Jaque Thay's Blog, page 5

More computer trouble

It seems that I'm forever struggling with technology. I'm actually quite good with it but I can have awful luck. I use two computers at present; the primary is my second computer – and it has never functioned as it should. For the most part though, it functions. My secondary computer is a bare bones word processing machine. I bought it on impulse because a monitor came free with it… and I wanted a second monitor.

When I moved house my primary machine was one of the first things I set up and checked. Without it, and without an internet connection I'm cut off from the world. I rely on it for finding work, communicating on friends, watching DVDs. You name it and my computer does it. The secondary machine is of much less importance so although I moved into my flat nearly a month ago last night was the first time I switched it on… and it didn't work.

Now, as I previously said, I'm pretty good with technology. I have a fair grasp of what does what, and why. It's useful for my to know these things as they help colour my ability to understand written science-fiction and science-fact pieces – plus I enjoy learning. So, broken computer. I opened up the case, started prodding around and came to the conclusion that the hard drive had failed. Not a problem, I have an old spare strapped inside the case of my primary machine. It's not connected to anything so it wouldn't matter if I took it out.

Or so I thought.

Connecting this hard drive to the secondary machine (I'll call the drive XP from now on) I booted it up… and the computer reset to 'protect itself'. Repeatedly. So that disc is no good. Going back to the drive that was in the secondary computer (from now on, Vista), I connected that back up and this time it booted. Odd, but I'll let it go. So I ran it through a few checks and it all seems to work, great. Time to switch on the primary machine again (which I'd powered down to remove XP). Nothing. It don't work. Broke, caput, dead.

So, I have one fixed computer that was broken… and one broken computer that did work. What next? Going through the BIOS it appeared that the windows drive on the primary computer (henceforth Win7) wasn't recognised as connected any more. I double-checked all the cables, ensured I hadn't loosened anything when I removed XP and tried again. Nothing. It recognised the other hard drive – my terrabyte storage drive (yes, I need more storage, I'm waiting for prices to drop first) but not Win7. Now, I've been crafty. When I first put this machine together I installed windows on the terrabyte drive in case anything like this ever happened. As long as that drive worked all I needed to do was connect it up as the main drive and run windows from there. All sorted. Except when I did that, I got the message 'NTLDR is missing'. This isn't an error I've seen before, so I thought I'd check online to see what it was. Back to the secondary machine, boot it up, plug the network cable into the back… and the machine can't find the internet. It has a network connection, it recognises the existence of the cable… it even has TCP/IP settings that look correct. But no internet connection.

Leaving that to one side for a moment, back to the primary machine. Swapping connections round so that Win7 is the only drive connected, I tried booting again. No luck. This time I get the message 'Boot disc not found'… checking the BIOS it appears that the drive isn't connected at all. So, onto more basic tests. Does the drive power up? I removed the SATA cable, switched the machine off and on again and listened. Yes, it powers up and starts spinning… so it's not a dead drive – or if it is, it's not a completely dead drive. Next step… try a different SATA cable. Hurrah, this time I have some success. It recognised the drive, started booting, blue-screened then loaded correctly.

That brings me to now. I have one hard drive (Win7) connected, and the machine turns on. I have one drive (terrabyte) that is in the case but disconnected that should work when I can connect it again. I have one drive (XP) out of a case that doesn't seem to work and I'm not inclined to disconnect anything right now to test it further and finally I have one drive (Vista) which is in a case, working but won't connect to the internet.

I'm going to continue testing and tinkering for a bit so if I disappear offline again… I've broken something. I'll try very hard to keep posting my daily twictions – today is number 256 and I had planned to post one called '8 Bit' to honour it. Given the computer troubles I've had today though…

The meaning of Christmas

At this time of year it's customary to take stock of what you have and to give thanks to those who have helped you. I'd like to take a moment to thank all of you who have used my services this year or who have bought a book written by me. Without you wonderful people I wouldn't be able to put food on the table or pay the bills.

