June 24, 1994
Dear Everyone:
Tough week. We finally got
Versatile,
the software that we hope will replace CRMIS.
“Daisy” and I tried to install it
ourselves, and promptly ran afoul of the "maximum record length".
The reference manual made sure to
tell us that this was a very important piece of information and that
failure to set the correct maximum record length could result in having
to re-install the software, thus losing any data you might've entered
into the system.
What the reference manual didn't
tell us was what the maximum record length was supposed to be.
It was supposed to be 30.
Unfortunately, that's not the
number that we guessed.
Now, you'd think they could have put this vital little piece of data
into the manual, wouldn't you? Just
one more line on the page: (Hint:
The maximum record length is
30.)
But no.
It would be so much better for us
to hire a special trainer, at $680 per day, plus expenses, to come in
and tell us that the maximum record length is 30.
On the other hand, since the
trainer lives in
Fremont,
and since we paid for all of her meals during training, the "plus
expenses" part boils down to three round-trip
BART fares from Fremont to San
Francisco. A bit of a bargain for
us.
The trainer originally told me that it would take her just two days to
fully train us in the use, care and feeding of
Versatile.
Just in case, I asked for three
days. And a good thing it was,
because it took all three days to cover everything.
We kept going off on tangents
when questions would come up. And
we had a lot of questions.
The first day was the hardest for several reasons.
First, we had to do the training
in the RACS conference room, which isn't really big enough for 10 people
plus tables and chairs. And we
had to use an overhead projector to show everyone what was happening on
the computer screen. Which meant
turning off the lights. Which
meant it was dark. Which meant
people started going to sleep. Plus
the first day covered some of the really,
really technical stuff that
only the System Administrator (me) would probably have to deal with,
which meant that people were going to sleep even faster.
The second and third days were much better.
We managed to secure the use of a
real training room, with great, big TV Screens set up to display what
was happening on the screen, plus everyone had their own PC to practice
on. Even so, it was a very full
three days. The trainer evidently
has a cast-iron bladder and only called a break when faced with armed
rebellion.
Nevertheless, it looks like all those hours of planning are beginning to
pay off. The trainer was
surprised at how many in-depth questions we had and at how well we were
prepared to start using the system almost right away.
As of now, we're off and running,
with a grand total of 3-½ (imaginary) Owner Codes, 4 Record Series, and about 14 boxes
set up in a phantom Records Center with exactly two rows of non-existent
shelving. "Mighty things from
small beginnings grow."
Next week, “Mimi” and I will work with another consultant from
Versatile, at $680 per day, plus expenses.
But, since this one lives in
Philadelphia,
it's going to cost us a little more than bagels and lunch to cover his
expenses. He'll be helping us
convert some real data from
CRMIS into Versatile.
This will show us:
a) if it really works; and b) how to do conversions ourselves so
we won't need to hire him to come back when we do the real conversion,
assuming the testing goes OK.
So far, so good.
Love, as always,
Pete
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