Shiny new learning (Slight return)

[hirez]

• Lock a set of people from all over the place into a small air-conditioned room for the thick end of a week and The Lurgi will spread. Thus we find that the JHR is both thick and snotty. Bugger. We also find that the inside of the (Nat West) Tower/42 is tiny and that if you're in the bogs, the high-speed lifts sound like passing tube trains. That Corbusier fellow was having a right old laugh and no mistake.
  
  
• Buy some new tech and it'll show up all the bugs in yr old kit. To whit: some credit-card shaped music thing from Creative. The USB rig on my ancient PC is clearly some prehistoric version that delivers stuff by imaginary siilcon donkey, so I finally need to buy a new m/b. Still, seven years is a bloody good average in PC terms. Mind, the sod in the shop alleged the thing looked like a USB drive to all and sundry computers. In a pig's arse it does. I had to bag some shonky app to make it work with the Mac, and it looks as if Itunes and the ancient JHR mp3-filing method have failed to get on at a fundamental level. I'll use MP3-herding apps when the blasted things stop being significantly worse than a vaguely-structured filesystem. On the other hand, every sodding media-bothering application I have ever met is a sack of crap. I mean, seriously. F-ing Oracle's f-ing Couch grass (or sterile Brome) -like takeover of machines is prime historical evidence that application designers should never be allowed to try and outsmart the OS.
  
  
• Friday night was utterly cosmic. All involved may call upon me for 4am body-disposal problems. (Why d'you think I keep a shovel in the car?)
  
  
• If you can get the cheap rates, the Hoxton Hotel is a splendid place to stay. If you can't, make sure someone else is picking up the tab. Sound staff, fine rooms, free wireless that's not port-80 only and a simple yet well-rendered menu.