Pilot's Log

I don't think this made the news.

Is Writer's Block...dead?

THIS is the Malware that took Precious out of action over the weekend. Update your protection software if you can because this is one (in the words of Mission Control in Thexder for Windows 95) pretty obnoxious crock of crud.

...It's because I'm forced to conserve bandwidth again, with it being the end of the fiscal month.

Let's see:

*) I don't have a paying job and I'm broke.

*) I've gotta stick around Rather Manor to help Mum with her problems. We MAY have submitted one of her books to a publisher for a reprint tonight, but we won't know for a while whether the effort was successful.

*) I play too many games online. I wish I could get as excited about something that actually made me a living.

*) Since I don't have money, I don't have much in the way of reasons to travel, and of course, no point in travelling very far when I do.

*) My Internet situation, while more stable than it was, is still lacking in functionality. I haven't been able to upload certain kinds of data from this computer to the 'Net. Thus I may have to give up the Reviewer Corps, or (more likely) find a workaround of one kind or another.

AT&T has the best customer service system in the world. I mean it. They hire terrific people and you can reach some of them 24/7.

But that nice, ardent, professional woman and her good work is lost on me today because her phone makes her sound like she's way in the back of a shipping container she shares with a stepdown power transformer.

Still, in spite of this difficulty and others I've endured over the last few weeks, I was able to on this day:

*) Pay the first Wireless Internet bill for Rather Manor (although it was past due)
*) Correct the billing information for the Wireless Internet account (so it wouldn't bounce back like the first bill did)
*) Link the Wireless Internet account with the Landline account for Rather Manor so
*) We might be able to BUNDLE services and save some moolah

And I did it on ATT.com, whose veracity measures are needlessly difficult for legitimate users while still leaving gaping holes for cyberfraudsters. Tho' I doubt there can be a lot gained from the information available to the phone company and the individual endusers.

Turns out that one of the glitches was simply that the modem was pointed in a wrong direction. I put it on a USB extension cord, set it an another direction and so far, so good.

The Great Rather Manor Internet Service Switchover: Update

Dana couldn't help us other than to give us a little advice, so on the morrow, after the bread run, we'll hit the usual suspects (Radio Shack, AT&T, US Cellular) and see what kind of wireless connectivity is available.

None of us (myself, Mum, Dad) likes this situation but Mum's professional life depends on us having Internet access and time is of the essence.

Re: mravac_kid...

I found a website that has the absolutely latest version of European Air War with dozens of related patches for it...but as the file sizes are ginormous I'll have to wait till I can download them to Kong's HD and then install them onto Precious.

It's been rare that both my mother's computer and my own run the same operating system. For a while we both had WinXP but then her hard drive crashed and got replaced with one with Win98 and it took till just recently to get beyond it.

When the Computer King boys tried to sell me on the idea of having Linux on Precious--when we had gone through so much trouble to get Mum's computer to have Windows 7, I was yea-close to going totally ballistic. So they put Win7 on mine...

And I check just a while ago. Mum has Win7 HOME on hers...I have Win7 PRO on mine! Just enough differences to make it an ordeal to work with.

I'm in for a long and tricky weekend.

Going to have to buy a new computer. Since it is my birthday, and this gadget is gonna cost me most of my savings, I suppose I'll have to dub it Precious.

PS: Kong lived for five and a half years, which is a pretty good run for a computer these days.