Idiot

I'm an idiot. No, really. Hard to believe, but it's true. Here's the proof.

I've been using my Motion LS800 tablet PC for a while and I really like it. It is tiny, works well and is on the way to becoming my traveling companion of choice. But it could really use more memory if I want to run Vista comfortably on it. And I do.

It is supposed to be a bit hard to take to pieces and upgrade, but to someone who had a lot of Meccano as a kid this sounded like a challenge. So I ordered a memory stick from Ebuyer and yesterday it arrived.

Getting the back off the device was OK, there were some nasty plastic catches but nothing I can't handle. A tip though, if you are thinking of upgrading a Motion Tablet, grow your thumbnails a little bit so you can slide them under the edge of the back and then use them to pop back the little tabs without scratching the case. I'm kind of due for a manicure at the moment, and that helped a lot. Anyhoo, I got the back off and pulled out the old memory chip. Then I get the new chip out of the package and I hit a snag. These memory devices have a little slot which aligns with a tag in the memory socket. Except on the new chip the slot didn't. It was around half a millimeter in the wrong direction.

And this is where the idiot bit comes in. A smart person would have just gone "Oh dear, have to send it back and get a replacement". But an idiot goes "I'll just grab a nailfile and open up the slot a bit so that it fits". So I did. And after a tiny bit of adjustment I had it fitting perfectly. But of course it didn't work. So now I have an expensive damaged component (which I probably damaged) that doesn't work. A situation broadly similar to taking a bundle of fivers and flushing them down the toilet.  In my defence, it had been a long day at work and I wasn't mentally at my best at the time I did all this. But I still think I'm an idiot.

I'm not sure if the slot was in the wrong place because it is a different type of memory (even though I took special care to make sure that it was the right type) or because the thing was badly made. I've sent the whole thing back to Ebuyer (with a note inside explaining what an idiot I've been and throwing myself on their good nature).

And to cap it all, after I'd put original memory back in and put the Motion back together I find I've lost one of the screws that holds the back on.

Idiot.

Cheap TV

If you have a laptop and a TV licence I can recommend this.  I just plugged one into a USB port on my Vista running tablet, gave it a pat on the head and told it to go off and find its drivers on the network and it just worked. I didn't bother putting the supplied CD-ROM in the machine, although it might be useful if you have not got a Media Centre PC or Vista with Media Centre, as it contains the TV viewing, recording and transcoding software.

The supplied aerial is a bit of a non starter in Hull, which is not very well served for digital TV, but plugging the device into the home aerial worked a treat, finding all the major channels.

They say that it will even pick up high definition broadcasts, but you have to be living in London to make use of that service. Anyhoo, for the price it is extremely good value. If you spend a few more quid you can get one with a remote control.

Chapter Seven is Nearly Done

Got too much time on your hands? Enjoying things a bit more than you think you should? Want to torpedo your social life and turn yourself into a zombie?

Try writing a book.

I'm writing about a subject I find interesting, with a wonderful bunch of folks, on a comfy chair with a nice big screen and I'm using a bendy keyboard. Snag is, I've been doing it for 9 hours today and I'm starting to notice there are things I really should be doing as well. Like have a life.

The good news is that Chapter 7 is nearly done now. And we did go out for lunch today (WokSoEver in Cottingham, all you can eat including sushi for a really good price), so there is some kind of work/life balance here - although I could do to have it shift a little the other way.....

I am Number Six

Well, I've done it. I said I wouldn't, but I've done it anyway. This morning advanced orders for the Playstation 3 opened up and so I wandered into Game and slapped down my fifty quid deposit. (coincidentally, last night I found I was going to be paid for some of my work on "the book" and that is what made it possible - funny eh?).

The PS/3 might end up being owned by the department, depending on how much bother they have getting hold of one for launch day. Actually, things were a lot quieter than they might have been. I didn't get up extra early to go and put my name down, and I still ended up number six in the list. I'm not sure if this launch is going to be the complete sell out that some people are hyping it up to be.....

Anyhoo, it looks as if the Sony magnet has sucked me in again. And now I'm kind of looking forward to March 23rd. If only to see what happens on ebay.....

I'm Bored with the Cold

Enough. I'm tired of being cold. We haven't had any snow yet. Just cold. It's all part of my economy drive, where I turn off all the heating until just before we get back from work. The result is that the house is freezing for the first few hours of the evening. Then the heating goes off for the night and we get cold again. Fortunately British Gas (or "evil profiteers" as they should more properly known) have decided that their prices (raised around 50% last year) are indefensible and will be shaving some small numbers off the cost of heating for me, so I can have around an extra 15 minutes of warmth a night.

I've turned on all the computers in the room to try and heat things up a bit. It is coming to something when you are reduced to warming your hands on a Tablet PC. I've given all the machines something hard to do, to try and get the heat output up....