May 30, 1996
Dear Everyone:
Still working on our
Web Site, in between crises.
Finally figured out how to translate my clip art into Web-readable “gif”s
by finding and downloading a software program I found out on the (you
guessed it) Web.
Now we have gif’s up the kazoo.
Another thing I’ve
been trying to do is run a Database Integrity Check on the
Versatile database.
It’s a good idea to do this every few thousand miles so you can
find and fix little problems before they become big problems and crash
your system and put dozens of people out of work.
Unfortunately, for
some unknown reason, the gods have decreed that the Database Integrity
Check shall not happen. One
of the difficulties is that no one can be in the system while you’re
running this check. Which
means you can only do it when no one needs to use the system.
We figured no one in their right mind would be working over the
long Memorial Day
Weekend (not even me).
So we made
arrangements for the Help Desk people in Company Park to run the Check
from their location. They
have to be there all weekend, because that’s their job, but very few
people would be calling in with computer problems.
So they could look in on the Check every hour or so and keep a
log for us. If anything went
wrong, they could page
me. I had arranged to borrow
“Jeannie’s” pager for the weekend.
We started at 3:45
Friday afternoon. All day
Saturday, I would check the pager and it would say “no pages”.
Sunday morning, when I woke up, I checked the pager.
“No pages.” So far,
so good.
While I was eating
breakfast, the smoke alarm went off briefly.
I had a fragrance candle burning in the bedroom, so I figured
that set it off. I waved a
towel at the alarm and it shut up right away.
Except that it kept beeping once every two minutes after that.
Usually, this means the battery is running low, but this unit is
hard-wired to the building’s electrical supply.
I remembered that
“Marshall” once had a similar problem with a smoke alarm that he finally
disconnected. I considered
this option as I got ready to take a leisurely Sunday morning bath.
While in the tub, I could hear “beep!” out in the hallway every
two minutes. Then it
occurred to me that maybe this wasn’t the smoke alarm after all.
So I got out of the
tub and dripped out into the living room (so nice living alone in
situations like this!) and dug the pager out of my purse.
Sure enough: “1
page.” This was what had
been beeping all morning instead of the smoke alarm.
And people wonder why I won’t wear a pager.
I’d be waving towels at the ceiling every time it went off.
I called Company
Park to find out that the Database Integrity Check had hit an error
message at 4:00 that morning.
(So considerate of them to wait until 7:15 to page me about it.)
Bottom line, the Check was over.
We’re going to try a
new and different approach (another one!) this weekend.
Movies...
All this trouble
with the Database didn’t stop us from going to see
Mission:
Impossible! on Sunday.
It doesn’t really have much in common with the original
TV series.
Only the title and one character’s name were kept.
Certainly there’s none of the finesse and convoluted plot lines
that made the series what it was.
This is your basic spy-vs-spy with lots of flashy special
effects. However, it
does have Tom
Cruise, and that’s enough for me this time around.
Incidentally, the
“cheap” show has gone up to $4.25 around here.
Love, as always,
Pete
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