Topic: well. hey. guess who got a promotion.
squeegee started this discussion 9 years ago #57,441
not this guy. but hey. guess who just got a bunch of extra responsibility. this guy.
aging network infrastructure. i'm the closest thing to an IT guy on salary. i gets to oversee the transition to an entirely new system and manage the data migration and integration to our new web platform that doesn't exist yet.
funny story. got to work the other day and my boss (owns the company) told me our server was buggy and he rebooted it a few times. got the thing running and the old database software we use to handle, uh, well everything but mostly it's invoicing, warehousing, shipping/receiving, client database kinda stuff. it's all pretty basic, the network is small and isolated from the net. never needed an IT guy, my boss has a guy. contractor who comes in if we have problems. a buddy, you know? so it's aging.
everyone has a computer with net access they use for everything else and we have a wireless network too to make it all nice and redundant, of course. i've spent good parts of my day in the past making printers print.
anyway, got to work and my boss told me he rebooted the server a few times and i suggested we export the client list and warehouse inventory to a .csv, "just in case", rather than just back it up because the likelyhood we could build a computer that would run software from 1985 is rather low to begin with, and if we can't use the native utility it'll be super hard to parse the data from the existing files. i certainly can't do it. but, you know. my boss has a guy. so he did the backup, didn't export anything to something i could use though.
it crashed again pretty soon after and didn't boot anymore. i had suspected a corrupt hard drive, turns out the motherboard was baked too. 5 years old, bought as vintage because it was super out of date at the time. needed to be to run the antique software since there's associated hardware in the warehouse connected. my boss called his guy, and he came out pulled it all. brought back a "new" computer, took a few days but he found some old parts and cobbled together a thing that would run it. it's a dos based program, and it's super finicky. it ran fine in 3.1 and then we managed to get it working with much effort on a windows 98 system, which is what it's been on, but his guy had trouble finding a motherboard with 2 comm ports and 2 printer ports which are required otherwise the program crashes. and now it's on xp.
he brought it in and told us the hard drive was corrupt and they would have to probably send it off to local forensics specialists to farm the data, which we've done in the past in similar circumstances, or we could use our backup (which hopefully works this time. our old tape backup we used previously corrupted so when we crashed last time the backup was useless.) it's dos based, it should've been a simple pasting over, but no. there were problems for 3 hours. never really got them sorted.
it's kinda working, but severely hobbled. it's functional for data retrieval purposes, but nothing else is working right. probably because it's missing a comm port, he says. so i've got until Jan 1 to find replacement software that will entirely replace the old system and hopefully one that'll allow for easier integration to a theorized web platform.
finally. the extra work is going to suck, it'll take us till march before we're done. the warehouse data is just gone. so that'll all need to be inventoried, which will be most of the work. and it'll have to happen as stuff is coming in and going out, so that'll be a challenge. and the web platform will need to be put together. i'm finding a lot of suitable software though, but it looks like the change is going to be rather drastic for people used to the old system. we're going to probably be making a biiiiig departure if we're wanting to integrate a web platform. i've got appointments tomorrow with 2 companies who're pitching their wares and they hock cloud based solutions among other things, so, we'll see. i really, really like the idea of frequent off-site backups, but i'm not sure i'm okay with any of the rest of it... we'll see. i have a lot of questions. but, good news is this is a clean slate since the old equipment is now so old it can finally be replaced as well.
tl;dr i'm telling y'all this because no one cares. even at work, most people are like, yeah, whatever, that's cool good luck with that, and then i say, "yup, pretty soon everything will just be iPads," and then they maybe ask some questions.
i think the plan will be to have the ipads on a closed wi/fi network with one terminal that'll have internet access for cloud syncing to our web platform. then we'll distribute iPads that'll gives users access to all the junk they need and lock them out of pretty much anything else. that means we won't likely be replacing people's "email machines" if we get email on there. i can probably argue to lock out web browsing on them too if that's possible. that's possible isn't it? mostly i want to try and kill facebook use as much as possible in this too if i can. you can read fake news on your own time!@
and i may be required to switch to mac products for our server. so it's not all fun and games. some of it is really going to suck for me too. especially the next 30 days where we have to continue to operate without a functional invoicing and receiving system. we're back to hand ledgers and written invoices for the time being. at least there's a long holiday, so that'll be nice.
aging network infrastructure. i'm the closest thing to an IT guy on salary. i gets to oversee the transition to an entirely new system and manage the data migration and integration to our new web platform that doesn't exist yet.
funny story. got to work the other day and my boss (owns the company) told me our server was buggy and he rebooted it a few times. got the thing running and the old database software we use to handle, uh, well everything but mostly it's invoicing, warehousing, shipping/receiving, client database kinda stuff. it's all pretty basic, the network is small and isolated from the net. never needed an IT guy, my boss has a guy. contractor who comes in if we have problems. a buddy, you know? so it's aging.
everyone has a computer with net access they use for everything else and we have a wireless network too to make it all nice and redundant, of course. i've spent good parts of my day in the past making printers print.
anyway, got to work and my boss told me he rebooted the server a few times and i suggested we export the client list and warehouse inventory to a .csv, "just in case", rather than just back it up because the likelyhood we could build a computer that would run software from 1985 is rather low to begin with, and if we can't use the native utility it'll be super hard to parse the data from the existing files. i certainly can't do it. but, you know. my boss has a guy. so he did the backup, didn't export anything to something i could use though.
it crashed again pretty soon after and didn't boot anymore. i had suspected a corrupt hard drive, turns out the motherboard was baked too. 5 years old, bought as vintage because it was super out of date at the time. needed to be to run the antique software since there's associated hardware in the warehouse connected. my boss called his guy, and he came out pulled it all. brought back a "new" computer, took a few days but he found some old parts and cobbled together a thing that would run it. it's a dos based program, and it's super finicky. it ran fine in 3.1 and then we managed to get it working with much effort on a windows 98 system, which is what it's been on, but his guy had trouble finding a motherboard with 2 comm ports and 2 printer ports which are required otherwise the program crashes. and now it's on xp.
