Week 03, 2001 ,Svenson

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The nice weather continues. Nice that means cold, around -5C, and dry and sunny. Only just a little bit of frosting because the air has been freeze-dried already. Because it stays close to 0C throughout the day and there is no wind there isn't much moister getting in the air.
Current (23:20) temp is 8.3C in and

Theo called in sic.

Ronny keeps looking into the TOS problem reports. together we found a true bug (2 actually) in a JavaScript file.
The problem was that on a screen two dates can be entered. The report was "the from-date always reverts to 2000, regardless of what the user types in". And Pieter had put in an example where he typed "13/02/08" which the program converted to "13/02/2000".
After testing we noticed that when the user types in the full date, including the century the date was always correct. Even entering a year only went OK except for years 08 and 09. And for 012 and 013 and .... Well some dates went wrong.
Neither of us knows JavaScript so it took quite some time before we found the script with the date handling and then some more before we located the actual date validation routine. And then we lost more time actually finding the problem.
When converting alpha numeric data into strings (and reverse) JavaScript assumes that, if the number begins with a zero that it is an octal value. Of course 08 and 09 don't exist in octal. And 012 and 013 convert to 9 and 10 decimal.
While digging up the code we also noticed that the days per month are hard coded, with 28 for February. OK that is only a problem in four years time, when the program is most likely no longer in use (or not yet in use :-). But still it is a bug.

I didn't get much done on my own programs. Well not enough anyway.

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One shouldn't expect to succeed where one doesn't try.

 

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Could be the coldest day of the year. With -6C in the morning and -1C at noon. Perfectly beautiful weather all the way.
Current (23:10) temp is 7.5C in and -7.9C out.

At work we do some more of the same.
Even Theo is still off.
Jan is testing and gets a few details spotted which I iron out and some other problems for Ronny to sort out.
He also notices that validation 09 doesn't work anymore. A few days ago it still worked. Well, that is, a few weeks ago nobody had remarked about this problem. It is a validation to prevent clients from ordering too much, it probably is switched off everywhere. For testing Jan has switched on all the validations of course. While trying to find the problem I switch off a few validations, just to get the speed up a bit, and sometimes the bloody thing works as expected. I finally have to walk the code using the debugger and find out that the validation always works correctly. It writes a record in the error log when it has to. Only somewhat later that record gets removed. So I have to debug all the validations. I start with the most recently added ones.
And find that validation 29 uses the same error return code as validation 06. When validation 29 passes without error the error record with the associated error code is removed. Yep validation 29 removes the code from validation 06. It is no coding error, just a setup problem. And of course I did that setup myself (with nothing mentioned about error codes or text in the (non existent) specifications).
So I tell Jan what the problem is and how it can be solved but I don't know whether he will do it of if I should do it. That is anyone's guess. (So I will probably have to do it :( )

Of course all the searching time is taken from the logging-cleanup project which is slowly slipping.

 

Oeps, 7C on the attic is a bit cold for sitting at a computer. Even for me. Well, not personally (I am still up here in shorts and a short sleeved T-shirt, but with slipper in stead of barefoot like usual) but I am drinking a beer and for my taste it is too cold. Mind you I could oveclock my systems without supper dupper fans <g>

Now I am off to see in what way I can help Tom. I know wishes and prayers are not much bat that is all that gets over instantly. Money can follow soon afterward. But after that ...
I feel frustrated that I cannot give more help than that.
Heads up Tom, kids bones are flexible and mend fast. And he wil not forget how to run, maybe he will run a bit slower and look out (that is not running into things that often).

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The warm fuzzy feeling of love comes from giving it unconditionally.

 

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Great ! -10C in the morning. After a lovely sunrise and morning some high clouds sluggishly drift in around noon.
Current (23:10) temp is 9.5C in and -7.5C out.

I added yet another validation. I actually thought I had added that one some time ago but apparently I didn't. Or I lost it somewhere in between the actions.
I lost quite a lot of time before, after and in between that.

 

MS boasts W2K as stable. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16139.html .
Let's see 2893 hours is about 120 days. Wow, impressive.

Step by step, the world is taken. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16136.html

Now can we combine these to two articles and get a conclusion out of it?

&$160;

I registered with Paypal today. I have to get my credit card verified before I can use it for sending money. (They verify by deducting $1, on your balance sheet that gets reported with a special code which you have to return so they know the account is actually yours. And You get your dollar back :-). So I haven't actually used it yet, but it does look to be a simple and easy way to handle money on the Internet.
I'll tell more when I know more.
BTW, if you open an account via a referral link (like the one above) the referrer gets a $5 bonus. Or you can go straight to www.paypal.com.

Oh, yes, Landon is on the mend (as is Tom). Quick as kids heal it will take some time. It will be a difficult time for Tom and Leah. And Danielle. But then difficult times often strengthen the bonds between people. And they have a whole Daynote Gang standing behind them for support.

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If you don't reach out, you won't pull in.

 

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Less than ideal weather. It has been freezing some days now, with -2C this morning yet but now it is snowing. Locally that was just snow-dust so not really a problem because it doesn't melt and it doesn't stick. Just a few kilometres south of home it snowed real wet fluffy stuff and a bit north of here it rained. On frozen ground. I reached work without problems though. To enjoy a grey misty and drizzly day.
Current (23:20) temp is 10.1C in and 0.6C out.

Jan is back, testing the validations, and finding some more problems (only 2 of them were newly introduced). He was in Germany yesterday and the Germans have some proposals, must haves really (they call them 'problems'). Only thing is implementing the requests goes right against the original assumptions.
Basically the users want to be able to start orders from anywhere in the system. Our answer all along was that they should keep the order entry window open and switch to that (one click or an alt+tab away) for entering/reviewing an order. Of course they don't do that. They want to start order entry directly from the address window (at least 3 clicks away, and then they close the address window once they are entering the order).

