What you've done today - One Life to Live

[Hurlshort]

I am watching San Jose State try and win their first League Championship in football in about 50 years. So far so good, up 19-6 on Boise St.

[majestic]

Looking for a bug in our data import module that turns out to be pervasive and unreproducible. It happens a handful of times a day and causes a customer of ours to get status messages without reference code. Everything works fine, only in something like one out of a hundred cases the reference number is not assigned to the order for some reason.

I have no idea what to do short of adding a check at the very end of the import that looks for open lines in the order without reference numbers and then throws an error. Because simply running the import again fixes the issue. Throwing the same data at the import either through client or batch processing "fixes" the issue insofar as it never happens. It's a one-time every now and then issue that doesn't even show up on the batch history log.

Might get a clue as to what the hell is happening that way, I'd get a proper error entry in the batch log too.

Hm, that's actually a good idea. I'll add that tomorrow.

[Bartimaeus]

20 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

*Update Firefox browser for 1st time in a long while* ...  I notice this:

...where'd the "never update" option go? Oh well, whatever, pick the 2nd option.
...week or so later:  Open browser, or sometimes just reloading a page - a popup window: "There's an update! do you want to install?" Argh, it's like the cellphone, go away.
...*google*

*grumpy old woman voice* Screw you, obnoxious nanny pestering program features.

 

Edit:  ... and for some reason, after doing that, Firefox seems to be running a lot better all of a sudden. Faster.

Try Chrome out once and see what kind of options/solutions you can find for its auto-updating - you'd be running back to Firefox real quick, .

[Malcador]

Usual Christmas blues starting up, so that is fun. Christmas week is always an interesting week at work, either has disasters or whole lot of nothing. Hoping is latter, but hope is the first step towards disappointment

[LadyCrimson]

13 hours ago, Malcador said:

Usual Christmas blues starting up, so that is fun.

I don't think it's xmas per se for me, more just winter or "getting old, what is life anyway" - but I have definitely been ... extra bored, unmotivated, lazy, slightly grumpy and easily annoyed this month. Nothing is getting done, I just harrumph it all aside. I'm slightly worried I'm not taking enough care of myself lately but can't muster the will to care too much.

It's always the same issue for me, past few years - feeling like I need to go or do something drastically different, before, as the saying goes, I really do get "too old", but I just don't know where, or what.  Plus sometimes I don't know if that's even truly what I want, or is it just a poor state of mind that makes me think like that and ... yeah, too unmotivated to think very hard about it.  Easier to just watch more tv and fall asleep. 

[Hurlshort]

Oh yeah, everything hurts in the winter. I now understand why old people usually retire to warmer climates.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I'm not even that old but my muscles feel uncomfortably stiff in the cold.

[majestic]

On 12/20/2020 at 12:44 AM, majestic said:

Looking for a bug in our data import module that turns out to be pervasive and unreproducible. It happens a handful of times a day and causes a customer of ours to get status messages without reference code. Everything works fine, only in something like one out of a hundred cases the reference number is not assigned to the order for some reason.

I have no idea what to do short of adding a check at the very end of the import that looks for open lines in the order without reference numbers and then throws an error. Because simply running the import again fixes the issue. Throwing the same data at the import either through client or batch processing "fixes" the issue insofar as it never happens. It's a one-time every now and then issue that doesn't even show up on the batch history log.

Might get a clue as to what the hell is happening that way, I'd get a proper error entry in the batch log too.

Hm, that's actually a good idea. I'll add that tomorrow.

I've tried everything, including caching a copy of each used record in memory instead of using pointers just to make sure I'm not running into some weird compiler bug like the one I mentioned a while back where arrays on the client application and on the server behave radically different (same code, different results, I hope someone rots in hell for this one). Nothing seemed to help.

Today I finally found out what is going on. The error message I introduced showed up in the log (actually I added three checks, and it was the last one that was triggered). I re-tried the import and noticed that it failed again. And again. And again. It also failed on the client. Meaning no code issue, no weird compiler error like last time, and all of a sudden it was reproducible. I mean, except for the fact that retrying the steps in our test enrivonment worked perfectly.

