Today's surprises
As yin to melted_snowball's yang, I had an unusually successful day with computers. And one of these things, I think, will make d. a bit happier (though, nothing makes up for a crashed HD, damn that sucks).
Yesterday I found that the local photo shop I use can accept digital prints over the internet. Today, I checked out their website, which tried to foist upon me a .exe file to do the digital transferring. Ack. So... I don't trust them that much, and I'm running a linux desktop and there's no way it'll work in emulation. My second thought was: give it a shot with Wine, and if it tries to take over my virtual C: drive it'll only get confused. And I'll get a snicker out of it, at least.
Surprisingly enough, it worked, it took less time to set up than for me to bike there, and now I have a way to print photos that is nearly as easy as a photo-printer on my desk, but with much better quality. I called them at 4 to ask if my print was done, and they said, "no, but it will be by the time you get here." And it was. I told them I wanted 45 more exactly the same, and they said "no problem, they'll be done by late tomorrow." Not too shabby.
The second surprise today was that our home DSL has suddenly gotten boatloads faster and less laggy. I don't know what happened, other than me resetting the router and modem, which I've certainly done repeatedly. But I think this will make d. a happier camper, as it's been really tough for him to work from home because of the lag.
Now, to go pack for tomorrow. 4am wakeup call; 7am flight; 3pm memorial; 7am return flight.
Lucky pooch, Rover gets to stay with neighbours who she likes quite a bit.
Yesterday I found that the local photo shop I use can accept digital prints over the internet. Today, I checked out their website, which tried to foist upon me a .exe file to do the digital transferring. Ack. So... I don't trust them that much, and I'm running a linux desktop and there's no way it'll work in emulation. My second thought was: give it a shot with Wine, and if it tries to take over my virtual C: drive it'll only get confused. And I'll get a snicker out of it, at least.
Surprisingly enough, it worked, it took less time to set up than for me to bike there, and now I have a way to print photos that is nearly as easy as a photo-printer on my desk, but with much better quality. I called them at 4 to ask if my print was done, and they said, "no, but it will be by the time you get here." And it was. I told them I wanted 45 more exactly the same, and they said "no problem, they'll be done by late tomorrow." Not too shabby.
The second surprise today was that our home DSL has suddenly gotten boatloads faster and less laggy. I don't know what happened, other than me resetting the router and modem, which I've certainly done repeatedly. But I think this will make d. a happier camper, as it's been really tough for him to work from home because of the lag.
Now, to go pack for tomorrow. 4am wakeup call; 7am flight; 3pm memorial; 7am return flight.
Lucky pooch, Rover gets to stay with neighbours who she likes quite a bit.