he brought it in and told us the hard drive was corrupt and they would have to probably send it off to local forensics specialists to farm the data, which we've done in the past in similar circumstances, or we could use our backup (which hopefully works this time. our old tape backup we used previously corrupted so when we crashed last time the backup was useless.) it's dos based, it should've been a simple pasting over, but no. there were problems for 3 hours. never really got them sorted.
it's kinda working, but severely hobbled. it's functional for data retrieval purposes, but nothing else is working right. probably because it's missing a comm port, he says. so i've got until Jan 1 to find replacement software that will entirely replace the old system and hopefully one that'll allow for easier integration to a theorized web platform.
finally. the extra work is going to suck, it'll take us till march before we're done. the warehouse data is just gone. so that'll all need to be inventoried, which will be most of the work. and it'll have to happen as stuff is coming in and going out, so that'll be a challenge. and the web platform will need to be put together. i'm finding a lot of suitable software though, but it looks like the change is going to be rather drastic for people used to the old system. we're going to probably be making a biiiiig departure if we're wanting to integrate a web platform. i've got appointments tomorrow with 2 companies who're pitching their wares and they hock cloud based solutions among other things, so, we'll see. i really, really like the idea of frequent off-site backups, but i'm not sure i'm okay with any of the rest of it... we'll see. i have a lot of questions. but, good news is this is a clean slate since the old equipment is now so old it can finally be replaced as well.
tl;dr i'm telling y'all this because no one cares. even at work, most people are like, yeah, whatever, that's cool good luck with that, and then i say, "yup, pretty soon everything will just be iPads," and then they maybe ask some questions.
i think the plan will be to have the ipads on a closed wi/fi network with one terminal that'll have internet access for cloud syncing to our web platform. then we'll distribute iPads that'll gives users access to all the junk they need and lock them out of pretty much anything else. that means we won't likely be replacing people's "email machines" if we get email on there. i can probably argue to lock out web browsing on them too if that's possible. that's possible isn't it? mostly i want to try and kill facebook use as much as possible in this too if i can. you can read fake news on your own time!@
and i may be required to switch to mac products for our server. so it's not all fun and games. some of it is really going to suck for me too. especially the next 30 days where we have to continue to operate without a functional invoicing and receiving system. we're back to hand ledgers and written invoices for the time being. at least there's a long holiday, so that'll be nice.
Wildchild !GjXpatdBd. joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 1 minute later[^] [v] #738,355
Sounds like you're being considered for one. As much as it means from someone you have never talked to, then good luck and I hope you get one.
Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 21 minutes later, 22 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #738,371
@previous (Wildchild !GjXpatdBd.)
I'm sure your comment means alot coming from a fat, tax evading faggot.
I'm sure your comment means alot coming from a fat, tax evading faggot.
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 54 seconds later, 23 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #738,372
@738,355 (Wildchild !GjXpatdBd.)
thanks, mostly i hope to try and maintain my hold on any kind of future. this comes as a very fortuitous turn of events, tbh, we could be coming off of a better year, and in my experience a bad year for us has been traditionally an indicator of slow economic times on the horizon. we're what would be considered a luxury expense kinda business, and we do well when the economy is doing well. when things get tight, we get super tight, so infrastructure spending isn't something we do unless we're coming off a good year. this would be considered that, for sure, and would get put off for years longer if things continue to sour in the long term. a good bump this christmas might signal faster recovery and totally blast a recession out of the scenario, but we won't know till Q3 if we're in a recession right now and we might not really admit it till 2018. and imo when we go into recession we need to buckle down and try new things and make plans that reach out beyond this year. plan for how we grow over the next 10 years and get that in place and really hit it hard when things start booming again.
i think it'll be the difference between me having a job in 5 years, and me having a job somewhere else in 5 years. and i quite like my job, so, i want to go down fighting at least.
lol, i mean fuck, we got a letter today from one of our manufacturers that we rely on for some components that they're disbanding their company. so, we're losing distribution on, idk, 90 items we reorder regularly. luckily we've gone direct to the sources and they're pointing us to new distribution, but damn, i'm in a contracting industry at the moment. pressure on all sides.
thanks, mostly i hope to try and maintain my hold on any kind of future. this comes as a very fortuitous turn of events, tbh, we could be coming off of a better year, and in my experience a bad year for us has been traditionally an indicator of slow economic times on the horizon. we're what would be considered a luxury expense kinda business, and we do well when the economy is doing well. when things get tight, we get super tight, so infrastructure spending isn't something we do unless we're coming off a good year. this would be considered that, for sure, and would get put off for years longer if things continue to sour in the long term. a good bump this christmas might signal faster recovery and totally blast a recession out of the scenario, but we won't know till Q3 if we're in a recession right now and we might not really admit it till 2018. and imo when we go into recession we need to buckle down and try new things and make plans that reach out beyond this year. plan for how we grow over the next 10 years and get that in place and really hit it hard when things start booming again.
i think it'll be the difference between me having a job in 5 years, and me having a job somewhere else in 5 years. and i quite like my job, so, i want to go down fighting at least.
lol, i mean fuck, we got a letter today from one of our manufacturers that we rely on for some components that they're disbanding their company. so, we're losing distribution on, idk, 90 items we reorder regularly. luckily we've gone direct to the sources and they're pointing us to new distribution, but damn, i'm in a contracting industry at the moment. pressure on all sides.
(Edited 1 minute later.)
Wildchild !GjXpatdBd. replied with this 9 years ago, 18 minutes later, 42 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #738,380
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 3 hours later, 4 hours after the original post[^] [v] #738,397
I feel you squeegee. I had a relatively simple job until my my boss found out I knew how to computer.
Now I'm doing all my usual shit plus handling any tech problems plus doing Photoshop / desktop publishing on prototype artwork plus scanning in a database of all the old stuff plus doing 3D scanning of sculpture art plus dealing with a guy who can't even figure out how to send email who wants to "design" a web page for us (meaning I'm supposed to do that while some douche is making stupid suggestions and then claims he designed a web page for us) plus doing invoicing. No salary raise for this BTW.
Lately my work record has become more and more spotty as I just don't seem to care any more.