Have a Happy Christmas everyone and I hope you have a fantastic new year!

Moving on

It's always hard to move houses; this will be the eighth time in five years and it never seems to get any easier. First comes the packing and the sorting, getting rid of the things that you want to keep but know you're never likely to use again, finding things that you've thought lost and realising that the last time you saw your prized DVD was two removal vans ago…

This time things have been made even more complicated: I have to be out of this property by midday tomorrow. I was supposed to move into the new property last Wednesday. How can that be complicated? I should have loads of time to get everything done. So what's happened to cause trouble? In one word: snow.

In a few more words, snow and conflicting plans. I was supposed to collect the keys for the new property last Wednesday; I'd arranged it that way so that I would have plenty of time to pack everything carefully, move things down bit by bit and still have time to spare when cleaning the old property before I left. That went out the window when the new landlord forgot to leave the contract and keys with the agency. This was compounded by some general confusion; I spoke to the agency on Wednesday and they weren't sure what was happening – the person dealing with the property I'm supposed to move into had the day off and nobody else knew the details. I was told that if I phoned back the following day it would all be sorted – so I did… and it wasn't. That's when I first discovered that the keys weren't there yet but that they would be on Friday instead. Not too bad, it would only be too days later than first planned; I'd still have a week to move my belongings, I could manage with that.

Friday came… and so did the snow. Almost a foot of it – that's almost 31cm for you metric types. In some countries that won't cause too much of a problem. In Britain, chaos. Trains stopped, buses stopped, major roads were closed and people abandoned their cars left, right and center. I never stood a chance at getting to the letting agency's office. Saturday had snow too, but this time I was prepared. A book signing event had been scheduled for Swansea – about 40 miles from my home – and since I had to travel anyway, I resolved to swing past the agency's office on the way there. Were they open? No.

Sunday they were closed too – and we had more snow. The same was true on Monday, although I did manage to get in touch with them by phone. They understood the situation and that I was moving ever closer to the point where I would be left with my belongings on the street and no keys so they gave me the phone number for the owner of the new property. He lives 12 miles from the new property – but he was completely blocked in by the snow and couldn't travel anywhere. We came to a compromise; if he wasn't able to drive by today he would hire a vehicle that could get around on the snow and use that to get the keys to me.

So here we are, Thursday, just one day before I need to be out of my flat, typing a blog post in the room that I've lived in for just over the past year and wondering why it's so difficult to say goodbye to the place. Maybe it's because it's the longest I've spent in one place since I first left home; maybe it's because this town has been so instrumental in my early adulthood; perhaps it's just that the act of moving is such a scary thing. I like this flat, it's been my home; I know it well and I have a lot of happy memories here. Will I be so satisfied in a new place? Only time will tell, either way, it's too late to turn back now. Once again, I'm moving on…

Computer troubles

A friend's laptop was left in a car yesterday and now doesn't work. It boots, allows you to type in the password then hangs indefinitely without the desktop loading. 18 hours after being brought in out of the cold and this hasn't changed (so it doesn't seem to be purely a case of the components still being cold). The control panel is accessible and shows CPU and memory activity, processes show all the expected things, but the desktop itself doesn't load and no programs are listed as running.

I was able to boot it in safe mode and it ran normally. After that the results of Google searches it was recommended that I disable power-saving in case that was throttling the CPU. This seems to have made no difference. Power-saving setting has been restored now.

The model is a Samsung NC10 netbook. I'm now at the edge of my experience – if anyone else can help, please comment below, tweet @AlciusyStargaze – she's sat at my computer right now and will respond as soon as she sees messages.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Follow-up: The laptop is now fixed. Many thanks to @abaddon879 for his assistance.

