Hey Ben from Western Canada . . .

OK . . . now I'm "more comfortable" - in here just chit-chatting. Yes, this "Random' forum has not been one I've visited much either, but I don't want to run afoul of the hall monitors again, so I've carried this casual discussion over here.

As I said, I saw on your post that you are from "Western Canada". That encompasses quite a bit of territory, doesn't it??

When I was working (retired now), I used to travel once in a while up to Calgary, in Alberta Province (that's considered "Western Canada", isn't it??). I'd fly into Calgary, visit our Plant there, and then motor up to a place called "Red Deer", where we had another Plant. Actually, I'm calling them Plants, when in fact they were plain old "landfills" - or dumps.

The word "Plant" is something we called them because the company I worked for (BFI) used SAP, and in SAP the terminology is "Plant".

Actually, there's a funny story I remember from my working days with SAP:

Our company owned and operated garbage collection trucks, so it employed mechanics to maintain those trucks. Since the SAP terminology didn't include the word "landfill", and we (I was in the Environmental Compliance department of the company) had to enter permits for landfills into the system, we entered purchase orders for permitting activity by Engineering Consultant firms under the word "truck". Well, the maintenance people learned of this nuance in the system, so they began to enter phony purchase orders for trucks and they would get booked to landfills. Then the maintenance guys would get a new truck (about $250,000 U.S.), and it'd be charged to the Landfill company, NOT the Collection company.

Finally, some accountant type person in the parent company caught on to this scam, and maintenance people were no longer authorized to get into SAP.

You'd think that BFI would've just modified the program and coded in the word "landfill". But apparently, any modification of SAP was "verboten" by the German company that owns SAP, and BFI's license for the software would've been pulled had BFI tried to modify the code. And, from what I understand, BFI paid millions of dollars just to license the software.

SAP was originally designed for manufacturing companies, and ours was a "Service" sector business, so using SAP for our business was something like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The SAP sales guy that sold the software to our company must've laughed all the way to the bank with his commission on the sale.​

Anyway, back to Canada. I still have some friends up there.

Some of the place names up there are quite "colorful" - or maybe I should spell that "colOURful". Places like Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw . . . is there a "Frostbite Falls", or was that just in Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons??

Speaking of Moose (what's the plural of that - Meese??), I saw a Moose one time on the way up to Banff for a winter holiday, and the critter was enormous!!! And I remember while we were in Banff, the caribou would come onto the golf course and graze. And I remember that a local told us they can get nasty with the golfers if it's "rutting" season.

Since you guys use the metric system, are there just 10 months in the year?? (Just kidding, I'm not THAT stupid, it's just that we're still rather crude here in the colonies).

Back to SAP for a second. When I used to travel to Canada before the company used SAP, I'd file my expense account and for those charges I made in Canada (lodging and meals), I never converted back to U.S. dollars by the exchange rate. MY charge card bills would of course be in Canadian "dollarettes", but the accountant paying the expense account would always pay the total claimed in . . . U.S. dollars. So I'd always make a few extra bucks on my trips to Canada.

But then along came SAP, and we'd have to file our expense account by entering it in SAP. SAP automatically put in the exchange rate, so then the total was calculated in "actual" U.S. currency. I no longer was able to benefit from the dollarette.

Anyway, where exactly in Canada are you?? British Columbia, near that "Ocean Whisper"??

BTW, I see the Tech Guy (Mike??) is from Chambersburg, PA. I went to college at a little school called Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, just down the road from Chambersburg. In fact, I used to date a few gals from Shippensburg State Teachers college in Chambersburg. Of course, that was back in the 60's, so I expect those gals are old and wrinkly and cranky like me now.

My wife (I call her "The Incumbent Mrs. Jamieson, since I've been married four times now) and I both suffer from the ravages of age. She is in the early stages of Alzheimer's (not too far gone yet), and I have what they call "Ataxia". It's a neurological disorder similar to Parkinson's, only without all the shaking. The primary symptom is a stumbling gait, and I "spontaneously" collapse (fall) frequently. I'm not in a wheelchair yet, but that's somewhere in my future.

The official diagnosis is "Ataxia of Unknown Origin". Which is the neurologist's fancy way of saying "We don't know what the heck is causing it or what it really is, but you sure do walk funny." I've had MRI's, CAT Scans, P.E.T. Scans, Nerve Conduction tests (where they stick needles in your muscles and then pass an electric shock through them - makes you jump), blood tests, all manner of primitive poking and prodding, and all they can come up with is "Ataxia of Unknown Origin".

They've ruled out Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinson's, Cancer, Cerebral Palsy, and a lot of other stuff.

But I got tired of sending Docs to Switzerland on their summer vacations and financing their expensive sports cars only to be told "We don't know what the heck is causing it or what it really is, but you sure do walk funny.", so I finally decided I'd stop being their research project and income, and just live with it.

But I still have my wits about me, and my wife has a sound body, so between the two of us, me physically disabled, her mentally disabled, I figure there is actually one whole person.

So the TSG filters don't filter out Brit swear words, huh??

I don't really think I could be a MOD here, because those folks seem to be VERY technically astute, and I'm just an amateur.

I noticed though that they seem to have scripts for common problems. I have scripts for McAfee issues, like installing, uninstalling, updating virus defs, etc., so that all I have to do is cut and paste the appropriate solution to a poster's problem.

