Week 01, 2000 ,Svenson

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MM-iii     Monday

2000-01-03

Warmer still at 8°C and dry but still gray and cloudy. Just the kind of in-between weather that I don't like. Not that I mind it too much as long as it remains dry but it never does. Rain is predicted for next morning.

First workday of the year so every body goes around shaking hands and chatting up. All in a good excuse for not doing real work. I just don't like it, especially when someone that has no business on our department comes around and starts interrupting everybody. It is just once a year so ...

We have a problem with release upgrades. We have been using Progress V8 for developing TeleSales and now we got V9. The new version was installed on the older NT server (Compaq Prolinea with a Pentium Pro if I am correct) and Ronny has tested our programs and made a few adaptations to get it compiled. Now it is time to install it on the new server (also Compaq Prolinea but with P-II chips). All the opcos are using V8 so for support reasons we must keep V8 active until everybody is converted to V9. We intend to make that conversion a purely technical matter, without any functional change or bug-fix in TeleSales. That way it can be installed with minimal testing and without complications. Once everything is installed in the opcos Ronny can pickup the changes required by the new release of OCS. The problem is that all the bug fixes in our own C02 version are done so, according to plan we should fix the code (no more changes) until V9 is rolled out. Fixing the code means that Ronny cannot work so the period should be as short as possible. However the roll-out must be done by Wilbert (or Tom) and they are currently committed to the implementation of SAP. The earliest they can do something is halfway January. Keeping Ronny occupied for fourteen days will need some creativity. Or a change in plan.

We had a long meeting with Theo and Wilbert to make up a new schedule but nothing has been decided, we just spent about three hours in a meeting to get at the conclusion that something must be done. Wow. Part of the duration can be attributed to the way Theo conducts a meeting. He tries to explain a situation that is clear to everybody (else) but he rephrases every sentence several time until he loses track of what he actually wanted to explain. That may be an effective method to conduct a meeting where various managers are competing for resources but for reaching a decision it is not appropriate. Well we lost three hours with no decision made.
I like short, decisive meetings where everybody it to the point and straight forward.

I got the HCC programs up and tested. Now I have to add them to some other existing programs. Along with extra functions to actually use the HCC. Then there are changes to the payment condition code that must be added to OMSI-3. No chance that I get without job around here :-)

The Undeniables, aka Netwidows, are making a good start with their own gang, sort of counterpoint/complement to the boys. Maybe in a few months time another daynotes-like group comes online : the web-orphans. Well, with mom and dad caught up in the web and all that.
Poor old (well old?!) Landon already has to compete with mail for attention from mom and compete with wordology for attention from dad. So maybe if he gets a computer with a web site and a mail program he can mail and post his requirements. :-)
Of course Danielle then requires her own computer as well. Yes Tom, time to expand the network.

MM-iv     Tuesday

2000-01-04

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MM-v     Wednesday

2000-01-05

At last there was a bit frost on my car again. Although, at just 0°C that is hardly worth calling cold. The best part of it is that the day remaining predominantly dry.

I finished and tested the last of the HCC_ programs that I do before Peter returns (he is home with a variety of flu). Only one program remains but I can solve that in one of two ways. I'll let him decide. Heck, that is his job, he is the architect after all.

An interruption from Belgium caused me some trouble. They got bitten by the duplicate-S3 problem. That was first experienced in Spain and later in France. We know the symptoms, duplicate keys in the statistics file (causing a program crash) due to duplicate entries in the trigger file (which is illegal but doesn't crash) and we can solve them but we don't know the actual cause. The trouble was not in understanding the problem but rather in explaining it to Robert, the manager in Belgium. He is no fool but he doesn't know all the details that happen behind the scenes. And he doesn't want to delete records if he is not sure about something. On top of that he is typical for a Belgian company. He is French speaking with reasonable knowledge of Flemish (better than expected, and he makes the effort) but no fluency in English. So we talk in Flemish but that way he is not always clear. Because he is French speaking I answered a few questions in French but that doesn't make things any clearer. I got him so far that he removed the offending trigger records so the crash doesn't repeat.

I am astonished by the web.
Tom has a problem with the hosting of the Dainotes.com (and his own) domain at iTool. I am hosted there as well and I haven't had a problem (yet). His problems are not technical but rather administrative. They seem to be less than straight forward in handling their customers. He mentioned, in a mail to the Daynotes back channel that he was fed up with it and that he would pull his site of the iTool servers and on his own box as soon as possible. He doesn't want to pull the rug out under the daynotes.com site but h doesn't want to be involved with iTool any more. All that was not a cry for help, he was just asking for an opinion.
The result was that he got all kind of offers and advise from all the daynoters. In no time flat. He also got an apology from the iTool boss.
The power of this web is impressive. Scary too.

