Throughout all you endeavors keep good company

 25 years ago a particular sort of woman sat in the front row of  my Manage 2000 Development Tools programming class and asked an inordinate number of questions; starting with obvious issues and working into arcane detail.  I made it my mission to answer ALL of her questions, and 25 years later I am still not done!

Some of you may know that particular sort of woman as Linda McHenry; who has been my sidekick through thick and thin ever since.  We have taught, learned, laughed, cried, trouble shot, developed and presented together for over two decades.  When not solving Manage 2000 custom development puzzles, Linda is assembling jig saw puzzles, solving Sodoku puzzles, or playing her part in one of 5 or more community bands.  There is also the small matter of the QPR, the extremely organized and detailed cubbies that make up her Quilting Project Room. Linda IS the Master Patterner of Earthsea.  

So when I started to think about getting back to the work I began as a member of ROI Systems Custom Code group, Linda was the first person who came to my mind as good company to keep on this journey.

We intend to have fun.  We intend to build useful extensions to Manage 2000. And we intend to keep good company.

We hope you will be part of our good company.

Times they are a changin'

After 37 years working on Manage 2000 I have decided to ease back to ½ time. For 20 hours each week I will continue to fix treasures, perform maintenance on Manage 2000, and assist our great helpline folks. That will give me 20 hours a week to devote to personal pursuits.

I started out working on Manage 2000 in the custom code department, sometimes called Special Client Services. It was a small group including Teri Scheper, Warren Jacobsen, and Lane Johnson.

The year was 1987.  It was the third day of August, a warm cloudy Monday with a passing thunderstorm.

We worked on ADP 40 terminals wired into an Altos minicomputer and delivered customization to client computer systems by way of a cantankerous communication batch processor named The Magic Bus.

Yes, life was different then. It was the time of Castlevania and Zelda. Michael Jackson was Bad, Whitney Houston was Whitney, and U2 was up the Joshua Tree. Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The Twins defeated the Cardinals four games to three to win the Series. Twins pitcher Frank Viola was named as the 1987 World Series MVP.

The radio introduced us to "Walk Like an Egyptian", "The Way It Is", and "Livin' on a Prayer".

Important debuting cultural works included "The Princess Bride", "Spaceballs", and "Predator".

And we were all captivated by the baby Jessica McClure rescue saga unfolding in Midland, Texas where at the age of 18 months she fell down a well and was trapped. Rescuers worked for 58 hours straight in order to rescue the child. And all three networks covered every hour.

I was oblivious to most of this due to the sleep deprivation that accompanied our first child. That and the mental distortion of stepping onto the ROI Systems juggernaut named Manage 2000.

Ben has been an architect for the last decade.  Michael is a mechanical engineer.  Matthew does some kind of underwriting voodoo that keeps health insurance solvent.

Now I need to take some time to meet the next generation and watch the magic happen again without the sleep deprivation.

I also hope that some of you may want to invite me back to my custom code days to work on projects of value to your organization.  

I am particularly excited about REST and web services in and out of Manage 2000 8.1.  There can be magic here too.   Excel integration with Ribbon components that are aware of Manage 2000 and directly pull/validate data.  PWS functions that read and post directly to FEDEX or UPS REST services.  Integration projects that let other software in your network leverage Manage 2000 data and processes. 

Time to semi-retire and start having more fun.

Wish me luck!