Wednesday again

[altivo]

Day started with a visit from the sheep vet. We don't see him too often, but we had a lame ewe. She's been gimping about for at least a couple of weeks. At first I thought it was just cold weather and arthritis-like symptoms, since she's the oldest one we have. Then I considered that she might have slipped on the ice and sprained or strained something. When the weather warmed, she seemed to be improving, but this week it suddenly was much worse so we called for an expert. He says she has a split hoof, with effects similar to having a hangnail if you are a human. Gave her an antibiotic, prescribed a painkiller, and said just make sure she walks on it a little bit daily and it will heal after a while.

Meeting in Rockford this afternoon. Being the rebel group, we are now almost detached from the rest of what goes on there, but in the structure of the state's library system, we are still members of the Big Messed Up Consortium even if we do not choose to participate in their online catalog. We were having such a good time, with laughter and much amusement during our meeting, that someone came and shut the door. ;p It has gotten to be a really gloomy place over there, I can understand why they might not appreciate us. Also learned today that I was absolutely correct in my predictions at the end of last year. SirsiDynix, the company whose software we rejected, was bought out by a larger conglomerate. I predicted that their library software product would be frozen and no new releases would be forthcoming. That's exactly what was announced today. So all those libraries who went like lemmings and agreed to be switched to that product are moving to a dead end system.

(I've often said I should change my name to Cassandra. My predictions are usually correct, and rarely believed.)

Had to work late, as usual for Wednesday. The beautiful, warm weather brought lots of people into the building this afternoon, but it chilled down and started drizzling this evening, so things were pretty much dead. Just as well. I'm still not getting enough sleep due to this cold, though it finally seems to be loosening up.

Comments

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Aw, poor sheep. Here's hoping she gets better real soon.

As for SirsiDynix... sigh. What can one say.... A few weeks ago, someone at work told me the software was going to be frozen like that. That can't be a good sign.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, not a good sign at all. But it's all part of an ongoing decline that's been in the works since the early 90s. In 1993 I was still working for NOTIS Systems and I could see it happening there. I struggled and fought to get management to see the blind alley they were heading down but they just would not listen to me. In spring of '94 I jumped ship to Columbia College and in June, actually while the ALA convention was in progress, Ameritech purged the leadership of NOTIS and put the company under Dynix control, freezing all development and essentially destroying the product line. Horizon, which was in beta at the time, was junked and replaced with an already existing Dynix product, Marquis, that they just renamed and marketed as NOTIS Horizon.

A few years later, Dynix took over DRA, with a similar chilling effect. DRA's Taos product never made it to market. (I predicted that one too, alas. The ILCSO group, of which Columbia was a member, had contracted to purchase Taos. When the delivery date kept slipping, they settled for DRA Classic instead. Taos was stillborn, and ILCSO ended up going through a double migration, first onto DRA Classic and then off the product a few years later because Dynix completely trashed the DRA product lines.)

Dynix then gobbled up Sirsi, though they left the product line intact for a couple of years. The writing was on the wall though. Not a high enough profit margin, pricing too low, it was bound to be killed off. I kept pointing this history out to the Big Messed Up Consortium but they were so enamored of the low pricing (never mind that Unicorn is out of date and feature poor) that they wouldn't listen. Well, now the prophecy is fulfilled and they are migrating to a dead product. Serves them right, their own management style fits the Dynix mold perfectly.

All this is a natural progression of placing capitalism before service ideals. Libraries are, by their very nature, socialist institutions. They can't function on a capitalist model. I don't see why that is so difficult to understand, but it seems that people just don't get it.

At the moment, Innovative still seems to be in fiscal health. But even if that is true, they are probably inviting a hostile takeover themselves just by being healthy. Such is the corrupt nature of the beast.

Do I have x-ray vision or something that I see these things coming? I dunno. It really is a curse, though, being so sure of what I see and not being able to get anyone to listen or believe.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Poor Ewe!

As for the workish stuff.

*chomps a cigar*

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?

*Librarian A-Team theme*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMjmyv1rNJ8

*substitute your own prediciment for theirs in
the clip*

XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, only even this peaceful old Clyde was starting to have an itchy trigger finger. There are some folks in that organization who really never would be missed.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

*hands you a plasma rifle and gets you a game
controller and UT 04*

XD

[farhoug.livejournal.com]

Awws, hangnails are not fun... and a split hoof sounds even less fun. Hopefully the critter gets well soon.

Well, hopefully the BMUCers stuck to the dead system will get at least a nominal discount for the new SirsiDynix product some day, when that company starts going through their customer base for new potential sources of income. Though I guess they'd do better if they followed you rebels... =)

I guess there isn't much in the open source market for that purpose and on that scale of infrastructure these days?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There is one open source system, called "Georgia Pines" or GAPines that was developed for the library system in the State of Georgia. I've looked at it, and it definitely has promise but it's barely out of beta and appears to be missing a lot of features we really are used to having. Think of where Linux was ten or so years ago... That's where they are now. In five years, they'll be a contender I think. The libraries in Georgia are already using it.

[farhoug.livejournal.com]

I guess it's called "Evergreen" these days? Anyways, looks pretty impressive already, it certainly does more tricks than the one at the local library here.

I'd think that open source system would be quite suitable for library environments, though it would require a sturdy system for user support and training, which isn't quite yet the strongest points of open source community... heh, I guess no one really likes making documentation anyways, especially the coders. =)

But yep, I'm sure in five years things start looking better. ^^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're right, it's been a couple of months since I looked at it. Evergreen is the software name, GAPines is the Georgia system that uses it.

We briefly considered it here as an option, but there is so little documentation available that I shyed away. And that even though I'm a long time Linux user and would love to go with it.

As far as writing documentation goes, I did that for a living at one time. I don't mind writing the stuff, but I hate twisting the coders' arms to get them to give me the information I need. I also hate being paid peanuts for doing it because management thinks no one reads the manual anyway. It's a very exacting and difficult job. I cranked out about five volumes, each several hundred pages in length and complete with indexes during the two years I worked in that department. Then I moved to quality control, for much better pay but still an extremely thankless job. ;p

[farhoug.livejournal.com]

I've written a couple of small instruction documents myself, well knowing that no one will ever read them anyway. I wouldn't mind it really if the pay was right though, and I'd get proper time and peace to dabble with the systems.
And it's emergencies usually when the documentation would be needed anyways, Meaning, when the usual guy on the other end of the phone line isn't around. For a couple of weeks. =)

I wonder where all the open source documenters are... maybe they've thought that since the source code is available, anyone can find out the necessary information there. Or they can always call someone. =)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Most of the open source code I've actually looked at is far from helpful.

I think the trouble with doing documentation for open source is that you have a target that moves faster than you can write. Development proceeds continuously, and releases happen at any time. Controlled projects with release dates are more conducive to documentation because you know when it will come out and what it will look like at that point. The documentation is developed alongside the code (or should be.) What documentation we get for open source is often written after the software is released. By the time the documentation is mature, the software has already moved on and no longer matches it.

[zachary-geminus.livejournal.com]

What's kinda sad is that I caught the Cassandra reference right off the bat.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, I feel pretty superior about it these days. I've been right so many times that I'm probably due for a crash. ;D

(I really do like that icon.)