status of things, aka A Series of Unfortunate Events: a Totally Serious and Formal Report to Mek
Added by Woozle Hypertwin about 9 years ago
So, I was actually starting to make headway setting up a basic app framework with which to develop Snorp -- you can even see the exciting error message at snorp.org -- when Wednesday hit.
The Contrary CAT3 Cable¶
I had been planning for many months to move our DSL cable into a pipe, both for the sake of not having it running across the walkway and compost patch where Something Terrible was bound to happen to it eventually -- I already ran over the other end of it last summer, about five feet from the the phone pole, but fortunately had been able to stretch the crudely severed wires far enough to reach the pole again and restore service -- and also in the hope that Frontier (when I finally got around to switching over to their DSL, in the hope of saving about $50/month) would run any new wires they deemed necessary through the pipe rather than overhead (as they had been run originally).
Wednesday is one of our two days a week (the other being Saturday) when I pull myself away from computer tasks (many of which are done with the eventual intention of generating revenue) and do things that will never, ever generate revenue but which nonetheless need doing, such as yardwork, carpentry, housework, etc. The previous Wednesday, the kids had been home from school for Spring Break, and I didn't want to disconnect the internet while everyone would be breathing down my neck until it was reconnected. (The same would be true for any Saturday, of course.) The Wednesday before that, some other task was more urgent; the Wednesday before that, it was cold and rainy; the Wednesday before that... I can't remember, but the point is that I've been trying to do this for months, ever since I finally got the pipe laid in last fall.
Long story short... well, long story not as long as it could be, at least... it didn't work, and the DSL is still very Down, and I've spent the past two days moving our email off the machine in the basement so we could receive email again. This is a thing which needed to be done anyway -- or, rather, it occurred to me that it solved several problems at once, so it's a good thing in the long run -- but I certainly wouldn't have put it at the top of my priority list just now if I'd had any choice in the matter.
The Sinister Servers¶
Having more or less got the new email server working (itself adding another $20/month to the internet budget, thus reducing any hypothetical savings from eventually switching to Frontier by that amount but -- on the plus side -- making it unnecessary to actually purchase a new computer for the email, which was increasingly looking like a necessary thing), I thought I should really finish shutting down the second HostGator account ($25/month) in the hope that this month would be a net win (so to speak) in the financial department in spite of everything.
...and I'm part way through that, and it shouldn't take more than another hour or so to finish it and shut the bloody thing down.
The Wibbly-Wobbly Weekend¶
So now another Saturday looms -- and although I feel strongly that I have very much earned a reprieve from yardwork, it is also undeniable that we have reached the point in the year when the wisteria is coming up very quickly indeed and I need to get ahead of it before it gets ahead of me and before the weather gets really hot. (And, oh, yeah, I really should fix that chair that Zander busted...)
On the other hand, experience has shown that a few hours a week will, in fact, suffice to make tremendous headway against it -- sweaty, headache-prone headway, but adequate headway nonetheless. (And the chair can wait.) So perhaps I should in fact take a yardwork vacation and spend Saturday getting back to work on Snorp. (Sundays tend to be vbz days, because that also needs to happen.)
I think I'm feeling indecisive about this, but I'm not completely sure, as far as I can tell.
And as for the status of the actual code...
The Convalescent Code¶
My thinking was to start by setting up a basic login framework, for which I already have code (originally written for vbz) that just needs to be adapted. I'm part-way through the adaptation process.
Once that's working, I'll start writing admin pages for various features of Snorp for you to try out, and my thinking is that we'll then proceed on a sort of double track where half the time I'm working on the next feature and half the time I'm fixing whatever bugs or substantial problems you've identified from trying out the bits already written.
And, um, I guess that's basically everything for now.