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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Author: Karel Kerezman

  • The Ghost of SMS Past

    A few weeks ago I tried to send my friend Geoffrey a text message from my phone to his in reply to a question he’d asked. At the time I didn’t realize that I’d incorrectly entered his number into my phone’s address list, so I couldn’t understand why he never replied.

    Three weeks ago, mind you. I’ve since fixed the typo and all is right with the world. I didn’t really pay much thought to the minor issue of the poor confused soul who might have read my terse missive. Nothing came of it at the time, so it was no biggie, right?

    “Wrong!”

    I went to bed early tonight on account of sheer emotional exhaustion. For the first time in ages, I was actually asleep before midnight. Perhaps it just figures that such bliss couldn’t last…

    My phone rang at just past midnight. The caller hung up about the time I managed to answer, and while the number looked vaguely familiar I couldn’t quite place it. Had it matched anything in my address list it would’ve displayed a name along with the number, so I figured maybe it was a coworker trying to reach me about a problem at the office. I decided to wait up a few minutes to see if they’d call back.

    The caller did try again, but it wasn’t who I expected. See, this complete stranger called to ask if I’d just sent him a text message.

    Nope, I replied, I haven’t sent a text message all evening. What did it say?

    “Enemy Territory.”

    Aroo? I did send a message like that, but it was weeks ago… and oh yeah, there was a problem with having the wrong number. But… that was weeks ago!

    Turns out this gentleman had received the original message, wondered what was going on but decided to let it slide until it happened again. Here’s the weird part: It happened again. Tonight. Somehow either his carrier’s SMS got wonky or mine did, because a message I sent three weeks ago (he still had it on his phone, thus the date checking) was re-sent at midnight tonight.

    I explained this likelihood to him, and we had a good laugh. I’m fairly certain he doesn’t think I’m some sort of weirdo who likes to play pranks on random strangers via SMS, anyway.

    Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can manage to fall asleep again…

  • Well, why didn’t you say so?

    “So-and-so needs a computer, right away!”

    “So-and-so is moving into their office, and there’s no computer for them yet. That must be remedied ASAP!”

    “So-and-so doesn’t have a computer yet. That’s your top priority!”

    Fine. Who needs a standby server for the digital audio system that keeps us on the air, anyway? Here, let me spend four hours (not counting interruptions for stupid emergencies, which ballooned that time up to seven hours) prepping a computer for this so-and-so who, until I started getting the aforementioned flak, I had no idea existed and nobody accounted for when we were buying computers. Yeah.

    “Oh, that’s nice! But so-and-so is gone this week and won’t be back until Monday!”

    Urge to kill… rising…

  • Version 2. Or 5, depending.

    Why haven’t I been updating lately? It goes something like this: This past weekend, the creator of Monaural Jerk announced a new version release, the first in about two years. So of course I couldn’t resist the temptation to… upgrade!

    On the upside: The code is cleaner and neater, the admin interface is vastly improved, the stylesheets are more a part of the core layout engine, the channel management is not only more intuitive but also more useful and… did I mention the admin interface is vastly improved? Good.

    On the downside: There’s a bit of a learning curve to figure out the best way to integrate additions, and upgrading from an earlier version still has some kinks to iron out. No, really, those are the only downsides.

    I’m nearly ready (minus some stylesheet tinkering and a couple of can’t-live-without features) to replace the “main” site code with the new codebase… which will probably already have occurred if you’re reading this and didn’t come here from a link I personally sent you. Some of the old features and subsections may take a few days to bring back online, but now I know how it’s done so it won’t be a big hassle.

    Wow. This is cool. Damned cool.

  • Edward Elric’s Inbox

    Found at Spokey Dokey…

    … have you ever wondered what the Fullmetal Alchemist’s email inbox looks like?

  • Digital Archiving, The Old-Fashioned Way

    After basically spending two days flat on my back, I wanted to do something. “Hey,” I thought to myself, “I can add the CDs I’ve acquired in the last year or so to my music catalog!”

    Way back in the Dark… that is, the DOS Ages, I registered a little piece of software called Playlist. Its sole purpose was to allow one to efficiently catalog one’s music collection. There were other catalog programs out there, but Playlist was dirt easy: It stored every previous entry for each field, so adding new media from the same artist (for instance) could be accomplished with a minimum of keystrokes. I put 154 CDs into that thing… and the reason I know the exact number will be explained shortly.

    Eventually Playlist “went Windows” and earned a new name: Visitrax. Because registered users of the old program could run the full version of the new without paying a second fee, I happily made the transition and hurriedly entered the other 150-some-odd CDs in my collection.

    With all of the excitement this past year, somehow I lost track of my Visitrax install. More importantly, I lost track of my old Playlist install directory… in which I had a text file containing the registration code! Eep! I looked on all four of the household computers, I searched through old email archives, and poked around on the various backup CDs. Nope. Somehow when I transitioned to the new PC I managed to leave my only copies of Playlist and Visitrax behind. Damn!

    Finally, in desperation, I decided to attach every IDE drive on my shelf to one of the computers to see if I could salvage something from this mess. On (of course) the very last drive in the pile, I found what I was looking for: The Playlist directory with the registration code and (bonus!) the most-recent database… from when I was using Playlist.

    Oh well. At least I have those 154 CDs entered in. That only leaves about 200 and some-odd to go… and this time, I’m making more intelligent backups. Argh.

    By the way, if you’re at all inclined towards building a catalog of your music, I highly recommend Visitrax. The current version pulls data from CDDB (freedb, actually) for you, and also integrates with Winamp by allowing you to associate a track with its digital version if it’s on your hard drive.

  • Owie. Owie owie owie owie.

    Long story short? On Wednesday I did something stupid, something that more than three years of working pack-and-ship taught me not to do. I lifted and twisted, and my lower back went into the most intense spasm I’ve experienced in years. I ended up on the floor of my office grimacing and cursing and quite upset at myself.

    I sort of got through the rest of that day by sheer force of will, and figured I’d be okay the next day as long as I took it easy that evening.

    Ha! As if!

    At about 11:30 Thursday morning, my back got worse. I couldn’t transition from standing to sitting or vice versa without incredible pain. As much as possible I stayed in my chair at my desk, and then slowly made my way home.

    Friday morning, I tried to get out of bed. No go. I called work to say I wouldn’t be in, and I stayed in bed or on the living room couch all day and night. It was much the same for most of today, though now I’m more-or-less able to get around and function normally. Bending at the waist is still a no-go, for the most part, at least not without considerable discomfort.

    Ah well. I needed the rest and (enforced) relaxation, right? Hopefully I can continue to recover tomorrow so I can be functional at work on Monday…

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