In No Shape to Play

Drat. I'm so out of practice that it only just occurred to me that the baby's been asleep for an hour, and I could have been playing Skyrim all this time.

But I'm so out of practice that I hesitate to start now, because it will probably take me half an hour to remember the controls, and I can't stay up late playing unless I want to be really tired all day tomorrow, because I certainly can't plan on sleeping in.

Maybe tomorrow night.

In the meantime, I recommend this interesting story by Jay Stanley on Blog of Rights. He lost his credit card, and in order to prove that he was himself and get a new one, had to correctly answer a question based on information "obtained from third-party information services."

It turned out that the third-party information service was wrong, meaning that he couldn't prove he was himself.

The piece has interesting thoughts about account security (good in principle, but if it's so secure you can't access it, that's a problem); creepy information gathering (some company out there is just collecting bits of possibly-correct information about you and selling it to other companies for 'security' questions and who knows what else, and you have no real way to know what they have on file for you or correct any errors); and the way that even though we often hate phone trees* and assume that "getting to a human" will help resolve a problem, in this case "there was little difference between computer agent and human agent" because the human had no authority to override the computer.


*Not me, I love phone trees and will happily push buttons all day rather than talk to a person, as long as I can actually accomplish what I need to. But then, I hate people and can hardly wait for the arrival of our robot overlords. As long as they can get stuff done.

Unrelated Matters

The official Help Desk and web master was able to repair my broken 'L' key. I should have asked him to also paint on a new 'A,' because surely he has keyboard paint in his office somewhere.


On an unrelated matter, is it worth it to pay for copies of an issue of a journal that you wrote a column for? It's not one we get at work, so I can't just steal their copy.

I jest! I wouldn't steal from work. At least, not after I mentioned it on the internet for the world to see. Besides, I have all the pens and sticky notes I can use from loot at conferences.

Anyway, my thieving ways aside, the point is, I won't have a paper copy unless I pay for one, on account of they only send you the PDF. But it's just a review column, not an impressive research article or anything, so I'm honestly not sure how much I care.

I'd probably just stick a paper copy in a drawer somewhere and never look at it again, and it's not as if anyone I know who isn't a librarian cares about the many awesome features of the National Academies Press and their free ebooks.


On another matter unrelated to either of the above matters, there's a blog on my Google Reader that has apparently been attacked by malware, so every time I click on its link I get a terrifying red warning page advising me that my computer could be infected if I proceed.

So I naturally hurry away, but since I can't click on the blog title in Reader, I can't just unsubscribe, and I also can't mark its posts as 'read,' so it just sits there in bold telling me it has unread posts and I can do nothing!

It's kind of annoying. There used to be a way in Reader to edit feeds without displaying posts, but I can't figure it out since they've redesigned it and removed or hidden the Manage Subscriptions link.

And just now I searched Reader Help and it's been placed under Reader Settings, so that solved that problem.

See, I just needed to actually bother to try to find an answer, instead of merely noting my annoyance at the problem! Let that be a lesson to all of you.

Computer Abuse

I need some keyboard glue. Is there such a thing as keyboard glue?

I dropped a 7-piece model heart on my keyboard at work and the 'L' key came off. I can still type 'L' by pushing on the little nub under the key, but it's awkward. It would work better if I could glue the key back on.

This computer is having a hard life.

The 'A' is completely worn off on that key, the 'N' is half worn off, and there's a worn out spot on the trackpad where I put my finger to move the mouse.

It deserves everything that happens to it though. It does this thing where it drops its internet connection for no reason at all kinds of times, and it's extremely annoying.

If punching it would do any good I'd resort to violence in a second, but it's just a computer, so all I can do is reconnect the dang internet several times a day.

Minor Achievements

Hm. About the most I can muster up the energy to do this evening is look at this newly installed MS Office 2011 for Mac. Well. It's very ribbony.

I should also download RefWorks and Zotero to see how they work with this version, so I can leap into action to address any questions about them at the reference desk...but I think that might be more than I can manage at the moment, given my advanced state of yawningness.

