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computer issues: part infinity

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  • Re: computer issues: part infinity

    Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
    My employer takes part in the MS Home Use Program, so I have full MS Office at home.

    I'm thinking about making use of MS Access for tracking expenditures and setting a budget. My problem is that I'm not sure how I want to make the table structure. A parent-child relationship is a must, but I'm not certain on what the key fields should be and the joining value between tables.

    Expense categories are another thing. Do I establish a preordained list of values within a separate table, or keep it open and dynamic? There are benefits to both methods and it's been a bit of a stumbling block for me, a real pickle of a humdinger.
    When I'm designing a database, I usually lean toward the former. If there is a set of allowed values, the database should enforce that. I usually start with that in mind and only if there is a compelling reason do I go with something different. The next thing I usually find myself debating with myself over is whether I use a string or number based primary key in my lookup table.
    Last edited by GrinCDXX; 12-09-2015, 11:28 AM.

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    • Re: computer issues: part infinity

      Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
      My employer takes part in the MS Home Use Program, so I have full MS Office at home.

      I'm thinking about making use of MS Access for tracking expenditures and setting a budget. My problem is that I'm not sure how I want to make the table structure. A parent-child relationship is a must, but I'm not certain on what the key fields should be and the joining value between tables.

      Expense categories are another thing. Do I establish a preordained list of values within a separate table, or keep it open and dynamic? There are benefits to both methods and it's been a bit of a stumbling block for me, a real pickle of a humdinger.
      Buy Quicken. The $50 you spend will save you hundreds of hours...unless the point is that you *want* to spend hundreds of hours playing with Access and the budgeting is just an excuse to do so.
      If you don't change the world today, how can it be any better tomorrow?

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      • Re: computer issues: part infinity

        Originally posted by LynahFan View Post
        Buy Quicken. The $50 you spend will save you hundreds of hours...unless the point is that you *want* to spend hundreds of hours playing with Access and the budgeting is just an excuse to do so.
        I want to get more proficient in Access. My company uses it much more than it should, and I need to sharpen my skills.
        "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell, 1984

        "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." Boromir

        "Good news! We have a delivery." Professor Farnsworth

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        • Re: computer issues: part infinity

          Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
          I want to get more proficient in Access. My company uses it much more than it should, and I need to sharpen my skills.
          MS SQL Express is a better choice (and free). Even MySQL would be a better (free) choice.

          MS Access is just miserable.
          The preceding post may contain trigger words and is not safe-space approved. <-- Virtue signaling.

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          • Re: computer issues: part infinity

            Originally posted by The Sicatoka View Post
            MS SQL Express is a better choice (and free). Even MySQL would be a better (free) choice.

            MS Access is just miserable.
            And yet...
            "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell, 1984

            "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." Boromir

            "Good news! We have a delivery." Professor Farnsworth

            Comment


            • Re: computer issues: part infinity

              Originally posted by The Sicatoka View Post
              MS SQL Express is a better choice (and free). Even MySQL would be a better (free) choice.

              MS Access is just miserable.
              Access aims to be a database and front-end application in one.

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              • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                Access is great for what it is. People like to sneer at it but I don't get it. It's a fairly user-friendly way for the vast majority of people to have a database.


                St. Clown:

                I'd highly, highly recommend you take a look at Quicken or Mint (which I use). Mint was bought by Intuit a few years back and it's hasn't quite been the same since. I still export everything to a spreadsheet because Mint does have issues with handling stock (dividends, purchase prices, buying vs. reinvesting, cost basis, etc.) But it does do a fairly decent job of tracking spending and balances. The budget features are fairly decent as well.
                Code:
                As of 9/21/10:         As of 9/13/10:
                College Hockey 6       College Football 0
                BTHC 4                 WCHA FC:  1
                Originally posted by SanTropez
                May your paint thinner run dry and the fleas of a thousand camels infest your dead deer.
                Originally posted by bigblue_dl
                I don't even know how to classify magic vagina smoke babies..
                Originally posted by Kepler
                When the giraffes start building radio telescopes they can join too.
                He's probably going to be a superstar but that man has more baggage than North West

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                • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                  Originally posted by dxmnkd316 View Post
                  Access is great for what it is. People like to sneer at it but I don't get it. It's a fairly user-friendly way for the vast majority of people to have a database.
                  I think one reason it gets a bad wrap is because, much like elaborate Excel spreadsheets, Access databases have the tendency to go "mission-critical". This often means the IT department ends up supporting them. The code that you often find in these things is what you'd expect from who the product is aimed at.

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                  • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                    Originally posted by dxmnkd316 View Post
                    Access is great for what it is. People like to sneer at it but I don't get it. It's a fairly user-friendly way for the vast majority of people to have a database.


                    St. Clown:

                    I'd highly, highly recommend you take a look at Quicken or Mint (which I use). Mint was bought by Intuit a few years back and it's hasn't quite been the same since. I still export everything to a spreadsheet because Mint does have issues with handling stock (dividends, purchase prices, buying vs. reinvesting, cost basis, etc.) But it does do a fairly decent job of tracking spending and balances. The budget features are fairly decent as well.
                    I'm doing this more as a DB exercise than a budget tool. Back in the day, I used to have MS Money, but they discontinued it some time ago.

