Friday, August 16, 2002

Missing records in Access 2000 link to dbase table. Big problems here at work because we discovered that when you use MS Access to link to a dbase table, you don't get all the records expected.  This is because the dbase table in question (reccatch)  was indexed with a unique index.  When Access encounters this it only grabs those records that are unique in the field with the index.  So our dbase table had a unique index on the Lake ID (D.O.W. number) field even though there are a lot of cases where there are several records with the same Lake ID (D.O.W. number) .  Right now we have fisheries biologists all over the state using Access to get into their dbase tables and there is no warning to tell them that they are not getting all the records they expect.  There is more information here.  Of course, this will all be fixed when we get the new program up and running in by the drop dead date of February 12, 2055.  11:55:28 AM    comment []

XP We got a new computer with XP installed.  I have resisted an upgrade since 1998. In 1997 I spent about $3000 on what was then high end with a 233 chip with 64 MB RAM.  The new computer has a chip that is 8 times as fast and almost 10 times as much RAM and was about 1/3 the price.  We were still running Win95 and would have continued to do so happily except that Kate took an MS Access 2002 class ( Science Museum of Minnesota - they have great classes) and needs to be compatible with her work computer.  XP would not have run well on our existing machine.  The first thing I did when I turned it on is change all the desktops and menus back to "Windows Classic".  So now I have an extra computer to install Linux and perhaps set up a home network.  Windows Product Activation.   What other choice do I have?  I would have loved to buy a Macintosh but since they didn't have Access, we couldn't go there.  Kate and I both need Access for work.  11:30:02 AM    comment []