December 14, 1995
Dear Everyone:
Tomorrow is my last
day at work for this year and, if I do say so myself, I’ve gotten a lot
accomplished. The conversion
from CRMIS to
Versatile
is completed. This should
save Company something over $500,000 per year over the next four years.
By which time, we’ll probably be looking for a bigger and better
replacement. Some people
never stop trying to improve things.
The User Guide for
Versatile went out this week,
which is a load off my mind.
Now, when people call and ask, “How do I do (fill in the blank)?” I can
have the satisfaction of saying, “That’s covered in the User Guide.
See page (fill in the blank).”
And, since some people will actually
read the Guide, I may get fewer questions, freeing more time up for
Spectrum, Retention, the Library and
Windows 95.
And looking for a replacement for
Versatile.
And I’ve got a new
Lotus Notes
database (she’s
speaking gibberish again) for reporting and resolving technical
problems. Lotus Notes is “groupware”.
(Now aren’t you sorry you asked?)
This means many people can have access to it.
I can go in and start a Problem like, “’Jeb’s’ printer isn’t
working.” Then, when we find
out what caused the Problem and how to fix it, I can go in and record
the solution. Then, when
“Wilbur” says his printer
isn’t working the same way “Jeb’s” wasn’t working, we can find the
solution and use it to fix “Wilbur’s” printer.
Unless, of course,
“Wilbur’s” problem turns out to be totally different.
Actually, I’ve
already used this database to answer a question.
Someone called me in “Livermore” from San Francisco:
“I’m in Versatile and I
got a message ‘System error #128 on #4’.
What does that mean?”
“Just a second.” I dove into
Lotus Notes, found the system error from a previous time, and said, “It
means you’ve lost your
Network
connection. Reboot your PC
and you’ll be fine.” God,
it’s great to be omniscient!
Of course, that just
means that everyone expects you to know everything all the time.
In other news...
It only rained once
in October, on
Halloween, naturally. It
only rained once in November.
So, this week, Mother Nature decided to make up for lost time and
dumped about a foot of rain
on the Bay
Area in one day. “Near
hurricane” winds ripped branches off trees, knocked over fences, pulled
up roofs, felled trees, killed power lines, and generally made a real
mess of things.
Most of which had
little effect on me, except for having to drive around that split up
eucalyptus tree on Treat Blvd. on the way to work Tuesday morning.
I never lost power.
The wind didn’t even blow over the fake ficus tree on my patio.
Mother and Dad are
arriving next Wednesday, which means I’ve got to, as “Marshall” puts it,
“de-trash the apartment”.
This means that Santa
will have to come early and bring me a new vacuum cleaner.
Every time I try to use the one I’ve got, I end up having to take
it apart and put it back together again, which probably explains why I
don’t vacuum often enough.
Of course, I got
this vacuum when I bought the condominium, so it’s at least eight years
old. And that’s just in
Vacuum Cleaner Years. In
People Years, it’s probably over 80.
So it’s high time I got a new one.
Nevertheless, my
back is better; I’m almost
completely over the Thanksgiving flu; and there’s nothing going on at
work that can’t be handled by someone else or wait until next year.
So everyone have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love, as always,
Pete
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