Slow and stupid



The theme this week is slow and stupid. Mainly I've been working on graphics projects and simply didn't have enough spare neurons or spare blood pressure to think about politics. That's probably good anyway!

Both the slow and the stupid were amplified by heat: summer decided to stay an extra week after I took down the window air conditioner. It wasn't worth the effort to put it back in and take it back out yet again ... too much heavy lifting involved.

And, for the last few weeks my computer has clearly been ailing more and more, sometimes crashing with a Blue Screen Of Death, generally slowing down. Finally came to a [nearly] screeching halt this morning.

Luckily I'd backed up everything that matters, since I could see the problem coming. Also luckily, I kept the System Recovery disk this time. (When previous computer failed, I had no recourse because I had stupidly tossed the "unnecessary" disk.)

So it's back in order, running fast again. What apparently happened was a hardware failure in the modem, which was issuing more and more junk IRQ's, causing a pileup of automatic debug activity. New modem and fresh Windows install cured it.

However, stupidity is incurable. While I was sorting through CD's to find the System Restore disk, and while I was thanking lucky stars that I hadn't thrown away the Restore disk THIS time, I casually THREW AWAY THE INSTALLATION CD for a new modem I'd bought some time ago but never used.

Yes, that's right. At the same moment when I was intensely aware of the stupidity of tossing CD's, I tossed a CD.

Needless to say, this new modem was exactly what the computer needed.

But Providence was on my side (why, I don't know!) ... because I hadn't yet taken the trash out to the street when I realized the modem was needed. So I just had to wash some coffee grounds off the CD.
  ¶ 10:05 PM