Posts from September 2006

Tough week. Lots of driving to and from the bleak, industrial North. Lots of head scratching, pouring over computers and log files, talking to different people, all working together to try to fix a difficult, long standing, non-reproducible, high-profile problem.

Arrive home. After the emotional reunions, hugs and tears, I am immediately asked to fix a difficult problem that is (thankfully) reproducible. Son took advantage of my absence to buy another PC game. Game launches splash screen and immediately crashes.

PC meets minimum spec. Graphics card meets minimum spec. Lots of people have similar problems. Maybe they can't read books. Read FAQ. Upgrade graphics card to latest Nvidia drivers. That should do it. Still no joy.

Uninstall and reinstall game completely. Read interesting snippet in README that is presented post-installation.

The 4 year old GeForce2 MX400 card does not support Pixel Shader 1.1 (silly me) so this graphics card does not actually meet the minimum requirements.

Sigh. Uninstall game again. Turn off computer. Pray that son doesn't ask about the possibility of upgrading the graphics card.

Dear Red Lorry

You are a similar size to yellow lorry. You are a similar weight to yellow lorry. You have a similar size engine to yellow lorry.

When yellow lorry slows down going up an incline, the laws of physics mean that you are also likely to slow down. Consequently, there is little point attempting to overtake yellow lorry. Unless you shed your trailer or engage turbo boost mode, you will simply hog the middle lane. You may eventually pass yellow lorry on the flat after 17 minutes and 9.4 miles. Alternatively, you may have to abort the manoeuvre and lose face.

So please just sit behind yellow lorry and unwrap another man-size Yorkie.

Yours sincerely

Motor car