Monday

[lizwilliams]

There is a most unseemly pre-Beltane display on the opposite roof, plus the seagull equivalent of "Oh YES YES YES!" I have had to avert my gaze.

I have been up to London today, and am now back. The new laptop enjoyed its Big Day Out, though it died in East Croydon. Who can blame it? I also got to see the inside of the e-Govt building, with its Tarzanesque indoor jungle. Geoff R informs me that the plashing fountains used to boast an inflatable rubber frog, but someone insisted they get rid of it. Bureaucrats.

Otherwise the city is foul: lost in the April murk. I have decided that the Williams wardrobe has become too Bohemian of late, so at Victoria I honed my combat shopping skills and in that emporium of style* bought a new suit in 15 minutes: black, with a ribbon tie, for those who care about such things.

Thanks to the iBook, I have cranked out 2K today and am still going. Writing group in Reigate tonight.

*OK, Dorothy Perkins.

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Suggestions for stretching battery life on the road:

1. If out of range of a WiFi source, switch off the Airport. (The Airport menu in your menu bar lets you do this, and it adds about 10-20% to your battery life.)

2. Dim the screen. (fn + brightness button will do this.) If you take it down to one notch above zero brightness (which switches off the backlight completely, making it unusable) you'll add about an hour to your machine's mobile life.

3. Go into "System Preferences". Select "Energy Saver". Hit on the pop-up menu labelled "Settings for" and choose "Battery power". Ensure that you've ticked the box for "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible". Click on "Options" and make sure you've set the "Processor Performance" popup to "Reduced".

If you do none of the above, experience suggests your battery life should be around 3 hours 30 minutes. If you apply all these settings, you can nurse your machine along for up to 5 hours 30 minutes with a new battery.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! Thanks for this. Will give it a go.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

You may also find that after a while the battery doesn't seem to want to recharge past 90% or so. If this happens, run it down until flat and recharge all the way to full, and the problem should go away.

MC

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Well, I see your Shagging Seagulls and raise you Gang-Banging Ducks.

We've got a flock of about sixty at work, who colonised the drainage pond years ago and show no sign of leaving - no doubt because my receptionist gives them a bowl of cracked corn every day. For some reason though, the sex ratio is skewed about 3:1 in favour of males, leading to some exceptionally unseemly behaviour at this time of year.

Usually just outside my office when I'm entertaining important visitors...

MC

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

My turtles, or more accurately my male turtle, attempt this behavior frequently. I say "attempt" because Dymphna is usually uninterrested, since G'Kwan's mating technique involves picking a fight with her first. Fortunately, though, they're very quiet about it all.