Week of 8th November, 2004

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Monday, 8th November

Middle shifts start today, the 12 midday start, but on a swap - I should be doing earlies, which I hate, but a workmate does 12s, which he doesn't like, when I do earlies, so we have a standing arrangement to swap.

At some point, I'm going to have to help Jane's Aunt with her will. She appointed her brothers as executors, but they have both died, so she needs to take account of this. Jane could do it just as well as me, but Aunt is of the old school, and still thinks of Jane as her "little niece", who she used to take on outings. So I get the task. I'll need to draft a codicil - easier than rewriting the entire document - appointing new executors.

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Tuesday, 9th November

Work was the same as yesterday - we could get more done if we had more VTRs to work with. But the bean-counters don't see that. Luckily, one series that will take in excess of 3 hours per 1 hour episode (due to the requirement to remove in-vision English subtitles, as well as closing up commercial breaks) is on hold, pending a decision about whether we will do it, or if an edit suite will be tasked with the packaging - at weekend, of course, the edit suites are full-time busy during the week doing promotions.

Katy called this afternoon - her new Disabled Support Grant-funded computer will be delivered and set up next Wednesday. The listed spec. matches what the assessor recommended, and it's marginally cheaper than his estimate, so the LEA will be pleased. In order to get the new machine onto the Uni. network, we need to pre-notify the IT troops of the new MAC address. The transition takes an hour, so if we can get the MAC address early, Katy can pre-arrange the transition - otherwise the installation technician will be sitting on his hands while the change propagates.

Then later, I'll have to visit, to set up such things as Privoxy - which the Uni. standard configuration disables, in favour of their own central proxy (probably Squid) Katy commented that she's seeing pop-ups and advertising, now, which we traced to the proxy change. Privoxy will chain to another proxy - the manual says so, but the configuration change is not Aunt-Tillie-proof, so I'll have to do it.

And then Armadillo will come back to London. Who will use him I don't yet know, but used he will be.

Speaking of Privoxy, I've been having problems on Antbear with an inability to go to FTP URLs. This is due to Privoxy being invoked on them, which is not wise, because Privoxy doesn't understand FTP. The cause was within IE - under Tools|Internet Options|Connections|LAN Connections, there's an "Advanced" button, which hides a "Use the same proxy for all protocols" check-box. Clear that, and remove the proxy entry for FTP, and it all works.

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Wednesday, 10th November

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Thursday, 11th November

Armistice Day

 

AVG 7.0 is out, and support for AVG 6.0 will be withdrawn at year-end. I'm using the free version, which works well, and doesn't nag you to upgrade to a for-pay version. Updating for new threats is quick and easy, too.

So I grabbed the installer for AVG 7.0 Free Edition, and installed it. It automatically detects an existing installation of a previous version, and removes it. After the obligatory restart, I just followed the link of "next" clicks, through a new virus definition download - only 44kByte - and a full scan. Nothing found, which is good.

Similarly, Lavasoft have discontinued updates to AdAware 6, in favour of AdAware SE - now at version 1.05. Again the download and installation of the free version was painless, and the only thing it found was a group of 4 advertising cookies.

All this was on Antbear - now I need to do the other machines, which should be as easy, albeit long.

Jenny has decided that she wants an iPod mini for Christmas - she's undecided about whether to have it in pink or blue. Research indicates that one of the cheapest sources is the department store John Lewis, at UKP179. Dabs are a penny cheaper, which is neither here nor there. And Jane has a John Lewis storecard. I'll order it tomorrow.

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Friday, 12th November

I'd forgotten about the problems with availability of iPod minis. John Lewis only had the green ones - Jenny wanted pink or blue. Conversely, Dabs have the blue. So I ordered one, and the iPod Dock from John Lewis - they were cheaper. Should be here next week.

I've got my usual winter cold, complete with cough and sore throat. But it's not bad enough to bunk off work, so off I went. And it was the same old thing - different programmes, same job. When I could lay my hands on machines to use, that is. Friday is a big closed circuit feeds day - lots of material to record for later transmission - as opposed to Thursday evening, which is the peak time for recording live programmes for later repeat.

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Saturday, 13th November

The cold is worse today, and I've lost most of my voice as well. But Lemsip max strength cold and flu powders suppress most of the symptoms well enough that I can work - when I can put my hands on a VTR that is...

Tomorrow is the Winter amateur radio rally at Kempton Park racecourse. I've  got lots of leave left - 10 days - so I can afford to take a day off. Which I have.

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Sunday, 14th November

Remembrance Sunday

 

I changed my mind about Kempton Park - I'm still hoarse and coughing, so it'll be a kindness to the world at large to keep myself at home.

Meanwhile, Jenny is attending the local Remembrance celebration with her Guide company - having just renewed her Guide Promise as a Youing Leader. I'll pick her up later, when the ceremony is over.

And Jane has started her Christmas baking.

In regard to iPods, Jenny was wondering whether she could persuade me to buy her one as a birthday present. Jane was non-committal on the point. And strictly, it wasn't me that bought it, although I will pay for it - later.

AVG Antivirus 7.0 Free edition seems to work well. It has one facility that V6 didn't - it will scan your incoming POP3 e-mail stream for viruses. If V6 Free Edition did this, it was well-hidden - V7 does it by default - and it's already trapped one virus, or so it claims. Thus far, I'm impressed. The scanning does slow the mail delivery, but not excessively, and Turnpike's e-mail rules still work.

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