Happy news...

[fajrdrako]

I was just talking to Sandi. She and Pat think they've fixed my nonfunctional DVD recorder. Her (rather technical) explanation of the problem: "You put way too much on the hard drive and it had a nervous breakdown."

Hope is in sight.

Comments

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

Technical explanation for the win :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

But how can hundreds of hours of Doctor Who and Torchwood (in two languages) be "too much"?

[Bewildered.]

It's not enough!

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

We have a V+ Box that holds 80 hours - I maxed it out on Classic Who alone...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think that's what did it. One of the BBC stations was showing 5 to 6 hours of classic Who every weekend. I was copying it. It must have filled up my hard drive faster than I'd thought. Or I overestimated how much the hard drive would hold. (Wishful thinking?)

Or maybe it's all a plot by the Sontarans to destroy us.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Cross fingers that's it, and thanks to Pat.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They are so good at fixing things. It amazes me and fills me with awe.

[elebridith]

Nervous breakdown? Aw, poor thing! *pets recorder* Get well soon! :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'll treat it better when it comes back from its emergency surgery. Really, I will.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Right [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was just talking to Sandi about the poor machine: apparently it will never return to its pristine condition (except maybe if I spend big bucks on a new logic board, and even then, maybe not). But it will work. I will need to give it a few hours to turn on and turn off - necessary each time I programme it - but I've been doing that for the past few months anyway.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Good, congratulations! (Quick, show it some romantic comedies, soothe its poor tortured psyche.)

I would like to point out, proudly, that I spent Wednesday afternoon and evening helping unload my sister's worldly possessions from the back of a 22-foot Penske rental truck, and while I am sore in almost every joint and just today realized that my arms are covered with bruises, I am pleased. It was good. Even though it started to rain on us. It's all done. Not unpacked, but at least all in the house! And her new job at Frostburg State University -- well, they kinda desperately needed her there a month ago already, and it looks like work that she'll just sail into and do quite competently, and things could pretty much not be any better. It's all good. Just thought I'd say so!

And I'm sorry I'm missing Harry's shindig tomorrow (today, as you read this). But I'm there in thought.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear everything work out with your sister's move.

I was just talking to Sandi again about the machine; it isn't what it used to be or what it ought to be but it will work. The problem is in the 'logic board'.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I've just had over an hour of struggle, here with the union's computer, just to get online to read an address off our national website. Feh! It's slow, then it freezes, then it gives me messages I've never seen before (and does so over and over, same messages), then it shut me down completely a few times, and... gad.

I'm sore in every joint, still. But, yes, the move seems to have gone as well as a last-minute, poorly-planned thing could! Good thing I'm already in "just let it all happen and deal with it as it comes" mode, is all I can say.

I hope your machine can be salvaged. And that you can replace the French episodes.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What kind of connection do you have there? Is it just dial-up?

I'm pretty sore today, after three hours of Tai Chi and a twenty-minute walk there and back. But I'm glad I did it.

I don't know of any way to replace the French episodes. The DVDs sold in Canada, as far as I know, are the same as the ones sold in the US and are just in English. I don't know if the British version has a French track, but I don't have a machine that will reliably play British DVDs anyway. Same with DVDs made in France, if they even air Torchwood or Doctor Who - I don't know that they do. I copied the French episodes when the shows were being aired on zTélé, but they aren't on any more.

So whatever Sandi left on my machine is all there is. I'm happy to say that I know I have at least two Doctor Who episodes, still.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Three hours of tai chi! O, wonderful!! Good for you. You managed it? Wow.

This computer's connection is dial-up, yes. And the computer was on when I came into the office; Jim the president had been in here installing some kind of firewall software, and had forgotten to turn it off. So, before I realized that, I accidentally hit the start-up button. Then had to keep trying the main button and the monitor button till I finally got both of them on the same wavelength, and turned both on at the same time! I think I confused my poor computer, is what. It was behaving today, anyway.

French... hm. Do the Doctor Who and Torchwood DVDs have French on them? I will check when I get home. And, do you have these DVDs? Other than that... ask an open question and see who answers!