Now I'm doing all my usual shit plus handling any tech problems plus doing Photoshop / desktop publishing on prototype artwork plus scanning in a database of all the old stuff plus doing 3D scanning of sculpture art plus dealing with a guy who can't even figure out how to send email who wants to "design" a web page for us (meaning I'm supposed to do that while some douche is making stupid suggestions and then claims he designed a web page for us) plus doing invoicing. No salary raise for this BTW.
Lately my work record has become more and more spotty as I just don't seem to care any more.
Killer Lettuce? !!iNo3FkiZx joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 1 hour later, 6 hours after the original post[^] [v] #738,401
@previous (D)
> plus dealing with a guy who can't even figure out how to send email who wants to "design" a web page for us (meaning I'm supposed to do that while some douche is making stupid suggestions and then claims he designed a web page for us)
Ugh. That sounds awful. My sympathies.
> plus dealing with a guy who can't even figure out how to send email who wants to "design" a web page for us (meaning I'm supposed to do that while some douche is making stupid suggestions and then claims he designed a web page for us)
Ugh. That sounds awful. My sympathies.
Anonymous D replied with this 9 years ago, 17 minutes later, 6 hours after the original post[^] [v] #738,406
@previous (Killer Lettuce? !!iNo3FkiZx)
Seriously, the guy wants me to print out the emails so that he can edit them with a pen. Then I'm supposed to retype the edited copy, print it out, and give to him to make any final edits in pen. Then I can retype the twice edited copy and send it. (sometimes this cycle goes on 3, 4, or 5 times)
At first, this just seemed like some quaint, quirky way that older people operated. Now I just pull my hair out and wonder how it is that someone can't just write words on a page and then read and edit them ON THE PAGE. Do a re-write if you need to and then edit your re-write. Shit, I was revising my work in 5th grade with only paper and pencil. How the fuck hard is it?
Seriously, the guy wants me to print out the emails so that he can edit them with a pen. Then I'm supposed to retype the edited copy, print it out, and give to him to make any final edits in pen. Then I can retype the twice edited copy and send it. (sometimes this cycle goes on 3, 4, or 5 times)
At first, this just seemed like some quaint, quirky way that older people operated. Now I just pull my hair out and wonder how it is that someone can't just write words on a page and then read and edit them ON THE PAGE. Do a re-write if you need to and then edit your re-write. Shit, I was revising my work in 5th grade with only paper and pencil. How the fuck hard is it?
squeegee joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 8 hours later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #738,456
squeegee double-posted this 9 years ago, 2 hours later, 17 hours after the original post[^] [v] #738,486
update: had 3 meetings today with software reps. went swimmingly. software suites are pretty robust, but one is a real standout with how integrated everything is. i'll be replacing more than i thought i would, including freeing up some advertizing dollars. some will get rolled into the new software since it's a cloud service with an ongoing fee, but we gain a bunch of features. we'll be integrating everything under one umbrella and it'll give us air tight security as well as off-site backups and all that good stuff. it'd fairly pricey though, so i'm having to shuffle money around. we'll be dumping our current web host and SEO i don't think we should be paying for since the new software integrates seo into the we platform, so mostly it's paid for by dumping services i think are wasteful.
anyway, the other software is sufficient to replace what we do currently, but brings very little that's new to the table. they would be significantly cheaper in the long run, but leaves us operating with several redundancies and for the cost it's overpriced for what we get.
i'm having to stick to my guns and make a strong case to my boss, but he's on board since i found a way to pay for it that won't cost us anything extra. he doesn't know about me killing facebook though. i'll mention that when i distribute everyone's tablet :)
anyway, the other software is sufficient to replace what we do currently, but brings very little that's new to the table. they would be significantly cheaper in the long run, but leaves us operating with several redundancies and for the cost it's overpriced for what we get.
i'm having to stick to my guns and make a strong case to my boss, but he's on board since i found a way to pay for it that won't cost us anything extra. he doesn't know about me killing facebook though. i'll mention that when i distribute everyone's tablet :)
Anonymous G joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 57 minutes later, 18 hours after the original post[^] [v] #738,505
Anonymous D replied with this 9 years ago, 2 hours later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #738,584
@previous (G)
http://www.creaform3d.com/en/metrology-solutions/handheld-portable-3d-scanner-goscan-3d
http://www.creaform3d.com/en/metrology-solutions/handheld-portable-3d-scanner-goscan-3d
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 1 week later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #741,483
update: $8900 later and i'm done! well, with buying the software. signed the contract today after figuring out payment terms and tomorrow i'll be getting with one of their reps to do initial customization and data migration. then i'll have till jan 1 to sort out our hardware needs, put together a team to handle a massive amount of data entry for what can't be migrated, organize a workflow, and do the initial implementation so that when everyone comes back from break there won't be any downtime.
it was a hard fought victory, btw. there wasn't much pushback, tbh, but when i pitched the software to my boss's bosses i pitched one as "underwhelming, hit all of our minimum requirements," and another as, "more versatile, not future proof," and the third as, "versatile, future proof, game-changing." the third was by far the more expensive option, but i sold the integration as a cost saving measure as well as a profit increasing one. the others were cheaper but they lacked forward looking functionality. they do what we needed them to do 15 years ago, but not what we'll need them to do in 15 years and argued we actually need those things today.
unfortunately i'm not very smart, so i wasn't able to honestly estimate how much cost saving there would be, or even project what could happen with revenue. arguably it's easy to say that opening up another platform from which to sell your products can only increase revenue, but, i mean by how much? technically one sale would cover the entire cost of the web platform, so anything beyond that would be pure profit, but that doesn't even play a part in figuring out profit projections... anyway, i'm fucking lost when it comes to that kinda stuff so i couldn't put it in hypothetical terms of "x amount of time will be saved freeing up workers", and "y amount of profits are to be had by adding a web platform," and instead found $5000 worth of redundancies that would occur after bringing in an integrated system. these are services we can get rid of, and maintenance fees. but, we would retain those fees IF we went with either of the two other systems. then i pitched it as revolutionary for the company. they even liked my plan to phase out computers for ipads. did you guys know that ipads are secure?
so i added those fees to the costs of the other two systems as a total expense vs. the cost of the integrated system alone. the integrated system was still more expensive, but only marginally so over a 3 year period of time. after that the integrated system has ongoing annual fees and it's expensive, but, if in three years it proves to also increase our revenue then it'll have proven it's value.
