More mobile phone

For the past few days, I have been receiving messages on my phone telling me that I can upgrade the operating system to version 6, aka marshmellow. I thought that I would wait until the weekend to do this, when I would be turning on my personal wireless router. The reason why I was waiting for the weekend was that the kindle edition of the latest installment in the DCI Banks series was being published on Friday, so I would be turning on the router for that.

Unfortunately ... I discovered that whilst the router provides internet services when it is physically connected to my laptop computer via cable, it has ceased broadcasting its existence; in other words, no wifi. This meant that my phone could not download the update and the kindle could not download the book. Naturally, discovering this on Friday afternoon means waiting until Sunday to get it fixed.

Today I established a chat session with the phone company; after dismantling the router in order to get the sim's identity number, I was told how to reset the router without changing any settings (one presses simultaneously on the 'wps' and power switches and holds them depressed for at least ten seconds). This did the trick, so now my devices can access the internet.

The kindle downloaded the book in a flash (this is always amazing to me) and the phone could download the software update. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to download the update; downloading then took another twenty minutes or so, after which I installed the update (another five nerve wracking minutes).

Now that the phone has restarted, the os seems remarkably similar to what was before. The icons have slightly changed borders, but otherwise nothing immediately strikes me as being a result of the update. I thought that I was going to have to learn a new interface, in the same way that Android 5 was different from Android 4, but fortunately that seems not to be the case. Sigh of relief.

I'll be writing about DCI - now Detective Superintendent Banks - in a few days, after I finish the book. I haven't even touched it yet. I did prepare myself, however, by rereading the previous book, 'Abattoir Blues', during which one musical item stood out: Agnes Obel and "Aventine". I downloaded it, not expecting too much. The first track on the album - "Chord Left" - reminded me strongly of Satie, although that's because it's set in an exotic scale (probably Phrygian) and the sole instrument is piano. Vocals remind me of Alison Goldfrapp. Although it's been playing in the background all morning at work, I haven't listened sufficiently closely in order to form an opinion.