It says Do not panic right?
At the Restaurant
Alright! After waiting 20 minutes, got a seat, ordered some ramen, some beer, ready to catch up with old friends.
We always have some good fun and just from chatting. I don't remember what we talk about but I remember it's nice. Even on the nerdy side. Drooling over the latest fun developments in machine learning, which I only know a little bit about. How deep learning is ruling the games, one at a time. How far can we go with robots?
Anyway, it was then that a panicked phone call arrived.
30 minutes earlier...
Beep
Mad barking
Pause
Beep
Mad barking
....
Whining noise
"Help I'm going crazy!"
"I just got home. Opal barks like crazy and is shivering! This thing is beeping constantly, and I don't know what to do!"
If you have experienced the joyous chirps of the smoke alarm, you know how loud they are. Enough to drive someone insane if beeping constantly.
Possibly the worst user interface in the world that many people have encountered.
Looking back, this is a pretty simple fix but I wasn't thinking straight either. The emotions were getting to me, thinking how crazy both of them must be feeling. I call the super to see if someone can come take care of it for me while I'm outside. Nobody can come until the next day.
"Maybe I can fix it myself?"
She's right, of course. If I were there I'd take it apart and figure out what the damned beeper wanted.
At this point the friends are also involved. We tell her to unscrew the thing and take a picture.
We see "one beep: replace battery". Well that's a relief, at least we know it's not real. In the meantime, Opal is still barking from her crate. Wow, who knows how long she's been barking for so far. Why hasn't Opal gotten used to it?
Continuing on, we tell her to look for the battery. We also found the model number and searched online for where the battery is. For this model, it's on the side. We say, "Look for a crack on the side which you can pull on..."
"Opal, quiet! Okay let's see... Whoops!"
Something fell out of the alarm. The battery.
Lucky! We have that type of battery as well! At the time we also were thinking that worst case we could pull the plug on the alarm and look for a battery tomorrow. Wasn't sure if it would turn out like the episode of Friends where Phoebe is wrestling with her beeping alarm and makes it worse by tinkering with it, but likely not.
"How do I put the battery in?"
We think that the battery can really only go in one way.
Battery goes in....
Pause
Beep
"It's still beeping. Cry cry" (This is text chat.)
I guess it's time to try the plug then...
Two Minutes Later
"Oh wait! It stopped! I did it! I am awesome!"
Yes you are dear. Whew! Turns out she did not have to unplug it after all. The beeper enjoyed sucking on its new shiny battery and left us all in peace.
And afterwards, that was the best stress-free ramen and best conversation and best hangout ever. At some point home-brewed beer was involved. Happy Friday everyone.
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