journal for 2002-07-03
the go board
I saw the completed prototype of the aluminum go board, yesterday. It is sweet! I’ll have to think carefully about how we want to design the next board: table, floor, dimensions, and so on.
Anyway, I have pictures! Rather than include them all inline, I’ve put them on their own page.
work
My boss and I are hoping to make a radical change happen. We want to make people realize that the ERP system on which we’re working should only be used for ERP. At present, it’s being viewed as something of a universal data dump, where all information goes to die. The problem is that developing for the system is painful. Programs can either be coded in ugly C++ or written in a proprietary scripting language. I use the term “written” lightly, because the only typing involved is entry of strings. Numbers, functions, variables, and operators are all selected (that is, double-clicked) from a list. Could it be worse? I don’t want to know.
Anyway, we want to create a new system, built on the ashses of our old systems, for tracking stuff that doesn’t fit into the existing ERP framework. I think the project could be pretty great, but we’ll absolutely need to hire another developer. I’m hoping I can get someone who groks perl, as things will be weird, otherwise. We spent about an hour and a half, yesterday, flowcharting parts of the process we’d need to model. It should be completely possible, but I don’t think I could do it alone in less than six months or so, assuming I stop doing most of my other non-critical work.
the darkness is coming
Finished a few more chapters of Eternal Darkness. What a fine game! If the idea wasn’t mostly laughable, I’d want a sequel.