johnph77's Blog

Retrofit complete, printed. Neater, more compact appearance to the printouts and web pages. Spot checks indicate everything went as planned, although second phase will provide a more complete check. Only a couple of errors found, corrected. Went faster than planned. Progress to continue.

Halfway point of the first phase reached, retrofitting well underway, going well, less time involved than originally anticipated. Guarded optimism.

When the retro is complete the printed output I have on hand will be discarded and redone - about 140 pages of 4 point results will go through the printer. I feel like I'm writing a book, and that may be the case. Things are looking up.

Templates redone as well. Looking forward to the future of all this - it's a massive job.

Finished a surprising 3rd of 17 in Charlotte - surprising since the first three games took us south. We never bothered to check the scores after that. Third place was a shock. The tournament format works for us, though, given the style of our play.

Didn't get much work done while away - very little time. But got reminded while gone just how much of my time the project has taken since its inception - I need to take a few days off from it to square away some of the details in my personal life. I expect to do so as soon as I can reach the halfway point. Some web pages I maintain are in serious need of updating, some personal projects need work - I need a break. In any event, though, my outlook is still on the up side - all goes reasonably well.

Transportation snags delayed homecoming three hours, but some others were delayed six hours. Curcumstances out of their control and absolutely nothing they could do about it.

I'll be home for four weeks then it'll be back on the road again.

Home until Tue. Detroit tournament results soso - got the most from what we were dealt, which wasn't much.

Forgot project paperwork - save for some template demos to be incorporated sometime in the future not much got done, but really didn't have a lot of time to work on much anyway.

First phase is 45% complete, but doubt if the halfway point will be reached before I depart for Charlotte NC Tue. AM. I'm planning on reaching that point, then retrofitting some mods to the existing base. Those mods wil reduce template and printout file sizes. Whatever happens, the amount of paperwork that will have to be shipped is growing and will continue to do so until funding is approved, hopefully in September.

Recovery from spreadsheet loss complete - a lot of hard work and hours. I'll be cleared for departure to Detroit Tuesday AM.

Have approved change order to contract which will double the size of output, but not completely double the work needed to produce it. New requirement will produce another error trap - a good thing.

Still not submitting entire package to client until funding is squared away but work continues. Taking work with me on the laptop. See you all on return next Wednesday.

While saving one of the project spreadsheets there was a power outage - lost the entire sheet, since the way spreadsheets are saved is that the previous file is deleted then the modified file saved. 74Mb spreadsheet with almost 40,000 data entries - all down the tubes. Now working on restoration, will take almost all the time between now and departure Tuesday.

Other than that, the project goes well. The first phase is over 40% complete. and the results are in line with expectations. The restoration is going very well. Detroit-bound Tuesday.                               gla.

Project progressing, going well - over 30% complete on the first phase. Did some upgrades on printouts - nice, if I do say so myself. Corrected some minor errors, back to the main task tomorrow. Results are in line with expectations.

Will be away a good part of next month - tournament time. As usual, taking work along.

A hard weekend. Hosted throughout. Then homeward connections got fouled up and was five hours late getting in. What with work and hosting, there was very little time or energy to do anything else.

Found the time to win a few bucks at video poker, but that was about it for anything gaming-related. I'll take today off, then back to the mines Wednesday.

Off to Las Vegas later this AM for a long weekend and tournament. Have no idea whether I'm hosting, co-hosting or playing and won't find out until Friday evening.

Completed work generated on laptop while I was away and started new sections. First part of project is almost 20% complete but nothing has been uploaded and won't be until and unless client's current financial integrity is established. He understands and is pleased with progress.

Working on NY Lotto Extra. I have reason to believe there are errors in their web page regarding odds but I have to do some programming in order to be absolutely sure.

Home. A little unsatisfied with how the WA tournament went. I made some hosting errors which will be corrected next September. Finished 9th of 35 at Cleveland - got almost everything the cards gave us. Good tournament.

Generated enough work on the laptop while away to keep me busy at home for a while - I'll do more work generation when I go to Las Vages the weekend after next. That may be an interesting situation, not all in my favor. We'll see. After that I'll be home for almost a month.

Time to hit the tournament trail again. Underway tomorrow AM for Centralia WA, where I'm co-hosting, then Cleveland OH. Away for two weeks, back for one, then a long weekend in Las Vegas.

The project goes reasonably well; first phase about 10% complete. Received a change order early last week which involved going back through all the files previously generated and changing data pointers. Finished the mod far sooner than expected, all going well. I'll take some work with me.

See ya all in a couple of weeks - gl.

Has it been that long since I've posted here?  Wow! Been busy.

Received word that the project I worked on for so long last year is good enough, but the person in charge is moving on to another position and taking it with him. Then he contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in working with him on an expanded version - I said "Yes." He gave me the details. It'll involved more work, more pages, more databases and, of course, more time, but a longer deadline. I also won't see any payment until at least September, but I can deal with that - I'll do the work, but withhold the files. I'll have more responsibility for the successful completion of it, but that's fine with me. Negotiating the contract as I speak.

In the meantime the new spreadsheets are being developed, the new databases are set, forms made, all that good stuff. Total length of time will be at least 1-1/2 years, and I won't take any new work on until it's close to completion. The good news is there'll be less outside interference on this one.

In the meantime, everything else I've been working on has been more or less on hold. It's important to me that everything be at least 99% right from the start, as it'll save time later.

Back to the mines.....

Sleepless night, so spent time completing the Lottery Formulas, Possibilities and Odds Page, complete with bonus ball games for all matrices from 2/2 to 7/100. Finished much faster than anticipated.

Will take a couple of days off, then go back to updating Keno pages for a while.

Updated Lottery Formulas, Possibilities and Odds Page with bonus ball matrices fron 2/2 to 7/60. Now almost all of the lottery games in operation today are covered. Completion should take place before the end of next weekend. Going well.

Spent last weekend in a tournament in Las Vegas. Didn't get any cards, but played well. Had a great time. Collected info for the Keno site and a Keno forum I moderate. Did very little work, so it was truly a recreational weekend.