The Work of the Devil?
Topic: Terrorism
What terrible events in Madrid this morning with nearly 200 people killed by the bombs left in commuter trains. My sister and her children and grandchildren live in Madrid, so I feel closer to the Spanish people in their grief. What on earth makes a human being become a terrorist? A war I can understand but to target people indiscrimately by blowing up anyone unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time seems to me to be the work of the Devil.

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Have a Chuckle!
Mood:  silly
Topic: Miscellanea
Hubby heard this on the radio today. Go to Google and type in 'Weapons of mass destruction'. Click on 'I'm Feeling Lucky'. Smile - You'll get a funny 404 error page! If you follow the links, don't spend too much money!

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Redesigning My Home Page
Topic: My Web Pages
Finally managed to get back to working on my web pages last week. What with yet another horrible chesty cold in February, plus my back injury, I hadn't done any real work on my computer since 19th December 2003! Trying to redesign my front page in line with the suggestions from Practical Internet Web Designer magazine. Removing most of the distracting animations and trying to tone down the backgrounds! When I first started writing web pages, I used 'tables' as boxes to hold everything together and to keep images where I wanted them so I think I will have to keep those. Also, used <td>s to create double borders. However, trying to get rid of some of the 'tables' inside 'tables' and use more cascading style sheets. Gradually getting my head round more of the intricacies of css but my old brain is aching!

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A Strange Dream
Topic: Miscellanea
Had a very strange dream about a futuristic airshow going on over our back garden! Lots of strange aircraft passing by in formation - some really huge. Very interesting. I think I must be watching too many episodes of "Stargate SG1"! (It's a great show!).

And How To Keep Your Customers Happy
Never did get a reply from Freecom about my Traveller. After a week, I emailed them again to say I would appreciate an answer. Got a reply very quickly asking me to resend the original information. Wrote again on 11th. Given up now. Very rude of them not to reply, it would have only taken a couple of minutes or less to send a email saying 'sorry, unable to replace your machine as out of guarantee'.

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Problem with Identities
Topic: Computer
More computer problems. Since Thursday, couldn't download any emails to my Inbox although I could view them on MailWasher! Also too many spam emails not bouncing back because of false addresses. It occurred to me that all this bouncing doubles the problem of spam clogging the airwaves or whatever they are and I wondered if my account might have been locked because of all the returning spam. Also, I think the bouncing caused at least two emails I know of, both from family, to be returned to sender marked 'unable to deliver'. Will set MailWasher to just delete. Should really replace my laptop. The on/off switch broke in the summer of 2002 and I use the 'Quick Launch' button to switch on. This means that each time the computer hangs, I have to resort to poking the little hole on the side of the machine to reboot. Anyway, I digress. Noticed that the boxes for incoming and outgoing mail were greyed out on Account Properties so tried creating a new account only to get a message telling me my password was wrong. (It wasn't). So, Saturday rang Freeserve Customer Support. Everything working now except my identity now downloads mail sent to my husband's identity. I'm now putting the blame on Freeserve. I think they must have changed things on the server because my old system of sorting mail to different identities (by putting "-john:-grandpa:+myusername" on my identity) no longer works. So, it was probably that filter system which suddenly stopped any mail downloading to my side.

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Aching!
Topic: Health Issues
Saw the Doctor today after an uncomfortable weekend - driving up to my sister's on Saturday for a family get-together in honour of Baby Andrew probably didn't help. It was last Wednesday when I hurt my back again trying to force the Whirligig Clothes Line up when it was stuck. Anyway, it appears that I have snapped or torn a tendon on one of my thoracic vertebrae (I heard something go 'pop' at the time!). Probably weakened it when I hurt my back last December. A real nuisance. It seems to be affecting my ribs and intercostal muscles on the right side which are very sore. Sigh...

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Rang the Support Hotline
Topic: Computer
Well, I have spent a few days uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers for the Freecom Traveller CD Writer; uninstalled and reinstalled Easy CD and Direct CD. Downloaded a new driver from the Freecom Website and tried that. Tried a complete uninstall using Add/Remove Programs and reinstalled the driver and the software. All to no avail. Lost count of the number of reboots! So, yesterday, I rang the Support Hotline. Went through exactly the same procedure of adding and removing drivers, etc., etc.! The Technician eventualy decided that the problem was the Traveller itself and not the driver. "We no longer repair these units. How long have you had it?". I explained that the Traveller was a present (from my son and my daughter for my 60th birthday) and that my son had installed it on my computer exactly two years and one day before all this happened. Did I have the receipt? I didn't - I told 'Will' that I thought it likely that my son had bought it in December 2001. Emailed David. Yes, he had the receipt, he bought it on 7th December 2001. Rang Technician Will again: "Send us an email explaining everything as I don't have the authority to give you a replacement and I will have to pass it on to my manager". He seemed quite hopeful. Fingers crossed.

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Problems with CD Writer
Topic: Computer
Aaaarrrggggh! Been having trouble with the computer hanging a lot recently and going into "Safe Mode" and now I seem to have trashed my external cd writer. I was trying to access a folder on the cd when everything froze so I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del. Now Drive E has disappeared and I am getting a message that there is "No supported CD-R/CD-RW drive".

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Site Overhaul
Topic: My Web Pages
Very pleased to see that my website has been featured in this month's Practical Internet Web Designer (Issue 89). I had originally written to the 'Design Doctor' in late September 2003, hoping for some advice and/or tips. The Editor contacted me in mid November to explain that the Design Doctor had been put out to pasture and was I interested in having a professional Web designer giving my site an overhaul in the new 'Site SOS' section! Agreed with some trepidation! Heard no more until I opened my January magazine! They have made some very helpful comments and their suggested design for my home page made me realise that the initial screen should contain some relevant information and links to jump down the page. (Not just a 'Welcome' and a photo!). I liked their suggested page background with bands across a photograph. However, they have not told me how to achieve this effect. Will have to experiment in Paint Shop Pro!

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Isn't he cute?
Topic: Grandchildren

Went up to London today to say 'hello' to baby Andrew. He seems to have reddish hair and is an absolutely gorgeous and super little chap. We fell in love with him immediately! And his Mum and Dad are so proud of him! Of course, he spent most of the time sleeping but we all got a cuddle. Poor Shelley is still suffering but looks radiant.

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