Part 2 - Time and Attendance

Looks like my Time and Attendance system could be getting shelved. Not through any kind of project failure but purely because the project goal posts have been moved. We are now looking at access control systems for the premises with a view of bundling employee movements in with this, we’ll also be looking for the system to deal with the laboratories projects where by the employees need to book time against certain projects (another way of doing this would be to have them simply fill out timesheets, but this can be time consuming)

The inner geek in me wants to go ahead and grab some RFID chips and readers (swipe cards or maybe even biometric readers) but I just have so many other projects on the go at the moment (UK and foreign based) and also Wedding planning I just won’t be able to spend the time needed in researching, developing and implementing the system.

My Time and Attendance system (as it stands) is still in use and I’m trying to wrap my head around a tricky problem of database table management. I have encountered a problem where by an employee’s time sheet is getting duplicated when entered, so for any given month an employee will have 2 identical sets of records. Now in theory this doesn’t really cause me a problem as the application should use the first set of records e.g. 1 to 31 rather than 32 to 62, but it is crashing when I try to load and view this employees timesheet. I have corrected the problem of record duplication so going forward it will not be a problem, but as part of the error trapping I’ve started to develop a db maintenance function that will pick up any of these duplicated records and allow the user to chose which set to keep.

Ultimately I shouldn’t spend much more time on this system, but I know work has a habit of shelving “brain waves” (or management farts – as I like to call them), these ideas I guess are usually conceived on Friday afternoon.

Polycom PVX Demo

Sick of filling out a form to download the software so I figured I'd stick the direct link on here http://downloads.polycom.com/video/pvx/PVX8020235.zip

TTFE-L Review

I managed to get a game on Sunday and I was personally quite pleased with my performance. I tried to provide an outlet getting forward (not to much success) but one or two of my runs did draw a defender away from centre field perhaps opening space for our forwards. It’s a game where it doesn’t feel like I did a lot, the opposition marked each of us closely and closed down open space very quickly; however I made some telling blocks and formed a good defensive partnership with Pete who helped cover a tricky forward.

The 3-1 Win against Real Buffalo guarantees our safety in Division 3 with 1 game to spare. It is a little early (and gives me an excuse for another blog at a later date) to start reflecting and setting goals for next season, but my dedication this season has been rewarded by becoming first reserve, which pleases me.

For some reason I woke this morning to find that my knee is hurting, hopefully it will settle down by Thursday.

BlackBerry OS 5.0 Update - Problem

In a previous blog I hyped up the most recent BlackBerry OS (OS 5.0.0.238) Today I found a major problem (for me). The media player doesn’t seem to handle MP3 playlists correctly anymore, this is something I use a lot when I’m down the gym (don’t laugh I actually made it to the gym for 6.30AM today, I am such a warrior!)

Guess I’m going to have to spend some time today looking for an update, otherwise I’m going to have to roll back to the BT provide software (which is really old)

"Ravens Night II" - Cancelled, Season - Done

So Raven’s Night didn’t go ahead, I blame Pete. My interest in the NFL has now gone for another season, I have very little interest in who will now win the Super bowl, perhaps it would be nice if Favre won a super bowl ring, then he can push off and retire. My guess is the New Orleans will win it... because the cynic in me things it will be a feel good story that the US needs right now (I’m specifically think about previous US feel good stories e.g. The 2002 New England Super bowl win) Whoever wins it there will no doubt be some media spin put on.

I’d really like to cheer Rex Ryan on in his first appointment as head coach, but that guy has just run his mouth one too many times for my liking.

I’m disappointed with the loss to Indy, but I just hope it further highlights the problems facing the NFL at the moment. They need a professional referee’s, far too often this season have the officials got crucial calls wrong. Pass Interference seems like a new rule they have introduced this season, perhaps the Ravens are just a bad team right now, perhaps they are indiscipline? Some of the penalties are simply boneheaded but the pass interference calls and the “lack” of calls for the Ravens on Saturday was horrible (I have purple tinted glasses). Lets just wait and see what fine the NFL levies against Ray Lewis for his Shoulder lead “helmet to helmet” tackle... sheesh Ray! Don’t you know this is touch football we’re playing?

"Ravens Night II" - Upcoming

WOW! What a game, what a first quarter! As a Ravens fan it was easily one of the most exciting openings to a game I’ve ever witnessed. Chris Carr has been my least favourite Raven player all season, for starters I don’t like the way he looks; his helmet is inhumanly small. In all honesty I’ve not liked anyone returning punts since BJ Sams left. Carr just scares me, not as much as Lamont Brightful (who was originally and affectionately nicknamed Lamont Frightful) but he just does, something looks odd about Carr when he’s back there. I know Carr is hardly to blame for the KO recovery but I somewhat like Landry so Carr gets the blame (yes he even gets the blame for the coaching staff not challenging the play) apart from that mistake both Carr and Walker brought their A Games (in the playoffs Frank Walker [P.I] looks like a totally different player)

That was the first home playoff loss the Patriots have suffered since 31st December 1978 I saw a statistic which was something like 11,000 hours!

