Public service announcements / pleas for help

[wellinghall]

(1) Any political / social historians out there would be well advised to read Andrew Marr's Making of Modern Britain and History of Modern Britain. Excellent books (and excellent TV series, too). Yes, parrot_knight and gramarye1971, I'm looking at you two in particular. Loans can be arranged (at least in this country!)

(2) Can any historians / archaeologists / medievalists direct me in the direction of any recent, good writing on Vikings in Greenland and America? I'm not afraid of heavyweight stuff, although more popular/ ist writing would also be welcome. Yes, jason_finch and muuranker, I'm looking at you here. Pints / chocolate will be bought in return.

(3) I am trying to track down two obscure references in particular, and my existing skills have proved inadequate. Does anyone have both access to really good libraries (looks at Oxbridge people) and a bit of time? A bottle of something / good chocolate can be arranged.

(4) Our aging PC takes ages to boot up, especially compared to our newer (but still one year old, and cheap to start with) laptop. What can I do to fix it? (One thing I can do is take up alitalf's offer of advice). Similar rewards will be offered.

(5) I have some old UK coins, and a scattering of old world coins, to dispose of. If anyone would like them, you can have them for the cost of p&p. Email / message me for details if you're interested.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Collapse I've read, having got it for adaese; but thanks for the rec, as I enjoyed it, and that is broadly the sort of thing I'm looking for. The book I've just started has a bit of interesting stuff in, but definitely tends to the "flaky" end of the spectrum.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

There is also the generalised "flaky" tactic of saying several times in chapter X that the Vikings could have reached New England (or Arthur could have been a Romano-British) centurion, or .... ), then saying in chapter X+1 that "As we have just demonstrated, the Vikings did reach New England ... "

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I can almost see a Hancock's Half Hour on this ...

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

'Ericson the Viking', I believe it was called...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about it at all!

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I am growing curious about the library references though unless they are works of architecture published before 1840, all I have to offer is access to numerous library web catalogues and some knowledge of their quirks.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Once I have dug out the precise details, I will email you with them; thanks. (Although no, they aren't pre-1840 works on architecture; or even post-1840 works on architecture!)

[malaheed.livejournal.com]

PCs tend to build up a lot of crud. It depends on the operating system mostly but you will find that it will be starting up more and more services, programs and applications, many of which are no longer used.

A good start would be to go to the add / remove programs and see what you have on there that you don't need any more and uninstalling it.

After that - well there are a lot of options

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I've cleared a lot of crud off recently, which hasn't made much difference (although this isn't to say there isn't more to go). I may contact you again re the other options, if that's okay.

[gurthaew.livejournal.com]

Coins, yes please (I collect UK and Egyptian, ancient and modern). Next Committedium would be fine. Anything I don't want goes to Oxfam or MSF.

If you could be a little more forthcoming on the references that you are interested in. Remember that we have one or two books here that I could search in.

You, or anyone else, can access the Oxford library system at
http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/Olis/
Whilst this gives titles and location only, it is possible to get access too them. Note that some libraries do not lend and they have to be visited after making an appointment. apademek does have a Sackler library card though.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Coins done. References will do: once I have dug out the exact details. And thanks for the Oxford info.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I saw some of the Marr series - History better than Making, I thought, as in the latter more of Marr's prejudices shone through.

As for the obscure references, e-mail them to me and I'll see what I can do...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thank you - will do (once I have dug out the exact details). I confess I was thinking of you on this one!

[evilmissbecky.livejournal.com]

Our aging PC takes ages to boot up

Have you tried going into the Start Menu --> Programs --> Startup, to see what's in there? Might be a lot of junk it's pre-loading for you that you don't need or want, and that could slow it down.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I think that's the one thing I haven't done recently - I will do it - thanks.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic, edited by James H. Barrett. Brepols Publishers: Trunhout, Belgium (2003) might be a little on the heavyweight side (I'd ask for it via inter-library loan rather than buying it) - but I've seen a couple of its papers referenced.

Land, Sea and Home: Settlement in the Viking Period (Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series) possibly has something of use (again, I'd get it from the library).

There is a potentiallly useful bibliography here: http://www.eh-resources.org/bibliography/biblio_norse.html

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[gramarye1971]

I've been wondering whether to pick up the Marr books for a while now -- I'll see about getting my hands on them. ^_^ Many thanks for the rec.

(I can also offer the Library of Congress for potential reference checking, if other in-country sources run into difficulties.)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thank you - one of them is an American publication.

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

Vikings in America has been a vague interest of mine, but mostly in the background, as I haven't delved into it for any project yet. However, I certainly agree with the recommendation above that the further west and south you go the less reliable the possibilities.

Myself, I would stick to archeological studies based in Nova Scotia. Or the Canadian Maritime provinces. Beyond that, my instincts tell me that the reliability would get iffy.

Sorry I can't recommend specific books - like I said, I haven't delved into it (though it's "on the agenda" for one story I want to do down the line).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I have/can get access to some good academic libraries too, but I'd try the Oxbridge lot first.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thank you (for this and your other comments); I will bear this in mind.