Jim Lawrence
accessd at shaw.ca
Tue Jun 18 11:10:33 CDT 2013
Sounds about right Arthur...now that I am retired I have never worked so hard or been involved with so many diverse projects. Jim -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 8:22 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Good Feelings To All Tony, I can speak only for myself, but since I declared my retirement, I have found life a whole lot more fun than pretty much the four decades since I graduated from university. I have a lot less money now than in those decades, but I am lots happier than since my days in university, which were perhaps the most fun years of my life. My current stage in life is a close second. I'm learning Mandarin, reading 2-3 books a week, working on my next HBO-style saga about the history of Chinese crime in Canada, and rediscovering Mozart, to whom I have previously given short shrift in favour of Beethoven. In my retirement years, I have never felt more energetic and less pressured by deadlines. I love it. I suppose that some people feel useless upon retirement, but I am not one of those. I've shrunk the needs to spend and negated the desire to keep up with the Joneses. I've discarded the huge majority of my material possessions, either by sale or donation to the library or Value Village, and the net result is that I feel more free than I have felt in the past 3 decades at minimum. Recently an old client called me to request a few enhancements to the app I wrote for him. The code began in about 2005 and I've done a few weeks work on it every year since. It's a complex app and he is a terrific friend, so there's no way in the world that I would abandon my end of the canoe. There are two other things happening in terms of gigs: I'm mentoring a guy in San Francisco who I think holds the world record for largest Access app ever written. Using MZTools, I determined that the total line count of VBA code was 700K. There are ~360 tables, and a MySQL back end. (He approached me because he bought our book on MySQL ( www.artfulsoftware.com). I created a Volunteer-management app with an Access FE and a SQL Server BE, for an NPO that handles housing for the aged and infirm. I volunteered to do this because I recognize the value of their work. The hourly rate on this gig is $0. Prior to my retirement, I would never have had the time to do such a project, despite my empathy for their work. Now that I have retired from the coding business, I have lots of hours to throw against such a benevolent project. In about two months, following local testing, we'll roll this baby out to ~300 offices in ~20 cities. It's part of my "Giving Back" strategy in my semi-retirement. I still do (very) occasional maintenance on Access projects, but have shifted my focus to Alpha Five. I'm on the beta team for Alpha Anywhere, soon to be released. In a word, it is awesome. "Anywhere" means just that: write a web app once and it will run in any browser, plus tablet and smart phone. Or, alternatively, write a traditional desktop app. I am still mid-project on my first Alpha Anywhere app. It took me a while to decide upon what to write in it, but finally it occurred to me that I have the perfect app to try out on this new platform (perfect meaning the existing Access app I've written for a client who could most profit by the transition to smart phone and tablet). In terms of complexity, I'd call it middle-level. It's an app for safety inspection engineers. In case you don't know what they are, they visit factories and take measurements at every workstation (drill, press, robot) and pass or fail their current setup, supplying recommendations for how to fix any detected problems. The client who commissioned this app currently lugs a laptop around from station to station. Recently I gave him a glimpse of the new version, written in the beta of Alpha Anywhere. I showed him how it runs on my Nexus 7 and he was blown away. In full disclosure, as a member of the beta team at Alpha, I am not paid for my time and since it's privately held, own no shares and the above should be considered my objective opinion, not a propaganda piece. The simple fact is that should any potential Access gigs come my way in the future, I will discourage Access as the vehicle and suggest Alpha instead, for two reasons: it is wayyyy more powerful than Access, and it beautifully supports desktop, web, smart phone and tablet. I'm doing the port of the aforementioned safety-engineering app on my nickel. The client didn't request it; it just struck me as the perfect example of what to gain by having an app written once that can run on all these platforms. It's also an excellent excuse to keep programming, but with the virtue that there is neither a deadline nor a project manager nagging me. I repeat that I have nothing to gain personally from my endorsement of Alpha 5 and the forthcoming Alpha Anywhere. But this is my endorsement: don't wait for Microsoft to release some sort of Access equivalent, Visit the AlphaSoftware.com web site and download a trial and see for yourself how superior it is. Nuff said. On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 10:39 AM, Tony Septav <TSeptav at uniserve.com> wrote: > Hey Guys > > I think we have become dinosaurs, our time has come and gone. Yes they may > be some of you that are still being profitable with ACCESS projects but > let's be honest............... Sorry not trying to be the "Grim Reaper". > Getting that old wiener wagon and hanging out at the beach and watching > wave babies is looking better all the time. The only problem is I am to old > to remember what to do with a wave baby. > > > > Tony Septav > > Nanaimo, BC > > Canada > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- Arthur Cell: 647.710.1314 Prediction is difficult, especially of the future. -- Niels Bohr -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com