Look Out for Look Ups

For a long time now, I've argued that Lookup Fields in tables are One Bad Idea. I've even  Blogged about it.

Recently it occurred to me that maybe it's not enough to TELL people Lookups are almost always bad. There's  a world famous page that offers eight significant problems with Lookups. My complaints are actually focused on the fallout from Number 6 on that list. Lookup fields in tables simply make it far too easy for inexperienced users to screw up royally.

Ambiguity Is For Poets, Politicians and Comedians

Access developers already know this, of course, but sometimes we run into situations where we need to be reminded just how important it is.

The human mind thrives on ambiguity. Poetry is the art of making one multi-faceted word speak with many voices. Politicians couldn't survive in office more than a few minutes without the deft word play that conceals as much as it reveals about their true intentions. Comedians depend on the double-entendre to make their audiences roar at the absurd contradictions in their patter.

Yes, without ambiguity, much of human interaction would be drab, colorless and boring.

What Does a PCV Do Anyway?

My daddy taught me a lot about living a good life. I wish I'd been smart enough to pay better attention when I was 18, but I survived long enough to be able look back and pick out the important stuff through the prism of my own experience. For example, he taught me not to try to fix a PCV without the right tools, the right parts, and the right kind of training. Let me tell you about that.

My father and brothers ran a fuel distribution business in the late '70s and early '80s. That included what was still called a "service station".