1980s Album Cover

It's not but it could have been.

I had a very Peter day.

First thing a phone call - this doesn't work anymore.  They were absolutely right - it didn't work.  A file wasn't there.  Not something I'm responsible for but hey, always ask Pete.  Phoned the chap really responsible for the maintenance that was implemented at the weekend and we had the problem fixed.

Next came an E-Mail from IBM.  I love this E-Mail.

"Here is the latest update from the development team:
-For inaccuracies:
--what is meant by "not accurate" -> we need more details about this comment.
--Exact information for results
--expected value, and why those values were expected.
-For syntax errors in copybooks
--was the customer aware of these syntax errors
--why are there syntax errors
--can they correct these syntax errors and try?"


Let's go through it question by question

"What is meant by 'not accurate'?" - when things are not accurate, we call them inaccurate.  Very old-fashioned of us.

"Expected value, and why those values were expected" - I can't start to explain how idiotic this is.  We expected those values because those were the values we expected.  It's a brutal concept - if I knock over a glass of water I expect the water to come out of the glass and leave me a mess to clean up.  Why do I expect that result?  Because it's what I expect.  I do not expect pixies to come dancing on my desktop.  I expect there to be a mess to clean up.

The syntax errors are all down to a code page problem.  Every country has a code page - it tells your computer what every thing you type in means. Your code page for say an asterisk is going going to have a different code than mine.  Where you would see an asterisk, i might not.

But I'm not IBM and obviously all problems are created by me.  I <very bad word> hate IBM.

A song for the Blip title.