Ah, there’s so much to report! By now, I’ve been away so long that anyone watching these pages has likely given up looking for new posts.
A death in the family, other examples of life—see our first post—and almost nothing goes as planned. Still, it’s all been exhilarating, and I find new things to write out of it, if not the sorts of things I was intending to write when all these things happened.
From the first, this site (still simply a blog) was intended to be a running commentary on what I discovered while working on other sites. It so happens that back when I first got the idea to produce it, I was conducting a lot of testing and intensive coding rather than simple posting, so a lot of the work I was doing at the time seemed worth sharing with others. And still does—if only I can get back to it.
Since then, however, my concerns have been more from a practical end-user perspective as I have attempted to make steady enough posts on at least one site (Health Spectator) so that a sense of presence can be established. That’s where Lennon’s reference to life as what happens while you’re making plans came in.
My wife had been supporting all these efforts not only with encouragement, but by keeping the wolf away from the door (though he could be heard howling, not too distant). Then, through a bit of beautiful corporate double-cross, she found herself out of work.
Then her mother died. This was not entirely unexpected, but happened in a sudden enough way that it was wrenching. Pat barely had enough warning to be by her mother’s side during the final week or two of a protracted illness.
What, you are wondering, does all this have to do with web development? Well, my own meager contribution to all these proceedings was to show up and stumble through the exhausting parade of family obligations, all the while trying to do research and file posts pretty much literally on the fly. We stayed in a bed-and-breakfast, we slept in spare rooms. That’s what portables were made for, right?
And, indeed, my faithful laptop—by now the only family computer because our backup machine had recently fried and there was now no budget for replacing hardware—rose admirably to the occasion. I became, as one does under such circumstances, an expert tracker of wifi signals and a usurper of others’ machines with dial-up connections when necessary. I was prepared to write at any time in any place, given the opportunity. There just weren’t enough opportunities.
Then, while wandering around in a fog after yet another sleepless night and readying to spend the coming day at a different in-law’s, I dropped my laptop. Hard. It was still working when I picked it up—it had not shut down yet—so I breathed a sigh of relief and put it back in its case, making sure to zip it securely this time.
Only to find it would not revive when I was ready to use it at the next stop. From the messages I was getting, it was clear the hard drive was disabled. I couldn’t tell if it had just jarred loose (pray, pray!) or was total toast. The main motherboard (well, ROM BIOS, at least) and the display still seemed to be performing.
That was the day before we came home. So now, in job-search mode, we had no computer. I do have a Palm TX, which has wifi built in. But its uses are limited and I was stretching it to those limits.
In the process, I discovered how you can—horror of horrors—maintain a blog (at least barely) without currently possessing your own computer. It isn’t fun and it isn’t pretty, but it will get you through if you have to do it.
Most of us work in environments where we have heavy backup from corporate IT, but those who are vulnerable to a little computer downtime—even just a sustained loss of electrical power—might do well to consider preparations for such emergencies, which I will detail in a piece to follow.
I will also mention, for those who have been following this blog, that I have begun the (so far, painless) upgrade process to Wordpress 2.2.1. I may also add a post on this, if time permits. So far, as I say, there doesn’t seem to be much to report, however.
My other discovery—hardly unique—was the lesser horror of dealing with a new computer and a new operating system (Windows Vista) which I hope also to describe for those who may be interested. As always with these “upgrades,” I found some good and some bad. For the moment, I’ll just say that Windows Vista is very pretty.
As to how good the Geek Squad turn out to be at servicing disabled laptops, only time will tell. I can report that they’re about four days behind schedule so far.