they deliberated on it and ultimately the decision came down this morning to let me go ahead and move forward with everything i've recommended. i'm super stoked. a facebook fake-news free workplace is going to be, in the words of the sexy voiced sales rep from the software company i've dealt with for the last week, amazing.
it was a hard fought victory, btw. there wasn't much pushback, tbh, but when i pitched the software to my boss's bosses i pitched one as "underwhelming, hit all of our minimum requirements," and another as, "more versatile, not future proof," and the third as, "versatile, future proof, game-changing." the third was by far the more expensive option, but i sold the integration as a cost saving measure as well as a profit increasing one. the others were cheaper but they lacked forward looking functionality. they do what we needed them to do 15 years ago, but not what we'll need them to do in 15 years and argued we actually need those things today.
unfortunately i'm not very smart, so i wasn't able to honestly estimate how much cost saving there would be, or even project what could happen with revenue. arguably it's easy to say that opening up another platform from which to sell your products can only increase revenue, but, i mean by how much? technically one sale would cover the entire cost of the web platform, so anything beyond that would be pure profit, but that doesn't even play a part in figuring out profit projections... anyway, i'm fucking lost when it comes to that kinda stuff so i couldn't put it in hypothetical terms of "x amount of time will be saved freeing up workers", and "y amount of profits are to be had by adding a web platform," and instead found $5000 worth of redundancies that would occur after bringing in an integrated system. these are services we can get rid of, and maintenance fees. but, we would retain those fees IF we went with either of the two other systems. then i pitched it as revolutionary for the company. they even liked my plan to phase out computers for ipads. did you guys know that ipads are secure?
so i added those fees to the costs of the other two systems as a total expense vs. the cost of the integrated system alone. the integrated system was still more expensive, but only marginally so over a 3 year period of time. after that the integrated system has ongoing annual fees and it's expensive, but, if in three years it proves to also increase our revenue then it'll have proven it's value.
they deliberated on it and ultimately the decision came down this morning to let me go ahead and move forward with everything i've recommended. i'm super stoked. a facebook fake-news free workplace is going to be, in the words of the sexy voiced sales rep from the software company i've dealt with for the last week, amazing.
squeegee replied with this 9 years ago, 19 hours later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #741,694
bwa hahaha! setting up an ipad to play with. i can restrict everything! this is awesome.
Lorraine !oZfU/tvMPw joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 5 minutes later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #741,695
This just in, we're sad to announce the news of Squeegees murder at his place of work. It occurred roughly 15 seconds after a rowdy mob of fat female office workers realized they could no longer go on Facebook on work equipment.
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 3 hours later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #741,745
@previous (Lorraine !oZfU/tvMPw)
i've already anticipated this so i've been doing some light cardio after work so i don't get winded as i walk away
i've already anticipated this so i've been doing some light cardio after work so i don't get winded as i walk away
Lorraine !oZfU/tvMPw replied with this 9 years ago, 6 minutes later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #741,749
@previous (squeegee)
Maybe u could play the race card and be like "You are angry that I took Facebook from you but you people took my culture from me"
Let people know you are moving their data to "digital reservations" on the server to clear some space and that some might be lost in the transition but it's only collateral damage and nbd.
Start walking around in that eagle headdress you said you were making a while ago
People will leave u alone
Maybe u could play the race card and be like "You are angry that I took Facebook from you but you people took my culture from me"
Let people know you are moving their data to "digital reservations" on the server to clear some space and that some might be lost in the transition but it's only collateral damage and nbd.
Start walking around in that eagle headdress you said you were making a while ago
People will leave u alone
hamfist !0Ynig1RSDc joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 49 seconds later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #741,751
tl;dr but my condolences op
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 1 day later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #742,104
update: holy shit i fucking love this new software.
it's actually amazing. in one day i've already replaced the entire work order system which is technically 3 completely separate systems for creating, tracking, and invoicing work orders. the workflow is super easy and it's all on one place and totally integrated with the new client database AND technician scheduling. i mean it's integrated with everything, but man is it amazing.
inventory is pretty robust too, it's been easy to configure everything in preparation for the huge receiving job coming up in the warehouse. but data entry has never been so easy. pretty much i'm just having our various vendors and manufacturers send out a spreadsheet version of their product catalogs and price sheets for services and whatnot. i can format them and upload them into the new inventory database and it'll drop everything like descriptions, dimensions, weights, price, etc. and then we take a physical inventory of the warehouse and create a new spreadsheet with updates to all counted items and blast them all in at one time.
that's how i want to do it anyway.
probably what'll actually happen is most of our vendors won't have a spreadsheet to send and i'll be stuck with a physical inventory needing lots, and lots of data entry. likely one big vendor will pull through, maybe 2. hopefully my european manufacturers will be a bit more sophisticated. i mean, not the italians. the germans though. i bet they got spreadsheets for days.
it's actually amazing. in one day i've already replaced the entire work order system which is technically 3 completely separate systems for creating, tracking, and invoicing work orders. the workflow is super easy and it's all on one place and totally integrated with the new client database AND technician scheduling. i mean it's integrated with everything, but man is it amazing.
inventory is pretty robust too, it's been easy to configure everything in preparation for the huge receiving job coming up in the warehouse. but data entry has never been so easy. pretty much i'm just having our various vendors and manufacturers send out a spreadsheet version of their product catalogs and price sheets for services and whatnot. i can format them and upload them into the new inventory database and it'll drop everything like descriptions, dimensions, weights, price, etc. and then we take a physical inventory of the warehouse and create a new spreadsheet with updates to all counted items and blast them all in at one time.
that's how i want to do it anyway.
probably what'll actually happen is most of our vendors won't have a spreadsheet to send and i'll be stuck with a physical inventory needing lots, and lots of data entry. likely one big vendor will pull through, maybe 2. hopefully my european manufacturers will be a bit more sophisticated. i mean, not the italians. the germans though. i bet they got spreadsheets for days.
dw joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 1 minute later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #742,105
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 18 hours later, 1 week after the original post[^] [v] #742,299
people are starting to come to the realization that things will be different.
