Neat and Tidy, Tidy and Neat

I'm writing this on my laptop, in my bedroom, over a wireless network. The floor is cleared of clutter, carpet vacuumed, furniture moved around, books neatly stacked on shelves or in boxes, and lots of useless paper and junk sealed in binbags.

Unfortunately. You knew there's be an "unfortunately" didn't you?

Unfortunately, the bed is piled high with stuff from the floor, my new wired world seems to require more wires than the old wired one - even though the old wired network refuses to work - and there's another two days worth of little jobs to do before the room is inhabitable.

And the wireless may be fast, but it's not reliable. Either fast connection or no connection. I'm not as pleased as I might be.
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The Mysterious Thing in the Post Office...is probably the title of a really low budget horror movie. But the mysterious package waiting for us in the Post Office turns out to be a pair of springs. Big, suspension springs for a car. So my father will probably spend the next day or so dismantling a car, getting covered in oil, and moaning about how all the bitss won't fit back together.

He turns 70 on February 1st, and like his parents has no business being still quite so fit or active. But at least he's curmudgeonly, opinionated, and ignorant, enabling me to claim the moral high ground as an educated, openminded slob.

My grandfather was (I think) 98 when he died, and he was mucking about with machines and electronics almost until the day he was suddenly paralysed by a stroke, and killed by a hospital bronchial infection a week later.
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An unexpected presence online - Spephen P, the student who helped me out a lot with the graphics for my MA film. He's about to begin the final semester of his animation BA, and is looking for help with the sound for his graduation project - voice recording, effects, music etc.

Well, I'm happy to return the favour. I'm a lot better at making noises than I was three years ago.

2 comments:

  1. Remember that with a wireless network anyone with a WiFi enabled machine can see it... So password protection and firewalls. Probably just like Grandmothers and eggs. ;)

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  2. Oh yes, though grandma would never admit to anything so...vulgar...as sucking eggs. Or indeed anything so working class as frying them.

    I'm inordinately fond of fried eggs. Or poached, or at a pinch, scrambled.

    Um, networks, yes. As I understand it, anyone within range can see that there *is* a network, but not what's going on inside it.

    I can see my neighbour's wireless net, and he can see mine. But he'd need to know my 128-bit WEP (hexadecimal password to the wireless hub) to log on to mine.

    I'm about to put a firewall on this computer, and I suppose I should password it too. And then write down a cryptic clue to the password that no one else would get, in case I forget it. And put it somewhere safe.

    Today's Aphorism: The price of security is paranoia.

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