This is mainly data (at least, it looks that way), so if data scares you, its okay... just turn around and quietly tip-toe back out).
With all of the rules and regulations that are out there these days, I like to get the disclaimers out front and center as soon as possible.
Now that all of the faint of heart have vacated my virtual room... Welcome! to all those who have stayed. Please form an orderly line to the right and enjoy the e-refreshments, as today (Sep 5) is my birthday! As e-refreshments are notoriously calorie- and nutrient-free, please feel free to have seconds- I've got chocolate cake (with strawberries) and a cream cheese icing. Oh, yeah, don't mind the candles- they're those silly trick ones that you blow out, and then they start up again in about five seconds.
It's officially Friday in my little part of North America (which makes it my birthday), but Thursday was a quiet and enjoyable vacation day. Jennifer and I made a trip to Sam's Cub, and then settled down to watch the last of season 2 of The Bletchley Circle. We've really enjoyed this show, and are unhappy that ITV have decided to discontinue it. So, if you are in an area of the world where you might have some influence on ITV, please let them know that viewers are disappointed in ITV's decision to cancel the show.
Fast forward to Saturday. Even though its quite the norm for me to start a blog on one day, and finish it over the course of a few days, this blog is exceptional. The original title was "Easy Access? I think not". I changed it in commemoration of my birthday's power outage. Sep 5 2014- 12+ hour power outage. I could have had a nicer birthday, I suppose, like with the pizzas we had purchased for dinner and a freshly baked dessert which we had planned, but I'm chalking it up as a "win" as we had no damage to our home, no one was hurt, we lost no food, and we were able to start our emergency generator... for the first time in three years- with three year old gasoline!
When I was a youngster, birthdays were never a big deal. I'd get a cake, blow out candles while Papa and my grandparents sang "Happy Birthday", and opened up a few presents- generally socks and underwear (it was the start of the school year); there was generally a Lego set as well, so it wasn't a total wash.
Birthdays are still- for good or otherwise- "meh" days for me. Unless, of course, there is the opportunity to have a little fun or have a little adventure or some special food. The "unless" was supposed to have happened this year- my birthday is generally on or around Labor Day, and this year I was able to take the whole week off. I should have known not to get into too happy of a mood because about a month before my vacation, I was asked if I would be available to work on the 6th. Well, since I was taking the whole week off and really had no plans, I said sure, text me if you need me. Needless to say, I got the text saying we need you. So, Friday morning, Jennifer and I had been looking at some recipes for a nice baked fruit dessert. She had found a couple of nice apple dishes, and while she was off doing other things, I took a look at some recipes and found what look like a really neat blueberry cheesecake recipe; she looked at it and decided it sounded delicious, so we made a note of what we would need and headed off to the library and Shop and Save.
At the library, I picked up yet another book on Access 2007. I'm having a tooth-and-nail fight with Access, and so far Access is wining. One of the things I had hoped to accomplish this week was to create an Access form. Access and I go back a way- at least to the 2000 version and I've always been able to create rudimentary forms- with the wizards Micro$oft has these days, any fool can build a form in nothing flat- it's almost PowerPoint-like in its ease of creation. Of course, therein lies my boggle- any fool can create a form, but only a (cue the music- the frantically upbeat piano and Elton John breaking into a rousing chorus of "Dee Bee Wizard") database wizard can create a form that is functional, easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. I'm pretty good at visualizing and creating tables that are normalized out of the gate, so to speak, and I'm not bad at creating simple queries. The problem is I've never had a need to create forms.
I digress. We finished up at the library, and as we exited the building, we saw the sky to the north was quite dark; the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped. We walked back to Meerkat, and Jennifer suggested we park in the Municipal Garage. We were within steps of the Shop and Save entrance when the rain started. By the time we were inside, the torrents had were upon the store. The rain stopped before we finished our shopping, and when we got home at around 1530, Mr. T informed us that the power had been out since 1500. The refrigerated food got put away, and we waited.
As daylight waned, I grabbed a quick nap, and then headed off to Sam's Club- mostly to give Daniel a ride home, but also to pick up a few lights and a few bags of ice. A few weeks back, we saw these rectangular, battery powered motion-sensing lights at Sam's. We picked up a few and mounted them to the rafters in and close to the Secret Underground Lair. The SUL is typically occupied at least 12 hours per day, and generally two overhead lights are burning all of the time. With these motion-sensing lights,the overhead lights are only on when they need be. However, as they are battery powered and switchable to motion-sensing or ON and they are portable, we made extensive use of them during the power outage.
