yay! I'm online again!
Apr. 23rd, 2006 06:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaeclecticKey items first: I travel to Montreal today.
And I keep forgetting to mention, I miss my cats (thanks for the note, zteph :) I noticed missing them the very first night as I was driving toward the hotel and found myself focusing on the obvious fact that they weren't going to be there...
Yesterday was an OK day in most regards, but a bad computer day: when I got up, the laptop would not power up. I hoped that it was just the power adapter/cable, as I noticed (belatedly) that the little light that usually comes on when power is connected was not coming on. After mildly stressful and ultimately futile attempts to find a computer repair place actually *close* to my hotel, I drove back out to the CompUSA in Monroeville (distinctly *not* on my way) where a nice young man: a) saw the problem, b) tested the adapter which appears fine, and c) jiggled the cable and then the light came on. Very frustrating, since I had been plugging & unplugging & trying different outlets and somehow had not managed to jiggle it the right way.
The upshot of which is that I *hope* the computer will limp along for a few days until I get back to the office.
Cutting to the end of the day: got back to the hotel room about midnight, spent a solid minute (which felt like 10 minutes) fiddling with the cable until the light came on, then couldn't get internet access. The hotel room instructions tell you to open a browser and wait to be redirected, but give no useful information on what to do if the redirect doesn't happen. After several minutes of fiddling, I called the technical support number. Got voicemail. Tried again, got voicemail again. Told myself to give up. Tried various combinations of cycling power, rebooting, etc. Called tech support again and got someone who told me the IP address to type in. (I pointed out that this would be a great thing to put on the little list of "useful tips for connecting" in the hotel room.) I typed in the IP, got the login screen, said thanks and hung up, and then... got an application error screen.
Called tech support again and spent at least 15 minutes trying various combinations of restarting the computer, starting new browser windows, disabling and re-enabling the ethernet card, blah blah. Finally she went a way for 5 minutes and then came back and said: there really is a problem with a server, they'll get it back up soon, just keep trying.
After which I sat here with my book for half an hour, retrying every couple of minutes, until about quarter to 1.
Then was so keyed up that I ended up staying up reading until 2:30 or so. Not ideal, I will be needed to get up in the AM the next few days. *sigh*
But anyway, obviously it is working this AM!
[One aspect of this that was mildly amusing (to me) even at the time: She kept using non-technical language and I kept using technical language back, e.g. "Try typing in the number again"; "OK, I've typed in the IP address". After several exchanges like that she would finally start using the same terminology I was, e.g. "IP address" instead of "number" and "browser window" instead of "internet explorer". Heh.]
In between the computer foo bookends, it was actually a fairly nice day:
- Lunch with the other niece, who seemed a little uninterested but what do you expect from a 19 yo? (got lost again on the way there, but only slightly, which was pretty good considering that I would have gotten directions if my computer had been working!)
- Got a house tour of Clayton which is across the street from the house I grew up in, but I'd never seen the inside because of course it wasn't open to the public, and no Miss Frick did not invite the neighbors over!
- Drove way the heck out to Grove City to have dinner with my friend Mike, who is one of my favorite people in the universe.
So it was a long day, but pretty good other than computer foo and a little too much driving...
Onward.
And I keep forgetting to mention, I miss my cats (thanks for the note, zteph :) I noticed missing them the very first night as I was driving toward the hotel and found myself focusing on the obvious fact that they weren't going to be there...
Yesterday was an OK day in most regards, but a bad computer day: when I got up, the laptop would not power up. I hoped that it was just the power adapter/cable, as I noticed (belatedly) that the little light that usually comes on when power is connected was not coming on. After mildly stressful and ultimately futile attempts to find a computer repair place actually *close* to my hotel, I drove back out to the CompUSA in Monroeville (distinctly *not* on my way) where a nice young man: a) saw the problem, b) tested the adapter which appears fine, and c) jiggled the cable and then the light came on. Very frustrating, since I had been plugging & unplugging & trying different outlets and somehow had not managed to jiggle it the right way.
The upshot of which is that I *hope* the computer will limp along for a few days until I get back to the office.
Cutting to the end of the day: got back to the hotel room about midnight, spent a solid minute (which felt like 10 minutes) fiddling with the cable until the light came on, then couldn't get internet access. The hotel room instructions tell you to open a browser and wait to be redirected, but give no useful information on what to do if the redirect doesn't happen. After several minutes of fiddling, I called the technical support number. Got voicemail. Tried again, got voicemail again. Told myself to give up. Tried various combinations of cycling power, rebooting, etc. Called tech support again and got someone who told me the IP address to type in. (I pointed out that this would be a great thing to put on the little list of "useful tips for connecting" in the hotel room.) I typed in the IP, got the login screen, said thanks and hung up, and then... got an application error screen.
Called tech support again and spent at least 15 minutes trying various combinations of restarting the computer, starting new browser windows, disabling and re-enabling the ethernet card, blah blah. Finally she went a way for 5 minutes and then came back and said: there really is a problem with a server, they'll get it back up soon, just keep trying.
After which I sat here with my book for half an hour, retrying every couple of minutes, until about quarter to 1.
Then was so keyed up that I ended up staying up reading until 2:30 or so. Not ideal, I will be needed to get up in the AM the next few days. *sigh*
But anyway, obviously it is working this AM!
[One aspect of this that was mildly amusing (to me) even at the time: She kept using non-technical language and I kept using technical language back, e.g. "Try typing in the number again"; "OK, I've typed in the IP address". After several exchanges like that she would finally start using the same terminology I was, e.g. "IP address" instead of "number" and "browser window" instead of "internet explorer". Heh.]
In between the computer foo bookends, it was actually a fairly nice day:
- Lunch with the other niece, who seemed a little uninterested but what do you expect from a 19 yo? (got lost again on the way there, but only slightly, which was pretty good considering that I would have gotten directions if my computer had been working!)
- Got a house tour of Clayton which is across the street from the house I grew up in, but I'd never seen the inside because of course it wasn't open to the public, and no Miss Frick did not invite the neighbors over!
- Drove way the heck out to Grove City to have dinner with my friend Mike, who is one of my favorite people in the universe.
So it was a long day, but pretty good other than computer foo and a little too much driving...
Onward.