- entry 2008/09/25

Evil hours...

If it's such a crap job...

One thing that I should clear up is those who ask "if you hate the job that much, why are you still there?". The answer is simple. It's a job. It is my job. Incidentally the first I have had here in France (those who knew me prior to writing this will know I've gone through all sorts of garbage and half-promises and utter drivel). Well, now I have a job. At the end of it, some money to either look for a second-hand car, or to keep our aging Renault 5 on the road. And for me? Broadband. It is my job that will get me on-line again. I used to run up obscene phone bills in my dial-up days, mostly to ArgoNet (an Acorn-friendly ISP). I miss the convenience of searching for answers. Looking up TV schedules. Being in touch with my friends. I should point out that the friends I have over here are... how do I say this? They're (mostly) retired people. I know, personally, nobody that is my sort of age and with my sorts of interests. On-line, I know a number. We share long emails, due to my internet time being stuffed into a half hour weekly (usually).
My job is going to get me on-line. I am quite prepared to put up with all sorts of sh!t for ~3 months for that. I've been six years without and I miss it a lot.

There is another thing to consider as a benefit to being the janitor. If targets are not met, if all hell breaks loose and production buggers up big-time, it is extremely unlikely to be my fault! ☺
Oh, and that bit about "you may need to stay later if the work is not done?" Balls to that. My built-in excuse is my mother who collects me (I don't have a driving licence). I'm not going to have her hang around an extra hour, expecially at 11pm, because somebody somewhere screwed up. Furthermore, as night shift will have already clocked in, do you think they'll pay us and them to be there at the same time? Don't make me laugh!

Amélie in HD!

Didn't buy anything except a DVD of "The Dead Zone" for €0,50. Mom looks out for books, I look out for DVDs and computer bits. I did see a gigabyte of DDR memory for €15 and I might kick myself if it was a good deal, but I don't know it's operational condition and, worse than that, I don't actually know what memory goes into Aiko. I think it is some form of DDR, I know it isn't a SIMM. Are DDR and DDR2 compatible at lower speeds (100MHz FSB)? I will have to search out that PDF I downloaded and make a note of what goes in Aiko. Anyway, I know had €20 so I figured fifteen for unknown RAM is probably either a damn good deal or a bad sting. A guy, years ago, managed to bag up a Maxtor harddisc that I purchased and in doing so swap it for one with no label that had a huge dent in the lid (and the upper platter heads destroyed). I'm not annoyed (now, was then!). It's a rite of passage, isn't it, else we wouldn't have the expression "once bitten twice shy".

That's when mom saw an HD DVD of "Amélie". I said it sounded nice, but I don't have any way of playing HD DVDs. She said it plays on the computer. Yes, my technophobe mother spotted something I hadn't. It was not an HD DVD, it was a normal DVD containing something that the computer can play in a higher resolution than normal TV pictures. Yay mom!

(click picture for larger version)

Here's a gratuitous scan of the DVD! (as before, click it if you want it bigger)

Driiing-driiing!

Somewhere, and I have no idea where, I ought to have a red 'British' telephone of the same sort of vintage. I think there's a difference in impedence between the phone network of the two countries, I just thought I'd drop that in as a little throwback to the days when phones were simple devices with no logic whatsoever. Perhaps one day I might even get around to putting together a little exchange... for the hell of it (circuit diagrams and old kit welcome!).
This phone, as with my red one, is remarkably simple. Soon I'll take some 'inside' pictures and scan the circuit diagram attached to the inside of the casing.

By the way - I was thinking how much easier it would be to dial '112' instead of '999', and I was making to myself 'dialling finger' gestures (something our young iPod generation would have no idea about!). Anyway, it my memory failing me in my old age (34, pah!) or is the dial on this phone 'backwards' to British ones?

Your winter weather prospectus

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