Brian Plummer -- Again

Quote of the day: Brian Plummer -- If you can't stand the heat, the kitchen's not the best place to be. / If you can't stand the wheat, stay away from the lone prairie.

That quotation is from Brian's song "Change The World" on the "No Questions" album.  This LP is a Canadian classic for sure -- i've been listening to it over and over ever since Troy (Roach) converted my vinyl copy to CD for me last week.  (Incomprehensibly, it has never been released on CD.)

So now here it is, available as a free download, thanks to good ol' music historian and archivist me.  I've uploaded it as a zipped file to here: http://www.mediafire.com/?dd5ap7dwg9otlwl

You will need some way to unpack it but most people will have WinZip or some other file extractor on their systems, i suppose. (Personally i prefer 7zip -- Google it, it's free.)

Enjoy!

Another Day In Paradise.....

Oh, sorry, that should have read "Another Day In Computer Hell."

It's my day off, and i've been having a pretty crappy morning, really, thanks to a frightening combination of my own stupidity and Windows Live Mail -- i am really annoyed at Tweedledummy at tech support who thought Outlook Express was corrupted when i had my email probs a few weeks ago, and Tweedledummer who proposed Windows Live Mail as an alternate email client.  I hate WLM!


So i downloaded Thunderbird instead but for the life of me couldn't figure out how to configure it to send email.  I was able to receive ok, but not send.  Does any of this sound familiar?

But, i'm not just another pretty face: I finally configured it so that i could send mail with it, set it as the default and couldn't wait to uninstall WLM -- but before i did so, i imported everything (emails, address book) to Thunderbird.

And then had a heckuva time uninstalling WLM -- bits of it are all over the place, deep inside the system.  Even after an allegedly complete uninstall, i could still find traces -- its icon still appeared in my Start menu, for instance.  Took about an hour and there's still probably remnants of it polluting my system.

But why, oh, why, did i neglect to check that Thunderbird had imported everything before i uninstalled it?

WLM exported almost everything.  Almost.  I lost about two weeks' worth of emails -- including a couple of very important ones....


On a happier note, remember how my Linux laptop's keyboard had been set to Canada Multingual which meant that when i hit the apostrophe key, an É would appear, and other such curiosities?  Well, i fixed that, thanks to a Ubuntu support forum -- it was really easy to change it to Canada English but as Linux is all new to me, i hadn't a clue where to start.  I eagerly await the arrival of the book i ordered last week, Ubuntu Linux For Beginners.

Anyway, none of this is getting the laundry done, so i'll take a break from this nightmare and have some lunch maybe.


I watched this for the umpteenth time last night.

Great film

Brian Plummer

I just came home from Onsite Technology with my "new" Brian Plummer CD

OMG, I have it!  I love this album, and the sound quality is super -- even Troy (Roach) was impressed at how well-preserved the vinyl was -- no scratches whatever -- well, I always tried to look after my vinyl.

He did an online search, too, and agrees with me -- it has never been released on CD.  (He also liked the guitar playing on the record.) It ROCKS, man!

I think I'm going to play the CD again, now.  I haven't been able to hear it in maybe fifteen years. I am a happy man today.  That hasn't happened in a while!  Each song is a treasure.  The fact that it has never been released on CD is proof positive that the record industry hasn't a clue....

I am so glad I found Troy's shop, and he's such a nice guy.  His knowledge of computers is amazing.  He was talking to another customer when I arrived, someone who had just bought her first-ever laptop (I gathered) and he was explaining some of its functions to her.  I eavesdropped (it's a small shop!) and kept thinking, I didn't know that, I didn't know that, I didn't know THAT!

Onsite Technology

Quote of the day: Rich Cook -- Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

OK, i have been having a nightmare of a time with matters digital recently, but credit where it's due:  this new laptop of mine, i bought it at a new shop called Onsite Technology (www.onsitetechnology.ca) -- it's in Market Place, just behind city hall, and downstairs with a tiny little doorway so you'd miss it altogether if you didn't know it was there-- and i love the shop! It's owned my a man named Troy Roach -- i'd never met him before last week, but i first heard of him years ago as being a supremo of the local infonistacracy -- a uber-geek, in other words -- i wish i had one-eighth of his knowldege of things computery.

It's a shop that reminds me of my apartment, actually: organised chaos.  By which i mean, there's stuff piled everywhere, but he knows exactly where everything is.  I was there today after work, as a matter of fact.

 He does vinyl to CD conversions and i took in Brian Plummer's "No Questions" album -- a fantabulous album that i don't think has ever been released on CD  -- and i've been searching for years.  I should have it back on Saturday.

Now to scour my vinyl collection for others....

I Am Going To Shoot Myself

I could just spit.  No, really.

All of these hassles i've been having with my Internet connection lately have really depressed me, solitary loser that i am, spending most of my leisure time online...  I called my ISP's tech support last night and explained that my connection zoomed along superbly on my new laptop and they basically said, ok, that means it's your desktop PC that's the problem, and nothing to do with us, so eff off and leave us in peace, gorblimey.  Very nice.

I was quite dismayed.

This morning, i couldn't even get on to (my favourite radio station) therock.fm -- the connection kept timing out :o(

And then i had a light bulb moment.  Eureka! i said, in English.  What would happen if i (temporarily) disabled my firewall?  And (man of action that i am) i did, and....

All is now back to normal.  That "clunk" you just heard was the sound of my head hitting the desk in frustration.

So i uninstalled the Comodo firewall altogether (Comodo updates itself and evidently a recent update caused all of these problems) and installed Online Armor to replace it -- it seems fine, but a question is raised.  Why did i have to solve this problem for myself?  Why didn't those people at tech support suggest it in the first place?  They make heaps more money than i (a lowly cook) (oh, sorry, rotisserie chef is my new title) do, aren't they supposed to know these things?

Or is it really such an inexact science?

Anyway, GTG, must catch up on about two weeks' worth of work....