Week of 13th November, 2000

Last Week

Monday, 13th November

10 o'clock starts this fortnight, running the ingest system, and fighting the vagaries of other people's ideas of timely delivery of material. 2 hours or less before air time? Not good enough, since they said "we'll make it" at least a week ago.


I was wrong about the American method of vote counting - they use a modified punched card technique, and most of the problems arise from improperly punched holes, and the resulting undetached 'chad' or piece of punched-out paper. These chads can result in improper vote counting when read by the counting machines, to the extent that some votes are completely missed.

Gore has gained more votes from the recount process than Bush, but the difference is still counted in 4 figures or less. And the lawsuits are flying thick and fast - admittedly Gore and Bush aren't directly involved, but their supporters are (lawyers all, and probably pulling down fat fees. I'd be jealous if I didn't find it contemptible). Neither candidate is what I'd call a statesman, even apprentice grade, and the first few months of next year will probably be shambolic as the newly elected Prez. struggles to find his feet, and a distinctive set of policies. I give up on it.

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Tuesday, 14th November

I mentioned earlier this year that I'd bought a portable CD-ROM for Fujisan. This was a Sony CD-ROM Discman, complete with the PCMCIA SCSI card to connect it. Trouble is, the CD-ROM has a duff laser unit, and is uneconomic to fix. The PCMCIA card (a Sony badged Adaptec 1460) works though, and I've finally found a source of pukka Adaptec cables to allow me to use it - UKP20 plus VAT each. Ouch!

One of the guys at work has a SCSI interfaced slide scanner that he is willing to let me borrow, which prompted the flurry of activity about price inquiries. I haven't got the cable yet, so I'll also borrow his Adaptec PCI SCSI interface for use in Celery. This will finally let me scan and archive some of my 35mm slide collection - when I can find them after the recent big shuffle-about.

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Wednesday, 15th November

We've had the first days of winter this week, frost on the car windows in the mornings, slippery pavements, and all the rest - no snow yet, but it's been cold, probably mid 40s Fahrenheit, maybe 5 Celsius.


I had to get more address labels for the school Old Girls' Newsletter, which goes out as soon as possible. All our bits are done, but unless the rest of the Committee produce some text quickly, it's going to be very thin.

Note -  the labels I got are Avery equivalent, not the genuine article, but they seem just as good. I got them from my local office supplies shop.

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Thursday, 16th November

I've mentioned Babylon 5 before in these pages, as one of the best current science fiction television series. When Channel 4 in this country were running it, they made a real pig's ear of the scheduling - it's an adult-themed show, especially in the later seasons, and C4 aired it at 6 pm! Crazy, since they felt they had to cut it.

Whatever, because of the SNAFU over timings, I succeeded in missing one episode. Comes now Sci-Fi Channel's reruns, and tonight was the missing episode, which I collected with no problem.

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Friday, 17th November

Jane 'phoned me at work this evening - her car had only just got home before expiring. It then failed to restart - sounds like a dud battery. I'll get a new one tomorrow morning before work - I have dispensation to be a bit late.

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Saturday, 18th November

Bought and fitted the new battery in Jane's car - which, incidentally, is named Hopalong. Just to make sure all was well, I took it to work. Sure enough, all was well.

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Sunday, 19th November

Another panic 'phone call today (or rather, a series of them) Jane's car expired once more, this time on a main road. Oops!

It would seem not to be the battery - tha AA (Automobile Association) man agreed, and fitted a temporary battery to get the car home - he thinks the alternator has failed. I'll get my tame garage to check it out on Monday. Meanwhile a battery charge is indicated. The AA man would have set it up for Jane (remember, I was at work) but they couldn't find the battery charger, despite my giving explicit instructions by 'phone, until after he had to leave for another call-out.

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