Am I wrong to be upset by this?

[SphereGuy]

I'm not a programmer, just the IT/Network guy so my job mainly is to make sure all the users can access the programs and if there is a problem beyond that I usually refer back to the programmers. We are a charity and as such we have to use many state provided programs which, unfortunately, are mostly done by the lowest bidder or the boss's nephew or were written for Windows 3.1. We also have to deal with extremely high levels of security because if some state senator read about some program being hacked, well, we have to be prepared for ten times that.

Anyway, there is a web-based program one of users is required to use and there is a label maker built in which is very much needed as we send out hundreds of mailers each day. The label add-on is new, is formatted for a single style of Avery labels, and comes in a PDF format. No problems so far, except they don't line up, after the first line the names are progressively off the mark. After a little troubleshooting I find that the PDF document (which is locked, btw) is formatted for 9x12inch paper and the print properties tell it to shrink to fit. So, I call the programmer and explain that the sheet of labels is 8 1/2 x 11 and can he format his label program thusly? Seems simple enough. He said he'd look into it.

Weeks pass and the PDF is still 9x12 and he says no other agency is complaining so he didn't change it. I call other agencies and they said it took a while of trial and error to figure out how to trick their printers into aligning the labels based on the "shrink to fit" for their particular models. I again explain to the programmer that it's rediculas to have every single agency have to "trial and error" their print outs, why can't he just change the paper size? This has esculated into our programming director calling the agency that contracted this programmer and he still isn't budging.

The stupid part is that this is mostly politics. Because the programmer is buddies with the contracting agency they aren't even going to ask him to change the paper size. And we have to use his program or we lose funding.

Again, I'm not a progammer and I'm not sure what he's even using to write this, but shouldn't it be an easy matter to change 9x12 to 8 1/2 x 11? Do programmers not care what the end users think? One agency is even just printing them on a solid sticker and cutting each address out but still the programmer just has an "I'm right and you're wrong" attitude. I've asked my program director to back me on this but her stance is "in the mean time we can't print labels" so to make the point I put in purchase orders for like 6 different printers so we can keep trying one until it aligns properly. Maybe she'll get the point now.

BTW, I did spend like 4 hours trying every setting under the sun, and different sheets of labels, and all kinds of things. I just came up with the idea of submitting a breach of contract as the contract states these are supposed to come formatted for a specific Avery label, and they obviously are not. It's just that the state agencies are so high and mighty and love to dictate rather than work with the people they are trying to help. I'm so frustrated right now.

Any programmers care to chime in? I can't imagine this is normal.

[tkingdoll]

You're wrong to be upset by it, because that's an emotional response to a professional challenge. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of your life, so don't let it upset you.

You are, however, justified in being annoyed by it because the programmer is being obstructive, but your job as a professional is to put your annoyance aside and seek the most cost and time-effective solution. If you've already spoken to other agencies, is it possible to get a sort of small petition together to prove to this guy that he needs to change the document? If he doesn't accept that it's a universal problem, then he needs evidence. But if other agencies have figured out a method then they may not be interested in pursuing it.

What you shouldn't do is make a personal issue of this. Once you're on a crusade your judgement will be affected.

[roger]

A programmer refusing to accept user input, to admit error, or change how he did something?

Sorry, completely normal.

[SphereGuy]

You're wrong to be upset by it, because that's an emotional response to a professional challenge. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of your life, so don't let it upset you.

You are, however, justified in being annoyed by it because the programmer is being obstructive, but your job as a professional is to put your annoyance aside and seek the most cost and time-effective solution. If you've already spoken to other agencies, is it possible to get a sort of small petition together to prove to this guy that he needs to change the document? If he doesn't accept that it's a universal problem, then he needs evidence. But if other agencies have figured out a method then they may not be interested in pursuing it.

What you shouldn't do is make a personal issue of this. Once you're on a crusade your judgement will be affected.

