WebFOCUS Newsletter September 2003 - From Where I Sit: When Everything Goes Wrong

It all started with a telephone call from my son. "The Ferris isn’t working right," he said. The Ferris is the commercial mower that makes possible the maintenance of the eight or so acres that make up our lawn at Red Fox Run.

Upon arriving home that evening I started the machine and began to cut some grass to see exactly what was wrong. After a few minutes it was clear the transmission was slipping, the engine was running rough, and oil was spitting from the side. Just as I had been told. The grass, of course, was growing nearly fast enough to watch.

The next telephone call from my son came barely a week later at about midnight on July 3. "The truck won’t shift out of first gear, I’m stuck in Queens, and eight cops just arrested some guy right across the street." Only a week remained before the scheduled departure of the cruise ship that would provide the venue for celebration of my wife’s and my 25th anniversary, and a new transmission was not part of the plan.

The third call came two days before we were to embark. This one came from my wife as I was driving the truck with its shiny new transmission home from Queens and feeling a little light in the wallet. The car had broken down and she was awaiting a tow truck. With nearly 150,000 miles on the odometer, repair seemed pointless.

The cruise departed as scheduled, but any thoughts of beautiful days on the ocean or stargazing from the Lido deck after dinner quickly dissipated into the encompassing fog. We could hardly make out the top of the ship’s funnel, let alone see Orion and the Milky Way. Don’t get me wrong, we had a wonderful time; it just all took place belowdecks.

Upon our return we replaced the car and paid twice what we expected for a new transmission in the Ferris, but at least we would have dependable machines once again. Or so we thought. While working in the field with a bush cutter behind the farm tractor, I noticed that the cutter was getting clogged with weeds and bushes. I stopped to inspect the problem and discovered that one of the large rear tires on the tractor was flat.

While my wife and I were able to make adjustments to enjoy our cruise, most of the problems I encountered were beyond my personal ability to repair. Life is like that everywhere you go. During my eight years as an independent consultant I encountered many issues and bugs that stalled my progress or that I simply couldn’t figure out. A strong community of other professionals came to my rescue time after time, just as I sometimes aided them. WebFOCUS developers encounter conundrums and enigmas as well. Fortunately there is a lot you can do to resolve issues.

For the two transmission problems, I relied on professionals who had knowledge and skills I did not. WebFOCUS developers have available a community of professionals with a wide range of experience and knowledge, much of which they can tap through the Web at our Focal Point site, http://www.informationbuilders.com/support/wf_dev_center.html.

When we needed to replace our car, we went directly to a dealer. WebFOCUS developers have this option as well. The Information Builders Customer Support Services organization is a team of professionals who stand ready to answer calls, e-mails, and web requests for assistance and information about WebFOCUS. Reaching them is easy. You can surf to http://www.informationbuilders.com/support/index.html or to http://techsupport.informationbuilders.com/. You can also contact them by telephone at (800) 736-6130.

I relied on friends and their contacts to hook me up with the solution to the flat tire on the farm tractor. Replacing the large tires on a tractor is no easy job, but my friends connected me with someone who could come right to the farm to do the work. WebFOCUS developers can reach friendly folks who are eager to help in any way they can on an e-mail-based message board called Information Builders-L. Questions are usually answered within hours and the ensuing discussions hone in on fine points and provide valuable insight. Participation is easy. Simply surf to http://businessintelligence.ittoolbox.com/groups/groups.asp?v=INFORMATIONBUILDERS-L. Message archives are maintained at http://www.openitx.com/archives/archives.asp?l=informationbuilders-l.

Things don’t always go the way we plan. Sometimes it seems everything is going wrong. From where I sit it’s nice to know there are many ways to solve problems. Speaking of which, I think I’ll go stock up on candles and batteries.