Errands

Drove to the electronic wholesaler today to have the hard disc taken off the old laptop, with the intention of cabling it to the new one to transfer the working files.  Needed a specific cable to do this.  When I got home, though, to my horror and disappointment, all my working files were 'secured' and could no longer be accessed.  The system files were fine, but who needs them when you no longer need the devise, so they were no longer of any use.  In short, that is the first ever hard disc of mine that I will just have to chuck into the recyling bin.

Luckily, I had back-ups, but now to get the external drive working as well.  The connection appeared to be tied up somehow (though I could not, and still cannot, see why that has to be the case) with the old hard disc.  In any case, I learned a few things today --
1) Never secure files so well that even the user can't access them in a situation of sudden breakdown.
2) Using a hub is useful but not always recommended.  The best way is always to plug the external drive directly into the USB port of your laptop or desktop.  This means ...
... a) that you can't always transfer files from one external drive directly to another efficiently without risk, and the best way is to use your laptop or desktop as 'mediator'.
... b) you would do better to use only one external drive at a time.
3) It's best to have only one Windows explorer open.  If you plug in an external drive, a new window might open, so you have two, in which case close one of them, never mind which.  Otherwise, it appears that the computer will be just as confused as the user and shut down one of the drives without asking for permission, leaving the user wondering what the hell went wrong again.

In short, a macabre comedy of computer errors and ever shortening tempers.  What lightened the tone somewhat was my trip to the city centre to use up the book coupons I got during my leavetaking dinner last 31 January.  Really spent my time browsing and ended up buying three books -- Nakamura, Hemingway, and McEwan -- and paying only 5 euros.  Thanks a lot, dear ex-colleagues!

This was shot on my way into the old city to the bookshop.  On the way out, I bought not one, not two, but twelve Vietnamese lumpias for dinner and later.  Of course, AW had to choose bedtime to gripe about some financial issues, which really set me off.  There has been pressure from the moment I stopped working and I understand this completely.  Long history there, but arguing is not the way to fix it.  Better weather forecast for tomorrow and the rest of the week.