2017-01-20:

Fri:
Tried the install of the latest build in the morning but once again got the same message that it wasn't going to work. Then I got an email about the "official" release that's a different branch, I think it would be called, from mine. But it had a patch that supposedly fixed the issue I was seeing.

With nothing much to lose I applied the patch and then the update file. For a wonder it worked. Most everything that was broken remained so, but at least things should update more. oh, and I lost the ability to actually touch the screen and have things happen. Whoops? It's not the cable, I don't think, because the power button still works. But that's the only button that does. Odd.

That was the most exciting thing.

Went to the bank, did the shopping, and went to see my parents. They gave me a PC to get the data off of, I forgot that's what I was doing for this one I've been working on.

Once back here I worked on that! And checked my sites. Naturally it's a very ancient Dell desktop with a PATA HD that hung up trying to copy one of the user folders. I plugged it into my Mac so it would just skip anything it couldn't copy rather than get hung up. Still took over an hour.

Copying the stuff to it now, then I'll look for anything it missed that might be important in the hidden folders.

One call, didn't reach them. Have two she said. Yay.

Sat:
Busy day, began early with setting up a printer. Then it was all "oh, can you set up a VHS player" (no because it's not the 80s) and "oh, can you set up this laptop that's been sitting in a box for a year?" UGh.

Finally got away from that, and went to see about the BSOD. Turned out to be one of the RAM chips, weird. So I replaced that and it seemed fine. I just bought that machine too.

Went to subway for lunch, and got to Sean's a little before twelve.

Then the others arrived I think around 2:00 or at least we got started around then, and we mostly stayed on task. Got through the adventure but didn't really solve the problem the person had to any sort of satisfaction for them.

Got home super late as I wanted to finish it up so went to bed.

Sun:
Another pretty busy day. Didn't see dentist guy because he had a memorial service to attend at 11:00 so instead I got the PC ready as I had gotten the SSD in the day before. Put it in… and their internet is busted. DSL, and the internet light wouldn't stay on. Sigh.

Just up the street I delivered the router and set it up, then came back here and called the guy from the shops that the PC for him was ready. I met him in a parking lot and traded it for green colored cloth.

Came back here it was about 3:30.

Watched the star trek movie I got for christmas, made some calls but no job for tomorrow, and ate dinner and stuff. Started one of the christmas books I got.

Oh, I'll probably go see the hard drive guy, finally put the final replacement for his replacement for his repl- you get the idea, in his machine.

Mon:
Decided to see if the new feature had been activated in the build despite the underlying feature not working in the smaller printer, and it worked. Sorta. I tried it the first time and the customer erase went off all right, but then it started crashing on boot. Had to reload it. But then subsequent times it seemed okay. Sort of boring because it takes about a half hour to do one test, so repeatability? Sure! But at least I managed a bit of testing.

Also did the one feature in the bankbook program I had yet to do, made a few minor changes to the paragon program, and spell checked/cleaned up the game notes.

The people weren't there for the hard drive swap but the office was open so I went in and did my work. Picked up a tablet that needs a new battery. The swap took a few minutes, so I was home in no time.

Did a bunch of things off the list I wanted, like cleaning out those two laptops I got a week or so ago, putting in the last Susan story changes I have printed out, sent the bankbook to the lady, cleaned up my desktop, get ready for tomorrow, ate dinner, etc.

Made calls, I have Wed/Thurs booked yay. No answer from the person I'm supposed to help tomorrow. She was going to look for ways to run a cable between the two offices. Or look at the router, or something. So she wanted me to call so she could tell me what she found out/wanted done. It's 8:00 now and still no reply. Huh.

Tues:
Somewhat busy today. Finished up the testing of the erase customer data feature, wrote up two bugs about it. The messing up when you put the number in twice is real, I reproduced that. Yes! Wrote up the fact that you need to be an administrative user to uninstall, the whole point is you can't be.

