Advanced Boot Options on a Toshiba Satellite

I've just found out, after a few hours of messing about with a broken Vista boot, that you need to hold F8 at switch-on to get advanced boot options. That might save you some time. Now to see if any of the options actually help me out.

It looks like an automatic update has done something bad to Vista. It boots through to a black screen and a pointer, but doesn't get any further.

Cheap and cheerful 20/20 vision

Well, I'm not sure about the 20/20 part, but by drilling two very small holes in a pair of sunglasses I've managed to double the range at which I can read a number plate. The main problem was aligning the holes correctly for a given distance, but as long as you get 'em pretty close you can bend the glasses around a bit to improve that. Of course, a monocular version might work as well or better.

I'd always wondered why some things came into better focus when I was looking at them just over the top of something - usually looking at a further away object e.g. desk over the top of a very close object e.g. fingers. Assumption would have to be that it's the same thing that happens in a pin-hole camera (nothing is out of focus because all the light passes through a single point) and you're restricting some of the light that would otherwise come in at the wrong angle for your eye's lens and make things blurry.

I'd also just read a NewScientist article that talked about the role of peripheral vision (and possibly lack of bright light) in helping, or not hindering myopia.

So I'm going to try wearing them for 10 minutes a day and see if my vision gets any better - it's been pretty stable for ages now and I've had -2.50 diopter contacts for about 5 years.