i'll use an analogy. our old system is like a great old sailing ship from the 16th century. in it's day it was big and grand and a hundred sailors all worked to make humongous billowing sails efficiently catch the wind. but this new system isn't a sailing ship, it's a steam liner. but everyone on board is used to sailing ships and catching the wind. someone asked, "but what about sailing into the wind?" and someone else overhears me say, "we just turn the wheel and go," and they come in arguing that, "you can't just turn the wheel, you have to tack the sail!"
trying to then explain that, "there isn't a sail anymore...," leads to an argument about ''us needing a sail!''
i say, "but we've got an engine, we don't catch the wind anymore," and it just earns me a blank stare.
so, i've basically agreed to place a very small decorative sail on the bow so people will just think it's doing something even though it's obsolete.
i'd give you specifics but it's about our internal numbering system for products and services... i think the analogy was more interesting. okay fine. prefixes. we don't need them. the new system uses a very robust category system. search by category not by prefix, essentially. also... we don't need custom SKUs anymore from the legacy system. the new system uses an internal ID, so, that's the new internal SKU and the legacy numbers are just redundant... now i've already agreed to store all of the legacy numbers as a searchable custom SKU so anyone who memorized any SKUs can keep bothering with remembering those... but i'm really trying to make a case to ditch prefixes and suffixes and the legacy numbering scheme altogether going forward.
i might really end up being murdered over this.
i'll use an analogy. our old system is like a great old sailing ship from the 16th century. in it's day it was big and grand and a hundred sailors all worked to make humongous billowing sails efficiently catch the wind. but this new system isn't a sailing ship, it's a steam liner. but everyone on board is used to sailing ships and catching the wind. someone asked, "but what about sailing into the wind?" and someone else overhears me say, "we just turn the wheel and go," and they come in arguing that, "you can't just turn the wheel, you have to tack the sail!"
trying to then explain that, "there isn't a sail anymore...," leads to an argument about ''us needing a sail!''
i say, "but we've got an engine, we don't catch the wind anymore," and it just earns me a blank stare.
so, i've basically agreed to place a very small decorative sail on the bow so people will just think it's doing something even though it's obsolete.
i'd give you specifics but it's about our internal numbering system for products and services... i think the analogy was more interesting. okay fine. prefixes. we don't need them. the new system uses a very robust category system. search by category not by prefix, essentially. also... we don't need custom SKUs anymore from the legacy system. the new system uses an internal ID, so, that's the new internal SKU and the legacy numbers are just redundant... now i've already agreed to store all of the legacy numbers as a searchable custom SKU so anyone who memorized any SKUs can keep bothering with remembering those... but i'm really trying to make a case to ditch prefixes and suffixes and the legacy numbering scheme altogether going forward.
i might really end up being murdered over this.
squeegee (OP) double-posted this 9 years ago, 1 hour later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,316
i'll say this too, this whole thing is causing me a ton of anxiety too. every issue other people have come to me with is an issue i wrestled with myself. if they question how the system will handle something, i've already gotten the answer and often times it's just different than how we do it now. it's just how the thing works. it works really well though once you work with the tools it gives us. but i've gotten stuck for hours on minutia because we have a workflow for the whole company, and this changes pretty much everything. it's almost a nightmare, except the software is awesome. but, every time someone has had a major concern, i've had to talk myself off the same ledge already. it's just different. our workflow will change. it's systemic, not just a matter of having more databases and spreadsheets. from vendor purchase orders to receiving to work orders all the way out the door to the client the workflow is changing. basically not a single person will go unaffected.
so yeah. i'm not sleeping much. kek.
so yeah. i'm not sleeping much. kek.
Anonymous K joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 45 minutes later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,325
@previous (squeegee)
I don't care if you can see it on the shelf, the computer says there are none. I've looked up the number for that part and there still isn't any, so I've reordered them again for the 5th time squeegee...
I don't care if you can see it on the shelf, the computer says there are none. I've looked up the number for that part and there still isn't any, so I've reordered them again for the 5th time squeegee...
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 2 hours later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,354
@previous (K)
oh, we've had that problem for years. that's something this new system has already fixed. barcodes. everything. that problem actually came from how we did purchase orders and receiving. by file folder and po number. all manual receiving too. our service manager spends a lot of time on the back end working with very old and very slow and only partially computerized inventory receiving, uh, procedure. we lose parts all the time. stuff gets used before it's received and gets sold on the fly, we run out of inventory, don't have order minimums automated or anything like that. lots of work orders actually go waiting for parts. even though this isn't generally perceived to be a problem, it is, so the new system won't let you proceed until conditions are met. purchase orders require descriptions and IDs to be assigned before the order can be sent, which means that when an order comes in the receiving amounts to nothing more than checking it in with a bar code scan. so technically that changes the workflow, and takes a job that once belonged to the service manager, inventory receiving and data entry, and splits the data entry portion off and gives that to people doing ordering. but, we also now have tools to make that work easier as well, and will likely be an IT issue. what everyone else will be left with is less work and an easier more straight forward job. whatever they're doing.
at the moment there's almost no work done on the front end when purchasing gets done. records are all either on paper or in emails and orders don't go in until the item is received. that puts a huge burden on warehouse and service to pick up data entry, receiving and stocking since stocking implies marking everything with custom SKU numbers because then they have to go to another system to see what goes with work orders and what goes to back stock. it's just way to much work for everyone and it's needlessly burdensome to boot.
oh, we've had that problem for years. that's something this new system has already fixed. barcodes. everything. that problem actually came from how we did purchase orders and receiving. by file folder and po number. all manual receiving too. our service manager spends a lot of time on the back end working with very old and very slow and only partially computerized inventory receiving, uh, procedure. we lose parts all the time. stuff gets used before it's received and gets sold on the fly, we run out of inventory, don't have order minimums automated or anything like that. lots of work orders actually go waiting for parts. even though this isn't generally perceived to be a problem, it is, so the new system won't let you proceed until conditions are met. purchase orders require descriptions and IDs to be assigned before the order can be sent, which means that when an order comes in the receiving amounts to nothing more than checking it in with a bar code scan. so technically that changes the workflow, and takes a job that once belonged to the service manager, inventory receiving and data entry, and splits the data entry portion off and gives that to people doing ordering. but, we also now have tools to make that work easier as well, and will likely be an IT issue. what everyone else will be left with is less work and an easier more straight forward job. whatever they're doing.
at the moment there's almost no work done on the front end when purchasing gets done. records are all either on paper or in emails and orders don't go in until the item is received. that puts a huge burden on warehouse and service to pick up data entry, receiving and stocking since stocking implies marking everything with custom SKU numbers because then they have to go to another system to see what goes with work orders and what goes to back stock. it's just way to much work for everyone and it's needlessly burdensome to boot.
