Month: January 2005

I just spent an hour trying to troubleshoot a problem with a PHP script I have for my work site. It’s a simple script that takes the contents of a CSV file and dumps it into a MySQL database. Before I left on Friday, the thing worked fine. I get back here today, suddenly the thing doesn’t work.

So I’m sitting there, racking my brain on why the file wasn’t working. It appeared OK, but something still wasn’t working. Then I started blaming our crappy DOS-based reservation system for screwing with the file, I started screaming and cussing out the scripts it uses, etc… .

Then I actually opened up the CSV file in Pico from a Unix command line and noticed a lot of funny characters. Then I realized what had happened: My FTP program was putting the thing on the server in binary format instead of ASCII. So I just wasted an hour on something stupid that took about three seconds to fix.

/me is stupid. Hopefully the rest of the day won’t be filled with as much boneheadedness.

As previously mentioned, I got snipped over the weekend. The surgery went well. I’m feeling fine, not sore at all (the only part that’s bugging me is that the region down there that had to be shaved prior to surgery really itches). I have a bunch of Advil with me, just in case things hurt.

Anyhow, I took the weekend off, and am back to work today, and was greeted with a “Welcome back, here’s your gigantic list of stuff to-do” note along with about 700 e-mails that need to be gone through.

Don’t expect much blogging today — or expect a few posts as I procrastinate on all the crap I have to do.