So I did what every sensible developer in this situation does, screw best practices, time to debug in production.

Turns out it was a Layer 8 issue. The automated update messages we're getting take up to 10 minutes to arrive (they're batched to go out every 10 minutes on our customer's end). That's plenty of time for someone to see that there's an order that's been picked and packed by the warehouse, sit down and update manually... in a way that doesn't add the necessary reference numbers. 

Oh boy. So glad this year is over soon.

 

[Malcador]

8 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I don't think it's xmas per se for me, more just winter or "getting old, what is life anyway" - but I have definitely been ... extra bored, unmotivated, lazy, slightly grumpy and easily annoyed this month. Nothing is getting done, I just harrumph it all aside. I'm slightly worried I'm not taking enough care of myself lately but can't muster the will to care too much.

It's always the same issue for me, past few years - feeling like I need to go or do something drastically different, before, as the saying goes, I really do get "too old", but I just don't know where, or what.  Plus sometimes I don't know if that's even truly what I want, or is it just a poor state of mind that makes me think like that and ... yeah, too unmotivated to think very hard about it.  Easier to just watch more tv and fall asleep. 

Nah, always get more down during Christmas, not sure.  Maybe I miss the mental trauma of exams at school

[Gromnir]

unlikely to make you feel less blue, but...

Holiday Suicides: Fact or Myth?

"CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reports that the suicide rate is, in fact, the lowest in December. The rate peaks in the spring and the fall."

ignoring fact that fall ends today, in lateish december, is nevertheless a curious bit o' myth busting regarding the holiday + suicide myth... at least in the US. 

on the bad side, if malc is blue now, the 'bove facts suggests he gots a tough couple months ahead as melting snows and blooming flowers is the more sinister harbingers o' lethal blues as 'posed to santa and same eight christmas carols played on a loop 'til you is driven mad, Mad, MAD...

HA! Good Fun!

[Azdeus]

Been home from work for two weeks because of my back, but I've got that sorted out. Though I've gotten sniffles and a cough, so I had to see a doctor to get sick leave. So now I'm in quarantine for a week. Yay.

Oh, shineypunk!

[Gorth]

Never really cared much for Christmas to be honest. Last time I truly celebrated it was when I was 18, last winter before moving out and into my own place. Sort of saying goodbye to a part of my life back then I guess. I have on rare occasion felt compelled to join friends for the Christmas celebrations, but honestly, it was because I couldn't find a plausible way of weaseling out

The only thing I've associated with Christmas the last 35 (give or take a year) is... yay! Days off from work (or uni, or whatever). New Years eve is where it happens and where I go out and get get drunk. So not much chance of Christmas blues here. A doctor once said I had bipolar disorder, but what does he know? He wasn't a psychiatrist (and the chances of a down period hitting Christmas is probably low anyway)

Getting the hang of getting to bed late and sleeping in late in the mornings again, and it's only 4 days since last work day. I can see where it's leading, come mid January, I'll have to start getting day and night turned around again.

[Azdeus]

Never really liked christmas either, I hate the consumerist hype that builds up, my family start their drin-ners and what not. They even started playing a "gifting game" instead of actually giving presents to people, and that is when I had enough and just plain refused to participate. And the last few years it's been a ****ton of work aswell.

I do feel sort of bad for my dad though, he doesn't have anyone to meet or hang with, and now that I'm in quarantine...

[Gfted1]

Its the last working day of the year for me (although Ill still be answering my emails) and I got my annual bonus, which I was sweating for a while. HUZZAH!

Christmas is a fun time of year for us. I like giving gifts to my family and our extended family (aunts, cousins, etc.) also play a gift giving game called "white elephant". The object is that everyone brings a wrapped gag gift, puts them all in a pile, and then draws a number from a hat. You choose a gift from the pile based on your number, and people behind you can steal your gift and give you theirs if they wish. Good times watching old ladies maneuver for a particular tchotchke.  

