*sob*

Ever have One Of Those Days?

My day started at 8:45, and I realize that will make a lot of 9-to-5'ers jealous. Just keep in mind that there's no such thing as "not working" for me, and that I spent 4 hours over the weekend working on code that I just don't have time to get done at work.

Except I can't for the life of me tell you what happened to the entire span of time that starts with "9:". I had intended to do a few things in the morning on my way into work, and all of a sudden it was 10:30. So the office still has no toilet paper except for what's left on the rolls in use, my photos remain not-picked-up, and my prescriptions remain not-picked-up.

I'd have done those things anyway, except that we switched over to a new billing system last month, and there were some issues getting things working last week, so today's #1 priority was to get invoices printed and sent out. Not billing means not getting money in, which means not being able to pay people, so it's not optional.

We have two companies, and neither set of bills have been printed. I start with the small batch, and discover that my on-again, off-again bug is on-again this month-- every so often, on a random invoice, it likes to go back and add the last 4-to-18 months worth of charges all over again, resulting in a $950 invoice becoming a $6000 one (or a $3000 invoice becoming a $50,000 one, which was loads of fun). I can find no reason for it to do that, and it only ever affects one customer at a time-- but not always the SAME customer. If I back out the invoice, delete the extra charges and re-invoice, it usually works. Except sometimes, when it adds them all back in again.

Fine. I print all but that one invoice, and make a note to go back and fix it. Then I turn my attention to the big set of invoices, which are where our real money comes from.

Invoices were not where they used to be, because somewhere along the lines the directory got changed and no one told me. So my #1 priority changed to "find the invoices". Found a billing programmer, who found the invoices for me. They are located on a share I can't access. Whined at the billing programmer, who fixed the share. Back to #1 priority being "print and send invoices".

Oops. The PDF converter that creates the invoices got upgraded during the server migration, and the new version creates just a few small problems-- not so much that, say, a billing programmer might notice. But now my invoices have a blank page 2, and the company logo is bumped down a half-inch-- where it obscures some text. Specifically, it obscures some text about the call details, which means that we are now hiding a piece of information about why we are charging our customers what we're charging them (albeit a small piece). Um, no. I don't swing that way.

So, fine. The billing programmer in question offers to install the old version of the software, but the point of the new version is to fix an old bug that has driven me bananas since we started using it, so I decided to try and fix the XML that gets converted. After all, if it's too much of a pain in the butt, I can always make him install the old version after all.

I Remote Desktop into the server in order to edit the XML file and run the PDF converter manually. Except it won't let me in, because "The terminal server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed users." Apparently, it lets in one and only one person at a time-- and we have two billing programmers (not including me, who also likes to get in once and a while).

Much grumbling later, I decide to just log into the console and skip the Remote Desktop problem entirely. I walk into the back room, and discover that there's no connection from that server to the KDM switch. Moreover, I can't follow John's wiring enough to confidently create a connection to the KDM switch. Back to the Remote Desktop plan.

The billing programmer in question logs out so that I can get in, and I proceed to play around with one of our invoices in XML format. Make one change, re-convert and see how it looks. Hmm, no change. Well, I'm not very good at SVG graphics, maybe that part's not important for this format. Many small changes later, and ... no difference in the PDF. Grrr. Fine. I remove the logo entirely and copy it to a temp file. Re-convert. No difference in the PDF-- the logo's still there. WTF?

There's multiple copies of the same XML file. I'm editing one, and the PDF converter is reading a different one. No changes shown, because no changes made to the input file. Boy, do I feel stupid. Back to the beginning! I make the first change again, and.. critical failure. No conversion at all. Um, right, let's just put that back the way it was, shall we? 45 minutes and 25 attempts later, I have a list of 4 changes for the billing programmer to make to the invoice-generation code, and then we get to try re-generating all of them again. He's doin that now, so I don't actually know whether this will fix the problem, or just get us to the next set of problems.

In the meantime, I still have no invoices, and it's late enough that even if they were completed Right This Second I'd still be here half the night (which I definitely do NOT have the right temperament for by now.)

Also, my brand new computer at work was acting wonky when I got in, and continued to do so all day. In fact, it acted suspiciously like it was infested with something, though scan so far have turned up nothing. I've spent most of the "waiting" time in the invoice process installing updates and spyware-scanning software and virus updates and so on and so forth (it's my own fault; I wanted the computer set up at a minimum level, because my old computer was to be passed on to the temp employee who doesn't have one, so some of the security things got put on hold until after our vacation, which turned into being put on hold until after billing). And, of course, rebooting, because it's still a Microsoft product and it's not possible to install an update without rebooting.

I'm going home now, with stops to pick up my photos, my prescriptions, and copious amounts of alcohol.

