Week 11, 2001 ,Svenson

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Another warm and grey day. But dry for a change. And with two (2) sunny breaks, each lasting about half an hour. As usual, it is wet and rainy when you are home on the weekend and once you get to work the weather improves. Bah.
Current temp is 17.1C in and 4.6C out.

I solved and tested the problem Norwegian problem that I pinned down late last Friday . yea, linking Friday to Saturday, I am nuts but rolling up to Friday won't show what happened then though . I tested it but of course I had to mess up the data to do so because under normal conditions the problem didn't occur. For a better test I passed the ball to Jan.
My intention was to send the fix to Norway after Jan had tested it but I didn't hear back from him yet. And I don't think Norway wants to wait too long. And I am pretty sure it is right now. So I will post it first thing in the morning.
And I worked some on the testing routine for the validation-10 solution I build, what, ages ago. The problem is that to test this normally you have to kick-start it from TeleSales (or TOS) and then it runs as a background job. Which is a hell for debugging. So I am building a test program to run the whole validation stuff interactively 100% on the AS/400. For easy debugging and testing. And easier fitting it into the OMSI-3 system if that is what the Italians really want.

 

I played around a bit with configuring Cindlon, the new box for my brother. I am not going to Farquhar (^TM) that box because I want my brother to be able to do a complete scrub-and-reinstall cycle without my help. He can do that but he lacks experience and confidence and he usually seeks me out when things aren't running smooth. But I am not always available when he runs into problems.
Now, I am just playing around a bit so I can tweak as much as I want.
But WTF (where ... ) did I put that Roadrunner book?

And in between all that I notice I have problems uplodaing to my regular server. There is nothing wrong with the mirror though.

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Life arose from self organising systems in chaos.
My desk is bound to come to life.

 

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It started off dry and sunny, well after sunrise anyway. And it remained that way till late in the afternoon when clouds drifted in. And at night (now) we have a downpour or rain and hail and a nice light and sound show to go with it.
Current temp is 14.6C in and 6.7C out.

Worked some on the validations and lent a hand to Ronny on some TeleSales stuff.

And I got to look at a missing credit note in Austria. They had an order that was completely processed (status=Closed) but they didn't find a trace about the invoicing (Credit notes are just special invoices). Mulling and munching trough their data I did find that the invoicing was simply never run (record in trigger file with process indicators still off). Normally the invoicing program is the only one that sets an order to Closed so we have a mystery here (probably some Manual Data Manipulation). An other indication for MDM was that they didn't want us to look for bugs, they just wanted us to correct the data.
Now that is production stuff so I keep my hands off but I did explain, in detail, how they can do the correction themselves (see doc/sales/prob/at/nocred.htm ).

I also got a solution for Norway posted. Not in the morning as I intended but still in time. And I got a good (mail) chat with Iwan about it.

Ӭ

Someone has laid knots in the cable to the server. I get upload speeds of 0.01 Bps (the counter probably doesn't go lower) That is less than one byte per minute!!! No wonder I also get time-outs. I have no problem with my mirror though.

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Nice morning with a freshly washed pale-red sun rising. The day is not cloudless though. O few bands of dark threatening stuff drifts by overhead dumping some of its load. We do get some bright spells squeeze in between.
Current temp is 16.1C in and 7.7C out.

I started on the validation stuff. Again. but I didn't get far. Again.
The changes to the validations that we did for TeleSales must of course be applied to TOS as well. TeleSales is made up of mostly Progress (Ronny) and some RPG (me). TOS is made up of mostly Progress, but a later release (Ronny) and a combination of HTML and JavaScript. Notice I didn't put a name behind the HTML/JS? Guess who is going to do it? Right.
I am learning but I come from a non-OO background and without a good C basis. I am spending a lot of time now because I like to know what I am doing.

