Legacy filing kit

I had a last minute request from Emma to stand in for her and celebrate the Eucharist at St John's this morning, which I was happy to do, as I'd intended going anyway. Afterwards I had a wound dressing appointment, and arrived home to find Clare was already back from school and had cooked lunch. She had another school meeting later in the afternoon, so I went out and walked for another hour until she returned for supper.

Her work on the baby book revision is gathering pace, now that she's working with the translator of the original English version from the German. Certain sections of the original text don't need to be revised as the case studies are still relevant. Clare needed to recover text files of these to include in the body of the revision, but our book archive only contained .pdf files and original Publisher 2000 .pub files created in 2012. What could be done to recover editable texts with minimum expenditure of effort? She worried.

Fortunately, I have retained the 2009 Acer Aspire Windows Vista desktop mini-tower machine, with Office 2000 and the version of Publisher on it which I used to create the original publishable texts. But would it still work? Well, it did, even though its CMOS battery is dead, and an assortment of its software is well out of date and flashes up security warnings. Even so, the original .pub file loaded with no complaint and generated a .RTF document which could then be run in Libre Office and used to produce a docx file for modern convenience. Sure there will be minor formatting issues, but much of the required pieces of text can be transferred by cut and paste. I was well pleased with this, as it took so little time. So glad I didn't consign this device to the scrapheap. I could do with a decent old Windows 7 laptop to install legacy software on, to retain such easy access to an assortment of other legacy files accumulated since the start of the new millennium and before. There'll be one out there somewhere for a song, no doubt.

Back at the workstation

Yesterday, I celebrated the eight o'clock Eucharist at St Catherine's, and for the rest of the day we didn't do anything special, apart from a walk in the park, as the weather wasn't wonderful for most of the day. It did however start designing a poster to advertise Rachel's gig at The Apothecary on the first weekend of July when she comes over from Arizona to visit us. This involved consultations on information and photo content, back and forth on WhatsApp followed by trial and error. At first I used Libre Office, but had to give up in frustration, as there was a single feature to do with overlay and transparency I couldn't find, either because it doesn't exist or because the instruction manual is not as clear as it needs to be.

I started up my old Windows Vista workstation, which worked without hesitation. As Microsoft no longer supports this operating system, browser use is plagued by security warning bells and whistles, but nevertheless it works. I was surprised by the speed at which MS Word and Publisher started up and continued to operate. Publisher 2000 isn't as sophisticated and complex as successive versions, but I'm familiar with it, and it just works for my limited purposes. Far too many modern software packages impose on users more than they ask for, and make things more complicated than necessary. Likewise hardware. My ten year old Acer, starts and runs faster than any Windows 10 system on modern hardware, because it's not as dependent on constant interaction with internet servers and that unending procession of updates patching a fundamentally flawed system.

Admittedly the system did crash a couple of times initially and needed a hard reset, but I suspect it wouldn't have been necessary if I'd run CCleaner before starting work. Although I haven't entirely forgotten how Publisher works, it did take some concentration and recourse to help files to get what I had failed to find in Libre Office. By the end of the evening, I'd composed trial draft version and emailed it to Rachel in Phoenix for comments. The devil will certainly be in the detail.

   

Software - built-in redundancy frustrations

There were ten of us again for the Eucharist at St John's Canton this morning. I had a phone call from the GP surgery late yesterday afternoon telling me my prescription was ready, so I walked there to collect it and have it made up at the pharmacy opposite before going home. 

After lunch, I went into town and met with Ashley to catch up on CBS affairs. Then we went hunting for a copy of MS Publisher, to make ready for the autumn newsletter publication, but we couldn't find a Microsoft Office bundle which includes it. 

It's ages since we last needed to change software. For the most part we use Free Open Source material. I've worked with an old copy of MS Publisher 2000 for the past fifteen years and never needed anything else. I doubt if it can be installed on a Windows 10 machine, if I could lay hands on the original disk, as 64 bit computer hardware running Windows 10 can make it impossible to run older software. It's not often I need to use Publisher, but it's inconvenient having to spend time learning to use an alternative program that's unlikely to be compatible with MS Office generated files. I need to do some research to find a sustainable solution.

Early to bed tonight, faced with an early walk to Sophia Gardens bus station for a 07.15 coach to London to see my sister June.

    

  

On line government admin

Monday was a quiet uneventful day, spent doing CBS office work at home. I also went on-line to renew my European Health Insurance Card (aka EHIC), and while the NHS website was accessible enough, I ran into trouble straight away. Using the email address EHIC staff used to notify me that me card was on the way five years ago, I put in a lost password request, and found that my email address wasn't recognised. I tried registering from scratch, again the email wasn't recognised, and the error message thrown up stated categorically that it wasn't a valid email address format.

