Bob Thompson noted in
his
Sunday
posting 
that my warning about ActiveX and such at the Microsoft URLs for update files
(Saturday's posting) was a gross understatement about the difficulty in accessing
the sites, or rather how low you have to set security. Well, yes, although
I must admit to two different reasons for the "gloss":
-
I wasn't actually out to get any files at the time, so didn't bother to hang
around for the entire "configuring your system" spiel.
-
It's a sorry commentary on the sate of affairs that I expect no less than
"borgian assimilation" attempts at any MS site these days, though I had hoped
that the OS-specific URLs to the respective download centers would be a bit
more like it used to be: search the database and download the files. At first
glance some were, but there's still a lot of bothersome extra scripting to
deal with.
In general, if you know what files you need (unfortunately non-trivial),
then you're often better off doing a Fast or Google search
to locate "copies" elsewhere (typically from sites in Eastern Europe or the
Far East). This then becomes a straight-forward FTP fetch, albeit not an
officially sanctioned one.
Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience
wisely. -- Rodin
There are signals lately that more domain mailservers are now rejecting,
sight unseen, incoming email that has any attachments, or attachments of
particular kinds (including HTML). Such is the result of email virus worries.
If the server scan program well-behaved, you might get an automated message
telling you this. However, I know that some corporate servers have long routinely
simply swallowed and discarded entire categories of mail sent from outside.
I both know what happened to the day, and don't, but won't go into the details.
The bottom line is that I wasn't doing what I thought I'd be doing, so the
final edit has to wait a day or so. Another issue I must address is to check
on recent version changes in some of the software and sites I refer to. In
at least a few cases I'll need different screen captures, methinks.
The fine weather continues and the forecast still looks good.
Colder. The leaves are beginning to turn autumn colors. Forecast is for rain
in a day or two. Sigh...
Nothing special to post today, and I have to focus on other things. More
another day.
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new
facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them. -- Sir William
Bragg
Busy with book edits and optimization issues in the wiki code. Too tired
by the end of the day to post anything. It rained most all day...
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --
Seneca
Still wet and cloudy, but not quite as cold, and the rain seems to have stopped
for now. Busy with book edits. Investigating some interesting perl functions
that I find I know too little about.
To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be
ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events
is woven with those of earlier times? -- Marcus Tullius Cicero
As far as I'm concerned, the bank system "bluescreened" today. (Please reboot.)
I had various errands (end of month), and I had also a check for about three
hundred pounds UK (say 400 US dollars) -- a so-called "Eurocheck", which
is/was supposed to be the medium of preference for payments to individuals
within Europe. As good as cash in the bank...
Well, now, I walked into the local branch where I could deposit the amount,
after conversion, into an appropriate account. I figured it was going to
cost me an "ouch" of fee to do so, but at least the pound is at an all-time
high against the Swedish Crown.
Oh sorry, gee, we don't do that. Say what? We don't cash
foreign checks. What "foreign"? This is supposed to be a Eurocheck,
convertible in any European country! No, we haven't accepted any foreign
checks at all for years. (Which statement is a bald-faced lie, because
I've done this several times a year, most recently last spring.) I was astounded,
but on the off-chance that it was just this branch being awkward/incompetent,
I took the trouble to go to another bank altogether that was nearby, only
to get the same response: No Swedish bank will touch foreign checks any
more!
As I had an errand at one of the remaining post offices, I also ask there,
waving the check. No, the post office doesn't handle checks (they used to,
once), but the banks...? Oh, not? The lady was as surprised as I was. I was
handed off to a senior official who expressed equal surprise, but was very
helpful and offered the advice that if I had a "postgiro account" I could
probably send the check to Stockholm to have the amount deposited in my giro
account. (This I knew, since I've also done this regularly in the past, but
I thanked her nonetheless.) Please confirm that, I ask,
before I send it. So the lady took the fifteen minutes or so
that it required to put through a call to someone in the know at the postgiro
in Stockholm. She returned with essentially the same information as before,
that all Swedish banks, and the postgiro, have stopped processing foreign
checks, even Eurochecks, permanently. We both wondered aloud how an
individual is supposed to receive cash transfers from abroad. "Wiring" to
a specified bank account can easily end up costing more than the amount
transferred, or at least taking a totally unreasonable cut at both ends.
(Even with "optimized routing", it has cost me at least 50 US dollars per
transfer of book advances for example.)
So much for the land of closed doors and lost opportunities...
Until this interlude, book editing had progressed well and the TR comments
and suggestions mesh well with the changes I was making. There's a longish
passage comparing various clones and other collaborative tools that I'm less
happy with however, and I have to try a few alternative ways of presenting
this without tearing up the surrounding structure too much.
The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having
it, to confess your ignorance. -- Confucius
The day brightened up considerably and the sun brought up temperatures to
around 21C -- summer? Almost. I didn't get out much, however, because we're
trying to re-organize the home a bit before our house-warming party tomorrow.
Cleaning, moving some furniture about, shifting the last of the won't-use-now
stuff into the basement. And shopping -- mustn't forget to buy food for the
weekend...
In the midst of all this, and a dozen telephone calls (on two lines), comes
the fix-it caretaker. Hooray! We've had collected a shortlist of things that
needed "urgent" to "soon" attention and have been wondering when our calls
for someone to come look at them would be answered. Unusually enough, Mr
FixIt turned out to be Ms. Pleasant and helpful, but unfortunately
she lacked some of the parts, and a few fixes needed a professional plumber.
Oh well, at least they're on to it now.
All this of course meant that not much edit-review got done, though I could
deal with some side issues and email. One message was from reader Ric Frost,
apropos the banking story, yesterday:
Read about your problems trying to cash a "foreign" check. Here's an
idea to check out:
http://www.e-gold.com/
It's a bit of a pain to fund an account and (obviously) not many people
accept it yet, but it is an option for person-to-person, cross-border funds
transfers without the fees and hassles of banks or wire transfers.
Ric
Interesting, but not convinced that e-metal schemes like this will catch
on. Point is that a "good" payment system means ubiquitous, easy (transparent)
to use, and acceptable anywhere. So far, only check, cash, card, and
brownie-points have over time come close to these ideals.
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady
purpose -- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Tonight is very mild, like early August...
For unknown reasons, I lost sync with weekdays somewhere...
Gary M. Berg wrote:
I know there's a time difference between the US and Europe, but I think
you must be practicing your prognostication skills or something. Blimey
<G>. Are you going to compare the day you have to the one you wrote
<G>?
which gives me hope that some people are still reading all this, at least
some of the time :)
More on Monday.
