Planet Skyron

The laptop was ordered configured with Home Vista with the intention, upon receipt, of installing XP Pro. It’s not as simple as reformatting the drive and installing the older more benign OS. The laptop arrives with the system restore data installed on a hidden hdd partition. This seems to have become acceptable practice among the major vendors of Wintel machines.

In any event, the first order of business was to backup the factory installed system. Recovery discs were created along with a Rescue and Recovery Startup disc using the ThinkVantage utility intended for this task. The utility was a bit temperamental, but came through, at the end of the day.

Before installing XP Pro, two things had to be done after the recovery discs were made (for posterity, I suppose). The first was to set the drive to ‘compatibility’ in the system BIOS. The second part was to remove the hdd partitions.

Any attempt to install XP straightaway results in a failure to install owing to an inability of the installer to recognize the hdd. It will report there are no candidate drives. To work around this stumbling block it was necessary to enter BIOS (F1 during boot sequence) and select Config > Drive and change the setting to Compatibility. Having done this, it was finally possible to proceed with the install.
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An olde domain that used to be the home of The Memory Hole is now adrift, but not at sea. Not to worry, as olde school ties will be maintained with links, at the side, to the latest material added to TMH

The root directory, for the longest time, simply featured a spectacular dolphin image in homage to Douglas N. Adams and his brilliant Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio play. It’s not entirely disappeared, residing nowadays in the sister floonet.net sphere.

Of course, Planet Skyron is the home of Mr. & Mrs. Samuel L. Brainsample, the very ordinary couple whose unusual passion for blancmange was key to Dunbar menswear shop proprietor, Angus Podgorny, becoming the only Scotsman ever to win Wimbledon. Douglas Adams didn’t have a hand in this, but contributed to the very British programme that documented it. Alas, he is no longer with us.

Here’s a recipe for blancmange for those re-enacters and otherwise anachronistic society types who’ve grown tired of doing Pearl Harbor and would rather try their hand at a pivotal moment in Wimbledon history when chief inspectors could not distinguish cannibalistic blancmange impersonators from the real article.

Blancmange

From:
Blancmange (blawnh-MAHNZH), a French favorite, is a cooked pudding that’s poured into individual ramekins and chilled. Unmolded puddings are often served with a fruit sauce or compote.

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
4 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk, divided
1 1/3 cups sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
8 ounces frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed
Cooking spray

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup milk in a small bowl; set aside.
Place 4 cups milk and almonds in a blender, and process until smooth. Strain through a sieve into a medium saucepan; discard solids. Stir in sugar, salt, and extract, and bring to a boil. Add the gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin dissolves; remove from heat.

Place pan in a large ice-filled bowl for 30 minutes or until milk mixture comes to room temperature; stir occasionally. Gently stir one-fourth of whipped topping into milk mixture; gently fold in remaining topping.

Spoon 2/3 cup milk mixture into each of 9 (6-ounce) custard cups coated with cooking spray. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Loosen edges of blancmange with a knife or rubber spatula. Place a dessert plate upside down on top of each cup, and invert onto plates.

Yield: 9 servings

Bon appétit!