I agree that the Access/Excel applications that I have seen have not been normalized and at times have produced wrong data due to the operator not knowing database design, but if you think of the vast numbers of access databases out there, you have to ask the question: Would we be better off with them or without them?
On the whole, I come down on the side that Access has been a net gain. Most of the smart businesses I have interacted with new when they had outgrown it.
What are the alternatives other than not having such a tool (this is not a rhetorical question)? Training perhaps? All the alternatives that surfaced during my tenure in IT could not be implemented by the user. If you are going to take away something, you have to have something to hand them in its place.
I think the comments here regarding access as being tinker toy software are off the mark. Access has enabled scores of people to solve problems and manage data themselves.
Sure, you can sit in your geek tower and laugh at the dolts that use Access every day to solve thousands of data management issues. A secretary can be trained to use Access to manage moderately complex data (the numbers on all the new telephones, people interviewed for specific positions and letters sent relative to those positions, products bid out and vendor responses and on and on and on).
Do you really propose that she/he write a web application for this? Or just hack up some Perl with mySQL to manage these things? Or whip out a bit of.NET code? Or would you rather they ask IT to develop and application to do these trivial things?
Access has solved real world problems for real people for a long long time and will continue to do so regardless of how data and/or system design snobs feel about it. It is an empowering piece of software. I think some of the attitudes here are IT centric and not in keeping with the real business end of most companies.
So, I have to wade through this PC crap while my 9 year old daughter can't search the net without hitting a pornographic site once a day? WTF?
So I have to watch out for Sesame Street, but things like "Ed, Edd and Eddie", "Power Rangers" and "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" are OK?
Our society is so twisted now. We have such extreme systems to rate and protect children for movies, books, video games and music, but the real entertainment engine they use, the net, is wide open. Fascinating.
The end of a trust relationship is not always the start of a relationship of distrust. It is more a neutral state in which you are no longer part of the team.
At some point you have to accept that you are not part of the family any more and that can come now or X weeks from now. Some employers elect now.
A sense of trust and loyalty between company and employer used to be common.
That sense of trust ends when you tell me you are leaving. Bottom line, you don't work here anymore and it is best for the moral of those that do that you leave now. Most of the comments here are from the employee's perspective, not that of the company or the manager/CEO. People leave because they have received a better offer or because they are unhappy. So I am faced with two weeks of bragging to the other staff or two weeks of pissing and moaning to the others staff. Gesh.
I don't support the "perp walk" unless the person has a bad attitude and is a clear threat to moral. I don't fear the "bragging" part as that is actually an incentive for everyone to be the best they can be and grow in their career path. However, keep in mind that if you resign, it is up to the employer if you remain for your notice and that is largely based on your attitude, disposition and to a certain degree how essential you are. If you get walked to the door, you can draw your own conclusions.
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I agree that the Access/Excel applications that I have seen have not been normalized and at times have produced wrong data due to the operator not knowing database design, but if you think of the vast numbers of access databases out there, you have to ask the question: Would we be better off with them or without them?
On the whole, I come down on the side that Access has been a net gain. Most of the smart businesses I have interacted with new when they had outgrown it.
What are the alternatives other than not having such a tool (this is not a rhetorical question)? Training perhaps? All the alternatives that surfaced during my tenure in IT could not be implemented by the user. If you are going to take away something, you have to have something to hand them in its place.
I think the comments here regarding access as being tinker toy software are off the mark. Access has enabled scores of people to solve problems and manage data themselves.
.NET code? Or would you rather they ask IT to develop and application to do these trivial things?
Sure, you can sit in your geek tower and laugh at the dolts that use Access every day to solve thousands of data management issues. A secretary can be trained to use Access to manage moderately complex data (the numbers on all the new telephones, people interviewed for specific positions and letters sent relative to those positions, products bid out and vendor responses and on and on and on).
Do you really propose that she/he write a web application for this? Or just hack up some Perl with mySQL to manage these things? Or whip out a bit of
Access has solved real world problems for real people for a long long time and will continue to do so regardless of how data and/or system design snobs feel about it. It is an empowering piece of software. I think some of the attitudes here are IT centric and not in keeping with the real business end of most companies.
So, I have to wade through this PC crap while my 9 year old daughter can't search the net without hitting a pornographic site once a day? WTF?
So I have to watch out for Sesame Street, but things like "Ed, Edd and Eddie", "Power Rangers" and "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" are OK?
Our society is so twisted now. We have such extreme systems to rate and protect children for movies, books, video games and music, but the real entertainment engine they use, the net, is wide open. Fascinating.
The end of a trust relationship is not always the start of a relationship of distrust. It is more a neutral state in which you are no longer part of the team. At some point you have to accept that you are not part of the family any more and that can come now or X weeks from now. Some employers elect now.
Well, perhaps we will see some humor in the new wave of phishing as they will all be delivered in Chinglish.
That sense of trust ends when you tell me you are leaving. Bottom line, you don't work here anymore and it is best for the moral of those that do that you leave now. Most of the comments here are from the employee's perspective, not that of the company or the manager/CEO. People leave because they have received a better offer or because they are unhappy. So I am faced with two weeks of bragging to the other staff or two weeks of pissing and moaning to the others staff. Gesh.
I don't support the "perp walk" unless the person has a bad attitude and is a clear threat to moral. I don't fear the "bragging" part as that is actually an incentive for everyone to be the best they can be and grow in their career path. However, keep in mind that if you resign, it is up to the employer if you remain for your notice and that is largely based on your attitude, disposition and to a certain degree how essential you are. If you get walked to the door, you can draw your own conclusions.