Forumites HELP! If you are waiting for a khukuri this is a must read.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
34,096
If you have an order for a khukuri or sword pending that you have placed in the last six weeks or so I am sorry to inform you that it is lost forever. Please email me and update your order. Here is what happened.

I store the orders in a wordpad file -- often times just pasting email into the document. And for some reason wordpad has been giving me fits lately -- just not working properly. One exasperating thing it does is when I try to change page formats so I can print a hard copy of the pending orders for Yangdu's files the program goes into a loop and I have to shut the computer down manually. The data is usually saved but yesterday the program went into a loop, I shut down, and today when I opened it up to add a few orders I was faced with an alarming blank page.

I have learned my lesson. I will now keep a backup file just in case this happens again but this does not get me out of my present predicament. I have lost recent orders.

So, please email me with any order you have placed within the last six weeks that has not shown up on your doorstep. Sorry for the inconvenience but I can assure you it will not happen again.

------------------
Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
Bill,

I had to read your msg several times to really understand what you did. I think you are saying that you simply opened and closed the exact same file over and over. You added the newest thing to the top or bottom and then saved it. That's really putting all your eggs in one basket! Not only did you not have a backup but you were depending on one and only one file.

One of two things probably happened. It is possible the file just became corrupted and it no longer readable at all. If that happened then some really simple utility in DOS might be able to show you what is left. If you knew what the document was called and were at the DOS prompt then you would need to "go to" the directory where the file was. Something like "c:\cd windows" enter then you would be at c:\windows. If that's where the file is you would type "type orders.txt |more". (Replace orders.txt with the real file name.)

The second possibility seems more likely to me: you blew up Wordpad by gradually creating a file that was too big for it to open or change. It would get increasingly cranky and then give up trying. The old file could still be there though. Use the "find.." command and search your c: drive. So "find..." and then in the box type "*.txt" assuming your wordpad is setup to create files of type .txt. Once you find a fairly big file (>32k I would guess) with a recent date then you can try to open it with something else. If it isn't corrupted then MS Word/Works would open it. Launch Word/Works and then chose File..Open. Then navigate to the file, select it and chose open. When you close it, save it as a Word document and use Word next time!

To avoid this in the future. Obviously backup. But also, you should have one file for each order. Put them all in one directory somewhere. Then it's easy to backup, just drag it to a floppy. I would use Word or Works if you have it.

The best way to avoid all this esoteric BS is to wave goodbye to MS Windows and get a Mac. You would be a perfect candidate for an iMac DV for $1299. You could use the included Appleworks for your orders. You could backup your files to Apple's server using the built in iTools. You setup a 20 mb space that only you can access and it mounts up on your desktop everytime you log on to the internet. You drag and drop files to and from it just like it was an internal hard drive. Great deal and it can be accessed from any other Mac. Free e-mail account (I'm greggg@mac.com). Free filtering software for web surfing. There is also iCards and other stuff. Check it all out at Apple.com.

Good luck, I wish I was there. Sometimes you have to sit down at the keyboard to really get serious with a PC.
 

Swap the computer.

Send money to Sgt Karka to buy a dog.
Sacrifice the dog.

Take pictures of Sgt Karka holding a Ganga Ram next to the decapitated dog's head. Hang picture facing monitor above and behind your seat in the computer shed. Mount Ganga Ram special next to picture. End of computer problens.
 
Rusty,

We usually just threaten balky mainframe computers here with a screwdriver and a glare - works about 50-50. Though I'm a dog lover, I like your thinking - sounds like the voice of experience
smile.gif


Thanks for the chuckle !


Nick
 
Don't just make a backup file -- make three backup floppy disks, back up to floppy every time you exit the program at the least, and change floppy disks every day. Losing six weeks worth of work ... I have no words. There is no need for that....

I run Word Perfect and have it set to make automatic backups every five minutes, and I hit a key to backup to another file at the end of every paragraph -- I just hit alt-g; I'm not even consciously aware I'm doing it any more it's such a habit -- and I hit control-alt-b to run a batch file that backs up that file to the floppy drive before I exit the document, and if I'm in it for long I do that in the middle of things too, and I change the floppy in the drive at least once a day. I have additional floppies off-site so even if my house burns down and I lose everything else I own I won't lose the novel I'm working on. I have never lost more than a few minutes work in all the years I've been writing on computers. I've had computers crash, I've even had the smoke leak out of computers, but I never lose more than a few minutes work. Some people have lost entire novels.... Last week the smoke leaked out of my monitor with no warning at all. I was in the middle of writing a post so I saved my work blind -- I know what keys to hit even if the screen is dead -- I highlighted the whole message, copied it to the clipboard, called up a text file in Notepad, pasted it into that file, and saved the file -- I didn't lose a word. BTW, my new 17 inch monitor shows better pictures of khukuris than the old one did....
smile.gif


-Cougar :{)
 
Cougar, many thanks. I will not make the same mistake again.

I hate to admit how inept I am with computers but I'll use as an excuse this: There were only about a dozen of them in existence when I learned how to use them. I am not up to date.

------------------
Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
@lurk off

Uncle Bill,

What about special orders? You logged my request for a Gelbu Special, with a carved wooden handle and a blade profile that closely matched the #1 Gelbu Special, on March 2nd. Did the order get dropped? Lost?
Processed, but you don't know where to send it? I was begining to wonder. Seemed like a long time, but you did say that special orders were backed up.

Chuck

@lurk on
 
Your order is somewhere in the works but I need your mailing address. Please email it to me. Sorry for inconvenience.

Special orders are running 2 to 5 months. We have had order in for katars since the first of the year and they are not done yet.

------------------
Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
Does anybody remember "Saturday Night Live" when they had John Belushi do "Samauri______", ( a different job every week, butcher, baker, janitor, ... )?

Remember I told you that one friend of mine has a matched set of 15" HI AK's that I gave him? He just happens to have negatives of

"Rusty as Samauri Slot Mechanic"

I'll call and have him send me an 8x10 pic of the shot with three slot reels flying thru the air as I follow through with the stroke of the katana while wearing my old Harvey's Wagon Wheel Hotel and Casino Slot Mechanic smock.

I'm sure it'll be no problem for you to explain to your computer that I've switched from katana to 30" Sirupati and from fixing slot machines to PC's, Uncle Bill.
 
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