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".

Yes, We CAN Get There From Here

The day after Thanksgiving turned out to be a pretty good day. It was the day I discovered that sometime in the last couple of weeks, Microsoft had turned on a really significant functionality in the 2013 version of  Office 365. Specifically I'm referring to support for creating and deploying Access 2013 "hybrid" databases on Office 365 as well as in on-premises installations.

This is a positive step for Access developers

That was a CLOSE One!

A few days ago I gave in to a bit of discouragement and posted a long diatribe on why I am afraid the story for Office 365 and Access web apps is discouraging.

Well, it turns out I was premature in my efforts at digging a grave for my BFF, Access. What a relief.

Here are the three big reasons I was so pessimistic, and the reasons I now have a lot more reasonable view.

Data Siloing in Access 2013 Web Apps on Office 365: the spade that could finally bury Access

Sometimes, you gotta call a spade a spade. Spades, as you should know, are the tools used to bury things. I’m sitting here staring at my monitor trying to come to grips with the possibility that Access 2013 web apps on Office 365 are the spade that could finally bury Access.