Past Diatribes

JBA has roughly 3000 employees worldwide, and has gained consistent recognition in our chosen business sectors for the enterprise solutions we produce. (There's a lot of lingo that gets thrown about in the IT industry: they aren't "programs companies use," they are "Enterprise software solutions." And there are never "problems," there are only "issues." Don't worry, though. As ever, I'm going to try to keep everything in plain English. Remember to use the Webpeodia too.)

The project they've asked me to become resident expert on is quite interesting. If you work in an office, chances are you hate the antiquated green-on-black system they've got running the joint, and we're talking hatred of intensity enough to melt the sun. Hard to navigate, difficult to read, inconsistent to use--- glaringly backward in comparison to the word processing, spreadsheet or e-mail programs just an alt-tab away. But the company can't get rid of this dinosaur. It's the format all the records are stored on, the system that all procedures have been built around. With all the failings and faults, it's what the company has lived on since the 1960's and to change to something newer would be absolute chaos. In IT, such outdated gear is referred to as a "legacy system," and standard procedure calls for grinning and bearing it as much as possible.

The product I'm working on customising is called Jacada. Jacada takes the same old information from the office's big central computer, analyses it, and then displays it on a computer screen not as green-on-black, but as something that looks like Windows. It looks like a completely new computer system has been installed, and makes life a lot easier on all concerned.

I won't go into the technical stuff behind it all; suffice to say I have felt very much at home immersed in AS/400 servers, RPG programming, fine-tuning a KnowledgeBase powered by AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies, and manipulating the resulting Java and Visual Basic screens that display the new information. There are so many interesting projects and fields going on here at JBA! I've also had the opportunity to delve into ActiveX (in a nutshell, Big Bill's response to the Java discussed in last month's diatribe), OLE, Open Source, PowerPoint, a couple graphical packages--- lots of good stuff. As Carmel says, All my Christmases have come at once.

The new job allows a great deal of freedom- for instance, we'll now have plenty of £££ for next April's wedding. We're also talking about getting that dishwasher we've wanted, a proper holiday, and me a car. It's looking good from this side!!

I'll wrap this up for now with one final invitation. Recently I've received e-mails from a professor in the US looking to upgrade his IBM ThinkPad and a fellow in Russia looking for information on Dublin. I was happy to assist. If there's anything that you have any questions about, or if you just want to say hi, feel free. The "mail to" link below is active. All the best to you!

Peace.