Entered on 2001-08-23 at 8:15 a.m..
Purgatory
Yesterday I think I had a taste of what hell must be feel like. In order to understand this, I must first provide some sort of background information on what it is that I do. I am currently trying to update a flight simulator with better flight dynamics than the current simulation has. To do this I�m using a computer program called MATLAB. Everything that I do is in MATLAB. Let me repeat that. Everything that I do is in MATLAB. So yesterday when I went to start the program, it beeped at me. Saying that all of the licenses were currently in use.
For those of you who don�t have to battle computers on a daily basis, let me explain the evil concept of licenses. In order to allow software makers to turn a profit the law stipulates that each computer using/running a program has to pay for that program. So Mitre cannot simply go out and buy one copy of say Powerpoint and then install in on all 1500 of their computers. Nope they have to pay for 1500 copies of the program. Now some software like Microsoft office, everyone uses so they buy a copy (a.k.a license) for everyone at a reduced cost because they are buying so many. Other programs like MATLAB only a few people use. Now since only a few people are using it, the programs are extremely expensive. So instead of buying each of us a copy of the program they only buy a few licenses of the program. Buying licenses allows all people who use MATLAB to have the program on their computer, but only allow a few people to use it at a time. Every person using the program is using one license, so when more people what to use the program than there are numbers of licenses, the extra people are locked out.
So there I was, stuck. I had absolutely nothing to do. For me this is the worst kind of torture. With the help of a really slow internet connection one of the external servers was down I managed to kill 10 hours and go home.
Today will be better though. I�ve already logged on to MATLAB and secured my connection for the day.
Cranfield weather for the day: Partly cloudy high of 76