Squaring the Circle

If you have hope, over despair ... then you can see the next day in.

"It's OK," he said. "Not a problem." He had a warm smile on his face and true compassion in his eyes. He was a good man for its own sake and required nothing in return.

"I wish I had some way to thank you," I said. "I appreciate what you've done."

"Not a problem;" he said again. "But if you feel the need to thank me, the next time you see someone in trouble, you help them out. That will pay me back amply."

"Tell them to pay you back the same way, and very soon the world will be a better place."

New Project VIII

Since the end of March, work commitments have not allowed me much time for TaskMaster updates. However (and due in the main to issues arising at work) I have added a few data fields here and there, and made corrections to clear bugs as and when these were discovered.

Some minor features have been added. For instance, the Log On/Log Off job timer at the Jobs Records form.

I also added a facility to permit more than one location for a Stock Item at the Parts form. Although that may sound like a minor enhancement, it is quite a significant improvement upon my traditional parts routines.

However, the most significant step forward has been the implementation of a method of updating datafiles between computers at various locations. For example, recent work at a remote PC can be zipped into a file (which I call DataPack.zip), uploaded (or passed across, using a memory stick, or whatever) to the host computer, and unpacked by a routine to update the host datafiles. Once again, it may sound easy, but it required a fair amount of work!

Long Time - No Post

It's been over nine months since I last posted here. Since then I have moved from Rotherham. 135 miles south to the Bedfordshire-Hertfordshire border, in order to take up some work at the small market town of Shefford. The move took six trips in "Mighty", my trusty Toyota Carina.

The move afforded me yet another chance to have a good "sort out", and I tried to simplify my stuff once again. I shifted all of my BBC Micro bits and pieces, my Psions, and all related stuff. Most of it went on eBay, but I hung on to the best of it for a while, taking it with me to my new pad in Arlesey. But later on, realising that I was never going to find time to really use (enjoy) any of it, I let it all go to a good home when Mark Haysman came up from London to take it all away. My plan was to concentrate my hobby interests (fiddling about) on the old medical equipment at work!

I occasionally get called to the company's main workshop at Kingswood (on the eastern edge of Bristol) and have also rented a room near there.