Project Journal - Week Three
6/17/04
You know what's really really *really* aggravating? Copying code from a page that works into a page that doesn't... and still not getting the page to work. There is NO EARTHLY REASON for this to fail me, and yet it does. I am considering taking it out on the balcony and putting it out of its misery. I've stopped worrying about making it function in Explorer, at least for the moment. I just want the stupid thing to work in Camino! BUT IT WON'T. I SHALL SMITE IT WITH THE FIRE OF TEN THOUSAND SUNS. THE SMITING WILL BE SWIFT. THE SMITING WILL BE JUST. AND THE TALE OF THE GREAT SMITING WILL LIVE ON IN LEGENDS FOR A THOUSAND GENERATIONS.
However, what I have working on Camino on my iBook also works on Firefox on a Windows machine. *shakes head* I make progress in the strangest ways.
Okay. I can get a different bit of code to work properly on Firefox. Fabulous. It reads, it writes, it stands on its head and does tricks. I am ecstatic. No, seriously. I figured out, all on my own, the proper protocol for Firefox to recognize this cookie. Haven't yet been able to do that for Explorer. And I certainly haven't found any documentation on it, for any browser, anywhere. Somehow, that stuff just doesn't exist. Or if it does exist, it exists in the Void, and I can't get there with an average web browser. I'd have to build my own, and I just don't have the time for that. As for the other bit of code... well, I'm going to let it sit in a corner and think about what it's done wrong. I'll go back to it later. Eventually it'll figure out that the best thing for it to do is to do like I ask, and then all will be well. *nods firmly*
Goals for tomorrow: Start looking at some of the APIs for Lewis. Stare down the JavaScript. Avoid stabbing the code repeatedly with a sharp object.
6/16/04
*sigh* I had a good entry for yesterday, but my computer seems to have eaten it. Not only that, it managed to eat the entire file. This is evidently what happens when one's hard drive gets way too full. Thank goodness I'd remembered to update this on the webpage recently.
Anyway, yesterday was definitely productive. The forms and papers I need are almost done. I found a space where I think I could run this thing; now I'm waiting to see if the space is available or not. I can't work with Lewis yet 'cause the guys aren't done tricking him out or something, but I did learn that he already had a map of the space I wanted to use. Yay! There are a lot of offices in that space. I forsee many Saturday afternoons spent down there. The way it's looking right now, Cindy and I will probably run this over a more different Saturday afternoon. It promises to be full of excitement.
On to today! Couldn't get much done on anything besides the JavaScript, and that's being evil again. It *needs* to work on a Windows machine. I can live without it working on Explorer, but I very much want it to function on a Windows machine. So I downloaded Firefox, the Windows version of Camino, to a Windows computer today. So far the cookie gets set easily enough originally, but for some reason it doesn't get the times stored in there. And there was one point where it wouldn't go on to the next page, but I think I might have fixed that. Not that it matters, 'cause the data again won't display in my Camino. *grumble*
What frustrates me most about this whole situation is that, not only do I not see any reason why it works in one browser versus another, but I haven't yet found anything to tell me what I'm doing wrong! All the stuff I'm looking at tells me that this should work. I haven't found anything that can give me specific protocol information for any particular browser. (I'm assuming that that's all that's wrong - some standard somethingerother that I'm not meeting. Nothing else makes any sense, near as I can figure.) If I could learn what I had to do to fix this, life would be a lot better. *snarl* Time to get out the code-beating stick.
Goals for tomorrow: Learn what I'm doing wrong and fix it! Get Lewis to roll from one end of the hall to the other. Find out when I can talk to Mitchel about the psychology paperwork. Look at reimbursement info for the San Jose trip.
6/15/04
Has it really been six days since I last updated here? Man. I wish I could say I had all kinds of cool things to show for it, or that I'd at least managed to get the cookies working in Explorer, but no such luck. I did get a start on the psychology paperwork, though. However, that's gonna have to sit for a while, at least 'til I can get an area to work in, get it set up, and have some people run through the experiment to see how long it will take. So much red tape! I'll have to get my machete sharpened.
I wasn't here this weekend, so I don't know if Lewis is up and running yet. I have big plans to find out after lunch, though. If not, I could probably get some of his code and start staring at that. I still need to make sure I have a place to run this thinger, too, and make sure I can use it for a couple of weeks while I start to sort this stuff out. I really only need three or four rooms fairly near each other. I'll look into that today, too, if I get a chance. I had a place picked out, but someone was supposed to email me if it was a go or not, and that hasn't yet happened. Time to go poke people.
Goals for tomorrow: Find a space for sure. Start working with Lewis. Get an appointment with Mitchell so that he can look over my papers and suchlike. Maybe find some boxes. If I have some time, continued armwrestling with JavaScript.