Oh, Macromatix, how I loathe thee...



  • Macromatix is the backoffice system that we use at one of my places of employment. Amongst it's many other talents, it can do stock management, preparation of payroll data, accept passwords regardless of case, and do cash management, the latter of which I use almost every shift when it comes to register reconciliation time.

    As accessing it from my home computer would raise some alarm bells and taking printscreens on the work computer would raise questions that may or may not lead to termination, you'll have to make do with this mockup instead of roughly what it looks like:

    Macromatix 1

    Step 1, for the record, is choose the terminal operator from the employee list, choose the authorizing manager, and to look at the POS operator name: so for me, it's H4 Douglas <surname>, whoever the manager is, Douglas <surname>. That's a WTF in itself that Macromatix can't link POS operator names to records in it's database.

    Step 2 is count the money, and feed it to the appropriate fields. Step 3 is to take out all but $300 so that someone else can use that drawer and to feed that count into the appropriate fields. Step 4 is authorize, step 5 is check any final variance, explain if it's ridiculous, and authorize again just because.

    Recently, they rolled out an update to beloved Macromatix. Previously you had to think for yourself, and come up with your own float amounts. Now, they've tried to get it to think for itself, and gotten it to fall

    As I punched in the coins I had in the register (these are just numbers I pulled out of thin air, for the record, and please, ignore the mistake, I can't copy and paste for the life of me apparently)

    Macromatix 2

    "Well, that's nice," I think, "I don't have to think too much about this anymore." Not that it was difficult, it's just that usually at the end of my shift, I was more concerned about food or what was on TV that night or something trivial like that, and less concerned about floats and cash counts.

    Thinking how wonderful this new update was, I proceeded to punch in my notes. Then I looked over at Step 3. Uh, okay. Thanks for your help, Macromatix. No. Really. Thanks...

    What is this I don't even.

    So, it copied the coin figures over for me. It didn't copy over the notes. It didn't attempt to balance a float. I don't know why it bothered. I can usually figure out a float in less than three minutes (even number of five cent coins; cents figure in total of each 10 and 20 cent coins should equal fifty cents or one dollar; fifty cent count should be odd if sum of 10 and 20 cent figures is 50c and even if the sum of 10 and 20 cent figures is $1; sum of $1 and $2 should be divisible evenly by $5, notes to fill the rest out; it makes sense, trust me), and in the end, having half of the figures copied over for me just confused the hell out of me.

    To the sloppy coders behind this, why in hell did you even bother? Waste of time. Go to the corner and mope for a while and think about how you could have done this better, and on what planet this would have made any sense whatsoever, while I devise a fitting punishment that may or may not involve giant blenders.



  • I worked retail once. I managed to avoid suicide. Somehow.


  • Considered Harmful

    This really looks like an Excel sheet that could be whipped up in under an hour by someone with minimal Excel experience, and bug-free.

    (My point here isn't "just use Excel;" it's "how do you screw up something so basic?")



  •  According to the MacromatX web site: "WE WORK THE WAY YOU DO, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND"(the bold and caps are theirs, not mine). So, the majority of their customers must Fubar their float calculation. Or, alternatively, maybe it's just assuming the till operator pockets all/most of the folding money!


  • Considered Harmful

    Two dollar bills seem very popular there.



  • @joe.edwards said:

    This really looks like an Excel sheet that could be whipped up in under an hour by someone with minimal Excel experience, and bug-free.

    (My point here isn't "just use Excel;" it's "how do you screw up something so basic?")

    Things that seem like they should be really simple can often be diffcult to implement.  The real question is "Why are you trying to re-invent Excel when Microsoft has already done all the work for you?"

     



  • @joe.edwards said:

    Two dollar bills seem very popular there.

     

    I'm assuming two dollar coins.




  • @joe.edwards said:

    Filed under: Only in Canada
    @joe.edwards said:

    Two dollar bills seem very popular there.

    Given that its a roll of $2 I'd suggest that they are coins and not bills. Given that there are no pennies and there are 20c coins vs quarters I would also suggest that it is not Canada. And given that the OP's profile gives a TZ of 9 GMT, I'd posit that he is either in South Australia or the Northern Territory (minus the funky extra 1/2 hour they get).



