Whoo-hoo, I got three peanuts in one shell! That's me one, Georgia zero. This picture was taken last May, but I have no recent photos now that JP’s computer is over in the shop. I have to invest in a whole new camera system or go over there to download pictures. One day somebody will invent a cough medicine that actually works for me. Neither expense nor brand name seems to have any immediate or lasting effect. They merely put me to a state where I can resist coughing continually. And that is why I did not perform tonight.
In less than five minutes, I was able to hack the license needed to transfer Café Manager Lite to JP’s old computer. Although the on-line manual went on about the need to acquire permission to do this, there is actually an ingenious system built in. It requires one original license to activate a new instance. I found this such a superior system I will describe it.Okay, when first you install the trial software, it generates a unique serial number, doubtless based on the mac address of your computer. You send in that serial number to Vibersoft, and receive an unblock code to activate the full features. When required to install the software on a different unit, you first install the trial version on the new unit, which generates a new serial number. You then enter this new number into the old computer. Without having to contact Vibersoft, this new number does two things. It first disables the original software and generates an unblock code that matches the new serial number. You plug this new code into the new computer.
Simple and brilliant. There are drawbacks. For example, this process is just not documented. You have to figure it out on your own, a severe penalty in Florida. It is far too easy to forget to write down the new unblock number before you press “next” and it is impossible to go back and get it again. Also, if the two computers were across town, you will have at least three trips to make. I have not tried it, but I’ll wager the old copy cannot be re-activated with the old unblock code.
All of this takes an inordinate amount of time, in this case most of this week. Now, I could do it again in a half day. This is so typical of modern software, and yet another case in point of having to do it all myself because there ain’t a damn person within five hundred miles that could or would help out. All I ever hear about is how I am surrounded by board lots of fricken geniuses but somehow I manage to never meet any. Oh, they are still geniuses, they just coincidentally have a lapse in knowledge but only about the things I do, everything else is their forte. And how they love to walk around behind me afterward to check if I did things right.
All this merits a good history book, so I chose one by a lady named Cecil Woodrow-Smith, titled “The Great Hunger”. It concerns the conditions around the Irish potato famine. I was aware only that the famine was as much about English cruelty and repression and now I shall learn a lot else. Boy, do I know a lot about potatoes now. Your trivia for today is that it requires four to six times as much land to feed a family on grain that on potatoes. Apparently at the worst of times, the Irish potato and buttermilk diet was superior to the English bread and cheese, but as once put, a full belly of one beats a half-belly of the other.
In other news, Wallace got the Internet connection working. I wish I’d been there to see the solution. It was challenging, I’ll say that. The help desk walked him through the procedure and I’ll ask Wallace tomorrow if he remembers the details. I need everything back to normal so I can finish work I’ve put on hold. This month has been mostly chasing around. Except for the turkey dinner, which still has a ways to go around here. Okay, I admit I snuck in last night and made a sardine sandwich.
Here’s an update on the room I built. That is the room I insulated and I have now been living in it over a month. While all other room in the house must be constantly air conditioned in the summer to be inhabitable, I have only used my air-conditioner once or twice. I have a fan which is now adequate and there are times I had to turn that down. I would like to finish the room, as it still is not painted and such. It is modeled after a Venezuelan hotel.
In a surprise move, I threw one of my longest-term customers out of the store this afternoon. He’s been coming in for years, but never paying his full share. He lies about the time he’s been on the Internet. He’ll go in the back and tell Fred ten minutes when he’s been there an hour. I didn’t say, but he is the main reason I set up the new system. Well, he has since done nothing but bitch about it. When I tell him the rules, he tries the childish tactic of misdirection, “Do you own this computer?”
I’ve warned him before that it is not his business who owns what, but the next time he starts an argument he’s out. Now he’s taken to snooping around for a computer that somebody forgot to log off. Well y’day he complained when I told him all computers in the front had to pay (he knew one of the computers was Fred’s because it was for) he started bitching again. He acts like his $2 actually makes any difference to me and he was out the door. I don’t have any phone company fantasies about pleasing everybody, I only want the good customers.
How was your Friday?
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