Propriety
The company I work for is nuts sometimes. I swear they would rather spend a million work hours to save a nickel on a software license.
We have this little Excel workbook that allows us to fill in some information about phone calls we take. It takes in some very rudimentary information and sends it off to a hand made Access database sitting out on a server somewhere. The real solution to the problem is to use one of the 900 CRM (Customer Relation Management) packages to maintain the information. This company already has a complete package in place. It lets you put the info in. It lets you report the info out. It is backed up all the time. The problem is, that would require training people for ten minutes, and a user license for the software. It makes me sick to think how many hours are spent creating, bug-fixing, documenting and training for this new XLS file. I just don't get why the powers that be refuse to accept that someone had the same Idea years ago and already fixed it.
Not only that, but some functionality of the XLS is lacking. The install instructions are pretty much as follows.
* Copy the XLS to your hard drive.
* Do not edit the original.
* I said don't edit the original.
* What did I just say?!? That's it, STOP trying to edit the original!
You wonder why managers treat people like six year olds. Well, it is because people act like six year olds. Another thing lacking is the update schedule. There has already been an email saying "Oops. We left out an important piece of information. Replace the XLS." Now, they are getting two different sets of data.
Another thing that gets me is who writes these things. They are typically some manager or engineer who has only written a few macros that saved a few keystrokes in the past. Now, they are a master systems annalist. They get 0.5 out there and people start screwing it up and breaking the system. now there is corrupt data in the database. Suddenly the managers are screaming for version 0.5.1 and they don't want to pay for it because it is a fix. It is a fix even though the original specification never called for what they are asking for now.  Suddenly, this cool program that fixed some problems is the problem. The manager or engineer who started this train wreck starts dodging phone calls and forwarding emails to NULL. That or they have changed titles, or gone to greener pastures.
This is usually when I get hold of the project. They come to me to fix things that never should have been written in the first place. I take one look at the (no error handling, no comments, no documentation, no modularization) code and tell them they are nuts. That is usually the time they tell me they refuse to do an upgrade to the proper piece of software. They refuse to do an analysis of what is going on and fixing it, because that is what should have been done in the first place. Now they have far too much invested in this crap to go get something that works.

Something I learned today.
If Wal-Mart were a country, it would be China's 8th largest trading partner. (Something mentioned in passing on BBC Five Live today.)

Revenge of the Sith
I've asked Nat is she would do me the honor of attending The Revenge of the Sith this evening hopefully at the Alamo Draft Hose. She said yes. =]  I rally think The Alamo Draft House is the only theater I will ever go to again.

Tonight, Tomorrow and Beyond
There are a bunch of other things we should probably get done. We have to go to Conroe to make the car payment. Nat bought a car from one of those fly-by-night auto places. She got stuck paying far more than the car is worth. I wish I could find a better way to pay this thing off. It isn't a bad car, it just is not worth nearly what she owes on it. Also, we have to pay off her computer. All in all, I have to say, for being homeless and being forced out of jobs repeatedly to take care of herself/Elle/Mom, Nat did a great job of not ending up that far in debt. I'm quite proud of her.