Week 11: Clear: Data vs. Information

It's hard to distinguish between data and information.  I almost always have a dyslexic moment and switch the two around.  I know one means raw facts and the other means something you use to make decisions.  The former is data, while the latter is information.  I try to distinguish the two by using "raw data" = "raw facts and figures."

Data you can put onto a graph.  Information you can't.  Information aids you in deciding what to do.  Data aids the user by providing information.  Data BECOMES information.

Image created by Chris Guderian

Another way is "databases."  We input numbers and items into a database.  This we use as a means to glean information for our company's profit or structure or any other number of things.  Data becomes information.  The cycle is complete *cue 'Circle of Life' music*

Database Project

In this project, I was taught how to use Access Database and some of its functionality.  I imported a table from a .csv file and manipulated the date within it.  I also created a Query to be able to find out who left the gym within a specific time frame.   I then created a form for new members of the gym that the project was revolving around.  Finally, I created a Report that was based off of the Query that I created earlier.

All in all, it was relatively simple.  I was disappointed that I wasn't going to be using any of the advanced functions of Access.  I was hoping to learn more about relationships and all that, but no worries.  To give it some bit of a personal touch, I would have added another field with a picture of the member of the gym who was joining.  Granted, this probably wouldn't have worked for this project because these were all made up people, but in the instance of an actual gym and actual new members, this would have been excellent for the files of the gym.  You could match the face of the person in the database to the person checking in or whatever you were doing.  It would definitely cut down on non-members entering the gym, anyways.

Week 10: Clear: Access Database

I've only used Microsoft Access Database a little in the last couple of years with no experience with it previously.  I had to teach myself everything I could because I had to set up a database for my job at the VA Hospital in Gainesville, FL (and partially Lake City, FL).  I was creating a database to keep track of their equipment and my boss hoped to use my database as a stepping stone to making it a hospital wide policy (and, with any luck, a VA policy in general).  The system that they have is an old Linux program that is out of date and in serious need of updating.

Anyways, from this course, I was hoping to learn a little about relationships and macros in this week's module.  It appears that that won't be taking place until next week.  Everything from this week's lesson I had learned myself from books and the Internet (Yay Google!).

The basic template of creating a table was rather simple.  It was pretty much like using Excel with a few different categories.  I enjoyed the ability to create fields and the manipulate them as I saw fit to only be able to have Numbers or text or even attachments.  My favorite was the attachments because with the above database that I described for the VA, they wanted to be able to attach pictures of the equipment to the item number.  This ability to create a field like that was extremely useful in that situation and would be also useful in many other situations.

Forms were a unique experience.  Forms are like trying to make a webpage in a way.  You try to make it as clean and flowing as possible so as not to distract, but draw the eye.  I played with colors, variations on the field name and many other things.  It was definitely interesting, but, again, things that I had learned already by myself.

I'm definitely excited for next week.  I'm hoping this class will help me better understand relationships in Microsoft Access.  They are a complete mystery to me and I'd like to be able to have a full grasp of Access for when I go out into the job market.  Being able to manipulate and create databases is an extremely useful skill to have.

Here is a picture I created of my example database that I did for the VA, I smudged serial numbers just to be safe:

Image created by Chris Guderian