                    The reason I want to shy away from pre-built budgeting tools is that I want to create some specialized categories, and even breakdown expenditures from a single shopping trip. Like entering in my trip to Target, for instance, the groceries portion was X, the toiletries Y, and clothing Z, but still be able to tie it back into an overall single entry on a main viewing form.

                    From what I've seen with pre-built applications, they would require me to make three separate entries in their form, which then wouldn't easily tie back to a credit card statement, when I choose to briefly audit my monthly bills.
                    "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell, 1984

                    "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." Boromir

                    "Good news! We have a delivery." Professor Farnsworth

                    Comment


                    • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                      Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
                      I'm doing this more as a DB exercise than a budget tool.
                      Get married. Then you'll have no money and thus no need to build a budgeting DB.
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                      • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                        Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
                        I'm doing this more as a DB exercise than a budget tool. Back in the day, I used to have MS Money, but they discontinued it some time ago.

                        The reason I want to shy away from pre-built budgeting tools is that I want to create some specialized categories, and even breakdown expenditures from a single shopping trip. Like entering in my trip to Target, for instance, the groceries portion was X, the toiletries Y, and clothing Z, but still be able to tie it back into an overall single entry on a main viewing form.

                        From what I've seen with pre-built applications, they would require me to make three separate entries in their form, which then wouldn't easily tie back to a credit card statement, when I choose to briefly audit my monthly bills.
                        I would highly recommend staying away from trying to split expenses. I tried that and it lasted a month before I realized it was an enormous amount of work. It's easier for me to just use the bulk of the purchase to represent the category.

                        I know with Mint you can create custom subcategories that roll up to their preprogrammed categories and track that within the budget interface. You can also create separate "tags" that can be tracked in the Trends page (I create one for every Frozen Four trip, for example, to track expenses). You can't use that in the budget page unless you create a separate subcategory for it as well. But it won't be tracked against groceries, just "Frozen Four 2015".

                        Part of that issue is with the structure of most databases. There are ways to do it sure, but is it clean? Is it susceptible to errors? How hard is it to maintain data integrity?
                        Code:
                        As of 9/21/10:         As of 9/13/10:
                        College Hockey 6       College Football 0
                        BTHC 4                 WCHA FC:  1
                        Originally posted by SanTropez
                        May your paint thinner run dry and the fleas of a thousand camels infest your dead deer.
                        Originally posted by bigblue_dl
                        I don't even know how to classify magic vagina smoke babies..
                        Originally posted by Kepler
                        When the giraffes start building radio telescopes they can join too.
                        He's probably going to be a superstar but that man has more baggage than North West

                        Comment


                        • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                          Surprised this hasn’t come up in this thread before. I looked back a few pages and didn’t see it. If I missed something, I apologize.

                          A few weeks ago, I did the free upgrade to Windows 10. Since I did the upgrade to Windows 10, I haven’t been able to update iTunes. When I try to update, I get an error message:

                          Error occurred while installing the updates. If the problem persists, choose Tools> Download only and try installing manually
                          When I tried that, I got the error message:

                          ”iTunes” has an invalid signature. The download has been removed.
                          A brief Google search indicated that I’m not the only one who has had this problem, but I also found no work-around or solution to the problem. Does anybody know of one?

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                          • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                            Sorry, CLS, I can't help as my iTunes has worked perfectly since upgrading my two computers.
                            "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." George Orwell, 1984

                            "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." Boromir

                            "Good news! We have a delivery." Professor Farnsworth

                            Comment


                            • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                              Originally posted by St. Clown View Post
                              Sorry, CLS, I can't help as my iTunes has worked perfectly since upgrading my two computers.
                              Thanks. Actually, I'm not sure whether iTunes is operating properly or not; I only use it for file management, buying music, and updating my iPod. I just know it's not updating.

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                              • Re: computer issues: part infinity

                                Now, for what appears to be the exciting conclusion to the MacBook Pro saga:

                                After putting up with a computer that would randomly freeze for a little over a month, it looked like it was finally dead. Wouldn't start, would simply give the three beeps for memory failure, made even more frustrating by the fact that I had just reinserted it yesterday to make sure nothing was broken. Everything appeared fine, and when I started it up that first time it worked like a champ. Alas, it sat dark, yelling at me that the memory was still messed up. So I researched for the millionth time and it started to look like my worst fears were coming true, and that it was actually a logic board problem that the Mac sometimes believes is a memory issue. Replacing it would essentially be half the original cost of the computer, and would probably be more than it's worth right now.

                                Then, in the depths of the Apple forums, was a beacon of light. A stranger spoke of a solution he had found that lay in the form of a sticker. Evidently, the geniuses at Apple have the sticker with the serial number with a piece of foil underneath, and then an adhesive/plastic type substance after that. After years of use and heat, that adhesive material had degraded somewhat so some of the foil was exposed. If this foil touches the contacts on the memory slot, it causes the computer to short circuit. I lifted the sticker a little bit and reapplied it somewhat, took out the top memory slot just to be safe, and haven't had a problem yet. Obviously runs slower, but it still has the same memory I had around six months ago when I doubled the amount.

                                So now I'm left with the decision to take off the serial number completely and insert the second memory, readjust the sticker and insert the second memory and hope events don't reoccur, or leave it as is and run on half memory.

                                That crackling noise I would hear occasionally when it froze suddenly makes sense. I guess I'm lucky it didn't just burst into flames.
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