At around 2030, we fired up the generator. We had purchased it three years ago after another massive storm had ripped through our neighborhood. A word to the wise: if you have a piece of emergency/fail-safe equipment, take some time to practice setting it up and using it: it only took Jennifer and I ~five minutes to get it up and running, but it would have only been ~a minute if we had set the gasoline (petrol) petcock correctly. After that, the only other incident we had was when the sump pump started the first time on generator, it tripped the breaker. I switched out the power strip that might have caused the problem, and we were golden until we shut it down.
Sorry, data fans- it just didn't happen. I hope you did enjoy my rousing little tale, though. Next time I hope to have some progress notes on the resurrected Forty-Two database (Keep calm and Query on?- I hadn't parodied that yet...!)
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
***Happy birthday, Yvonne! You're 30-something!
Showing posts with label Access 2007. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Access 2007. Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Wednesday night at the gym
Tuesday night I got called in to work fairly late, starting at 2100 and finishing up Wednesday morning at 0545- I wasn't kidding about working odd hours. As Jennifer and I had planned on a few errands in the morning, I decided to stay up until stay up until she got up. As I had gone in late, she seemed only slightly surprised to see me sitting at the computer when she emerged from the bedroom. I explained my thinking, and she agreed. She had a quick cup of coffee, and we took care of our errands. We got back, and I hopped in bed, emerging sometime around 1830.
I made a cup of tea and grabbed a yogurt out of the refrigerator, which has become my standard preworkout feeding routine. I think that after honey, strawberry is my favorite yogurt. As I mixed the strawberry into the Greek yogurt, though, I found that the yogurt had become frozen. As it is written on the internet, this gave me a sad. Undaunted, I mixed the strawberry into the yogurt as well as I could, but there was a stubborn block of yogurt ice that resisted all attempts at assimilation. Undaunted, but by now a bit hungrier, I grabbed a smallish saucepan and filled it about halfway with water. Next, I put the yogurt into a bowl, and place that in the saucepan which was now basking on the stove over a low fire. Then, I stirred.
I'm going to say one final thing about yogurt, and then it's off to the gym. Friends, if you're an amateur, leave the yogurt freezing to the yogurt freezing professionals. I did end up with yogurt, and it was pretty good, but instead of that smooth, pudding-like consistency I had expected, I ended up with a dairy product that bore a certain similarity to cottage cheese. Here in the United States, cottage cheese generally is available as a large curd or a small curd product. The best way to describe my yogurt was nano curd: a great deal of liquid had been separated from the solids, and those solids can best be described as curds: not unpleasant. Just unexpected and odd.
Jennifer told me that she had already gotten her workout for the day done (we have an elliptical and some free weights in the basement). It was around 2000 by the time I was ready to hit the gym- I asked if she'd like to come as it was my cardio (track) day. She said, "sure", and so we got our gym duds, grabbed our bags and drove off into the night to the gym. We arrived, got our towels from the attendant, and went off to our separate-but-equal locker facilities and changed into workout shoes.
The park district's rec center has a very nice outdoor track with .5 and .75 mile courses, and the longer one loops around a pond. I like to use this track on Sundays and on evenings when I don't work in the summer. However, its officially autumn here, and the sun is down fairly early so Sundays are the only times I have to use it now. For all of those other times, there is the indoor track.
The indoor track is very nice- it has a joint friendly rubber-like surface with three lanes, one each dedicated to walkers, joggers and runners. Its like a balcony above the two basketball courts, with netting which allows for safely viewing the courts without falling on to them or getting struck by errant basketballs. The thing that is peculiar about the track is the length: 1/11 of a mile. There was a basketball game going on this evening when we were there, and some of the fellas had some pretty good shots, which made the walk a bit more interesting. When I finally finished, Jennifer informed me that I had taken an extra lap, so I ended up with twenty-three... I've got to figure how the lap function on my watch works!
