Nothing happening?

There's lots happening here, but more on that later.

For now I am sorting my phone problems. VOIP dropped out and I still investigating that. But I have sorted my mobile phone problem - calls were either not ringing in or they were dropping out within a few seconds. Some callers couldn't get a ring a tone, and one that did, complained about interference/static. I have different IT services for VOIP and mobile. The mobile service support was useless - couldn't speak English that I could understand and he kept asking me to check a message to validate my identity, after he rang me on the number listed for my account, and after he had already asked for personal details to verify my identity!

Mobile service in my area is dodgy at times - Netflix struggles to maintain a connection. I had 5 calls from the hospital and 4 dropped out. The one that was not disconnected - I switched to speaker and that seemed to make a difference. Taking calls outside also makes a huge difference to performance - in my office I am sitting with an ADSL modem, a VOIP modem, a LAN wifi modem, and a security camera wifi system. Some friends have reported similar problems depending on the ADSL provider. But everything worked perfectly for several years before now.

When i first started experiencing problems, about a week ago, I purchased a new mobile phone and SIM card. I now see that I am connected to a 4G network which has repeatedly been upgraded - so there is no telling what is really causing the problem.

I finally got New York * into the marinade, and now do not need to think about it for two weeks.

...

I guess you had to be there.

* In full: New York: Its Upper Ten and Lower Million by George Lippard. Published in 1853, it is the single worst novel I have ever read in my entire life.

the single worst novel I have ever read in my entire life.

But the title *does* sound interesting. Is that why you started to read it?

But the title *does* sound interesting. Is that why you started to read it?

A little insight into how I select the books I put online:

In Edmund Pearson's essay collection Queer Books (no, not that kind of queer, it came out in 1928, enabling me to put it online in 2024) there is a chapter called “Side-Whiskers and Seduction”. He spends some time on a trashy novel whose title begins The Startling Confessions of Eleanor Burton and goes on for many many more lines. He includes some verbatim quotes, so I did an exact-text search ... and landed on New-York (hyphen ad lib). Turns out, a sizable chunk of the latter is verbatim Eleanor Burton--which perfunctory research reveals to be not a novel but a 30-page pamphlet, published in Lippard's home town of Philadephia--with all names changed. I don't know whether Lippard ripped it off, or if he repackaged something he'd written himself under a pseudonym. And once I discovered how unspeakably dreadful it is, I was hooked.

I walked into the local art gallery about a month ago - some interesting exhibits of local artists. But upstairs was a solo exhibit and apparently one that has been travelling Australia It was a huge exhibit, perhaps 50-60 large sheets of watercolour paper displaying what was supposed to be plein-air. I shall not mention the artist's name because while he may have written a couple of books and has in the past painted some nice watercolours, what was shown on those walls looked no more than a child's first attempt using wash.

I can only assume that the gallery booked this exhibit on the merit of a single painting attached to a bio. If anything what the exhibit represents is what can go wrong with such an arrangement.

Anyway, it has inspired me and my partner to enter their upcoming art contest. Now getting those entries submitted was a feat, especially for my partner because she opted to enter a painting that she has been working on for more than a year - she has been repainting sections over and over again. I have been encouraging her to finish and start a new one and hoped that a 30 day deadline would get things moving along. But no, it wasn't until the last hour, half an hour before the deadline closed, that I was able to photograph her painting and get it submitted online.

On the up side, seeing that abysmal exhibit in such a wonderful art space has been inspiring - because I have started work on 20 new paintings, designed to travel as a solo exhibit.

I logged on to WebmasterWorld for the first time since Nov 3, 2022... that's quite special.

... and found an aggregate total of fourteen new posts? :(

I am currently transfering some designs to prepared canvasses, and having done most of the prep work in Photoshop, I am now ready to project and trace those designs. In the past I have used an overhead projector, but they require transparencies (prints on clear film). So I shopped online for alternatives and found projectors that can be positioned over prints on paper.

Then I found a projector that that works from images stored on USB - much better. After a few tests, I edited all my images so that they would be cropped to suit the backgrounds, and 2000 pixels wide. Then I mounted it overhead to project downwards and found the ideal height was 2300 mm from lens to canvas.

But after laboriously tracing out the first design while on my knees, thought it might be better to work at desk height. I could not raise the projector any higher, so I thought that by increasing my images to 4000 pixels wide that I could halve the distance between lens and canvas - but the projector has other ideas - it projected the 4000 wide image the same as the 2000 wide image.