(Edited 2 minutes later.)
squeegee replied with this 9 years ago, 17 hours later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,601
i had to sneak back into work. i got sent home so i could "rest" but really they don't want to come in monday morning and have a bunch of changes to their workflow. time to dig in and finish up migrating purchase orders to the new system :3
almost done with data entry for service codes, vendors, and manufacturers. the work order system is almost configured too. i have a few special requests for custom fields and menu buttons to add and then we'll be in business.
i also had my first onboarding meeting today with my software vendor. basic training. we skipped most of it becuase i had already got so much up and working. we're already using the workorder system to duplicate all work orders and run the new and old system in parallel. 100% my job to create the duplicate, so it's kind of a pilot program. as long as everything works side by side, then we can cut the old workflow out jan 1. so far so good. everything tracks properly and works. all the techs notice is the work order number and a printed service codes in addition to the old tracking tags and hand written service codes. so no one is missing a beat, and also getting to see the new work orders and scheduling in action.
got hardware in too. printers and scanners. i'll have about 1/3 of our company on the new system by monday i think. so i'm having to make manuals too for the new workflows i'm implementing. it's all pretty simple though so it'll probably be more like a couple of pages stapled together. but there'll be other stuff too, like how to use the internal twitter like messaging system and doing inventory searches and logging in and whatever... okay so it'll be more than a couple of pages i guess.
they've doled out a staggering amount of power to me... i'm literally changing people's jobs. i'm fucking stressed, but i'm going to drag them kicking and screaming into the modern day even if it kills me.
almost done with data entry for service codes, vendors, and manufacturers. the work order system is almost configured too. i have a few special requests for custom fields and menu buttons to add and then we'll be in business.
i also had my first onboarding meeting today with my software vendor. basic training. we skipped most of it becuase i had already got so much up and working. we're already using the workorder system to duplicate all work orders and run the new and old system in parallel. 100% my job to create the duplicate, so it's kind of a pilot program. as long as everything works side by side, then we can cut the old workflow out jan 1. so far so good. everything tracks properly and works. all the techs notice is the work order number and a printed service codes in addition to the old tracking tags and hand written service codes. so no one is missing a beat, and also getting to see the new work orders and scheduling in action.
got hardware in too. printers and scanners. i'll have about 1/3 of our company on the new system by monday i think. so i'm having to make manuals too for the new workflows i'm implementing. it's all pretty simple though so it'll probably be more like a couple of pages stapled together. but there'll be other stuff too, like how to use the internal twitter like messaging system and doing inventory searches and logging in and whatever... okay so it'll be more than a couple of pages i guess.
they've doled out a staggering amount of power to me... i'm literally changing people's jobs. i'm fucking stressed, but i'm going to drag them kicking and screaming into the modern day even if it kills me.
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 8 hours later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,741
got the whole warehouse and service department hooked up to the new printers and scanners. as soon as we get ipads in they'll be ready to use the new work order system. did more work on vendors and everything we'll need to do purchase orders. i'm actually pretty close to being ready for inventory. that's the biggest most time consuming part.
and then there's accounting to do as well. that's the only part i'm really scared of. the most senior people in the whole place next to the owners are the folks in the office, and they are very much set in their ways. they have demands. we're in negotiations. they like printouts. specifically printouts that have an exact format. i understand, what they need is very crucial, but i keep asking them stuff like "what exactly do you need at the end of the day to close," and they'll start rattling off a bunch of irrelevant stuff that really only matters at the end of the month - but, they like the running total on their printout - which is fine, but, that running total isn't needed to close and do their reconciling at the end of the day. what they're demanding is a full on month-to-date report when i'm trying find out what i need to do to generate reports for the end of the day still... but i do understand, it's very important information, but now it's all packaged differently.
more than likely i'll need to create a custom export-to-excel spreadsheet that'll format the data exactly how they want to see it. which is fine. but in exchange for me turning a beautiful paperless system and making it paper'd i'm asking them to not fight me on what's going to happen with credit accounts. i've already figured out a workaround for the issue, but i fucking hate it because it'll fuck up stats on anything associated with credit accounts. which is actually a lot. about half of what we do starts as a credit account in this new system. i think what's happening is that any deposits paid are going against a credit account rather than going through as a "sale" as it would have in our old system.
when i report total sales for the day it doesn't match what the ladies get. i've found the difference is total deposits paid, which in turn effects taxes.
total charges are correct, but the taxes are all fucky and i'm just not sure what's going on. and it doesn't help that i keep finding errors in a bunch of receipts. but i think it's not charging sales tax on deposits which is what they did in the old system. they treated a deposit like an item charge, which means sales taxes. i think it just made things easy? i'm not really sure. i know that when an invoice is completed or a work order is closed the full amount is paid and sales taxes are recorded at that time rather than at the time the deposit is taken.
if that's right then we just don't report the deposit as taxable income until the ticket is closed. done. if a ticket goes into arrears then we close it and pay tax on what we collected. done. it already tracks the credit account, we can see at a glance what we have in deposits and owed on credit. so i think that's it. we just do what the system wants, and it'll all shake out for the comptroller in the end. but i am dreading the conversation with our bookkeepers. one of whom is married to one of the bosses. she really needs her paper reports. formatted. so i'm going to do my fucking damnedest to give them to her. formatted.
and then there's accounting to do as well. that's the only part i'm really scared of. the most senior people in the whole place next to the owners are the folks in the office, and they are very much set in their ways. they have demands. we're in negotiations. they like printouts. specifically printouts that have an exact format. i understand, what they need is very crucial, but i keep asking them stuff like "what exactly do you need at the end of the day to close," and they'll start rattling off a bunch of irrelevant stuff that really only matters at the end of the month - but, they like the running total on their printout - which is fine, but, that running total isn't needed to close and do their reconciling at the end of the day. what they're demanding is a full on month-to-date report when i'm trying find out what i need to do to generate reports for the end of the day still... but i do understand, it's very important information, but now it's all packaged differently.
