Premature

This all was only wishful thinkin,
this all was only wishful thinkin


Unbelievably, the DM that was working a few hours ago is broken again after restarting my computer. Maybe something happened to the hardware overnight. Maybe our lab was subverted by Chinese hackers. Maybe it was all a dream and I was just hallucinating about it working from the pain meds I took for my knee.

Maybe my experiment's become self-aware and is trying to prevent me from making a discovery that will eventually lead to the extinction of the human race. It is, after all, almost as if the piece of crap was consciously trying to screw me up at every turn. Here's a rough timeline of the last few weeks:

- DM arrives. The cables for connecting the driver to PC are 1 ft long. Order longer cables.

- Longer cables arrive. Install DAC card drivers and search fruitlessly for further instructions. Email for help.

- Help arrives in the form of a software update from DM manufacturer. Software update proceeds to not work and crash. Email again for code that will work in Matlab.

- Example Matlab code arrives. Cryptic and mysterious, it uses syntax and a programming interface I'm unfamiliar with. Running it invokes errors and crashes Matlab. Email for help with suspected code.

- Correct faulty Matlab code and run it to discover...more errors. By now I can fix the "example" code myself.

- Matlab code runs without error. It works successfully with old DM, but new DM refuses to move. Email for help.

- Update DAC card drivers to latest version. Unplug and replug cables.

- SUCCESS! Compose witty and congratulatory blog post. Drink heavily in celebration of completed experimental setup.

- Restart computer. DM again refuses to move despite no software or hardware changes. Email for help.

- Cry. Put on Taking Back Sunday and compose defeated and bitter blog post.

And that is where we stand to this day, only a mere half quarter after we started. Fuck it, I'm taking a vacation.