How do I back out entries, for example, if a pub is bounced, how do I remove the BD?

Just make a new entry, but use a negative number (i.e., put a hyphen in front of it). Same thing with the adustments & OT/Comp additions.

Sometimes I try to access it, but it times out. Why?

Mostly because of my cheapness. Since nothing is too good for you, I purchased an "economy hosting plan." The production calculator on the LO101.com website has proven to be much more popular than I anticipated. I guessed that about 15 or 20 people might want to use this thing. There are now about 150 registered users. Problem is, my web host only allows a maximum of 50 simultaneous users at any one time. Once the number of users accessing the site at any given moment hits 50, no one else gets on. If you time out, just try it again every few minutes & sooner or later, you'll get on. Or try it in the less popular times of the day - before 9:00am, 11:30 until about 1:30pm, after 5:00pm.

I figure that performance will improve as the novelty wears off and fewer people hit the website. So, keep me posted on the performance. I am also in discussions with OCIO to host a production calculator on the USPTO.gov website that will automatically pull data out of TRAM so you won't have to enter anything. Ultimately, this will become a part of FAST. Thanks.

I tried to register and it failed. What can be done?

The most common cause for this is that you or someone else had logged onto the calculator on your computer under another name and did not log off, but hit the browser's back button instead. This left cookies on your computer. When you tried to register, the program tried to set new cookies, found the old cookies, freaked out, and failed.

The cure: e-mail Ron Sussman so that I can clean out the database of any bits of your failed registration, then you close all instances of your browser (this deletes my cookies), and try again.

Another possibility is that your browser is not allowing cookies.

The cure: E-mail me so I can clean out the database. If you're using Internet Explorer, click "Tools," "Internet Options," click the "security" tab & set the securiy level (the slider) to medium.

If you're using a real browser, like Firefox, >Tools>Options>Privacy - be sure the "allow cookies" box is checked.

What are these cookies you speak of?

The calculator sets three cookies on your computer when you log in. 1. Your first name (so that it can greet you), 2. your last name (which is the name of the table containing your BDs), and 3. an ID number (so that the program knows which line in a data base is you). I've set these cookies to expire (delete themselves) when the browser is closed. They will also expire when you hit the logout button in the calculator.

I registered, but I'm seeing my husband's (or wife's) BD's

When you register, one of the things you do is create a table to contain your data. I use the last name you provide as the name of table.

Funny thing: turns out there are many of you who share the same last name. If two people register using the same last name, they will share the same table - a bad thing. Since I never expected more than a handful of people would ever use this thing, it never occurred to me that this could ever be a problem. Well, I was wrong.

So, if you are aware of another attorney in the office who has the same last name as you, when registering please alter your last name in some way so that it is a bit different from what the other person might have used. For example, if your last name is "Smith," you might want to use "SmithTwo" or "Batman" or "SmithTheCoolOne" as your last name just in case the other Smith in the Office has already registered using last name "Smith," thus creating a "Smith" table.

Please use only letters in your last name - no spaces, no numbers, no hyphens, no underscores, no apostrophes. Just letters. That's the way MySQL works - tables can only named with letters. Sorry Janice O'Lear, & others.

Why do I have to register? Who can see my information? Where is my information kept?

Registration creates a table for your BDs and a row of information in another table (names, goal, etc.). The password you create is encrypted - even I cannot know what it is, so I cannot login and see your data even if I wanted to. Happily, I have no interest in doing so. In fact, you can't even imagine how little I care about seeing your production...but I digress... The data is on a server owned by the lo101.com host, Go Daddy. I think it's in Arizona somewhere.

Why do you want my e-mail address? Do I have to register using truthful information?

The only reason for your e-mail address is so that the program can send you a new password should you forget the one you created during registration. You can register with a phony e-mail address (e.g.: biteme@hotmail.com) if you want, but then you would not have this feature. Because it's encrypted, I cannot retreive your password.

You can use any first & last names you want. We have Fred Flintstone and several Star Wars characters registered and using the calculator.

Why can't OCIO put a calculator tab in FAST so that we can have real-time production information pulled right out of TRAM and we won't have to enter anything?

Damn good question. [Update: I am in discussions with OCIO to host a production calculator on the USPTO.gov website that will automatically pull data out of TRAM so you won't have to enter anything. Ultimately, this will become a part of FAST. ]

I really hate this production calculator with all the logging in and registering and stuff. Will you make me my own production spreadsheet in Excel like I'm used to?

No. But you could try this.

How did you make this thing?

I bought a book called PHP & MYSQL for Dynamic Websites by Larry Ullman. I wrote all the scripts in PHP on my I-Mac using TextWrangler (a free text editor). My web host Go Daddy gives me several MYSQL databases, one of which I'm using for this. The lo101.com web site is running on Linux & the Apache webserver & costs me $6 a month.

Other questions, suggetions, complaints, abuse: e-mail me, or call - 29696.