Humming along...

The day started at the store, naturally, but soon transitioned to translation, starting with a 3-page quickie for a Houston client, upon which I returned to yesterday's assignment.

I lucked out with a highly repetitive section, but am now enmeshed in an old style computer printout (all caps, with heavy use of various non-alphanumeric characters in a generally unsuccessful attempt to make the output pretty). In any event, I've done 27 pages so far today, and there are about that many pages left in the assignment. The next "chunk" of the document is 10 pages long, and I'm sure I'll have it done before calling it a day.

* * *It was pleasant going to the store this morning, as a shower had freshly passed by, clearing the air. The rain continued for most of the day, and the occasional thunderclap could be heard. Fortunately, none of them were close by.

Cheers...

A support nightmare...

We now have another computer at the store, this one intended to be the server for the POS system that Drew and Galina bought in Austin.

Among the software that should be running on it: the UPS WorldShip program. It's a good program and is, frankly, better designed than its FedEx counterpart. Among other features, it allows multiple machines on a network to process UPS packages, with one machine playing the role of the Big Kahuna (LAN administrator), and everyone else being a mere remote.

So, I wanted to make the new machine the Big Kahuna, and turn what used to be the Kahuna into a remote. Simple enough, except the software wouldn't let me.

I started innocuously enough, by following the installation instructions and installing the LAN administrator software on the new computer, named Dimmie. Everything went well. The software connected to UPS "out there" and downloaded an upgrade to the latest-greatest.

I used the migration tool on the CD to move the database from the old machine to the new machine. No complaints there. Thereupon I uninstalled the UPS app from the old machine.

I jumped through the necessary hoops to allow me to initiate a remote install over the network, from the old machine. Just as I started to install, the Big Kahuna threw an exception and the software exited. Installation went to completion on the old machine, but all attempts to run the software failed, with a strange error message.

Starting up the new machine got me a dialog box telling me that some other machine was the Kahuna, and therefore, the local installation would revert to being a mere remote. At this point, I called tech support, and my troubles really started.

First off, the tech suggested I uninstall all copies of the software and make a copy of my database. Somehow, he gave me the wrong path, so I ended up making a copy of a useless file, which we were not to realize until later. We then installed the LAN administrator software on the new machine.

Okay so far.

Then he tried to walk me through some highly complicated fracas that was intended to import the database. When I got an error message to the effect that "0 records" had been read, I started being a really unhappy camper. When the tech told me that, apparently, all my data had been lost, I mentally kicked myself and got over it (I guess I'm just an old hand at losing data; sure, it bothers me, but if there's nothing to be done... there's no use getting upset about it).

After what seemed forever, we got to a point where the same dialog box that started the phone call appeared, so I called it quits. The tech was at the end of his rope, too. He gave me an incident number and suggested we talk to a second-tier tech. I had no time, so we ended the session.

When I called later, the tech that answered seemed unimpressed with the fact that her precedessor had suggested I speak to a second-tier tech, and tried to help me. It took a little while, but eventually, the new tech figured out what her predecessor had concluded: time to call on a second-level tech.

In the meantime - during a long hold - I managed to somehow find the right database file (the one with all our customer names and addresses, and more important: their shipping history; interestingly, it was not where the first tech said it was supposed to be). When the second-tier tech came on the phone, she walked me through a couple of minor edits to a pair of config files and suggested I drop the database file right into its proper directory (no import needed).

Since then, everything's been working well, but we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Cheers...