2015-11-06:

At least, I think?

Fri:
And so the first week back at a "real" job comes to an end. I'll probably go back for a second, you know, just to try it out.

My machine was down part of the day, and we had that long bug meeting in the morning but I still managed to get the "copy" test matrix finished. Logged a few other bugs. Like my machine keeps insisting it wants 5.5x8.5" paper, while another machine does not want this. It's bizarre.

I got asked to look over their repository of documents and match them up to the spreadsheet of test cases relating to them, so it doesn't, for instance, say to print a color job but list a grayscale one. So that's the plan for Monday.

Saw my parents, went shopping. They were totally out of waffles at this point, and the salad I buy. Aldi, I am disappoint.

Otherwise made my calls for the evening, there were a couple, and that was that. Somehow one guy's Mac lost the keyboard somehow when he did the latest OS upgrade. Turns out that's a thing, with various solutions. He said he talked to Apple about it, but the first result in google let me fix it. Once again, phone tech support for the win. Honestly, do these people not know how to look stuff up online? I tried a bunch of things and had it solved in 15 minutes, he said the Apple person tried for at least an hour. How can they not have a database of this stuff, it didn't seem like it was a rare issue, the forum went on for pages. Oh well. He was my 1:00 for tomorrow, so the appointment is back on.

The guy I looked at the printer for this week says he can't print now. Sigh.

Sat:
Took Tinker in, he seems fine. Not too much dental erosion so we dodged that bullet for another year. (He had it done last year.) They got treats and catnip, double the fun for double the day. (Both Halloween and a vet visit in one day.)

Then just hug out until my 1:00, setting up his new router.

I think my trackball button is starting to die again. This will be the second one. Of course the replacement was used, and the same model, so I suppose it was inevitable. Sigh. And my UPS needs new batteries. They lasted 2 years, just about. Which I suppose is about right.

Turned a bunch of my old .mov files into .mp4s. Who knows how long quicktime 7 will be supported, right?

Did two jobs in the afternoon. Both were somewhat crappy, for different reasons. The first one was "set up my router." Right? So I figured, okay, a half hour for that is more than reasonable.

No. When I got there it was "set up my router, upgrade my OS to the latest release, show me how to use Picasa to do this thing, answer all these questions…"

So I was late to my next one. Which really, really pissed me off. The job, I mean. He can print okay, well, once. Then the print spooler just crashes. One website directed me to change some setting but when I went to find it, the window was blank. "Windows Features" I think it was. I looked at "available updates" is blank too. I tried the system file checker, which helpfully informed me it found some problems but couldn't fix them. Thanks, MS. Why even write a tool that can do no more than tell you "a problem" exists, not what that problem is, or fix it?

So I just grabbed it and said I would work on it the next day. Just made it to Sean's on time, which didn't matter as Stan was late. No Other Sean either, so we did games instead of Demongate High. Let's see, Mizzy and myself lost and then won as a team. Sean won the castle building game while the three of us were pretty close. Watched Dr Who and one Titians episode. Left at 12:00 because I had crap to do in the morning.

Sun:
Which I did. Changed the clocks and started "upgrading" this crappy Vista machine. Honestly, it's a dual core machine, 4GB of RAM, how can windows slow it to such a crawl?

Did my paperwork. Oh, what I have been reduced to on a Sunday.

My 1:00 called to move it to 10:30. Sure, I can just do that. (The sad thing was I could.)

Went out at 10:30 to do my 1:00. Got his little slideshow exported and answered some questions for him. For 2 hours. He wants a better HD (read, an SSD) into his crappy 1.3 Ghz acer to try and get some actual use out of it, because it's of course so freaking slow otherwise. So I took that with me.

When I got back the Vista machine was ready, so I made lunch, started the updates, and watched the latest Heroes Reborn. Once that was done and the updates HADN'T EVEN STARTED YET I said "forget it" and returned the system. Of course the lexmark wouldn't print. It kept giving me crap about not being able to communicate. Oh really? Then why does it go "ready" when I turn it on, but go "offline" when I turn it off? Seems like that's "communication" to me.

But what do I know?

Came back here, it was now 3:30.
Started the win10 upgrade on the laptop, figuring if I do that now, I can same myself some grief later because I won't have to do the 7->10 upgrade when I do the reload. I'm so smart. My goodness that took hours.

Made my tasty soup for the week and some salmon burgers. Still had enough rice mixture.

Had only one call this weekend, about 5:30 just as I was starting the cooking. Should hopefully be a short one, but there's my 5:30 slot for tomorrow gone. Another week of testing begins.

Mon:
Testing… or doing other related activities, that is.

Quite a busy day, but not for the reasons you might think. Started off finishing a few things up, getting the documentation ready for the next release for my boss. She gave me an ftp site (of all things) full of documents to look through and figure out one for each line in the spreadsheet. I figured it would be easiest to open them all, figure out pages and orientation and such, then just jot down the name of whatever fit the bill. Would have finished today too, if it hadn't been for the dentist appointment.

They needed to do a whole series of X-rays, so that took 20 minutes I hadn't counted on. Sigh. Oh well, left at 10:30, got back a little before 1:00. I got the one spreadsheet done, and about half of the transfer. I figure another hour will take care of it, now that I know what document is what, it's a snap to just note down which to use for the test.

