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selenayIt seems like the last 24 hours have been filled with frustrations.
When I went to turn on the laptop last night to send a quick email, it produced a screen that reported errors in the boot system. You can only imagine my near heart-attack at that message.
Thankfully it did give hints for how to fix it, involving finding the Windows installation disc and booting from that. Thank goodness I'm obsessive about keeping that kind of stuff! It didn't tell you how to get to the boot menu and the Dell sign flashed so quickly that it took three failed boots before I could find out that I needed F12 to get to the boot menu. Argh.
It looks like I was able to boot from the disc and repair the corrupted start-up files. I hope. I'll know tomorrow when I next need to use the laptop whether it's fixed completely.
The only change that I made the last time I used the machine was installing the new VPN software for work. I'm going to be irritated if that was the cause.
Whenever something like this happens, I think more carefully about switching to a Mac. I'd need to find out whether I would still be able to access and work with files created in Windows and whether things like my external hard drives would still work, but it's tempting. There is a girl in my cubicle area with a Mac so I'll ask her whether they have been able to get the VPN to work. I'm hoping to get another year or two out of my current machine and I'd like to have a planned replacement rather than an emergency, so I've got time to work all of this out.
The stability of a Mac has a lot of appeal, though. Windows machines seem far too prone to random faults even with good, careful use. If anyone has any website recs for places that I can get the low-down on switching from Windows to Mac, that would be lovely :-)
The only thing that puts me off is how expensive Mac products are. However, if the stress is lower and what I get will run for a long time (five years minimum) then it may be worth saving extra to make the investment.
A few days ago, we put a new report into production. The design was signed off, it was built, tested and approved through acceptance testing so it went into the regular software release.
When the business saw it in production (having seen and approved it in the acceptance test area with lots of data, so you'd think they would know what they were getting) they decided they didn't like it and wanted something different. Rather than following accepted procedure, though, and approving/closing the ticket (we delivered what they wanted, after all) followed by opening a new change request, they tried to be sneaky.
They went into the ticket, marked that there was a production problem and tried to change the requirements so that it would look like my team had screwed up.
Good thing we caught that and yelled. Is it any wonder that we often end up documenting and programming defensively when this is the crap that other departments try to pull? Argh!
In brighter news, it's Friday and I am so very, very happy about this. I'm exhausted, my back is screaming at me and I really can't stand to battle with the combined power of Oracle and Microsoft Excel much more this week. I've got a hairdresser appointment tonight at a totally inconvenient time, but at least my hair is getting chopped and the colour refreshed so I will feel prettier, if no more rested. I may have to venture into burger territory in order to eat something - there just isn't time between work and the appointment to get home or to go to a restaurant with at-table service. And it will be too late after the appointment for anything except me being a hideously grumpy bitch. So I'll hit the burger stand at the mall for a heartattack in a grease-proof wrapper, which is much better than me melting down in the grocery store due to exhaustion and low blood-sugar.
I'm now debating between KFC and A&W. Hmmm. Never had A&W, but intrigued to see what their burgers are like, but I know that I like KFC's fillet burger. Safety or try something new?
Tomorrow I have to get up early to get my tires changed (I know, it's been snow-free for six weeks, I kept forgetting to book the appointment) and I may need a nap in the afternoon in order to be awake enough for what is sure to be a complex and brilliant Doctor Who. This has not been a week for getting a full night of restful sleep.
Apparently the new X-Men movie is not a 3D monstrosity in my local cinema. As I get a rotten headache from 3D movies, this makes me very happy. I may know what I'm doing with my Saturday afternoon a week tomorrow :-) Movie and then dinner sounds like an excellent plan. Particularly as this is something mother will not want to see, so I'd better get to it before she arrives.
Oh, god, I really hope there's a non-3D option for Harry. It would be so disappointing to miss the final movie because they can't show it in a format compatible with me not being in pain.
When I went to turn on the laptop last night to send a quick email, it produced a screen that reported errors in the boot system. You can only imagine my near heart-attack at that message.
Thankfully it did give hints for how to fix it, involving finding the Windows installation disc and booting from that. Thank goodness I'm obsessive about keeping that kind of stuff! It didn't tell you how to get to the boot menu and the Dell sign flashed so quickly that it took three failed boots before I could find out that I needed F12 to get to the boot menu. Argh.
It looks like I was able to boot from the disc and repair the corrupted start-up files. I hope. I'll know tomorrow when I next need to use the laptop whether it's fixed completely.
The only change that I made the last time I used the machine was installing the new VPN software for work. I'm going to be irritated if that was the cause.
Whenever something like this happens, I think more carefully about switching to a Mac. I'd need to find out whether I would still be able to access and work with files created in Windows and whether things like my external hard drives would still work, but it's tempting. There is a girl in my cubicle area with a Mac so I'll ask her whether they have been able to get the VPN to work. I'm hoping to get another year or two out of my current machine and I'd like to have a planned replacement rather than an emergency, so I've got time to work all of this out.
The stability of a Mac has a lot of appeal, though. Windows machines seem far too prone to random faults even with good, careful use. If anyone has any website recs for places that I can get the low-down on switching from Windows to Mac, that would be lovely :-)
The only thing that puts me off is how expensive Mac products are. However, if the stress is lower and what I get will run for a long time (five years minimum) then it may be worth saving extra to make the investment.
A few days ago, we put a new report into production. The design was signed off, it was built, tested and approved through acceptance testing so it went into the regular software release.
When the business saw it in production (having seen and approved it in the acceptance test area with lots of data, so you'd think they would know what they were getting) they decided they didn't like it and wanted something different. Rather than following accepted procedure, though, and approving/closing the ticket (we delivered what they wanted, after all) followed by opening a new change request, they tried to be sneaky.
They went into the ticket, marked that there was a production problem and tried to change the requirements so that it would look like my team had screwed up.
Good thing we caught that and yelled. Is it any wonder that we often end up documenting and programming defensively when this is the crap that other departments try to pull? Argh!
In brighter news, it's Friday and I am so very, very happy about this. I'm exhausted, my back is screaming at me and I really can't stand to battle with the combined power of Oracle and Microsoft Excel much more this week. I've got a hairdresser appointment tonight at a totally inconvenient time, but at least my hair is getting chopped and the colour refreshed so I will feel prettier, if no more rested. I may have to venture into burger territory in order to eat something - there just isn't time between work and the appointment to get home or to go to a restaurant with at-table service. And it will be too late after the appointment for anything except me being a hideously grumpy bitch. So I'll hit the burger stand at the mall for a heartattack in a grease-proof wrapper, which is much better than me melting down in the grocery store due to exhaustion and low blood-sugar.
I'm now debating between KFC and A&W. Hmmm. Never had A&W, but intrigued to see what their burgers are like, but I know that I like KFC's fillet burger. Safety or try something new?
Tomorrow I have to get up early to get my tires changed (I know, it's been snow-free for six weeks, I kept forgetting to book the appointment) and I may need a nap in the afternoon in order to be awake enough for what is sure to be a complex and brilliant Doctor Who. This has not been a week for getting a full night of restful sleep.
Apparently the new X-Men movie is not a 3D monstrosity in my local cinema. As I get a rotten headache from 3D movies, this makes me very happy. I may know what I'm doing with my Saturday afternoon a week tomorrow :-) Movie and then dinner sounds like an excellent plan. Particularly as this is something mother will not want to see, so I'd better get to it before she arrives.
Oh, god, I really hope there's a non-3D option for Harry. It would be so disappointing to miss the final movie because they can't show it in a format compatible with me not being in pain.
