Old tech & new tech

Back when dinosaurs walked the earth, in the days before Windows when DOS and the command line ruled, there was a database language called Clipper. It was a quite powerful language, and zillions of businesses wrote custom programs in Clipper that ran their businesses.

And now, 10 -12 years later, many businesses still run these prehistoric Clipper apps, and often these apps are mission-critical - without them the business would not function. Seriously!

However, with new fast processors and new generations of operating systems, Clipper apps can act oddly or stop running. Windows XP, in particular, doesn’t like DOS apps and may grumpily refuse to run them.

I used to program in Clipper (still do for those that want it) and now have a thriving sub-business converting Clipper apps to Windows. Without the Internet, this business would not exist. Go to Google, and search for “Clipper migration”. My business website appears both as a search return and in the ads on the right hand column.  The ads cost about 10 cents per click-through, in other words they appear for free, and I’m only billed for when someone clicks on the ad. I get steady inquiries from all over the world from these ads and from Google. (I took my own advice, as I also create and manage pay per click ad campaigns)

Which leads to more reasons why the Net is essential for my business. Clients can email me files, I convert them, then email them back. It matters not where they are. Email is handy to keep in touch, however Messenger (whether it be Yahoo, Microsoft or AOL) is even more useful. A few minutes ago I had two Messenger windows open simultaneously, one to a client in London, another to a client in India. We got accomplished in a few minutes what would have taken a few days by email and it’s free.

And another client who found me on Google is just a few miles away, so I can drive there. However, without the Net we’d have never met.

Shameless plugs (from my business website)

Website promotion and design

Clipper to Windows conversion

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From the land of the absurd

Smuckers claims a patent on crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and is vigorously defending it.

They say the patent only applies to businesses and that homemakers are still allowed to make them. How considerate of them.

Does this mean I can patent the tuna fish sandwich, if, say, I make it with green onions and cheddar?

And what if they change their mind about permitting homemakers to make a crustless PB&J sandwich?

“FREEZE GRANNY, drop the sandwich, put your hands behind your back…”

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And this just in

“President Bush praises Prime Minister Blair’s praises of President Bush’s praises of Prime Minister Blair to assembled network photographers.”

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Student mails peace rice to Bush!

And gets pulled out of class and hassled by dimwitted police unable to identify a packet of rice as being just that.

“Sarah Gobbs was halfway through a three-hour chemistry lab Tuesday afternoon when Montana State University Police officers pulled her out of class.

They wanted information about a letter addressed to President George W. Bush she had mailed that morning on campus.

The letter contained a small amount of uncooked rice and a note with a Bible passage about feeding one’s enemies.”

Better not toss rice at the next wedding you are at…

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Synchronicity

From CounterPunch

“As we are on the precipice of a war with Iraq, the whole Arab world screams that it is not Iraq but America’s relationship with Israel and the Palestinian crisis that is the root cause of all Arab anti-American sentiment and certainly all terrorism. Suddenly the Columbia crashes with an Israeli astronaut over George Bush’s home state as debris rains down on ‘Palestine, Texas’.”

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