Life is Rough… I Need a Vacation… Again!
My Favorite Vacation Memories Make Me Long to Go Back to Orlando!
It has only been five months and I already feel like I need another vacation. With the way things are going with work, life and generally around the world I could really use a week where I don’t need to think about anything.
My vacation in February to Orlando was one of the best times I have ever had in my life. My fiancée and I went on a trip to Florida, and spent 5 days in Orlando having a blast. We went to Disney World, Epcot, Universal, Sea World, Kennedy Space Center, did Orlando Tours and all the other major attractions.
We were actually able to do all this without spending much because of all the research we did ahead of time and the use of reservations, online travel guides, and vacation websites that saved us a fortune.
One great site we used was Trusted Tours & Attractions. They managed to put together some really great packages for us that helped us make the most of our vacation budget. Whether you are going to a major city like Chicago, or Madame Tussauds wax museum Trusted Tours has packages to accommodate any size vacation. If you are planning a vacation definitely search for the best deals online and make use of sites like this to get the most for your money.
I was on their site yesterday looking at options for a quick, inexpensive escape and I noticed they are having a contest where you can win a $150 Magellan’s gift certificate by signing up for their newsletter. I entered my name, and crossed my fingers hoping I can save even more money on a quick get away to help me relax.
With everything going on the world I could definitely use some time away to myself.
Too Many Business Requirements from End Users
An ambitious project using MSFA failed due to demand-overload
My company started an ambitious project to run our entire ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system as a web application, and they were prepared to throw a lot of time and resources at the project to make it work.
We hired a consultant who had experience managing large scale projects and also had an extensive background with writing web applications. We even hired additional staff solely for this project. Despite all of our efforts, the project still ended up as a costly failure.
Now, there were a number of reasons why the project failed, but I would like to focus on what I believe to be the most significant problem: “too much, too fast.”
First, let me provide a little background on the software that we are currently using for our ERP. It is approximately 10 years old, and extremely limited in what it can do. Although it supports some standards such as SQL (a given for any database application) it has a number of bugs that prevent these features from being usable, meaning complex workarounds are necessary for almost every facet of our business.
There are upgrades for the software that fix these bugs and expand functionality, but since it is an “off the shelf” retail application upgrading all of our existing systems is prohibitively expensive. Especially considering that the most recent version would not satisfy all of our business needs and would only be viable as a temporary solution anyway.
We have done pretty well with what we have available, but it is just not enough. Admittedly, many of the problems we have are not with the software itself but with how we use it (and abuse it).
This project, which we started in november of 2007, was not the first attempt to migrate from our disfunctional ERP system, however it was the first attempt we had made using a proven methodology instead of just “winging it”.
You may have heard of Microsoft Foundations for Agile Software Development (MSFA) before, which is the methodology recommended to us by our consultant.
Part of this process involved defining Business Rules (what the current software does now), Business Requirements (what the new software would be required to do), and Use Cases (examples of how the current software is used).
All of this is intended to give a very clear definition of what functionality in the old system needs to be preserved in the new system, and what it will be expected to do better.
So if we allocated plenty of resources for the project, followed a proven methodology, and had experience from failed projects in the past, then why did this project fail? I believe the reason that had the largest impact was the fact that the end users both defined the business requirements and approved them.
Needless to say, this is a recipe for disaster since end users are focused on entirely different problems than developers are. I’d hate to use a car analogy, but if we were building a car, the end users would be more worried about leather seats and air conditioning, while we the developers are just trying to get the engine and transmission to work together so that we can move forward.
Now don’t get me wrong here, nobody knows more about what a system should do than the end users, since they are the ones who have to put up with it.
Ideally, they could provide a wish list of things they want the system to do and the developers could prioritize them based on how feasible they are. Unfortunately, there were several people at each development team meeting that probably should not have been, prioritizing power windows as more important than having a windshield.
Although this project left a bitter taste in my mouth, I learned a lot from it.
As of today I have been told that the project “isn’t dead, it’s just sleeping”, suggesting that we will pick it up again sometime when there is less going on.
Fortunately, I’m not that naive and I can see that the project as we envisioned it this time around is not only no longer reasonable, but should not even be considered desirable.
What we need is to get back to the source of the problems we are having now, and carefully work out as much of the details as we can before we start hiring additional resources to help.
More Reasons Why I Hate Microsoft
Microsoft Reaches out from Beyond the Grave!
Woo, early morning blogging. Well more trouble with Microsoft. I’m sure people are shocked to hear that.