  • @OzPeter said:

    I'd posit that he is either in South Australia or the Northern Territory (minus the funky extra 1/2 hour they get).
    The Macromatix website lists offices in the U.S. and Australia.



  • @joe.edwards said:

    This really looks like an Excel sheet that could be whipped up in under an hour by someone with minimal Excel experience, and bug-free.

    The screendumps look like an Excel sheet because it is an Excel sheet. I can't take screendumps of Macromatix, for the reasons specified in the OP. Macromatix itself is used because it, at the end of the day, takes into account any losses or gains in the registers, factors in EFTPOS payments, and does this for however many drawers are used in the day, compiles all the data, then it processes them and sends them to the accounting suite that Head Office use along with wastage, and all that other stuff that they need to post off.

    (It must also be said that the accounting suite that head office use is a WTF in itself (or head office are), because they still print payslips on an old dot matrix printer for ten locations (about 1000 employees total), which are then mailed out to each location and left there in the hopes that employees will pick them up. They don't. We easily have six months worth of payslips even though it is capable of generating PDFs, and I would wager it would also be capable of generating PDF payslips and emailing them out, thus reducing costs for head office as they don't have to buy multipart paper and ribbon ink for the printer, and it makes my life easier.)

    @OzPeter said:

    I'd posit that he is either in South Australia or the Northern Territory (minus the funky extra 1/2 hour they get).

    You posit correct, I am indeed in South Australia, land of not being founded by convicts.



  • @OzPeter said:

    And given that the OP's profile gives a TZ of 9 GMT

    More CS WTFery? Not supporting the 1/2 hour offsets? But then its timezone offset calculations are all WTFy anyway! I know it applies a Daylight Savings in my winter, making things come from the "mysterious future". (I'm GMT+1000 all year 'round)



  • @Douglasac said:

    @OzPeter said:
    I'd posit that he is either in South Australia or the Northern Territory (minus the funky extra 1/2 hour they get).

    You posit correct, I am indeed in South Australia, land of not being founded by convicts.

    Well you do get a whole bunch of nice churches and you did have a gay premier once. Throw in some decent wine and great restaurants and it's not too shabby a place (though wish you kept the F1)


  • Considered Harmful

    I meant the functionality of simple multiplication and summing was something Excel could handle readily. Turning your mockup into a functional prototype would be trivial.

    I figured it was probably because it did twenty gazillion other things with the data, but the point remains that these screens are pretty simple, basic arithmetic.



  • @OzPeter said:

    @joe.edwards said:
    Filed under: Only in Canada
    @joe.edwards said:

    Two dollar bills seem very popular there.

    Given that its a roll of $2 I'd suggest that they are coins and not bills. Given that there are no pennies and there are 20c coins vs quarters I would also suggest that it is not Canada. And given that the OP's profile gives a TZ of 9 GMT, I'd posit that he is either in South Australia or the Northern Territory (minus the funky extra 1/2 hour they get).
     

    WRONG!  Clearly, the presence of the 20 cent coin tells us that the OP has gone back through time and is currently residing in the USA in 1878.  That's far more plausible. I imagine adapting the software to run on steam powered computers must have a real pain.



  • @operagost said:

    @OzPeter said:

    @joe.edwards said:
    Filed under: Only in Canada
    @joe.edwards said:

    Two dollar bills seem very popular there.

    Given that its a roll of $2 I'd suggest that they are coins and not bills. Given that there are no pennies and there are 20c coins vs quarters I would also suggest that it is not Canada. And given that the OP's profile gives a TZ of 9 GMT, I'd posit that he is either in South Australia or the Northern Territory (minus the funky extra 1/2 hour they get).
     

    WRONG!  Clearly, the presence of the 20 cent coin tells us that the OP has gone back through time and is currently residing in the USA in 1878.  That's far more plausible. I imagine adapting the software to run on steam powered computers must have a real pain.

    If the OP traveled back in time, adapting the software to run on steam powered computers is plausible. Doc Brown did it.



  • @Eternal Density said:

    @operagost said:

    @OzPeter said:

    @joe.edwards said:
    Filed under: Only in Canada
    @joe.edwards said:

    Two dollar bills seem very popular there.