Its been some time, but I finally have some database news. While thinking about this blog, I had some time to work on the database today. I started populating a table that's been sitting empty for some time, and in the midst of data entry I had an idea which sounded good at the time. I quickly created another table, put some data in it and saved it. Next, I went back to the other table and created a lookup and saved it, then went back to data entry. After only a few entries, it hit me that the lookup was not only unnecessary, it was also potentially creating a small mess. I should have tested it before creating it, especially as Access forces the DBA to save whenever changes to a table's design are made. I deleted the relationship and the lookup, and all is good again. One more table and a little more data.
That's all for now. As Always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
I made a cup of tea and grabbed a yogurt out of the refrigerator, which has become my standard preworkout feeding routine. I think that after honey, strawberry is my favorite yogurt. As I mixed the strawberry into the Greek yogurt, though, I found that the yogurt had become frozen. As it is written on the internet, this gave me a sad. Undaunted, I mixed the strawberry into the yogurt as well as I could, but there was a stubborn block of yogurt ice that resisted all attempts at assimilation. Undaunted, but by now a bit hungrier, I grabbed a smallish saucepan and filled it about halfway with water. Next, I put the yogurt into a bowl, and place that in the saucepan which was now basking on the stove over a low fire. Then, I stirred.
I'm going to say one final thing about yogurt, and then it's off to the gym. Friends, if you're an amateur, leave the yogurt freezing to the yogurt freezing professionals. I did end up with yogurt, and it was pretty good, but instead of that smooth, pudding-like consistency I had expected, I ended up with a dairy product that bore a certain similarity to cottage cheese. Here in the United States, cottage cheese generally is available as a large curd or a small curd product. The best way to describe my yogurt was nano curd: a great deal of liquid had been separated from the solids, and those solids can best be described as curds: not unpleasant. Just unexpected and odd.
Jennifer told me that she had already gotten her workout for the day done (we have an elliptical and some free weights in the basement). It was around 2000 by the time I was ready to hit the gym- I asked if she'd like to come as it was my cardio (track) day. She said, "sure", and so we got our gym duds, grabbed our bags and drove off into the night to the gym. We arrived, got our towels from the attendant, and went off to our separate-but-equal locker facilities and changed into workout shoes.
The park district's rec center has a very nice outdoor track with .5 and .75 mile courses, and the longer one loops around a pond. I like to use this track on Sundays and on evenings when I don't work in the summer. However, its officially autumn here, and the sun is down fairly early so Sundays are the only times I have to use it now. For all of those other times, there is the indoor track.
The indoor track is very nice- it has a joint friendly rubber-like surface with three lanes, one each dedicated to walkers, joggers and runners. Its like a balcony above the two basketball courts, with netting which allows for safely viewing the courts without falling on to them or getting struck by errant basketballs. The thing that is peculiar about the track is the length: 1/11 of a mile. There was a basketball game going on this evening when we were there, and some of the fellas had some pretty good shots, which made the walk a bit more interesting. When I finally finished, Jennifer informed me that I had taken an extra lap, so I ended up with twenty-three... I've got to figure how the lap function on my watch works!
Its been some time, but I finally have some database news. While thinking about this blog, I had some time to work on the database today. I started populating a table that's been sitting empty for some time, and in the midst of data entry I had an idea which sounded good at the time. I quickly created another table, put some data in it and saved it. Next, I went back to the other table and created a lookup and saved it, then went back to data entry. After only a few entries, it hit me that the lookup was not only unnecessary, it was also potentially creating a small mess. I should have tested it before creating it, especially as Access forces the DBA to save whenever changes to a table's design are made. I deleted the relationship and the lookup, and all is good again. One more table and a little more data.
That's all for now. As Always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
#notsobigdata- an epiphany of sorts
I recall writing recently that I was going to lay off of the data-focused posts for a bit and get back to the format of life in and around the Secret Underground Lair for a bit. I was even ready to go with a new topic, a music topic that is near and dear to my heart: why did (fill in the name of a popular and talented musical artist- singer or band) record that atrocity? Furthermore, why did it sell and why did it receive massive airplay? Alas, that will have to wait for another day, because I had one of those moments, and now the Secret Underground Lair's Data Vault will never be the same.
As I had briefly mentioned in an earlier blog, I had updated a table which had the effect of blowing out all of my queries. This is not important right now, as the total amount of data is still under 5Mb(!) and there are still fewer than 900 records in the main data table. For the purpose of updating this table, though, I decided to make a query which would simply list movie titles and formats. So, I sat down with the query wizard and proceeded to make a simple query which would output an alpha list of only movies, as well as their formats.
