My Twitters are getting a bit silly...
... so here's a bigger post.
Further experiments yesterday indicated that it was actually BOTH the AC adapter and the fuse that had failed. The adapter worked intermittently with Col's cable and charged my laptop, but later refused to work again. So, I didn't waste the money I spent on a new one after all, nor the effort in getting new fuses! Phew. Being Quite Old Now, the battery isn't going to last forever; it claims three hours charge, but then goes rapidly downhill below about 70% capacity. I don't imagine there's much I can do apart from replace it next time I have money to do so... and meanwhile, check that I can run the laptop straight off mains.
Step 2: install Linux Mint. I started this late last night, when I was somewhat tired, and failing to read documentation properly. Cue wasting two CD-Rs before getting a bootable CD. Oops. Now I'm on the very tedious process of backing up data on the laptop. As it turns out, I don't think I have enough HDD space to install Mint, so the current plan is to burn data to CD-R, delete it, and see where we're at then. Updates to follow, no doubt.
And 'cos real life happens in the breaks (though we usually apply that sentence to EVE's daily downtime, which starts in half an hour - and guess who's been too distracted to even check training queue until now!): the water supply has been turned off for today. "Replacing London's Victorian Water Mains", need I say any more? I have prepared for this by a) making sure I have lots of drinking water available (full water filter, extra bottle in the fridge), b) getting up before the 9:00 deadline to shower, and c) doing my film collection today, so I can get lunch & go to the loo in town.
Stuff I Love Today:
- peanut butter and banana toasted sandwiches. Nyom! I've decided they are the new Breakfast of Kings. And indeed, snack food of same.
- listening to Plastic Beach by Gorillaz (if you still haven't heard it: Gorillaz - Plastic Beach)
- William Gibson is gearing up to promote his new book, Zero History. UK dates are here. If you follow him on Twitter ( @GreatDismal), you already know.
- The BT Digital Music Awards (website, Twitter) have opened for voting. I don't know all the nominees, and some I do know are in jury-only votes, but hey... you can vote for Prodigy as "Best Independent Artist", for one.
This post is taking me ages to write cos I'm doing it in between other stuff, so, onwards on the laptop: DUH it doesn't have a CD burner. However, somehow our home network is now functional (not sure when or how this happened! Maybe the Win7 upgrade?), so I can copy the data across and then burn it. Takes aaaages though... apparently, I've amassed 5Gb somehow. Methinks some deleting is required.
Argh, I keep thinking of things to add and then forgetting them again. Best to just upload this before I forget my own name...
Further experiments yesterday indicated that it was actually BOTH the AC adapter and the fuse that had failed. The adapter worked intermittently with Col's cable and charged my laptop, but later refused to work again. So, I didn't waste the money I spent on a new one after all, nor the effort in getting new fuses! Phew. Being Quite Old Now, the battery isn't going to last forever; it claims three hours charge, but then goes rapidly downhill below about 70% capacity. I don't imagine there's much I can do apart from replace it next time I have money to do so... and meanwhile, check that I can run the laptop straight off mains.
Step 2: install Linux Mint. I started this late last night, when I was somewhat tired, and failing to read documentation properly. Cue wasting two CD-Rs before getting a bootable CD. Oops. Now I'm on the very tedious process of backing up data on the laptop. As it turns out, I don't think I have enough HDD space to install Mint, so the current plan is to burn data to CD-R, delete it, and see where we're at then. Updates to follow, no doubt.
And 'cos real life happens in the breaks (though we usually apply that sentence to EVE's daily downtime, which starts in half an hour - and guess who's been too distracted to even check training queue until now!): the water supply has been turned off for today. "Replacing London's Victorian Water Mains", need I say any more? I have prepared for this by a) making sure I have lots of drinking water available (full water filter, extra bottle in the fridge), b) getting up before the 9:00 deadline to shower, and c) doing my film collection today, so I can get lunch & go to the loo in town.
Stuff I Love Today:
- peanut butter and banana toasted sandwiches. Nyom! I've decided they are the new Breakfast of Kings. And indeed, snack food of same.
- listening to Plastic Beach by Gorillaz (if you still haven't heard it: Gorillaz - Plastic Beach)
- William Gibson is gearing up to promote his new book, Zero History. UK dates are here. If you follow him on Twitter ( @GreatDismal), you already know.
- The BT Digital Music Awards (website, Twitter) have opened for voting. I don't know all the nominees, and some I do know are in jury-only votes, but hey... you can vote for Prodigy as "Best Independent Artist", for one.
This post is taking me ages to write cos I'm doing it in between other stuff, so, onwards on the laptop: DUH it doesn't have a CD burner. However, somehow our home network is now functional (not sure when or how this happened! Maybe the Win7 upgrade?), so I can copy the data across and then burn it. Takes aaaages though... apparently, I've amassed 5Gb somehow. Methinks some deleting is required.
Argh, I keep thinking of things to add and then forgetting them again. Best to just upload this before I forget my own name...