    Given that its a roll of $2 I'd suggest that they are coins and not bills. Given that there are no pennies and there are 20c coins vs quarters I would also suggest that it is not Canada. And given that the OP's profile gives a TZ of 9 GMT, I'd posit that he is either in South Australia or the Northern Territory (minus the funky extra 1/2 hour they get).
     

    WRONG!  Clearly, the presence of the 20 cent coin tells us that the OP has gone back through time and is currently residing in the USA in 1878.  That's far more plausible. I imagine adapting the software to run on steam powered computers must have a real pain.

    If the OP traveled back in time, adapting the software to run on steam powered computers is plausible. Doc Brown did it.

    Yep, I went back in time, flux capacitor, one point twenty one jiggawatts and everything, although instead of a Delorean, I used a Holden Statesman.

    Gotta support the local economy.


  • @Douglasac said:

    Instead of a Delorean, I used a Holden Statesman.
    Of all the cars you could have picked .. you chose a Statesman?!?!??!?!??!  You really should have gone the FJ route at the very least, or a Brock Monaro or even the newest Monaro.



  • @OzPeter said:

    @Douglasac said:

    Instead of a Delorean, I used a Holden Statesman.
    Of all the cars you could have picked .. you chose a Statesman?!?!??!?!??!  You really should have gone the FJ route at the very least, or a Brock Monaro or even the newest Monaro.

     

    Or even better (than just a Holden) a 1973 XB GT Ford Falcon Coupe, suitably turbocharged and modified into an Interceptor.



  • @Douglasac said:

    jiggawatts
     

    It's gigawatts, but they pronounced it like "gigolo" (is a valid, but less used pronounciation of 'giga' prefix). Jiggawatts isn't a thing. 



  • @EJ_ said:

    @Douglasac said:

    jiggawatts
     

    It's gigawatts, but they pronounced it like "gigolo" (is a valid, but less used pronounciation of 'giga' prefix). Jiggawatts isn't a thing. 

    That was a worthwhile post. You should feel good about yourself.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @EJ_ said:

    @Douglasac said:

    jiggawatts
     

    It's gigawatts, but they pronounced it like "gigolo" (is a valid, but less used pronounciation of 'giga' prefix). Jiggawatts isn't a thing. 

    That was a worthwhile post. You should feel good about yourself.

     

    That aligns with my current mood, thanks for confirming! 



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @EJ_ said:

    @Douglasac said:

    jiggawatts
     

    It's gigawatts, but they pronounced it like "gigolo" (is a valid, but less used pronounciation of 'giga' prefix). Jiggawatts isn't a thing. 

    That was a worthwhile post. You should feel good about yourself.

     

    This was a nice flame. I feel good about it and I see what you did there.



  • @OzPeter said:

    Of all the cars you could have picked .. you chose a Statesman?!?!??!?!??!

    You're right, it is silly of me to choose a discontinued model. Make that a Caprice, then.

    Failing that, I've always liked the Honda Accord Euro... especially in that dark blue.



  • @EJ_ said:

    It's gigawatts, but they pronounced it like "gigolo" (is a valid, but less used pronounciation of 'giga' prefix). Jiggawatts isn't a thing. 


    I am aware that a jiggawatt is not a thing (I wasn't born yesterday), it merely sounded like that to me in the films.

    @dhromed said:

    Filed under: subpixel, dick, large, fireballs

    Some kind of hidden meaning there? ;)



  • @Douglasac said:

    @dhromed said:
    Filed under: subpixel, dick, large, fireballs

    Some kind of hidden meaning there? ;)

     

    Hey man, I don't pick the tags.



  • @dhromed said:

    @Douglasac said:

    @dhromed said:
    Filed under: subpixel, dick, large, fireballs

    Some kind of hidden meaning there? ;)

     

    Hey man, I don't pick the tags.

     

    Once when I was bored at my last job I tried to figure out what the algorithm was. But then I got bored with that and went back to work.



  • @Someone You Know said:

    Once when I was bored at my last job I tried to figure out what the algorithm was. But then I got bored with that and went back to work.



  • @Someone You Know said:

    Once when I was bored at my last job I tried to figure out what the algorithm was. But then I got bored with that and went back to work.
     

    My tagger algorithm?



  • @dhromed said:

    My tagger algorithm?

    Whatever it is, I want it... and I want it bad. ;D



  •  I'm not sure what to say.


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