More Vista woes!

System Hang

Is this Vista or the Toshiba...?

I left my laptop alone for a while, when I returned the screen was blank, the system wouldn't respond to keypresses. Caps lock/Num lock didn't toggle their respective lights on/off, and dabbing the power button didn't put the system to sleep. So, hold down power button and switch off.

So, try for a replacement set of AMD/ATI drivers, see if that helps. Ho hum.

UAC

The new system under Vista for elevating privs is a bit clumsy. It seems to be asking for every operation I might do that needs "elevation", and failing silently those that don't realise they need it! Also it seemed to ask me twice on one occaison!

Water underfoot

There's a soft splashing, clanging sound as I walk between the buildings. I look down and see a layer of water under my feet. A metal grill is slightly below the surface, what I'm walking on. In the distance, I can see a hole in the grill. A man dressed in a dark suit with dark shades walks up to the edge, and looks around. He takes off his shades and dives in.

I reach the edge of the grill where he jumped in, and look down into the murky depths. I can see him swimming underwater, a short distance away. Suddenly he seems to be struggling, then he sinks deeper, until I can see him no more.

I dive in, and start swimming. I'm under a building heading towards a lit opening ahead. I don't look down, holding my breath and ignoring everything but the light. I reach a ladder that descends below me and start climbing it. I gasp for breath as I break the surface and carry on climbing the ladder a short distance. I pause a while getting my breath back. Looking up towards the light, I continue climbing until I reach the straps hanging down. I strap myself in, an wait until a sudden updraught lifts me high... I'm up in the sky hanging on a parachute looking down at the city far below, water all around.

Oh Vista, oh no!

I bought a new laptop for a couple of reasons... one, they're quite cheap right now; two they're running Windows Vista. The laptop is a Toshiba Equium (Athlon 64 X2) with an ATI graphics card. It took several reboots before it was ready to use (I thought one feature Microsoft tried to get right on XP was the number of required reboots - didn't succeed with XP, and so it would seem, not Vista either).

Once everything was up an running I dumped Symantec's virus software and tried AVG from Grisoft - at some point the system BSOD. Oh dear! Several updates and a few crashes later... I seem to have a stable system. I hope. Disappointing! Really Microsoft, is this the BEST you can do? "Oh it's Toshiba's fault", they might say.

My Apple MacBook was far easier to set up - with less reboots and no crashing!

Explosion

I got on the train around the 5th junction, and made my way up the floors to the 3rd level. There I met a few friends and we got to chatting, when we heard the loud explosion up ahead. The train came to a halt, and there was an announcement about the station ahead of us.

Later, I got on the train on the opposite side, and witnessed an identical explosion going the opposite way... except it was the same explosion, I was on both trains at the same time...

Persual

We were riding home when he told me about his latest theft. He'd managed to make a clean getaway, and wanted to look at what he'd stolen. He took it out and carefully unwrapped it to reveal six peg shaped objects. We both recognised them immediately, and he began to align them when I stopped him, frantically pointing out to align them meant they'd be "pulled" towards the source of mystic energy here. Sure enough, our craft started to diverge, as he argued they should be aligned, then realised what was happening and began to unalign them.

"You know we're doomed, don't you?", I stated.

He looked up puzzled. "Why?"

"Once they realize they've been robbed, they'll track you down and kill you".

Alien among us

It looked like a scam. It smelled like a scam. But, what was it?

They put on a wonderful show. "Come and work for us", they said. "Salaries with us are generous, comparable to the market rate", they said. The building was a vast warehouse showing off all the wonderful technology they worked on.

Then came the clincher. Our host walked up the wall and stood on the ceiling peering down at us. "We are the Markum", he intoned.

The numbers of people that sat down at the invitation desk were impressive. I wondered around aimlessly for a while. Then I came back, and found the desk was deserted with two female Markum staring at me, with friendly smiles. I sifted through the paperwork on the desk, and saw "Mayor of New York" appearing as one name. Again, impressive, but a scam?

I looked up, into their deep brown eyes and indicated I wished to hear more.

Goodbye Virgin Media

I got rid of my V+ box from Virgin Media last year. Finally got the cancellation sorted out. I got fed up with the bugs and awful quality of the V+ box. Instead, I've gone completely Freeview! The picture quality is so much better, although the content is not so varied. And it's free!!!

...finally got shot of the dreaded cold this year. Despite having flu jabs etc.