|
| The tyranny of the little bar |
|
navigational aids: News ticker:
|
18 November 03. I always think that I can get work done when there's a status bar crossing the screen, and I'm always wrong. I know the mystique of the bar has been analyzed before, but I just don't know how to avoid it. It's hypnotic. Have been fscking a hard drive all day (i.e., trying to get the thing to not give me errors like `kernel panic!' every time I try to read a file). This has been something like a two-day project, since there are lots of things that cause the little mother board under my desk here to lock up. (Notably: writing large amts of data to a USB hard drive. This is the most likely thing to lock Linux up; can't wait `till they fix that one.) And then there was the fire drill. (name of institution) seems to have a pretty modern fire prevention system: the lights flash pleasingly, and then a female voice calmly explains `there is a fire emergency' and then a male voice firmly but politely tells you, `please evacuate the building. Do not use the stairs.' (Ya really gotta pity those in wheelchairs.) I imagine a lot of money went into those recordings. It must have taken the fire alarm company committee on communications hours of argument over male or female voice before finally arriving at this compromise. It's a mystery to me, in my state today, that anything ever gets done ever. I mean, apart from extensive bar supervision and some cleaning-up of some C code (yes, I've followed my own advice and translated everything from Matlab) I've gotten nothing done. My half-hour long conversations with co-workers indicate that they haven't gotten much done either. Aww, man. Another fire drill. I have to go. Blink. Blink.
[link] [No comments] |