I know you are right. It's just hard when other agencies say they have contacted him about it yet he blatently lies and says no other agencies have complained. And when his boss says things like "I'll talk with him about it when we're out bowling tomorrow" you know this isn't any kind of professional and the whole system is just screwed up. This is the only dental care program approved by the state for kids who have no insurance or ways to pay so if we don't use it we can't offer dental care in our area (9 counties).

It wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't spend all last week trying to sort out a program written for WIC (which provides basic food groups to women, infants and children who can't afford it, for those of you outside the US) in which I contacted state after I couldn't figure out why their program was crashing and was told a single person quit, took all his notes with him, and no one even knew how he wrote it. A single person, for a statewide program. It boggles the mind. I have a program like this for every grant, for every area of funding. And I sit there in the clinic clicking away while I overhear the receptionist tell some 17-year-old mother that her check isn't ready because the system is down. Nobody wants to centralize anything. Nobody wants spend money to hire talented people. And in the end it's some poor kid with a toothache that has to pay or some poor mother who has to find a way back to the office the next day. Sometimes I just want to scream.

[GreNME]

I know you are right. It's just hard when other agencies say they have contacted him about it yet he blatently lies and says no other agencies have complained. And when his boss says things like "I'll talk with him about it when we're out bowling tomorrow" you know this isn't any kind of professional and the whole system is just screwed up.

The trick here is to get and keep a record of this crap, and be sure to keep that documentation of the incidents as pristine as possible for the eventual point where it annoys someone who does matter. I'm an IT manager myself for an SMB, so I feel your pain in dealing with not enough resources and being required to work on a shoestring while expecting enterprise-level results. It's tough, but the best advice I've gotten was to ensure that I have as much of everything as documented as possible, and for three main reasons:

When the time comes to assign blame for the problem, you have evidence to show without a doubt that it wasn't you.
You have detailed reference material from which to create reports for your bosses.
In the eventuality that you move on and the next person comes in, you'll be equipping them with the necessary information to understand the environment they have to work with and the directions to watch out for. That establishes street cred in the grander professional network scheme of things.


It's extra work at first, but it gets easier once you have an established format and it pays off when that information is needed.

[Dancing David]

Contact the department level at the overseeing agency. there may be an omsbudsman or something for complaints about the follow through on contracts.

This can be danfgerous politics however.

[negativ]

To the specific problem itself:

What's to stop anyone from downloading the corresponding free label template from Avery's website, sticking it in the free (open source) AbiWord, and carrying on with things, minus the hard-coded headaches?

[GreNME]

This can be danfgerous politics however.

Hence my suggestion of documentation over trying to fight the battle ahead of time. Documentation is a powerful way to beat political buddy systems.

[SphereGuy]

I am documenting things, including screen shots and a few agencies that said they contacted him about this problem. I've passed it all along to chairman of the board. I'm stepping back and letting the executives duke it out. I have too much on my plate right now. I just get so fed up with dealing with things like this.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

As a one time programmer and a one time provincial government employee, I have to say that I am horrified by this, but not surprised.

As a programmer, if it had been me you had phoned, I would have fixed it. If I had been told by management not to, I would still have fixed it and told you not to tell anybody.

As a civil servant you have to learn the culture and develop the right contacts and skills. It is possible to work the system to your advantage if you can do favours for people who can later be called on to do things for you. I can't say that I like things this way but there are no other options that I have found. It's all (small p) politics in the end. :(

[fuelair]

As a one time programmer and a one time provincial government employee, I have to say that I am horrified by this, but not surprised.

As a programmer, if it had been me you had phoned, I would have fixed it. If I had been told by management not to, I would still have fixed it and told you not to tell anybody.

As a civil servant you have to learn the culture and develop the right contacts and skills. It is possible to work the system to your advantage if you can do favours for people who can later be called on to do things for you. I can't say that I like things this way but there are no other options that I have found. It's all (small p) politics in the end. :(
I believe you inadvertantly put "politics" where you meant to put "steaming pile of feces" in your last sentence.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I believe you inadvertantly put "politics" where you meant to put "steaming pile of feces" in your last sentence.

