The temperature is more like it should be, 2C at 6:00. And we have a clear sky, just some black bands on a pastel blue background. The black turning into red and the red disappearing altogether by noon. In the afternoon clouds mass in for a dark grey evening.

I put in some extra effort and actually get the validation program running. I only have to make the distinction between errors and warnings but for the rest it looks all right. If I get that fixed tomorrow I finish the project six or seven days before the expected date.
Oh I know there are still a lot of loose ends to tie up and of course testing isn't counted in. Anyway We could well get this thing rounded out and tested on time.

Although. During a first try we notice a problem with the calculation. Nothing changed in that part of the project yet now we have just enough time to actually look at the intermediate test results. The calculation at the end of the order process works as it should so the problem isn't inside the calculation module. The calculated result on the interactive validation is wrong.
We spend the whole afternoon searching the cause of the problem but we come up dry. So we won't be out of work tomorrow :).

 

I inserted a KVM switch between Oswal and the screen + keyboard + mouse yesterday in order to hook Aria up to that same screen. I did that while Oswal was running and he kept going without problem.
I did switch him off for the night, I switch off everything on Sunday evening, and now he wouldn't boot again. At first I didn't even get a connection to the screen (only the OSD from the screen itself). After swapping the keyboard and mouse cable I did get a picture. Not unreasonable, the KVM switch probably takes its power from the keyboard cable. But then, yesterday evening the keyboard and mouse worked normal so the cables should have been correct. Well,...
After swapping the cables I did get a picture but the box still didn't boot. Normally the BootMagic pops up allowing the choice between DOS (DR DOS v6) or Windows98. Now the process got stuck at the 'Loading BootMagic .... ' message. Nothing wrong with boot magic because booting off a floppy hangs on the 'Loading MS DOS .... ' message. I can get into the BIOS so the keyboard should be all right. After removing the KVM the booting proceeds as usual. So something isn't right with this switch box, inserting it on a running box introduces no problems. Until you must reboot.
Utterly unusable in a Windows environment.

Fairly nice weather. Not too warm at 6C, lots of sunshine in the morning and only a bit drizzle in the otherwise overcast afternoon.

The problem we were stuck at yesterday afternoon turned out to be a small but stingy remnant from an old test in TeleSales. Of course we were looking on the AS/400 why the data were wrong while all the time the progress program ignored the insignificant fact the data was correct and just kept showing the old un-calculated stuff.
On the AS/400 side I only have to adapt a few details (concatenating numeric and character data) before I can start testing earnestly.
On the Progress side the change that was built in on the order entry screen must be added to a whole bunch of other screens. Copy and paste with a few twists.

 

Worked a bit on a new layout but I was getting lost in nested tables. Putting a <td> or <td> wrong or putting stuff between table rows has weird effects. Depending on the used browser the effects can be quite surprising. I did crash Netscape a few times and MSIE (v4.0) broke down twice as well (taking Win98 with it :(
In the end I scrapped the whole lot and settled for a single table containing only the navigational stuff. Looks rather clean and simple (but not just what I want in Netscape).
Sigh.

Overcast and hot (well 12C in December is) with a bit of rain while on the move. And throughout the day. Unhappy miserable stuff.

All is well on the galley.
I adapted all the message logging in the new validation program for coping with numeric to alfa casting. And we dug up some problems in TeleSales. And solved them.

 

I downloaded Netscape v6, all 25Meg of it, and tried it.
Not bad. Not good.
For example, it is much more customizable, good, but it requires customization before it becomes more useful than v4.6, not good.
I installed it in a different directory from the previous version, it did nevertheless pick up all the settings and phone book from that version without a problem so I didn't have to change things during nor after the setup. And, oh wonder it did that without breaking the existing installation. I have now three versions of Netscape (v3.x , v4.6 and v6.0) installed and I can run them concurrently. Well sort off, I had the mail clients of both v4.6 and v6.0 open at the same time and somehow I lost a few mails. For browsing they don't seem to interfere with each other. Something I never could do with MSIE, that would never run two different versions at the same time.

The main problem however is speed, there isn't any. It is about twice as slow as V4.6. I don't expect it to fly on a Pentium/200 with 64MB (which tells more about my expectations that anything) but it is dramatically slower than v4.6. Heck, even switching between preference screens takes over a second while it is a totally local operation. The speed alone is enough to dump it.
I don't give up easily so I will try it out over the next few days but if I don't find some dramatic improvements in it I will only keep it for page testing and stick to V4.6 for my normal browsing.

I notice there is a wind of change blowing trough the daynotes. With tables being abandoned left, right and center and everybody moving to simpler layouts whenever possible. Could become a daynotes-requirement : Change the layout once a year, going from complex to simple or vice versa. I will change as well of course but I keep off till January the 1^st. One big change a year is enough and New years-day seems the logical roll-over point.

Overcast and hot (well 11C in December is) with a bit of drizzle while on the move. And throughout the day. Unhappy miserable stuff, ideal for copying.

Dipped my head back in the code for the validations. And got into some discussions with Ronny. He is quite conservative and doesn't want to add more than necessary. I am more imaginative an I always find new things that would be nice or could be useful to add. Sometimes, like today, I go a few steps too far.
Theo has been in a meeting almost the whole day. He had just enough time for a briefing with me about the progress we are making.

