Since I seem to be skin-obsessed right now...

here are four more manips for TTH skins - anything to avoid getting on with work. Behind cuts since they're about 70k in all. They aren't on line as skin images at TTH yet, and I can't actually access TTH right now anyway, but ought to be there eventually if Jinni still wants them.

( Tara, Xena and Gabrielle )

( First Slayer and Stargate )

( Thunderbird 2 over Sunnydale )

( Evil Willow's Future Career )

LATER - About two minutes later - it now turns out that TTH's web hosting service have suddenly (e.g with no warning) pulled the plug on them for using "excessive bandwidth" despite them having been guaranteed an unlimited service when they took out the contract. Considering that it's predominantly text-based site for fan fiction that seems more than a little bizarre.

Anyone know a web hosting service, preferably US based, that offers unlimited bandwidth on a dedicated server and really means it?

How to clean a keyboard

A few days ago someone I know wanted to get rid of a keyboard because something smelly had been spilled in it. I suggested a way of cleaning it, which may not sound very safe but actually works pretty well; wash it in a dish washer, shake it out thoroughly, and give it a couple of days to dry afterwards. This gets rid of all the crud, and the water dries leaving the keyboard working.

Using a dishwasher is pretty safe because the water is deionised and doesn't contain much in the way of impurities. What if your keyboard is too big to fit..?

Well, I've got a small dish washer and a big keyboard which I love - an original IBM AT model. It has a lovely clunky feeling that you just don't get with modern keyboards, and my typing speed with it is about twice what it is with the flimsy piece of shit that came with this PC. But I'm also balding and have a beard, which means I shed a lot of hair, and tend to eat while I'm working occasionally. The result after several years of never actually getting round to cleaning it was that my keyboard was FILTHY - you could barely see the plastic, and it was full of hair.

So yesterday I plugged in the flimsy piece of shit and took my fine vintage keyboard to the bathroom, where I leaned it on its end and gave it a hot shower and scrub with a scrubbing brush and washing up liquid. Got rid of tons of hair and other less identifiable crap, gave it a good shake, three or four times, to get rid of the water, and left it to dry in the warmest part of the flat. And of course...

( ...Today )