06 President's Message for 2006-08-09

2006-08-09

MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Executive Management
Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect
Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer
Brad Smith, General Counsel
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA, 98052

Gentlemen,

We have been meeting as Connecticut ACCESS User Group for about 5 years at the MICROSOFT Offices in Farmington, CT.  The local Microsoft people have been very generous with their support of facilities and projection equipment..

We also have a very close relationship with the BOSTON ACCESS User Group and attend their meetings on a regular basis.  We would like to address 3 things with you.

1.             Both of our organizations are limited in their ability to properly demonstrate your new technologies because of a lack of high-speed Internet access at the facilities in Farmington and in Boston.  In about 1999, we were denied high-speed communications and had to use 56 Kbps modem/dial-up lines.  Recent attempts to use this technology produced download times of about 5 hours and install times of about 2 hours.  Clearly this is not a way to do business while promoting Microsoft Internet products.

We fail to see how providing us with the proper technology in any way puts MS at any more risk because conceivably we can do harmful things at 56 Kbps that we could more quickly do at 700 Kbps.

What can we do to change this unproductive situation?

2.             In order to promote developer resources provided by MS to we would like MS to allow User Groups to subscribe as members for Partner Programs (Action Packs), MSDN Subscriptions, etc. to provide incentives to people to join the User Groups, and ultimately, subscribe as individuals or companies.  Such privileges would greatly elevate the status and prestige of the User Group.

3.             In order to provide further incentive for User Groups to involve their members in the community, we would like MS to work with us to make User Groups eligible for MS Grants.

Finally, we are writing you, Microsoft Executive Management, because these matters cannot be addressed at the local or regional level.

Hoping to hear from you soon, we remain dedicated Microsoft products developers.


Frank Butash
President, CtAUG

cc: R. Ozzie, C. Mundie, B. Smith        Return To Top

01 President's Message for 2006-05-15

Greetings

One my favorite cartoons graced the door of a colleague of mine at the University of Hartford in the 1980's.  It said "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas".

James King always attempts to "correct" me by insisting the second sentence should say "Fruit flies like A banana".  This would put the sentence in logical step with the first, but I feel this voids the comedic surprise and irony of the original.

For CtAUG, the time has flown for sure, and in some ways arrow-like.  We continue to create and implement meaningful computer databases with ease using our beloved ACCESS.   All around us new technologies swirl and entice us to experiment with new ways of generating useful information.

This technologic seascape is turbulent, confused and has lots of flotsam and jetsam floating around in it.  About half of the objects have Microsoft stamped on them, the others are identified by non-Microsoft escutcheons, viz: ASP, .NET, SQL Server, SharePoint, Oracle, LINUX, PHP, MySQL, etc.

ACCESS developers continue to use ACCESS 97, ACCESS 2000 and are just recently beginning to trust ACCESS 2003 (with the exception of people who have reported inexcusable faults in the product and have abandoned it for other versions or other products.)

When ACCESS developers want to create applications for the INTERNET, they are forced to leave ACCESS and embrace new tools.  Informal surveys at CtAUG and BAUG (Boston ACCESS User Group) indicate that only about 20% of those surveyed (ACCESS Developers) have used the .NET technology in any way.  Why not?

Another bit of gossip has it that in a survey of ACCESS applications around the world, only 3% (of the potential millions of applications) are worthy of being converted to the SQL Server technology.  What's my point?

My point is that there does not appear to be a consensus pointing to a coherent body of tools to implement every-day, basic business applications that employ the INTERNET.  Naturally, it is my belief that these tools should be BUILT INTO ACCESS.

As I've told Microsoft Management, and the ACCESS Development Team, "Make ACCESS better, not different!"

What are WE going to do about this situation?  I'm glad you asked.

CtAUG is going to host a CtAUG Computer Store to make available to the world applications of all sizes that are based on ACCESS.  I have discussed this general concept with John Froehlich, Pat Hartman and Ed O'Reilly.  Anyone can submit an application that must meet several specifications:

1. It must be reviewed and approved by a Technology Committee.  This ad hoc committee now consists of John Froehlich, Ed O'Reilly and myself.   We expect to invite Pat Hartman and Sarah Worthen to serve, and will consider anyone else who wants to volunteer.  Be advised, we intend to keep this committee small, focused and harmonious.

2. The application must conform to written programming and other standards set up by the Technology Committee.

3. The author of the application, where applicable, will keep any relevant intellectual property rights to his/her product.

4. The author will donate a percentage of the product's sale price (10% or so ...) and the buyer will consider the purchase a contribution to CtAUG.  All these details have to be consistent with the laws of the IRS and the State of Connecticut.

Our objectives are:

1. Serve our community (developers, users, businesses, etc.)
2. Generate operating funds for CtAUG
3. Provide a venue for developers to market the fruits of their intellect.

We welcome your constructive ideas, comments and suggestion.  We also intend that this project be shared with all ACCESS Organizations, developers, users and groupies throughout the world, throughout the INTERNET.

In the words of countless ACCESS Developers,


Holy Macro!

FB             Return To Top

Frank Butash, Consultant/Educator, FrankButash@msn.com