Simple, right? Muahaha, I guess the air in the Secret Underground Lair was a bit thin when I tried to do this, because I kept on trying the same thing and I kept on getting the same error. Suddenly, as I was staring at the Criteria in Design View, it hit me: it was not working because when I tried to run with the criterion I had selected, the criterion was not recognized. In plain English, I wanted what I thought was data, but Access interpreted it as a displayed name.
Since there are only two pieces of data in the table, I figured out that Access wanted to see the record's autonumber rather than the name displayed in the target table. I switched the so that Criteria==9 (where 9==the record number of the piece of data that I actually wanted to use), and it worked. Which means, if I'm feeling adventurous, I'll save a copy of the database and figure out how the relationships are set up, and then correct so they are pointing to the desired field in the source table. Then, I will eliminate the autonumber field, setting up the only remaining data as the primary key.This will lighten the database a bit, and make it much easier to write queries, as the criteria will all be in plain English. And going forward, all new single field tables will not have an autonumber.
Next time, I'll try to get those songs out, as well as an idea for a relatively ultralight database that I had some ideas about. Until then,...
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
As I had briefly mentioned in an earlier blog, I had updated a table which had the effect of blowing out all of my queries. This is not important right now, as the total amount of data is still under 5Mb(!) and there are still fewer than 900 records in the main data table. For the purpose of updating this table, though, I decided to make a query which would simply list movie titles and formats. So, I sat down with the query wizard and proceeded to make a simple query which would output an alpha list of only movies, as well as their formats.
Simple, right? Muahaha, I guess the air in the Secret Underground Lair was a bit thin when I tried to do this, because I kept on trying the same thing and I kept on getting the same error. Suddenly, as I was staring at the Criteria in Design View, it hit me: it was not working because when I tried to run with the criterion I had selected, the criterion was not recognized. In plain English, I wanted what I thought was data, but Access interpreted it as a displayed name.
Since there are only two pieces of data in the table, I figured out that Access wanted to see the record's autonumber rather than the name displayed in the target table. I switched the so that Criteria==9 (where 9==the record number of the piece of data that I actually wanted to use), and it worked. Which means, if I'm feeling adventurous, I'll save a copy of the database and figure out how the relationships are set up, and then correct so they are pointing to the desired field in the source table. Then, I will eliminate the autonumber field, setting up the only remaining data as the primary key.This will lighten the database a bit, and make it much easier to write queries, as the criteria will all be in plain English. And going forward, all new single field tables will not have an autonumber.
Next time, I'll try to get those songs out, as well as an idea for a relatively ultralight database that I had some ideas about. Until then,...
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Friday, March 22, 2013
News from the home front
I found myself with an unexpected night off, so I set to a task which I've been wanting to tackle for some time: doing a bit of organizing in the basement. Part of it was my mess, and the other part wasn't really "mess"; rather, it was a bit of consolidation of some grocery items. I had a vague plan when I started out, and it came together with hardly a hitch. I did discover one thing which I had suspected but had never known for certain- that is, the ends of fridge packs (a long cardboard box containing soda cans arranged 2x6) are not square on the ends! Armed with this new-found knowledge, I did just a tiny bit or rearranging and I had very neat bunch of soda. Its always nice when one can scratch an item off of the "honey-do" list, even if that list is only in your mind, and its what you think your honey wants done.
Another item, and this one was on the "real" honey-do list, was installing two software packages on Jennifer's PC. I should probably explain a bit about the division of labor in our home. While she is completely capable of doing all sorts of things to and on her PC, it is within my bailiwick to maintain, upgrade, service and have the final purchase responsibility of all things PC (we're talking personal computer here, not something else). So, I put the software into the optical drive and the software started to do its thing. This was not an ugly or painful install, with constant user intervention; no, rather, it was a lengthy install- close to forty-five minutes, which surprised both of us. A few days later, I tackled the second software package. And, in case anyone is wondering, these two truly qualified as packages, having many capabilities and being quite multifaceted- one was a home graphics suite, and the other was an optical disk/data management package. Whereas the first one was simply the digital equivalent of watching paint dry, the second one was straight out of Reboot City. I think there were three reboots, but who's counting?
