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RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

jumbach said:
Or when people use Excel spreadsheets for things that are better suited for Access. Every office I've ever worked in has had this situation.
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Access?

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For my part the gap between "learn Access and move the permits database from Excel to Access" and "just hire a permits software company already" is so small as to be one-dimensional!

luckless pedestrian said:
omg that's like people using the space bar instead of setting up their tabs wtf

office rage!!!!
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Yes but I swear there's a spacing randomizer n Word for when you do bullet lists, alternating different spacings by paragraph. I dutifully drag the little pointers around in the ruler but the spacebar temptation is strong when the agenda needs to go out and it's half past quitting time on a Friday...
 
jumbach said:
Or when people use Excel spreadsheets for things that are better suited for Access. Every office I've ever worked in has had this situation.
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I have a spreadsheet that could have been done in Access. I created it when were between administrative assistants so I didn't know what skill set would be able to find, as Excell proficiency is more common then Access proficiency. Plus if Bill Gates didn't want me to use it that way he wouldn't have blessed me with the formulas that allow me to do what I did.
 
What is this Access that you speak of ? I only know of Excel.
Used Excel for working through the Census LUCA & GIS.
 
I keep getting phone calls for the person who had this desk before me, asking to speak with him about an “important personal matter.” Every day, I say that person does not work here anymore and I don’t know how to reach him, but can I help? They say no thank you, and then they call back again the next day. He is still no longer employed here.
 
In my first "real" job 25 years ago I used an Access-based program we bought (dirt cheap!!) to set up board and site plan reviews, public hearings, and permits. It was put together by a husband and wife team who go their start going a dog license database for a nearby town.

It was honestly genius because once I got the applicant and proposal information put in, it would do the agenda, basic population of the staff report, and, most importantly, all of the little sticky labels I needed to follow the incredibly onerous certified mailing of the hearing notices to abutters. They were super helpful customizing everything and p[roviding tech support. I think of them any time I mistakenly pick a sales call from one of those companies that wants me to spend 70k up front and 50k/year to manage permit information somewhere other than my massive Excel spreadsheet.
 
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