New batteries please

Looking forward to Easter at the moment and No ! Not for the chocolate !

I know what you were thinking ...

Ok, ok, I am a chocolate fiend but I'm more looking forward to the week I'll be taking off work. (And there's only so much chocolate one can take before you get sick of it and that's a waste of chocolate.) Feeling a bit burned out again, although it's not been stopping me from getting on with things. Maybe makes me a bit more reactive instead of thinking things through, which maybe isn't a bad thing for someone who tends to overthink.

I believe they call it procrastination :-)

Been up to mum's and dad's this weekend for one of those "Be there or don't get fed next time" events :-) Kidding, they're not like that really even for days like Mother's Day. I'm reasonably into traditions, especially the ones that make people happy. So every Mother's Day, I'll call in the People Who Know (aka Flowergram!) to send a little package to two special people. The other one is Craziequeen, who helps keep me sane by letting me talk through stuff. We keep an eye on each other :-)

Needing to get a mini-rant out about technology again, it'll be a mini rant because I'll need to go into stuff that's better placed on the techie blog. I did the technology thing again this weekend, not a raging success this time around but hopefully the Widget that turned up today will sort things out to satisfaction.

Telly type kit has been the latest thing the Family has upgraded, first it was my nan getting a new telly. Then my sister got forced into buying one because her old telly went splat. I got one at Xmas and we were checking out mum's and dad's new one this weekend. It's a Panasonic telly and they got a HDD dvd recorder as well. They don't have an aerial accessible where the telly is, so they're using a satellite tuner in the telly itself. Comments ...

Comet people get away with a lot when they persuade people to buy stuff that doesn't fit the need. Although part of that is knowing that the "need" is ... The dvd recorder wasn't really necessary. It does do a job, it's just a different (and cheaper) bit of kit would do the job much better.

Panasonic telly quality = Very high. The quality when we were watching the Grand Prix was like watching HD, except on a SD signal. Impressive.
Telly + DVD recorder integration. Good stuff, the telly was able to tell the dvd recorder what and when to record, without doing anything to the dvd recorder.

Manuals and ease of use. This is where the BUT comes in.

As a device for watching stuff, it's very good. Sharp picture, respectable sound, doesn't fall over when you force a Scart lead into the socket. As for setting it up, it required two engineers to get it connected enough to get the integration working and even then, the widget that sends pictures to the next room doesn't work. Don't get me started about the badly translated manual that's gone nowhere near Readability gurus or Proofreaders.

Terrible manual. Interface can only be described as Gopping. (a derogatory slang term of which the meaning is hopefully obvious)

Ok - you probably get the picture ... There's a box arrived today that's hopefully gotten them a Sky+ replacement that they won't have to pay a monthly fee for.

It's not quite working "to satisfaction" yet, as they use a widget to send pictures from the living room to the dining room. Couldn't get that working over the weekend, signal must have been getting jammed. Think I'll be poking that again next time I'm up there.

But for now, all the technology appears to be working, I haven't had a "this doesn't work" call with the Freesat box so I'll get back to listening to the music while researching AV sender Gizmos.

See ! Lots of stuff being poked at, despite feeling the smoky edges of a case of impending burn out :-) I think it helps having good people around me. You know the saying "stay in one place and everyone you know will walk past" ? That place was the canteen today. Joined the queue for teacakes behind Evil Ex, Contractor Tim was behind me in the sarnie queue and also heading for the canteen was the wonderful Miss A who used to work in the team next door before we moved. You know the saying "Girl Next Door" ? More like "Girl in team Next Door". They were blessed with pretty ladies and Miss A was and still is no exception. One of the things I miss about our old location was the occasional "Hello Pete, how are you doing ?" from Miss A on her way past my desk.

Good to see a friendly face and it made me grin to have a chance to say hello too :-)

PS The iPod Sock thread on Facebook has reached 22 comments ... Need a suitably strange reply to make it 23.