Some of you may have seen from the other site that I have been having some wee PC problems?

My trusty old laptop crashed with a complete hard disk failure.  Bad sectors and tracks everywhere.

Fortunately, it is a duel disk machine and all my data [and Grandad’s] is on the other disk.  However, I can’t get at it!

The only thing I can do is to reformat the faulty disk and re-install the operating system.  However, the laptop came with no disks, so I have the licence, but nothing to install from.  In an ideal world, Microsoft would just send me a new disk, seeing as I have already paid for the damned thing, but no – we are talking Microsoft here, and they will send a new disc, provided I buy it along with a new licence. 

I bought a new laptop.  It may sound a bit drastic and expensive, but Grandad’s site will pay for it, and seeing as he is the likely cause of the crash in the first place, it is only fair.

Then of course I had the problem of reinstalling all the software.  That may sound simple, but each piece of software has its own settings.  For example, my FTP software was configured to log into about 60 servers, each with its own settings and passwords.  Luckily I had backups of the really critical settings for that, so I was able to restore it more or less intact.  The same goes for my bookmarks and the like.

So far, all I have really lost that is important is my photograph collection, a load of sound files and a mountain of personal stuff.  All Grandad’s mail is gone, but by business stuff is backed up onto another machine, thank God.  If ever I lay my hands on a Vista DVD, then I can retrieve all the lost stuff anyway.

They tell us [whoever they are] that we should backup often.  What they don’t tell us is that even with a backup, that reviving a machine, or building a new one is a complete nightmare.

Anyone got a spare copy of Windows Vista?

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
On St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze,
Although he is little, his family is great,
I pray you, good landlord, give us a treat.

My box would speak, if it had but a tongue,
And two or three shillings, would do it not wrong,
Sing holly, sing ivy–sing ivy, sing holly,
A drop just to drink, it would drown melancholy.

And if you draw it of the best,
I hope in heaven your soul will rest;
But if you draw it of the small,
It won’t agree with these wren boys at all.

So goes the song of the Wran [Wren] Boys.

The Wran Boys tour the neighbourhood on St Stephen’s Day in Ireland, bearing the body of a wren and bringing luck. It is a tradition as old as the mountains themselves.

The wren represents the old year and must be killed to make way for the new.  Nowadays, of course the sacrifice is symbolic but the music, the costume and the singing remain the same.

They called around today.

There are times when words nearly fail me.

There are scum out there who will sink to the lowest depths.

Last night, alarm bells started ringing all over the place.  Two of my websites had been hacked.

One was a community site, which they took over and started using as a distribution point for illegal software.  That I could live with though it was damned irritating.  It was a matter of removing all their stuff and cleansing the site.

The other attack was the one that sickened me though.  They attacked the Jack and Jill website.

To those of you who are not familiar with Jack and Jill, they are a charity that provide respite care for parents of children with disabilities.  I first came across them years ago when I saw their founder, Jonathan Irwin on television.  One thing led to another, and they took Laughingboy under their wing.

They were fantastic.  They provided support where the state wasn’t interested.  They provided advice as well as vital practical support.  I felt I had to do something in return, and I now sponsor their website and hosting.  I am very proud to do that, and wish I could do more.

It incenses me therefore when some low life thinks he is smart and attacks a site like this.  Because of that little bastard, I had to spend half the night stripping the server (because it was crawling with viruses and malicious code), reinstalling all the software, restoring databases and of course changing all the passwords.

By coincidence, Damien Mulley is running a campaign on behalf of Jack and Jill.   I was delighted to see this, and would urge you to head on over, where he will explain it all.  You never know – you might win yourself a nice little prize?

Say that you came from Head Rambles.  I don’t want the glory, so I might as well try to do something for him.

You never know.  He might win something.

It would make up, in part for last night.