Maru's Mun Journal

Because I was fed up, I googled "hangouts sucks want old google talk client back", and the first answer it gave me had a link to the direct download path for GTalk as I have been loving and using it for years.

So, deactivate hangouts in Chrome, close and/or restart Chrome, then install that! Works even under Windows 8 and will enable me to chat with my most immediate Millifolken and the Nazgul while still not being on AIM for general conversations.-

This has been a public service announcement.-

... be totally unpredictable!

So, today we had one of the biggest solar flares in months, an M-class one that made an actual DENT in the Earth's magnetic field this noon my time -- according to my friend and colleague who used to be 'japanologist' on LJ but didn't come with to Dreamwidth, as his personal blog is on tumblr anyway -- I digress.

Anyway, solar flare.

Quite a number of computers at our work was going crazy around noon that time, and he was all 'WHY THE FECKING HELL DO ALL THE COMPUTERS CONK OUT AT ME TODAY!!11??!!!elebenty-one!?!???!!!' complete with the allcaps for a bit, and then he found out about increased sunspots and flares in 2013, and there having been a big one just now.

So, knowing my iffy electronics, I was worried that my psychotic miccrowave might really have bought it this time (the software on the embedded system it contains sometimes spontaneously goes random, and then the microwave does strange thing until it suddenly decides it had enough and turns back to normal), and the dreaded Alice, who keels over at the slightest provocation, would probably drop her pants at once and not get up again properly for the rest of the week.

Well, nothing of the sort happened.

When I got home, they were both fine and dandy; nothing to see here.

Real randomness includes spontaneously not malfunctioning when there is a great good reason to, it seems.

This is the famous and much-reviled Alice, the 'character' meant to symbolise my ISP. The model herself has been retired from the campaign after it was found out she had bonked some Gaddhafi sons, but Alice will always be Alice, and she is a damn bitch...

My ISP is playing dead/truant again tonight, and my emergency mobile dongle is SLOWWWWWW, so I think I'll give up trying to get online in any sensible way, and go to bed to read something.

**sighs**

I've been transferred to another hospital for something else to be done to me before I get shipped off to the rehab place; and here, my mobile 'broadband' connection is very slow, using only EDGE instead of HSUPA, which doesn't reach everywhere yet.

So, if you see less of me, that is the reason -- I am fighting with a very slow connection.

Also, I have two old ladie in my room who talk to each other, the same things over and over and over. I really hope to get out of here soon. So, thanks to idylchild for the virtual chicken soup -- I really need it, to get well enough to flee as soon as I can.

testing testing is this thing on??

What. The. Efff!! I don't even...

I mean, I tame computers for a living, but these are error messages I've never seen before, and I'm online and in this business since 1995. There probably are muns in Milliways that weren't even born then.

But '412 precondition failed'??

Never seen that in my life.

Oh LJ, you fail so hard right now...

Sorry to everybody I haven't been answering -- it seems that my email has been eating notifs for a while.

I changed it over to Gmail as well now, so if I have been ignoring a prompt or meme, just comment here?

Thanks!

IJ is down; according to essayel, it didn't come back up from its usual scheduled maintenance at 11.30 GMT this morning.

Just in case anybody is wondering.-


Aaaand as of midnight my time, it's back! Woo-hoo!

Tumblr is down!

There were some error messages about maintenance this morning, and then it went away completely and hasn't been back for at least four hours.

I'm sure it wasn't scheduled that way.

Sounds more as if they took it down for that maintenance and now can't get it up any more.

**sends Viagra**