Writing ... or Just Practicing?

Usually the only time I feel like digging a big hole and climbing in is when I make some inappropriate remark at an important social event, or tell a rather too risqué joke during a posh dinner party. However, since I never get invited to posh dinner parties, and extremely rarely have the opportunity to attend any "cream of society" gatherings, I've so far avoided the need to invest in a new shovel. And, not being a polar bear, I don't have a tendency to view large holes in the snow as suitable resting places for the winter either. In fact, even though I'm quite adept at sleeping, it turns out I'm a rather late convert to the notion of hibernation. Read More...

I don't know how I manage it, but I seem to continually find myself trailing behind in this ever-changing world of digital technology. After the problems of a few weeks ago with a failed Media Center box (which, it seems, can't be fixed) I've finally got the new replacement machine up and running. We've been magically transported from the gray and disappointing confines of Media Center 2005 into the vibrant and exciting new world of Vista Media Center - just a month before Windows 7 is released. I suppose our only hope of actually catching up with O/S releases will be if next door's toddler happens to shove a slice of buttered toast into the DVD drive so we need to buy another new one. Read More...

Isn't it funny how - after a while - you tend not to notice, or you ignore the annoying habits of your closest colleagues. As I work from home, some 5,000 miles away from my next closest colleagues, the closest colleague I have is Microsoft Vista (yes, I do lead a sad and lonely life doing my remote documentation engineering thing). I mean, I've accepted that sometimes when I open a folder in Windows Explorer it will decide to show me a completely different view of the contents from the usual "Details" view I expect. I suppose it's my own fault because I happen to have a few images in there as well as Word documents, and Vista thinks it's being really helpful by telling me how I rated each one rather than the date it was last modified. Read More...

I'm starting to worry that I can’t cope with the frantic releases of operating system versions. I just got settled with a couple of Vista machines and, more recently, two Server 2008 boxes, and now I'm being pushed to "dogfood" Windows 7. I wonder if I should install it on the machine I use for all my important work, or on the laptop I depend on when travelling. I know I tend to be somewhat conservative in terms of upgrading to the latest cool software, but neither of these options seems like a really good idea with a beta operating system. Read More...

Maybe I've been asleep for the last few months, or just head-down working on my current project, but it seems I am the only person in the world who wasn't aware that a new version of Windows was on the way. Well, the only geek anyway. I don't mean the "Mojave" stunt - I mean what is currently referred to only as "Windows 7". And, rather strangely, my first thought when I read about it in a UK computer magazine was "Wow! Has there only been two and nine-tenths other versions since the Windows 3.1 that we all knew and loved? That introduction to millions of the Windows world of GUI seems so long ago now... Read More...

At last I can document something that might, possibly, be of marginal use to those one or two readers who mistakenly stray into the quagmire of my unrelated weekly ramblings. For the last few months I've been fulfilling my new role as an out-of-sight-and-out-of-mind remote documentation engineer (that's a documentation engineer who's remote, not an engineer who writes remote documentation - though, having read some of my scribblings, you might dispute that assertion). Anyway, recently I was beamed up to the mother-ship to spend a couple of weeks onsite at Redmond. I suspect they just wanted to see if the weird English guy they accidently offered a job to actually does exist. Read More...

A couple of initially unconnected events last week conspired to nudge my brain into some kind of half-awake state where it combined them into a surreal view of "automatic" stuff. One of the events was the return from Tina, our editor and proof-reader, of my article about the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool (a product that, thankfully, I'm legally permitted to refer to as just "TSMMD" - and will do so from now on). The second event was deciding that I ought to get a laptop sorted ready for an upcoming trip to Redmond. The combined result is some manic ravings on the meanings of stupid words, and the fact that Windows Vista obviously hates me. Read More...