Please Stand By. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties.

Yes, our home computers are still broken.
No, I am not pleased.

Cousin Pat, the family IT specialist, after taking a look at them early in the April Break week, figured a way to get the computers operational again, but only by using a piece of software that he didn't have with him. He wasn't able to get back with that piece of software, not even during the latter half of the week, when I was on the Scout trip to the Washington D.C. area. (The trip itself is a whole other thing that I'll be glad to talk about at a later date.)

Since I have backups (the files in Gmail and in the Subversion repository), I'll be able to get rolling again no problem once those computers get rolling again. (i.e. I jsut reload my backups and get cracking)

I have a good discussion about the technical difficulties with Ken at school today. Ken's points, and my attempt to sum them up:

1. It is very understandable that a computer-programming senior project is hampered by limited computer access.
2. It looks quite favorable to me that, although I ran into a computer crash, I did have backup mechanisms.
3. It's a mitigating factor that, somehow, *both* of our computers went down at about the same time.
4. It looks favorable to me that work-around methods have been suggested, albeit ones with limitations, and that I have used them. [School computers and library computers are the two major ones]

I spent a lot of time on library computers during the break week, and I did spend a long afternoon on the school computers a couple weeks ago.

Library computers carry the following limitations:
I can only use them when the library is open (obviously). For example, this prevented computer use on Easter Sunday, although I did have a free afternoon.
Patrons are limited to 60 minutes per day on the library system's computers per day. Not each computer, overall. And you can't use other people's cards as a way aroudn that, or at least you're not supposed to.
Plus, this is hardwired into their computer setup, so to speak. Thus, I can't have a nice librarian allow me to stay longer, even if their isbn't other demand for the computers. That's what I tend to find most annoying about this time limit.

More later...(that time limit is about to run out! :))