I got a call from my customer about another issue she was having with the new computer I built for her. Any Microsoft Works documents she was opening were causing the system to hang and displaying that they were around 32,000 pages long. Even though I know these documents were about 3 to 4 pages tops.
I checked online and could not find any information on the problem. Of course Microsoft does not have any documentation on this issue. I tried to repair Microsoft Works, I changed the installation of Word manually to include all the program conversion filters, and even tried installing Windows updates to see if this would fix the problem.
Nothing did. So on top of these documents displaying incorrectly, they would actually try to print 32,000 if you selected to print them. I did find out that these documents would open fine if you opened them through Microsoft Word, they would not open however if you choose the “open with” option.
My client needed these documents in a rush so I decided the best course of action would be to just convert them all from WPS format to DOC format so that they could be opened in Word by double clicking on them. This would be the easiest option for everyone, or so I thought.
After looking online I finally found Microsoft’s answer on how to convert the WPS files to Word format.
Opening each one individually and selecting “SAVE AS”!
Wow… Once again Microsoft you have left me speechless. It seems to me, a Monkey with a catapult and a bucket of poo, could come up with a better solution than this.
So I spent the next hour and a half converting her 315 WPS files to DOCs. Yes there may have been a better solution, but after having already spent 8 to 10 hours troubleshooting “Windows” problems that had nothing to do with the system I built, my patience was wearing thin.
So after all the shenanigans I went home, had a few beers and played with Kubuntu some more. I learned a couple new things last night with help from my friend Joe, and I will be posting them in a follow-up guide very soon.
Until then thanks for checking out the site, I appreciate the support!
Windows Movie Maker Hates My Samsung SC-DX10
Dueling Windows - Yet Again…
I just wanted to post a follow-up from yesterday. I spent most of the day trying to get my video together from the Kubuntu install I did yesterday.
The only problem with doing things the way I have been doing them, is that I am trying to do new things as I learn them, so the learning curve and troubleshooting involved is slowing down my progress.
Last night after working on Kubuntu for awhile I decided to transfer the video from my video camera to my desktop (running Windows XP) so I could edit the video and get it posted to the site. The goal is to eventually do a tutorial video on doing this through Kubuntu but for now I wanted to keep it easy.
Although it’s only really “easy” in the perfect world. When I woke up this morning and tried to import my video into Windows Movie Maker it seemed like it worked until I tried to do anything in the program at which point it would crash.
I tried several things in different programs like Virtual Dub, and tried different codecs etc. Finally I really felt stumped and looked online for some answers to my problems. It turns out I am not the only person with a Samsung SC-DX10 that is having problems trying to edit their video.
I started coming across tons of forum posts and blogs about people asking how to edit their video. They tried all different kinds of codecs, changing settings in FFDShow, editing video file headers, and using different programs all of which would either crash or return error messages.
Now apparently some people out there have other models of these cameras and kept telling people they were doing something wrong because it worked for them. After reading a very long forum post I came to find out that this specific model had a lot of trouble when it comes to editing because of the proprietary AVI format the camera records to.
The final solution that was reached on the forum was to use the Pixela Image Mixer software that comes with the camera to encode the clips to divx so they could be edited. I really didn’t like this answer but for now it seems like the only thing to do.
I tried encoding the file and got a really crappy looking encode from my original file that took forever to export. This just won’t do, so I went back online to try and find another alternative. The best answer I was able to come up with was to use Dr. DivX to output the divx file.
Once again it’s a divx file so it is terrible for editing and really slows my computer down, but it was much better quality than what Pixela offered. So after fighting with formats, software, video clips and codecs all day I am finally almost at a point where I have a working video to upload.
Please keep in mind that this is my first video period, whether it be for YouTube or as a tutorial. I was a little nervous when I was filming it so the first one is kind of rough around the edges. I am hoping as I make more videos that I can do a better job and continue to contribute some interesting stuff that will be of use to people.
Keep an eye out for the video tomorrow. I will try to get it posted to the site soon. For those who did not read my previous two articles the video outlines installing Kubuntu Linux onto my laptop.
Thanks again for checking out Pseudorant and if you have any friends that would be interested in the site please send them my way! I appreciate the support!
Microsoft is the Debil! Linux Here I Come!
Microsoft, How I hate Thee! Let Me Count the Ways…
I noticed a couple people are starting to check out different parts of my blog. That’s great! I’m glad to see a handful of people are finding some of the random articles and posts interesting.
I wanted to apologize to anyone who is checking the blog for missing a post yesterday. I am trying to commit to posting one article per day and last night I missed doing a post.