I inserted the disk into the drive, and immediately our Avira antivirus decided it was time for an update. Stuck between a rock and a digital hard place, I clicked "Okay" and Avira updated. This did not seem to interfere with the installation- it just added time to the process. A lot of time when one is watching a progress bar. Finally, it was done. I turned my full attention to my installation, and the install manager informed me that before proceeding, I would need to get the latest updates to the program. No biggie- sometimes the updates occur during the install, sometimes when it is finished. Okay, let's get the updates and get this puppy installed. A web browser opens, and I an informed that, before I can get the updates, I need to update Java.
Aaaaarrrrggghh!
Have you seen Iron Man 2? He has a cameo. He's something of a Silicon Valley bad boy, as well as the CEO of Oracle Corp. Who is he? Why, Larry Ellison, of course. Oracle is one of the world's enterprise database powers, and Larry is The Man At Oracle. They also are the folks behind Java ("write once, run anywhere"). Well, a few weeks back, a Java security hole was announced, and all of the I.T. pundits, gurus and masterminds said either get rid of Java or don't update, as the patch seemed to make things even worse. Being an on-top-of-it semi-I.T. gonk, I heeded the advice and did absolutely nothing with Java.
Until I needed to install this software. You see, Java is used by a lot of other applications, like the one I needed to get my updates. So, ... I updated Java. As far as I know, nothing bad happened, and the world is still spinning in its customary orbit. I finally got my updates, and a reboot or two later, I tested the program. All was good.
Finally, after a week, the database is officially an Access 2007 endeavor. I've only done a little with it since then- nothing new, just updating the titles from the new table. I think I'm going to put all data entry aside until I get this part of the project completed, as it is normalization related.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Another item, and this one was on the "real" honey-do list, was installing two software packages on Jennifer's PC. I should probably explain a bit about the division of labor in our home. While she is completely capable of doing all sorts of things to and on her PC, it is within my bailiwick to maintain, upgrade, service and have the final purchase responsibility of all things PC (we're talking personal computer here, not something else). So, I put the software into the optical drive and the software started to do its thing. This was not an ugly or painful install, with constant user intervention; no, rather, it was a lengthy install- close to forty-five minutes, which surprised both of us. A few days later, I tackled the second software package. And, in case anyone is wondering, these two truly qualified as packages, having many capabilities and being quite multifaceted- one was a home graphics suite, and the other was an optical disk/data management package. Whereas the first one was simply the digital equivalent of watching paint dry, the second one was straight out of Reboot City. I think there were three reboots, but who's counting?
I inserted the disk into the drive, and immediately our Avira antivirus decided it was time for an update. Stuck between a rock and a digital hard place, I clicked "Okay" and Avira updated. This did not seem to interfere with the installation- it just added time to the process. A lot of time when one is watching a progress bar. Finally, it was done. I turned my full attention to my installation, and the install manager informed me that before proceeding, I would need to get the latest updates to the program. No biggie- sometimes the updates occur during the install, sometimes when it is finished. Okay, let's get the updates and get this puppy installed. A web browser opens, and I an informed that, before I can get the updates, I need to update Java.
Aaaaarrrrggghh!
Have you seen Iron Man 2? He has a cameo. He's something of a Silicon Valley bad boy, as well as the CEO of Oracle Corp. Who is he? Why, Larry Ellison, of course. Oracle is one of the world's enterprise database powers, and Larry is The Man At Oracle. They also are the folks behind Java ("write once, run anywhere"). Well, a few weeks back, a Java security hole was announced, and all of the I.T. pundits, gurus and masterminds said either get rid of Java or don't update, as the patch seemed to make things even worse. Being an on-top-of-it semi-I.T. gonk, I heeded the advice and did absolutely nothing with Java.
Until I needed to install this software. You see, Java is used by a lot of other applications, like the one I needed to get my updates. So, ... I updated Java. As far as I know, nothing bad happened, and the world is still spinning in its customary orbit. I finally got my updates, and a reboot or two later, I tested the program. All was good.
Finally, after a week, the database is officially an Access 2007 endeavor. I've only done a little with it since then- nothing new, just updating the titles from the new table. I think I'm going to put all data entry aside until I get this part of the project completed, as it is normalization related.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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