A Plague on Both Their Houses

Spent another several hours trying to make Apache work with PHP, reading dozens and dozens of anguished messages on the forums from poor souls with similar problems.

Finally uninstalled the whole combo to try again, and now I can't even make Apache work on its own.

This project is cursed!

On the plus side, I have so far required less medication to stay upright today than yesterday.

Grrr of the Day

It's always comforting if people on the internet have had the same annoying problems you have with, say, installing software programs and making them talk to each other.

Ideally it's even helpful, if they can tell you what they did to fix it. But when you see a lot of comments like "I don't know what I did, but it works now"--I'm not sure that's either comforting or helpful.

It at least implies that the problem can be fixed, which is good. On the other hand, it suggests that the solution remains a mystery, which means I could be fiddling around with the problem for 20 hours before I unwittingly stumble across the answer, or might potentially never stumble across it at all, and that's bad.

Hmph.

Stupid internet. Be more helpful!

Persistence, Persistence

I just could not seem to get a handle on my latest afghan square. I would misread the pattern (repeatedly, in different but equally wrong ways), or it would be too wide, or too narrow.

I tore the whole thing out no fewer than 5 times, and was seriously contemplating just moving on to something else. Yet I persevered, and it turns out the 6th time was in fact the charm. So that's done.


In unrelated news, I just completed 700 charge cycles on this laptop battery. Party!

I have no idea if that's a significant milestone for a battery, but it's a nice round number, so I'm going to stand by the call for a party.

I got the computer in January of 2007, so that actually doesn't even seem like that many cycles. It's only, what, about 12 charges per month? Three a week?

I suppose that sounds about right. It seems like I'm on the computer all the time and must need to charge it a lot more than that, but I guess most of the time when I'm on a computer it's at work, which obviously doesn't wear down this battery.

Anyway, the battery condition is still listed as 'good,' so perhaps I'll get another several hundred cycles out of it. I used to faithfully do the whole calibration process every couple of months, as advised in the manual, but I confess I've fallen out of that habit. Still, I am generally careful about disconnecting it once it's fully charged.

Basically, I'll do the best I can to maintain this machine without expending any additional thought or effort on the project.

It's literally the least I can do.

Just Trying to Help

Farhad Manjoo has an interesting series of articles on Slate, explaining that even non-killer robots may disrupt our puny human lives, since they're getting better and better at doing our jobs.

We're used to seeing robots assembling automobiles and so forth, which for those of us who didn't once have jobs on automobile assembly lines may seem like a distant threat, but it turns out that robots (a term which, for purposes of this series, seems to include software programs) are also showing potential in other fields, like certain medical specialities, law and journalism.

As a librarian, I've been reportedly teetering on the verge of being replaced by the internet for as long as I've been working, so I certainly feel the potential pain of physicians, pharmacists, lawyers and journalists. Computers do make it different.

For the moment, there are all sorts of things that still call for human interaction, but once robots become charming and personable, as well as tireless and efficient? It's all over.

To Accumulate Or Not To Accumulate?

Does anyone need an old PC laptop? Does anyone think I need an old PC laptop?

I have a Mac as my main computer, and don't see much call for a PC unless it's one that can play exciting video games, but a friend has offered me one.

I'm always kind of tempted to take stuff that's offered to me, in case it might come in handy someday, because you never know. You never know, everyone.

On the other hand, I'm perilously close to having too much stuff for this apartment already, and I do have a PC laptop as my work computer in case I really need one for something in the near future, so I should probably just pass on this.

I do kind of have too much stuff for this apartment. I should either do a major weed of my possessions, or move to a bigger place.

I'm not sure which of those options sounds more horrible, since I dislike both sorting/discarding possessions and moving.

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Spreading Germs

I've started hearing about computer viruses spread by USB drives. It's no longer enough to be cautious about opening suspicious email attachments. Now you have to be cautious about plugging in suspicious drives.