*sob*

Ever have One Of Those Days?

My day started at 8:45, and I realize that will make a lot of 9-to-5'ers jealous. Just keep in mind that there's no such thing as "not working" for me, and that I spent 4 hours over the weekend working on code that I just don't have time to get done at work.

Except I can't for the life of me tell you what happened to the entire span of time that starts with "9:". I had intended to do a few things in the morning on my way into work, and all of a sudden it was 10:30. So the office still has no toilet paper except for what's left on the rolls in use, my photos remain not-picked-up, and my prescriptions remain not-picked-up.

I'd have done those things anyway, except that we switched over to a new billing system last month, and there were some issues getting things working last week, so today's #1 priority was to get invoices printed and sent out. Not billing means not getting money in, which means not being able to pay people, so it's not optional.

We have two companies, and neither set of bills have been printed. I start with the small batch, and discover that my on-again, off-again bug is on-again this month-- every so often, on a random invoice, it likes to go back and add the last 4-to-18 months worth of charges all over again, resulting in a $950 invoice becoming a $6000 one (or a $3000 invoice becoming a $50,000 one, which was loads of fun). I can find no reason for it to do that, and it only ever affects one customer at a time-- but not always the SAME customer. If I back out the invoice, delete the extra charges and re-invoice, it usually works. Except sometimes, when it adds them all back in again.

Fine. I print all but that one invoice, and make a note to go back and fix it. Then I turn my attention to the big set of invoices, which are where our real money comes from.

Invoices were not where they used to be, because somewhere along the lines the directory got changed and no one told me. So my #1 priority changed to "find the invoices". Found a billing programmer, who found the invoices for me. They are located on a share I can't access. Whined at the billing programmer, who fixed the share. Back to #1 priority being "print and send invoices".

Oops. The PDF converter that creates the invoices got upgraded during the server migration, and the new version creates just a few small problems-- not so much that, say, a billing programmer might notice. But now my invoices have a blank page 2, and the company logo is bumped down a half-inch-- where it obscures some text. Specifically, it obscures some text about the call details, which means that we are now hiding a piece of information about why we are charging our customers what we're charging them (albeit a small piece). Um, no. I don't swing that way.

So, fine. The billing programmer in question offers to install the old version of the software, but the point of the new version is to fix an old bug that has driven me bananas since we started using it, so I decided to try and fix the XML that gets converted. After all, if it's too much of a pain in the butt, I can always make him install the old version after all.

I Remote Desktop into the server in order to edit the XML file and run the PDF converter manually. Except it won't let me in, because "The terminal server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed users." Apparently, it lets in one and only one person at a time-- and we have two billing programmers (not including me, who also likes to get in once and a while).

Much grumbling later, I decide to just log into the console and skip the Remote Desktop problem entirely. I walk into the back room, and discover that there's no connection from that server to the KDM switch. Moreover, I can't follow John's wiring enough to confidently create a connection to the KDM switch. Back to the Remote Desktop plan.

The billing programmer in question logs out so that I can get in, and I proceed to play around with one of our invoices in XML format. Make one change, re-convert and see how it looks. Hmm, no change. Well, I'm not very good at SVG graphics, maybe that part's not important for this format. Many small changes later, and ... no difference in the PDF. Grrr. Fine. I remove the logo entirely and copy it to a temp file. Re-convert. No difference in the PDF-- the logo's still there. WTF?

There's multiple copies of the same XML file. I'm editing one, and the PDF converter is reading a different one. No changes shown, because no changes made to the input file. Boy, do I feel stupid. Back to the beginning! I make the first change again, and.. critical failure. No conversion at all. Um, right, let's just put that back the way it was, shall we? 45 minutes and 25 attempts later, I have a list of 4 changes for the billing programmer to make to the invoice-generation code, and then we get to try re-generating all of them again. He's doin that now, so I don't actually know whether this will fix the problem, or just get us to the next set of problems.

In the meantime, I still have no invoices, and it's late enough that even if they were completed Right This Second I'd still be here half the night (which I definitely do NOT have the right temperament for by now.)

Also, my brand new computer at work was acting wonky when I got in, and continued to do so all day. In fact, it acted suspiciously like it was infested with something, though scan so far have turned up nothing. I've spent most of the "waiting" time in the invoice process installing updates and spyware-scanning software and virus updates and so on and so forth (it's my own fault; I wanted the computer set up at a minimum level, because my old computer was to be passed on to the temp employee who doesn't have one, so some of the security things got put on hold until after our vacation, which turned into being put on hold until after billing). And, of course, rebooting, because it's still a Microsoft product and it's not possible to install an update without rebooting.

I'm going home now, with stops to pick up my photos, my prescriptions, and copious amounts of alcohol.