It keeps me on my toes…

Christmas is a busy time for anyone; shopping, overtime, the obligatory parties and family gatherings, it can be enough to wear you down. I'm finding this month to be particularly busy: I have essays to write, a script that I am in the process of redrafting, and a novel that I didn't quite manage to complete during November. This is on top of all the usual things that come with running a small business; the constant checking of websites, contacting customers to check if they need more work done and fielding questions from people curious about my services. On top of that again, I'm performing two book signing events this month – and more are being discussed. It makes me wonder when I'll have a chance to enjoy the Christmas period. Right now I feel like I could do with an extra three hours a day and a second Sunday in every week. Still, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Right, back to the grindstone. If I can just get one more thing ticked off my list today then… oh wait, I'm still here. Guess you'll have to wait till next time to find out what happens when I get some spare time. Bye!

ConDeming us to a generation of misery

I try not to air my political preferences. I choose not to tell people how and why I vote unless I'm sure that they want to know, and that they will respect the reasoning behind my decisions. After the events of the past few days I feel that I need to put aside my privacy – for now at least – and share my beliefs.

Friends of mine will tell you, if asked, that I stated quite clearly before the last general election "there is no political party who I wish to see in government". In May, when the election occurred, I listed my criticisms for the various parties and one by one ruled out everyone who I would not vote for in order to leave only the candidate who I would receive my vote. To start off let us look at the candidates that were available to me then; in my constituency we had a disappointingly low number of candidates – the big three, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, followed by Green Party, UKIP and Plaid Cymru.

I had already decided a few criteria before knowing precisely which parties would be putting candidates forward for my area; I would not vote for anybody who wished to take us out of the Eurozone – our economy would be too greatly affected, I would not vote for anybody affiliated or associated with racism, and I would not vote for any single-issue parties. Those ruled out UKIP and the Green Party immediately. Having witnessed the mess that Labour have caused over the past 13 years I had no desire to allow them another five years to complete the job of dismantling the country – so they were out. With them went Plaid Cymru, their Welsh sister party. That left me with two; the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Despite protestations by friends that the Conservatives are a reformed bunch now, and nothing like the party that held power through the 80s and early 90s, I felt that I could not trust them to not repeat the actions of their predecessors… so they were out too. That left me with only the Liberal Democrats. In theory I had nothing against them; they had not harmed nor improved the situation of the country… in fact they have done very little at all for the past fifty years. They were the proverbial blank slate – but that in itself is a double-edged sword. Though they had done no wrong, they have also never had the chance to show that they can do right. In the end I chose to vote for the Liberal Democrats on the basis that I could not in good conscience vote for any other party and did not wish to spoil my vote entirely.

On 6th May I stayed up all night watching the results come in. From the pre-election coverage it had seemed likely that results would be split in new and unprecedented ways; the older generation still rankled at the treatment they had received under Conservative rule and with the distinctly uncharismatic Mr Brown in control of the widely despised Labour party they were unlikely to win either. The result, as predicted was a hung parliament. By now you will all know what that means, so I shall skip to my next point – why that was bad news for Britain. When one party holds an absolute majority it has the capacity to push through any plans and laws it wishes (it's not quite that simple, but that's the general gist of it). A large portion of people may not agree with measures that are implemented but they pass anyway. In a hung parliament, and particularly in minority or coalition governments, the radical difference between the ways in which parties wish to achieve their goals can render a situation whereby no progress can be made because nobody has sufficient support to pass laws and legislation. After the last years of Labour rule decisive action was required in order to turn this country around – so an ineffective hung parliament would be disastrous.

This is where the Liberal Democrats became key players. On their own neither Labour nor Conservatives controlled enough seats to form a government. They had already excluded the possibility of working together (aware of course that it would lead to the kind of stymied situation I described above) however either party, with the support of the Liberal Democrats, would be capable of forming a functioning parliament. All of a sudden Nick Clegg became a very powerful man indeed. Forming a shrewd alliance with the Conservative party, he became Deputy Prime Minister – a position that should allow him to temper the excesses of Conservative rule, a stop-plug if you will to protect the populace in case of political extremity.