So tell me some of your stories . . .

Oh . . . one more thing. Do you still run Windows Millenium on your machine?? Microsoft has stopped support for that, haven't they?? Can you run IE7 on it?? How do you plug any newfound security holes in it if it's not supported anymore??

Bob Jamieson

 

BJ,
I'm intrrigued, how did you "run afoul of the hall monitors"? Do tell!

Richard

 

Hey Richard,

Actually, I was being facetious - they were really kind souls.

For the entire story, see my post at:
http://forums.techguy.org/tech-tips-tricks/595107-security-best-practices.html#post4899717

 

Good grief Bob, your life is a movie....Ever thought about a screenplay?

 

Hey ekim68,

When I taught high school (Chemistry, Physics, and Math) in the late 70's, I used to supplement my small teacher's salary by bartending at night. I did that for about 5 years.

One of the things that I learned while bartending was that "Everybody's got a story". So, while my own story might be entertaining, there are a lot of 'em out there that make mine look like a bedtime story.

Your use of the phrase "Good Grief" made me think of Charlie Brown. Now there's a kid with a real story . . .

 

As an aside, I was amazed at the number of kids in my graduating class that went into the teaching profession....Class of '68...

 

Holy mackerel, Bob, that is some post. And yours is some situation. Thanks for the sharing. I've a decision or two to make here.

This could well become a garbage thread with fishy overtones and underlying currents of conflict. And, as I laboriously and blinkingly 'type' this, I pop 'down' to your post and what do I find but a post from a favorite artist of mine who writes of screen-plays and sings of wayward women and weak men. That's a distraction on a cool night - I must shake it off. I have German giants and probably scurrilous Wiki articles on the garbage mafia spinning around like demented dervishes in my soggy mind. This is one hell of a way to enter the random universe but perhaps the best way to get lost in it.

Sometimes I think Canada is the new "plant". First there was the USA, then Australia, so why not Canada now. I am using land-fill in the broadest possible sense. Mike is just about to shut us all down.

And another Mike is playing the devil's advocate!

There is a play just finishing an evening performance down by the sea. The play plays the actors. A line from it: "If music be the food of love - play on..." and the thought 'love plays us' occurs. We are played by the arts, some might say plagued by them. Here is random - yes?

I met her the year I learnt to milk cows. I loved cows, well, until one, under sentence of death, chased me for half a mile along a dark and sorry road. I have thought of her ever since. "This is Ella", they said, "Your cousin from America". I have remembered Ella ever since too. There two newspaper clippings in my mind. The first has the headline "Enraged cow pursues seaman"; the second, "Miss E. Holloway of Oakland, California visits...". The cow lost interest. Ella went home. One was eaten or turned to glue, the other loved perhaps and turned to dust. How rich this earth not of ours but of us.

A play by the sea - sandcastles and Shakespeare - time and tide running without end. But the Martians had that thought, no doubt. Who will find the hard drives of TSG? What might they think if think they do?

Main Entry: 1ran·dom
Pronunciation: 'ran-d&m
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, succession, surge, from Anglo-French randun, from Old French randir to run, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German rinnan to run -- more at RUN
: a haphazard course
- at random : without definite aim, direction, rule, or method

Thanks, Merriam Webster, and thanks, BJ.

Ben.

 

Hey ekim68,

God bless'm if they stuck with it. I couldn't handle the little barbarians (and I had the cream of the crop too) for but about 5 years and then I got out of teaching.

I remember one time an older woman who was a substitute came into the faculty lounge crying. Come to find out that she substituted for a teacher that had a class of "emotionally handicapped" kids (that's a school system euphemism for gang members) that terrorized her so bad they sent her screaming and hysterical out of the classroom.

I attended Roman Catholic schools in the 50's and 60's, where "Sister Doris, the Prefect of Discipline" pretty much controlled even the most unruly students. So it was a real culture shock for me when an 8th grader came up to me after class and invited me to have a few beers with him and watch his XXX rated videos.

"I don't know what this world is coming to . . . I don't know what's the matter with these kids these days". That's what my parents used to say, now I'm saying it myself. Good Grief . . .

 

BobJam,
Just been to your other post that you linked me to. Very interesting, esp about the preview pane - just going to check my settings now.

I teach adult learners for a specific profession. The real motivator is: if you don't pass the course (theory & practical) you don't get the job. There are appeals procedures of course, but it certainly focuses their attention!

How people can work with kids who don't want to learn beats me.

Really enjoying your posts.
Thanks
Richard.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

And I'm glad if any of my "tips" helped you out.

Oh . . . one question (and don't feel you have to answer if it's not appropriate): What is the "specific profession"??

 

Don't know if you're speaking to me or all of us, but my profession is 'repairman'....

 

Hey Ben, I have to tell you this is a good thread for me to talk...I have to every once in a while. But, right now I'm sad...Although tonight's studio session was good and we'll have another CD by the end of the year, I miss angel..........Sorry, I'm in mourning right now..

 

BJ,
It's a branch of Law Enforcement, part of the Civil Service over here.

Richard

 

Hey Ben, we had rain all day here...How about you up north?

 

Yes, Mike, we also and I went for a walk. It felt gooooood!

I am with you, Mike. Seems I've become a Random person. I marvel at so much these past very few days. Mourning becomes TSG (to borrow the idea/name - in part).
Care, Mike.

Ben.