[Babase] conference call summary 23 June 2004

Stephanie Combes babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:46:53 -0400


My Dear Babasers,

  It is with great shame and embarrassment that I hereby document my 
forgetfulness.  Yes, team, I forgot conference call time and didn't call 
until 1:30.  Oh the shame; a bitter pill to swallow. Rest assured that such 
forgetfulness won't happen again!  I sit here with head hung, chocolate bar 
in hand and Elvis playing to get me through the hard times.  I feel 
stronger already.  But enough bad news.  Let's move on to happier things.

  First, Steph successfully (once she remembered!) conference called 
everyone! woohoo! It was our first proper conference call in quite awhile. 
And let me tell you, it is SO much easier to keep everyone filled in with 
one group call.

  OK, now the real update and news ("Finally!" Susan is probably thinking. 
Speaking of my missing commander-in-chief - congrats on bringing baby 
Teresa home!!).

Focus, Steph.  The news:
1) We are really ready to begin the test runs of the conversion process! 
(Perhaps this calls for another chocolate bar?!).   Steph temporarily 
booted Daphne off of her computer and downloaded the latest babase.  Karl 
then, post conference call, began stepping (ha! inadvertently typed 
"stephing" there!) Steph through the process.  And it is here that I must, 
once again, digress.  BUT, it is a babase digression and therefore worth 
reading!

Steph attempting the conversion program:  I went through the motions and 
typed all of the mysterious commands that are the key to this process.  And 
wow, did I get strange stuff scrolling up my screen! Almost every ling says 
something along the lines of "fatal: cannot open file...(No such file or 
directory)."  This is rather perplexing to me.  But, in an effort to try 
everything, I attempted to move on a bit with the process.  A rather 
fortunate decision, since it became clear that I did not have a password 
for the database server here at Duke (Just when you thought there were no 
more servers/computers/passwords that could possibly be needed!!!). So, up 
to Hunter's office I went.  45 minutes and many UNIX stories and histories 
later, I emerged with a password! (and some helpful hints on how to get 
into help files on unix).  SO, the long and short of this particular 
digression is that I think I have the access I need, but I still don't 
really understand the mystery lines on my screen.  They don't resemble what 
Karl had showed me previously.  Sigh.  Help Karl!

Back on track:
2)  Steph will eventually need access to Daphne's computer in Princeton in 
order to enter the corrections.  Since Daphne didn't trust our lot, she had 
to change the password to something she doesn't use as often for everything 
else she possibly needs a password.  I would type the new password here, 
but that's a no-no.  And since I don't know how to make these emails 
self-destruct once read, everyone will just have to rely on memory or 
whispered conversations in darkened alleys.

Whew! I think I'm done now.  That was a long one! But not long enough to 
outlast my 22 song Elvis CD!

Until our prompt 1 o'clock call next week!
Yours in babase,
steph