Views from Medina Road

January is the busiest month, what with end-of-the-year summaries and whatnot, including my own small contribution to Locus Magazine's February issue, a tabulation of short fiction sources in comparison to previous years, which however small always takes longer to put together than I expect...

Currently I'm dealing with computer difficulties. The new laptop I bought just 10 months ago (after my previous working machine was stolen from a hotel room in Key West) has become broken at the left hinge; opening and closing the screen lid results in alarming creaking noises and more alarming splits of the screen casing along the outside edge. I've contact Hewlett Packard and, since I'm within the 1-year warranty, they are happy to fix it, but that entails shipping the machine to them and waiting a week or so for them to repair and return....

Meanwhile, I've been meaning to replace my household desktop PC anyway...and so, today, I bought a new desktop machine, with a cool 22 inch flatscreen monitor, in order to transition my files and day to day email transactions to it, while I ship off the laptop for repair. Currently, alas, the Linksys wireless network adapter (a little box with an antenna, to connect to the wifi network in my house) from my old desktop PC does not work with the new one, which of course comes with Windows Vista. Online searches for updated drivers have proved unfruitful. Perhaps I need to buy a new adapter...

Meanwhile, I'm gathering data for an annual update to the Locus Index to SF Awards, a tad behind my usual schedule. But it's in work. I'll also be trimming the cover image pane to this blog, real soon now...