So I am still on the floor and bewildered.

My guess: resize to 1000 pixels wide and 1150 mm lens to canvas.

My guess: resize to 1000 pixels wide and 1150 mm lens to canvas

Apparently changing image size makes no difference at all. I made some tests with images 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 pixels wide - they all displayed the same size 2340 mm from lens to canvas. lt looks like it makes all images the same size so that a slideshow of a folder's contents looks consistent. The slideshow is huge plus because I can review all designs until I select the next candidate to work on. Having a remote control for the projector is another huge plus.

To be able to sketch at table height, I now have the projector mounted in the peak of the carport. Projecting downwards is most useful for arranging the pieces when they are ready for assembly.

The setup is now ideal - when the sun goes down.

What a day! Coming up for 75, I am now required to provide a Doctors Certificate to keep my driving licence. Being endorsed for heavy vehicles posed some problems - mainly with the nurse wondering why would anyone want a commercial driving licence at my age. Also that test is much longer as they evaluate a lot more vitals, and being for commercial vehicles, the doctor's test costs more than the actual licence fee.

Anyhow, I passed that test with flying colours, perfect score for everything including blood pressure, urine test, EEG, and some tricky co-ordination and perception tests. But I noticed one item was marked as 28/30 by the nurse, so I questioned the doctor about that later - apparently 25/30 is excellent and he suggested that perhaps it was due to a delay somewhere. Well that might have been when I was stunned when being asked such a simple question as the year, month, date and day of the week. While I did get all those parts right, being asked such a simple question and the importance of knowing the answer left me wondering if the powers to be had any idea of what it is like to live on a small acreage in a rural area where your only outside contact is with 120+ non-human species - we are still supposed to know which day of the week it is? Really?

While in town, I thought that I might do some shopping. I had already rung most of the computer repairers, so I dropped into our main electronic/electric retailer - looking for a portable floppy disk drive. I still have a Windows 98 machine that runs some expensive software that is protected by a dongle on the old style printer port. That machine has a floppy, but none of my more modern computers have one, so I cannot move files around.

Well the tech guy at Harvey Norman's had never heard of a "floppy drive" and was looking at me silly when I tried to explain that we used to install software from 'floppies' before DVD and CD.

Then I found one at home in the office closet, amongst a collection of left-over stock from a computer shop that we used to run about 12 years ago.

Now I am wondering how I passed that certificate test today?

But I do recall why I started this post - - - it is for all of us help keep this forum from dying off. I mean, just a few new posts over what has been several days is not a good sign. So how about - let loose with your best or worst moments.

Yes, Kendo, I have a lovely but ancient Dell Latitude notebook computer with a really nice keyboard. It is a pleasure to write with, and the trackball is easy to use.

It used to have a plug in ethernet connector / modem card thingy, but I don't know where it is now, there is basically no way to get files off it which means it is useless now.

Such a shame.

[edited by: Mark_A at 8:18 am (utc) on Sep 11, 2026]

However, anything special today?

Today is September 11th, so we need to take a moment or two to think about the people affected in the twin towers attack.

It was also an opening night at our local art gallery, announcing the winners of this year's art contest. 250 entries received that was narrowed down to a field of 70. The hostess was probably the worst choice for a speaker - couldn't understand much of what she was saying. Picking a winner in that field was very difficult - very few entries deserved a mention. The 3 winning entries were a surprise, although safe selections. My partner and I have been artists for 60 years, and although we have very different tastes, we both picked one piece that didn't get a mention.

Some of the artist's descriptions of their artwork were hilarious.

Some of the artist's descriptions of their artwork were hilarious.

"hilarious" as in ... ?
self-depracating? imaginative? fantastical? unrealistic?

"hilarious" as in ... ?

It was impossible to see any relationship between the description and what anyone could see.

It was impossible to see any relationship between the description and what anyone could see.

If they don't succeed as artists, they may have an alternative career writing wine descriptions.

If they don't succeed as artists, they may have an alternative career writing wine descriptions.

Does anyone remember the skit from "Beyond the Fringe" in which they reviewed several imaginery Australian wines? I thought they (the reviewers) were particularly original in their descriptions.
But -- Is it possible that we are talking about the same people? They started as wine reviewers and have since graduated to real art?