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20 December 2009

NITFM

I've been beating my head against my windscreen for about 12 hours, trying to get life and soul and URL to match up with one another. Finally got it to work, everything aligned in a tenuous harmonic convergence. Not sure quite what I did, what I might do to make it all work again, but it works, and that's good enough for government work and combat applications at a tactical level.

Back in the day, they'd tell you to read a manual. Even in the early days of the Interweb, there was an acronym: "RTFM." Stood for "Read the F'n Manual."

These days, with on-line "help" pull-downs, and collaborative forums and fauna, there's not even a manual. You just click and hop and hope from place to place, plucking this thread and that thread and maybe you come to something close to your answer, in the form of someone else's problem.

So I got things to work, no thanks to anyone else in particular. It reminded me of some of that RTO-mojo they used to teach us: If it doesn't work, plug and re-plug. Point the omni-directional antenna in the direction you wish to transmit. Use some toothpaste or a pencil eraser to clean your contacts. Wet a towel and drape it over your radio to help cool it off in the desert heat.

Not In Any F'n Manual, my friends. NITFM.

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