And then we get a problem from Germany. Our Supplies program crashes when it hits a serial number on a line where none should be (supplies have no serial number, machines do have one). The problem is that in contracts for supplies sometimes a serial number is filled to indicate the supplies contract is for a specific machine. When TeleSales makes an order from such a contract the serial number was copied. Was, because we solved that. But, because the validations are still not completed we cannot roll out a new patch on short notice.
So I banged a Quick-and-Dirty program together on the AS/400 to trap and destroy the serial numbers. It is essential and difficult to test so it's not just QnD but it must be right first time around to be applied to production.
Hey, real Men don't test, they deploy.

After frying my brain on that coffee extract and the quick-n-dirty German fix I didn't get much else done.

 

Government at its best and this is not America http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/17567.html
Maybe it is good for the general health of most people. You'd be too scared to get sick.

 

Nope, probably no update to my main site. The server is not looking my way. I will keep waving some more but ....

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At a party :
"Are you looking for someone?"
"Yes, I am looking for my husband."
"Well, what is his name."
"I don't know, yet."

 

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Raining at night and tapering off while I commute but once I am at my desk it stops. And the day soon becomes sunny with some nice white clouds. But cools down at night with some hours of drizzle.
Current temp is 18.2C in and 8.6C out.

Made some progress on the validation-testing setup and on the Validation-10. On first testing the validation works like a charm. Which is highly suspicious for a first test after an extensive reworking. Especially if you consider that the work was interrupted often for long periods. I don't trust this.

And of course just when I don't find obvious flaws Theo comes around with a required extension to another validation. And it is an obvious one at that so why it hasn't been noticed before just indicates the track record of the acceptance testers.
When a customer visits a showroom and walks out with some items we still need to make an order (to produce an invoice and to produce eventual restocking orders). Such orders must get into the logistics track but they may not result in logistics performing the shipping. The ship-from information must comply to special rules. Which aren't tested now.

 

Satellites aren't doing well. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/17602.html . But patenting an elliptical orbit is just a brilliant move. <g>

Lots of dot.com s are going down. But of course when things aren't going bad you don't get in the press. Unless it is The Registry . http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/23/17600.html

And M$ is likely to try the same strategy they used ( successfully ) against Novel. Aiming .NET at Linux. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/17588.html . Maybe that was at the back of their minds when they dumped cash in Corel. Now they may succeed partially with it but they may well be undermining .NET that way.
(Check this comment http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-03-13-008-20-PS-0026 and the others, some are good.)

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Everybody grabs authority, but no one takes responsibility..

 

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Mist and fog and general low level greyness for starters. As main course we get dry greyness. And we finish off with a desert of grey drizzle.
Current temp is 17.6C in and 7.6C out.

I did finish the validation test-program. After making it more complex than needed. Basically it is just a screen where you can manually enter the parameters that are normally passed by the Progress programs. Of course I started off building something completely new in stead of copying an existing settings program. Now it works but it doesn't adhere to the OCE standards.
And don't ask me why I do these things.
Oh, I didn't find a problem with the actual validations.

Except of course that one validation (the first, pertaining to credit worthiness) for which Jan just found out that we need some extra coding. This is going beyond the validations that were built in the old OMSI-3 system.
Nothing difficult, just a reminder really that the validations will never be 'finished'.

In the afternoon we do a walk trough a list of 'problem reports' coming from France with Ronny and Theo. (France just/finally got TeleSales running for testing. It is their first hands on experience.) Taking a long time. And most of the reports are just moved to be re-discussed with Jan Geurts joining in. So we lose time now and again on Monday. And whatever we do some of the problems can not be solved without causing problems for other opco's.
A lot of the remarks from France are being dismissed because the just ask to get more information. Basically all the information can be retrieved but not all of it can be placed on the same screen. Unless they have screens with a 4000x3000 type of resolution we are not going to get everything fitted. And if we add anything more than what is already displayed more than just a few screens are going to exceed the 800x600 limit we try to keep (some users in Germany and the US cant get more).
I am not happy with dismissing all of the requests. Some are over the top but some are reasonable. The only way, imo, to get things worked out is to make a thorough redesign.
TeleSales is starting to suffer from evolutionary feature bloat. I mean it is getting bigger by adding various functions without taking a careful look at the way they are implemented. Technically everything looks OK but from a user pointy of view things are getting over complicated. This is of course the result of having multiple clients with different request. Each client asks some extra function. Which is than added either into an existing program or as an extra, separate function. I thing that a lot of the extra functions should be streamlined and combined. But of course this would mean that the Opco's that are currently using the system would get a rather radical redesign, with resulting retraining, on their plate. And they wouldn't like it.
Still I think we should take a good look at things now.

