Where’s Trollheart with his rimshot when you need him...

Sorry I was in the can.
https://frinkiac.com/img/S06E25/1173555.jpg
A Farewell to Kings is better...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...l_to_Kings.jpg

@Frownland: Good to see George Orwell on your list of favourites: he should've been on mine too. His two big novels, 1984 and Animal Farm both deserve their reputation, while the lesser known Coming Up For Air is perhaps my personal favourite.
Virginia Woolf has always been a struggle for me, though I did once make it to the end of The Waves. I enjoyed reading The Hours by Michael Cunningham more than V Woolf in the original. Insider detail: For a year or so, I worked in an office right next door to where the Woolf's lived and opened the Hogarth Press: Hogarth House, 34 Paradise Road, Richmond. In this photo, the key details are in blue: a small round plaque, right of main entrance, that tells you that the house is famous, and the street sign on the far right that looks like it's touching the lower window of our office building:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...eg?imwidth=450

Between the 2 buildings: the entrance to a barely-visible footpath by which I arrived at work from the local railway station. (Hence the blue arrow.)

Thanks!
Yes, The Right Stuff is such a great insight into the early days of manned space flight. OH really liked it too.
Not by Tom Wolfe, but a book that gave me the same revelatory feeling of , "Aha! So that's how it all started" was Hackers by Steven Levy. Many of us know about Steve Jobs and co starting out in a garage, but Hackers takes you behind the scenes of the earlier, pioneering nerds on whose shoulders Jobs was standing.

:laughing: Like a lot of Jasper Carrot, it's both funny and true.

A curiosity about the dark side of human nature, I see, TH. I bet the Jimmy Saville one is interesting. I've read a few books of real-life horror too, notably Myra Hindley by Jean Ritchie. Recommended!

TBH, I wouldn't use the word "lovely" for a A Moveable Feast. As I read it, I went from disappointed to bored to irritated. Sorry, adidasss - perhaps I should give it another go.

This week's theme is computers.
And yes, it's another twelve-pack.

1. What sort of computer do you own (Laptop/Tablet/Desktop etc/Brand/specs if you want/general description)?

2. How long, roughly, have you had some sort of a computer?

3. What do you use your computer for, mostly?

4. How often, if at all, do you upgrade/replace your system?

5. If you had the money, what's one thing you would replace on your computer?

6. Roughly, how many hours a day do you spend staring at that screen?

Over here, mate! Another round for this table...

7. Name three applications you really can't do without on your computer?

8. What was the first ever operating system you used?

9. Generally, do you buy from a shop/seller or build yourself?

10. What is, in your opinion, the most useless piece of software on your computer?

11. What was the most valuable (to you) data wiped from your hard disk, either by a sudden crash, virus or power failure, or whatever?

12. If you could digitise yourself and go into a game, what character would you be?

1. What sort of computer do you own (Laptop/Tablet/Desktop etc/Brand/specs if you want/general description)?

I own laptops, a tablet, a desktop - Macbook Pro, iMac 27'' 5K, a couple Linux laptops, and a Windows desktop computer.

2. How long, roughly, have you had some sort of a computer?

Probably since I was 3. I grew up playing Carnivores 2 and Titanic Adventure Out of Time

3. What do you use your computer for, mostly?

In terms of time spent? Work. Other than that, general internet browsing to satisfy my intellectual curiosity, listening to music, making house mixes, spinning up VMs and labbing, etc.

4. How often, if at all, do you upgrade/replace your system?

Once every 5 years

5. If you had the money, what's one thing you would replace on your computer?

I wouldn't replace anything, I'd just buy a newer one.

6. Roughly, how many hours a day do you spend staring at that screen?

Probably around 12 hours.

7. Name three applications you really can't do without on your computer?

Vim, Brave, and rekordbox.

8. What was the first ever operating system you used?

Windows 98.

9. Generally, do you buy from a shop/seller or build yourself?

I've built before but I'm too lazy to do it often. So, the former.

10. What is, in your opinion, the most useless piece of software on your computer?

Dropbox.

11. What was the most valuable (to you) data wiped from your hard disk, either by a sudden crash, virus or power failure, or whatever?

Probably the creative non-fiction paper I wrote for one of my philosophy classes. It was the greatest thing I've ever written, 25 pages or so, and I wrote all of it completely wasted. Alcohol brings out the Hunter S. Thompson in me. I remember distinctly writing about the United States' Operation Menu bombings as I was drinking bourbon in my dorm room and ****-talking with my buddies. And around 3am, I had enough - and had to stumble my way down the hall into the shared dorm bathrooms to chuck up my dinner.


