Pressures are mounting, again...

...in the financial department, just when I thought I'd bought a couple of weeks of breathing space. But we're far from being in the straits we visited a while back. The day has been less than stellarly productive (it's almost 11 am), as I have been doing the financial thing, but I hope to get back on track soon.

* * *TWiki has a feature that allows users to attach files (which could be text files, MP3s, MPEGs, or what have you) to pages in Wiki webs. I tried this feature but fell short of adopting in general because TWiki has strict rules as to what constitutes a valid file name (i.e., it strips out spaces, commas, parentheses, and some other characters), and I wanted to stew about that for a while to see if I could improve on it. As if I have the time...

Well, it turns out that the revision-tracking feature you have with the actual web pages is there for the files, too, so that if you attach several versions of a file to a page, you can retrieve any of them later (while only the latest is shown by default on the page, if you choose to display the links).

So, on my local office Linux box running Apache and TWiki, I've started to attach files to pages that I create for each translation job. The whole routine looks something like this:

When an inquiry comes in, I create a new job page. The page has space that allows me to "capture" the name of the client, the project manager, the client's reference number for the job, and the due date as I'm speaking on the phone, along with any special instructions or other arrangements.

When the source file comes in, I attach it to the page. Some clients also send along a work authorization form, which also gets attached. Occasionally, I'll get a reference file, which is added to the list, too. When the dust settles, everything is now located in one central spot.

At the end of each day, I can attach the latest/greatest work file, and if it has the same name as a file I've attached previously (as in: yesterday's work file), it replaces the old file(s), which are still accessible if I need them.

As you can probably guess, after the job is complete, I attach the final file and the invoice. Meanwhile, any notes I need to make (e.g., summaries of phone conversations) can be made in the "main" part of the page.

It's turning out to be a very useful system.

* * *Talking (indirectly) about backups, for the record, the VAIO wouldn't start up properly today, either, forcing a visit to Safe Mode Land and another recycle. All seems to be working well, now.

Enough stalling, back to work!

Cheers...

Wow... is it THAT late?

My, but what they say about time flying when you're having fun... it's a certifiable load of horse puckey. Time can also fly when you're having a less than fun time. Today was a case in point.

It took me long enough to get up a good head of working steam today... and by the time I was ready to go, my heart was just not in it. Nevertheless, I did just under 5000 words of the item due Thursday, and accepted another small job whose subject was deceptively innocent: ladders (the good news was that there were a lot of numbers and bits of repetitious text; the bad news was that the unique text in the document was chock full of specialized terms).

Anyway, I did manage to get out of the house for a few minutes to go to the hardware store and get another sheet of plywood and some 2x2s for crate-building (though I never got to that), and out again to get something for dinner (there was "nothing" in the house, although I guess if I really had to, I could probably grub up a meal - maybe not very tasty, but filling - for a squad of Marines).

I tried to nap in the afternoon, but the wind was howling loud enough to be heard in Texas, no doubt, so I only managed to rest for about 15 minutes, if that. Given that I had to force myself to get out of bed this morning at 7:30 am, I am given to thinking I need a good night's sleep, which is something that is accessible to me right now.

Cheers...