mmmmm... blue pumpkins... (off topic)

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

this is off topic, but in the end relevant to the community.
how many of you tech support people have to use a scheduling package called "Blue Pumpkin"?
and do you have a method of dumping your blue pumpkin schedule into your outlook calendar?

to make things a bit more on topic, so far the worst calls i've received at the new job are ones consisting of people calling up, saying that their networked printers suddenly stopped in mid print and wont turn back on.

this is when we start lecturing them about the power requirements of large printers, and tell them how bad it is trying to run TWO of them off of a 3.00 power strip someone got at walmart. then we show them how to reset the circuit breaker on the power strip and they go away, only to call back next week with the same problem...

Valis

Comments

[jecook]

::facepalms::

At least they are not using expensive UPS units to rung their laser printers from... ::snicker::

[mtlchick.livejournal.com]

Blue Pumpkin is the bane of my existance. If you figure out how to do that, I will send internet cookies :)

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

i'm actually doing just that :)

exceptionaly simple program actually, you just copy and paste your BP schedule into the boxes provided in the proggie, hit "process" and the proggie spits out a .ics file that you can import into your outlook with 3 clicks and a shake of a lambs tail.

if you want to participate i could use a couple of things tho, right now the program is rather specific to my workplace, i.e. it looks for break, training, off-phone activity, and other such phrases which i'm thinking probably are workplace specific.

if i want to make the program more universal, i need someone to send me some info, as in:
go to your bp schedule for a week
click on "text view"
copy and paste everything there into an email and shoot it over to me.

i need to know which things i CANT make as specific as they are now, or which things i need to try to catch errors and strange formatting for.

:)

heeeeeeeey

[aznpersephony.livejournal.com]

I remember blue pumpkin from my last job... crazieness yo.

-end

Re: heeeeeeeey

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

i'm trying to tame the thing a bit...

[eightofspades.livejournal.com]

We have to be careful at work because half the outlets in the building run off a circuit that occasionally - like 3 to 20 times a day, 24/7 - gets uberdrawn on when we turn on a certain piece of big equipment. Mills, about 20' x 40' and rotating... so everything on those circuits browns or loses entirely as they start.

Since we can't UPS printers, it means we have to place them carefully.

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

sounds like my house, my house is seriously underpowered and under circuited if there is such a word.

during winter it's very dicey, during winter if i have all of this stuff on i have to make sure that i dont turn on this ONE particular lamp... cause that's the push the breaker needs to pop...

[kailiia.livejournal.com]

blue pumpkin = teh evil.. they just upgraded us at work to the work force managemen version.. not it loads as a popup window.. and I still cant access it from home!

[azraelsdaisy.livejournal.com]

Ugh... blue pumpkin... thinking of work on a day off.

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

do you have a method of dumping your blue pumpkin schedule into your outlook calendar?

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

do you have a method of dumping your blue pumpkin schedule into your outlook calendar?

[azraelsdaisy.livejournal.com]

I don't, I don't have much visibility to it.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

We use Blue Pumpkin here, but there is no way to transfer it into our Outlook calendars. At least, not that we have been informed of.

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

i'm attempting to make a way!
i have a lil program that takes your schedule information, parses it, and creates an iCalendar (.ics) file that with 3 clicks you import into your outlook calendar.

problem is right now it's kinda specific to my workplace, as it's the only example of blue pumpkin in use i have currently.

if you could, and if it's possible, could you possibly go to your text view of your bp schedule, copy and paste the text, and put it in an email to me?

valis at valiskeogh dot com

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Sure, did that this morning. Hope it didn't get caught by a spamtrap or anything.

[thepurplethorn.livejournal.com]

blue pumpkin user here (or some modification of it)... the only thoughtI have for it ... is "LOL"

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

got it, thanks!

[alysania.livejournal.com]

Have been subjected to the evil little pumpkin at two different jobs.. I never found a way to import the schedule into outlook and it was a major pain in the butt. We used AIM at work to communicate between eachother for questions and such at this one place, and I got so frustrated one day that I threatened the little squishy ball blue pumpkin head that was sitting on one of our supervisor's desks with harm. I changed my AIM icon to reflect this

That's the before and after.. i just used the after :)
I'm sure someone with more photoshop skills could do a better job, but for 10 minutes of work, it made me happy and i got a chuckle out of the supervisors

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

LOL