A few brief snippets from the last couple weeks:

I can ski!

I briefly tried to ski six months after I hurt my ankle and was in such intense, stabbing pain I had to come down after two runs. I hadn’t skied since I had the surgery to fix my ankle almost four years ago, and I was really afraid that with everything this stupid ankle has taken away from me, it was going to take this too.

Since the NU ski trip was at Tahoe this year and a lot of my friends were going (well, in theory – in practice almost half our group got stuck in Chicago due to the blizzard), lift tickets were included, and ski rentals were seriously discounted, I decided to give it a shot. I tried to mentally prepare myself for never being able to ski again, but I’m not going to lie, the thought of not being able to do something I’ve been doing since I was two made me really, really upset.

About five seconds into my first run, I felt a huge burden lift off my shoulders. My ankle was fine. I felt like I’d never stopped skiing. I don’t think I’ve been that happy in a long, long time.

Now all I have to do is start making enough money to be able to afford to go skiing on a regular basis. Also: Probably start weightlifting to get my knees in better shape more than a month before I ski, because sweet god my patellar tendons are STILL mad at me for that one.

School suddenly got to be a lot more work.

My Android programming class is a ton of work (which is good, because I feel like I’m actually learning something in it). I’ve got a group project in another class where I’m doing about 50%-80% of the work in a given week because most everyone else a) is too consumed with their jobs b) doesn’t give a shit or c) both. Going to Tahoe for four days and getting approximately nothing accomplished didn’t help, and I wound up with all my midterms on the same week about a week after I got back. What also didn’t help was…

My damn computer went insane on me.

Kernel panics (complete system crashes, akin to the Windows Blue Screen of Death) galore, to the point where I was getting them hourly by the end of the debacle. I wound up having to drag it to the Apple Store to get a hardware issue ruled out. The good news is that it wasn’t the hardware, the bad news was that it meant I had to completely reinstall my operating system and then reimport all my files, which was a giant, time-consuming pain in the ass.

The biggest downside of it was that it happened right in the middle of my midterm week, so I wound up taking some time where I probably should have been studying and dealing with this horseshit. I’m getting my Database Management midterm back tonight, and I have a feeling I booted a couple questions I probably wouldn’t have if I’d been focused on studying and not on desperately trying to resuscitate my computer.

I’m probably going to have to replace my laptop sometime in the next few months – it’s clearly on its last legs, even with the fresh OS install. The good news is that I was expecting to need to take 4 classes next quarter and I only actually have to take 1, so all the money that I’m saving on classes is basically going to go directly into the New Computer Fund.

Overall though, despite being ridiculously busy, things have been going pretty well. As long as I can make it through the next couple weeks before my group project is due, then I think I’ll survive.

I’d been backing up my entire hard drive off-site for the last couple years with Mozy, mostly because I’m paranoid about an earthquake destroying both my main and backup drives, though other issues like fire or theft are probably more likely.

I liked their service. It was simple, it worked solidly, and the price for unlimited backup was pretty reasonable. And then.

There was some fooferal today because Mozy decided to can their unlimited service, and introduce tiered data pricing. I couldn’t remember quite how much I had backed up with them, so I went to check and see exactly how much it was, remembering it was around 100GB.

Huh, I thought when I looked at at my data total. Why is it only 80MB?

Turns out when I installed an update to the Mozy Mac client shortly before I left for Spain in early December, it wiped out all of my backup settings. The only thing that was being backed up for almost two months was my calendar database.

This, as you can imagine, severely pissed me off.

I hadn’t bothered to check that the Mozy client was backing up what I’d told it to backup because that’s just not a setting you think a company’s own software would obliterate, especially after being solid for 2 years.

But somehow, they managed to do it, and I was left flapping in the breeze until the end of Unlimited backup made me actually look at how much (or more accurately, how little) data I had been storing with them.

I chatted with one agent who told me that the files were still on the server, and if I reset my backup settings it would realize what files were already backed up, and only upload the files that were necessary.

When I got a newer version of the backup software up and running, I checked to see how big the upload was going to be. 133 GB, or basically, the entire contents of my hard drive, an upload that would take days at best.

A second agent attempted to reassure me that no, the data really was there, it would compare what was already on the server to what my software was trying to upload and the full upload wouldn’t be anywhere near 133GB.

And I realized: I didn’t believe him. I COULDN’T believe him because his company’s product had fucked up so, so badly that there was no way I could trust what they were telling their employees and in turn their employees were telling me.

I couldn’t trust that what I thought I’d backed up was actually there, and I couldn’t trust that anything I would back up in the future would ever be there. Online backup software is based primarily on trust, and they’d completely blown it.

So I canceled my account, and started the sloooooow process of re-uploading all my data to one of their competitors.

To their credit, Mozy didn’t put up a fight about refunding me the money I paid for December and January, and they offered their apologies. I said thanks, but I really hoped that whatever idiot let that code out into the wild got fired.

