Dispatches from the Trenches

The tips below will make your experience on a Terminal Server session a little snappier.  The database and the programs aren't really running faster, but it sure feels that way when they start up.

1. As an administrator on the terminal server, go to Control Panel/System/Advanced, click Settings, and select "Adjust for best Performance".  It turns off all the silly slides and animations and shadows.  I use this setting on all my systems, including my laptop.  Animations are fine for games, but they don't help your business.  Don't get me started on Vista again....

2. In the Accpac ASxxxA\ENG folder, where xx is your version like 53, 54, or 55, look for IMAGE1.JPG and IMAGE2.JPG and delete them.  You'll lose the pretty blue "A" backgrounds, but if you're connecting to the terminal server on a DSL or slower connection, the Accpac logon screens will load much faster.

3. This last one takes a little work, but is worth it.  Once you've seen one splashscreen, you've seen them all.  For each user who logs in, you need to add this registry key:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ACCPAC INTERNATIONAL, INC.\ACCPAC\DESKTOP]
"splashscreen"="no"

You can do it three different ways:

a). Login as each user, run Regedit, and add the string value "splashscreen" set to "no" as in the key above.

b). Put the lines above into a text file with an REG extension, then start Accpac from a batch file instead of running Accpac.Exe.  Assuming you put the REG file into the same folder as Accpac, the batch file would look something like this:

@echo off

d:

cd \Accpac\Programs\Runtime

regedit /s nosplash.reg

start Accpac.exe

c). Add the REG file to the Accpac Startup folder, either on its own, or with another simple batch file containing "regedit /s nosplash.reg".

It's been a couple decades since I got my BA in Economics.  So I'll admit, I'm probably a little rusty on some of the concepts.  But what happened to me this weekend made me wonder how much I've forgotten.

On Saturday evening, our DVD player died.  No big deal, it cost only $30 two years ago at one of those "first 50 people of the morning" Walmart sales.  So, Sunday morning, I went back to Walmart.  This time I went really wild and upgraded to the $38 model.  I had to ask the clerk if it came with a remote, it was so cheap.

When I got it home, not only did it have a remote, the remote came with batteries.  And it even came with a cable to hook to the TV.  It ran great.  All this for $38 (plus tax).  I love this new economy!  My only complaint was that it had an HDMI connector (which is for High Def pictures), but not an HDMI cable.  No problem, in the afternoon I went over to the nearest electronics discounter to get the flavor of cable for my TV.

You could probably guess how much the cable was.  $45.  My jaw dropped.  I don't get it.  There's something wrong with having an incredibly complex box of electronics (and a remote and a battery and instructions in three languages) cost less then 5 feet of copper wire and some plastic wrapping.   So no, I didn't purchase the cable.   I'm not sure if I'm being principled or cheap.

Many times on the technical forums I've seen postings like "my client was doing his nightly backup, and the Dbdump failed with error number etc., etc.".  The error is typically something silly like a hard drive that's filled up, but that's not the point here.

Don't use Dbdumps for scheduled backups. Why?

First, it takes longer to Dbdump it than to either copy it or use a commercial backup program. 

Second, when you Dbload it, it can take 5 to 30 times longer than to just copy or restore. 

Third, when you Dbload your data, you lose an important feature that a forensic data analysis needs - Accpac ERP's hidden audit fields.  As you should know, every time any record in any table is updated, these audit fields get the user, date, and time of the latest update.  I can't tell you how many times this has helped me solve arguments about "who added that invoice?", or "who changed the description of that account?".

The one exception to this rule is if you use your Dbdumps for offline analysis, like one of my big publicly traded clients does.  After each month-end close, they dbdump the data, then dbload it into a "month-end" company.  This lets them continue normal processing, while being able to analyse the financial and operational numbers at the exact point of month-end.

There may be other exceptions to this rule, I'm open to suggestions.

Two of my kids and I are left-handed, so it kind of makes sense that we would use a left-handed mouse at my house.  But my wife is strongly right-handed, and she only started using the mouse left-handed because she was tired of flipping it back and forth over the keyboard.

The other day we were chatting about her day at work, and she told me how nobody in the office likes to use her computer.  

"Why?", I asked. 

"Because my mouse is on the left side"

"Wait a minute, you're right-handed".

"Yeah, but I got used to it the other way.  And you know what?  Some things are faster now that I can use both hands at the same time.  Like typing numbers into Excel with the numeric keypad and my right hand, and moving and clicking the mouse with my left.  Kind of like playing a piano.  And you know what's even better?"

"No, what".

"Everybody stays off from my computer!"

It's been almost two years since Vista was released to the public, and according to Microsoft, it's the best and safest and coolest version of Windows ever.

So, I need a show of hands - how many of you are using it at work?  C'mon, don't be shy.  Anybody?

You there in the back, why are you using Vista?

"Um, it came installed on my PC".

"Well, do you like it?"

"It's OK, I guess.  It's lots prettier, that transparent window thing is pretty cool".

"Anthing else?"

"I like the new clock."

"Has it made you more productive?"

"I don't know, I mostly just use Excel and Word.  I guess it's about the same."

"So, is anybody else in the office using Vista?  Anybody?"

Not in my world, they're not.  We've only had one client that moved all of their PCs to Vista.  Their next purchase was a terminal server for all their people to use, because their accounting system (Accpac ERP, of course), the PBX, and the plant security systems didn't run on Vista.  In the succeeding two years, Accpac ERP has been upgraded to run OK, but the other two haven't, so they still need their terminal server.  Cost of hardware and software to upgrade 30 PCs to Vista?  Around $60,000, and that doesn't include the user's time wasted learning the new screens.  Benefits?  $0.

Don't get me wrong, Vista is good for some people.  Like my daughter, she's a sophomore at an art college, she needs all the fancy stuff.

But not me, I work for a living.  Auto companies understand this.  Some people need pickup trucks, some people want sports cars.  Why doesn't Microsoft understand this?