Decade Software inspects restaurants in Canada

This morning, I am meeting with our sister company in Canada. The team there is taking first steps to migrate HES customers to EnvisionConnect.

As Developer Mike Vea and I prepared for the meeting, it considered that some of you may not yet heard of Decade Canada.

Here's the scoop as recounted on their web-site...

"In November 2003, Decade Software Company, LLC incorporated a Canadian subsidiary company called Decade Software Canada Ltd.

The Environmental Health software assets known as the Hedgehog Environmental Systems (HES) software were purchased from Procura along with the rights to the existing contracts.

The Hedgehog Environmental Systems software was originally developed in 1993 by Neil Grinwis of Hedgehog Systems. Neil was recruited to run the Canadian company and to continue servicing the Canadian Environmental Health customers."

Today, we are comparing business rules between the two products to ensure that HES customers have all they need before the move to EnvisionConnect.

Growth is always exciting for us. I'll keep posted on our progress.

Toxic seafood found in New Zealand restaurant

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that...

"...health inspectors say that most food-borne illness complaints are usually not attributable to the food facility identified by the patient."

Apparently, the key word in that entry was most.

This week, in New Zealand, the former manager of the Imperial Sichuan Restaurant pleaded guilty to five charges brought against him by the New Zealand Animal Welfare Act and the Auckland City Council.

"Inspectors there found 39 crayfish in a tank that was approximately 20 times more toxic than normal...These crustaceans were being sold to the patrons of the restaurant."

My first thought is: How toxic is normal in New Zealand?

Another report said...

"The crayfish were kept barely alive in toxic tanks, and would have given customers food poisoning if they were eaten."

This certainly would not have been tolerated back home in Louisiana. Not only would our inspectors been on top of it, but they would have also fined the restaurant and the news reporters for misspelling crawfish.

How important is your software?

When I meet new people outside of the office, and they ask, "What does Decade Software do?" I always reply exactly the same way.

"We write software for the government."

Their eyes always get real big. "Really. What sort of software?"

And I always whisper the answer. "It's a secret."

So, shoot me. 

This is not really a lie—and it is much easier than trying to explain what "software that manages the day to day operations of an Environmental Health Department" actually means.

Besides, it sounds more important—not to mention really cool.

I thought of this today, when I read that a number of United Airlines flights were canceled this week due to "software failure". Not long ago, the same thing happened on the international space station—and it happens on space shuttles almost monthly.

Reading this, I was thinking that I was glad that no one's life depended on our software—but that was before I remembered a recent trip, where I drove and wish I had flown.

In one of the few California counties that do not use our software to inspect restaurants, I stopped for lunch. I had shrimp, which—before this trip—was my favorite food. Afterwards, maybe my life was not in danger, but—on my knees in that gas station restroom—I promise you that I wished I was dead.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

I'm not saying that a restaurant inspector using Envision's Field Inspection System—or better, EnvisionConnect's new Observational Inspections—would have certainly found the problem before it made me sick. In fact, health inspectors say that most food-borne illness complaints are usually not attributable to the food facility identified by the patient. Most are caused by unrelated illness or by the complainant’s own food handling.

Tell that to a man praying to a porcelain God.

My point is: the importance of a software application really depends on a person's perspective. If the application gives someone peace of mind—If it makes someone's life or job easier—If they can get more accomplished, faster, and with fewer mistakes—then the software is very important to them. And it doesn't matter whether the user is at a desktop or laptop, in a police car or a garbage truck, inspecting a restaurant or taxiing down a runway. Application importance and the public's point-of-view go hand-in-hand. Software is important only if it removes personal pain.

However...

For the record...

Just to be on the safe side...

If I had to trust my life to an airline using software made by a tried and true company versus some discount, fly-by-night operation, I'd go with experience over pretty dogs and ponies any day.