Author: KokkieH

Song Title Challenge #14: Battle Hymn of the Republic – Julia Ward Howe

It’s time for this week’s Song Title Challenge.

Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song. You can pick your own genre or use the one suggested to me. Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.

If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page. You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.

This week’s song is The Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe and the genre is Crime/Mystery. Thanks to bumblepuppies for the suggestion.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Continue reading “Song Title Challenge #14: Battle Hymn of the Republic – Julia Ward Howe” →

KokkieH Reviews Inferno by Dan Brown

About a month ago I mentioned that I had won a copy of Dan Brown’s Inferno, which was a good thing as, after The Lost Symbol I wasn’t planning on buying one of his novels again. Turns out my instincts were right as Mr Brown’s latest offering was not much of an improvement on its predecessor.

I have to admit that wasn’t my first impression. In fact, I quite enjoyed the first two thirds of the novel.

(At this point it would be pertinent to insert a spoiler warning. I am going to reveal significantly more than the jacket blurb, but I’ll try not to ruin the big stuff just in case you really want to read it.) Continue reading “KokkieH Reviews Inferno by Dan Brown” →

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On cat fights

Tuesday I witnessed a cat fight.

Continue reading “On cat fights” →

On resolving technical difficulties

So, my day was fun. As mentioned yesterday, both my pc and my laptop decided they didn’t want to work anymore. I’ve had computer problems in the past (who hasn’t?) but always just one computer at a time. This is the first time that more than one ganged up on me at the same time.

After running virus scans, malware scans, registry cleaners, disk checks, a system file check and scrolling through a few hundred entries in the system log I finally found the problem. Turns out it wasn’t Microsoft taking revenge after all, but the latest update of the program I got from my bank’s internet banking site supposed to protect me against malware and phishing attacks. Unfortunately part of the ill effects of this update was that it made the computer freeze every time I tried to uninstall it and system restore wouldn’t work either (and in case you didn’t know, you can’t uninstall programs in “safe mode” as the installer doesn’t run there).

I was weighing my options between doing a clean re-install (which would have meant wiping my hard drive and starting from scratch), taking the pc in to the shop for a repair install (which I can’t do as I don’t have a retail-disc of Windows but only the one that came pre-loaded when I bought the pc), or performing a bit of percussive maintenance by invoking the title of my blog, when I came across The Windows Club. They had the answer in the form of an application that could activate the installer from within safe mode and I was finally able to uninstall the offending program.

I am very glad to report that since 12 this afternoon neither my pc or laptop has crashed once and I haven’t had to test whether or not a laptop and desktop pc fall at the same speed when dropped from a fourth storey window.

I still think we should be careful what we say online about Microsoft, though. I honestly believe they’re way more powerful than the world’s governments and a much bigger threat to privacy than PRISM.

Speaking of PRISM, click here for something funny. I promise your IP address will be recorded and immediately forwarded to the US Department of Homeland Security along with a photo of you taken by your webcam.

On experiencing technical difficulties

I have a (I think) quite excellent blog post half-complete for today. It has been half-complete for the past three hours. That’s how long my pc has been habitually freezing the moment I try to do anything short of simply staring at the desktop. I started up the laptop, but it’s doing the same thing.

Earlier today I made a rather negative comment (actually two) on a friend’s Facebook status regarding Microsoft. I think they saw it and now they’re punishing me. Either that or the last set of automatic updates were complete rubbish. I’d run system restore to undo the last update, but then the computer freezes. I’m pretty sure Microsoft is doing this on purpose.

Sadly, this means you won’t get to read that excellent post. I’m typing this on an Android tablet, so should be safe from Microsoft interference, but it’s a very cheap tablet, so I can’t edit the pictures I was intending to include with the post. Also, while I have a keyboard for the tablet it’s rather small and my hands are cramping up just from the few words written here.

So, I’m afraid you’ll have to be satisfied with this for now. I’m running every scan I can think of that doesn’t make the computer freeze, so hopefully things will be back to normal by tomorrow.

In the meantime, be warned: it’s not PRISM, Big Brother or even Santa Clause you should fear. Rather, fear Microsoft. They’re more powerful than you think!