But hold on! I have a valid excuse… “it’s all Microsoft’s fault!“.
All is forgiven now right? Hehe. Let me explain exactly why it is Microsoft’s fault.
I recently built a new computer for a customer of mine. I got it setup for her, and copied all her programs, documents, and settings over to the new system exactly as she had them on the old one so that she could run her business. She is very much into her routine so any changes on a computer are “un-welcomed” to say the least.
I got pretty much everything setup but due to “service outages” with TDS she was unable to confirm if her email was working. (5 days of service outages. Good job TDS! You are our only alternative to Charter and this is the service you provide.) Once TDS finally got their customer’s back online a week later I got a call from my customer letting me know her email was not working on the new computer.
I came over to check on this and found out the address book had not exported / imported correctly into the new system. I checked the CSV file and manually edited it in Excel to correct the issues so that it could be imported again the correct way. Unfortunately when I selected all her contacts and removed them from the address book to clear out the faulty contacts Outlook Express had a “hiccup”.
When I went to import the fixed contacts into Outlook Express I got an error message stating that Outlook Express could not import the contacts because the program was damaged and I would need to repair or reinstall it.
Now most of you know that Outlook Express is embedded into Windows so it cannot actually be removed. I went online and tried several suggested fixes. I ran the system file checking utility which found no problems. I did a repair of Windows which only lead to a blue screen reboot loop when Windows couldn’t make sense of the video driver.
I restarted in safe mode and removed the driver, rebooted and then got the latest driver for the video card. Now that I was back in Windows I tried to open Outlook Express again. No dice.
Now I was getting a Windows error saying the program could not start at all. I would get the OE splash screen and then the program would crash. Great…
I checked a couple things and determined the repair had rolled back the version of Internet Explorer which is tied in closely to Outlook Express. This is probably what was causing the problem. I determined this after trying the DBX fixes, and registry key fixes mentioned online, both of which had no effect on the program.
I went to the Microsoft update site and downloaded the IE 7 stand alone update because sources online stated that a service pack update should fix problems with Outlook Express and IE since they are embedded in the OS.
The IE 7 update did not correct the problem. I went back to the Microsoft update site to see if I could automatically get the service packs I needed. The only service pack that was offered was the SP3 update. Unfortunately this would not download correctly because it had been canceled earlier when TDS was running at 1.5kb a sec.
Apparently because it had been canceled it would not attempt to download the update a second time through the Microsoft update site. It just showed the update as being 1 failed, 5 pending and would do nothing.
Knowing good old Microsoft, of course there was no status bar or indication of how long the download / install / update would take, or any indication that the update was not responding. I finally told my customer I would leave it running and would check back with her tomorrow since I had been working on fixing the system for about 4 hours at this point, for problems that were all caused by Windows / Microsoft.
I left with a terrible headache and got home at about a quarter to 10 (pm). I played my guitar, drank a couple beers and then went to bed. I had been working on computer issues for about 14 hours so my brain was totally fried.
I was able to try and come back to things with a fresh start this morning. I decided I would go into work and download the SP3 stand alone update file and put it on disk to save myself time this afternoon. I also need to address a WPS file issue loading into new versions of Word. Because Microsoft is so into updating all their software you can no longer double click a WPS file on her computer and have it open, you actually need to open it through Word > File > Open which my customer is not happy with.
These are all trivial things, but I can understand why someone would prefer it their way. Why should they need to use their computer the way Microsoft is telling them they need to. Why can’t it work the same way it worked before, or would that just be to easy?
I have really come to hate Microsoft more and more every day. I have been forced to use Windows for WAY to long and will be looking into moving over to Linux on one of my home PCs very soon.
It’s a tough move to do because I am usually VERY busy from about 9am to 12am with the majority of that time being spent on the computer. It is hard to accept that a move to a new OS and the learning curve associated with it will affect my productivity, which I know it will to some extent.
To make the most of this I am going to document this OS transition for anyone who has been interested in moving over to Linux. You can learn it with me going from having almost no experience with Linux, to getting it up and running to the point that it can do all the basic things you need it to do. (Office work, web, web design, graphics programs, music, and movies.)
This actually also relates to problems we are running into at work with trying to clone a Linux image from a compact flash card, through Windows. But that’s another LONG story that I won’t bore you with at the moment.
Anyway I feel this rant has gone on long enough. I will try and post a second article today to make up for the missing post yesterday. As always, thanks so much for checking out Pseudorant. I really appreciate the support!
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