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'The Electronic
Newsletter For Users
Volume XI #10 |
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Happy Anniversary Suntower Systems!
It was twenty four years ago this week that
four guys from Ireland started all this. So, as has become
something of a tradition here, we're once again offering our annual Customer
Loyalty Rewards to all you wonderful customers as a way to say 'Thank you!' for
partnering with us lo these many years.!
Effective immediately, your business will receive a credit equal to $100 for every year you've been a registered user of Simple Accounting (up to $500). Use it as you will. At the least, it will buy your company a custom report that might shave an hour or two off a particular clerical task every month (and how much is that worth). At most (and you know who you are, you swell people!) it might pay for an entire year's with of technical support or a SAFExtensions module (like the very cool PDFExtensions which let you print or e-mail any SAFE Report or Form directly to an Acrobat PDF).
OK, Here's The Fine
Print.
1. You may use the Program Discount towards any SAFExtension, custom programming
or forms design we offer.
2. The discount may not be used on any invoices billed prior to May 15, 2009.
3. You must take advantage of your discount by June 30, 2009.
4. You can pre-pay if you like for specific work to be scheduled with this discount, but you can't just send in a check to be used 'on account'.
5. This offer POSITIVELY ends JUNE 30th, 2009. That's IT!
6. Now here's the latest curve. You may also use this credit towards your next Remote Support Subscription as long as you show proof of purchase of an upgrade to SQL Server 2008 before your next RSS subscription is due and before 12/31/09. In other words, if you purchase your upgrade to SQL Server 2008, either from us or anyone else, before December 31, 2009 you can take the amount of your eligible discount off of your next annual RSS invoice (whenever that occurs from May 15 2009 to May 14 2010.)
Wherever you fall within the spectrum of SAFE longevity, please accept this as a token of our appreciation. Thanks, and, as they say, 'Many More!'
FAQ's
1. I don't want to purchase SQL Server 2008 at this time. Can I
use the credit towards RSS anyway. Nope.
2. Can I wait until closer to my RSS renewal date to upgrade to SQL Server 2008? Sure. But your paid invoice for SQL Server must be dated and submitted after May 15 and December 31 2009.
Til Next Time!
SAFE XI: Tips To Optimize
'Goggle Search'
The new Combined
Query Window/Locator we've put in many browse windows has recently been given
the much shorter nickname 'Goggle' by some of our customers. Apparently this a
take-off on the ubiquitous search engine which somehow seems to intuit
what you're looking for without your having to specify how to do it. We take
that as a compliment! But like all new things, it helps to understand how the
magic happens in order to get the best results. Here are tips and traps which
you can use (or avoid!) to get your results as quickly as possible.
When you type in a piece of data (say a date in the Sales Order Browse) the search will try to guess what you're looking for. If you enter a date field, the search will begin by checking all date fields in the table. So if you type 05/01/09 the top hits will be those orders invoiced or entered or shipped on May 1. If what you were really looking for was actually part of a sales note, that will appear at the bottom of the list and will likely take a lot longer to return. So, if what you are looking for might be in a non-obviously place, using Goggle Search may not be your best option.
The Goggle Search works way, way, way faster on columns in the browse. Taking the date field from the last example, the top results (and the fastest results) will always be those results which could be found in the browse (ie. sales orders shipped or ordered or invoiced on 05/01/09.) If you are looking for orders which were entered on May 1st, Goggle Search may not be your best option. In that case, a straight query will probably work faster.
The Goggle Search like hints! If you have already sorted on a date field (such as Ship Date), entering 05/01/09 will give Goggle Search a big hint that the most likely results would be orders shipped on 05/01/09. In this example, the orders shipped on 05/01/09 would appear at the top.
Always first try Goggle Search without the 'Deep Search' box checked! If you insist on checking this box, you're asking SAFE to check all fields in the table and all related tables. And that could take a while! In the above example, if you enter 05/01/09 with this box checked, you are asking SAFE to check not only all fields in the Sales Order table, but also any fields that may related to it, such as date fields in the Customer and Vendor tables. That's what makes Goggle Search magical--it's ability to find things across tables. But that also means it has so many more places to look for your stuff. And if you are already somewhat sure of where your stuff is? It's wasted effort.