At first I welcomed Nick Clegg to this role. In many ways he possessed even more power than David Cameron because at any time, he could force the dissolution of government if the Conservative regime grew too harsh. This was a power that Cameron should fear and respect; he could push through any legislation he wished, but he had to toe the line. One step too far and we would all return to the voting booths.

Since then months have passed, people have grown less and less pleased at the direction that this government has taken; direction that any person over fifty could have warned us about… and Clegg has done nothing. Worse than that, evidence is mounting that he wilfully misled the public over key issues. Issues that earned him a huge student vote and placed him in the position of power that he now holds. If he exercises his power now and dissolves the government then neither the Liberal Democrats nor the Conservatives are likely to be voted back to power – which leaves only Labour. It is a no-win situation: accept the increasingly hated government that we have, or return to the government that caused the problems that the Conservatives now seek to remedy.

Throughout the election, and from my experiences since, I have trusted the Conservatives to do one thing and one thing only: to ensure that Britain as a country survives. This is not a good thing for the denizens of Britain however. I trust the Conservatives to make the hard choices, to do the things that no other party dares… but the reason I could not vote for them in the first place is the sheer severity of the actions by which they achieve their goals. Hindsight has demonstrated that the actions and policies of the last Conservative government allowed Britain to enter into a period of unprecedented economic and social growth. In that respect their government was a huge success – but for the people? Riots, starvation, mass unemployment, poverty and misery. And now it begins again.

As with Thatcher's government, we are now seeing a growing dissatisfaction towards the actions of Cameron's government. This month has witnessed demonstration after demonstration against proposed cuts and changes to 'the system'. All of which are undoubtedly necessary for the future economic survival of this country – but which directly harm us now. Other articles exist, too many to mention, describing the student protests, the campaigns and petitions. Search them out. Inform yourself. Learn of the situation and how you will be affected. I fear that it is too late now, that we are past the point from which there can be an easy and painless way out.

I believe that we are heading towards one of the hardest years endured in Britain for a generation. I believe that in coming months we will see repeats of the peaceful – and violent – demonstrations held this week. I believe that this will escalate – and though I fervently hope it does not happen, I believe that we may soon see mass civil disobedience towards the government on a scale that will not be easily contained.

To ensure the survival of our country as a political and financial entity we must endure the coming years of misery. To do otherwise is to invite our own destruction.

Convention dictates I should blog this

A great many people interested in comics will know that last weekend heralded the Thought Bubble 2010 comic convention in Leeds. For the past few weeks I've been growing more and more excited about this for a number of reasons; it would be a chance to finally obtain Dan Abnett's signature – I've loved his writing for years and yet he and his army of clones have always avoided me. Alas, the same was true with Thought Bubble. At the last moment his signing was cancelled due to work commitments (probably, although by no means certainly, related to Games Workshop's upcoming feature length film). Beyond this though, Thought Bubble was exciting for two slightly more personal reasons. November 20th, the date of the expo, marked the release of Twictions, my second book. In addition to this – and thanks to the guys at Deadstar Publishing for taking me – Thought Bubble was also my first chance to stand behind a table at a convention instead of being part of the crowd.

From the top then: the coach trip up on Friday was fairly uneventful. It gave me a chance to read most of Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space (a review for that will be up in a few days' time) and to watch the scenery between Cardiff and Leeds. Very pretty, not overly engrossing. Once in Leeds I checked into the hotel with David from Deadstar then began the hunt. Wifi. Leeds seems not to know what it is. We spent the better part of three hours going from pub to pub, café to café searching for something that offers free wifi. Starting with the hotel (£5 for an hours' connection), Yates, Starbucks, Costa Nostra, and many others we finally found our way to a Wetherspoons where we were at last able to go online. Why is this important? Well, if you haven't followed me on Twitter then you might not know that for the past 200+ days I've posted a twiction each and every day. In order to maintain that… I need a web connection.

Lack of internet really hampered that first night; by this time Danny J Weston, the other member of Deadstar who would be attending the expo, had arrived and we tried to arrange a meet-up with other convention goers. Unfortunately we spent so long trying to find a connection that by the time we managed that, it was too late to meet with others. So back to the hotel for an early night before the big day.

