Slow the pumpkin to a crawl
Here’s a trick for anyone using a netbook. Since your machine doesn’t have an optical drive (by definition) but some software will only load if there is one, simply install an emulator. I’ve started using a freeware program that does a great job: Virtual CloneDrive by Slysoft.
There are products to create ISO files from your optical media. Sometimes you need to do something other than store a backup copy. In particular, my Rosetta Stone software needs to “see” the complete disc in order to install language files. This work-around got me back to work on the smallest of our laptops.
I watched a Johnny Depp movie (that I hadn’t already seen) this afternoon. Nick Of Time is a political thriller, with Christopher Walken as a nasty, nasty man. Our chameleon, Johnny, is an accountant with a new, unexpected job to do, and the movie takes us through 90 minutes of countdown action. No bombs involved, either. I liked this one, because it shows that our favourite pirate has a lot of range. Good way to spend an otherwise uneventful afternoon.
Those ingenuous people over at Onstar have a new trick to offer subscribers; they can (they claim) slow your van to a crawl should anyone ever steal your wheels. Quite apart from the obvious importance in a world where insurance companies hate to spend money on anything other than feel-good advertising, it shows that the world of the embedded controller chip is no longer science fiction. I’ve already seen ads from companies that will allow you to profile how your car has been handled by your teenager. Now, you can (theoretically) send the pumpkin back to the garden patch once the curfew bell sounds. Cinderella (and her fairy godmother) would be proud.
