Musings of a Demented Soul – Andy Barrow

After a trying time last week, I finaly made the decision to rehome/euthanise my dog Sasha. She finaly pushed herself over the limit and attacked Loki, one of our Border Collies. So off to the RSPCA. After a bit of trouble with someone on the ‘Customer Service’ desk, I was finally directed to the Vet Side of the business. I payed my $145 and left Sasha to be put to sleep.

Having used one of these cool little tools, I can honestly say that I like it. Some will hate it, yes you cannot switch between windows and run big programs on it or even play flash content, but hey, what it can do is make your day interesting.

I use this for my work e-mail, it slots straight into Exchange 2007 without any drama or error. It offers me notetaking capability in meetings, with the option to record if needs be. I have web access on it, I can RDP onto the servers or other peoples machines if need be. I can plan and schedule, email any of my notes direct to my e-mail. I can copy pdf’s onto it and read them – saves printing large volumes of techy books. I can play video, music and games. Listen to streaming media content, ATC live feeds and more.

I have read some peoples quotes and comments on the ipad saying how difficult it is to copy pdf onto your ipad….they are not trying very hard or shouldn’t be allowed anything that requires mains or batteries…

I love it!

After spending considerable time and also money on learning about Sage Accpac and Technisoft Service Manger, we are moving away to a totally different product at work. Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers us a far better solution to what we currently run. The premice is, it is an Out of the box solution which requires no addons or bolt-ons to give us a business package we really need.

The way in which Accpac has let us down is the way the system was setup many years ago. The customer database was shonky, as was the Vendor details and site details. I have spent considerable time with the aid of Megan in the Victoria Office to clean this up and populate the correct fields with the correct data. Postcodes being placed in the postcode field and so on. The way in which data has been captured over the years is garbage at best, which will bite us on the preverbial ass when we port across to NAV.

My concerns are in which the system currently behaves and how the new one will react to what we do and how we do it. Thankfully we have a project manager to be the liaison between Enabling NSW and RFD. He tries to cut out some of the technobabble and relate that to them that don’t really know. It makes the whole process a lot less stressful. So far we have had 4 meetings or more and numerous interviews with staff to go through some of the processes they do, this will help Nigel (TranslateIT) to stear everyone to a point we can all agree on.

The internal meeting we had the other day was a definite step in the right direction. We have finally categorised our vendors, customers and industries. Prior to this we had none of this information stored/labelled on our system. In the middle of all this is me. I am the one who will have to ensure that the system can cope and ensure the correct data is pulled out of SQL so the Alex and the guys at Enabling can use this data to work in the new system.

There is a whole new buzzword in the place and it revolves around ‘dimensions’. This is in simplistic terms a way of being able to drill down into any information in the database and make a report from it. As you can imagine, the amount of data that travels in and out of a SQL server in a busy workplace is huge. Thankfully the 650+ tables in our current data structure will shrink into 300 or so, maybe even less.

The dimensions allow you to divide the data into usable chunks and display them in real time in SQL Reporting services. You start from the highest level and work your way down to the n’th degree as you require. Naturally the system comes with shedloads of pre-designed and formatted reports, which will invariably require some custom tweeks here and there. Something else for me to learn. Having used Crystal Reprts XI for 2 years, I will have to get my head around SQL Reporting services.

If all goes to plan, I won’t have to do too much, moreso if we set the system up right this time, everyone should be happy. The only hurdle is training people to use the new system and follow procedures…Yep Pigs Fly too.

Good news finally. The house is almost/should be at lock up this week. Doors on and cabling already started, including my CAT6 cabling for the downstairs. I already have my Krone 24 port Cat 6 panel and I am on the look out for a semi decent cabinet, with or without power to finish the cabling off – To be done by me.

We decided to not go with the cookers they chose to install, instead we went with a floor standing Westinghouse Range cookers. I say plural as both houses decided to have the same. We got a very good deal from Bing Lee.

The builders are also in cleanup mode ready for the landscaping to be done, so hopefully this weekend I can drive over to the new house and take some pictures.

I logged onto my laptop and opened up my tinternet explorer and what did I see? Some weird background on google where white once used to be. How annoying is that? Very annoying. There is a fix for this apparantly

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=all

This gives you the standard google homepage without the stupid background. Not too sure why they decided to fill your screen with random images, which apparantly will only rotate for the 24 hours then you get to choose your own, should you desire.

