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Stressful day
13 Hours Ago

I got up, ready to do battle with the BBC's login system, and... I couldn't get online.

It turned out from my experimenting that my router had failed. I powered it down and managed to connect directly through the modem, first using my HP Netbook, later using THE PENGUINATOR. A few hours later I tried the router again, and initially managed to get limited functionality (one port working) which slowly returned to full functionality over a period of twenty minutes or so.

I'm pretty sure it's a heat-related problem. But, as long as it's working again, I'm not going to dare disturbing it. I have it working on two wired ports, and the wireless is up again, so that's enough to keep me functioning online for the moment.

Sue dropped off my veg box. I have a lot of veg from a fortnight ago going bad, as while I was on the antibiotics I neither had the strength to spend much time cooking nor the inclination to eat much in the way of "solid" food. I'll sort out the best of it and make a mixed vegetable soup in the pressure cooker tomorrow, if I get the chance.

I've got a Tesco delivery coming in the morning, and Bisset and Bob are coming round in the afternoon to make a start on clearing my "spares" collection out into the skip outside. I made sure there was a bottle of decent Whisky in the Tesco delivery.

I watched "The Daily Show", "CSI: Miami", "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" and "Little Mosque on the Prairie". I'm going to watch "Naked News" as soon as I log off here, and I'm still downloading "Dexter" and "House".

I've been told there's a kludge in place that will let me (and others) restore our long h2g2 names after the BBC iD system clobbers them tomorrow. Here's hoping...

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Grrr. And the day was going so well.
Yesterday

I had my podiatrist's appointment, and my foot is healing nicely. I'm now off the antibiotics.

All was well until later in the evening, when my attention was drawn to a notice on The Archers boards that basically said the new BBC iD system was being brought forward (they had previously promised the message boards would be unaffected by this until the new year) and everyrthing would change tomorrow morning...! Oh, and despite promises to the contrary, the BBC iD display name (the one that's limited to 30 characters with virtually no punctuation) would propagate backwards to the SSO system.

We then got a 24-hour reprieve.

I'm going to be spending tomorrow trying to find a way to close my BBC iD without losing my SSO account. That will mean I can no longer post on The Archers boards, but it'll keep my h2g2 name unaltered until (hopefully) they fix the long name support.

The arrogance of this whole process astounds me. The BBC didn't ask for any input from the users before commissioning this new system - they just chose arbitrary name and password lengths and are now forcing this unwanted change on the whole userbase. s.

I watched "The Gadget Show", "The Daily Show", "Ugly Betty", "FlashForward", "Samantha Who?" and "Graham Norton". I'm downloading "Dexter", "House" and "Little Mosque on the Prairie".

(1 reply, Latest reply: 18 Hours Ago)

A day of ups and downs
2 Days Ago

Bob came a'visiting, which is sort of an "up", except I spent the whole visit huddled under a quilt apologising for the lack of coffee.

On the subject of coffee, I got an email from the company I ordered my new machine from saying it wouldn't be available until "January 2010". They asserted that their website said that stock had been delayed; I returned a link to the page I purchased it from where it not only said "10% off!" and "Free UK Delivery!", but told me that it would be sent direct from the manufacturer so there was no "stock" involved anyway. I'm waiting for their response.

On the plus side, I managed to get George to give me a lift both to and from Bisset and Hazel's tonight. Apparently, Bisset is "going to have some time on his hands" for the foreseeable future so I asked him to 'phone me on Wednesday to arrange some serious box-shifting. Martin, Fiona, Richard and Dave were also in attendance.

I watched "The Big Bang Theory", "Special Inspector" and most of "The Cheaters". I recorded/am recording "The Gadget Show", "FlashForward", "Sanctuary" and "Without a Trace", plus "I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue" off the radio.

(3 replies, Latest reply: 2 Days Ago)

Coffee-related tragedy
3 Days Ago

My bean-to-cup Espresso machine died today.

The motor whirrs, but it no longer grinds any beans.

It would cost me £98 plus about £10 to ship it to London to get it serviced. And then, I would have to pack it and schlep down to the Post Office with it too. So, rather than spend about £110 on that, I spent about £135 and ordered a bean-to-cup filter machine instead.

The new machine comes with a timer, so I can have my waiting for me when I get up, a thermos flask so it stays hot (well... warm) all day and a three year guarantee.

But I have three grueling days coming up when I won't have to spur me on.

I watched "Columbo", "Top Gear" and "Sunshine". I'm going to record "Supernatural".

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Dozing and Dumping
4 Days Ago

That's pretty much been my whole day, apart from an extremely brief visit from Aiden. I just eat, nap and then sit on the toilet, over and over, all day.

The nastiest antibiotics run out tomorrow, so at least that's something to look forward to.

I watched "Lie to Me", "Kyle XY", "TV Burp", "Knight Rider", "Have I Got a Bit More News for You", "The Thick of It" and "Defying Gravity". (The latter is still dreadful beyond description... It makes "Knight Rider" look plausible and realistic... )

On the downloads front, things are looking bad. "Little Mosque on the Prairie" and "Criminal Minds" won't download because they want "authentication" from a tracker that won't let me register. So that's two of my favourite shows that I won't be seeing for a while.

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