dark marks after lots of use, which is why I use it, but it does rub out more than it should.

I found it a joy to delve into favourite text books again, books that had been abandoned to a bookshelf for some years. It felt like meeting up with good old friends.  The one text that was new, was busy introducing itself to me.   I could have written in it, or copied pages to work with.  I used to study either way, pretty successfully, years ago, (before owning a computer) and perhaps this is why I have returned to a tried and tested method. Let's hope my cerebral vitality is up to the task! I am toying with  the idea of copying my pencilled notes  onto the computer, once I have tidied my desk, putting my books either temporarily back on the shelf, or, better still, in a neat pile, so they'll all be easily available for the next  study session.

COMPUTER NONSENSE AND THE RAIN ARRIVED

What time wasters computers are! Today became the day I was inveigled into dealing with the computer glitch that has been outstanding for a month or so. (See recent post)

Restoring, the path I was advised to take, wasn't a problem, except that the system restore disk wouldn't do it, because my current operating system on the hard disk was more up-to-date than what was on the system restore disk!

Bless the second guy I spoke to at the company from whom the machine was purchased many years ago. I had to undertake a manual fix. But to do this, I had to get past a password screen for which, I had never been given a password. Typical...

I'll by-pass the fun and games (not!) of trying passwords that were 'not successful' and 'press enter', uncountable times. The nice man helping me, scoured paperwork for the company's old laptops that he had access to, and I did not. He found two more password possibilities. The second worked. We both breathed a sigh of relief.

Nice man, stayed on the line while we worked out together what the subsequent messages meant, in relation to the original restoration back up partition on the hard disk.

That part of the job done,the machine returned to its original operating image, like when new out of the box. Guess what..... programmes like the anti-virus would not install on the out-of-date operating system. I've now got to get the system up-to-speed with five years worth of updates and patches. At least I was able to set up the internet and email connections. I guess the weekend is spoken for now.

We had a nice weather day today and I did not get out to benefit from it because of the time-consuming computer nonsense. The rain that was forecast has arrived.

YOUR GUIDE COULD BE THREE YEARS OLD

A top of the range satellite navigation machine, given to us as a present at Christmas 2009, is not as new as it seemed.

I could download all sorts of useful elements that the model catered for, however, I was informed that there was a newer map, (note, it did not say a bang up to date one) downloadable at a price. I reckoned that as I had a pretty new machine, it was a fair bet that I could use the mapping within it for at least eighteen months.

It was when we travelled to areas, where we knew there used to be toll bridges and toll roads more than three years ago, twice in three months of receiving the gift, we realised how dated the in-built mapping in our 'new' satnav was. 

To me, this is sharp practice. It is difficult to raise the issues with the makers of the equipment, a real hassle I would think. I am very disinclined to try. The company must rely on new owners not being willing to face a hassle; perhaps they also rely on many of their machines being given and received as gifts, another solid reason why owners may not take the shine off the present. 

No doubt, when we do pay for a newer map, the satnav will choose to recognise where we live, which happens to be far longer than domestic satnavs have been available.

A SHADOW OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

I had a notification recently that ..."your blogs had been transferred to a new platform, which would be instantly intuitive". I puzzled over this phenomenon.

• Which blogs were those?
• Where did I post them?
• Which blog site was that?
• Were they really mine?
• When?
  

As I was engaged in domestic issues and negotiating my pathways back into Blogger, I forgot about the transferring of 'my blogs' email, till tonight, when was checking my email list. Ho hum, the only thing to do was to click on the link and find out.

As you do, I was required to sign in. Ooops, what was my username, my password. I sat and stared into my screen, hoping a sign would jump out. Of course, it didn't. Nothing for it but to entertain a bit of guesswork. It was like trying to remember the number code for a bicycle chain lock..........and I've done that recently too. Eventually, I got there to discover 5 blogs of very little consequence. At post number two wondered why I wrote them. The next one gave me the answer. All you blog administrators lock your eyes on this:

I actually wrote that because I had received such a prompt, kind, and helpful reply to an administration query, I would try using the blog site. Sadly, my posting career on that site was short-lived, just two more posts.

It was like looking at a shadow of what could have been - eerie. And I still do not know what the original site was called.