September 28, 1989
Dear Everyone:
Things have been a bit hectic around here this
week. Monday we had a Staff
Meeting with our new manager, “Chris Jennings”.
We were each supposed to spend “about” 5 minutes covering the
highlights of our various projects, so that “Chris” could get a feel for
what it is that we do. We
had a meeting last week in which “Alma” said very specifically, “Don’t
take more than 5 minutes.
Just hit the highlights.”
Of course, you couldn’t get 2 sentences out before
“Alma” would jump in and begin to “explain” all the details that we
weren’t supposed to be covering.
Being an experienced Records Management person, I had scheduled
the entire morning for this meeting which was “supposed” to last about
an hour. I was pretty close.
We broke up at 11:20.
Lunch begins at 11:30.
Tuesday morning was slated for a dry run of the
“IDHS” demonstrations to begin next week (more about “IDHS” later).
This meeting was expected to last 1-2 hours, started at 8:30 and
broke up at 11:45. Par for
the course. Since the
meeting took place in “Pleasanton”, and we stopped for lunch, we got
into the office about 2:00 where I found a message in my Phone Mail
mailbox from a nice lady named “Kay”.
“Kay” is one of those computer people who come and
fix your PC when it gets sick.
We’ve been trying to get together for about a week now for her to
take a look at my PC and try to figure out why the number keys on my
keyboard work when they’re turned
off and don’t work when they’re turned
on.
Depending on where I am at the time.
You see, if I’m in WordPerfect, the number keys are
off when the light says
they’re on.
But if I’m tuned into the mainframe, they’re
on when the light says they’re
on… sometimes.
But at other times, it’s the other way around.
TThis can cause a real problem if you’re trying to key in your
password (if it has numbers in it) and you can’t see if you’re typing
numbers or not.
Lots of people use a set of letters (like your
initials) with the numbers of the month and year for their password.
It’s easy to remember and easy to change each month.
If you don’t change your password every 45 days, the computer
assumes that you died and “discards” you.
Bearing in mind the fact that I have a userid (pronounced
USER-eye-dee) on four separate hosts, that’s a lot of passwords to
remember.
“Ashley Holtz” added 2 new userids and 2 new hosts
for me just this morning, so that I can replace him as the RACF
representative for our group.
RACF (pronounced RAK-eff) stands for Remote Access Control
Facility and no, I don’t know what that means.
We’re talking about the blind leading the blind here.
MMy best hope is that nothing happens in the 3 weeks that “Holtz”
will be gone.
“Holtz” and “Alma” are going to New Orleans for the
ARMA (Association of Records Managers and Administrators) National
Convention next week. So
there’s a lot of scrambling to try to get things done before they go.
Like setting me up as “Holtz”’s back up on RACF.
And “IDHS”…
As you may recall, “IDHS” stands for
Integrated Document
Handling
System. It’s a computer
indexing system to be used Company-wide.
We’re getting ready to start giving demonstrations to interested
parties in San Francisco, “Pleasanton”, “Lafayette” and “Hobby”.
So, Monday, we had the first run-through of the presentation.
It ran a little long.
“Kevin” and “Giles” are going over it again this morning.
And “Kevin” is trying
to get the handouts, brochures, sign-up sheets, slides and PC projectors
(a PC that displays on a wall instead of a monitor screen) line up for
all 4 cities. YYesterday he
got a call from Scheduling, informing him that they “mis-placed” his job
and it won’t be ready until Monday.
“Kevin” is a little guy, shorter than I am and
probably 90 pounds soaking wet.
(The first thing that entered my head when I met him was:
Jockey.) But he’s a
tough little guy. He jumped
on them with both feet and they came back and said it would be ready
first thing Friday morning, which is pushing it, but better than
nothing.
“Kevin” is the System Administrator for “IDHS”.
This means that if you have any questions or problems, you call
“Kevin” for help. I’m the
back up. Which means if
“Kevin” isn’t there, you call me.
Only don’t
call me because I don’t know the first thing about “IDHS”!!!
I tried to enter some files into the system for
demonstrations, which is when I found out how much I don’t know about
how to use it. There will be
a “User’s Guide” printed some time in the future.
But in the meantime, you use the “Help” screens.
If you get stuck, just hit PF1 and a “Help” message comes on the
screen to explain what you need to do.
Needless to say, these “Help” messages were written
by computer “techies” who have their own language and it isn’t English.
You know (maybe) what you want to do, but you have to stumble
form one screen to another hoping you’ll fall into the right “Help”
message. It’s quite an
adventure.
The scary part is that all of the Companies are
going to be coming to “Kevin” and me for assistance – and “Kevin” has
had less time than I have to get used to “IDHS”.
The Blind leading the blind and no idea how big the cliff up
ahead is.
Getting back to “Kay”.
She fiddled with my PC for about a quarter-hour and came to the
conclusion that she doesn’t know what’s wrong with it.
Her suggestion was that I keep switching the Number Lock off and
on until I get what I want each time.
“Jeannie” has settled in nicely.
She’s become something of a cook.
I’ve gained 5 lbs since she arrived, and she’s only set fire to
the oven once, so far.
Hope all are well and happy.
Love, as always,/p>
Pete
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