 

I did get some daynote reading done. But I am still way behind on some.

Then the Register has this http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16157.html .
Yeah, everybody surprised ?

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Life goes on, with or without us
It is up to us to follow.

 

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No frost, no ice and positive temperature. This time of year that means mist and drizzle and rain and clouds and all sort of nasty un-enjoyable stuff.
Current (23:20) temp is 11.7C in and 1.7C out.

I threw away the cleanup program for the order entry error logging and started from scratch. The problem with the thing I threw away was that I had started and stopped too much. Each interruption breaks of my train of thought and often, when I pick up again I look at the problem differently. That is not necessary bad but sometimes it does kill a project.
So I threw out all the code and started new. And finished the whole thing. I cannot test yet but I will on Monday. I only need to add a call in an existing program for that. And some data.
Theo had an unscheduled day of yesterday because his god mother was due for a hart operation that got rescheduled. He is back today but completely occupied with a Progress meeting about TOS.
He did get away long enough to put the building of a correction program on top of my to do list. About this time last year I was finishing off the Hierarchical Classification Code programs. (The actual filling of the HCC file, to be done by OPRS, is still not ready so a "temporal" program that I made for testing is still used for it). The HCC stuff is only present in V9. In V8 (on which the current version of TOS is based) the codes already existed but there was no hierarchical structure enforced, all the codes were available in almost any combination. They were basically not used except in some rare situations. the result was/is of course that the code file contained duplicate codes and a lot of codes were actually missing.
You probably guessed that the V8 codes must be corrected.
So I made a program for that. Equally untested because it has to run in an environment that I don't have authority to. So all I can do is put the program in the right place and say it is ready. No testing of course means no margin for error.

 

My VISA expense sheet came in today but (of course) nothing from Paypals was on it so I can still not validate my account. And of course I must wait till about halfway next month for the next sheet.

And then I made a mistake while preparing the sauce to go with the salmon and mushrooms. Too much flour for binding so I had to dilute and I overdid that too. I ended up with a weak sauce. The mushrooms and salmon were quite good.

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We expect to get all products and services to be perfect and without error. We cry faul (and litigate (US)) if there are problems.
Why then do we actually expect problems with software.

 

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No frost, no ice and positive temperature. This time of year that means mist and drizzle and rain and clouds and all sort of nasty un-enjoyable stuff. Yep same as yesterday. In the afternoon though the clouds start to break up slowly.
Current (23:20) temp is 10.7C in and 0.2C out.

Shopping. As usual, wine, fruit, food and clothes. Extra chocolate for next week. The English version of windows still hasn't arrived. This was ordered halfway December so you would expect it to be here by now. Apparently Microsoft doesn't like to ship the English version of its packaged bugs.
At the same time I ordered a wireless network kit from Elsa. I knew this would take some time because Masset didn't have it in his assortment, I was probably the first client asking such a thing. He has lots of 3Com stuff but the 3Com wireless stuff is a bit pricey, about 3 times more so than the Elsa kit. Apparently he cannot get the Elsa stuff. He did put an inquiry up for D-Link kit which he can get and I pointed him to LinkSys who also makes wireless stuff. This is getting a long term project.
I did pick up a network card (D-Link 10BaseT) for adding to a firewall. And I also brought back a new CD drive.

Peter brought his PC (Cindy) home. The problem is that the CD drive makes suspicious clicking sounds and, when getting up to speed it sometimes spins down completely. I try it but apparently the drive doesn't do that always nor with every disk. Another problem he has is with sound. The board is based on the i810 chopset () with integrated video (no AGP slop present) and sound. The video works well enough but the integrated sound is death. I had installed a Soundblaster 128 (OEM version) but that had stopped working some time ago.
I replaced the CD drive and I reseated the sound card.
Problems solved.
Well sort off. A third problem he has is that sometimes the box just locks up halfway trough the boot sequence. Quite nasty because it only happens occasionally, that means when you stop and start to look into the problem it doesn't occur and just after you give up it happens again.
He is running BootMagic for dual booting (DR-DOS and Win98) and the lockup occurs halfway trough the Windows start-up, that is after the boot manager has done its work. He used to use DOS for running some Symphony spreadsheets and a few games. He can do this from Win98 just as well but he was used to DOS. He is going to replace his old Toshiba (286/10 1MB, 20MB disk, DOS only) notebook with the Fujitsu which runs Win98 so he is going to abandon naked DOS.
If the problem continues he will bring back the PC and I will scrub it all down and reinstall everything, without the bootmanager and DOS.

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Ha, frost, ice and negative temperatures (-4C). That means no mist or rain but nice clean starry skies, with a beautifully red rising moon sickle followed by the sun. Of course that nice weather doesn't last and in the afternoon clouds mach in and we get a load of fresh snow.
Current (23:00) temp is 14.1C in and -0.9C out.

Good running weather and I extend my course with an extra 2 Km. And hours later I regret that <g>

My fathers anniversary is tomorrow but I am in the office than so I make a cake today. One day compared to 66 years won't matter much. I leave out the baking powder hoping that the cake wouldn't rise into a high domed shape as usual because that interferes with the icing. I succeed more or less. It still rises more in the centre but not much. Of course without baking powder the cake is much denser than usual and a bit too heavy. So that is not the right solution.
The taste is good though.

Nope, I didn't actually post yesterday . I couldn't reach the electronic world. No Web, no Mail.

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Stress is what hardens steel.