November 11, 1999
Dear Everyone:
Last week’s Keyword Rebuild
finally finished some time Thursday night, or Friday morning.
At any rate, when I left at 7:15 (a scant 11 hours and 45 minutes
after I’d arrived) Thursday evening, the processing computer was still
processing. When I came in
Friday morning, the computer reported zero entries left to process.
I double-checked with another computer, but it did appear to have
finished.
I suspect the processing computer (nicknamed “Batman”
because someone had once placed a sticker from one of the movies on the
front of the PC) sneaked a peak at the screen next to it, the one where
I was writing last week’s Letter, and figured the jig was up.
I was on to him. I
was gonna ride herd on that puppy until he finished processing or Hell
froze over, whichever came first.
Time to
throw
in the towel.
So we now know that a Keyword Rebuild takes about a
week to complete. Hopefully,
we won’t need to do another one before we convert to the new system.
And we have some news on that front as well.
We’re booked to have the vendor come and train my team the week
of December 13.
We’ll have five days to train and ask questions and
find out all the things that we
thought we would be able to do, but can’t, unless we can come up
with a workaround. Some of
the workarounds will be in the form of customized programming by the
vendor. Others will be
changes in work processes (more
flow charts!).
After that, it will be a question of how soon we
can come up with training for our customers.
A lot of that will be web-based, meaning they can download
instructions from our Web Site.
Which means writing it all for the web.
Plus, we’ll be offering hands-on training for people who can come
to the Bay
Area, or already work around here.
And, in the middle of all this training, of course,
will be the actual Conversion itself.
Busy times ahead.
In other news…
No, we haven’t been to the movies.
Not entirely my fault (although I do seem to spend an awful lot
of my weekends at the office).
Other factors include “Jeannie” having work of her own to tend
to, and the fact that we couldn’t agree on a title that we both wanted
to see. Hoping for better
luck in the near future, before “Jeannie”, et. al. head off to
Italy.
In the meantime, I officially have an Emergency
Supply Box. (Applause.)
Really. Not just some
things scattered around the house that might come in useful in an
emergency. A real Emergency
Supply Box. It’s a large,
weatherproof box, about twice the size of a cooler, out back on the
patio. Each week, I add a
few things to the shopping list marked “fsbe” (For Emergency Supply
Box).
All that
Disaster
Preparedness training at work is finally having an effect.
What if something happens to the water supply?
(Three gallons of safe drinking water in the ESB.
To be replaced every three months.)
What if the power goes out?
(Two flashlights, with batteries.
Does not include the half-dozen flashlights scattered around the
house right now. What if you
can’t get into the house for some reason?)
What if you get chased out of the house in the
middle of the night because your neighbor two doors down forgot to
unplug her iron? A burglar
may take your
VCR,
but (unless he’s really peculiar) he won’t steal all your underwear.
A fire can take everything.
I used to work with some people who were forced to evacuate
during the
Oakland
Hills fire a few years back.
You don’t have a lot of time to decide what you will need for the
next three days.
The ESB is by no means complete.
But it’s a good start.
It’s locked with a chain and combination lock that I can set the
combo for. Wouldn’t want to
have to remember a combination that I haven’t used in months during a
real emergency. Plus, it
provides a good place to hide a spare set of keys in case I ever get
locked out.
And it won’t walk away for two good reasons.
1) Ever try to lift 3
gallons of water, a dozen cans of soup, stew, olives, and those little
Viennese sausages, plus cleaning and first aid supplies?
But, of course, you could drag it out the gate (especially if you
had to evacuate and wanted to take it with you).
2) Bicycle chained to
a tree.
And, after that terrific rainstorm we had Sunday
night, when I checked the ESB after work on Monday, everything inside
was bone dry. In the event
of a real emergency, y’all come to my place.
(Must remember to get a deck of cards.)
Love, as always,
Pete
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