more than likely i'll need to create a custom export-to-excel spreadsheet that'll format the data exactly how they want to see it. which is fine. but in exchange for me turning a beautiful paperless system and making it paper'd i'm asking them to not fight me on what's going to happen with credit accounts. i've already figured out a workaround for the issue, but i fucking hate it because it'll fuck up stats on anything associated with credit accounts. which is actually a lot. about half of what we do starts as a credit account in this new system. i think what's happening is that any deposits paid are going against a credit account rather than going through as a "sale" as it would have in our old system.
when i report total sales for the day it doesn't match what the ladies get. i've found the difference is total deposits paid, which in turn effects taxes.
total charges are correct, but the taxes are all fucky and i'm just not sure what's going on. and it doesn't help that i keep finding errors in a bunch of receipts. but i think it's not charging sales tax on deposits which is what they did in the old system. they treated a deposit like an item charge, which means sales taxes. i think it just made things easy? i'm not really sure. i know that when an invoice is completed or a work order is closed the full amount is paid and sales taxes are recorded at that time rather than at the time the deposit is taken.
if that's right then we just don't report the deposit as taxable income until the ticket is closed. done. if a ticket goes into arrears then we close it and pay tax on what we collected. done. it already tracks the credit account, we can see at a glance what we have in deposits and owed on credit. so i think that's it. we just do what the system wants, and it'll all shake out for the comptroller in the end. but i am dreading the conversation with our bookkeepers. one of whom is married to one of the bosses. she really needs her paper reports. formatted. so i'm going to do my fucking damnedest to give them to her. formatted.
squeegee replied with this 9 years ago, 12 hours later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,848
good news! i'm alive and we're going to be using the credit account for deposits as the system wants. i made a strong case for it, and my understanding of what was happening is correct. what finally convinced them was showing how easy it would be for an employee to steal entire balances and have records disappear if we try to loophole in deposits with sales tax. then i showed how the credit account is recorded, explained how orders with deposits in account can't be gamed. then i explained how it handles sales tax after you close with a deposit.
6 in one hand half a dozen in the other. the state comptroller still gets their 8.25% of a pound of flesh. we just don't report the credit account as taxable until funds are removed.
took 3 hours to come to the decision to work within the new system. but it's happening. yay!
6 in one hand half a dozen in the other. the state comptroller still gets their 8.25% of a pound of flesh. we just don't report the credit account as taxable until funds are removed.
took 3 hours to come to the decision to work within the new system. but it's happening. yay!
Killer Lettuce? !!iNo3FkiZx replied with this 9 years ago, 7 minutes later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,849
@previous (squeegee)
I feel that I should say, while I don't particularly understand what's happening here, it sounds like you're doing important, fulfilling work. Good for you, squeegee.
I feel that I should say, while I don't particularly understand what's happening here, it sounds like you're doing important, fulfilling work. Good for you, squeegee.
squeegee replied with this 9 years ago, 8 minutes later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,851
@previous (Killer Lettuce? !!iNo3FkiZx)
it's actually helped writing about it here. i figured out what was happening with deppsits when i was trying to think of how to explain the problem. then it dawned on me what it was probably doing.
and it's pretty fun work. it's a big complex and modular puzzle with very little direction. plus it's been awesome to plug all these little leaks the old system is known for. we've had systemic problems for years that i've tried to get the bosses to admit were problems that needed fixing. the hours lost alone chasing problems was huge.
this is letting me change literally everything and every problem i've ever noticed is being taken care of in this new system. it's great.
it's actually helped writing about it here. i figured out what was happening with deppsits when i was trying to think of how to explain the problem. then it dawned on me what it was probably doing.
and it's pretty fun work. it's a big complex and modular puzzle with very little direction. plus it's been awesome to plug all these little leaks the old system is known for. we've had systemic problems for years that i've tried to get the bosses to admit were problems that needed fixing. the hours lost alone chasing problems was huge.
this is letting me change literally everything and every problem i've ever noticed is being taken care of in this new system. it's great.
dw skg joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 3 hours later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #742,908
squeegee replied with this 9 years ago, 1 day later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #743,148
secure logins and permissions are all setup and everyone has been assigned their restrictions and whatnots. temp passwords and pins are issued and all the devices have been granted access.
vendors and manufacturers are done and purchase orders are ready to go. workorders are done, tracking is done, scheduling is done, invoicing is done, receiving is done.
got a lot done in the last 24 hours.
i'll have all our service and rma codes done and we'll be ready to start a physical inventory as soon as the break is over. i have a bunch of little rats to kill still, clean up all work order agreements, warranty info, and any disclaimers. customize invoice logo, and then of course write training materials.
i'll spare my coworkers and not go live with anything before christmas, but i've got 4/5ths of the critical stuff done and ready to go. yee haw!
vendors and manufacturers are done and purchase orders are ready to go. workorders are done, tracking is done, scheduling is done, invoicing is done, receiving is done.
got a lot done in the last 24 hours.
i'll have all our service and rma codes done and we'll be ready to start a physical inventory as soon as the break is over. i have a bunch of little rats to kill still, clean up all work order agreements, warranty info, and any disclaimers. customize invoice logo, and then of course write training materials.
i'll spare my coworkers and not go live with anything before christmas, but i've got 4/5ths of the critical stuff done and ready to go. yee haw!
