July 2009
37 posts
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Access to Access
Today is officially my final day with the database. It was originally just two weeks, then was extended to four at the last minute. As of tody, my last day, I already know that I’m in again tomorrow (on my day off) and 28 August.
The changes that are going live on 28 August still need to be written so that’ll be another couple of days somewhere.
Then, the woman in charge of...
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“Causing and error like the one at the weekend: £36,400
Getting the database...”
– Me on the amount of money I saved the company this week. £36,400 if I hadn’t been around to sort it out.
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Day 14 In The Big Database House
After working late (very late) last night to fix the database ready for an overnight run of updates and reports, I went in early today to make sure there were no more problems and iron out the final few nicks.
It turns out there were more than a final few nicks.. There was one major problem that has been there since APRIL!
Each month, every customer facing employee is given a grade. The grade...
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Days Like These
I got home late and didn’t get to bed until after midnight. Then my daughter walks into the room at 5.30 wanting a drink.
No chance of getting back to sleep now, every time I try this cough pops up again.
Well, I was wrong, I slept for the final 15 minutes before my alarm!
I hope today is a much smoother day that yesterday. Hopefully I’ll get home from work at a reasonable time...
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Sometimes Things Don't Go To Plan
And some things do…
On Friday I predicted the database would fall over winthin 24 hours. On Saturday it did.
It got it running again this afternoon. 72 hours of downtime and between 800-1200 records that couldn’t be logged.
Only when it came back up was it spotted that five weeks worth of data was missing. Literally thousands of records.
The IT guys did all they could to say...
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Keep Up With My Twitter Feed
Just click on the little birdie at the bottom right to keep in touch with my twitter feed via this website.
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Clock Watching
I think that’s going to be today’s theme…
I was up at 4am, back to bed by 5 (just long enough to watch the sunrise), beacuse of this damned cough waking me up and keeping me awake.
I’m clock watching now because my youngest daughter is still asleep (I’m about to wake her up for some breakfast) and we’ve got to go out in under two hours. To work.
The way...
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“I watched 30 seconds of that video and gave up!”
– My wife on Down With The Sickness
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“Reminds me of the end of the world”
– eso.tericcc on flickr.com - funny, I don’t remember the end of the world happening yet?
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Direction
Well, I’ve figured out a plan for my final week’s work on this analysis..
I’m going to mockup the new table, form and report changes that are needed. They won’t go live until 1 September but WW will want to see them working when she gets back.
I’m also going to give her a report on numbers as far as the current table structure will allow…
As for the rest of...
How it actually went...
Tony: Are you expecting these changes to be live by 1 August?
RF: No, the new stats will be used by 1 August but we're using a workaround until 1 September. Your changes will have to be signed off by WW and MB.
Tony: Right, and the new scores?
RF: Sure, they're like this..[scores]
Tony: Do they need to be live on 1 August?
RF: Yes they do, but WW was going to change them on 3 August
Tony: Thats two days late though, shall I change them on 1st for you?
RF: Yeah if you can do. Do you know about the new call values as well?
Tony: Sure, this has changed...
RF: Ah, but so much more has changed too, all these [passes over a list]
Tony: Let me guess, 1 August right?
RF: Yes, if you can
Tony: And these codes... I suppose you need them as per this list you've already distributed?
RF: Yes, they have to be exactly the same
Tony: That's not going to happen unless you corrupt the last 3 1/2 years data..
RF: Oh, ok well change them then..
Twitter @tonypreece
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Follow Me with Twitter →
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How it might go...
Tony: Are you expecting these changes to be live by 1 August?
RF: Yes, didn't W tell you that already?
Tony: No. I found out yesterday!
RF: Ah, can you get it ready for us?
Tony: Well, it's a big job....
RF: We've already told the business it's happening.
Tony: You told the business, but not the developer?
RF: Can you do it?
Tony: I think we need to discuss my salary....
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That Friday Feeling
Lots to do today, I have a meeting when I go in to find out what is actually going on with this database and see if there’s anything else I haven’t been told. Do I have to make live changes by 1 August, if so why wasn’t I told before?
If I do then there’s loads of work to do on that first, if not I’ve got a list of tasks I need to get through and about 4.5 hours to...
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Suggestions Required
I’m thinking of taking my camera and kids for a walk on Saturday morning. I need subject ideas for the photos, or a challenge to find a specific subject in a semi-rural area. Suggesstions please!
