Up early and to the laptop to work on QuickGreek, my tool for working with ancient Greek. It really has suffered from being worked on in bits and pieces. Moving bits of code around to simplify things, so I can build on top of it.
While doing so, downloading more of the RealEncyclopadie in PDF form from the web. The download site places obstacles in your way. For each PDF you have to click on a link, then “request a download ticket” (just an excuse for another click), wait while the advertising downloads, then click on “Download”, then wait as IE blocks the download, then click on the “if it didn’t download click here”. If you download more than one or two, it adds an extra step and demands you type in a “captcha”. All very wasteful of time and energy, but the RE is worth it, even in so many, many PDF’s. How else would someone like me ever even see a copy?
Rainy and dull and cool, which is all to the good. If the sun was shining I’d feel morally obliged to go out and do something summery. But as it is, the pressure is off!
UPDATE: One of the nicest days I’ve had for a long time, in fact. I spent most of the day working on QuickGreek, untangling some code that had given me pain for years. It is strange, tho, how long it all takes! Also I got my upgrade to Office 2010 downloaded and installed, and I finished getting hold of the RE at long last. I didn’t really post online much — my alternative to working! — but I stuck to the job. I also went out early and got a haircut, which mysteriously made me feel more cheerful as well — I don’t know why. Did all the hippies take drugs to get away from the fact that they all felt so unkempt?!? I walked down to Sainsburys at lunchtime to get a baked potato and a scone and some very necessary diet coke, or liquid caffeine as I think of it. There’s always a queue, but somehow I timed it right and didn’t have to wait long. It rained on and off all day, just a cool, quiet, grey, and comfortable day.
Today was one of the good ones, in other words. As ever, tomorrow is Sunday and the PC goes into the cupboard in a few moments. First to run my backup software!
If these RE pdfs are now free in public domain, have you considered posting the RE pdfs on a torrent site? That way other people looking for them won’t have quite so many hoops to jump through and they won’t rely on potentially slow servers.
If they are PD, I might upload them to Archive.org. But I haven’t looked at them all yet to determine this.