Always select the 'Exact Match?' box whenever possible. Again, it cuts down on the magic but it also makes the results appear faster and in a more targeted way. With the above date example, if you enter 05/01/09 and leave this box unchecked, Goggle Search will need to guess the window of dates you are looking for. A week before and a week after? A month? Or just a day? Goggle Search will base it's guess on your previous searches, but, in the case of a date, that may or may not be all that helpful.
SUMMARY
At first it may seem that there
are a lot of caveats with Goggle Search. Not really. But it's important
to recognise that it was never meant to be a replacement for the Locator. Most
of the time you know what you're looking for and where to look for it. And for
such case, using the Locator will always be the fastest method. What we tried to
do was give you a way to handle those situations where you know what you want,
but not precisely where it may be found. In that case, Goggle Search will get
you what you need in one go, albeit a bit slower than the Locator, but still
many times faster than the old approach of searching for what you're looking for
in several places. If anything, the above demonstrates that the most important
choice in using Goggle Search is knowing when to use it over the Locator. In the
proper context, Goggle Search can literally save hours per week of hunting for
obscure (but necessary) bits of information which we all bury in our data.
Til Next Time!
Reminder: Upgrade Your Firefox!
Many (if not most of
you) are now using Firefox, as it has time and time again shown itself to be far
more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. However, we also know that many
of you are still using older versions (version 2.) If so, you should ugprade to
version 3.0.10 (the latest version) immediately. Recent results from several
security firms confirm that there are a number of hackers 'in the wild' who have
successfully compromised networks via Firefox 2 exploits ('in the wild' means
these are not controlled tests or theoretical explots; these are confirmed cases
where bad people have succeeded in doing bad things to real victims. The current
vulnerabilities range from grabbing passwords of unsuspecting users to illicit
file transfers.) At this point, there is no reason to continue using the older
versions as Firefox 3 has proven it's stability and security. You can get the
latest version of Firefox here. www.mozilla.com
Til Next Time!
Ciaran's
Corner: 24
Maybe I watched
Jack Bauer torture too many guys, but the number 24 now seems significant to me.
I never thought I'd be here this long. Frankly, it's amazing to me that any
software continues on so long. How many companies of any size are still
rolling along in this business? Remember Lotus? Ashton Tate? WordPerfect?
Digital? Those were all big deals when I joined Suntower Systems in 1989.
Most of the time, I'm quite the curmudgeon here. I am sarcastic about everyone. My company. The industry. You. But all crankiness aside, I want to take a moment to shed all that and show my appreciation for what I have. Given my constant state of crankiness, this may seem fairly disingenuous, servile or self-serving. Nevertheless, fair is fair and there is much to be grateful for.
I look at all the changes going on in the world these days and I have to shake my head at the uncertainty of it all. I am told that there isn't a single Nobel Laureate in economics who's theories have stood a real test of time. Are there any companies that have stayed at the top of the heap for more than a few decades? Even GM, that previously unshakable rock of American manufacturing is headed for bankruptcy.
When I first joined up I was quite disappointed with the company strategy of slow growth. The founders were fairly adamant about simply trying to provide a fair and sustainable living for all us 'partners'. But they kept their word. I probably haven't made the short term money I would've made at a faster paced company. But I never had to re-locate, I never had to search for a job, and I never had lost a night's sleep worrying about my working future, or my retirement...unless I wanted to, of course. Now, as I've hit middle age that doesn't sound like such a bad deal.
Maybe my aspirations seem pretty 'working stiff' to some, but to me, there's a lot to be said for the stability I've experienced. We market a product that, above all things, needs to be stable, so it makes sense to me that the guiding strategy was to make the company itself stable. I dunno if my partners were quite that far sighted (and I'd never let them know if I did think so... no need giving anyone a swollen head, right?) But now I begin to see the wisdom in keeping things Simple.
If that last sentence seems like a horrible pun and just ruins any sincerity you may have felt in what I've written? My apologies. I meant every last syrupy word of appreciation. But not to worry--I'll be back in full flame next time.
Cheers!
Ciarān Marron
Technical Support Manager
cm@suntowersystems.com
End of E-News From The Suntower, Volume XI #10
