[AccessD] AccessD never changes

jack drawbridge jackandpat.d at gmail.com
Fri Mar 1 11:01:12 CST 2013


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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