Between blotch and blok

O rly?

Ya rly.

When the second Trojan of the year hit last night, just after the Windows updates installed, I read up its features and those of related Trojans. Some of these messed with files with particular extensions: .doc, .xls,...

Phew, I thought. The last thing I do before submitting OU work is change from OpenOffice formats and extensions to MS Office. And back up manually (there's a daily task that runs automatically too) beforehand. So, hooray for open source. And hooray for the fact I hardly have any files with any extensions, let alone MS ones, sitting on the laptop at all. Mainly Framemaker files, actually.

My stuff's in:

• LiveJournal
• Google Docs
• Del.icio.us
• LibraryThing
• Mindmeister
• Ravelry
• formatpixel
• Twitter...

Backed up at:

• Storegate
• Box
• Google Mail...

I can, and do, read my mail via a web interface when away from home.

OK, if the information's really sensitive, it's backed up on other media at home. But, mainly....

And, yes, it's irritatingly not fully integrated, and TagsAhoy isn't quite there yet. And that's not integrated with tag2find. And I want my tags consistent (phrasal tags, eh, del.icio.us? even lj does that).

And, yes, for many and generally silly reasons I've more than one ID on those sites. One day, I'll rationalize, maybe.

No, I don't have a task list, calendar and scheduler anywhere except in paper diaries, paper calendar on the wall and daily todo lists on small squares of paper. Paper's still amazingly neat technology. Possibly the best gadget in the world (ever tried launching an aeroplane carefully folded from your latest electronic outpouring?).

Address book? Paper, too. (Ring bound for longevity.)

But, yeah, there ought to be a lot of empty space on my hard drive. So why was I still monitoring the AV sweep at 3.00 am this morning?

Bah! I do so hate missing out on full marks by that close a margin!

No, actually, I'm pleased. And now I'm off to think about more of the second part of the course.

Law 0: A robot shall beware of the cat!

Yup, we've built Pedro, Looby Loo and I, with Biggle, who:

• sat in the box lid
• sat on the instructions we didn't need
• sat on the instructions we did need
• sat on the sorted pieces
• sat on my lap on top of the pieces I was sorting
• chased Looby Loo's fingers during construction.

But Pedro is built and the motor's have been fired up sufficiently to flatten the rechargeable batteries. So, it's tomorrow evening for downloading firmware....

[At least the IR tower installed OK.]

So whilst each word separately was inadequate drivel, the total was enough. 1/36 of a BSc (hons) achieved.

Also wedding anniversary, something in mid-teens, but the exact numbers escaped both of us this morning.