Uh! I Feel Good!

Well, the runny nose, headpains and aching muscles seem to have finally gone, so I'm feeling bouyed up. It may be cold and raining outside, which means there may be ice on the roads tomorrow, which means there may be more car crashes, but I'm cheered up.

Still exhausted half the time, and still sleeping what dear fathercalls "uncivilised hours", but feeling better.
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It had to happen sooner or later - a program to cheat on ebay. Final Bid, by VCom, enters auctions in the final seconds and outbids the last bidder. Of course, the last bidder might be another copy of the program or a fast human, so the two escalate till one reaches their maximum bid, or the auction ends.

Of course, the point it that all this happens without user intervention - it "bids for you while you work, sleep or play". Perhaps it isn't so much a cheat as a software version of employing someone to gazump on your behalf.

I tried it out on a cheap item, and found my super duper high tech bidding technology won because it had no one to bid against. The seller seems to be flogging off his entire house contents - most of it women's clothes and shoes (hmmm). The item was one of those electrical muscle stimulators - nice to have for me if it works, and a cheap-and-tacky christmas prezzie for someone if it doesn't.
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Franic call from Max (all of Max's calls are frantic) about his computer not working (they're all about that too). I think someone had installed an extra firewall which prevented him booking plane flights from the BA website. I booked his tickets from my computer.

He's spending christmas in his native Deutchland - I should have asked him to bring me back some of those germanic gingerbread teddybears.

I'll have to drop by and sort out his system again - in return for an hour of marxist historical discussion and a slap-up meal cooked with his usual...enthusiasm.
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The jobcentre interview was painless - largely because staffing cuts mean no one has time to do their job thoroughly anymore. Those who haven't been downsized seem to be kept going by professional pride. That and having nowhere else to go.
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I want to start writing again. It's been about a decade since I stopped, and there's some ideas rattling around in my head. The NaNoWriMo idea of churning out 50,000 words in a month is interesting as a way of quickly producing a first draft.