Week 41, 1999 ,Svenson
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Week 41, 1999 ,Svenson
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1999-10-11 |
MondayGood day all. It was too hot for comfort this night (15C) and I was pestered by a swarm of mosquitoes. I defeated two of them but the rest played hit and run tactics (or is that bite and fly?) and would not stay long enough for an honest one to one fight. There was a complication with the French problem. First of the solution I worked out did solve the problem and I got further information from Herve, the French manager, that confirms my point. The complication is that the error was introduce by Sven, from the OLI team while changing an error condition into a warning condition. It was sloppy coded and afterwards badly tested. The only reason why it did not produce an obvious error was that our data are fabricated. My solution changed the warning back into an error so I have some more work to do on this.
And the death-line for the McKinley adaptation shifted from after week42 to Tomorrow. I am lucky I asked Peter last Friday about it, else I would be noticed by Tuesday that is should be finished on Tuesday. As usually. Now I have a full day almost. I tried to upload yesterday evening but I got a busy signal a few times and I was not in a state to retry until I got a connection. Now I tried a few times and I got a connection just before dinner. I did fire off a mail hung up the line and went down to eat. Afterwards I didn't get a connection until 23h00. I tried my day notes, the daily format, with a black background for about a week but I am going to revert to normal black on white. On my LG screen (15" TFT LCD) it looks good and on the Nokia 17" screen at work it OK as well but on the OptiQuest and especially the Yakumo it is not comfortable for reading.
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1999-10-12 |
TuesdayStrange weather. It was warm this morning (15C at 6h00) which, at this time of year indicates an overcast sky but yet there were a few start visible. Throughout the day it was sunny and dry, without wind but the temperature remained at 15C. In the evening, after a beautifully red sunset clouds started to form. The French problem is solved tested and sent out. That was this morning and we did not hear any complains so I assume they haven't found any problem with my solution. Or they haven't installed it, who knows. It wouldn't be the first time I must hurry a solution to find, months later that the programs are never used. Such is life on the wheel of development
We had a presentation about the use of HTTP servers and XML on the AS/400. We will need these later for OMSI3 and TeleSales. This took most of the afternoon. And there is a local problem in America for which they wanted to know how they can add tests to the Validation routines. So we explained that to them. Again. We explained that several times already but because they hire new people for very short periods the explanation doesn't 'stick'. I did get a connection yesterday after a lot of retries. Then I wanted to upload but my password on the Mailbank server could not be validated. I tried to mail a message about this to the Postmaster but I couldn't send mail either. They store the passwords for their mail servers and for their web accounts on the same server it seems. Without backup. I could log on to the Member area on their own web site, the server status was reported to be normal, so they have a different password server for that. Bother. What is the problem going to be today?
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1999-10-13 |
WednesdayI think I will have to check the thermometer. It indicated 14C but it felt more like 5C with a chill in the air and mist coming up all over the place. That thermometer is definitively off balance. I started and finished the McKinsey adaptations. Just starting off at about 9h00, after the daily mail check. The method is simple, head down and bang away at the code. Sometimes that is the way to go. Wanna bet I didn't introduce bugs? Belgacom, the Belgian telecom ex-monopoly, is promoting its ADSL offerings with prices that are reasonable (about 1500BEF (37$) per month for a 300/64Kb line and 1900BEF (47$) for a 100/128Kb line). There are some higher end schemes targeted at businesses as well, with markedly higher rates (ex 380$/month for 1000/512Kb unlimited volume). There are just two problems with the affordable options. One is that the traffic is limited to 3GB (I guess that is per month but it is not stated on the folder) which is fine for normal browsing and the occasional download but way to little if you are serious into Linux for example. The other problem is that you get a dynamic IP address. Again sufficient for browsing but not if you want to host your own site for example. Oh there is also a third problem, I cannot get it at home. A colleague of my fathers has it but he lives on the other side of town
I checked the ISDN tariffs as well because I can get that. That comes in at 1460BEF/month (37$) for Basic Rate (2 lines) so it costs the same as ADSL, which is IMO strange. The call charges are the same as standard analog lines. The problem with ISDN in Belgium is that you get two lines of 64Kb but you cannot combine them into one 128Kb line. To do that you either have to take two 'modems' (TA's) and combine them via software, which is complex, costly and inconvenient, or you get a Prime Rate connection (30 lines) which costs about 12 times as much and incurs an installation charge of almost 100.000BEF (2500$).
There is also the possibility of going to the cable company. They charge 1499BEF/month (37$) with a one time installation fee of 9.999BEF (250$). You don't get a fixed IP address and there is no guaranteed bandwidth. And, a mayor problem, you can only connect trough their own ISP setup.