[Guard Dog]

I live alone these days. But I always try to make Christmas something different, something special. Even if it’s just for the critters. My first wife and I made stockings for all of our puppies. I still have three of them and put them up with a little tree every year. Desiree and Tommy of course have been gone for several years. But I still put them up with Sunny’s. I put presents in hers. She will get some scrambled eggs and steak strips added to her breakfast Christmas morning. Me too LOL. I bought the chickens a big bag of Happy Hen dried mealworms. You should see how they go nuts for that! They may not know the difference from Christmas Day and any other but it makes me happy to see them happy.

The one thing I miss both this year Thanksgiving and Christmas is dinner at the VFW. A lot of the guys came and brought their families and it was usually a big cheerful party. Obviously we didn’t do that this year. Maybe next.

When my first divorce was done I had a really bad time dealing with it. I was extremely depressed, terribly lonely, and completely and totally broke financially speaking. I hate to admit it but there were times during those days I started to wonder if the World would not be better off if I were not in it. For me those feelings amplified between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But there are always good reasons to go on and every low is followed by a high later. You just have to focus on the positive things in your life. And there’s always something in everyone’s life that’s a positive.

[Guard Dog]

On another note did anybody watch the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn last night? I tried to get a picture of it through binoculars. Didn’t turn out so well. Was not as bright as I was expecting it to be.

[Malcador]

Still struggling to get up on time for work, new year's resolution will be that.  Guess I need to start shifting alarms around to surprise myself.

[Azdeus]

2 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

On another note did anybody watch the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn last night? I tried to get a picture of it through binoculars. Didn’t turn out so well. Was not as bright as I was expecting it to be.

I missed it because of weather. It pisses me off to no end, I really wanted to see it.

[Hurlshort]

People are really all over the place on tipping when it comes to Instacart. My base pay for a job is about $7, although it can be increased by the weight of items. Then the default tip amount on the app seems to be about $2. Now some people are great, and realize that is really low, and bump it up to $5, $10, or even $20. I get tipping only a couple bucks if you want me to grab a few things and drop them off at your house which is close to the store. But if you want me to scour the store for 20+ items that are all over the place, and then drop them off to your mansion on top of a mountain, maybe bump up that tip a bit?

Ain't nobody going to spend an hour+ shopping for you for $9.  

[Gfted1]

I was going to mention, based on an earlier post of yours, and once you figure in ~.15/mile operating cost of your vehicle, that your close to making CA minimum wage ($12/hour). I figured the tips is what made it worthwhile for you.

[LadyCrimson]

If I felt like/needed to make extra cash, I'd rather make it doing something like this instacart than standing behind a register at Wal-Mart. When I was a teen/YA I used to wish for jobs like that, that didn't require driving an actual company truck (I'm too small) or giant manly arm muscles.

...although if a grocery customer wanted someone to pick up eight super-max packages of bottled water and carry it up their long hilly dirt pathway to the front door, I would have to still decline. 

 

[Bartimaeus]

9 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

On another note did anybody watch the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn last night? I tried to get a picture of it through binoculars. Didn’t turn out so well. Was not as bright as I was expecting it to be.

Just a little bit, since clouds were coming in and out. Looked at them a few times with my telescope over the last week since I knew it was going to be cloudy last night. Real cold outside, though, especially since it snowed all day yesterday.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Bartimaeus

[Hurlshort]

3 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

I was going to mention, based on an earlier post of yours, and once you figure in ~.15/mile operating cost of your vehicle, that your close to making CA minimum wage ($12/hour). I figured the tips is what made it worthwhile for you.

It has become more profitable as I have figure out the best way to do it. I had a batch at 6:30 AM this morning that paid $55 for about 90 minutes of work and maybe 10 miles of driving. That is pretty typical for the early jobs. I would say I am averaging $15-25 an hour. I do about 12-15 hours a week total.

[Gorth]

Bought a Christmas present for myself this evening. A boxed set with the 8 seasons of Games of Thrones. I guess I'll be binge watching it when it arrives (probably just after New Year)

[majestic]

53 minutes ago, Gorth said:

Bought a Christmas present for myself this evening. A boxed set with the 6 8 seasons of Games of Thrones. I guess I'll be binge watching it when it arrives (probably just after New Year)

Fixed that for you. It's so sad that HBO ran out of money and could never finish the series. Who knows, maybe Martin will actually finish the books at some point. Maybe in 20 years or so, assuming he lives that long.