Letters to the Power Plant #17 — Project Dell

After I left the power plant and went to work for Dell on August 20, 2001, I wrote letters back to my friends at the plant letting them know how things were going.  This is the seventeenth letter I wrote.  Keep in mind that at the time when I originally penned this letter I didn’t intend on it being posted online.

01/09/02 – Project Dell

Dear Sooner Buddies,

I hope all is going well with you, and once again, I hope everyone of you had a great holiday.  —  I forgot to tell you that last month when I climbed on my roof to fix a burned out Christmas light one night, I looked north toward Oklahoma, and I thought I could see Randy Dailey’s Christmas lights lighting up the horizon.  NASA said that during December they didn’t need to use the Global Positioning Satellites, they just pointed their view finder toward the easily recognizable Ponca City, and they instantly knew where they were.

Note to Reader:  To learn more about Randy Dailey’s Christmas Lights, see this post:  Power Plant Christmas Star Shines over Ponca City.

Well.  Tomorrow night my Big Project goes into Production.  I’ve been working on this one since the beginning of November.  Since I have had two whole months to work on it, I was able to add extra features that weren’t called for in the original specifications.

Things such as:  When you double click the third letter in the first word on the main menu, then the web page starts playing the Star Spangled Banner and two people who look like they are getting on board of Air Force One popup and wave at you.

Second Note to Reader:  To learn the significance of the two people boarding Air Force One waving goodbye, see this post:  Power Plant Final Presentation.

If you leave a page open too long without doing anything with it, it starts to make a yawning sound.  When you are about ready to save your data, it asks you if you are sure, if you quickly click “Yes”, then it comes back and asks “Are You Really, Really Sure”.  You know, those things that make an application seem more like real life.

I even made the application work like a typical upper level supervisor.  When you click to make certain small changes that don’t really matter, the application randomly (that means just sometimes) comes back with a message that says, “No.”  If you click “Continue”, then it comes back and says, “I don’t need a reason.  No, No, No.”

Anyway.  I get to demo my new program in front of a bunch of high level guys next week.  —  I can’t wait to show them all the extra features that they didn’t ask for.  They will get a great big kick out of the way that I put this whirlpool in there with the picture of someone’s head being sucked down into it.  —  Don’t ask me why I did that. —  Ask Ray, He may be able to give you some insight into that one.  I just hope it didn’t use too much “resources”.

Third Note to Reader:  To learn more about the person in the whirlpool see this post:  Hitting the Power Plant HR Cardboard Ceiling.

I have had a lot of fun developing this application.  I’m sure everyone has been wondering why I’ve been giggling in the Project Issues Meetings.  —  Of course, they may think it’s because I’m on the fun committee and I’m trying to show everyone that we are having fun.  Which, of course, we are.

It has been good hearing from you guys.  Thanks for writing.  Keep me up on all of the good gossip.  I will write soon.

Your friend from down under,

Kevin James Anthony Breazile

______________________

Kevin J. Breazile

Programmer Analyst II

Dell Computer Corporation

(512) 728-1527