build master®.

We've had a series of employees who have held the title of Build Master. I'm the current Build Master. There was once talk of calling me the Build Mistress, but that just doesn't flow as well. The Build Master packages installs. The reason that no one person is the permanent Build Master in residence is no one wants this job forever. So the company started making the new hires be the Build Master. The first was Zach, who was Master for a year and a half. He trained Josh, who had the title for six months. Josh trained Sandra, that's me, and I've been Build Master for four months now. Josh was the new Zach, I was the new Josh, and I can only hope that soon there will be a new Sandra. We were due to get a new Sandra in August, but he passed on the offer. Frankly, I think anyone should be honored to be the new Sandra.

The company sent Zach to a Build Master class where he learned about the install software, InstallShield. I was given his books from the class when I started in the hopes that in my spare time I would read both the text and Zach's scribbled notes. I browsed through them during my first week, but haven't touched them since. Rather than send Josh to another class, Zach just trained him to do the job. Then Josh trained me. It is the passing of the torch, or rather the hasty throwing of the torch and then running away before the other guy can try to give the torch back.

The job isn't that bad, but it's very ebb and flow. You can be sitting around reading Microsoft books one week, bored out of your skull, and then the next week you are up to your ears in deadlines. Plus, there is no advancement in this job. You're making installs, that is all you'll do, and even though each one is different, it's still an install. While that's okay for a while, no one goes to college with dreams of doing it. I hear that people who do want to do installs forever are in demand for those companies who need full time Build Masters. It can be stressful. No install is ever as simple as it seems, because there is always that one little catch. "We need this install to just copy some files over - real simple like, should be no problem. Here are the files, it's no big thing. Oh, by the way, we need it to launch this other install in the background. You should have this by the end of the day, right? Actually, maybe before lunch, because Martha's testing it and she likes to leave at 3." Okay, I'm exaggerating - no one has ever given me a deadline like that. But installs are never as simple as they seem. Our company isn't big enough to have someone do it full-time, so we use the passing of the torch system, which seems to be working pretty well.

So I like to think that each Build Master adds something to the fount of Build Master knowledge that is passed down. It's like that name game you play on the first day of camp where everyone's going on a cruise, and each person is taking something that starts with the same letter as the person's first name. "We're all going on a cruise, and Zach is taking zucchini, Josh is taking jumpropes, and I'm Sandra, and I'm taking silkworms." Zach's class didn't teach him everything, and even if it had, he would not have remembered it all. The thing about using InstallShield is there is a lot of functionality included that you never know about until you need it. One day someone says, "Hey, wouldn't it be nice if the install could do this? Is that possible? Can you find out?" And then the Build Master spends some time researching by looking at the InstallShield help files (which vary wildly in their levels of usefulness and ambiguity) and searching online forums full of questions and answer from other Build Masters across the world. This part is actually one of my favorite parts of the job. I like to figure out first if something is possible, and then how it is possible, and finally how it is possible in my individual install. Then once I know, I can add it to the list of the things that I'll tell the new Sandra, just in case he ever needs it.

So it's just like the name game where you're going on a cruise, except in this case, it's more like "We're all adding to the Build Master know-how pool, and Zach taught us how to modify dialogs, Josh taught us how to record installations, and I'm Sandra, and I taught you how to use the Character Map."

I thought everyone knew how to use the Character Map. But maybe it was just the kids like me, who found themselves sick of Solitaire and wanted something else to play with, so they started exploring anything on the computer. For those of you who don't know and are using Windows machines (post Windows 95): Go to the Start Menu, then to Programs, then Accessories, then to System Tools, and you'll see the Character Map. It's fun, for like, five minutes. You can make cool emoticons and Greek letters and funny pictures. It's like when you discovered Wingdings, only better. I never thought I would ever use it in my job, until the day came that I had to install something with a trademark in the name.

Most installs just have a (TM) or (R) if the product has a trademark or registered trademark in the name. But at some point, someone asked me, "Sandra, is there any way to make that prettier?" So I went to the Character Map. See, the tiny TM and the R in the circle are actual characters in most fonts, just like a lowercase letter 'a,' a plus sign, or the Greek letter gamma. But putting those characters into an install took me four hours to figure out. It was a whole big font issue that I'd rather not retell. The moral of the story is that you can get the little R in the circle, but not the tiny TM. At least I haven't figured out how to do it yet.

To be fair, I've done more than figure out the character map issue. I also learned to turn off the update feature, how to associate file extensions with a program, how to restart the install after a reboot, and that any install that includes Adobe Reader 7.0 will be trouble. But no one cares about those things because they can't really see them. Anyone can see and appreciate a little R inside a circle. My coworkers are regularly delighted with the little R's in circles. Josh was so delighted that he asked me how I did it. He'd never heard of the Character Map before, and his life hasn't been the same since I showed it to him. He uses it whenever he gets the chance. Note his last email to me:

>> -----Original Message-----
From: Josh
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 3:17 PM
To: Sandra
Subject: demo


Sandra®,

Can you make a new diagnostics® demo and give it to Mike?

Thanks®.

Josh®

That's a lot of little R's in circles. And that is my contribution to the collection torch of knowledge to be passed down to generations upon generations of Build Masters. I'd like for all those future Zachs, Joshes, and Sandras to know just who brought them the ability to put the little R's into the circles. I thought of trademarking the idea, but then again, I still don't know how to make that tiny TM.