Hi there! I’m Phil Donnelly, an older person that loves for one, taking photos, not always good but nether the less that is one of my past times. I also enjoy this, building websites and developing my skill and knowledge of the software and code used to create these.
The other is refurbishing property, over many years I have acquired many skills and with a an artistic flair it’s just another way I like to express myself so I enjoy decorating and interior design.
I also enjoy my music so I created a music website which is now being transferred to this site using HTML and CSS ( possibly meaningless to you but this whole intro is short ) code so basically coding from with WordPress pages. The transfer process will take me a bit of time as I have lots to do. If you want help with yours then drop me a line.
The purpose of my website is to inform and share.
Does anyone have any interest in my skills and what I share? Of course, I wouldn’t be here otherwise. Anyway, this is another way for me, Phil Donnelly to maintain skills, share information, and learn something new. Every day should be an education.
You can skip the rest unless you know anything about SQL and coding in general. Or you have an interest in Manufacturing and Distribution. Sales as well perhaps. Or if you are just plain nosey.
15 Years of working with SQL.
I started working with SQL out of choice because simple was good enough. QBE to SQL and why SQL.
While employed by United Biscuits as an Analyst (1985) I learned APL (A Programming language), then with the introduction of a Relational Database I had to convert all reports using QBE or Query By Example, I hated it. So I asked myself the usual question. What’s going on at the backend? I discovered SQL, so after work for the next few weeks I taught myself SQL with support from a Computer Centre programmer. I was trained a DBA in 1997 and used SQL until 2001. I constantly tested myself over the next 15 years and obtained an average 87% pass rate, always learning.
20 years of HTML and CSS and more.
Same as QBE. I could use Software like Front Page or I could take control and use HTML.
From 2003 he started learning HTML and CSS but while still working with early developments of CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress. Google was in fact one of the first companies to produce a Content Management System. Other abbreviations used when describing a CMS are ECM Enterprise Content Management or WCM Web Content Management.
This is just a sample of CSS code (Custom Style Sheet) from my original website. What does a website look like without CSS then you can try this:
- Chrome: There’s actually no setting in Chrome to disable CSS, so we have to resort to an extension, like disable-HTML.
- Firefox: View > Page Style > No Style
- Safari: Safari > Preferences... > Show Develop menu in menu bar. Then go to the Develop dropdown and select the “Disable Styles” option.
- Opera: Like Chrome, we need an extension, and Web Developer fits the bill.
- Internet Explorer 11: View > Style > No style
McVities from fortune 500 to today.
Phillip had started working with SQL and Relational Databases back in the mid 80’s creating reporting services for United Biscuits which lead to Business Objects at Nokia.
SQL was pushed to the boundaries back then, in those days he created automated services where data was extracted from the database, manipulated automatically as list of operations, pivoted using a UNIX programme and written to another database table where Salesforce individuals using a menu system could create SQL distribution reports for use by the sales team. It saved tie, delivered important information on time and ultimately improved sales and customer service. All that would eventually be done using enterprise software to create the reports I would build using purely SQL. Now we use Enterprise Software.
Nokia and Business Objects.
While working at Nokia’s manufacturing site in Camberley, England Phil also supported the companies inhouse MRPII/ERP system developed with ICL and later sold as an MRPII system. With his areas of responsibility being Logistics, Purchasing and Finance.
Phillip also worked with early versions of Business Objects when he was trained as Administrator and Designer until he recruited a dedicated person to fulfil that role. BO is now a SAP application. BO basically replaced all the in house reports that would have otherwise been written in SQL and had to be transferred to an application such MS Excel.
If I had known the tool that Business Objects would become I would have stayed on a Business Objects path.
MRPII
In his role as IT Engineer and as member of a project implementing a new MRPII system for Nokia he also trained users in all areas of the business in the use of their respective modules. To get the system implemented the project team actually ran the factory for a week.
What is MRP video from Oracle.
Phillip’s knowledge of MRPII systems includes Production Planning, Manufacturing, Bill of Materials, Works Order Processing, PAC Capacity planning, shop floor data capture, serial tracking and traceability.