That's another thing to learn if you want to survive as a civil serpent (sic). Always be politically correct and always use euphemisms. ****ups that required reporting up the chain to the minister in case there was the dreaded "question in the House" became, during my somewhat short time as a serpent, "Management Issues". :eek:

Where is George Carlin when we need him so much?

[Pantaz]

I am documenting things...

One of the more convincing things is to document the costs created by the problem -- How many hours were/are spent in "working around" the issue? A couple of hours, multiplied by the number of individuals (multiple departments/agencies)... add to that the wasted materials (how many sheets of labels had to be thrown out and reprinted?)

[ravdin]

On what platform is the program running (JVM, .NET...?)

[BenBurch]

Get your agency's lawyer to send a letter to the programmer and promise to sue him personally under some pretext unless he remedies the problem instantly.

He will not be able to afford to call your bluff.

[Zax63]

As a programmer, if it had been me you had phoned, I would have fixed it. If I had been told by management not to, I would still have fixed it and told you not to tell anybody.


Agreed. As a programmer I doubt this is even 10 minutes work. I would be embarrassed not to fix it. It sounds like you can't get past the contracting company. Is there any way to get in touch with the programmer directly? You said it is web based, if you look at the page source there might be some copyright or contact info.

ETA: Sorry, I didn't read the OP fully. You did contact the programmer and he is a jerk. You have every right to be upset.

[Lensman]

Maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but there are PDF password recovery utilities (http://www.google.com/search?q=PDF+password+recovery&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBF_en-GB) available, some are freeware, some are shareware & some are fully commercialware but with a "free-to-try" option.

[arthwollipot]

I'd be inclined to change over to a fully open-source solution, such as OpenOffice, which have labelling options built in and cost no money whatsoever.

[teddygrahams]

I'm not sure if this will work, but you might try printing the locked pdf to cutepdf, with custom paper size of 9x12, to obtain an unlocked pdf, which you might be able to crop.

[GreNME]

I'm not sure if this will work, but you might try printing the locked pdf to cutepdf, with custom paper size of 9x12, to obtain an unlocked pdf, which you might be able to crop.

Except CutePDF doesn't, as far as I know, handle custom paper sizes. Not the free version, at least.

[Kilaak Kommander]

I would be embarrassed not to fix it.

My thoughts exactly. It never bothers me when something needs fixed. It bothers me when something needs fixed, but no one bothers to tell you about it. Everything I program is meant to make somebody's job easier. In every case, they know their job better than I ever will. There needs to be some sort of dialogue.

[SphereGuy]

I don't have options when it comes to state agencies, it's their way or we don't get funding. And I am not the end user. The end user is a little old lady who can barely turn her her computer on and has to use instructions for basic tasks like checking e-mail. To have her cracking passwords twice a month and formatting .pdf documents in other programs is not an option. She has to be able to do her job. After testing their PDF doc on six printers, with every option combination I could find (scale to page, shrink and center, etc, there were like 16 different combos) we finally found a combo and printer in the building that the labels would align on. I had to show her about four times how to change her default printer to the network printer and finally wrote it all down for her. No, the programmer will not budge and this went pretty high up. So after about 4 hours today, and all the hours previously, he's just going to say, "See? It worked." Yeah, after fudging his margins on six printers. I documented everything and am sending it to the executive director of the agency that hired the programmer.

All I know is nothing will change, until this guy quits and somebody else's nephew writes something to replace this. Out of the 30 or so state programs we have, I can't recall one that ever worked properly.

