Walt do you have an empty file of yours so that I can see your set up (Or
even look at yours)?
I have filemaker and I'm trying to design a format that works.
Martyn Stewart
Bird and Animal Sounds Digitally Recorded at:
http://www.naturesound.org
N47.65543 W121.98428
Redmond. Washington. USA
Make every Garden a wildlife Habitat!
When the animals come to us,
Asking for our help,
Will we know what they are saying?
When the plants speak to us
In their delicate, beautiful language,
Will we be able to answer them?
When the planet herself
Sings to us in our dreams,
Will we be able to wake ourselves, and act?
-Gary Lawless
-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Knapp
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 9:42 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Database
From: "Jim Morgan" <>
>
> My 2 cents on database.......
>
> I use Microsoft Access because I believe it is the most permanent database
> available. I have almost 7000 recordings cataloged on my database and I
> can't afford to loose this list. I keep it backed up on cdr so a hard
drive
> failure won't wipe me out.
>
> It is simple to use and easly modified if you want to make any changes.
>
> When I retrieve a particular recording it quickly tells me on which of my
50
> cdr backups it can be found.
>
> I can't emphasize enough the dangers of using a brand of software that may
> not be around a few years from now. There are probably other cataloging
> software programs that will out perform Access but this superior
performance
> could end up being a deadly trap. Software companies come and go but I
> believe Microsoft is the best bet for permanence there is. Note that I am
> not particularly a big fan of Microsoft but I feel it provides the safeest
> cataloging there is.
The first commercial database I used was Microsoft File. Which Microsoft
abandoned without warning. Nothing they produced afterwards would read
the files. Microsoft has done this in other ways too. Like Excel that
won't open earlier version files. I'd hardly call Microsoft safe.
I use Filemaker, which is available for several OS's, much more
universal in that respect. And can import and export a fairly wide range
of other formats. And Filemaker has been around and continually
modernized since the 80's, not stagnant like so many databases. Or a new
kid like Access.
I happen to have a access file here I've been trying to crack. It's the
entire database for the 5 year herp atlas project in final form. Arrived
today. They were using dBase, but the powers that be in the state
dictated that they change to access. Part of the government's support a
monopoly program, I guess. Many of my programs can open dBase, and
that's what I expected. None of them, including Microsoft programs can
open access. And that includes two PC's. I'm going to really hate it if
I have to buy a program just to open one file and transfer it to a good
database.
Walt
"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
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