August 26, 1999
Dear Everyone:
Things have been a little quiet at work the past
few weeks, but that was just the lull before the storm.
This week, the storm “broke”.
On Tuesday, I contacted our
SQL Server
DBA (Database
Administrator), “Dan”.
(He has since been nicknamed “DBA Dan”.)
DBA Dan was ready to install our new software,
extemporé,
on a SQL Server in Company Park.
This meant I needed to run up to Company Park and deliver the CD
to him. This was actually
the second time I had been to the Park that day.
Later, DBA Dan called to say that he had
successfully installed the “scripts” that prepared SQL Server for our
new database. Another trip
up to the Park to retrieve the CD.
(It only takes about 10 minutes to get from the “Livermore”
facility to the Park. It
takes another half-hour to find a parking place and trudge all the way
to the particular building you need to be in.)
On Wednesday, it took the better part of the day to
try and install the Client Node on a PC in “Livermore”.
Lots of calls to STI technical support and DBA Dan.
But, eventually, we got everything in the right place in the
right order. We now know
something of the prerequisites we will need to handle to get
extemporé
through GIL Integration and out to everyone’s desktops.
Meanwhile, I’ve also been working on a tiny little
database for “Jeannie” to use on her computer at home to track her
expenses. This is in
Microsoft Access,
which I understand to a greater extent than I do
extemporé
at this point.
It started with creating a table where “Jeannie”
could record things like the date the job took place, who the lawyer
was, what case, what law firm, how much she spent on parking, lunch,
etc. Then we started adding
fields like “Transcript ordered” (Yes/No), “Expert” (Yes/No), “Expedite”
(Yes/No).
Next, we worked on creating standard queries that
would tell her things like, how much did she spend in each category in a
month; what jobs are still outstanding, how much she can expect to have
show up in her next paycheck.
This last gets kind of tricky, because jobs are billed
differently if they are an expert, or an expedite, or both expert and
expedite.
Example:
If Transcript ordered equals Yes; and Expert equals No; and
Expedite equals No, multiply the number of pages by this rate.
If the number of copies is greater than one, subtract one from
the number of copies; multiply the remaining number of copies against
the number of pages, then multiply by this different rate.
This could get complicated.
But I think there’s some code in one or more of the Library
applications I support that I can lift and adjust.
Never reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.
In other news…
When we weren’t designing applications, “Jeannie”
and I did find time to see a terrific movie called
The Sixth
Sense. This is
billed as a thriller, but it’s not really.
There are just some truly scary things in it.
Bruce Willis
plays Malcolm, a child psychiatrist who wants to help a little boy named
Cole. Cole has a frightening
secret (which you probably already know if you’ve seen any
advertisements or reviews).
Much time is spent with Malcolm slowly earning Cole’s trust to tell him
the secret.
Then it’s up to Malcolm to try and help the boy
deal with his little problem.
I read somewhere that the screenplay sat on a shelf for a long
time because they needed a child actor who could virtually carry the
movie by himself. Willis has
top billing, but 11-year-old
Haley Joel
Osment does all the heavy lifting.
And does it quite well, in fact.
In the last few minutes of the film, Malcolm makes
an awesome discovery that, literally, turns the movie on its ear.
The first thing we said after leaving the theater was, “OK, now
we have to go back and see it again from the beginning.”
All the clues are there, you just don’t realize what they are
because the film has you looking in the wrong places.
A very nice twist.
Worth seeing more than once.
Can’t imagine what it’s doing in the theaters in
August. That’s usually when
the studios dump all the dogs that haven’t a chance against either the
summer blockbusters or the upcoming
Oscar
contenders. Or maybe,
someone thought they would just get it out before the Oscar season
officially opens, but late enough in the year that the Academy members
will remember that remarkable little boy when they get their ballots
next February.
It couldn’t hurt.
Love, as always,
Pete
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