Here's another example of something I had to fight a few months ago. Our pharmacy programmer will only support the next version of his program if it's running ALONE on an HP Proliant server (with exactly his specs), running his version of Linux, with a dedicated phone line and modem, AND we have to purchase the equipment from him. So he is asking all agencies, which are like ours, that have maybe one or two people who use this program, for a database of about 1000 customers, to purchase from him about six grand worth of stuff we don't need, just so we can comply with state funding. IT'S FREAKING CRAZY!!! And this is an upgrade for a program written for DOS!!!! I told the program director I wouldn't touch anything associated with that. It's been about six months and I've heard nothing, I think this guy caused a rebellion and got shot down. Thank the gods. What's sad is that it isn't the first time this has happened and won't be the last. Just ask me about the Novell server, the ***** Novell server, I have to maintain for one small budget program. Is Novell still around even? But no, if I move it to a windows server we lose all support.

Okay, done venting for a while. This system is just broke.

[GreNME]

Here's another example of something I had to fight a few months ago. Our pharmacy programmer will only support the next version of his program if it's running ALONE on an HP Proliant server (with exactly his specs), running his version of Linux, with a dedicated phone line and modem, AND we have to purchase the equipment from him. So he is asking all agencies, which are like ours, that have maybe one or two people who use this program, for a database of about 1000 customers, to purchase from him about six grand worth of stuff we don't need, just so we can comply with state funding. IT'S FREAKING CRAZY!!! And this is an upgrade for a program written for DOS!!!! I told the program director I wouldn't touch anything associated with that. It's been about six months and I've heard nothing, I think this guy caused a rebellion and got shot down. Thank the gods. What's sad is that it isn't the first time this has happened and won't be the last. Just ask me about the Novell server, the ***** Novell server, I have to maintain for one small budget program. Is Novell still around even? But no, if I move it to a windows server we lose all support.

Not for nothing, but have you thought of speccing out a VMWare ESX server? Run your legacy Novell crap and still fortify your systems with other sever OSes you're more confident of (like Win, *nix, etc.). Have a beefy enough server with enough RAM and a SAN device attached, and you can run several servers from the same hardware, increasing the flexibility of your systems and even keeping energy consumption down to a minimum, all while maintaining the technical framework to meet the requirements of the crappy vendors you have to suffer right now.

[teddygrahams]

Except CutePDF doesn't, as far as I know, handle custom paper sizes. Not the free version, at least.
It's under Postscript custom page size.

[SphereGuy]

Not for nothing, but have you thought of speccing out a VMWare ESX server? Run your legacy Novell crap and still fortify your systems with other sever OSes you're more confident of (like Win, *nix, etc.). Have a beefy enough server with enough RAM and a SAN device attached, and you can run several servers from the same hardware, increasing the flexibility of your systems and even keeping energy consumption down to a minimum, all while maintaining the technical framework to meet the requirements of the crappy vendors you have to suffer right now.

Funding doesn't allow that. If we get x amount of dollars for Head Start then it has to be for Head Start. If we get x amount for anti-smoking programs then it has to be for anti smoking programs. I can't use a server purchased for Head Start to run anti-smoking programs. Nothing can be mixed or shared. I'm in charge of the inventory, too, even things like chairs and office supplies are kept program specific. But that part is understandable because if one program pulls out and takes all their stuff then other programs aren't effected.

[Beerina]

You're wrong to be upset by it, because that's an emotional response to a professional challenge. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of your life, so don't let it upset you.

You are, however, justified in being annoyed by it because the programmer is being obstructive, but your job as a professional is to put your annoyance aside and seek the most cost and time-effective solution. If you've already spoken to other agencies, is it possible to get a sort of small petition together to prove to this guy that he needs to change the document? If he doesn't accept that it's a universal problem, then he needs evidence. But if other agencies have figured out a method then they may not be interested in pursuing it.

What you shouldn't do is make a personal issue of this. Once you're on a crusade your judgement will be affected.



Our IT guy, now an overseas company in India, swapped the servers for all printers in our building, one of many. So all the printers broke.