I still am 'responsible' for the Communications System (CS). CS is used daily for transferring data between various AS/400 systems and between modules, converting the data as requested while moving it. It is actually a custom written EDI / EDIFACT message handling program. Now CS is a package that works as all packages should work. Normally all problems (not the day to day management) with it gets reported to me for checking and solving.
Today was the third problem reported this year. The message-receiver crashed yesterday evening, around half past four (pm). Checking out the problem (in a 16090 page long job-log) showed that the program crashed because someone was looking at a received network file (manually opened and locked) while the receiver wanted to pick it up.
No data was lost of course (did I mention CS is good?) and no changes are needed. Well, not to the programs maybe the users should undergo some internal changes <G>

 

My installing of NS v6 yesterday has affected the precious version. I have NS v4.6 defined as default application for opening HTML files so when I double clicked one in the explorer of selected preview in CuteHTML the page opened in the 'top most' browser window. Since installing v6 each time a new window instance is opened. That clutters up the screen fast and it eats in to the Windows resources (Win95 so they are scarce indeed). And I haven't (yet) found how to alter that.
Somehow the NS v6 runs at an acceptable speed today. Some actions are faster than v4.6 some are slower. What speed change will tomorrow bring?
I do miss the ability to minimize the toolbars by using text only.

 

Somehow my page update yesterday left the wire somewhere between two servers I guess. That is happening a bit (too) often recently. This time the redirection page did arrive. Redirecting visitors to an unfilled day in the week. The connection to the server (in the Netherlands) either flies or sucks the proverbial bunnies.
The connection to my mirror site at sjon.svenson.com, notice the extra dot, usually is slow but steady. That is hosted at Mailbank and from time to time my password is rejected there so the updates are not guaranteed either. I only have 5MB space there so I don't post pictures or anything else but my daynotes there.
Usually if one connection plays up the other works so I get my page posted somewhere. To make finding the site easier I added a link to the mirror site on my week page (in the navigation table).
So if you don't see my post and you are terminally addicted to my nonsense, check the mirror.

 

My father is off to hospital for a checkup on the arteries (?jugular vein?) in his neck. A few years back they were both almost clogged up. The right one was 'spooned out' then. Now they are going to check if any new spooning left or right is needed.
So I am home alone. Made me a bowl of rice with mixed vegetables (peas, beans, carrots, turnips, all in julienne) and a good portion of lard. Half for now and the other half as cold lunch tomorrow.

Well, well, well. A few weeks ago I mentioned a heat-wave. We had 16C this morning at 6:00. It was actually warmer outside than inside the house. Apart from one or two short showers the day is overcast but dry.

I finish off the changes in the validations program. Of course that is without testing so there will be enough work next week. And I still need to adapt a few old programs to handle the new error-logging files.
I am still about a week ahead on the expected schedule though. O.K., it takes extra long days, working from 7:45 to 18:00 with about half an hour lunch break. And it doesn't leave much energy for the evenings but still. It is nice to run before the schedule in stead of trailing it.

 

I think I will stop the Netscape v6 testing. There was no new speed improvement today so generally speaking it doesn't improve much on the 4.6 speed. The page rendering is better but only by a hair.
What is preventing me from using it on a regular basis is the mail client. I use NS 4.6 as my mail client of choice and I intend to keep it that way.
At work I get all my mail from MS Exchange delivered in Outlook (97) and picked up by NS 4.6 in SMTP format. In Netscape I delete all the company mail, but deleting is set to leave the mail server untouched. In Outlook I delete all the personal mail. The result is that I have all the company mail in Outlook and all my personal mail in NS.
I don't find a way to set NS v6 to delete the mail locally but to leave it on the server. When I delete something it gets lost from the server (and becomes lost to Outlook as well). That is unacceptable for me.
Of course the mail is integrated in the browser so when I browse I easily lose mail. Not good.

The temperature keeps jo-jo-ing between 10 and 15C. With lots of clouds and rain driven past by a fairly strong wind. Oh, yes a few outbreaks of sunlight happened as well but no damage was done.

Shopping. Flour, sugar, apples, wine, just the usual stuff. And a 20m Cat-5 cable. I only need it somewhere in January but you don't find that length often, 2, 5 and 10m are common.

I make yet another type of cake, a thin sheet of cake that gets rolled up. Just a bit too sweet and than I add a bit to much butter-creem (with too much sugar as well). It all tastes great but it definitively doesn't belong on a weight-watchers menu.

So, weighted down in the middle, I make it a rest day. As usual.

According to the weather reports no change to 'normal December weather' is expected during the next week. And indeed no real change. It's 9C and drizzling/raining at 6:00 and keeps doing that all day. With a strong, gusty wind this produces rather nasty weather.

I run the long course again. It is a bit warm but with good water-cooling, only the wind is a bit bothersome at times. I take about ten minutes longer than last week.

I help out my brother with defrosting and cleaning up one of the deep freezers, brining in the old spare freezer and later removing the ice from the normal one. Defrosting should be done at least once a year but we didn't do it last year, so this time we have about two buckets of ice. Enough to build a small (less than 2 foot) snowman <g>

I get enough desk space cleared to setup the Fujitsu notebook. Peter is, finally, going to replace the old Toshiba with that Fujitsu. The Fujitsu (actually build by Mitac) is a 350Mhz AMD K6-2 based box with just 32 MB RAM, a 2GB disk and a 800x600 12inch DSTN screen. A cheap box but perfectly adequate for the use he is going to make of it. Well, if I can I am going to expand the memory to 64MB or more but for now 32 must do. He is using WordPerfect vesrion5.2 and 6.0 for texts and Lotus Symphony (1985 vintage) for his tide and navigation tables (remember he is Pilot). Neither of these programs eats memory for lunch.
It is running Win98 (in Dutch version, Yikes) so it may need a bit more. And I need to work a bit on the installation because currently I get no sound out of the small built in speakers.