A peeve that's becoming too big to be a pet...

[alexpgp]

My tablet "woke up" at 2 am, emitting some kind of insistent signal that I had never heard before. I wiped half the sleep from my eyes, turned the thing on, and tried to figure out what had happened.

Nothing seemed amiss, so I went back to sleep.

It's funny how the mind works (or, at least, my mind). I didn't sleep very well and finally, at about 5 am, it occurred to me that maybe this was the result of something like sending the wrong file to my client before hitting the sack. (The delivery was supposed to be a "part 2 of 2," but what if...? I mean, the files for the two parts are right on top of each other in the folder window... Maybe I...? Why else...?)

So I got up, fired up montaigne—my laptop (Don't you name your computer?)—and checked my mail. Alles war in Ordnung, Gott sei Dank!

And the same sort of thing just happened while working on my laptop. An emitted signal I don't recall hearing before, denoting... what?

* * *On a positive note, I've done some middle-of-the-month invoicing, and December—with all its holidays and stuff—is going to outperform November.

That's how poor November billings were!

Just kidding. December so far is almost up to all of November, and there's still stuff to invoice... but I'll do that closer to the end of the month.

Meanwhile, back to what's on the plate!

Comments

[egofood.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Control Panels::Personalization::Sound or something like that and test play the system sounds will give a clue to the condition triggering the warning.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall doing that once, which taught me that some programs insist on their own custom noises.

Good tip, though!

[michikatinski.livejournal.com]

Gott sei Dank!

[velvet-granat.livejournal.com]

All our gadgets and computers have proud Wodehousian names. The server is Cecil, my laptops are George and Theodore, the readers are Floyd and Fred, short for Fredrick, there used to be a Wilberforce, and M's laptop is rebel, known as the Black Beastie (because it's huge).

Nope, not taking this technology thing seriously at all :)

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

I must admit that if I name my cell phone at all, it's likely to be something like That crazy, damn thing!" It also has a habit of emitting completely baffling sounds. I get a noise, then go through what I think are the possibilities, and find nothing new. I am rather a luddite, however.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

A Luddite with a cell phone.

Well.. butter my buns and call me a biscuit!


:^)

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I've never heard that phrase before. So I googled it. I learned that many people have varying opinions. At first it seemed to indicate that you have merely picked up some colorful, yet creative, southern expressions.Then I looked at another site which seemed to indicate that it meant you were surprised and pleased. Finally I looked at a site that seemed to indicate a quite racy meaning, which I'm assuming you didn't intend.

So I'm going with surprise and chuckling.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I meant it as a colorful way of expressing surprise with a smile on my face.

"Quite racy"? My, my. Reminds me of the one online Russian-English dictionary where many English words (far too many, in my opinion) are said to have "taboo" connotations.

(As an example, I just looked up 'biscuit', which I have never heard used in any taboo manner, and among the meanings that were displayed was 'распутная женщина', or 'a woman of easy morals'. Go figure.)

Anyway, I Googled "well * my * and call me a *", which returned some items, including the one I used with butter and a biscuit. Among the others, only "Well, rotate my vertices and call me a trapezoid!" made any sense.

Hope you're having a great holiday season!

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

I am also assuming that one can be like me and have a nice cell phone but be quite inept at operating it. Hence the post on FB from my son-currently living in Germany--"Ah yes, the annual IT-support visit to the parents..."

And my response, "As the most egregious parent culprit, I must wholeheartedly LIKE this statement. When queried as to what I wanted for Christmas, I said, "Just solve all our computer problems." He's ticking them off, one by one. Hallelujah!"

Notably, he's got something like 22 likes to this statement, probably from a mix of exasperated young people and similarly afflicted parents.