Tag: software

Handcuffed

We just had a really frustrating issue come up at work. The customer had access to their system locked down hard, for perfectly valid and acceptable reasons. They had issues with applications crashing and we couldn’t get in to see what happened. There were a slew of people from my company, the hardware vendor, and the customer on a conference call and we were all totally stumped. Then one of our tech guys and one of the tech guys from the hardware vendor started hammering away at it and they figured it out.

Sometimes this software support stuff can be incredibly frustrating, but when those frustrating moments get resolved… oh man is that satisfying. Even in a case like this where the folks who support my application ended up being innocent bystanders (the issue and the fix ended up having zero to do with us) it is still immensely satisfying.

Huge tip of the hat to the two guys who eventually worked it all out. As the commercials used to say, it’s Miller time*.

*It’s not Miller time for me. I don’t drink. The sentiment still works though.

New Stuff

So many software updates this week. I updated my MacOS and now I can run my iPhone from my MacBook. I am doing it right now. the Bruins are going to start about 10 minutes from now and I am listening to the pregame via the NHL iOS app but I am running it from my laptop. Cool. I can’t see myself doing this often… I mean, my iPhone is right next to me. I could be listening straight from the phone, easy enough. Whatever, new stuff is fun.

I am typing this on the Vivaldi browser. Vivaldi took an update this morning and the whole UI has been tweaked. Everything looks different. Does it look better? Eh. Who can say. Different but the same, I guess. It took about 20 seconds for me to get 100% used to the changes and more or less stop noticing them.

I took an update on my iPhone the other day too and now I have a dark mode that can change the app icons. Different, yes… better? Maybe. I like it. It doesn’t really amount to anything, but it’s fun. New stuff is fun.

Now if we could just get the Bruins to win an effing game. They are finally back home tonight but they are playing Dallas and The Stars are off to a good start. How about we get our shit together, eh Bruins? Tonight seems like a good night to start.

The Scroll Wheel is Dead, Long Live the Scroll Wheel

I take a mouse with me when I work in the office. It’s not the same mouse I use when I work at home, it’s actually the mouse that came with the last desktop computer I was issued at work back in… 1862? Something like that? 2016 maybe?

I was using the scroll wheel to scroll through an email and it just stopped working. I closed the browser and reopened it, thinking it was a software issue. Nope, it still didn’t work. I rebooted my laptop (issued to me in 2021, I think) because I thought it might be a hardware thing outside of the mouse itself. Nope.

The scroll wheel is dead.

I went to Amazon and ordered a cheap-o wireless mouse to replace it. I found a few of various levels of cheapness, then took one of the cheaper ones so that I could spend a little more for overnight delivery to make sure I had it as soon as possible.

Long live the scroll wheel.

On an unrelated note, there have been no stomach issues today. Kick ass. It’s not even 4:00pm yet and I am already close to hitting my water goal, close to having all of my vitamins in, and sort of close to hitting my protein goal. After yesterday’s dietary B.S., things are looking really good today. Killer.

Okay, less than 1.75 hours left in the work day. I have to somehow get through the rest of the day without having a scroll wheel. How did we do it in the old days? How did we even survive without scroll wheels?

MRI

Right in the other side of this wall they are using the software that I support at work. I don’t think they are happy about it. I’ve heard one loud sigh of frustration, but they figured out the problem. It was a user error.

I think I’ll just quietly sit here with my mouth shut.

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