May 1, 1997
Dear Everyone:
Gearing up; counting down; fixing to get started;
the Worldwide Records Management Conference here at
Company begins on Monday, whether we’re ready for it or
not.
My specific piece of the Conference (My Empire) is
the Exposition, a room with seven PC’s, each showing off a different
computer program having something related (however distantly) to
Records
Management. Different people
from various parts of the Company have “volunteered” to present their
pet projects. Three of them
are even bringing their own laptop PC’s.
For the other four, I have to provide a PC, plus certain other
bits of hardware to make the software work.
(The definition of “hardware” is:
These are the parts that break when you drop them.)
Miraculously, I found five
laptop PC’s right here
in “Livermore” (I also
need one for the Registration Desk).
That saves me from trying to ferry full-sized PC’s across the
Bay, or trying to borrow from someone in
San Francisco.
(Excuse me, but could I borrow five of your PC’s for two to three
days? I’d gladly repay the
favor if you’re ever in "Livermore”.)
The advantage to using laptops is that they’re
small and relatively easy to transport (not to mention steal).
However, there is a drawback:
The screens are also small and are often actually designed to
prevent anyone but the person using the laptop from being able to see
the screen (for security reasons).
Everyone asked for a large
monitor to hook up to the laptop.
That’s seven (7) large monitors.
Now, I could scrounge up seven monitors in “Livermore”, but there’s
still the matter of getting them to San Francisco and back.
And guess which part breaks the fastest if you drop it.
We decided to go First Class.
I found a nice man in San Francisco who will rent me the
monitors, deliver them the Friday before and pick them up after the Expo
closes on Tuesday.
However, they don’t provide monitor stands for
anything smaller than a 36” screen.
So yesterday, while no one was looking, “Jerry” and I went around
stealing stands out from under people’s monitors.
In some cases, we slipped a couple of reams of copy paper into
place under the monitors (raises the screen about 4”).
Some people may not even notice the difference.
We shipped the monitor stands and some other incidentals off to
“Neil”, who runs the Conference Center, to hold for me until Friday afternoon.
That just leaves getting the five laptops from “Livermore” to San
Francisco on Friday. If you
look at the advertising for a laptop computer, one of the things you’ll
see prominently displayed is how
little it weighs (only 5 pounds!!!).
This is because they don’t count the battery (another pound, at
least), the extra battery, the power pack for when the battery runs out
and needs recharging, the cord for the power pack, the external mouse
(if you want it), maybe an extension cord or power strip in case the
cord for the power pack isn’t long enough, and, finally, the case that
will carry all of this and
all the paper files you need to bring along, too.
In other words, it’s not the laptop that weighs a lot, it’s all
the emotional baggage that comes with it.
One of the laptops will be waiting for me in San
Francisco, so we only have to multiply this by a factor of four.
I have borrowed a special case, like a really big briefcase on
wheels, that has compartments for the laptops.
A sort of rolling laptop condominium.
I’ll load the computers, take them up to
“Pleasant Hill” and take the Company Passenger Van into the City on Friday. “Neil”, the
Conference Center guy, will have a place to secure them until we’re
ready to set everything up Monday morning.
So far, everything’s going according to plan.
As “Neil” puts it: “The whole thing is
coming together like a well-planned train wreck.”
Gory details next week.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |