My laptop died again. Windows decided it would stop working, so I reinstalled it... And then the computer wouldn't work at all, so I had to reformat the hard disk and do a clean install of Windows. I've lost a lot of programs, but I have backups... I hope that I can get everything back, but right now all I've got is a yucky default XP blue desktop and the stupid default programs that came with the computer when I got it. Still got my Firefox and its related themes, extensions, cookies and bookmarks though - I backed up my profile onto a CD this morning and restored it. Yay! I think I'd be lost without all my extensions, I have a lot of them and I don't think I'd have remembered all of them for re-downloading.

Anyway, I've been trying to get this thing back in working order for around 6 hours now, and it's showing no signs of being done yet. I'm going to get Windows patched up and up-to-date (my recovery CD only has XP SP1) then I'm going to restore a backup of my registry. Hopefully that will mean I'll get all my programs back, because I don't have any of the original setup disks for them any more. *Sigh*

Windows sucks. This is the second time in 18 months that I've had to reformat/reinstall, and this came after my laptop practically died for good. I fear this may be the beginning of the end with this computer... It's 3 years old now and its warranty runs out next month. I have no money so I won't be getting a new one, so I just hope it doesn't die completely.

Edit: Still here, at half past 2 in the morning. The computer died again when I tried to restore parts of the registry. I've now lost 100MB worth of photos. I had backed them up onto a CD-ROM but upon looking at the CD, the files have somehow been replaced with a blank folder. I know I backed them up, I remember doing it. I just don't know why they're not where I thought they were. Anyway, that's sad, but it could have been worse. At least I've still got the script I was in the middle of writing and the new version of PHPAskIt which I was meant to be releasing last month. *Sigh*

New theme. Doesn't work properly in IE *cough*use a better browser*cough* (IE issue fixed, but that's no excuse for still using it! Upgrade! - Thanks Jenny). Photos used with permission from Jem.

I start my work placement tomorrow, and am not in bed (should've gone at least two hours ago). Instead trying to fix this layout in IE, but of course IE's a piece of poo and won't listen to anything I tell it. Grrrrr. Still have a lot to do before bed. *Sigh* Lots of stuff needs fixing here, so don't complain about things not working. I'll do it tomorrow.

PS: Happy birthday Mum!

According to Jem, I don't blog enough. So just for Jem, here is an entry. :P

I am having weird browser issues with the greyscale theme (the default one). First the numbers next to the comments disappeared in Opera when I upgraded to version 8.54, then the blog title arrow thing disappeared in IE. WTF?! Now, IE users have never been able to see the numbers next to the comments, because of the way my CSS works and how IE displays its ordered lists. Basically the gravatar image ends up covering the number, and no matter what I did it wouldn't work without screwing up in other browsers. But Opera always used to show the numbers, I don't get why it's suddenly stopped now... I know it's to do with the image again (if I take out the float: left; everything is fine, but if I put it back or change it to float: right; it disappears) but I don't know how to fix it. Grrr. And as for the title bullet, IE is refusing to display it without a background colour. It refuses transparent, none, or inherit - it MUST be an actual colour. Whaaat? It was working fine before I condensed all my background stuff into one property, but I tried putting it back into the separate ones and it still won't work. Grrrrrrr.
Anyway, Firefox is still behaving, as I hope is Safari (don't have a Mac, can't check) and all the rest of the browsers I don't have. It's just IE and Opera that seem to have forgotten how to do things. *Grumble*

I need to redesign this site completely. Revamp and rejig of content and stuff. I need to delete the whole thing and start again, that's the only way I actually manage to do it. If I just go through what I already have and try and improve it, it just ends up staying the same or looking even worse. Boo.

Oh yeah, and also according to Jem, I don't link her enough. So here are a few plugs to go with the other 5 or so that she has on my homepage alone. :P