T + 91 Scantastic

Yesterday I went to Selly Oak hospital for my three month post-transplant CT scan. It was fairly routine apart from when it came for the automated pump to inject the contrast dye into the cannula they had put in my arm. The cannula was in the crook of my arm and I have to keep my arms above my head whilst I lie on the trolley. The pump felt some resistance and, quite rightly, does not force the dye in so they had to come and reset the pump, fiddle with the cannula and do that part of the scan again. Only about a ten minute delay for all that though.

Tomorrow is the transplant clinic but whether the scan results will be available for then I'm not sure. I suspect it's unlikely but you never know.

Meet Mini

My desktop computer, Camilla, had another hard disk problem last Friday and wouldn't boot. I'd had one hard disk replaced about 6 months or so ago and that took the firm about three weeks to sort out. I think there maybe a design fault relating to the air flow in the case when it is mounted with its side stand causing the disks to overheat.

That was to some extent the straw that broke that camel's back and though I could have got another hard drive I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a new computer. But not just any computer, specifically a Apple Mac Mini running the Mac operating system OS X.

Now those of you that know me might be quite surprised that I have gone away from running my beloved open source Linux operating system, well buying the Mac Mini represents something of a re-assessment of my use of computers.

The easiest way to explain it is to apply a couple of analogies. Consider someone who owns a classic car and is always tinkering with it , tuning it etc. but never actually uses it to go anywhere, or a blacksmith who only makes blacksmith's tools in his forge. That's what my use of computers has been especially since with Linux there are plenty of opportunities (id not the necessity) for tinkering.

I'll still use Linux and Unix at work but for home and recreational use I wanted a computer that just worked and worked really well and for that Macs excel. Of course now I have to find things to actually use the computer for ( those places to go in the classic car analogy) but in the new year as I hopefully start to return to a normal life and get reintegrated into society, as it were, I'll be taking a close look at my hobbies and interests.

I haven't totally abandoned my commitment to Free and Open Source Software. Indeed I'm using the excellent OpenOffice as my office suite for spreadsheets and word processing etc. and I'll be looking to use as much free and open software on Mini as I can.

Comments

Gordon said…
Welcome Mini. I wont insult you by singing Dany Kaye's pop song "Mini the Moocher",but it sounds as if you may used for Investigating possible new hobbies. All the best son with tommorrow clinic M & D

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