My thoughts on google were this. It is a simplistic approach to helping the everyday user find stuff they want without the clutter of the other search engines…MSN for one is a pain and the likes of Yahoo etc. What were they thinking? In my humble opinion, they weren’t.

At last an update on the house. On our way back from the game, we did a drive by the house. We were suprised to see the roof had been completed and I could see cables. The Meter boxes were in place and cables going everywhere. Finally a step forward. The next thing to go in is doors for the house and the garage doors. With a bit of luck there will be some progress this week.

Footy time at the SCG, no not the silly round ball, the silly odd shaped ball with rules that make no sense. Essendon vs the Swans. (the score -Sydney 12.17 (89) vs Essendon 12.8 (80))

We drove into the city and found a decent parking spot and walked the rest of the way to the game and made our way inside. Whilst waiting to head up to our seats, Kevin Sheedy walked passed and said g’day and hows it going. Nice.

It was a close game and as always the umpires stuff up a good game, what had to be one of the worst umpiring we had seen. I suppose only to be expected seeing as it was a Sydney Home game. Three hours later the game finished with the result as above. Had the umpires played fair, it may have been a draw or Essendon could have won 4 in a row and still been in the eight…maybe.

It has been quite a weekend. Saturday was almost an all day event with Phil and Tamara’s wedding. The day went through without any glitches thankfully and everyone looked pretty good, including myself in a new suit. I am not one for getting dressed up, nor do I look like a feral when I do go out. It felt weird being in a suit. The only times I have been in a suit before was my wedding and once when I went out for a night n the town many many years ago.

The suit was bought locally from a mens outfitters in Bass Hill. The guys there help you choose your suit and neasure you up. The suit looks good and feels good. I tried a number of different suits, but this one felt good the minute I got it around my shoulders. The Shirt was extremely comfortable and the tie was thrown in for free. Seeing as the occasion was a Black Tie affair, it felt fitting to go dressed up to the nines.

Sam bought a new dress, which looked really good. She bought the dress over a week ago and found another one which she felt would suit her better and would get more use out of, so Saturday morning, off we drove to Parramatta Westfields to exchange the orriginal dress and swapped it for the new one. I have to say, a very good choice indeed.

Once we were all dressed up Me, Sam and Jean headed off to the wedding. We arrived in good time, once we found the church (it appears Navman lies), we were greeted by those who knew us. The Grooms side of the new familly were naturally already there and some of the Brides familly were already there. Photographer was busy shooting her intended targets, which caught my attention, as the camera was peeking my interest. Canon 5D Mk II, with the added battery pack, Flash Gun and a decent lens (naturally). You all know my views on the EOS 400D. Anyway, the Bride arrived and we all went inside. The weirdest thing about the ceremony was the vicar/priest or whatever you wish to call them. He spoke of lots of wine and Jewish people..not that its wrong to do so, just not at a traditional aussie wedding. Moving on, the readings went on, sermon from the weird vicar went on and oh boy it was hard to listen to. He was wired up with a mic and I almost imagined him bursting into moves and moonwalking at the alter. ‘if you liked it you should have put a ring on it’ came to mind.

Ceremony over and off we drove to the wedding party. Not before the police were doing a major campaign of RBT ‘Random Breath Tests’ Yep we were pulled over and tested, Sam was driving, so she copped the test and passed. We finally got to the reception and made our way in. The bar was open and we had to pay for our pre party drinks…bugger! Wasn’t expecting that one. Pre Party food was supplied and instantly snaffled, not many people got a look in for that?

2 hours later we could go in to the main hall and find our tables, find our seats and sit down. Thankfully the drinks inside were free, not that I could drink too much anyway, so I settled for one alcaholic beverage and would go onto water or diet coke. Thankfully my glucose levels were being nice to me, so I could partake in most things and not worry too much about the after effects.

The food was pretty ordinary, steak was not of this earth and the caesar salad had bones in it! The best part was the wedding cake, not too sweet and not too heavy, well done on that one. The MC for the night was a bit of a goose and anoying I found, but did the job well. The party went well as the music changed from eating music to get off your ass and party. Sam and I managed to get some decent snaps of the proceedings throughout the course of the evening, familly shots, group shots and all the usual pictures you take at parties.

The evening finished well and we made our way back home. I was driving, seeing as I couldnt drink, so Sam could have a nice time. The drive home was pretty straight forward, NAVMAN didn’t lie this time. We made good time and arrived home just after 11pm or there abouts and coffee then bed.

Nice little camera to use and full of nice point and shoot features. HD Video at 720p and widescreen modes which makes this a nice cheap camera to own