[vox-tech] collaborative data storage (of excel files)

[Gandalf Parker]

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, Bryan Richter wrote:
> On Jan 16, 2008 1:30 PM, Dylan Beaudette <dylan.beaudette at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> They work exclusively with Excel.
>>
> The big cheese couldn't understand that they needed a database
> application! We're talking terabytes of data over the life of the
> project, and they're trying to get Sue to whip something together all
> by herself because of their complete unfamiliarity with the concept.

In the computer classes I taught the military I had to broach that 
subject. I would say "yes you CAN do it in a spreadsheet, or in Word 
tables, or a presentation, etc etc. But why ignore what they do best? 
Basically its like this. If its going to be read, then Word does it best. 
If its going to be presented, then a presentation is best. If you are 
going to do mathematical things with numbers, then a spreadsheet will do 
it best. If you are doing things with words like sort and search then a 
database is best.

If you start a project in the wrong application then somewhere down the 
line you will want it to do something and you will spend alot of extra 
time trying to get that application to do it. After all you can haul 
freight in a car but if you know the job is hauling freight then why 
would you ask for a car?"

Gandalf  Parker
-- 
I would rather hire someone who has general knowledge in 3 "dead" 
programming languages than someone who is blindly expert in just one.