Regular Posts - Speech Recognition.

I resolve to post more often. I am always picking up little snippets of information that I feel that I should share. For example - I have had my current computer for over four years now - and I learned only today that it comes with Speech Recognition built in. I've tried it - and it's not at all bad. You can take time teaching it - but for basic windows commands it's fine.

Dell Computer Restarting

I recently had to rebuild a computer for the son of one of my friends. It was a Dell Inspiron something or other. Whilst I had it I flashed the BIOS to the latest version, then reloaded the original XP Pro Media Centre that it came with. All was fine. It was taken home and then, a few weeks later,  I was told that it would not turn off. When told to close down, it shut down, paused, and then started up again. Interesting.

When next at their house I had a look. In the BIOS there was a a 'Wake on NIC' setting which was set. I turned this off, and all was fine. Seems that the problem started when the computer was attached to the home network - something I couldn't test on the bench. Seems the network wasn't letting the computer fully shut down. It does now. :-)

Consumerism

Recently our microwave oven died. Now I am the sort of person who likes to fix things. Strangely, my first thought was 'get another one'. I knew that they are inexpensive - under £40.00 in fact, so I went out that very morning, and bought another one - for just less than £40.00.

The broken one is now sitting in my garage waiting for a visit to the dump (sorry, 'Recycling Centre'). 'Free-cycle it' I hear you cry - but, along with the several CRT television sets and piles of videos that I offered, no-one wants it. Despite my best efforts, am I being turned into a true 'consumer'? I hate that term - makes me think of The Prisoner  "I am not a consumer, I am a free man!"  maybe that's not true. I did make one big sacrifice this year. I got rid of my car and haven't replaced it. We are now a one car family. I can't say that I don't miss it. I did have it for ten years after all. Quite hard to just say goodbye to something that has been a daily part of your life for that long.

Aires de Service - France

If you have a motor home and you go to France, then you really should know about these. They are places where you can stop overnight for little or no charge, and many have areas where you can empty waste and refill water. Some are no more than car parks, but many are special areas set aside by town or village councils for people to stay in the hope that they will use the facilities in the area. It works. I wish we had far sighted councils in the country that would do the same.

There are various listings of the sites - for example 'All the Aires' published by Vicarious Books. But I have just downloaded a 'Points of Interest' (PoI) file for my Sat Nav (which is pretty elderly now) from this site. You will need a little French to understand it - but it's fairly straightforward. Once you have made your choice they email the appropriate file to you. I also found this tool useful - it converts between types of  PoI files.

If you are sensible about where you stay, and feel like exploring a different side of France, then give the Aires a go.

Succeeded by a Lamp post

Every now and then, usually when walking or driving along a road I find myself thinking that everything around me will still be there when I am dead and gone. I realise that this is morbid - but it's true nonetheless.

Not everything will still be there - but the lamp posts stand a fair chance of surviving me. I know it's odd, but true. I realise that I am lucky to live where I do, in this time and not another part of the world or another time period where life could tend to be 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' as Thomas Hobbes would have it. Realising this in itself makes me wonder why people like me don't take better care of themselves but often try to, for example, drink themselves to obscurity or even death.

Listening to the radio recently I heard a comment that winners of money in games shows sometimes express the need to improve their bodies by spending some of their winnings on body augmentation or plastic surgery as important. I know that if for some reason I suddenly became wealthy I would invest in getting my dodgy knees and hip looked at - but I don't consider that vanity - more like pain relief. Question is then, why don't I do this now? Perhaps I don't have faith in the National Health Service?

Hottest 1st October

This image is courtesy of the BBC News website, showing a rather crowded Brighton beach.

The temperature today peaked at 29.9 degrees centigrade, beating the previous record of 29.4 degrees set in 1985. This was hotter than Los Angeles and Barcelona. I have spent most of the day working on my allotment - digging up weeds and clearing ground. Hot work. I have just placed a beer in the freezer for 10 minutes whilst I write this and have a shower. Then I will sit in my garden and relax for a bit. It would seem that it will be hot again tomorrow.

Catching the Future

I can remember the first time I ever had a door open automatically for me. It was a Sainsburys supermarket in Bedminster, Bristol. My friend was working there for the summer (must have been in the late 1970's), and as you approached the door pressure pads in the mat detected you and the door swung open. Wow! I spent a few times going through just to see it work. Easily amused. Just like Star Trek - except the door swung open rather than slid to one side - but it was a start.

A 'Tablet' from Deep Space Nine

As a fan of Star Trek (OK - but I don't go to Conventions) I am aware of how the creator's vision of the future technology is gradually actually happening. The latest incarnation of this is the tablet computer. I know that they have been around for a long time - but only recently have they really taken off with, in particular, the iPad, but also other tablets - and soon the Kindle Fire, which I think will give the iPad a run for it's money.

This increase in popularity is because of the the interconnectivity that we now have with WiFi, bluetooth, 3G etcetera, and the need that people seem to have share their entire lives and to be constantly entertained - giving large companies the chance to sell even more stuff. The Star Trek series has had some form of flat, portable computing device from virtually day one. Looking on the net for info on these devices I found this site, which I found very informative - and not just about the tablets.

I find myself wishing that we could have some of the other stuff from the Star trek Universe as well. I would like faster than light ships and teleport devices. Most of all, however, I would like Mankind to have grown up a bit and to have stopped killing each other and the planet.