I did not add, though I was thoroughly tempted to, “out of a cannon.”

Remember this? Yeah, that’s going out the window.

That entire plan was predicated on the idea that I would be able to get into UCLA classes through a process known as “concurrent enrollment” – basically, a loophole that allows non-UCLA students who are willing to be last in line and willing to pay for it to take UCLA classes.

The problem with this plan is that it was doable two years ago, before the entire University of California system underwent several draconian rounds of budget cuts, and class sizes were compressed to the point that they’re having trouble even getting all their undergrads through the classes they need in the first year.

The budget cuts are going all the way down to the community college level – this article is just one indication of how bad it’s gotten.

Which of course makes reading articles about the asshat head of UC having the system rent him a $13,000/month house when they already own a fucking mansion for the express purpose of housing him a little more galling than usual.

Anyway, after talking to some people and getting answers ranging from “It is literally impossible” to “It is technically possible, but you will basically need to get permission from the dean of the school of Engineering every time you want to wipe your nose,” I had to step back for a minute.

What was my goal in going back to school? Was it just to get an MS? Or was it mostly to get in and out of school with as much knowledge as possible as quickly as possible?

Frankly, while I still want and will probably need an MS in the long term, it was the latter. So I’ve switched tracks a little bit.

Now, instead of a fairly brutal all-academia learning method, I’ve chosen a still fairly brutal, but much more practical schedule. Instead of “Calculus of Several Variables” I will be taking things like “Fundamentals of Programming Using Java: Hands-On”.

Basically, the idea behind this is to get myself back out into the workforce for a couple years to gain the professional experience equivalent of a bachelor’s in comp sci, and then go back and apply for MS programs.

There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad with this, but I think in the end, the good outweighs the bad. The best part is that one of my first classes is going to be iPhone/iPad programming, something that I really want to learn and have a lot of ideas for.

Also, it gives me an excuse to buy an iPad. Hooray, rationalization!

There’s going to be some pretty compressed learning though – I basically will have a week after my summer classes finish to learn C, and then I’ll be learning several languages at once each quarter for the rest of the year. I can do it, but it’s going to be pretty nuts.

The other thing that’s going to be a little weird is the schedule: Instead of having a normal school schedule, I’ll basically be attending night school.

This program is done through UCLA’s Extension program (for those that went to NU, basically their equivalent of the School of Continuing Education), and it’s mostly geared towards professionals, so all the classes are around 6:30-9:30 pm, one night a week each.

This will be good later in the year when I try to go for an internship, but for now it’s going to be pretty weird.

I think the thing that gives me the most confidence is the across the board reassurance I got that a) I’m not the only person going through this right now and b) professional experience will probably make my grad school application stand out more than just more academic experience.

The other good thing is that this summer hasn’t been as useless as I’d initially thought when I first started contemplating this switch. Part of my reluctance to switch tracks was the thought “Well, I’ve just wasted three months of extremely hard work and a large sum of money.”

I’ve done extremely well in all of my classes, and since these are basically the only serious science and math courses I’ve taken at the collegiate level, they’ll be something for me to point to on admissions applications and say “See, when I’m not a 19 year old fucking around, I can actually excel at high level science and math classes!”

So anyway, we’ll see where this all leads me. I feel like given my options right now, this is definitely the best one, and I think it could lead to some really, really interesting opportunities for me in both the short and long-term.

Clearly, I’m ready to start school  next week with the goal of getting a Masters’ in Computer Science when I failed so hard at researching my new monitor/TV combo for the bedroom that I ordered one that can’t be controlled by a goddamn remote.

I took one guy’s statement in a review about being able to control the volume with the remote to mean it was the volume on the monitor, but after trying and failing to get my remote set up, I went back and realized he was controlling the volume through his Home Theater PC, not his actual monitor. The monitor doesn’t even have an IR receiver. Oops.

I’m super, super excited to pay the return shipping and restocking fees that dumbass move earned. I’m still debating if I want to order a different one online or break down and rejoin Costco for their far more generous return policy.

At least I had two better pieces of technology news today, which helped mitigate my expensive stupidity:

1) I got my iPhone replaced for free after the lock button finally died completely, 10 days before the warranty ran out. I won’t go into the details because it got a bit complicated, but hey, brand refurbished phone!

2) I got my new dual-network setup up and running with a minimum of issues, so now I have my regular network and my N-Only network ,which is SUPER fast and means I can transfer files about three times faster than I could before. Basically, I can transfer an SD episode of Futurama in its entirety in 2 minutes. Win!

Warning to regular readers of this blog: SEVERE Nerd Alert.

A lot of folks I know who started their blogs out on Blogger have used HaloScan for commenting since before Blogger implemented comments. Since HaloScan is shutting down in the next few days, you’d think you might want to move all your old comments to Blogger.

Good luck.

