Neal Wilson ✅ @neal@social.typica.us

Power went out while I was at work. I know this because there's a lamp that turns itself on when the power comes back on.

Lately I've been taking some time to replicate a big complicated spreadsheet that requires too much manual data entry with a combination of a database (SQLite is fully adequate for what I need out of this) and a quick and dirty program that gives me both a convenient interface for data that needs to be entered manually and a way to fire off a bunch of web API requests to eliminate a lot of that manual entry.

Today's dream was a largely incomprehensible high speed sci fi escape sequence (successful) and a denouement that was a bit too short to be satisfying.

This is in stark contrast to the Department of Transportation which has sent me mail letting me know that I don't need to go to the DMV and can renew my drivers license online. That expires in a couple months so it's been on my mind and now I know what I need to do without even having asked. (You know you're not empowering your customer service people adequately when you compare unfavorably to the DMV.)

Phone company was anti-helpful in helping my mother get a new phone. Apparently she needs a 6 digit code set up by her late husband decades ago because the Apple phones don't just use a SIM card that she could pop out of her old phone and into her new one. Personally, I can't imagine what the threat model even is for stopping someone from buying themselves a new phone and moving the existing service over to that.

My mother was happy to learn that she didn't need to buy a new printer. The problem was she had the printer plugged into a power strip and the power strip was also plugged into itself.

Today I learned that spreadsheets are a deeply offensive topic of conversation for some people, but the person who raised the complaint did so by making an ass of himself so I'm not going to feel bad about that and will not go out of my way to avoid spreadsheet related conversations.