Saw a demo of the new logging feature. It was apparently a week old code? It had a lot of problems. But it should be going in to test soon. So looking forward to that. The others are all busy testing the new tablet for the visually impaired that talks. Sort of annoying, but at least it keeps them busy and I stay in my little nook, as I wish.

The lady I was going to work for did call me, said she was ok for now so I called the guy for tomorrow and went there instead. Crappy slow Vista laptop. But it only took 15 minutes to run mbam not that it found anything. It was just messed up in other ways.

Got back here, ate dinner, got a couple of phone calls so made those.

One guy once again infected himself with a crypto virus, good thing I was just there replacing your backup drive, eh? So I spent a bunch of time running mbam and restoring his files.

Worked on the next chapter too, got 3000 words into it but it's not done yet.

Wed:
Nothing too terribly exciting at work to complain- I mean talk about. But I'll be a bit busier as they want me to at least do a sanity test on all the models the software supports. Ugh. Tomorrow I'll write up a little standard "script" I can run to say "I did these things on each model" and start running it. Still no log in the daily build so not testing that yet.

With no job I came back here and called the guy with the printer/scanner "issue." The printer I guess works but he doesn't know how to scan? But he didn't answer so I called dentist guy, who as usual had his laundry list of crap nobody else ever had problems with/would want to do.

Like his iPhone only rings his home phone once. So bizarre.

Got back here just after 7:00 (I got there at around 5:00) and had another call from my time there, so ate dinner and called the two people back. Spent 20 minutes or so reloading quicken for the guy I worked with yesterday.

Then 30 minutes on the phone with a lady having internet trouble, and I was trying to get her to run a command windows as an admin (why, MS, why?) and suddenly it was working again? Okay, whatever.

And then it was 9:00. No writing for me.

Got ready for tomorrow.

Thurs:
Did a few things at work today. Figured out how to send a variety of commands to FTP so I could automate getting the latest daily build. Combine that with a bit of batch file silliness and the windows scheduled tasks and from now on, I should walk in with the three (well, two as the one doesn't update at the moment) machines I typically use already at the latest software level. Go me! Not that they'll pay me any more for saving an hour every day. Sigh.

Made my little "script" and sent it to the project manager to get approval. More like "here's what I was doing you saw it and approved" than "I did what I thought was correct what did you mean you wanted something different" three months later.

Got two additional machines done, really only takes an hour if you don't count the time to load it. Getting the next one is already done, the other two are signed out for some time. Hum.

Also threw together a small script just to test the SNMP get and set. No big deal to do it manually but I figured what the heck?

Went out to the after work job. Filthy place, took about 10 cables, an old router, and more out from under her desk. Machine was so filthy the heatsink was totally clogged, vacuumed it out and then when I brought the machine home, got more dust out with my air compressor. It was just crashing left and right. She said the problems started with Win10. Maybe. But I'm reloading 7 and so far it's been fine. So we'll see.

Still don't know what to get dad for his birthday. 

Two calls, the lady I always do audio CDs for and the place I kept going back to for the RAID drives. She was messing up her email settings so I straightened that out. CD lady I'm going to see Saturday morning.

Well, the install went fine. I opened IE. It hung again. Huh?

Rebooted. Copied her stuff back. Crap. I was just about to write that installing a different ethernet card had solved the problem. Then it BSOD again. Gurr.
Not going to be nice to me, are you stupid thing?

Guess I'll change the RAM out, see if that helps.

Found something for dad's birthday, go me.

The PC continues to run, maybe it is RAM. Two RAM problems in one week? What was there some kind of solar storm or something?

So usual stuff tomorrow, bank and shopping, then seeing my parents.

Hopefully not too many more calls so Saturday can stay light and maybe nothing for sunday? No Sean saturday, might get the last chapter of this reality written for Susan at last.

Hope it's warm-ish where you are too, we're halfway though January and tomorrow things will magically get better with our new president being sworn in.

Right?

Right?