I’m unpicking a laptop problem that’s been around for a little while but has decided to make itself big, bad and painful. It comes not from Windows but from Intel’s PRO/Wireless Transport service which, the deeper I get in to the problem and the closer I get to the cause, appears to suck big black donkey balls.
Thought 1: Why is it that some companies (you might think Intel and HP as starters, I couldn’t possibly comment) are unable to write good drivers for their products?
I have my ‘old’ laptop to play with, whilst I’m performing the equivalent of open heart surgery on the Windows operating system on my usual piece of hardware; so I’m not isolated from the tech environment.
Thought 2: I wonder how my morning bowl of Shreddies would taste if made – not with milk, but instead with – a Chocolate Fudge Brownie Frijj? Delicious or No Delicious?
I’m beginning to wonder why I decided to be all clever and intricate and burrow deep inside the software to find the offender and try to fix the problem, instead of taking the blunt approach of formatting the hard-disk and reinstalling everything from new. Sense of technical pride maybe.
Thought 3: If I don’t get a move on the laptop isn’t going to be ready for Studio duties which would defer the weekend’s podcast. Oh hell.
It is, it has to be said, pretty damn boring trawling through someone else’s code, line by line, looking for the howling error. It is also worrying (but not too surprising) that an organisation such as Intel has insufficient QA processes which allow buggy drivers out in to the world. I’m now remembering why I gave up being a Unix nerd.
Thought 4: I couldn’t help noticing a little story in today’s Daily Mail online, during a cup of tea and crumpet break, about a small Devonshire town which is, alledgedly, subjected to a daily invasion of Driving Schools. The thing worth pointing out to your friends in the pub tonight is that one commenter – the horribly nicknamed ‘RAM, London’ – said: ‘WHY NOT CHOOSE ROADS WHERE MPS LIVE !!!!!!!’ (that’s RAM’s own words, capitalisation, spacing and punctuation. This might be a fair indicator of the typical Daily Mail online reader/commenter)
But the weirdly funny thing is… just how many MPs does RAM, London imagine live in Clyst St Mary, Devonshire? Because that’s the point, isn’t it? The driving instructors are using local test routes, yes? What would be the point of a bunch of learner-drivers from the Exeter area, pootling up the A303 to cruise around the streets of Greater London in the hope of finding some previously unknown ghetto of MPs? I fear for RAM London’s mental state. And indeed mental ability.
My old laptop – an IBM R31 ThinkPad – has been with me since before Pontius got his Wings. Its total hard-disk capacity is 18.6Gb which, in this day and age, is pretty pathetic really. I’m using it as a MySql database testbed; I’ve been writing SELECT statements, creating tables, dropping tables, writing inner/outer join queries and making UPDATE statements against a ripe old clutch of test data for the last few weeks. It’s not up to much, bless it, but it has the sweetest keyboard ever and it’s a good old bus as far as being a test-bed goes.
Thought 5: How good is tea and crumpets? Food of the Gods or food for the Gods? Either way, pretty damn good.
My current laptop – the Dell – has a clunky keyboard that feels insubstantial, but it has a huge hard-disk, a hyped clock speed/quad processor and a massive amount of RAM that combine to give performance that is exceptional. I just wish the keyboard felt as good as the one on my IBM.
Thought 6: Is it time for another cup of tea? It’s thirsty work all this code crun… Aha! Not wishing to sound too much like Alan Partridge there but this looks promising. Laterz.