While exchanging some mails with Tom I started wondering when he actually sleeps. I got mail from him at 2h37, 4h03, 5h11 . Nice and convenient for me but all trough the night for him. So I asked him. Well working from home without a fixed time schedule has its advantages it seems. He sleeps whenever he has time and need for it. (before I get flamed: I know that is not 'whenever he likes')

And I learned from Delanae how to make an espresso-fudge-shake. Which turns out to be a kind of milk-shake with espresso and caramel ice cream in it. (and chocolate).

If anybody tripped on my daynote for Yesterday. Sorry but I simply could not resist the temptation. If you are really interested in the actual daynote you can always read the HTML source code
<< short >> it rained; one old problem in Austria resurged; I did some geograpy-scanning. << /short >>

MM-vi     Thursday

2000-01-06

The cold doesn't stay, it back up at 2°C and overcast in the morning. With some light rain following.

I took a day off to service my car (230000KM) and to replace the preheating elements. This is a diesel engine so it doesn't use spark plugs but instead it uses heating elements to get the fuel up to temperature. These are only needed when the engine is cold, once it is running the compression is enough to generate enough heat for combustion. At least one (of four) wasn't functioning anymore so instead of kicking in within a second I had to sun the starter for 10 to 20 seconds. And that is not good for the battery.

I intended to swap Oswal and Aria so I could have another go at Linux. But then my brother came around for some odd jobs which took all the time I had planned. So I have been busy all day but I haven't done much.

MM-vii     Friday

2000-01-07

Gray, cloudy and moist. Sums up this morning. I did not rain and, in the afternoon the clouds cleared away and it even became sunny and nice. If we now get about 10 degrees less (currently 6°C) it would really be enjoyable.

Dimitri has finished the II (invoice-address related info) adaptation. Well he did the file change, the conversion and maintenance programs and the OMSI-1 part. He started on the DR adaptation. This is almost the same so things should go fast and smooth. I have to adapt the OMSI-3 and GA programs. I did three programs today. Adaptation and testing.

After the 15th of January Tom is going to tear down his site for a few weeks. When he gets his F50 up and running he will start serving his site from there. Now Tom is a real daynoter, heck, he actually started the daynotes.com site, so I am not convinced that he will actually be able to keep his head down. He can of course post via any other daynote member, I guess all of us would be honored to post anything he asks . Or he can use the Wiki wiki server off Bo's site for the occasional note. Hey, he could even (at great cost) hire a few KB from Leah's site .
Of course he remains on the back channel.

I cleaned up the HTML code for a small site over the last few days. It is about 25 pages, prepared with FrontPage. Most of the pages looked reasonable, OK lots of unnecessary white space and a lot of senseless indentations in the code (a bit like the pages on the dayotes.com site) but nothing difficult. There were however a few pages that were a real mess. Of course if they had been clean I wouldn't have had anything to do. The problem was that they only rendered in MSIE 4.0, all other browsers made errors. Basically it was a typical case of a graphical editor being too helpful with presenting wizard and, in the end tripping over its self-generated spaghetti. Maybe using MS Word directly on the HTM file added to the problems. On one page, about the same size as one of my own day-notes I counted almost 60 tables, all in various degrees of nesting. The actual problem was that some tables missed the </gt> tag. The cleanup was complicated by the abundance of <font> setting and <!--msnavigation--> tags. I am throwing out all the things I don't know until the result looks as intended under various browsers.
If I ever do this again I am going to ask money for it. Even if it is for a friend.
I like raw code but this bore more resemblance to a pile of overcooked, regurgitated spaghetti than anything else.

MM-viii     Saturday

2000-01-08

Gray, cloudy and wet. Not like yesterday however because the sun did not come out and there was a bit of rain. Just enough to get wet but too little to care.

Shopping was quick today because I had to get back in time to start on the prawns. It is not the first time I make prawns but it is the first time I make them in a garlic sauce.

Well the prawns were a success. So much so that the rest of the day was spent in a digestive siesta. Yes I ate too much of it, even though there was just a little bit too much garlic.

MM-ix     Sunday

2000-01-09

The clouds are gone and the temperature dropped to an enjoyable 2°C. The only blemish is a series of mist banks. Later they dissipate and the day turns moderately bright (heu...).

Good running weather. Though, two weeks of not running is noticeable, so I slow down a bit.

I did read some magazines. Yes I did not only slow down my running.

Yep thepublishing of the recipe yesterday went wrong somewhere. Corrected now.