I am inclined to take ISDN now and see how the ADSL evolves. Now I just have ton convince my father because he still pays the bills :-)
I had no problem connecting yesterday. No busy signals, got a connection on the first try. And I logged on to Mailbank without problems either. BTW Mailbank is a Canadian firm. I got a reply on the inquiry I sent yesterday morning. They confirmed the temporal problem that occurred. And they apologised for not replying sooner, because "We had Thanks Giving and so the offices were not occupied". Canadians, phew, they sure have a calendar problem. Thanks Giving in October, Tom is missing September. Maybe they will get the new millennium a month early as well :-P |
1999-10-14 |
ThursdayThe thermometer read 2C this morning, and it feels like it. Wet and misty too. It cleared later resulting in a cool but sunny day. Nobody wanted to bet yesterday. In TeleSales we ran into a problem with conditions when applied to offers. I solved it by some wizardry but I wonder how it ever worked. We use one program for the calculation. In the old OMSI3 system offers passed different parameters when handling offers and the offers were stored in different files. For TeleSales the difference between an offer and an order is only made after the calculation so only one set of parameters is passed. In my calculation program I now have to make up the missing parameters. Hehe. Someone asked Matt the way to become a Daynotes member. After a time messages were flying around and the question had become The Question. Good ideas flying up and down the web. None of the daynoters imagined that someone would be asking, politely, to join. This web is like a big playground, filled with a whole lot of kids. Some start playing a game, a few join spontaneously and the playing group grows. As the game progresses rules become apparent without being discussed, they just occur and all the players, still a small group, all know them. At a certain point the amount of natural rules has grown so that on looking kids don't naturally pick them up. Then they ask if they can join expecting the 'leader' of the game to explain the rules. We have been playing this game and amusing ourselves. Unconsciously rules have appeared. Well of course there are no rules but for the other kids looking on there seem to be. Just go and observe a vacation playground with a whole lot of children between 4 and 8. We are just a group of playing kids. |
1999-10-15 |
FridayIt was overcast but dry (10C) in the morning but by 10h00 the sky had cleared. The rest of the day was sunny again. We noted a problem in TeleSales. We test an order on a margin. If the order value falls below that margin then the order is not released. Any single line may be under the limit (there is another optional test against that) as long as the total is correct. The program tested wrongly in so far that if the first line was under the margin you got the error, regardless of what the other lines did. Basically if, at anytime during the testing that margin was undercut the order failed. I changed it so that all the lines are added before anything gets tested. We will see if it works on Monday. The solution I worked out yesterday for the conditions problem did not work. It is however high time for me to get more involved in Progress. I found an opportunity to pick up a discussion with Robert about subsidy. Some weeks (months ? WTF (as in Wow, Time Flies)) ago we had the beginning of just such a bout, started by TV-channel programming that was (unfairly) subsidised. Of course I lost then, just like I am going to lose this time. But I think I need the training and Chris did not press on for the Whaling bit. Maybe he will go for it if I say I am in favour of extermiating these big brutes? We had baked haddock fillets with a fine shrimp and mushroom sauce, liberally washed down by a bottle of almost sweet white wine. So it's time to relax now. adios |
1999-10-16 |
SaturdayNormally I sleep myself out on Saturday but today I am up at 5h45 as on normal workdays because Suzan is not here to bring my father to hospital. It was clear and cool (3C) this morning but not misty. The rest of the day was sunny and cold. I went to the barbers. I typically go once every two or three months because I don't really care much and when I go I make sure to be early to avoid waiting. They start at eight so I entered at 7h50. And there were already seven people waiting !!! WTF (why ..) don't they simply sleep out on Saturday? Don't they know eight o clock is much too early to be at the barbers? Especially when I come? Well I actually leave at ten past nine so it did not really take hours. That doesn't leave time for going to the supermarket because if you are not there when they open you run the risk of spending hours (figurative) queuing at the cashiers. So I do some shopping in town and I arrive at the computer shop at the same time as Steven himself. We are in just about five minutes when some postwoman brings in a box with his new notebook. In stead of buying and selling we start installing the thing. He normally uses his PC in the shop for doing his accounting and his sales. After using a computer for six months it gets on sale as second hand and he installs a new one. That way he can sell a still good computer (now a Mitac notebook, AMD K6/366) for a low price and he always has a top machine to work with. And he has a working top model as showcase for potential customers. His current computer is sold and must be delivered this evening and the new one did just arrive. Now there is the small problem of transferring the data. He rules out the serial port because that would take too long. He has ASDL and, as a test he uploaded some accounting files to his server via that, but it is far too slow as well. And of course he has just sold out his last crossover network cables and he has hubs on backorder. Now I have got a hub at home that is doing the important job of ... collecting dust. I run home and back with it which takes me about 15 minutes and when I arrive we find out that he also has no PC Card network card in stock. I have one at home but he thinks he can get someone from the warehouse to bring one. If he doesn't get it in time he will call me. (It's now 22h00 and he hasn't called yet so I think he got a card or found another solution. ) I buy just a few sound cards and a spare CD drive. And I get an AMD K6-2 /300 along, as replacement for the defect chip I left e few weeks ago. The weather is perfect for gardening. And the garden does need some autumn cleaning. We can expect to get night frost any time now so some plants, like the Geraniums, need to get potted and stored in the house. I have been struggling the last few weeks to get a connection to my ISP, most of the time I got a busy signal. Now Steven says he got news from a few other clients that Euronet is getting overloaded. So I am not alone. Connecting today however goes smooth, without problems. I did spend more than two hours catching up with the writings of the other Daynote Gang kids, I admit that I am not a fast reader but even so, there is just too much going on. This is taking too much time really. I have to cut down during the week due to lack in time. I read some daily (Tom, Bob, Brian, Bo) and the others as far as I can find time. I try to catch up in the weekend. How many hours are there in an American day? |
1999-10-17 |
Sunday
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