A bloody day in the technology wars A rare earthquake under the English Channel at 8.00am today. Apparently buildings shook in Brighton, but I didn't notice it in the Twitten. No, for I was embroiled in technology wars. The Dell engineer called me to explain that, as he couldn't find a place to park, he was bumping the appointment to fix the computer. Sauron-voiced I encouraged him to change his mind, and he arrived with a new motherboard and a long magnetic screwdriver and, praise be, my computer now peforms perfectly. Calliope again investigating everything he was doing with great interest. However in the war against technology, one battle does not bring victory. For the knock I accidentally gave my metal-clad, Lacie external hard drive yesterday revealed itself as fatal. The data I'd been waiting to copy across to my PC is now toast. I have had the external hard drive for over four years, but the moment it is most needed, literally hours before reloading everything back...
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Tasks of small consequence Dell think there is something wrong with the circuit that starts the computer, after I held the phone so the man in India could hear the persistently beeping but dead as a doornail bastard. They will send another engineer to replace it. On the plus side this means that all the important parts of the PC will have been replaced, effectively giving me a new computer. If only it would work. However the conversation was done inside half an hour which was a mercy. With an imminent move, no working PC and no idea when the engineer will turn up, I began to feel myself drifting into limbo. So I repainted my green fence, chatted to Mark the trombonist about music, met Cath for a fast but enjoyable coffee as she was in town, had a haircut (skillfully avoiding the walrus-faced one and doging past the Police cordon outside the bookies which had been robbed), went to the gym and generally busied myself with tasks of small consequence. Naturally my computer started perfectl...
The glowering stars To the garden and fish centre, to get some plastic bags in preparation for moving my fish and for Lorraine to drift happily among the plants. We spent the afternoon in Lorraine's tiny narrow back yard painting a brick wall. This we painted white to reflect light back into her ground floor, which is large but lacks natural light. Turning dirty old bricks white was therapeutic, and it seemed to work, with the room seeming brighter even in the evening sun. I mostly used a brush and gave myself a finger blister on my first-against-the-wall-come-the-revolution hands. After these labours off for a cheeky meal and cooling pint of lager. Explained to Lorraine how today is badly-starred (sun square sun). This vindicated when I returned home this evening to find that, having worked perfectly all week, my computer simply won't start again. I want to smash it with a hammer. Tomorrow holds the prospect of another day wasted haggling with Dell. The computer has generous ...
Hard drive An eye test first thing this morning. Nice optometrist who said he started off as an electrical engineer, but married to an optician who, he noticed, was earning a lot more money than him. No appreciable deterioration in my mince pies and their insides good too which, having written at length about eye injections, is pleasing. Dell helpline: call started at 11am and after four phone calls, the problem was diagnosed as being as a doomed hard drive at 4:15pm. Felt like Dante in Purgatorio with an Indian call centre Virgil. Cheekily having diagnosed a hardware problem, they tried to sell me software support for a year. An engineer will come to replace my hard drive, which of course means I will have to set up my computer from scratch again. The problem also prevents an automatic backup so I am forced to laboriously copy everything across to my external hard drive, file by file, email by email. Gah. While I sighed in my study, there was a huge end-of-the-world thunderstorm over ...
Dell sucks After waiting for Windows 7 from Dell for three weeks, I received a delivery today. I had reloaded all my old software earlier this week, and got the guys in India to help me install the drivers, which the initial guy had left unloaded. Dell's website had informed me the software wouldn't be delivered till the end of the month. But here it was. In a large box. Opened the box to find a smallish DVD sized case inside. This contained nothing other than a bit of smug copy and a key number. Puzzled by this, and the fact the instructions made no sense I called Dell again. Turns out they'd sent me the wrong thing entirely. An upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 7 ultimate. I had wasted the best part of yet another day on bloody computer stuff. Unbelievable. Many apologies from the Dell folks in India, and I am getting a refund, and will make do with what I have now, seeing as at last I have a working desktop again. And hopefully drawing a line under three weeks of compute...
Imaginary iron
A day in London. On the train I was gripped by the idea that I had left my iron on, and ended up having to ask Anton to go around to my house to check. I wasn't. Some kind of subconscious desire to return home manifesting itself probably. Still, it allowed Anton to reclaim his turntable which, much to his disgust, I hardly use.
At my old agency got to work Sean again for a last day of neuropathic pain. The new creative director said his client had told him that it was the best creative presentation they'd ever seen, this as much to do with his presentation as the work probably, but at least a nice bit of feedback.
The day spent squeezing blood from the stone of the same brief. We seem to set each other off somewhat, laughing hysterically as we trudged on with the same brief. I took a short walk at lunch along the misty river at lunchtime. Spent the day coming up with really complicated ideas, and in the end did two really simple ones.
Towards the end...
Cool for cats Discovered today by tracking my Dell order that the Windows 7 upgrade is not due until 26 November. Several tiresome conversations with folks in India, now have restored my computer to limp on with Vista, but will be able to work, which is a boon. However in reinstalling iTunes every single one has duplicated, meaning I have to erase about 3000 tunes from it. Good grief. Was called by the neuropathic pain people, and I've agreed to go to London tomorrow to help out on another concept. This rather breaks up my week, but at least it means a smidge more cash, which is always welcome. Spoke to Phil today, all well with Ash and the new baby. Have Lorraine's keyboard in my living room at the moment. Spent fifteen minutes or so noodling around on it, to stop myself from smashing up the computer. At one point Calliope, who had been watching attentively, briskly walked onto it, changed the setting with a swipe of her paw to a sort of organ sound and played a few bars of so...
A curious coincidence Cooler today. Donned the socks that Joan knitted. Transpires that Calliope keenly attracted to them and had my toe bitten quite hard at one point. Also keenly feeling the fact my desktop computer is still not working. If the last Dell estimate of delivery is to be believed, I should have the software midweek. The jobs which are making me feel most anxious because they are not done, such as the anthology of Guernsey stuff, and starting phase two of the Skelton Yawngrave campaign, require me to have that computer. Got a text to say that Phil and Ash, of my old agency Dell posse, have had a little girl today. An eight pounder, which is excellent news for them. Otherwise, I worked on three poems and generally made them worse. Sat in Starbucks for a change of scene and tinkered over a large skinny latte. I read Richard's poems for the book, and some of them are wonderful. It is strange that when I read his work there are things in it that I have half thought of wri...
Infernal day Hellish day spent trying to fix computer. Good news is that I have harvested all files, photos, tunes etc. from it. I also have an old trusty laptop. Bad news is that after 5 'helpline' conversations and reloading Vista (so inferior to XP it's not even funny) my computer is, technically speaking, utterly fucked, and I have no idea what to do about it. Initial crash sparked by a Windows update. After reloading vista, windows updates returned and crashed it even worse so that it can't even be turned on properly. Turns out my three year dell warranty only covers hardware, so fixing this is going to take some serious cash, which is badly timed. After some eight hours of this futile soul sapping, I left home and met Lorraine for a couple of calming beers and some light Japanese food. This much the best part of the day. Interestingly, I have also been in contact with Sebastian Peake, Mervyn Peake's son, who has kindly given me permission to use a photo of his...