[AccessD] AccessD never changes

Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
Sun Mar 3 13:11:38 CST 2013


Hi William:

That has been a very common refrain for years. Whether IE10 and subsequent
releases be able to turn that trend around is anyone's guess. 

If I was Microsoft I would make my browser cross-platform... It is the only
major browser that is not.

Jim  

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of William Benson
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2013 1:17 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] AccessD never changes

Overheard Best Buy Geek Squad rep today telling customer " the only thing I
would Internet explorer for is to download Google Chrome. "
On Mar 1, 2013 12:02 PM, "jack drawbridge" <jackandpat.d at gmail.com> wrote:

> I guess it a sign of the times, and for those of us who have been around a
> while, it does provide some humor. But this seems to be a growing trend on
> many of the forums in which I participate. They have 6 tables, a bunch of
> data,but no awareness of a project plan, a conceptual design, interaction
> with  the user,  a high level data model (artist's concept of the new
house
> sort of thing"). The biggest concern is how to store a calculated value in
> a table; followed by "What's a query?" It won't be for another month or so
> till they ask about relationships and/or naming convention.
>
> I'm also on a list where some of the M$oft specialists are having
> difficulty with Office365, Sharepoint and some options that were shown at
> the recent Summit Conference. I mention this to show some of the issues
> that I see in my limited scope.
> My interpretation of these is that M$oft is selling/marketing some of the
> Office "stuff" including Access to end users as a solution to database.
> The  "users"/"company management" see the ads for software and believe
that
> the software solves the business issue. The M$oft specialist are busy
> promoting another new product/concept/approach -- too busy to listen to
the
> hard core users.  The M$oft motto may be --We're selling sizzle not steak.
>
> It's confusing, just as we are questioning AccessD, M$oft is promoting
> these tools to "users/management", but at the same time I'm seeing MVP's
> asking (M$oft and AccessTeam) to put more emphasis on the capabilities of
> ACCESS and be respectful of the installed base. I realize M$oft is a
> business and must continue with products/services. But is it leaving
> existing customers behind, mostly abandoned? Sure there are other products
> - move to SQL Server, move to Sharepoint.
> But move often means more dollars, more training, more software/hardware
> purchases, conversion, change in processes - at a time when the economy
> isn't great. I don't see anyone, other than M$oft, touting this latest
> round of offerings.
>
> Maybe there is some humor in that, but I think for many of us, we've seen
> at least one cycle of this merry-go-round, and we're unsure if we should
> jump off now, or go for another ride.
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 11:01 AM, Tina Norris Fields <
> tinanfields at torchlake.com> wrote:
>
> > Jack, you made me laugh right out loud with this one:
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> >
> > These users seem to feel that- now that they have the Access software,
> the
> > databases will just
> > get generated.???? no concepts, no plans,...
> >
> > </snip
> >
> > I was teaching a Lotus 1-2-3 class in the summer of 1995 (DOS version),
> > especially important for students who were enrolling in the college's
> > accounting courses.  As we began, I was offering examples of problems to
> be
> > easily solved using formulas in 1-2-3. Describing several Girl Scouts
> with
> > differing numbers of boxes of cookies to sell, I started making the
> formula
> > to calculate the total number of dollars each Girl Scout was responsible
> > for, noting that it was a simple algebraic expression.  From the back of
> > the room came the outraged cry, "Algebra!  Nobody told me I would need
> > algebra for this!"  Stunned, I asked the young lady why that would be a
> > problem, for surely she had learned algebra in high school.  No, she had
> > not.  Algebra was not required in her high school curriculum.  Now,
> > remember, this young lady intended to pursue an accounting degree.  She
> > needed to be able to craft formulas in a spreadsheet, and she had no
> > knowledge of algebra.  I asked her gently how she expected to proceed.
>  She
> > declared that she expected the program to figure out how to set up the
> > formulas, because that was what she understood its usefulness to be.  I
> > don't know how she expected to tell the program what the problem to be
> > solved was, but it had never dawned on her that she had any
> responsibility
> > to think her way through the solution process.
> >
> > Thanks for the memory and the laugh - bittersweet though it is.
> >
> > T
> >
> > Tina Norris Fields
> > tinanfields-at-torchlake-dot-**com
> > 231-322-2787
> >
> >
> > On 2/21/2013 1:44 PM, jack drawbridge wrote:
> >
> >> And many of the forums from my view seem to have a large percentage of
> new
> >> users. Usually students doing assignments, or the self learning group
> that
> >> has never heard of normalization, relationships...  They all seem to
> >> Acc2010 or 2013, and most have installed the 64 bit version, and have
> the
> >> latest hardware. Their big issue is how to update a "cell", or how to
> >> write
> >> SQL. Most have never heard of a data model (or ERD). These users seem
to
> >> feel that- now that they have the Access software, the databases will
> just
> >> get generated.???? no concepts, no plans,...
> >> Seems they are still teaching using Access n some schools, but none of
> the
> >> database/relational theory. Many have never heard of Normalization.  I
> >>  had
> >> one (British hair salon owner trying to deal with appointments, staff
> >> availability and products) who accused me of "hijacking" his thread
> >> because
> >> I asked what his core business was and could he post a jpg of his
tables
> >> and relationships etc..  I asked about his core business and asked if
he
> >> should be running the salon/cutting hair etc, and should he be building
> >> the
> >> database or hire a contractor. He also said he didn't know what a data
> >> model was and certainly had no need of one now and my questions weren't
> >> helping him He needed to know how to write a query to add totals into
> one
> >> of his tables..
> >>
> >> I think AccessD,  and I have been a long time lurker/learner with few
> >> posts, is far beyond these basics. When a discussion or issue is
raised,
> >> it
> >> is usually meaningful, thought out and relevant. Perhaps we have mostly
> >> beaten the variety of syntax issues, and 99 ways to skin the cat, and
> >> there
> >> are no longer the numerous, more mundane issues for resolution.
> >>
> >> I'm not sure what exactly would revamp/reface/re-energize AccessD. I
> like
> >> John's blog. Perhaps the Ruby on Rails or other topics as has been
> >> suggested. However, I feel that may not get a broad take up.  I'm
> retired;
> >> have been for 5 years, my Access is typically helping people on the
> >> forums.
> >> As has been pointed out, many here are 40+ (maybe 50+), with diverse
> jobs.
> >> And some have been forced to look for new opportunities to use their
> >> skills.I don't see a lot of people jumping to Acc2013 or Sharepoint,
> and I
> >> personally have no real interest there.
> >>
> >> Any way, just a little rambling to feed the pot.
> >>
> >> jack
> >>
> >>
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