The good news is that the printer now works with the desktop with XP on it. It had all sorts of not-workingness going on before, and absolutely refused to work. But, thanks to necessity (see the bad news), I had to get it to work, so a little googling later, I discovered a way that might just fix the damn thing. Luckily, I have a copy of the drivers already downloaded from the Lexmark website - they don’t seem to have them there any more for such old printers as the X75. They just want to brag about their shiny new wireless printers. I followed the instructions, and lo and behold, it worked. I will have to remember to write that up on my tips page so I can do it again, if need be.

The bad news is the reason why I had to unplug the printer from the craptop. Let me explain why I am making such a fuss about unplugging the printer from the craptop: it is because despite it being plug ‘n’ play, if the printer is unplugged from the craptop, it refuses to work when you plug it back in again; you have to uninstall the driver and reinstall it. However, I had no choice about the matter, because I needed to print something off, but I seem to have done something bad to the craptop. It now only wants to run a limited version of GRUB.

I cleaned the bathroom sink today, including the taps.

Later, I went to wash my hands, and noticed before I turned it on that the hot tap was dripping a bit. I washed my hands, then turned the tap off. The water still kept coming out at a steady trickle. I turned it off really really tightly, but to no avail. I turned it on and off again, but it was worse. I called to the Hubster, and he turned the tap on loads, then tried to turn it off, but now the water was quite happily gushing out and didn’t want to stop.

T’riffic.

We didn’t want the whole of the hot water tank to empty out, so we hunted for a tap to stop it with. There was such a tap in the airing cupboard. That did the trick. It’s alright for Colin, who can take a shower at work – and has been doing so for a couple of weeks or so now, what with him having taken up his running in the morning to work instead of in the evening when he gets back home. But what about me? I work at home.

T’riffic.

I’ve just read this, about a girl who insists on wearing jewellery at school. She’s a Sikh, and wears a bangle to remind her to “do good and not bad with her hands”. Are Sikhs unable to remember that without said bracelet? Apparently, its purpose means it is not a piece of jewellery. The school rules say the only jewellery that may be worn at school are plain stud earrings and a wristwatch, so in my book, she’s breaking the rules.

Apparently, the bracelet is one of five articles of Sikh faith, known as the five K’s. One of these K’s is a kirpan ’silver sword’. Surely, if she wins the fight to wear the bracelet, she should be able to take a silver sword to school with her as well?

I say make all schools secular, ban all religious items - especially swords! - and teach theology and philosophy of religion objectively for educational reasons, rather than making pupils pray to a god they may or may not believe in. Surely, if you pray insincerely to a god you don’t believe in, it’s blasphemy or something, right?

If people were taught about the major religions objectively, and thought about why religion exists, there might be a bit more tolerance and understanding between them all.

I broke the Internet when I was messing with the WebCam earlier. There was a USB problem, so I stopped unplugged the wireless thing, which is plugged into a USB port. It totally refused to work again, after that. I rebooted the computer, did ipconfig things in the command prompt. All sorts (no, not liquorice). I found the CD that came with the wireless thing, and used it to reinstall the thing. Several times. The monitor claimed that it was in contact with the access point, but that the access point was not connected to the Internet. Such lies. The laptop accessed the Internet quite happily, using the same access point.

After the computer bluescreened and rebooted, I reinstalled the wireless thing again, this time leaving it plugged in - it says to have it unplugged before you install the software. Magically, it worked, although it still claims not to be able to see the Internet.

You heard it here first: bluescreens are not the kiss of death they once were…

Teeth. Vet. Anaesthetic. Groggy. Improving.

I don’t think you are meant to get them wet after all.

Oops.

Elevated homocysteine is linked to B-12 deficiency, so doctors should test homocysteine levels to see whether the patient needs vitamins.

Ooh, bad girl. That’s breaking patent laws, quoting that. So sue me.

Source: New York Times via Language Log.