For months people kept complaining the printers were broken, and they'd respond "Our tests show the printers functional. Person sent onsite reports the printers functional. TICKET CLOSED!"

Yet they still wouldn't work. Eventually by badgering them, I worked it out of them what they had done.

"See, just go to this internal site, slash slash (long string of letters) and there are your building's printers, see?"

"Yes, but that's not found by using the Windows Add Printers utility. Why don't you hook it up so it can be found that way?"

He sends me an email, "Well, just tell them what to do and have them ask you if they need answers."

Me: "Umm, this is a building with a hundred people in it, half of which are non-technical."

Silently, I was starting to rage at this idiocy. It's far cheaper to pay one IT guy to do it the right way then to inconvenience a hundred people for 15-30 minutes.

I reply about the 100 people part.

Within 2 hours, they sent out a mass email saying, "Just go to slash slash whatever whatever and do blah blah."

I replied that they should have not busted the printer links in the first place, or, if busting need happen, to repair them for people. And if that were not possible (which would be a lie) then at least make them findable with Windows Add Printers utility.



I got back a nice email patting me on the head for my concern, now go away.


So when the "How did the IT department do?" questionnaire arrived, I dutifilly filled out all this info and pointed out how the IT department was messing up badly, inconveniencing so many for so long, and leaving tough technical instructions for everybody, wasting the time of so many, when they, as IT, should be in the business of transparently fixing and updating things in the background.


And that's all I know at this point. :-/

[GreNME]

Funding doesn't allow that. If we get x amount of dollars for Head Start then it has to be for Head Start. If we get x amount for anti-smoking programs then it has to be for anti smoking programs. I can't use a server purchased for Head Start to run anti-smoking programs. Nothing can be mixed or shared. I'm in charge of the inventory, too, even things like chairs and office supplies are kept program specific. But that part is understandable because if one program pulls out and takes all their stuff then other programs aren't effected.

And presumably they'd want to take their servers with them as well if they left. That's pretty crappy. I feel for ya.

Beerina: the Windows Add Printer utility doesn't work like that. Now, as a professional I would say that it should have been easy for them to write a script that added the printers for you, or at least provided such a script to the people to select which printers they'd like to hook up to (I wrote one such script myself in HTA format), and shame on them for not doing that. But unless the utility you're speaking of was not the built-in Windows one, then what you're talking about isn't possible with the Add Printer utility.

[MortFurd]

I don't know if you're still having trouble with this. If you are, I'll join the ranks of programmers saying it's crap and you shouldn't have to put up with it.

Having been the guy in the spot you're in, I'll tell there's a work around. It is ugly, but can be done - I've done it.

To work around:

You need some (free) software. RedMon (http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/index.htm) and PSUtils (http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~ajcd/psutils/) and GSPrint (http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/).

What you do is to use Redmon to make a "fake" printer which takes postscript input (I used the HP2100 PS driver) and the route data to a couple of batch files with pstops and psresize to resize and reposition the output. You have Adobe Reader print WITHOUT scaling, then use psresize to scale the 9x12 down to 8.5x11 then use pstops to reposition the output of that to the correct location on the page. The final step is then to have GSPrint send the fixed document to your real printer.

All of the jiggery-pokery can be done in the background - the users don't have to manually resize or reposition anything. The hard part is setting it up in the first place. It took me several tries to make it work right.

I have notes on this somewhere. If you need it, post here or send me a pm and I'll try to get you a copy.


A final note:

The programmer probably doesn't believe that you have a problem. It probably works just fine on his system, and for other people who have the same setup. When we were having trouble, there were some certain printers that it worked just fine on. Those were the ones which happened to very closely match the printer and setup the programmer was using. We never got the guy to fix the problem, but we had two ways around it - the fake printer route or scrounging a printer that mathced the one the developer was using.

[CORed]

I believe you inadvertantly put "politics" where you meant to put "steaming pile of feces" in your last sentence.

It doesn't matter. The terms are synonymous.