You have two of the best Doctor Who episodes. Indeed.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There wasn't any Tai Chi yesterday, because it was Thanksgiving and the teacher was at a Tai Chi teacher's conference somewhere in southern Ontario.

I have the DVDs of Torchwood series 1 (series 2 isn't out here yet) and the first three series of Doctor Who (and the fourth series isn't out here yet either).

Am I a Human?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Hi. The system just asked me to confirm that I was human. Back there when I told it to post my previous comment. I wanted to cut-and-paste a button by which I could tell it to go screw itself. How low a blow is that, to have a mechanical system demand that one prove that one is human? Oi!

Re: Am I a Human?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

(And the thing is, the two oddly-drawn words that the system wanted me to type out, in order to prove I was not a machine, were illegible to me due to my visual quirks. So, double feh!)

Re: Am I a Human?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They aren't always easy. Luckily, these places usually give you multiple opportunities with different graphics to decipher.

Re: Am I a Human?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, agreed. All that.

I never got it here before, and have no idea why that day was the day. Possibly something connected to the extended messing-up that preceded my actually being able to try to post something: did I maybe end up coming in by the auto-program back door, or something? Anyway. I couldn't read the thing. And somewhat resented being challenged like that by a nonsentient entity!!

Re: Am I a Human?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I haven't had that with LJ, but I come across that all the time online. It's because there are systems that automatically log into various sites to do things that aren't good - harvest email addresses, for example - so they need to make sure that it's an individual writing the message, not a computer. I get it whenever I log into various types of sites.

And though it's a nuisance, I consider it a good thing - it makes these sites and their services possible, while wholesale trespass by the likes of automatic spammers is not good at all.

Re: Am I a Human?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Um. That reply, above, was supposed to go under this reply, below. Don't ask me how the shift happened....

Now, replying to: They aren't always easy. Luckily, these places usually give you multiple opportunities with different graphics to decipher.

I once had to ask for four additional ones, till I could actually decipher one. Felt quite... stupid. Didn't like the feeling.

Just more stuff to put on my list of "Proof That I'm Not Neurotypical (No Matter How Much Certain People Protest That I Look Totally 'Normal')" is what I would say, huh? Oh, but maybe you don't know that yet: have I mentioned to you that my eyes are not fooled by most optical illusions? Used to think it was just me, being able to very quickly logic them out; instead, this apparently is a trait rather common among those of us on my end of the autistic spectrum. Is that intriguing, or what?

Re: Am I a Human?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How do you do with those pieces of art which are also puzzles, where a 3-D picture is hidden in a repetitive series of designs? Stereograms? For example... let me find one online... here (http://www.techmind.org/stereo/dolgochs.jpg). I used to be very good at seeing the picture there; I can't do it tonight, perhaps because of a change in eyesight?

In any case, I'm not sure what you mean by being 'fooled' by optical illusion - they're usually just two ways of looking at the same thing, and the trick is to see if you can see them both ways at will. Have you tried the one with the twirling girl? It's rather fun. It's here. What do you make of her?
(http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/23/twirling-dancer-opti.html)

Re: Am I a Human?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

No, I don't see anything in those things. At best they are colorful nonsense, at worst they hurt (as this one did). I waited for the image to load with my pointer on the back button and my eyes on the keyboard, watching the screen with my top peripheral vision. Which was still much too keen. I say ouch.

Dancer: I also could not look at this. Basically, anything in silhouette like this is simultaneously face-forward and face-away, to me, and after only a few seconds I had to exit. Angst arises from the what-actually-is-it-ness of the no-details form.

Have you watched fan blades or airplane propellers, and seen them "reverse direction"? I assume that is what this was, too. Yes, I see that. It's a nifty little eye-brain fool, it is.

The full exploration of my visual tendencies is yet to happen. But it's on my list!

Re: Am I a Human?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Interesting comments. I can never (except in one instance) guess what will visually bother you and what won't.

The exception is that icon of Martha. When I said I wondered whether icons with faces would bother you, it was specifically when I was loading that one, as if some intuition made me think of it at that time. I've no idea why, but I did think it might bother you, when the whole notion has never occurred to me. And of course I use portrait icons all the time, because I love them.