Moving rapidly along

... as I do think we should, here is the latest, hot-breaking news from the employment front: There isn't any.

The Münsters are still farting about struggling to make up their minds. The job is unlikely to start before October, which means November really because I'll be in Canada for two weeks in mid-month and it hardly makes sense to work a week and then leave for two. I'd forget all that I'd acquired during that initial week-long induction phase.

Ageing Yuppie is considering the possibility of recalling me to Hamburg for another session, nothing definite and certainly no dates and times. If it does come to pass, he will call on a Saturday morning to ask whether I could start on the following Monday. Fine.

One of Princess' colleagues mailed me a few documents in German and asked whether I could translate them to English: sure, why not. Replied with a price which I thought reasonable, she agreed in principle but now wants only the two shortest pieces done.

The database enters a new and exciting phase of problem-finding, as the first customers switch to Windows Vista. Apparently, something in the database makes Vista's implementation of the Windows Explorer crash, rendering the computer pretty damned useless (not that Windows is ... ah, skip it). De-install the database, and WE runs again properly. Damn and blast.

My only solace is that there are several programmes which trigger this crash, all of which work perfectly under Windows XP. The logical inference would be that Vista is at fault, not the programmes, but that doesn't help when the customer says "everything worked just fine until I installed your programme." (I then inquire, "what does work?" and get the reply "Ah, well, I haven't actually installed any software yet, and my files are all still on the old computer." Presumably, the customer means that the power-on button lights up when he presses it.)

What makes this even worse is that there's no solution. I am still using the previous version of the database toolkit (programming environment), which is no longer under development and not certified to work with Vista, therefore this problem will not be addressed by the makers of the toolkit. Upgrading to the newest version would cost me 5600 Euros, which I don't have—and would not even guarantee success! According to colleagues who do use the newest version, it too occasionally crashes Vista, although it's certified to run. What a mess.

We Mac users really are pampered beyond the wildest dreams of you poor Win-Victims.