"Twenty one today, twenty one today, I've got the key of the door never been.........."  Yes well enough of that.

Todays post was going to be about our pets but after struggling to take reasonable pictures of them for an hour this morning I realised that I had fell behind somewhat in the computer world.So I am reverting to another idea I had several weeks ago prompted by the realisation that I need to be able to compile a post in HTML to be able to add multiple pictures to my blog.

My first experience of a computer was when I was about eleven or twelve, my best friend at the time had a Sinclair ZX80, no thats not a typo, The ZX 80 was the forerunner to the better known ZX81 and the Spectrum. After seeing what this remarkable little box could be made to do I set about convincing my dad that for Christmas the best present in the world would be a computer. I didn't get one that year but the next year after continual nagging I managed to secure a Dragon 32.

Now the point is that I spent hours and hours "playing" with this new toy and was at the time a pretty accomplished programmer. I sent Basic programs to magazines for possible publication and pretty much reached the limits of what this computer could do. I finally lost interest due to a combination of  the limitations of the machine itself and the fact that there were pubs and cars and motorcycles that were also competing for my time. In my pubescent world I imagined everything would very soon be computer controlled and the all powerful Dragon on my bedroom table would be closing the curtains, locking the doors at night, swithing lights on, recognising my voice and doing all the menial tasks set for me.

Twenty odd years later and things have progressed. You are no longer considered a nerd if you can use a PC in fact you are considered rather inept if you haven't got at least a basic understanding of Windows. Voice recognition is possible and with the right leads and interfaces  I am sure the beige box in the corner can be made to do all that I imagined years ago with the possible exception of the menial tasks like sorting my magazine collection out for me. However there is still a considerable number of the proverbial insects in the ointment, for instance why does my scanner get recognised as something totally different? Why when I started up yesterday did it refuse to connect to the internet? How can it not be able to find the modem drivers, they were there when I turned it off last night? What do you mean DNS error?

I have been rather lazy since the dawning of the PC  I have learnt not to question why things have gone wrong and accepted that turning it off and on again is generally the cure for most faults. My programming knowledge has been firmly displaced to the region of my brain reserved for answers to quiz questions. Well look out Microsoft I'm back. I will be wrestling with the finer points of HTML shortly so expect some pretty flashy blog posts.... Or maybe not.