IT took my work computer away, and it came back with a downgrade to Office 2003. This was unlikely due to my low-grade complaining and more due to the fact that 2007's handling of Word styles isn't compatible with our document templates used for regulatory filing. IT had also used me as a guinea-pig for some kind of migration tool (it looked like Laplink from the 1990s) and it broke several programs very badly (couldn't be uninstalled, no way to reinstall over the top) so they needed several iterations to get it right. Who know what tomorrow will bring. Why can't there be an apt tool for everything in life?
Last week, I was watching a Public Service Broadcast warning us to be ready for earthhquakes and using the message that the day before the last big quake was just another day. They should use the same approach for encouraging backup strategies. I had been backing up our home's Windows box in a half-hearted way and naturally it died before I was finished (wouldn't start one evening). This was the first time for my partner to see me disemboweling something like that, and she was amused when I hauled out the dead power supply, trailing cables like entrails. Off to the local branch of my favourite store (only been there once since it opened) and managed to get one on sale. The sales person was weirdly evocative of Marigold Farmer (although I suppose working in public would be out of character for her). After a couple of hours of cleaning (six years' of dust) and reassembling we now have a system that is considerably quieter than before. ...and yes, I'll finish the backup, tomorrow maybe...