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 22 hours later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #743,455
did initial training with the company heads today. i called it touch-and-go training and used a cartoon picture of a crashing airplane on the cover of the documents i had typed out for them. it went really well. everyone logged in and got to touch and feel everything, and we did a half dozen test workorders and invoices to get a feel for how everything flows together. they've signed off on everything so far and seem to be happy with the new direction. there were a handful of complaints about the software. it doesn't put a hyphen between numbers in a phone number automatically kinda stuff. then there some more serious complaints, they think the physical copy of the workorder isn't sturdy enough. our old tickets were card stock. these are regular paper. so i've got a challenge there... i put that as an after launch kinda thing, not something critical to go live with. it's actually dead last on my priorities. it's serviceable as is, so, i've moved on to more critical stuff.i have a growing list of stuff to do after launch, this system is super. there's a lot i want to do. i'm going to completely overhaul our vendor and manufacturer records first. i've got a huge request list, everything from additional contact info to product xml files. then i'm going to overhaul our inventory numbering system and clean up all records and format everything to a standard for item descriptions. it's going to be beautiful. the tools i have to make changes are awesome and easy as fuck to use. i dunno how to explain how bad ass it is to go from being required to edit individual records one at a time to doing thousands in one go. we may be done with warehouse inventory way, way faster than i initially thought.
i did get made fun of today though. i'm only in the office about 1/3rd of the time so my desk is small and in a corner by a door, and i've been using the door like a whiteboard and i have it covered in color coded post-it notes arranged as a giant workflow for ME to get every system configured and working. it's changed a lot over the last week and now it looks like charlie up there but with post its and it's a little neater. but i do have arrows running around a few places. it fucking works though. haters gonna hate. the only problem is that everything keeps pointing back to 9/11...
(Edited 2 minutes later.)
squeegee (OP) double-posted this 9 years ago, 2 days later, 2 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #744,204
i got as much done as i could before we left for holiday. we're already at a really good place right now. no major complaints, and the handful of small ones appear to have been forgotten now. the best part is turning out to be the accounting. since everything is now going through the new system we're pulling our end-of-the-day numbers from it and everything is balancing out to the penny on the first try. it's catching everything, we used to have lots and lots of little errors all over the place, dollar here, three dollars there, and i know it was adding up... it came from so much work being done by hand and transcribing numbers multiple times. it used to be we'd spend the end of the day figuring out what got fucked up so things could be adjusted to the point the books would balance. now they're spending time double checking everything because, "it never comes out right," and no one trusts it being correct... but it is, we're finding. knocking out human error is going to be a huge win for this system. i can't wait to see the accounting from one full month, but i won't see that till the end of january.
also the folks in the office are loving the new reports, there are so many. and you can look at the data in lots of different ways. my boss was cooing today over the category reports which shows total sales by dept and broken into categories. this was something we always estimated. it answers questions like, "which product line do we spend more money on, A or B?" the answers are going to be super obvious, and require no hand work to figure out. everyone is on board now, which makes me happy. makes me feel like i did an adequate job. i still have to the end of the year to tighten everything up and prep for a warehouse inventory, so i'm going to enjoy my time off and relax, i'm way ahead right now.
i did bump eCom training till next year. i'm not building the new website before jan. i haven't even looked at the tools. i'm 100% sure it'll be a wordpress like experience that just integrates a web inventory with our warehouse inventory and all the other junk like purchase orders, shipping, etc, etc. and it doesn't look hard to setup and maintain. i'm just totally not doing that this year. we'll let the old site roll for another month i guess. that and i kinda want to make sure i'm not fucking up our brick-and-mortar before i turn towards the virtual experience. i wish i was smarter, this would be a lot easier if i wasn't a fucking idiot.
also the folks in the office are loving the new reports, there are so many. and you can look at the data in lots of different ways. my boss was cooing today over the category reports which shows total sales by dept and broken into categories. this was something we always estimated. it answers questions like, "which product line do we spend more money on, A or B?" the answers are going to be super obvious, and require no hand work to figure out. everyone is on board now, which makes me happy. makes me feel like i did an adequate job. i still have to the end of the year to tighten everything up and prep for a warehouse inventory, so i'm going to enjoy my time off and relax, i'm way ahead right now.
i did bump eCom training till next year. i'm not building the new website before jan. i haven't even looked at the tools. i'm 100% sure it'll be a wordpress like experience that just integrates a web inventory with our warehouse inventory and all the other junk like purchase orders, shipping, etc, etc. and it doesn't look hard to setup and maintain. i'm just totally not doing that this year. we'll let the old site roll for another month i guess. that and i kinda want to make sure i'm not fucking up our brick-and-mortar before i turn towards the virtual experience. i wish i was smarter, this would be a lot easier if i wasn't a fucking idiot.
squeegee (OP) triple-posted this 9 years ago, 18 hours later, 3 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #744,348
holy shit i slept late today. wtf. i need to go shopping.
squeegee (OP) quadruple-posted this 9 years ago, 5 days later, 3 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #745,712
well, today was a total nightmare. everyone forgot what they learned in "training" so i spent most of the day running around helping people. it was stupid of me to not finish with manuals. so i'm doing that tonight so maybe tomorrow i can get some actual work done. i didn't really accomplish anything today.
The Doctor !7MHPahvoGY joined in and replied with this 9 years ago, 10 hours later, 3 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #745,801
tl;drsqueegee replied with this 9 years ago, 1 day later, 4 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #746,215
when i'm alone at work i like to leave doors open when i go to the bathroom and sometimes i walk into the warehouse and sing madonna's girls just wanna have fun really loudly. i get paid for this.
squeegee (OP) replied with this 9 years ago, 5 days later, 1 month after the original post[^] [v] #747,943
i'm about to get redonkulously high and pass out watching television. i'm going in early tomorrow and i'll be working late for the foreseeable future, it would appear. when this is all over i'm straight up asking for a raise. we've started the big inventory process in the warehouse finally, but it's going to be a nightmare. there's "a way we do it" and it's going to force me at the end of the day to manually update spreadsheets with all current counts to account for any changes during a business day... i'm looking for a way to automate that, but... i don't know how to do that. i'm kinda learning some about spreadsheets though, which is nice i guess. but automating the comparing of two spreadsheets and changing the counts on one based on the counts recorded in another is way over my head.
if anyone happens to know if this is even possible and can point me to a walkthrough that'd be great. but i'm pretty tired, so i'm not sure i even explained something that makes sense. i'm not sure i'm going to survive this. but even if i don't it'll have been worth it to rid that place of facebook fake news.
if anyone happens to know if this is even possible and can point me to a walkthrough that'd be great. but i'm pretty tired, so i'm not sure i even explained something that makes sense. i'm not sure i'm going to survive this. but even if i don't it'll have been worth it to rid that place of facebook fake news.