I had a beneficent visitation ... oyceter dropped by and told me about ljdump. All I needed to do was edit the little config file in my text editor and then run the thing from Terminal. It was pretty fast, too! It backs up the entries, comments, and the Userpic picture info (but not the pictures themselves ... names, descriptions, and path names to the files on LJ's server). I checked the XML files for a few entries - yup, there they are!

If the servers go under tomorrow, I guess I'll just kiss my LJs goodbye. I've just spent a headachey 45 minutes attempting to find and/or download things that purport to do backups on Mac OS X (including the "platform independent" things), and have done several downloads, all of which are now in my trashcan because none of them looked anything like anything I've ever tried to make run on a Mac. And I *have* downloaded and used Mac shareware, thankyouverymuch. I think LJArchive download is just the Windows versions of that product, even though they are labeled platform-independent - heck, one of 'em is a blessed DLL file.

> sigh <

I do have backups of my stories and reviews, because I write them out ahead of time in a text editor. That includes a complete HTML-formatted version of the big new story.

ETA: I wonder if the action of thousands of backup clients crawling through LJ entries will bring the servers down tonight ... .

So my older system no longer believes in the Intarwebs.

This happened at one point last week - when I try to connect using anything (browser, FTP, whatever), it says there is no such server. But after I re-seated the cable that connects it to the FIOS hub and restarted, it was fine. But now I've tried that 3 or 4 times, and it still can't find its way onto the Internet.

So I can't reply to e-mails I've already downloaded (I can write new ones, and reply to anything that's still in my online box), and to post anything I've been working on, I'll have to move it to this newer system. It's something I was going to have to do anyway, but I've let myself run out of time to do it at my own pace.

The e-mail is what I'm most worried about. I once tried exporting all my e-mail archives from the old Netscape it's in to the Mac's built-in e-mail, and it didn't work - it built the e-mail mailbox structure, but it was empty ... no messages.

Our IT specialist came by and gave my newer system more memory! w00t!

It's to be hoped that now, when I'm running the CMS, Outlook, and Photoshop at the same time, and the security scan kicks in automatically, my whole system won't grind to a halt - which it's been doing ever since I started using it in place of my sturdy old warhorse wot died of HD failure.

My older system at the office? The one that I had set up just the way I like it? The one to which the speakers are attached? The one with the repository of Saiyuki art for making icons, not all of which is yet copied over to the external hard drive? The one from which I was supposed to switch eventually?

It seems to have suffered a hard drive crash .... .

So now all I have is the shiny new computer on the credenza, with the keyboard that feels like it came out of a bubblegum machine, and only the most necessary software.

I wants my old computer back, I does!

So first off we have the ever-popular ...

Signs of Spring

I like spring. Spring works for me. Everything progresses. Things grow and bloom. Birds sing (and sometimes beat each others' brains out - boys!   > rolls eyes <) The days get longer (very important!).

On Saturday the weather was wonderful, soft and warmish, with that great after-a-rain feel, and we had a lovely row of little purple crocus growing along the side of the house.

The yesterday and today - meh. Cold again, and they're calling for snow on Wednesday.

But your days are numbered, Old Man Winter! Saw the writing on the wall this weekend, din'tcha? Nya hah hah!

Next up,

A Certain Sign (Symbol) in Saiyuki Reload

I'm going to be good and use LJ Cut in case this would be a spoiler for anyone. It's Saiyuki Reload vol. 4.

I shall not mention the Content Mismanagement System at all except to point out that it apparently retained too much memory this morning and had to be restarted. Let this be a warning to all of us ... keep your systems regular, folks ... wonder what the equivalent of oat bran is for a Solaris system?