Access Web Databases Inhale Fecal Matter

Once upon a time Access and Sharepoint got together at a party. They got really drunk. REALLY DRUNK. 1 month later, Access realized she had a problem. So, she got drunk again.

8 months of drinking later (there had to have been a lot of alcohol involved) out came Access Web databases. Sort of looking like an Access database, and relying on Sharepoint for child support (though Sharepoint tries to claim it had nothing to do with the matter) Web Databases limp around with one leg too short, and its arm sticking out of its head.

Seriously... If you're going to release a product to bridge two worlds, at least let it resemble a bridge.

We all want to be Happy...

There are different ways to be happy. I like to classify them in two ways:
Fun and Satisfaction

Fun is truly a roller coaster. It seems that for every up fun gives you there is a down. You have a party... you have to clean up when everybody goes home. Summer fun... fades to autumn.

Satisfaction comes from a job well done, a life well lived, and friends to share it with. It comes from a life full of purpose and accomplishment.

The world tells us that we evolved, and as such, the only time we have is now. This begets a life of 'fun', trying to get all you can while you can.

This is sad, since a life of satisfaction can be so much fuller. Many people have been discouraged by things such as religion when they see the hypocrisy that is so prevalent. And they're right to be upset. Most religions preach traditions that have no factual basis, and drift over time, offering no lasting foundation.

So, if satisfaction is so much better, how can we find it?
It may be time to look a little deeper into a subject many find uncomfortable:
Does the Universe Have a Purpose?

Don't use Wachovia

If you use software like Microsoft Money or Quicken, don't use Wachovia bank. They charge $5.95 a month for your software to automatically download your financial information. This action costs them nothing more. It's actually better for them than you going to their website. But they feel the need to charge you. (I use ING/Sharebuilder for brokerage services, Citizens bank, and Fredericksburg Bank, none of which charge me a fee for the same thing.)

Another reason not to use Wachovia? My wife went in to make a deposit, and they switched us to new accounts. We ended up getting two!!! new checking accounts, for a total of 3, and then they split our money in between them, making us have to figure out, where our money is before we can make purchases.

I've now been on hold with them for 17 minutes... and this is the second call of the day. The first time was asking about the $5.95 charge... which they told me was coming from my software company. The second call finally told me that this WAS a Wachovia charge, NOT my software company. But they had to transfer me to get it taken off.

We will be switching banks, SOON!

An update! How quaint!

First, I've added a Facebook badge to this blog. (It's over there on the left with my picture.) For those of you that use Facebook, you can friend me. If you don't use Facebook, no rush... don't worry about it.

What's been happening? Well, we moved. Bought a house. Started getting it settled. Spring is coming, and so is yard work. It's about time, we're eager to get out in the fresh air after a winter of 'nesting'.

For the technical...
My linux server, running on an 800MHz CPU was finally dying. It seems that one-by-one all of my systems have been crashing lately. It's fine, it's good to start fresh again. I had another box somebody was getting rid of, with a faster AMD processor, and put the newest version of Ubuntu on it. It's already running.

But I moved my site, http://www.greatwhitedata.com/ to my Windows server for the time being. I'm running WAMP (Windows Apache mySql PHP) on it. Wow! It was actually pretty easy, just copy the site folder over and set up the virtual server in Apache.

I'll try to post more here soon.

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Updates... at long last

Well, we certainly have had a lot going on, namely, we bought a house. Hadn't really been planning on it, but we saw it, we went for a showing, and the price was right, really really right.

Once we signed the paperwork... (some poor tree gave it's life for all that paperwork) we had work to do.

First paint... since we were going to pull out the carpets... we started with paint.

Then the carport roof needed to be redone. We started out just doing the roofing, but when we got underneath, and saw how bad the wood was, we had to replace that too.

Then we went back inside. We had to take the carpet out of the main floor... bedrooms, living room, bathroom, dining room. Underneath are hardwood floors. (Except for dining room and bathroom.) These had stains that needed to be sanded out... this turned into a 4 day project... with follow-up coats of polyurethane.

After that was move in day. We had been taking boxes and small items, so all that was left were the larger pieces of furniture. With our 26' truck, we loaded up! 2 hours to load, and 1 to unload. It's great to have a plan and be organized.

The kitchen/dining room and bathroom still need the vinyl flooring put down, but most of the rooms are functional. Then we have to go to the basement and organize all the boxes and piles of stuff that have been deposited there.

Here and there I'll work on moving the stones from around the house to the driveway area to extend that for the trailer.

In the spring we can open up the pool!!!

So, that's what we've been up to. How about you?

For pictures, you can check out my FaceBook page. Yes... I have a Facebook account... it's an easy way to keep in touch with much of my family and several out of state friends. And a good spot for pics.
http://www.facebook.com/mark.kenyon2?ref=name

Stupid Japanese Spammers

I deleted a post. Not an important post, but I don't like to delete my stuff. I did so because a spammer kept trying to post comments to it. I don't know why a picture of a cute dog missing 2 legs invited dirty spam, but I think it means we're living in a sick world. Can't wait for the New World.

In other news... we're buying a house!!! Waiting for radon inspection report right now. We should be moving in November or so.

We're still planning on one more camping trip this year. But then I'll be able to store the popup at our house!

Is mobile computing the end of business VPNs and IT necessity?

Phil has an interesting thought about the future of corporate IT. Take a look:
http://www.phillk.net/b2/?p=215