Just making memories...

Most people who know me know my memory before the age of 7 is (too all intents and purposes without SCIENCE testing it) blank. I was hit by a car, and have no memory of the event or anything prior to it, though I assume I must have had SOME short term memory since I don't recall a long period of adjustment.

Anyway.

For years. For as long as I can remember. I have been able to remember an image of a man, dressed in black, wearing a wide-brimmed plain black hat. He had some ability of some sort, was "futuristic" to my recall, and was called Dominic. The name Dominic has a tag beside it in my mind, so people with that name are marked out.

This memory has always been with me, and I knew the image was from a film that I presume I understood and enjoyed. To be like this guy has, I think, been a subtle bit of my persona, though I think it mostly extends to wearing a hat. However, thanks to Emma on IRC, I now know everything about it, and will see this man again.

He is, as I suspect some of the UK people on my flist with a penchant for obscure British films will have guessed, Dominick Hide. Played by Peter Firth in 1980 (and crucially, repeated on December 7th 1982) in the film "The Flipside of Dominick Hide" - although I may be recalling seeing the sequel aired the next week.

A time traveller. Again, anyone who knows me will be amused by this; when I was a kid I owned a large number of watches, clocks - any timepiece I could lay my hands on - all synchronised. We all dream about having control over time, I may possibly have been a little obsessive.

Surprising, huh? Me, Obsessive over something I have no Control over.

The video was deleted years ago, but re-released recently on DVD; I have bought it from Amazon already, it comes with the sequel. I am extremely pleased to have this fragment of memory clarified and made real, because the air date suggests this really IS one of my earliest memories.

And so. Never mind what lessons the movies taught you. What early memories do you have of movies, and how did they impact you. Are they rich, full stories, or fragments, figures, mystery people drifting in the limbo between concrete reality, or dreams?

(On 7th December 1982 I would have been 20 days away from my 8th birthday).

Volvos and UMPCs and Hacks, oh my!

I haven't mentioned the FlipStart in a while. Oddly enough, neither has the UK press, despite what I thought was going to be the UK distribution announcement this month. Having had a chance to use both an OQO and a Ubiquio 702 at the same time, I consider the FlipStart superior to both in terms of performance and usability; I don't dismiss the Ubiquio models, however, since they cost half as much and have just been revised to the 711 model, with faster CPU, more RAM, and SD reader + webcam added for the same price as the old model.

Does, however, anyone know SOMEONE who works at The Register? Because being in the fortunate position to have spoken to FlipStart, been using one for two months, and not having an IT outlet for my writing, I've offered several times to provide a freelance article on the FlipStart machine (frankly, I can equal their editorial standards with very little effort, though I haven't said so) and had no response at all. Whatsoever. Even trying several different email addresses.

FlipStart has had no coverage from them since early 2004, when it was largely deemed vaporware by the industry.

The reason I'm mentioning this is a fluff article on the GD:Itronix MR-1, the ruggedised development of the FlipStart - looks surprisingly familiar, that MR-1 ;). This has just been released, and the EU sales operation suggests a mere £2,700 will get you the IP54, WAN enabled 1.2GHz UMPC that will withstand being doused by your Grande Americano then shoved in the freezer. Cool tech, no pun intended, as I'm sure any Reg reader would agree, but why has the OQO had coverage, the Ubiquio, the various other varieties of Origami, but not the FlipStart? It seems baffling. They seem happy enough to reprint people's PR rather than generate a review, so the absolute dearth of material seems strange.

Sick of the Volvo's endless repairs, but now I'm just disappointed.

Went to start work on the suspension - wheel nuts were on SO tight, I needed the breaker bar to get to work and leaned on the wing whilst lifting. *Crunch*

There goes the lower part of the front wing, due to rust.

Get the wheel off, and the front suspension is basically made of rust. It really needs new shock absorbers; faffing around for a few hours with these ones feels like wasted effort; buying a new set feels like wasted money, because the car just keeps on breaking. Not breaking down, you understand, just breaking - bits keep falling off. Volvos are not what they used to be, it seems :(

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit shit and a bit resigned to the car being rubbish, then remember seeing a wing on eBay. Maybe it was the right colour.

Someone just bought it. AS I WAS LOOKING.

And it looks like it was the right colour, too.

Hmm. I need a sign! I suppose I could go on, and fix this thing, after all. Maybe. Wish it didn't get dark so early now.