Monthly Archives: July 2006

Miscellaneous

Sysfader problem, I think

July 6, 2006 – 10:14 pm

UPDATE: After 24 hours the problem appears to mysteriously have fixed itself, or else the actions I took finally had an effect. I accidentally opened Outlook Express by the back door by clicking on an “email me” link. It didn’t crash, so then I very cautiously, with my fingers crossed, opened the whole thing, and it worked. Perhaps the finger-crossing did it… I’ve opened it several times since and it seems OK. I’ve still got all the display boxed unchecked and the screen looks a bit odd, but I’m going to live with that.)

A request for help, because I know my readers know everything – today I restarted the (newly new Dell) PC (running Windows XP) in an attempt to get a file to print (a problem I’ve had and solution that I’ve been using for years), and which may have been unrelated to the subsequent problem.

When the machine booted up, Outlook, the email programme I use, refused to open, generating an error message. I think the problem is with “Sysfader”, because the blank square from the “Outlook opening box” just stays there, white, and when I try to shut down the machine the error message is that it is not responding. (Although the “close anyway” command works.)

What I’ve tried:

* going back to several different system restore points

* unticking all of things under Control Panel – Performance and Maintenance – Adjust Visual Effects – Performance Options (based on something I read on a website.)

* Switching off Google desktop.

None of which had any effect.

Outlook has in it several emails that I don’t have elsewhere that I need now. Help!!!!!!

Extra note: I’m running up-to-date Zone Alarm with anti-virus, anti-spyware etc, so I don’t think there is a problem like that.

(Suggestions to throw a meringue pie in the face of Bill Gates will also go down well. As I was discussing with a genuine techie yesterday, if computers were cars…)

Permalink | Comments (3)
Feminism

The horror of forced marriage

July 6, 2006 – 11:35 am

The cases that generally get attention are those in which the women end up dead, or grossly physically injured, but the practice also causes enormous psychological injury.

The girl, from Peterborough, was subjected to moral blackmail by her parents who said they would kill themselves if she did not marry the cousin she had never met.
The judge told the High Court in London: “She was kept in a remote part of Pakistan for many months and, despite begging her parents to be allowed to return to this country, she was subjected to unrelenting pressure, initially from her mother and subsequently by her father, as also from other members of the wider family.”… “She was subject to continued emotional pressure and moral blackmail, applied over many months,” the judge said. “Her will was overborne.”

Rightly, her marriage has been annulled, but that doesn’t mean she is free, for her solicitor told the court:

“I had to meet her in a Jobcentre to get instructions on the case because there was no other way to meet her. I, a white middle-class lawyer could not go to her home to meet her,” she said.
The woman is still living with her brothers who, Ms Hutchinson said, were in control. “She is cowed by her parents. She has to be terribly careful,” the solicitor said.

The woman is now 20, so it is probably too late for social services to intervene, but there must surely be some way of giving her some genuine freedom.

Permalink | Comment (0)
Miscellaneous

When is a tuk-tuk not a tuk-tuk

July 6, 2006 – 11:29 am

If it is running in Britain with “roll bars, side-impact protection and seatbelts”, and fixed, non-exploitative fares, is a tuk-tuk still a tuk-tuk?

Permalink | Comments (5)
Theatre

A great Cleopatra; pity about the Antony

July 6, 2006 – 10:40 am

Over on My London Your London I’ve just put up my review of Antony & Cleopatra at the Globe, from press night last night. Frances Barber is a very fine Cleopatra, but the men don’t match up. As I say over there, whether you think that justifies three hours on the wooden benches might depend on your sexuality and gender.

Permalink | Comment (0)
Carnival of Feminists

Break out the champagne…

July 5, 2006 – 11:02 pm

… for the 18th Carnival of Feminists is now up, on Ink and Incapability. And it is a beauty.

There are some great ideas there – the South African anti-rape pill (for men, of course); some great controversies – what’s women’s role in creating sexist men? and, some great accounts of women’s victories, including those of a young retail assistant who could well and truly stand up for herself.

Do check it out, and as ever, please help to spread the word!!

Permalink | Comment (0)
Feminism Politics

One more blow to women’s pensions

July 5, 2006 – 8:21 am

Women have traditionally married men a few years older than them, but it looks like this is one more now mal-adaptive social practice. A report out of Australia makes one of those obvious but important points, when the men retire, they strongly tend to want their wives to retire at the same time, which further reduces (after children, caring responsibilities etc) their pension contributions, and hence final pensions.

The median superannuation balance for women aged over 65 is less than 5 per cent of that saved by men of the same age, according to the study by the Melbourne Institute’s Diana Warren and the Australian Government Office for Women.
“We’re at last seeing that disruptions to work from family and other matters are far more likely to affect women than men,” said Julie Bishop, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women’s Issues.
“Women are more likely to be pressured into early retirement by their partners, doctors and employers than retire from their own decisions.”

Women, however, want the men to stay at work for as long as possible. The cynics will say this is for many but I suspect the desire for personal space has a lot more to do with it – lots of marriages break-up, or get very unhappy, when the couple are forced together on the retirement of one or both.

Permalink | Comment (0)

« Previous Page — Next Page »

« Previous Page — Next Page »