The Nokia factory closed in 2003 though R and D continued in the area. I in the meantime had taken a job with the ill-fated company Diversey Lever (Johnson Diversey and now Diversey) which would change hands at least 2 more time. I was a member of the Project team delivering the SDS (Safety Data Sheet) system.
I had the pleasure of working with https://www.123insight.com/evaluationworkshop/index.cfm in the early 2006. Manufacturers and developers of an award winning MRP/ERP/CRM manufacturing system. Check out 123Insight here.
You will be able to find out more from my “MyBizSolutions.co.uk” website soon.
Phillip has gone on to way more including personal projects that haven’t always been IT related but they have only been a distraction.
2022 A New year started at Summer Solstice.
I use to think that a New Year began on the first of January. Now I believe a New Year begins on the twenty first of June. I like to think that a new year begins after the summer solstice, that’s just me or is it.
A New Years History Lesson.
The Gregorian calendar has year end as the 31st of December as decided in the year 46BC and that’s when the year began to fall out of sync with the Sun, small adjustments meant that the year end and beginning fell out of sync with the vernal equinox, before 43 BC a year was 10 months or 304 days long but Julius Caesar set to work with the leading mathematicians and astronomers to work out the actual length of a year. It’s worth noting that Julius Caesar was Pagan so the Pagan New year is also the 1st of January but again some would argue as they prefer to use the Suns equinox. For the Babylonians, the first new moon following the vernal equinox in late March was the start of a new year. In Egyptian times the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile, which coincided with the rising of the star Sirius in Egypt which is of course not consistent, that date changes every year, in 3000 BC it was July the 15th, this year it’s an August date. The Chinese New year began after 2nd new moon after the winter solstice. It was Caesar who decide the new year should begin on the 1st of January to honour the God Janus. It was Pope Gregory XIII who established January 1 as New Year’s Day in 1582. Christmas and Easter was marked by Christians and had no bearing on the New Years day of January the first. For Pagans or Celts the start of the New year is time of the Winter Solstice. Solstices are naturally occurring celestial events, and the Winter Solstice marks the sun’s “growing stage”. The astrological year begins at the Spring Equinox when the sun enters the constellation of Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac. Persians (Iranian language name for the New Year) celebrate their new year on the first day of Spring. It begins on the spring equinox and marks the beginning of Farvardin, the first month of the Solar Hijri calendar. The Celtic New Year is at the end of Harvest and the beginning of Winter so the 31st of October witch is All Hallows eve or Halloween, the day before Winter and the beginning of the Celtic New Year. So over the centuries and across various religions and cultures the New Year has been lots of different dates. In the northern countries which includes Norway and takes in Viking culture they celebrate the midsummer solstice. This old pagan holiday is Christianised to the birthday of John the Baptist. According to the gospel of Luke John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus.
Why is the Summer Solstice important?
Anyway, why is that important, it’s not, it’s just a consider the Summer Solstice to be my New Year, I know that might seem odd but for me I feel the Summer Solstice marks the end of a year and the beginning of a new one, one of decreasing hours of sunlight and partly due to the fact that I look forward to the longest day and feel slightly saddened that the day has passed and days now get shorter.
“Celebrate the New Year when you want, how you want, and where you want.”
From what I’ve written above you can see that a New Year can be marked by many events and views so I decided that I can have my own New Year for my reasons. It was on that day that day I decided to focus my attentions on my website and to change, change the circumstances under which I live and build something I could be proud off.
I’m not looking at old age at all, I refuse to accept that old age means slippers and TV. I have a lot of knowledge though one has to classify that as one persons extent of knowledge is different to another person. But you’ve seen my experience in my short lived career, short lived because it could have been over at 52 years of age but I refused to accept that. I always had skills and I simply added to those skills in so many areas that I wont even start listing most of them here. What remained was love of technology, photography, people (not all) and my creative expertise only limited by time and money. I had to take many jobs I hated because life’s expensive and so is photography and so is technology but so is just living and I was never really able to fund my desires because of other priorities, only now am I in a better position to do so. With this website and this log I plan on putting my creativity to work and making use of those skills or passing on my knowledge to others.
It may mean that no one is interested or cares but that doesn’t matter, I’m not doing this for others, I’m building this for me.
July 2022. Phillip Donnelly.