July 29, 2004
Dear Everyone:
Remember last week when I mentioned UARM (Upstream Active Records Management)? And I mentioned that UARM was FUBAR (Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition)?
That was then. This is now.
UARM is FUBAR squared.
Last Wednesday, I gave a demo of the Training Materials to the management group. Time after time, the system failed to function properly. Nevertheless, they airily waved away all the “bugs”, assuring us that everything would be fixed by today. Then they proceeded to criticize minor changes they felt were needed in training materials that have already been (literally) laminated. (Example: Instead of showing mouse clicks, the laminated cards should give keystroke shortcut combinations, because that’s more ergonomically correct.)
Talk about rearranging the deck chairs while the Titanic sinks.
Yesterday, I combed through the data to find documents to use for the Training Lab for the End Users. When the End User performs a Search for the first time, you want to know what the result will be. So you locate documents you know are in the database, then base the Search on those documents.
This morning, I took the Training Lab for a “test drive” to make sure it worked correctly. It broke down on the third step. Why? Because the programmers had changed the way a certain property worked; and they “cleaned out” the data. The documents I had found the day before were no longer there.
This is known as Hunting in the Coal Bin at
I also discovered this week one of the reasons the whole project is so far behind schedule. We had a phone conversation with one of the programmers in “Hobby”. He was supposed to explain how one piece of the system was going to work. Instead, he went on for an hour about how a couple of fields had both been labeled “Document Date”.
I thought, “He’s like a cross between a steamroller and a snail. You can’t stop him, and you can’t make him go any faster.” Oh, and by the way, all the fixes they were putting into the system were based on a newer version of that piece than the one we’ve been using. They sort of forgot to tell us about that, too.
Nevertheless, training begins in “Hobby” on Monday and “Grapevine” on Tuesday. I leave for “Grapevine” on Monday, expecting to return on Thursday. But, if anything goes wrong, I may not be able to write a Letter next week. So we’ll stay flexible on that.
In other news…
Back in February, we had a terrific storm, which ripped my patio shade in a dozen places. I finally got around to doing something about it. I stopped at the fabric store and looked for canvas, or another option besides muslin. Muslin is cheap, and frequently comes in wider bolts than other fabric, but it also rips more easily. This time, I found some fabric-backed vinyl.
Most vinyl is made by spraying flexible plastic onto felt. This is a drawback if you’re going to be sewing any seams, because the seams are more prone to ripping with felt. Fabric has more structure. So fabric-backed vinyl would work better. I bought 7-½ yards. This would allow me to cut the material in half and sew the halves together to make a cover wide enough to fit all the way across the frame.
By the way, the manufacturer declared the material to be “Forest Green”.
Last Saturday, I pinned the edges together, cut the material in half and sewed the halves together. This only took a couple of hours. I now had a cover roughly eight feet by ten. But when I tried to get the cover up over the frame, I discovered that vinyl is much heavier, and harder to control than muslin.
Not wishing to risk an injury, I called “Jeannie”
for help. About an hour
later, she arrived and the two of us were able to get the cover in place
very quickly. “Jeannie” also
proclaimed that the manufacturer to be completely wrong about the color.
It’s
What could be more fashionable than that?
Love, as always,
Pete
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