“We can’t do that, it’s impossible”
– The original db creator at work when he was asked for a minor enhancement
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Morning in my house
Milly: Which one is my Facebook?
Daddy: This one is mine and this one is yours.
Hannah: Up!
Milly: Which one is mums Facebook?
Daddy: This one
Hannah: Up!
Milly: Can I write "I love you mummy?"
Daddy: Of course
Hannah: Up!
Daddy: Say please
Hannah: Pweeeeese
Daddy: Good Girl
[short pause]
Daddy: DON'T DO THAT!
Milly: Sorry
Daddy: Go and watch Cbeebies
Hannah: Bye Bye!
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Is Reblog the answer?
Is Reblog the anser to writers block? If you can think of anything to write, just nick what somebody else has written, or stolen.
I look at this database sometimes and think that the creator must have known what he was doing to do it so well. Then I blink and look again, thinking ‘why did he do that?’
Why does a 4 digit code field allow 50 characters for one?
I’d love to go...
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Is Less More?
A couple of times off topic today, I’m branching out. So is that damn database though. I’ve just discovered another 50% of it thats hiding away in a seperate file. The db can exist without the extra portion, but the extra can’t exist without the db. So if I chance anything, it could potentially affect that. On the positive side though, there’s a few useful queries that I...
Police Dog Death PCs to be Charged →
Who would have thought the right decision would be made on this one!
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Apple vs PC?
Today I would have chosen apple, if the rain would ease and the garden wasn’t so wet! I’ll have to stick to my iPhone and get ready for work!
I've Started So I'll.....
Oh what a morning.
It has taken Hannah preceicely an hour and a half to stop crying and settle enough to eat her breakfast. Now anybody familiar with Shreddies will know that they don’t last that long in milk. They mash together, dry out and become quite disgusting! A little extra milk on top of the mash and she’s silent. Wow!
The db work has started for the day, I couldn’t do...
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Half Way There as Bon Jovi put it!
Living on a prayer….?
I’ve downloaded SQL Server 2008, Visual Web Developer 2008 and some other software. I’ve also created a mockup of the database structure (tables) in Access and am on my way to building a front end for it.
I found a really helpful walk through on the web and lost it again just as quick!
I’m leaving it for tomorrow though and am off out into Leeds...
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SQLASPHTMLDIY
Well, it doesn’t look like I’m going to get far with the IT department, so it’s a case of do it yourself. I’m just downloading SQL Server 2008 and looking for a decent free wysiwyg ASP editor do run some mockups over the weekend. Hopefully by Tuesday I’ll have a basic working db to show off, get plenty of support behind me and go in heavyweight to IT to get a proper...
“Is this some sort of hip music that I don’t understand?”
– Ugly Kid Joe - I Hate Everything About You
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Where to take it?
The database feeds other areas of the business. Did I mention this already? There are at least two areas that I’m aware of, who knows if there are more?
I need to set up meetings today with three people to discuss it all and how it affects their areas. I also need to speak to the IT Director to see what we might be able to do by way of using SQL Server or other software besides Access.
...
W: When will you be able to start showing me some results?
Me: It might take a little bit longer than two weeks to research, plan and build a mock-up..
W: Oh, I'll get you another week then.
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Research
Well, my two week research project has been doubled to four weeks. I’ve done as much actual database research as I can handle so far (although there’s a copule of boring data gathering things to do), so I’m going to turn my attention to two things.
1) User based research - I need to speak to a bunch of people to find out how they use the database and how any changes might affect...
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Memos
My 250,000 record database contains a memo field in each record. Lets assume 60% of them are populated, that’s 130,000.
Each populated memo holds one or more entities. Each entity contains an ID code and a description, ie “ID01 - The first entity in the list;”. My task today is to manipulate this in the best possible way.
I need to extract all the ID codes beginning with...
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3G1Y
My iPhone 3G is a year old today. Happy birthday!
Well actually, due to O2’s network problems on that oversubscribed Friday morning, I didn’t actually get my hands on it until the following day. The fresh, clean black box as within sight, but remained elusive as the store couldn’t complete the order on their systems and had to hold it until everything was working again!
So,...
Make that 125 SQL queries to get my head around
VBA, VBB, VBC...
I’ve been asked to take a look at an Access database at work that doesn’t work quite as well as they want it to.
It was created back in 2006 and is getting 60,000 records added each year. It was either created by somebody who was in a rush to provide results, or somebody that had just forgoten the basics.
I say that becuase there is some really powerful VBA (Visual Basic for...