Carrier Companion News

Some unbelievable things just happened with Vista. I’ve had a boot sector problem which could be repaired with the Vista DVD. When I inserted the DVD, my reader just sat there, complely stuplified. I wondered what could be wrong with it. So I tried another DVD. Same thing…

So, Not only could I start Windows, I couln’t repair it! The reader, however could read CD’s, so I installed XP for the moment untill I can get another reader. Talk about bad luck!

You’re probably wondering what happening in the carrier world. Well, first off, we we’re running into problems with the themes of Carrier Companion. So, we are sorting that issue out.

We also are implementing the report module. The reports will not be a separate section as we once planed, instead it will be placed into the appropriate section. For example, Carrier reports will be in the Carrier section, Customers in the Customer section, and so on. From the reports, you will be able to choose what information will be displayed (kind of like the modern search engines with narrowing results), and you will be able to print the report from the report’s page.

We also will be finishing the templates for the route guides, and placing customer payment tracking into the next release. Due to the design of all these implementations, we had to rebuild the core or Carrier Companion. We also are updating the UI, and the threading to be more stable. We found we had way too many things happening at once and some of the modules weren’t being activated (weather being the main one). Here is a screen show of the new Carrier Companion in the works:

 
Carrier Companion Carrier’s List

This is the draft of the details for the selected carrier. The final version will have a complete drill down for the fiscal year, including mileage, tips, complaints, customers, and route health. It will also have a drop down menu where you can choose a year, or a month, or even down to the day and get drill down. And it can all be exported into an image, text file, excel, or printed out.

Finally, the release will have a small (yet complete) set of these you can choose from, the Default theme is shown here. The trial version will not have the ability to choose themes. Yes, even the globe of Carrier Companion will change with each theme. Even though it’s not necessary, we though a little eye candy wouldn’t hurt. Oh and how do you like the new user interface? We’ve added some images for a quick reference approach. Ok, back to work. We hope to have this done very very soon! The database will not be affected by this, it’s only the coding in the program itself that is being rebuilt.

Ryan S. Thiele

Sorry all,

I had to look for a new car. The last snow we had (about a month ago), left me abandoned in a snow drift. And when we tried to pull it out, it ended up bending the rear axel rendering the car absolutely useless.

I have been borrowing a car, and I’ll tell you it was a nightmare! The headlights were mounted near the center, which is good if you want to see the road, but I need to see to the side of me even more since I am in deer country. Not only that, but you could imagine me telling the owner “Sorry, but a deer tried to kiss the front end, and I wasn’t about to stop ‘em!”

So, I finally have another car (which I fell in love with when I saw it, but I wasn’t going to let the dealer know that). I can finally get more then 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and be a space case when trying to work on Carrier Companion. I’d end up wrecking it more then helping it.

So, now it’s back to work, and back to sleep full nights!

Ryan S. Thiele