Anxious parents

I can imagine that doctors and nurses in childrens hospitals must have fun classifying, poking fun at, and complaining about the parents of their patients. I feel a bit like an anxious parent with my laptop in hospital. I delivered it yesterday to Bits Computers a couple of miles south of here, to see if they could resuscitate it. In the telephone quote, it was suggested that even taking the hard drive out and putting into another machine for a check-disk might be all that it takes, but that they'd do that and some extra diagnostics, and if necessary reinstall windows etc.

And that's how it turned out. As the boss and I discussed genealogy, plug-and-play, and dip switches, I watched the other fellow take the drive out, check it, plug it in again, and after one cycle of going through the repair screen, it booted normally. Operation successful, but they convinced me to leave it there overnight for further observation and to do the additional diagnostics etc. I was feeling much happier, of course, having seen evidence of all being well - or at least satisfactory.

The phone call this morning suggested that there may still be a problem - not sure whether hardware or software, but there have been a couple of BSODs. They said they'd keep looking into it through the day, and get back to me. It's nice that they only charge me for the time they actually spend on my system. Given that there are many machines in there at any time, they can leave all the slow operations (installs, check disk) going on one computer while they work on another one. They seem pretty competent, knowledgable, and well equipped. From what I've seen and heard, I'd recommend Bits Computers if you have a computer problem near Malvern.

The library's about to close, so let me just mention:

• Ninth Island Pinot Noir 2005 (yes, it's Australian, but was on special at the supermarket, and they were offering tastings, so I felt I had to). Certainly inoffensive, slips down easily, but nothing much to it.

• St Joseph (Northern Rhone) Syrah. Pretty good - only medium bodied, but at least this one tastes like a shiraz - even if it is a bit watery.

I have been working (from home) on a paper for work, about using eonomic models to compare security architectures. I guess the Pareto Principle applies, implying that such work is never finished, but asymptotically approaches finality. I must need to lower my standards by at least Ɛ if I want to finish.

Stephanie and I went for our first bike rides today. I went for 15 minutes around a few of the blocks at lunchtime. Then (as Wednesday is a day Stephanie gets home in daylight) we found our way across the railway bridge, along a little path, and onto a circular-ish street. Not very far, but several stops.

We're expecting some cold weather tonight: down to -5C locally through England and Wales over the next 2 days, and then milder on the weekend, with some precipitation. I assume it won't be snow, but maybe there's a chance...