Connecticut Access User Group (CTAUG)

 
June
2009 Meeting:   Meeting as usual: June 10, 2009

Date: Wednesday, June 10 - 5:30PM to 8:30 PM
Where: Microsoft Corporation, 74 Batterson Park Road, Pondview Corporate Center, Farmington, CT

 

PRESENTATIONS: 

This month we continue to discuss the future of our group.  I (your president) continue to experience a minor medical problem (expected to correct itself in the next few months but not sure when) that has me running at half speed.  ! I had already planned to step down as president by July 2009.   So the group has some choices to make..
 
Based of last month's discussion, there is much interest in an "Access" group, despite Microsoft's apparent wish to migrate us to other of their products.  And many of us do acknowledge the need, for example, to become more familiar with Access over the Web, and several of us are already working quite hard on this.  Access, especially when coupled with VBA, is a wonderfully powerful and flexible tool capable of doing much to grow and expand as times change.   As Ed O'Reilly says, we are primarily "problem solvers" willing to use Access, or Access in combination with other tools, as appropriate.   Etc.. 
 
Jeff Berson will show us and explain an application he has been working on recently. 
  
Upcoming:
Pat Hartman has more or less given up on hosting a DB on GoDaddy, saying the product is not really set up to host databases.  She will continue sharing her experiences with hosting them on the Web at future meetings.

 
Ed O'Reilly has been working on accessing data on the Web using Access.  Ed has already showed us some of this, hopefully he'll show more at a future meeting. 
 
Leland Prior will show us how the creation of a form in dot NET differs from creating a similar form in Access. 
 
Lately, several technical questions have been addressed on the forum our that comes along with our Yahoo tech EMail list.  This trend will continue..  We may also start broadcasting our meetings, if there's sufficient interest.  (Some of our attendees have already proposed some solutions to this.. )  

As always, let the scheduler know if you have a suggestion for a presentation, and better yet, if you'd like to present something.  If the latter, your presentation can be long or short, need not be polished, can solicit solutions to problems from the audience, etc.  Our motto: Everybody Learns!  
 

 As always, let James know if you have a suggestion for a presentation, and better yet, if you'd like to present something.  If the latter, your presentation can be long or short, need not be polished, can solicit solutions to problems from the audience, etc.  Our motto: Everybody Learns! 

ANNOUNCEMENTS, INTROS, Q&A, PUZZLERS, QUERY DEMOS, ETC.:

Someone asked about apparent problems in running Access 2007 and Access 2003 on the same machine.  Pat Hartman advised that this can indeed cause problems, because the two installations are not well differentiated in the Windows registry.  Whichever version was installed last usually takes precedence.  This problem is even worse in Vista than in XP. 

We also discussed current recommendations to someone in the market for a "desktop replacement" laptop computer.   Pros and con's of various configurations were discussed.  Pat Hartman noted that Vista has a built-in feature which tests various aspects of the computer on which it is installed, and highlights any bottlenecks.  From Control Panel select "System Maintenance" then "System" then "Check your computer's Windows experience".  Windows Vista will perform tests and present performance scores for components such as the processor, RAM, Graphics adapter, and hard drives. 
 
Ed O'Reilly demo'd "Xobni" an add-in for Outlook that he uses and recommends. It keeps track of the EMail database in several ways.  For example, it instantly links, using the distribution lists, past EMails to the one you are currently reading.  Xobni is fast and it's free! 

 

Each month we strive to present material of interest to Microsoft Access users and developers of varying experience: beginner to advanced, hobbyist to professional. Meetings consist of one or more formal presentations.  Also, attendees are invited to bring a problem or question about Access, relational database design, queries, VBA programming, etc., to challenge the expertise of our members. 

 

MONTHLY MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT:

Microsoft's Farmington Connecticut office
Located at "Pond View"
74 Batterson Park Rd.    (near I-84, exit 37)

 Meetings are free, and open to anyone interested in Microsoft Access and related topics.

(Please forward or publicize this information to others who may be interested.)

 APPROXIMATE SCHEDULE:

  • 5:30 - 6:00 PM:
    Informal networking/socializing, laptop setup, wireless login, etc.. 

  •  6:00 PM:
    Begin formal meeting
        - Welcome and CTAUG Announcements
        - Attendee Info Sharing (industry news, jobs offered or needed, educational opportunities, etc.)
        - Introductions
        - Technical Questions and Problems from Attendees are Invited
        - Finalize meeting agenda

  •  6:15 PM:
    Begin major presentations, Show&Tells, Attendees assist attendees with technical questions, Query Demos, etc.

  •  8:15 PM:
    Approx ending time.  Raffle/Prizes (if any)
        - Continue networking/socializing/working on technical problems for a few minutes
        - Straighten up the meeting room, etc..  

