A Conversation with Elizabeth
1999
Telnet fixed

From:          Elizabeth 
To:            LMixson@PEC.com
Sent:          Wednesday, January 13, 1999 9:45 AM
Subject:       Telnet fixed
 
Information Services people--ARGH!!  What was wrong with my computer ALL day was a very simple setting on the set up for telnet.  It is echo on and echo off.[1] If echo is off, what you type does not show up.  Apparently it has always been "ON" because I could always see the data I entered.  The IS person CLAIMS he called the National Library of Medicine and they told him that was the way it was supposed to work.  I think he lied to me.  I don't think he called.  When I called them again this morning (I had called yesterday and they told me it was DEFINITELY a local problem) the women explained to me right away what was wrong.  She asked me "WHY" they didn't figure it out here.  I asked her "Well, you could get a job here."  She asked me what state I was calling from and when I told her Alabama, she said "NO THANK YOU."  Anyway it was a good laugh and I'm back in business.  The only "trouble" about my job is that basically I do work mostly for physicians.  Physicians have no understanding if things aren't done.  They don't want to hear it.  They don't care.  They just want it done, RIGHT AWAY.  So yesterday, I had requests stacking up like crazy I couldn't get processed.  Oh Well.  So far I'm sticking to my resolve to leave home early and get here early. 
 
It is proving a good start to the day.  I have to go to the cafeteria though because if I am in the library early, people will pounce on me early (another characteristic of physicians is that they get up early.) They have 7:00 and 7:30 meetings here in the library, and often the hospital meetings are at 6:30.  They tried to get me to come to a 6:30 meeting once and I suggested we handle it all my memo.
 
So how are you.  Yes--when it snowed heavily in Tuscaloosa, the first time I had been in a really heavy snow as an adult--I mean really heavy--I went out and played.  There was a hill on campus and I got some cardboard and did some sliding.  Everyone went crazy of course.  I did discover the perils of walking though and how dangerous it can be if you step on the sidewalk where the snow has compressed to ice.  Oh well--back to work.  Elizabeth

[1] The “Echo” option meant that the characters you typed to send across the Telnet connection would be “echoed” back to you so you would see what you typed. If echo was turned off then what you typed would not be displayed on the screen even though it was sending it across the connection. Echo is just one of several dozen Telent options which if were not set properly the connection would not work. A good IT person should have known about the echo setting.

Computer Frustrations