Jackie and Graham have been having trouble with their NTL broadband again. It’s been going on for months. The NTL engineers have been out several times, but it’s seems to be always working correctly when they call. Tonight I took my cable box (with built in cable modem) round to swap in order to determine if it was the cable box or their PC. We swapped the boxes… nothing. We swapped the smart cards… TV worked, but no broadband. Then I remembered that theirs was an old box and my require a crossover connector. But there wasn’t one. It turns out they had a crossover cable, so we found a crossover connecter and inserted that. So now they had a straight through cable. THis time it worked and fast! Back to the proper speed. I then swapped them back without rebooting the PC and the speed dropped again to sub dial-up speed 🙁
I hope they can get it sorted soon. I’ve told them to demand that and NTL engineer brings a new box and proves to them that the old box is the same speed.
Michael Jackson News
The revamped Michael Jackson News site has just re-launched.
We’re back! As always, MJNEWS will provide you with the very latest, RELIABLE, Michael Jackson news.
It is now using B2 and my B2 Link Manager.
Avril Lavigne – Let Go
I’m listening to Let Go by Avril Lavigne at the moment. I really like it. I didn’t expect that I would, but I’d gotten used to the two recent singles; ‘Complicated’ and ‘Sk8er Boi’ and thought I would give it a listen. It’s not what I expected. There is quite a bit more depth to the album than is indicated by the singles. There are a couple of strong rock-pop tracks, and a couple of ballads on there. She also has a good voice. I don’t know whether she could carry off the slower tracks, which stretch her vocals a little, live, but the album is pretty good.
Recommended.
Interface – Finished
I finished Interface by Neal Stephenson and Frederick George this lunchtime. Phew! What a fantastic book! I really loved it. I found it hard to tell that it wasn’t written just by Neal, apart from the beginning of one chapter somewhere around 30, which seemed to somehow jar against the flow of the story line. I’m not sure whether it was the style of writing or a jump in the plot.
I can see this is definitely movie material.
Recommended.
Slightly Cooler
I put the air cooling unit on today in my part of the office, and it seems to have helped a little. THe temperature didn’t get above 84 degrees today. Still too warm, but I didn’t feel as bad at the end of the day today.
I hope the get the lifts in our building fixed soon. One of the two we can use has been out of action for a full week now. The other one is playing up, it rarely allows more than five people in without setting off the overloaded alarm! I’ve had to jog up the stairs a couple of times today because there were more than ten people waiting for the lift. It’s crazy when there are more than 2000 people in the building!
The Linux Kernel and Castle Technology Ltd, UK
This story on the Linux Kernel Mailing List: The Linux Kernel and Castle Technology Ltd, UK looks like trouble brewing.
Castle Software are here.
Bed
Bleh! It’s been 86 degrees again in the office. I’ve had a doozy of a headache since this afternoon. I managed to fall asleep on the couch tonight which is really unusual for me.
I’m off to bed…
Interface
Interface by Neal Stephenson and Frederick George is one of those books which makes me want to do nothing else but sit and read it until I’m finished. Stephenson is a fantastic story teller. He pushes all the right buttons for me. I am seriously gripped by this one.
