So, the first trip that I took, in May, was a fact finding mission, what kind of equipment, what kind of people, what kind of expectations does everyone have about this project. And who does what? I should mention that this is a new installation of a software program that manages the classified ads for a newspaper. The company is Zero Hora, and the program is called nxAdvertising. A classified ad program needs to allow people at the newspaper to take in new ads, renew old ads, get billing information, allow for different rates for preferred customers, repeat customers, and then bill them appropriately. Most ads are cash payment types, some are credit cards and big companies get to pay in 30 days, that sort of thing. This time around we are installing the program, getting everything running for what is termed UAT - User Acceptance Testing. They now put some of their own people on the program and let them play away with it. Usually during this time they will find all sorts of little things that need to be changed. An example of this is how they reference people. In North America we tend to do it by telephone number. In Brazil they use an ID number that is something like a social insurance number. Didn't see that one coming, so the developers have to change the coding a bit and then change the screen so that the first blank to be filled in is not the telephone number, but the ID number. Oh, for those of you mechanically inclined types, developers are to computers what engineers are to cars. People that develop them, but never have to use them or fix them. If you've ever attempted to fix a car or use a program, you know what I am talking about. On to the pictures... This time I was able to actually get a window seat and some decent weather from which to take some pictures.
Coming in for the landing
Downtown PA
The isthmus at the bottom of the previous photo
This looks fairly built up and modern, don't you think?
Looks like any densely populated area
