Sunday, August 19, 2007
This Is Pathetic!
Before coming to the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, when I was still in the Land of Milk and Honey, I was fully immersed in the hi-tech world. 4 years in the Technion led to a 9-year career as a CAD developer and a first-line manager. It was all about state of the art tools, cutting edge technologies and other catchwords.
And here I am, today, August 19th, 2007, bouncing around with bliss, just 'cause I managed to import a bunch of users to a new Emailing system.
We (as in our art organization) are sending our newsletter - and occasionally other messages - via Email.
Email, as we all know, is a wonderful way to communicate. HOWEVER, when some of the addressees are not too familiar with the world of Email ethics, big chaos follows. Some of our members have a very light finger on the SPAM. Others feel that whatever they have to say deserves an large audience. Which has inspired them to develop a long-lasting emotional relationship with the reply-all button. Which leads to a joyful domino effect of responses sent to the whole list (as everyone has to protest "why did I get this Email?" to the whole forum). Which puts everyone in a mode of over-excitement, and me into a hair-tearing state.
So, WebbieM and I (and our impoverished hair roots) have decided that no more. We need a CreativeSoul-proof solution. WebbieM has recently switched our website to SiteGround, which it is conveniently linked with PHPLists, an open-source newsletter manager, that is free to download, install and use. It provides some very helpful functionalities for sending out newsletters and messages to a large list. Above all - it sends the message to each person separately, to the vast disappointment of reply-all fetishists.
And yet, alas, as it turned out, it was not as trivial to install as we secretly hoped for.
WebbieM and myself dove into the configuration tutorial, reverted to as low as reading the user's guide (the shame!!), struggled with some of the functionally for days, and made mutual efforts to debug our testing failures. Last week, in one last effort, we managed to nail it down and figure it out to the last bit of detail. On Friday, The JohnnyB (my private Excel Guru), contributed to this
endeavor by helping me resolve some file-format issues.
And today, I decided to get over the lethal combination of stalling, procrastination, hesitance and procrastination (indeed, the recipe calls for two doses of the latter). I took the most up-to-date version of our members roster, and after some arm wrestling with the computer, managed to conquer the bloody thing. Sitting back, I watched the confirmation messages running on the screen, as tears of joy fill my eyes.
So, what is wrong with this picture?
Me, a 9-year techie, getting so much satisfaction out of a simple import of a CSV file?!?!
I guess that shows how much assimilated I've become with the world of art, and how far I have wandered from the world of formats and config files.
I have to admit: I enjoyed the intellectual duel. It was actually fun.
But, I'd rather be painting.
Labels: Damn Technology, Major Achievements
# posted by Nava @ 4:38 PM 
Comments:
Actually, this explains some things in your CAD past...
(An Anon manager that JohnnyB claims was unique in caring about people, but nothing much else)
# posted by 
: 8/19/2007 7:29 PM
You lost me at, PHP List.
I'm amazed you do this yourself.
I'd hire someone or beg.
;)
# posted by : 8/19/2007 9:49 PM
Well, I was lucky to have WebbieM. She's a web designer (hence the name). Felt good to realize that I can still do this kind of stuff.
Unfortunately when I do get things fixed, I never remember how I did it so I can do it again - and we are talking about the most amateur of efforts.
And then I never ever find it.
LOL! That's why I don't bother, unless ORDERED to do so. {sigh} It can come in handy, though, to be sure.
But where's the fun in that?
{-;
(Good on ya, btw!)
Ah, the CSV file. I can't tell you how many perl scripts I have just lying around that spit out CSV format. Heck, I write a new one every few weeks.
But then again, I have a job.
No comment!!
I'm speechless with admiration.
BTW: Where's the xchdugljkat one usually has to fill in?
# posted by : 8/21/2007 6:54 AM
Valerie, I got rid of the xchdugljkat for a while. See how it works.
Unless you miss it terribly, that is.
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(An Anon manager that JohnnyB claims was unique in caring about people, but nothing much else)
# posted by : 8/19/2007 7:29 PM
: 8/19/2007 7:29 PM 
I'm amazed you do this yourself.
I'd hire someone or beg.
;)
# posted by : 8/19/2007 9:49 PM
: 8/19/2007 9:49 PM LOL! That's why I don't bother, unless ORDERED to do so. {sigh} It can come in handy, though, to be sure.
But where's the fun in that?
{-;
(Good on ya, btw!)
But then again, I have a job.
I'm speechless with admiration.
BTW: Where's the xchdugljkat one usually has to fill in?
# posted by : 8/21/2007 6:54 AM
: 8/21/2007 6:54 AM Unless you miss it terribly, that is.
