12013. A client wanted to know how a website we created that they failed to renew for domain name and hosting for almost two years could be “recovered.” Ordinarily, this would not be possible, but as we’d taken precautionary measures in advance, we were able to get the website up and running again within a short time.

12050. We implemented a couple of speed boosts to the new-game HIDDEN Form in Gerian, treating the appearance of 4 while entering the word pattern as if Ctrl+4 to get answer was pressed. The reason for this was that the user sometimes didn’t press the Ctrl key properly when typing the shortcut and only the 4 would appear as input. So now, instead of having to delete the 4 and try again it would be translated correctly. We also implemented automatic calculation of the game streak at the end of the game, rather than waiting for the appropriate button to be clicked.

12072. During the second of four visits to NRC, we imported and posted November payroll from IPPIS, in EPPMS. On other visits we continued archiving monthly backups, to be relied on should there be a hard disk failure in the computer. We also improved the transaction copy feature in MBGL as version 3.19, resolving some data entry issues present after copying, and introducing the Copy button that was initially implemented on the Transaction Form, also on the Transaction List, as shown above.

12094. Printwiser client, Academy Press Plc called to report database connection challenges in both Estimating and Planning modules, and due to urgent work they needed to do in the Estimating module we decided to visit right away. On getting there we investigated and resolved the connection issues in both Estimating and Planning computers, including supervising an IT user in creating a local database access shortcut on one manager’s laptop, to serve as a fall-back should a server connection issue occur next time. The issues had to do with database file corruption or conflicting ODBC data source name settings.

12153. Visited Printwiser client to discuss an upgrade they want implemented in the Estimating module. The upgrade would simplify estimate analysis and review, and would basically involve transforming the forms for a selection of estimates into a series of user-specified columns one row per estimate quantity, that could easily be exported in a spreadsheet format for further analysis. We later did some research on the feasibility of implementing this, concluding that it could be done—producing a dynamic PowerBuilder datawindow object for a report at run time using an SQL statement, the number and names of columns in the report not being fixed but depending on user selections.

12212. Modified MBDM to resolve some issues with gift envelope printing in portrait mode when the return address option was selected.

12260. After using the open-source two-panel file manager Double Commander to copy some files to a 64 GB flash drive that used the eexFAT filesystem, including a large 2.4 GB database file, the flash was later reported unusable and needing formatting. After some investigation, copying of similar files to the flash after formatting but using Windows Explorer, and the flash not having any issues, we concluded that Double Commander was responsible for corrupting the eexFAT filesystem of the 64 GB flash. A similar situation happened before when it was observed that the large database file was corrupted during the copying process. Although when the files being copied with Double Commander were small in size, like under 1 GB, or when the filesystem of the flash was NTFS, no such corruption occurred.

12304. We did the first revision of MBIN this year, improving the Transaction Form and adding an extra check during posting.