Monday, March 18, 2013


Overslept. In some haste, therefore.

The Socklady has a new spring picture up. Does that road sign warn of the danger of being crushed by a runaway lorry?

Thank you for the help with getting Mme Defarge into my iPad .pdf library. I greatly look forward to having a go. The first problem – see yesterday’s comments – is to get it into the iPad. I tried in vain to move it as an email attachment yesterday. Deborah’s suggestion of moving it temporarily into Dropbox is simple and brilliant. It sounds as if Judith’s idea of using iTunes as the bridge would work as well. (I used iTunes and synchronization a bit when I was a new iPad owner. Since then, I just feed my Kindle habit by visiting Amazon directly from the iPad.)

I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Technical

I wasted some of the little time I had this morning, googling on the question of whether I want an all-in-one computer. I learned that they don’t necessarily come as touchscreens, Mary Lou. I think the answer is no, on the grounds of cost, tempting as is the (wholly illusory) prospect of a life free of clutter.

The second day of the Toshiba went well. My husband hit a weird problem, presumably an OpenOffice blip: when he tried to insert text immediately after a footnote number, it appeared in miniscule letters and superscripted. Creating a space between the footnote number and the new text didn’t help. Obviously, there’s a hidden formatting code in there that we can’t get at. The work-around is to insert the new text one word further on, and then, working backwards, delete that word.

After 25 years of saving his work every evening and immediately copying it to an external disk, it’s a bit disconcerting for my husband just to save with a couple of keystrokes and then shut the lid. The work is automatically backed up not only to the cloud but to my desktop along the corridor, via Dropbox. And will be waiting, in the morning, at the point where he left off. He never has to see Windows 8 at all. (I’ve done away with the need for a password.)

Knitting

I finished the right-hand shoulder of the Relax last night. The instructions said to cut the yarn and leave the stitches on a holder. Later, they were to be three-needle-bound-off with the equivalent back shoulder. I thought I might as well do that right away, for several reasons. So I did. I’m not sure it’s a very neat job, but if it has to be repeated at least I’ve got the right length of yarn.

That left an object with one shoulder joined and no ball of yarn attached so I tried it on this morning. I’m not sure. Should it be bigger and easier as the designer intended? At this rate, even with Easter looming, I may well have it finished when we go to Loch Fyne next week. I am blessed with three possible Very Small knitting-recipients, Rachel’s daughters Hellie and Lizzie, and daughter-in-law Cathy. Cathy won’t be there, but Hellie and Lizzie will and I can see how it looks on one of them, with a lot more drape than it manages on me..

7 comments:

  1. The road sign in the SockLady's photo Is a common one in the Rocky Mountains. It alerts drivers of transport trucks (lorries), that the road has such a steep slope, the truck may gain so much sped on the downward side that it "runs away". It alerts the driver to gear down before he starts the descent. Very helpful for drivers of normal size vehicles too.

    Theses signs are usually followed by another common Rocky Mountain road sign - the "Runaway Lane" sign. An extra lane on the edge side of the road, that veers off to the side for 2 - 300 metres with a slight upward grade. If the "Lorry" does start to run away on a downward grade, the driver can drive up the Runaway lane to gain control of his rig.

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    1. Anonymous1:11 PM

      Also seen in the eastern US mountains. Our hills aren't as tall as the western ones, but can be just as steep.

      Beverly in NJ, Pennsylvania native.

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  2. If you link your Ravelry pattern library to GoodReader (easy instructions here: http://www.ravelry.com/wiki/pages/GoodReader ), patterns transfer at a touch. When you download the patterns on Rav, a bar comes up at the top of the screen saying "Open in GoodReader". If you miss the bar, it can be restored by tapping the top right of the screen. Just another example of Ravelry's awesomeness!

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  3. It is so good to hear that your husband is gaining competence with his laptop - what a good thing you have accomplished between you. It must be very good for your own anxiety levels.

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  4. Not only are the All in One computers expensive but all the USB cables hanging around mine and the CD/DVD drive popping out the side bother me. I bought one because in our multiple cat household one of the kitty litters had to be in the office. Kitty litter dust is very bad for computers sitting on the floor.

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  5. I like my all-in-one, but it is not a touch screen. Thanks for warning me so I checked it out discreetly, and didn't announce to the entire office that we had touchscreens. I had a Mac all in one at home for a long time and liked not having a tower. Now I have a laptop, keyboard and monitor. Just as much clutter, really.

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  6. I'm so happy that the laptop is working out better for your husband. The tool should be invisible for the job, not constantly pointing out its weaknesses.

    On the sign the Socklady posted, the number below the lorry is the percentage grade of the road.

    I hope that the "s" doesn't fall anymore so you can get to Strathardle soon.

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