Then went out to my 5:30. Her problem? The power plug. It didn't want to make contact unless I held it in. So I switched it with the lamp and they both worked. Totally not worth my time going out there.

The guy who I changed the one cartridge for called again. Apparently he needs the other one changed now? "oh, can you come tonight?" Uh no? It's 6:00 and I'd like to eat dinner, plus I was nowhere near ayrault road and I WAS JUST FREAKING THERE YOU IDIOT.

Honestly, I didn't even charge the guy. Maybe that was my first mistake?

My other calls were just questions, nothing major to report.

Tues:
Not much to report today, a bunch of minor things at work got done. We're basically waiting for the next release so I finished up what I hadn't gotten done yesterday in the morning. Wrote up a new bug or two. Figured out why my unit was acting different than another regarding small things being scanned. Tomorrow will be much busier, we'll get the latest v2 and install it, then run the test cases I was working on. Then hopefully work on making some new test cases for the other parts of the system that aren't so visible.

Didn't get a single call today, so I didn't go out after work. Weird how it's just died.

Started a new Skyrim game! Completely forgot how to access the magic screen, so I went around getting killed by stupid necromancers thinking I didn't have any. Whoops.

Wed:
Back to testing in a big way today. As I had helpfully finished the reliability matrix, I, along with my partner the other new hire, were assigned to run it.

The morning was spent mostly in meetings, setting up the new build, and finishing a few more test cases for the requirements document I was working on.

The testing began in ernest in the afternoon. My machine doesn't have a finisher, so no staples for me. But otherwise I got through… a tiny bit of it. Looks like I know what tomorrow's work will be. (Apart from another meeting, to finish talking about the bug we didn't get to in today's meeting.)

One job at night, the outreach people. Seemed to be their frontier equipment in the end. Even her phone couldn't connect to it, and of course I couldn't log into it so I had to reset the whole thing. Ugh.

A few calls today. One person said they would drop something off, one didn't need me anymore, and one insisting their tower wasn't going on and the internet didn't work. Down by the shops, so that'll be fun to get to tomorrow at 5:30.

Got the SSD in, so I started the install. Went fine, doing the 10 upgrade earlier paid off, as that went in fine on the new drive.

Thurs:
The good job continues to be good.
The bad job continues to be bad.

Guess which is which.

Testing continued unabated, apart from the cleanup meeting that is. It's pretty slow going, mainly because of all the odd stuff that happens that must be documented. I don't know, it just seems like I should be further along than I am. I do have a finisher on loan, so at least I can run the staples test now. Wrote up a bunch of stuff at the end of the day. Also moved the little nook I'm in around a little bit. There's this other row of equipment I sometimes see one guy working on. I shoved him back in the corner that was totally empty so we didn't get in each other's way but I would still have room to have my laptop right there. I was doing test stuff on paper, then entering it, but even printed on 11x17 paper, this speadsheet is so freaking huge the printing is miniscule. My "partner" is doing it that way, so I guess it can work. This seems easier to me though, having the thing just open so I can see it.

Won't be any interruptions tomorrow or Friday. Both my bosses are out (the big boss has been gone all week). I probably won't get through even half of the tests by then though.
Actually, I think we're still having the QRB meeting, just that someone else will run it. So maybe it will be interrupted. Not that there will be anything new from me, I'm putting my stuff in a different section of the website.

And new we come to the bad one.
Got a couple of calls, one person who apparently doesn't understand English. He wanted me there tomorrow morning, despite my VERY CLEAR phone message I only work this job in the evenings and weekends. He took 9:00 AM saturday instead. Because as you know Friday is grocery day.

The job today was a bust. A full hour of driving (there and back, total) way out by the shops, and the thing was dead. Tried a new power supply, reseating the RAM, (it didn't beep when it was removed either) reseating the processor, taking all the cables out. Nothing worked. So of course I couldn't charge, meaning it was a complete waste of time.

I could have gone out and done Mr Friday Morning if I hadn't been failing to fix this other machine.

I really hope this Xerox thing continues for the forceable future. Because I could really do less repair work. I really could.

So currently two jobs for Saturday, no Sean as he's at RIT doing something or another this weekend, and we'll see what calls we get tomorrow. Seeing my parents of course, and the aforementioned shopping. Have to take care of some leaves, they're coming down from my tree now. Probably Sunday, it seems I'll at least have some time unless I get some rush of calls before then. No little rain symbol on Sunday either, so hopefully it's at least passibly nice.

Got the laptop done. His copy of office is weird, punching the number into the website says it's "ineligible for activation" and other sites say office "standard" is some kind of specially licensed thing? Where did he even get it? I put LibreOffice on instead.

But his files are moved over, so that's the important thing. Didn't reach him, so who knows when he'll get it back. I'll bring it with me tomorrow and call him, hopefully I can get it back to him late tomorrow night after the shopping. He's not too far away, after all. (unlike some. Yes, I'm bitter.)

So that's this week. Probably get ready for tomorrow and sneak in some more Skyrim?

Hope your November is going smoothly, and remember, it's only two weeks to thanksgiving and six until christmas!