Just as I was starting to get really grumpy out loud, one of fortnightly home cleaners said "I had that trouble too renewing my Dad's EHIC recently, but they did it over the phone for me, automatically." Finding the number on the website was no trouble. I was put through to a robotic answering device, the kind that normally makes me even grumpier, but this was quite exceptional! The clarity of the procedures and the accuracy of the voice recognition software astonished me, and within minutes I was promised delivery of a new card within seven days. If only the website promoted this as the only sensible and efficient alternative, instead of leaving a less than functional registration page in place.

My day was otherwise notable for finally getting around to emailing golden wedding anniversary invites with 'how to get there' maps for a couple of dozen people, near and far, that we know are coming. There should be around forty of us on August 6th.

Today I had to go into the CBS office, and register a new internet banking facility to manage the BCRP Board finances, since a bank card and a new security device had arrived and needed to be registered for account use. There were charges to pay in relation to the Crime Manager's salary, tax and National Insurance. I was dreading it, but delighted as I discovered how user friendly the HMRC web payment facilities are, and the job was quickly done.

I also needed to do some leaflet design using an ancient copy of MS Publisher, which I don't have installed conveniently at home at the moment. As we're now using some additional types of radio handset equipment, user guides need re-writing to accompany them. It is far less rare that I have recourse to this kind of work nowadays, and it takes longer than usual to remember how to make use of some of the available features. As a result I left the office for my double Chi Gung / Tai Chi class later than intended and was twenty minutes late entering the session, annoyed with myself for not baling out earlier and leaving the job unfinished.

   

Trials of re-installation

Overcast and 15C here in Cardiff today, such a contrast to Nerja at 30C. Instead of being bathed in sweat, torrential rain, and the need to wear a thick cardigan to keep warm. Summer has indeed got lost here, as one news presenter put it. Still, plenty to do indoors, with several computers to revive with huge numbers of updates, and a mound of mail to get through after three months of absence.  Still, no bills. One new bank card, and a special discount for prompt renewal of my coach card, and lots of financial statements to file. ready for tax return time.

Late afternoon I went into the CBS office and checked the computers for updates and caught up with Ashley. Last week, CBS and all its working systems moved yet again, our seventh relocation in six years, always following in the footsteps of City Centre management. In fact we're back where we were two years ago in a slightly enlarged space. Our monitoring systems have evolved somewhat in that time, as our RadioNet operations have grown in sophistication.

I was quite amazed, given the complexity and difficulty of packing and moving so much equipment, that the system was running without problems. Apart from a MS Surface proprietory charger, nothing had gone missing, and even that turned up later in the evening in a bag of unsorted items. MS Office had given up the ghost on the main admin machine while I was away, but Libre Office was also installed and had sufficed as a fall back remedy. 

Attempts to repair MS Office from the original 15 year old disks failed, not because they were damaged or incompatible, they worked fine.  Un-installation prior to a full re-install was needed. Attempting to do this gave another error message, demanding the presence of another MS product (in our case MS Works) to be installed as a precondition of installing Office. MS Word was installed however, but was being ignored - probably caused by a deleted registry entry. This means finding the original MS Works disk at home, and doing a repair or re-install with it before MS Office will re-install. 

I was not pleased with myself, when a search for the installation disk at home revealed an empty disc box. Now, where to start the long search? At home or in the office. If I can't find it, the hassles will multiply. The company can afford to purchase an all new Office suite, but none of us who'd be using it can afford the time to learn an annoying new user interface. Or, in the case of Publisher, have backward file compatibility issues. Libre Office works well for most things, but is just a bit slower, and not as flexible for Publisher type document creation. We simply need to continue admin functions along the lines they have developed, as using a learned system, even if quirky, is more efficient and less error prone than a load of new software that may not think about the user, the way the user needs to be thought of. So, I'd better be able to find that disk - soon !

 

Publisher revived

Another Eucharist to celebrate this morning at St John's in Canton, followed by a cup of coffee with the congregation afterwards. I learned from the lady sitting next to me that she and her husband have an autumn time-share in Nerja close to where the chaplain's residence is located. Such a small world. 

After lunch, I had a meeting at the CBS office, which left me with some ideas in need of following up. I came home at the end of the day with a new assignment to work on, re-shaping some of my articles on the business for a fresh edition of our 'CBS Network' magazine. I could hardly believe when I checked that it's two years and three months since the last issue.

My various Spanish sojourns didn't stop me working remotely, but did deprive me of the version of MS Publisher I've used for over ten years. I have a fair amount of experience in preparing material with it, and am not keen on having to acquire new software when the old works so well, nor apply myself to un-necessarily re-learning skills I already have with an existing program. It's hugely annoying that different versions of Publisher are file incompatible. It would have been hard to switch work in progress from one machine with Publisher to another.

By the time I stopped to conclude the day in prayer, just one piece remained to finish and insert. I was pleased with my work but so stimulated by the mental effort that I don't expect to get to sleep any time soon.