The Crowned Plovers (Red Legs) have had a happy event. Two of the three eggs have hatched and there are now hungry mouths on the front lawn.
A couple of days ago, Alf, Moira and Myself were sitting around drinking coffee when we noticed that a whole group of Plovers had landed on the front lawn. Twenty to be precise. They just stood about, fluffing feathers and generally being idle. And then they just flew away. We reckon that it was the family coming to hear the eggs cracking. Mom and Pop did not seem particularly disturbed. They saw off one disreputable type that overstayed his welcome, and went back to business as usual.
Yesterday we were alarmed because all the Plovers had disappeared. The nest was empty. Dark thoughts of Hawks and other predators. Glances were cast at Smokey, but he maintained an unruffled calm.
However, this morning we spotted Mom and Pop on walkabout, and following close behind were two very small image copies. Little crowns on the head and all. Amazing that they can run about so soon after hatching.
These little guys are about an inch tall. Mom and Pop are starting to get that desperate look that parents get. Mom gets a little stretched when the kids zip thru the diamond mesh fence and she gets left on the wrong side. Offspring are definitely natures' revenge.
Computers are also Natures' revenge.
I have been doing some cleanup of my files recently and in the process of reorganisation was sifting through my growing pile of Euro clippings.
A rather cold feeling started to assail me. Europe is one our largest trading partners. Our perceptions about Euro are that it is "their" problem. I know of no efforts currently under way to ascertain if we will have to make any adjustments to our systems to accomodate Euro. And I rather suspect that we should be taking a very hard look at it now.
Now the date of Euro implementation seems to be a little vague. Clinton has requested a delay to the original 1999 implementation because of Year 2000 resource conflicts. I remember sitting in the Hilton Hotel in London last March listening to Peter de Jager laying down the law on the absolute need to defer Euro until 2004. To my shame, I was more involved in running over my own talk in my head and was not really paying proper attention.
Recently I was browsing a presentation given by Prof Gerhard Knolmayer of Berne Unversity to a recent Conference. Essentially he was saying that Europe is not as interested in Year 2000 as the US. And one the interesting points he made was that Europeans consider that ERP products such as SAP and BAAN have solved the problem for them.
On the face of it this is relatively true. If you go into the SAP or BAAN websites you are hit on the head with the fact that their products are Year 2000 compliant. It has become a marketing strategy.
For my sins, I have worked on and programmed in both. And although they give you the tools to do so, it is not absolutely inherent in the architecture of either that the correct date must always be used. It has to do with setup and options and programming standards.
If the environment on which SAP or BAAN is running has not been set up to be compliant, then the application suite, and data derived therefrom, will not be. And I am seeing this happen more and more in the marketplace.
If your implementation team is not aware of the implications, and I am discovering that 99% of the SAP and BAAN people that I speak to are not, then you have little hope of installing a compliant solution. If implementation teams insist on installing the packages with two digit year options, they are making a rod for their own backs.
What worries me especially is the mindset of the implementers. When I gently pointed out the problem and indeed make specific suggestions on how they can get it right, I meet absolute denial. They will not even consider the possibility that there could be a problem. Mules are more pliant.
Now I would suggest that the marketing organisations behind SAP and BAAN had better address this issue now, before damage is done. The education process had better be modified rather quickly. The date options must be implemented on initial install, before any data is written to the database. We need specific installation hints and caveats, not marketing hype.
I am seeing SAP being installed on NT 3.5 without Service Pack 5. This is just not going to work. People are attempting to install Logistics within 6 months. Just because a package can be installed in that time does not mean that your organisation is ready to use it.
But, hey, nobody listens to me.