Pi in the face?

Raspberry Pi board
(Photo credit: trevj)

I watched with interest the shenanegins going on around the launch of the Raspberry Pi educational computer this morning. It was announced that a 'Very important announcement' was set for 06.00 this morning. We all knew what the announcement was about in a general way and most were expecting sales to begin at that time. In reality, the announcement was that Farnell and RS were taking on the distribution of the board and would also be running the manufacture of it as well in future. Then links to the two web sites were provided. The initial message swamped the RasPi web site and the links then crashed the other two sites. As many members of the forum group said, some very loudly, this was an entirely expected result of the way the whole thing was choreographed. To add to the confusion, the Farnell sales desk were not aware of what a RasPi was or, indeed, that they were selling them until 08.00 according to some reports. In a way, this was very amusing as it smacked of one of those 'screwball' comedies so loved by Hollywood. Unfortunately, there will probably be a very bad 'hangover' from all the bad feeling engendered by the whole sad spectacle.

Yesterday evening, moving furniture from old house to new flat for Ian and Lulu. Very hard work and finally got home at about 20.30 with a Chinese take away meal. I bought it from a shop in Southway and there was rather a lot of it and after eating it, I felt rather full. There then followed a broken night with, at some point, me wandering down the stairs convinced it was time to get up. It wasn't so I went back to bed and dreamed I was awake until the alarm woke me. I feel like death warmed up today. Thanks family.

Four in two days?

Well, my back is better with a vengeance. I have often noticed in the past that a sudden lessening of tension, particularly in the lower back, can often release other areas that have been a bit tense as well. This has affected me with a vengeance both yesterday and today. Twice yesterday afternoon and twice today is a bit much even for me. I admit to being quite healthy in that area normally and having some difficulty over the past couple of weeks but this is ridiculous! The slackening of tension seems to have released a veritable flood of both gaseous and solids. It's not unwelcome, you understand, just unusual for me. I do feel a lot lighter though.

Last week is just a blur..........

I did a multitude of logs, most of them Sharepoint based and managed to finish them all by Friday leaving time.

Which was just as well as we had Samuel for the weekend and Ian, Lulu and Corey all came for Saturday and Sunday. Frankly, it was a relief to get back to work this morning. My back went out one day last week, I've lost track of which day, and didn't click back until Sunday evening so I was in pain for most of that time. Finally, Virgin Media appear to be working on Russ' cable connection at present so we only had a 30 minute chat on Saturday. All in all, then, a bit of a weekend.
This morning, my vacuum cleaner bags arrived as did my photographic studio for taking pictures of  small items for online use. And the final bit, a card from the Post Office telling me I have to pay £14.48 to them to claim my Ginsing card as not only do I have to pay import duty but the PO will charge me £8.00 for the honour of processing the payment. Oh goody.

Just a quickie...............

As the actress said to the bishop.

Heck of a day today and now I'm off home so nothing much to write about. I have just had my first direct referral from the support desk, either me or the web team...................this is getting worrying. 

A walking miracle.................

Not quite yet but Corey is certainly close to it. He is walking by holding on to people and things but, occasionally, he forgets and walks all on his own. He is also developing a mischievous sense of humour to go with his sunny smile. He can be really sneaky for only 16 months old. Hazel and I had the pleasure of his company for most of yesterday and he had us twisted around his, ever so, little finger for most of that time. He has developed a taste for remote controls and phones, bless him, and is constantly on the look out for the dam' things. Like most modern children, he seems to gravitate to electronic gubbins at every given opportunity. I am already looking to a time when he and his brother overtake me with their technical skills. As it is, I have little or no interest in mobile phones but all the grown up children in the family just do it and don't even think about it.

Troubles with a 'Billing Account'

If you have no idea, just like me, what a 'Billing Account' is then read on and you will find out. It will be of immense help if you ever decide to talk to a Sky help desk advisor. All I needed to do was to activate a new card. I rang the number on the letter and asked to activate it. First I had to go through several security questions which were easy to answer then the young lady asked me for the last two digits of my Billing Account.

Me "What's a billing account, is it on the letter?"

Her "It's your billing account!"

Me "But I have no idea what my billing account is, please tell me what I'm looking for."

Her "It's your billing account!"

Me "Yes, but what is it, what am I looking for. Is it the number on my letter with six digits a hyphen and then two four digit groups?"

Her "It's your billing account!"

Me "Am I not getting though to you, I don't know what you are asking for, help me here."

Her "It's your billing account!"

This went on for several minutes, I asked to speak to her supervisor and was told, "She won't be able to do anything without your billing account".

Eventually she did go and have a word with her supervisor, when she came back she said, "It's the number on your card".

Me "What card, my Sky card?"

Her "Your bank card."

Me "You mean my bank account number?"

Her "It's your billing account!"

Me "But you mean the last two digits of my bank account number?"

Her "Yes, your billing account."

Me "25"

Her " Thank you, I'm passing you on to the technical team now"

Me "Goodbye."

Her "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

Him "Hello sir my name is.................................."

So when Sky ask for the last two digits of your billing account, you now know what they really mean is the last two digits of your bank account.

Another week goes by..

and I'm still struggling to keep up with this diary.

The trouble is, my job interferes during the week and the family stick it to me at weekends. This weekend was yet another biggie. Half term so Samuel came for an extra day and we also took Corey for several hours on Sunday to give his parents a bit of respite whilst painting the walls of their flat. It's all very well, but we are beginning to get overtired ourselves. We are currently both trying to organise some time away in order to get a complete break. Just one weekend without any driving to do would suit me, to be honest. The Arduino project is still chugging along nicely, parts are still arriving and I have begun to recycle some older stuff from way back. I have also been looking at some of the more technical offerings from Google and have begun a Google code site in order to be able to offer my own code to other users in a simple manner.

I have also been playing with the look of this site, currently I'm going for a 60's Hollywood comedy feel, try playing a Henry Mancini track whilst checking out my deathless prose.

Look at it,

Not this type of Klingon.

Friday already and nothing to show for it this week. We continue to be very busy at work and I am also getting a lot of personal work done at home. One job that stands out is the young lady who asked me to just take a peep at her PC because it seemed to be running a bit slow. She assured me that she had not installed any dodgy software, in fact she hardly ever downloaded anything.................

After over an hour running some checks which normally take about ten minutes, I was able to delete 124 adware, desktop hijack and trojan files from her computer. Even then, she still had a Klingon* in her IE that simply wouldn't go but was just annoying rather than dangerous. We tried another method of removal this morning and, the last I heard, it was still there. At home, the high spot of the week was cutting the first Trundle case and fitting the servos and wheels. As we have Samuel over the weekend due to half term and redecorating, I may not get a lot more done until next week. Fortunately for me, Samuel is even keener than I am to chat to Russ on a Saturday so I don't miss out on that.

*In this instance, an annoying item that won't go away. Kling-on geddit?

Still busy - after all these years.

Another weekend with both grandchildren. A lot of fun but very tiring and time consuming. Saturday saw Samuel and Corey chasing each other around the room on hands and knees for about forty minutes. Once everyone had been returned to their parents, we collapsed in a chair and vegged for the rest of the Sunday.