Saturday started at an obscenely early time – we arrived at Saviles Hall (named, as we later found out, after Sir Jimmy Savile) at 7am in order to set up our table; a mistake on our part. Apparently the instructions said "exhibitors may set up from 7am" which we read as "must set up at 7am". By the time we were finished laying out the table we still had two and a half hours before the expo opened to the public – so we spent the time taking photos and wandering around looking at the other stalls while their (slightly more sensible) staff set them out.

10am came and my god, did the hall fill up quickly! Before I knew it our table was surrounded by people wanting to know who we were, what we sold, how much it cost and whether we were giving away anything for free. The day became a bit of a blur at that point; signing books, taking cash, signing more books, answering questions about how I wrote Twictions and Jaque's Magic Beans, offering snippets of advice to would-be writers and so on. That continued for over 7 hours! I've performed quite a few book readings and signings before but never one that's been quite that exhausting!

Before the event we looked into holding a raffle in order to give away some free books – apparently the gambling commission frowns on that – so instead we had a game of guess the marshmallows in the penguin. That raised a few eyebrows… and more than one person wanted to buy the penguin off us when we were done with it. I'm told that Deadstar will contact the winner via email this week although I can tell you that the winning number was 479… a surprisingly large amount of marshmallows to fit into such a tiny penguin!

I really do need to mention the cosplayers at the event – they are almost obligatory at any con or expo but those at Leeds really went the extra mile; from a near complete cast of Batman bad guys to zombie roller derby girls, Pokémon to Mario characters, every element of geekdom was covered.

After the doors closed at 5pm we took stock of the damage, counted the money (a very pleasing result) and packed away the remaining stock. From there it was on to the afterparty. This was held at the casino around the corner where we danced the night away, got to chat with other exhibitors and a few of the lucky pre-booked ticket holders who were allowed to join us. There were quite a few people there that I've met either from past cons or as friends and acquaintances – I'm sorry that I couldn't spend more time with you all, but by midnight I was asleep on my feet and decided to call it a night.

The following day I commenced on a six hour coach ride to return home… and there ends the tale of my first con. If you want to see some of the pictures from Thought Bubble, take a look at their official website or stop by on the Deadstar Facebook page.

Twictions front cover – at last!

A week before it's released and I've finally been given permission to show off the front cover. So, without further ado…

You can buy the book (and my previous work, Jaque's Magic Beans) from my store.

Only 9 days to go!

Hey all. Feeling a bit better today. I hope I can shake this thing completely before I go to Leeds. Thoughtbubble will be miserable if I'm still ill. Positive thinking though; I was speaking with David from Deadstar earlier and everything is ready, and I'll be ready. I'll be standing on the booth with him, and one or two of their other authors and artists from Rising Stars will be around too. I've done signings in bookshops (and charity shops) before, but this will be my first time behind a table at a convention. Let's hope they go easy on me.

While I'm there I'll be promoting Jaque's Magic Beans, my first book; a collection of 20 short stories themed around journeys, dreams and perceptions of beauty as well as Twictions, a compilation of 140 stories all of which are exactly 140 characters long. Many of them have appeared on Twitter before, so if you follow me you may have seen those… but there are a large number of previously unseen stories too.

Jaque's Magic Beans has been available for a few months now – it's everywhere; Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith, but if you buy it from my website then you'll get a signed copy. I've just added Twictions to the store too on pre-order, so if you look now you can get them both. Go on, they're good Christmas presents

Sick of this feeling sick

I have been so unbelievably sick this week. I barely got out of bed over the weekend. I couldn't. The only daily task that I managed to carry out without fail was uploading my daily twictions to Twitter. With the book being released in 12 days I don't want now to be the time when I break my run. I'm fast closing on 200 days of daily updates. That ought to be a fun time.

There are other things I want to talk about but I still feel really rough so I'll leave them for now. Going back to bed for a bit.