12. If you could digitise yourself and go into a game, what character would you be?

Duke Nukem, of course.

1. What sort of computer do you own (Laptop/Tablet/Desktop etc/Brand/specs if you want/general description)?
An Asus laptop
2. How long, roughly, have you had some sort of a computer?
I've had a laptop of my own since I went to university, when I was in high school my family shared two laptops between the three of us
3. What do you use your computer for, mostly?
Work, music, this forum, films, miscalleneous Internet time-wasting activities
4. How often, if at all, do you upgrade/replace your system?
What does that even mean
5. If you had the money, what's one thing you would replace on your computer?
What
6. Roughly, how many hours a day do you spend staring at that screen?
Since corona it's like 10 or something on a weekday

7. Name three applications you really can't do without on your computer?
Um, Internet, video player software, and ms paint for the memes
8. What was the first ever operating system you used?
Lol idk. The earliest I recall using myself is Windows xp
9. Generally, do you buy from a shop/seller or build yourself?
Do I look like someone who can build a computer?
10. What is, in your opinion, the most useless piece of software on your computer?
No idea, I ignore the useless bits
11. What was the most valuable (to you) data wiped from your hard disk, either by a sudden crash, virus or power failure, or whatever?

When I was in my late teens/early 20s I wanted to write a comic book. I had one notebook with character and space designs etc. and a file on my laptop where I wrote the thing before drawing it. It was still at an early-ish stage but I had quite a large file with lots of ideas when my laptop crashed. I gave up on it after that but I still feel bad about it
12. If you could digitise yourself and go into a game, what character would you be?
I don't know anything about game characters

1. What sort of computer do you own (Laptop/Tablet/Desktop etc/Brand/specs if you want/general description)?

Custom-built Linux graphic design / media server / IT workstation / digital media archive, ASUS Nexus 7 tablet and Android cell for portable media server access points, and a Chromebook with a custom skin for when I write articles at the local cafe on the weekends.

2. How long, roughly, have you had some sort of a computer?

In 1990 I had a Magnavox 386SX 20MHz PC with 640k of RAM and an 80MB HDD.

3. What do you use your computer for, mostly?

Working from home, graphic design, media server, blogging.

4. How often, if at all, do you upgrade/replace your system?

I build a new tower roughly every five years, but this latest build is highly-expandable and should last me longer with periodic upgrades.

5. If you had the money, what's one thing you would replace on your computer?

I need to add another 20TB of disk space. I've researched the best deals and am just waiting for the price to drop a bit on my ideal drive. I have a little room left so there’s no rush just yet.

6. Roughly, how many hours a day do you spend staring at that screen?

12 hours daily.

7. Name three applications you really can't do without on your computer?

My media server, a graphical front end for rsync, and the desktop virtualization software I use to work from home.

8. What was the first ever operating system you used?

MS-DOS 5.0.

9. Generally, do you buy from a shop/seller or build yourself?

I always build. It's half the cost of buying pre-built, I can fully-customise my hardware, and scalability saves me even more cash in the long run.

10. What is, in your opinion, the most useless piece of software on your computer?

That's one of the benefits of Linux - most distros are bloatware-free and more often than not if you don't need something you can remove it.

11. What was the most valuable (to you) data wiped from your hard disk, either by a sudden crash, virus or power failure, or whatever?

I once had a laptop overheat and freeze in the middle of my public premiere of my experimental film. That was awful. I know better now and can take measures to ensure that never happens again.

I also had the great misfortune of attending university for graphic design in the incredibly narrow window of time that Iomega Zip disks were a thing. The technology suffered from an inevitable click of death and disks would just stop working if you looked at them funny.

https://i.imgur.com/MT1ulsdl.jpg

12. If you could digitise yourself and go into a game, what character would you be?

William J. Blazkowicz II / Billy Blaze aka Commander Keen from the old shareware game series by id Software in 1990-91. That's really the last time I tried my hand at gaming.

I did pick up a 6,666 game ROM set archive years back of all titles for every system ranging from the Commodore 64 to all North American and Japanese arcade releases on up to the 16-bit gen systems, but I never really got into them.

MS-DOS classics are more my cup of tea.

https://i.imgur.com/9pblsJQl.png

1. What sort of computer do you own (Laptop/Tablet/Desktop etc/Brand/specs if you want/general description)?

A silver laptop.

2. How long, roughly, have you had some sort of a computer?

Shared a family computer starting at 8, moved onto my own at 17.

3. What do you use your computer for, mostly?

****in around

4. How often, if at all, do you upgrade/replace your system?

When it breaks.

