I spent a couple of hours this afternoon persuading my firewall to let through the packets it needs to let through in order for my printer to scan for me (having downloaded a 363Mb file from HP that has everything I want in it and about 362Mb that I don't want). The software that came with my HP printer claimed that it wouldn't work with Windows 7, which is no surprise given that I had to thrash it severely to get it to do anything with XP.
While doing this transfer to a new PC, I finally filled my cables drawer. I therefore decided to purge it. A bag full of bits and went to the attic, just in case I ever need 10 phone line cable-splitters or a power supply for a kettle lead that works on American electrical wall sockets or a parallel printer cable (actually, I did throw out one of these, I kept the other) or an RS232 gender changer or a null modem cable.
I also purged my software and documentation drawer. Now, should I wish to recondition any of the old PCs in my attic, I won't be able to reinstall the drivers for their Soundblaster 16 cards or whatever. I threw out quite a lot of stuff (mouse drivers, printer drivers, MS Windows on dozens of floppies), but I expect that should I actually need it there'll be a copy on the Internet somewhere I can snaffle. There was also documentation telling me how to install particular ancient makes of video card or hard disc drives, which I kept because every one of them had a different jumper pin configuration on the back...
Anyway, the fact that I got my scanner working and the fact that I emptied my documentation drawer and the fact that I had to install a ton of stuff on my new PC just to get to be able to do this all combine to bring you this picture for today's QBlog entry:
Ah, there was indeed once a time when manufacturers felt people had to be given instructions on how to install a keyboard...