Conquering the World!

Step by tiny step. Got a message via the ebme forum from a guy in Serbia wanting to try my TaskMaster system. Colin is staying with me this week so I have not been able to crack on quite so much with the latest revision, but this latest request now gives me fresh impetus to get it done!

King of the Canal Paths

The canal tow-paths of England are great for "flat-land" jogging. I love 'em! I managed to get out at 17:40 this evening. Down the Bristol Road then on to the canal path. It had been closed off due to damage during the "Great Gloucestershire Flood" of a couple of months back. It was open again after Rea Bridge so I went down as far as the "Pilot" at Sellar's Bridge. It's still closed off beyond there. Back up and over Llanthony Bridge, and was back at my flat by 19:00. Here's the bird's-eye view. The canal is the dark green line leading down from the red circle, whilst the brown line snaking through at top-left is the River Severn.

An Indian Summer

It's been another week of slogging away at my TaskMaster program. Outside it has been mostly exquisitely autumnal, and I was able to get out a couple of times before the sun went down! But mostly it was carrying on at all hours, depending upon when the muse deemed me worthy of assistance (or, at least, inspiration)!

Because I am building on ancient code, some of it going back ten years or more, every time I add an enhancement I have to go back and eek out latent bugs, sometimes dating way back. That's the trouble with having users who haven't bothered to send feedback. I just don't know about the bugs until I trip over them myself. They are, of course, my bugs, seeded at some time or other when I was in a rush, tired, or being just plain stupid. So mea culpa, as they say.

Anyway, must go now. I've had a cup of tea, the bugs are laughing, and there's a whole night ahead! Good (bug) hunting!

The Midnight Commander

For the last month, I have been at the keyboard for sixteen hours a day (and nights), seven days a week, as I have a few people waiting for the latest issue of my TaskMaster program. I really wanted to have it done by the end of September, but have allowed myself a bit of mission creep, as I have moved it on from being just a facsimile of my old DOS program, towards a much more integrated workplace. I now find that I can use it for my own work all the time I'm at the computer, as it does all I want, plus (rudimentary) linking into other applications, and the web.

As well as the traditional workshop tasks (job reports, PM planning, parts inventory etc.), I have now incorporated my diary and note-taking programs into TaskMaster, together with reasonably extensive reporting and printing facilities.

So now I'd better get on and get it ready for distribution. It looks likes it will take a few more days yet, but I reckon it has to be done!

It may be interesting to note that the screen-shot above was saved using Screen Thief 3.6. The original file was a 1.8 Meg bitmap (.bmp) with excellent resolution (identical to the original screen), but when uploaded and shrunken, it looked lousy! Next I loaded the .bmp into MS Paint and saved it as a .jpg file of 123 K. This also gave poor results when uploaded. I then tried a .gif file of only 69 K, and this gave the best result. That is the one you see above. Not brilliant, but the best possible on the Blogger, it would seem.

TaskMaster is a computer database program constructed as an equipment maintenance management system. It is intended to assist in organizing the work of hospital medical equipment engineering departments and independent repair and maintenance service providers.