Oh, and more work is looming in the TOS and web-enabled side of the equation.
And did I mention some changes in core processes (calculation,...) are on the horizon.
Well, we do live in interesting times.

 

At last something is moving. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/17626.html

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Everyone knows there is a time for thinking and a time for doing.
What is often forgotten is that there is also a time for evaluation and reconsideration.

 

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Rather warm and no more rain today but the greyness decided to stay. All day.
Current temp is 18.5C in and 6.0C out.

Shopping.
Wine, fruit and clothes as usual. The wireless network stuff has still not arrived. It was expected to, at last, come in on Tuesday, slips another week though.
I did get rid of the remains of the old 386 box that I looked at last weekend. I only kept the processor and one of the hard drives for my collection. Masset was quite happy to take the stuff. He uses old cards and motherboards to decorate the wall of his shop. And the still working AT power supply is still useful for anyone who needs a replacement, you don't find AT power supplies at reasonable prices these days.

I also picked up the card-reader from the bank. I signed up for some on-line banking scheme and they require a special device where you can use your bank card. Two functions are currently available, loading and paying with Proton (digital cash), and paying with the bank card. It basically has the same functionality you get at a checkout in a normal shop.
A secondary function (which requires a download) is the ability to view your accounts and print status reports.
The problem at the moment is that I cannot use the thing. It requires a serial port and on Miona I don't have one free (serial mouse and modem). It should work over an network but at the moment I don't share my modem connection, making Miona the only 'connected' box.
Yep, sounds like some network reviewing is coming up soon.

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It rained all night (I didn't sleep well so I know), sometimes hard. By morning the rain tapered off to a slow drizzle, drying out completely. Until early in the afternoon when the water fun starts again.
Current temp is 19.2C in and 4.5C out.

I had a bad nights sleep so I got up for running late. But I did run quite well (a bit warm but a good cooling wind), got home at the normal hour. And I had no problem with the right calve during the running. After running though it starts hurting.

I spent a few hours cleaning an old frying pan. It has been used some years without ever being cleaned (not unusual when Suzanne used things, she is not a cleaning type). I didn't get it cleaned well enough so I will have another go at it next week. The problem is that with the electronic controls I cannot use too much water.
The new frying pan is much easier to clean (I did choose it that way).

I did install Win98 on my brother's new PC last week but I only had the English version. No problem for my Peter but Tine is both not conformable with computers and not used to English (she is prone to hit the power switch when she gets a message that she doesn't understand). Well, I had the Dutch version but the manual, with the installation key, was still in Zeebrugge (the Pilots home base) where he keeps the notebook.
He brought it back today so I started to install Win98 and various programs. When I had everything installed and started to move things around a bit I noticed that I had ended up with a mixed language setup. I hadn't scrubbed the hard disk. One of the problems was that the 20GB hard disk was partitioned into a 28GB C: drive and a 17GB D: drive. Not the sort of magic I like to see after an installation.
So I went back did a "format C:" and started over again. This time I rebooted after installing every program. And ended up with a good, working installation. I only have to write up a short description and a to-do list for my brother (he must, for example, change the keyboard from QWERTY to QZERTY).

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When I was younger I hated going to weddings.
It seemed that all of my aunts and the grandmotherly types used to come up to me, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next."
They stopped that stuff after I started doing the same thing to them
at funerals.