very busy here

[Guest guest]

Boy....what a week last week. Good thing I still have the massage gift

certificate that my husband gave me at Christmas!!!

We installed new TLETS computer equipment. This was necessary since Texas DPS

is changing over to satellite communications instead of

landlines. Our old SNA software was not compatible, PLUS the controller card

was 12 years old and survived a lightening strike and a move to a

new computer. It was beginning to conk out on us at odd times. Time for the

new.....

However, there is something to be said for MS DOS programs. We are running

Windows NT on this computer (even though it's a stand alone

computer). We got a cool automatic switch that allows us to connect two

monitors,keyboards and mice (meeses? mouses?) that can be used

sorta simultaneously. (The other dispatcher can really mess with the entry

dispatcher!) So the problem(s)? The satellite runs about 1 second

slower than the landline. I was under the impression that satellite

communications was supposed to be faster than the ole landlines.

Also, the printer is spooling before it spits out any info. This can be a wait

of anywhere from 7 to 20 seconds after the print icon shows in the

system tray. Now my administrators say....So What? Well, we know how seconds

can add up when you are making multiple queries. We

make printouts of every thing we run. (Our TLETS isn't connected through our

CAD.) And the officers like to have paper returns to look at. So

our network guy is looking into things that *may* fix this problem. Has anyone

had this same problem - and solved it? Changing the printer

properties to print directly to the printer does not help.

On the same day, our network guy upgraded our dispatch 1 position computer to

Windows NT. This required formatting the harddrive, which got

rid of a bunch of junk that was clogging it up. But since we have been full up,

I haven't had a chance to get on that computer and fix my

bookmarks, desktop and other such needed items.

Also, we are gearing up to try out our beta test CAD program. Yes, this is the

same one I was griping about last year. We still aren't on line with

it. We are training the dispatchers all over on this yesterday and today. A

tentative on-line date is June 1st. Records will be running only on this

system beginning June 1st, so we HAVE to know how to access the information

there. The programmer had been spending most of his time

fixing the records portion, and put CAD on the back burner. Plus, it was

crashing all the time. Well, now it doesn't crash as much - at least in

CAD, but there are still some bugs that have to be fixed. Plus we have some new

people that aren't quite sure what this new program can do for

us. But at least two of our newbies have worked with HTE CAD system at another

agency and are familiar with how it should work.

*whew* I need a vacation.......

annette hallmark

tamu pd