Mar. 26th, 2004

car crash

Mar. 26th, 2004 09:27 am
cellio: (tulips)
No, not hardware.

I had to reboot my car this morning. I still don't know what happened.

My car, like almost every car built in the last N years, has a remote control. There are buttons for "lock" and "unlock"; for the latter, press once to affect the driver's door only and twice to affect all doors. (A single press of "lock" affects all doors.) The car does not appear to preserve state for any significant length of time; I have not conducted experiments yet to determine the timeout between presses of "unlock".

This morning I needed to get something out from the passenger's side, so I pressed twice, retrieved the item, and a few minutes later got into the car and drove off.

Now when you lock the car using the remote control, the car's alarm system is supposed to automatically activate. You know that this has happened because of a little light that comes on. There is no documented way to deactivate the alarm.

When I got to work and locked the car, the light didn't come on. I pressed the lock button again, thinking my car was somehow weirdly stateful after all; no change. I unlocked and relocked; no change. Eventually I unlocked the car, got in, put the fancy electronic key into the ignition, removed it, got out, and locked. That time it worked.

I still have no idea what happened. This is not covered in the manual, nor did the UI provide sufficient hints.
cellio: (mars)
Wow. I placed an order with Amazon (US) on Tuesday and took the cheap shipping. Thursday, I got mail saying it had shipped. Today, it arrived. With speeds like this, I think it would take a lot to tempt me to actually pay for shipping. :-)

Amazon.uk says the second season of Blake's 7 is due out June 28. They mean of this year, but if the first season is any indicator, that could change. :-) But hey, the third season of West Wing just shipped today, so that's something to look forward to after Pesach. (I imagine it'll arrive while we're away.)

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