Depending on how you look at it we have a rather favourable Sunday 1.30AM KO next week, which I think lends itself very nicely to a hastily arranged “Ravens Night II” however I’ve not had a great response. Excuses such as “I’m working that Morning” Who the hell works on a Sunday Morning? Get a real job Peter, you dosser! “I’m away in Scunthorpe” What a shit hole, Dale... you tosser!

We’ll I’ll see what Mitchell is up to. I’ll be toasting the game with a few beers and breaking from my diet and having a bag of authentic “branded” Kettle chips, flavour is to be decided, but at the moment it is a close race between “Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar” and “Sweet Chilli”

Ooh La La

So the New Year has very much carried on in the same way the Christmas period did (very few blogs). I am still fuming about my personal and overall team performance on Sunday (made much worse by my absence this Sunday) I am making good progress with my new “healthy” diet but my attendance at the gym has really dropped off, mainly because I’ve just been busy working around the house and walking Maddy, at the back of my mind I don’t really want to go back to the gym. I was doing really well, my progress had come along nicely, then I had several little breaks away from regularly attending the gym and this really knocked my progress. It’s really frustrating having to start over. Another thing that hasn’t helped is the weather and the new route to Fitness First. I don’t mind driving in the snow, simply leave lots of space and slow down, I’d really like to see a load more snow just to see how people cope with it. As a overall gym experience Fitness First has started to go downhill since I joined back in March, I’ve been considering joining somewhere else, but I know I will be tempted to simply cancel and not join anywhere.

I made a game casserole on Wednesday and had mixed results. The boiled potatoes came out excellent (though boiling potatoes is hardly a bench mark for culinary skill). When it comes to making the casserole again I will reduce the quantities of ingredients and increase the volume of stock (which sounds strange, however the original stock was boiling down to a nice thick sauce, when it was added to the meat for stewing, these was not enough to cover the ingredients so water was added). Another item to note is that I don’t really like Game. I love Venison but the mixed diced game I bought actually stank of ... well shit, literally shit! It had that foul bowel smell about it. So next time I think I’ll just use Venison – Ooh La La

I’m having to learn some Flash Action Script, something I decided a very long time ago I’d never need to do and never had any interest in. But I found a very good tutorial on Streaming MP3’s via Flash. So check out http://www.myaudiodirect.com (works 100% in FireFox, has some issues in Internet Explorer)

TTFE-L Review

I don’t know where to start, I don’t know if I want to start, I don’t think I should? Yesterday’s game was horrific, for me personally I feel it was the poorest performance I’ve put out since I started playing for TTFE, to say we “Weren’t at the races” while cliché (surely the saying “while cliché” is in fact itself cliché?) is an overstatement if anything. Where was everyone mentally yesterday? It all seemed a little headless, even Joe! Who has been pretty steady in his duties all season was MIA.

It’s really tough to criticise people when my own performance was well below par, I left that game asking myself “What did I contribute?” It may as well be rhetorical because I don’t think there is an answer. We lacked imagination and to an extend team work. I know Joe complained about the lack of passing upfront, which ok I can see where he is coming from, but for me my Job seems done when the ball arrives at either Mitchell’s or Huckle’s feet... perhaps an overlapping run could help but when I am unsure of who and what my defensive partner is doing I daren’t dash forward.

I am looking forward to having Weller back in goal to provide constant commentary on what is happening, we could do with having our enforcer back as well. Staying in Division 3 is not an impossible scenario, but we certainly have a fight on our hands.

Happy New Year

So I took a break from blog writing over Christmas, mainly as I’ve not gotten around to installing Office on my home system and also because I was off work. Like most things I ‘plan’ to do when I have time off work I did less than half of them. I have a big year ahead of me , with lots going on, at least I’ll have some more blog content?

I visited “Jamie’s Italian” with some friends as a sort of New Years Eve garthering (was actually a day or two before New Year’s) and I have to say that I think it is totally overrated. I’d recommend going once (at least) to make your own mind up, but for me the food we had was over priced for what it was... that’s not to say it was expensive, most of us had 3 courses and the final bill came to just over £25 a head. There’s a nice buzz about the place, but drinks are grossly overpriced. There wasn’t a huge choice to order from as a lot of items had sold out, the burgers looked really nice, probally should have gone with one of them rather than a fancy salad.

BlackBerry OS 5.0 Update

You can download OS 5.0.0.238 for the BlackBerry Bold from http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9R39RB81. Looks like RIM has started ironing out a lot of the glitches that where included in the early OS 5.0 releases, very pleased with this release.