{"id":149,"date":"2002-11-18T22:47:16","date_gmt":"2002-11-19T03:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/wordpress\/definition_of_futility"},"modified":"2002-11-18T22:47:16","modified_gmt":"2002-11-19T03:47:16","slug":"definition_of_futility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/2002\/11\/definition_of_futility.html","title":{"rendered":"Definition of Futility"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard futility defined as “doing something that failed earlier in hopes that it will somehow succeed this time around.” However, this process seems to be standard operating procedure in the computer industry. Case in point: I was building a system for Sam, and I needed to install the drivers for the network card. I installed the drivers and rebooted… but for some reason we just couldn’t get on the network. I was baffled, until I looked at the hardware settings and realized that no, the network card still wasn’t installed. Disconcerting indeed! So drawing on my vast expertise as a Windows Network Engineer, I decided to… insert the floppy with the drivers and try the exact same thing again. And the funny thing is, it worked. I mean what was going on there? Were some of the driver files like, hiding<\/em>? Did they need to cajoled or bribed or threatened into doing their job?<\/p>\n

Frankly, I think Windows machines can’t be considered “technology” at all. Their behavior is too mystical and arbitrary. Is the Moon in the Seventh House? Then all is well. Is Jupiter aligned with Mars? Then it’s blue-of-death time, baby. Or maybe my conception of “technology” is out of whack? I like to think that machines should have predictable behavior, but maybe that’s too much to ask.<\/p>\n

Anywaay… Sam’s machine is up and running, and Sarah’s is as well. And I only managed to short out one power supply in the process. So yay me! What else have I accomplished in the last few days… well, I’ve been mooching meals off of Mike, Sam, and Nancy.1<\/a><\/sup> Hung out with the family a bit. Saw the new Harry Potter movie, which was entertaining. I think Mike summed it up when Hermione got petrified. “Shoot,” he said. “They’re screwed now — the most powerful wizard in the whole school<\/em> is out of commission.”2<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n

Aside from that, I’m just trying to keep busy. My poker buddies were unanimous<\/em> in their advice — when you get laid off, you absolutely must not<\/em> start sleeping in until noon. So I’ve been setting my alarm clock for 7am, and I’ve been shaving every day. And wearing dark socks with my dark shoes, and white socks with my sneakers. I even played tennis with Mike on Friday, and I have grandiose plans to start running in the mornings. The morning weather on Saturday was fantastic for running — cool and foggy but not freezing cold. Unfortunately I couldn’t find my sneakers that day. Bad luck… or subconscious sabotage? You be the judge.<\/p>\n

<\/a>1. I don’t feel too guilty about this, because Mike and Nancy are really just grateful that Sam has his own computer now and won’t be hogging theirs.<\/small><\/p>\n

<\/a>2. And sure enough, shortly thereafter Harry and Ron were surrounded by ravenous monsters and wishing that Hermione was there to save them.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or maybe my conception of “technology” is out of whack? I like to think that machines should have predictable behavior, but maybe that’s too much to ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goer.org\/Journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}