The PC that hosts the CMS for this website suddenly had the computer equivalent of a severe mental breakdown, and stopped working. It became unbootable. It ceased to be. It is an ex-computer.
This is the second time this has happened to my CMS machine in the last few months. The previous machine, a nice dual-core Athlon machine, expired in a more dramatic fashion, with the power supply unit failing in a brief but spectacular fireworks display, taking out several important components as it went.
Each time, I have to fall back to an older machine that I have in reserve. I'm getting pretty efficient at re-locating the CMS. (If you're at all puzzled, the CMS software works independently of the webserver as a 'back end', though it can easily be combined into one machine.)
I'm writing this on a computer that saw its heyday back when Windows 98 was hot stuff. I no longer have access to modern conveniences such as USB2.0 ports. I can't even watch TV any more (I don't own a TV, I used to watch telly via a USB2.0 TV stick). (How am I going survive without my regular dose of Newsnight?) I suppose I could watch the BBC's iPlayer, but the ancient processor on this machine means that the visuals are reduced to a slow slideshow of still images. Not sure if audio is available, because I've never tried to get it working. Youtube is only usable at 240p.
So, much of yesterday was spent recovering data from the old harddrive, and restoring CMS functionality on this machine. As you can see, the CMS and the website lives on. I was worried for a while, because I hadn't made a backup for some time and it might have meant rebuilding the CMS database and file structure from the files on the webserver, which would have taken some time thanks to having to re-create lots of behind-the-scenes meta-data not present in the HTML files.
The last few months have been very unlucky when it comes to equipment. A few months ago, my nice flat, widescreen LG monitor died, forcing me to return to the bad old days of a bulging, square CRT monitor. I'm guessing its electron guns are slowly moving out of focus, because it was almost sending me cross-eyed trying to focus on its blurry rendering.
Thankfully, I've managed to repair the old LG. The problem was that the capacitors responsible for charging up enough voltage to fire up the cold cathode backlight had worn out, so all it took to repair it was a trip to Maplins to pick up some new capacitors and a bit of soldering.
It's like the alternate-universe version of the Red Dwarf around here... Nothing works here, man. Everything is in decay.
I guess I should try to save up some money to buy some new parts for a new PC (I always build my own computers from parts. Not only is it cheaper than buying a ready-made PC, but the final result is far more powerful than the equivalent bought off-the-shelf).
Or I could just use the money to drink myself to death. Given the boredom induced from a lack of TV or computer games, it's quite tempting.
The illustration of a Babbage Difference Engine is courtesy of Andrew Dunn