A pointless day

[skyring]

A lot of stuffing about doing nothing productive. Been trying to load SQL Server onto my server, now that I've accepted that none of the cheapy ex-government PCs I bought at auction is going to work. The Enterprise edition won't load anything but client tools on XP Pro, one Developer edition wouldn't load at all and the second one didn't complete the installation - the service was running but not enough to allow me to apply the anti-Slammer patch.

Lot of mucking about with restore points, some of which wouldn't recognise the ADSL modem - not until I discovered that pulling out the plug and shoving it back in did the trick - and all told it's been a frustrating day. I still don't have SQL running and I need that to get DotNetNuke going.

I might try loading it on my workstation, but with IIS and VS 2003 going as well as my usual load, things might get a bit tight. Probably have to reload the server, another half day of swapping disks and fiddling about getting the network tweeked and installing patches and stuffing around.

And then my darling wife sends me an email asking me to sell a bunch of shares a few minutes before the market closes. She does the research and I do the trading, because I can sit on the computer all day and pick my moment. If I have time to do it. Had to sell at market and take a small loss. It's a sell-short trade, so the idea is to buy again once the market falls, but the stock has got to drop about 5% before we break even, and I'm hoping Kerri's research on that is solid, because it isn't being reflected in the market.

Oh well, five months to go before the ex-date. The normal trading range should see us good before then. Bloody Metal Storm is sinking fast after reaching a peak two weeks back. Should have sold it then. Take my chance next time. There'll be some wild news bump it up. Never see a dividend with this turkey.

Going well with the new book in the moments I can spare. Managed to explain Bookcrossing in a couple of paragraphs.

Comments

BookCrossing

[forg.livejournal.com]

Impressive - in only a couple of paragraphs?? I will have to see this to try and refine my presentation ;) A few people in my office read the SMH article and still don't "get" it and that was more than a few paragraphs. I think you either get it or you don't?

Re: BookCrossing

[skyring.livejournal.com]

"At this point, I’d best explain about Bookcrossing. It’s one of those American Internet ideas, like blogging or flash mobs that has sprung out of nowhere and gathered a community numbering in the tens of thousands. Bookcrossers set books free ‘into the wild’ and the site’s logo is a yellow diamond modeled on wildlife crossing signs showing a book running as fast as its little legs will carry it, arms pumping away.

"Each of these books is marked with a Bookcrossing ID number – a ‘BCID’ – and by entering that number on the bookcrossing.com website, a finder can see where the book has been, what previous owners have thought of it, what adventures it has had, where it has been previously released and so on. Bookcrossers are identified by ‘screen-names’ such as MrBooks or BlossomPossum which allow real names to remain hidden. In fact, an entry can be made without registering, in which case the journal entries for that book are shown as having been made by AnonymousFinder.

"There are over a million books registered on Bookcrossing, a quarter of a million Bookcrossers, and there is a lively community extending around the world, some of whom have registered and released thousands of books. It’s an exciting, addictive, expanding game, and I enjoy being a part of it."