There’s really no practical reason why someone at Blogger can’t write some sort of comments parser to handle the XML files that HaloScan spits out, but so far, they haven’t. If you want to get it done right now, the only way I found to make it work is a ridiculously cumbersome process.

Basically, that process is to import everything into a WordPress blog where it can all be properly combined, then re-export it, run it through python script, and upload it back into Blogger.

I’ve decided to write up the entire procedure I went through both as an exercise in writing documentation and in order to help anyone else who’s crazy enough to want to try this. If you think you have the patience for this (or would just like to see exactly how insane I am), hit the “read the rest” link that follows.

Read the rest…

I really need to start just bookmarking articles I want to read instead of leaving the tabs open all the time for the rare instance where I do something stupid (like accidentally clicking a link right after Firefox crashes, then quitting when I see that link opening because I think “Oh no, that’s going to fuck up my session!”, and thereby erasing my entire record of the session) and Session Restore can’t save my ass.

Oh, technology. It makes your life so much easier until it fails, and then it totally fucks you.

Many people assume that because I have a relative facility with technology, it does not randomly decide to hate on me the way it seems to with everyone else. To that, I counter with the events of this evening:

I fought with a writer’s crapware laden-computer for half an hour at the end of the night, ultimately forcing it to abandon its efforts to spit out all kinds of random pop-ups but not without going through several attempts at removal.

Massive problems with my phone (which randomly refuses to switch off roam, draning the battery pretty much immediately when it gets into that mode, thanks, Sprint!) have given way to coming home to no internets tonight.

Drove me crazy trying to figure out what it was, particularly after getting disconnected THRICE from Time Warner Cable’s lovely automated system which decided there were either “technical difficulties” or that my “call could not be completed at this time” at every turn.

However, I seem to have narrowed it down to a DNS issue – For the nerds in the house, I was pulling an IP address just fine but I couldn’t connect to squat, so I put in the OpenDNS.org DNS servers and it’s been smooth sailing from there.

Anyway, I have managed to fix (I think) two out of the three issues, but just because I usually have a half-wit idea on how to fix it doesn’t mean this shit doesn’t break on me.

Today marks the end of my Sprint contract, and the beginning of a technological battle royale. Let’s meet the contestants!

IN THE RED CORNER….

The Blackberry 8703e, better known as the Crackberry. A practically indestructible phone on a shittastic network. A phone that I’ve dropped on concrete or asphalt so many times I’ve lost count.

But it’s started to act up. It’s starting to refuse to come off roaming. It’s starting to send calls straight to voicemail. I don’t know how much of it is Sprint’s asstacular network and how much is the Crackberry itself.

And it’s also starting to get old. It strains and buckles under the weight of simply trying to load Facebook’s mobile site. It freezes up when I’m trying to switch between applications.

It’s only a matter of time.

IN THE BLUE CORNER…

The iPod 5g. Replacement for the first iPod I ever got, a purchase that changed my life because I could carry all my music around without throwing out my back.

This one had enough space (80gb) to let me get some Podcasts going, and I’ve gotten addicted to the point that I’m now a month behind in 2 of my main ones (BBC Global News and This American Life).

It seems to be rolling along just fine. It seems to be handling its daily trips around the universe in my pocket just fine. But the last one seemed to be doing that until one day the line-out just up and died on me.

Will the hard drive hold out? Will the line-out survive? Will I accidentally drop it in a giant puddle of water? Only time will tell.

And finally, we have….

THE REFEREE

…my complete lack of fiscal restraint when it comes to purchasing shiny electronic things.

Particularly after spending an hour playing with my friend Dan’s iPhone this past weekend, I want one. Like, NOW.

My utter hatred of AT&T stopped me from switching when it first came out, but I’ve gotten to the point with Sprint that I’m pretty much ready to tell them to fuck themselves, and at least have some NEW asshattery to deal with.

Part of what’s keeping me from buying one is the extent to which I am fiscally screwed after the last year: $2k to join the union, $4500 on COBRA, PLUS a delightful four months of unemployment have left me damn near tapped out.

But once I’m done with COBRA as of the first of the year, and once they inevitably release the 32GB iPhone that would let me take my main playlist (which by itself is 12GB), my Podcasts, and some videos with me…I don’t know how long I’m going to last.

The battle begins today, and ends when one of the three above breaks. Place your bets on when I’ll crack in the comments.

From the department of It’s About Fucking Time: TiVo and Netflix sign a deal to allow Netflix Watch Now streaming to Series 3 TiVos.

If only I had time to watch half the shit I’m TiVoing right now, let alone the Netflix discs rotting by my TV. At least this will be a good way to kill time the next time I’m out of work.

Well, all the posts that imported seem to have reverted to GMT. I’ve got to figure out how to fix that.

Update: Yeah, I have to go through and hand-update all 1885 posts. At least it’ll kill some Unemployment Time.