'The Electronic Newsletter For
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SAFE 6.0 Features
When I was about nine, I went into a bar with
my father (yes, children frequent pubs in Ireland, though not for 'a drop') and I recall
him asking the bar man, 'So, where's Frankie, today?'. The bar man just looked at him and
said, 'Frankie's gone.' That's it. My father knew. Well, I didn't know. What they
were talking about, of course, was another senseless killing in 'The Troubles'. What I
thought about was how odd it was that someone who was there yesterday, simply
wasn't there any longer. How can that be? It was as inexplicable to me as if
aliens had instantly appeared with a giant Hoover and sucked up one of my friends. How can
someone just not be there any longer? This feeling of confusion has stayed with
me for many years and is still the dominant emotion that comes to mind over any act of
terrorism. Senseless is a very good word for it. It literally makes no sense. It's just
hard for one to get one's mind 'round it.
As odd as it may sound, this week would be a good time to reflect upon our good fortune being here. America has, with this one great exception, been spared a tremendous amount of the rest of the world's unhappiness. If you cannot understand what motivates people to fly planes into buildings it is simply because we live in a country that provides so many opportunities; and so few frustrations. It is almost impossible for Americans to get as worked up about anything as these people because we are so fortunate. So when people say, 'God Bless America', no worries. This is most certainly the case and more so than just about any place on earth.
Read The Story: Win
A Prize!
We had all the designers of Simple Accounting
in for a visist last weekend. This is a bit of a job as we are now spread out between
Seattle, Detroit, North Carolina, Dublin, Ireland and Capetown South Africa! Needless to
say, it takes a lot to get us all in the same place these days. So we're all sitting in my
back yard. Now the back of my property is bounded by an eight foot fence. And in front of
the fence is a two foot high pile of sand I have been moving around as part of my big
pumpkin gardening project this year. So here's the scene: Five guys sitting on the patio,
drinks in hand, watching my dog stand on top of the sand pile barking at the dog next
door.
One fellow (Dr. Bruce) starts in to razzing my dog, since he is quite small. I explain to him, that for short distances, his breed (Schipperkes---don't ask) are amazingly fast and have a fantastic 48" vertical leap. This impresses him. And so a wager ensues. Dr. Johnson wonders if Rory could, in fact, scale the fence, given the fact that he has the sand pile for a boost. Dr. O'Dhonnellaigh feels that this is possible, but only if the dog figures out that he needs a running start up to the sand pile to 'high jump' over the fence. The wager then becomes, how long it will take (no prompting, please) for little Rory to figure all this out and jump the fence. Ciaran Marron decided that it would take no more than fifteen minutes.
Fourteen minutes later, I come outside to witness Rory's 20th or so attempt to do just this. And it turns out that he's just about worked out the proper scheme (angle, length of runway, run-up velocity etc.) and so is about to make his Great Escape. In my mind's eye, I am witnessing a $1,000 bill about to fly away (they're expensive, OK.)
The point of this story is this: these guys are great programmers; some of the best I have ever known in any discipline. But, that said, they aren't always looking at things from your point of view. In the above melodrama, they pretty much nailed the situation and what was about to occur. But not one of 'em thought that it was a good idea to, for example, put the dog in the house, or move some of the sand.
As SAFE 6.0 nears completion, we really would like your input on how to make SAFE easier to use, more intuitive and so on. It's getting late, but it's not too late. The best, most complete suggestion we receive will be rewarded with a free Schipperke. No, seriously, we'll have three winners and each winner will receive a $100 gift certificate from Sharper Image (where all the really clever gizmos may be found?)
Ciaran's Corner:
Windows XP
Windows XP Service Pack #1 is shipping. It's
basic purpose is to plug, plug, plug all those nasty little security holes which people
find all the time.
Til Next Time!
Ciaràn Marron
Technical Support Manager
cm@suntowersystems.com
End of E-News From The Suntower, Volume IV #18