And since you get free thumb drives all over these days (they're one of the cooler trinkets you pick up at conferences), there are dozens in the lost and found, and they're so useful!--but if one of them is poxed with some ghastly virus...well, it's no good, is it?

See this article from Slate with terrifying details.

You know this, like many a virus, could take a particular toll on public computers, such as those in libraries. I assume our IT people are reacting with appropriate prophylactic alarm.

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In the Mists of the 20th Century

I was thinking that technology has come a long way in the 10+ years since I was in college.

For instance, I didn't know anyone with a cell phone in college. No mp3 players. I had a computer, but it certainly wasn't the sleek and adorable laptop I have today.

It was a blocky little box with a tiny screen and a keyboard that was attached with a curly cord, like a phone cord. Aw, who am I kidding, I thought it was adorable too. I loved that thing. But it sure wasn't something you could bring to class and use to take notes.

I had one course with an online discussion forum (participation optional), but otherwise nothing to do with schoolwork was on the web. The college had a website, of course, but it was strictly for informational purposes, like a brochure.

There was no online course registration, grades, syllabi, student account information, nothin'. We got our schedules on paper, and liked it!

Or not, depending on what classes we got into and how early in the morning they were. (9:00 am?! Horrors!)

It's a whole new world, all right, full of new and exciting things.

I do kind of miss thinking 8:30 am was a hideously early time to wake up. I had no idea how dreadful it would get later on in life.

Speaking of Blood and Technology

I was vastly disappointed and saddened when I tried to give blood yesterday and it turned out I couldn't because I have malaria.

I jest. In fact, I was afraid  my iron might be too low, as it sometimes is, but this time it was fine. Then I got onto the table, and they got the needle into my reclusive vein, and it turned out that my arm was just not happy about being asked to part with blood that day.

So I waited patiently for more than an hour, and did all the health history, and got the needle marks, and then after all that, I couldn't donate. Frustrating. I'm a failure.

But I got some cookies out of it, anyway.

Also, the part that has to do with technology that I wanted to mention was that the series of questions about whether or not you've lived in Europe for 5 continuous years or ever--even once!--had sex with anyone who's ever exchanged money or drugs for sex, and so forth, is now on the computer.

Well, it was on the computer before, and the blood drive person would read the questions off in a rapid monotone while you tried to pay enough attention to understand whether you needed to say 'yes' or 'no.' But now they just set it up and you read the questions yourself and click Yes or No with the mouse.

Saves a lot of time (at least for anyone who can read faster than a blood drive technician can talk), and no doubt some wear and tear on the Red Cross folks' voices. I'm all for it.

Hazards of the Age

I think I may spend too much time on computers.

I was looking through some cabinet drawers for a spare set of earbuds I think I have somewhere, now that I have an iPod loaded with music. I was shuffling through the various wretched oddments, turning over this and that with no success, and I wanted to use the search bar.

It wasn't even a "wouldn't it be nice if there was a search bar for the real world:" I was actually reaching, in my head, to pull up a search field and enter "earbuds." As if there were no question such a thing was doable and reasonable.

It was a momentary fancy, of course. I immediately remembered that, oh yes, I'm not on the computer, and I kept digging through the cabinet by hand. I do realize the difference between the computer and the physical world.

For now.


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Tech-Happiness

I finally got around to ordering that backup hard drive, so I can store my precious, precious data in duplicate in case anything else happens to my present drive. It arrived yesterday. 

Also yesterday I got a brand new MP3 player to fill with music, so you can see that it was a fabulous day in terms of technology wealth.

Sadly, I haven't had time to get to work on either of the fun and exciting projects that naturally await. Last night I had to go out and drink free whisky cocktails in celebration of the TV show Mad Men (tough work, but someone has to do it). 

And tonight I had to work late. 

Fewer cocktails were involved this time, which is causing me to rethink my judgement on this being the absolute best job in the world. Was I not promised cocktails? I should have held out for it.