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  • A Meandering Scholar by Ian Brooks

    Wherein I hope to document the path of change: The continuing evolution of the Postdoctoral Fellow within academia.

    • Quit while you're ahead

      Friday, 06 Nov 2009 - 23:57 UTC

      I spent a day working on a nice piece of toggle code in JavaScript. Admittedly I inherited it.

      Well, finally trouble shooting is through and at BANG ON 5PM, I got the little bastard to work. Click a link and a nested URL drops down, as if by magic.

      Now, all I have to do is figure out how to make a series of nested links drop out of one toggle.

      But.

      Did I quit while I was ahead, basking in the warm glow that comes from making my computer obey me (for a change) by nothing more than the application of logic and nice code?

      No. Sadly. I didn’t.

      Bolstered by enthusiasm, I spent an hour slaving away at my computer, said farewell to my office mates as they went off to the pub. Sweating in the steamy heat of my office. An hour of tweaking, and snipping, cutting and pasting. A headache inducing hour of getting more and more frustrated as I code and code, and every time I upload the damn file to the bloody server NOTHING IS CHANGING. THE SODDING THING IS JUST SITTING THERE DISPLAYING ONE SODDING LINK.

      I then realized I had been repeatedly overwriting my local copy of the file, and not actually uploading it to the server.

      An Hour.

      I can’t remember the original code now either.

      Excuse me, dear Reader. I am going to go and VERY drunk.

      Last updated: Friday, 06 Nov 2009 - 23:57 UTC

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      • Comments

        • Date:
          Saturday, 07 Nov 2009 - 00:55 UTC
          Stephen Curry said:

          Funny, I was also just thinking about the fleeting nature of success… blogpost soon.

          Hope you’re already at the bar!

        • Date:
          Saturday, 07 Nov 2009 - 01:05 UTC
          Ian Brooks said:

          Deep into Pint the Second.

        • Date:
          Saturday, 07 Nov 2009 - 13:46 UTC
          Heather Etchevers said:

          Hope you are not regretting it now!

          I was thinking the same thing about how masochistic we can be in the lab. Why do we repeatedly launch in situ hybridizations to get out results on a Friday afternoon? Because we want to feel smug over the weekend. But more often than not, we feel frustrated and lose sleep, because we stay late trying to get some darn signal to come up that won’t…

          Anyhow, I know where you’re coming from.

          But sometimes it does work, and you’ll still get that glow. Promise.

        • Date:
          Sunday, 08 Nov 2009 - 00:13 UTC
          Ian Brooks said:

          The glow right now is behind my eyes. Someone send aspirin. Please…

        • Date:
          Sunday, 08 Nov 2009 - 13:15 UTC
          Alyssa Gilbert said:

          Isn’t science fun? :) That’s why on Fridays I try to do something that will be “successful” – and even if it’s done at 10am I try not to do much else!

        • Date:
          Monday, 09 Nov 2009 - 15:43 UTC
          Ian Brooks said:

          Ah…Five minutes after re-attempting the code today I got it working.

          Ho hum.


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