Recap of our Wednesday February 11, 2009 Meeting.
As recorded by James King
We met on our usual 2nd Wednesday of the month.
 
ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS:
There were 7 attendees at the meeting.
 
Snacks:
Thanks to all those who bring refreshments to our meetings! 
If you can help out, please contact James King or Eddie O'Reilly.
  -  Leland Prior brought snacks
  -  James King next time.

MAIN PRESENTATION(S):  
 
Clarence Mayott presented an interesting overview of patents.  A few highlights:  Patents are quite complex, being side-by-side legal and technical documents, made even more complex by incorporating chains of references to other patents and to journal articles.  Their importance in preserving the intellectual property rights (and thus the incentives to invest and take risks) of inventors and entrepreneurs is recognized in Article 1, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution.   Patents are sometimes written to be intentionally opaque as a further way of preserving trade secrets beyond the (limited) power of the patent to do so.  Patents' inherent complexity as well as their intentional opaqueness complicates the work of researching patents, which is done in an attempt to avoid patent infringements, and also to learn trade secrets and to keep abreast of the activities of one's competitors.  Clarence demo'd "Patent Analytics", an Access application that assists in researching patents.  Among other things it produces many nice-looking pie and bar charts that, for example, can show the changes over time in the patent portfolios of all the major players in an industry. 

 
Dick Gingras demo'd 6 utilities: Total Access Analyzer, 7-Zip, MouseHook, MS Virtual PC 2007, Find and Replace 9.0, and PDF ReDirect.  (Dick's handout describes each utility, provides links for downloading some of them, and is available at our Yahoo group site.)  Dick had a frustrating time getting his new laptop to work right because he was attempting to run the utilities within a 32-bit Windows XP virtual PC, running on 64-bit Vista.  The verdict?  That Configuration Is Not Recommended!  
 
LINKS RELEVANT TO TOPICS DISCUSSED:
 
Our 'ctaug' Yahoo tech group (sample apps, PowerPoint presentations, etc.):
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ctaug/ 
 
Dick Gingras' handout on utilities is available at the tech group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ctaug/files/
  
THE WRAP-UP: 
No raffle this time.
 
A number of attendees continued exchanging information about Access problems, "how to's", etc., before exiting.  
     

 LINKS RELEVANT TO TOPICS DISCUSSED: 
 Our 'ctaug' Yahoo tech group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ctaug/  
 

PLEASE JOIN OUR 'CTAUG' YAHOO! TECH GROUP:

If you have not already done so, please join our 'ctaug' Yahoo! group:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ctaug/ 

 One way of joining is to send an EMail to this address:

ctaug-subscribe@yahoogroups.com 

 Once you become a member, you will be notified of (and can yourself post), information that is of particular interest to the CTAUG membership.  Examples would include job opportunity postings, answers to questions that came up at a recent meeting, handouts and sample databases from presentations at past meetings, etc. 

 Eventually, most of our communications will be sent out via the Yahoo group's email list.. 

  NOTE ON GETTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT FROM THE GROUP:

If you have a question or problem in one of our areas of interest (Access, VBA, SQL, database design, etc.) that's been bedeviling you, perhaps a fellow attendee can help.  You are invited to bring your problem code or database on removable media, or pre-upload it onto our Yahoo! "ctaug" group site, so we can have access to it during the meeting.  If it's something that might take more than, say, 20 minutes to work through, try to let me know ahead of time and perhaps we can schedule one of our more knowledgeable members to do a somewhat formal presentation on the topic. 

 WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS DURING THE MEETING:

If  you will be attending the upcoming meeting and wish to have wireless Internet access, please communicate that to Hillary Williams, the receptionist at the Farmington office (v-hillw@microsoft.com).  (Do this at least a few days before the meeting.)

 The procedure varies slightly, depending on your situation: 

A) If your info has already been entered into the system, just send Hillary a quick EMail identifying yourself as a CTAUG member and requesting that your access be renewed for the upcoming meeting. 

B) If your info is NOT already in the system, send Hillary your request for wireless access at the CTAUG meeting and provide the following information: 

Your EMail address,

Your first name,

Your last name, 

CTAUG's Microsoft sponsor's "alias", which is "CBOWEN",

The date wireless access is to start (date of the meeting),

The date wireless access is to end (access is assumed to be for one day unless otherwise requested)

 Don't hesitate to contact me with suggestions, errors, omissions, changes, etc.  See you at the meeting!  

 Best Regards,     --  James

 James King,  CTAUG President

jimmiejo@msn.com

(860) 677 - 2269

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Other Topics: We are always looking for CtAUG Members to talk about some of the projects they are working on.  Our members' skills run the gamut from beginner to expert, so you will always have an audience.

Got a Problem? Bring your ACCESS and VB questions to the meeting and let our experts have a shot at them.  You can use our Meeting PC or bring your application along in a Laptop PC.