5. If you had the money, what's one thing you would replace on your computer?

A better computer.

6. Roughly, how many hours a day do you spend staring at that screen?

Hella.

7. Name three applications you really can't do without on your computer?

Chrome, Spotify, ableton

8. What was the first ever operating system you used?

I was a kid.

9. Generally, do you buy from a shop/seller or build yourself?

I do the mining and make the parts all on my own.

10. What is, in your opinion, the most useless piece of software on your computer?

I delete the bloatware so idk

11. What was the most valuable (to you) data wiped from your hard disk, either by a sudden crash, virus or power failure, or whatever?

Hours of recordings lost when I dropped my laptop.

12. If you could digitise yourself and go into a game, what character would you be?

I would be myself.

1. What sort of computer do you own (Laptop/Tablet/Desktop etc/Brand/specs if you want/general description)?
Like Frownland, a laptop. Technical specification: black, with hinged lid

2. How long, roughly, have you had some sort of a computer?
Soundgarden's answer : since he was 3. My answer: since I was 50.

3. What do you use your computer for, mostly?
Work stuff, exploring/storing music, posting political rants on MB

4. How often, if at all, do you upgrade/replace your system?

My first compu was a second-hand grey desktop that I bought from the place I was working in. When that died, I bought my current laptop. So that's once every eight years, approx.

5. If you had the money, what's one thing you would replace on your computer?
To be honest, the words system, application, server and software are a bit of a blur to me, so I'm skipping those kinds of questions.

6. Roughly, how many hours a day do you spend staring at that screen?
Checking it today, I suspect about 6 or 7 hours :yikes:

11. What was the most valuable (to you) data wiped from your hard disk, either by a sudden crash, virus or power failure, or whatever?

Oh! Where are you now, Trish? We had some nice times together, and when you moved to America I spent an hour writing you a heartfelt email from an internet cafe. Then by accident I deleted it instead of sending it. I was so angry with that experience that our friendship expired then and there: I never did reply to your message. Sorry. :(

How can you not understand those two questions?
4. How often do you get a new computer or update it (new hard drive/monitor/memory whatever)
5. What would you like to replace on your computer (bigger hard drive, better memory, faster graphics card etc)...

AAAAAAAnyway.....



1. What sort of computer do you own (Laptop/Tablet/Desktop etc/Brand/specs if you want/general description)?

AMD Phenom II XS 2.8 GHz, 8 GB RAM desktop, Windows 10

2. How long, roughly, have you had some sort of a computer?

I'd say since about 1985, which would make it what, over 30 years? The very first computer I got had a CGA monitor (FOUR vibrant colours!) and no hard disk, in fact only a five-and-a-quarter inch floppy disk! Think it was an Amstrad.


3. What do you use your computer for, mostly?

Building walls of text. Also writing (lots of writing duh), research, making TV compilations for Karen to watch, Soulseek, Torrenting, Kindle reading, downloading porn I mean music, some small graphic stuff, Spotify and generally making a nuisance of myself in Cyberspace

4. How often, if at all, do you upgrade/replace your system?

Not as often as I used to. Maybe every 5 years or so.

5. If you had the money, what's one thing you would replace on your computer?

Hard to say. I would say disk space, as I always need disk space, but these days I just buy external drives, so I can't really consider that replacing anything. I reckon the RAM I have (8 gig) is about as good as Windows can work with so yeah, probably not much if anything really.

6. Roughly, how many hours a day do you spend staring at that screen?
Maybe 8 spread over the day

Over here, mate! Another round for this table...

7. Name three applications you really can't do without on your computer?

OpenOffice, Dropbox and Paint.NET

8. What was the first ever operating system you used?

MS DOS 5.0

9. Generally, do you buy from a shop/seller or build yourself?

I can't build systems. I used to have friends who would build them if I got the parts, but they were all inexplicably abducted by aliens on the very same day. At least, that's what I was told, and rumours that they were seen in a pub the next day discussing how great it was not to have to build PCs for that wanker anymore have never been proven. So yeah, I just buy a new one now.

10. What is, in your opinion, the most useless piece of software on your computer?

Cortana. I mean, who the **** wants to talk to their computer? Also Windows 10 search sucks a big one. Give me Win 7 back please.

11. What was the most valuable (to you) data wiped from your hard disk, either by a sudden crash, virus or power failure, or whatever?


An entire book on the science-fiction series Babylon 5. Worked on it for months, power failure, gone. Never to be recovered.

12. If you could digitise yourself and go into a game, what character would you be?

Why did I even write this question? I don't play computer games... :confused: