Irretrievably geeky?

Okay, so I've fallen a bit behind in the work I need to do in building a basic database for my wife. "No problem", I thought, "I'll just use Access at work and then open it up in OpenOffice Base when I get home, and everything will be just peachy."

While my workstation at work as MS Office, it doesn't have Access. Either they're too tight to spring for the Professional version and settled for the Small Business one, or they just don't want anyone to use it. It's probably the latter as the network is locked down to Confidential security level and I can't even access my Gmail from work. They're a touch paranoid, but they do have their reasons.

My solution was to download a version of OpenOffice from Portable Apps, do a small bit of config tweaking, turn it into a LiveCD and bammo, I'm building databases in my lunch time.

I still haven't worked out if this is pretty cool, or if I just need help.

While on the matter of locked down desktops, at my old work I used to run XMPlay on my workstation so that I could listen to my CDs that I have encoded in ogg vorbis (nicer sound at lower bit rates than MP3s, in my own experience. YMMV.) Since workstations at my new job don't even allow access to the local drive, I've been reluctant to run XMPlay from my roaming network share. I don't particularly want to push my luck. I also don't want to re-encode about 100 of my CDs into MP3 so that I can use Windows Media Player.

My solution? I've downloaded a version of VLC from Portable Apps and I intend to place a copy of that on every DVD containing ogg files so that I never have to think about this problem again. Hopefully it will work (I'm burning my first test DVD this weekend).

Is this pretty cool, or do I just need help?

The coolest thing about all of it of course is that the portable apps I am using (and I include Firefox Portable currently sitting on my USB drive permanently attached to my house keys in this) are free - beer and speech.

Either way, I'm pretty sure using portable apps to kludge around desktop security settings is irretrievably geeky.

Sometimes geek drive alone won't get you through

In the true tech spirit of why do something the easy way when you can geek out while doing it the hard way, I've been fooling around with MySQL.

My wife needs a way to keep track of her students including lesson times, instruments, contact details - enrolment basics really. Knowing I had completed an introduction to databases subject last semester she said "Do you think that maybe you could build a database for me?" I'm not ashamed to admit that if she had also whispered that in my ear, she could quite easily have had her way with me right there and then (unfortunately for me, it is likely while the resulting action would have have been hot and sweaty, that's more in the "Now, can you move the lounge over to that side? Oh, and hold this picture frame up so I can see what it looks like on the wall" rather than the forbidden pleasure type. Still, any attention is good attention, and it's the thought that counts).

After I drew up a basic relational schema, mapped out the tables and assessed just how small the database was likely to be, I looked at it closely. For a fleeting second I thought "this could be just as easily done in a Calc spreadsheet" (and yes, I do have a tendency to think in hyperlinks) but I was able to successfully move on from that moment of weakness to concentrate on the job at hand.

I had installed MySQL recently and tracked down some nice, idiot-friendly GUI tools as well when I remembered that the basic MySQL install is a CLI. I had accepted that my SQL was probably a bit too halting and lacking in confidence to enable me to finish this task quickly through raw SQL alone (the start of the school year is looming after all). I faffed about a bit with downloads and installs, but I was eventually able to get the GUI up and running and input the tables. I was even able to easily work out how to mark primary keys and link up foreign keys as well. This may not sound like much of an achievement, but my only substantial database experience was battling to make an MS Access-centric course compatible with OpenOffice Base so that I wouldn't have to go out and buy a version of MS Office. That did not prepare me very well for using MySQL, although SQLyog did make life much easier.

Entering tables, and setting up relationships is one thing - designing a UI for data entry is another altogether. I spent ages in my last assignment last semester fighting with Base and it's primitive UI functionality (Access is streets ahead of Base in this regard). I didn't relish the thought of trying work out if I could do the same with MySQL. If the general install preferred a CLI for designing the database, the chances were that it may not even have the capability to build GUIs for data entry. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that there was a very good chance that MySQL was designed to be used as a back end and that a front end would need to be designed using something like PHP, Java, Python or Ruby. Urgh. Clock is ticking after all.

Even if I am totally wrong (and please, drop me a line in the comments if I am) and MySQL enables an absolutely stellar user experience to be designed, I just don't have the time to find that out right now. Upshot of all of this? A geek attitude and spending time playing with options is not always enough to bluff your way through. Sometimes you really do need some experience and knowledge.

Over the next few days I'll be remapping the tables in Base and building a basic UI over the top. After all, the whole point of the database, besides getting me needlessly excited, was to allow my wife to keep a better handle on her lesson timetable. It defeats the whole purpose if she needs to come to me every time information needs to be updated.

I haven't entirely given up, though. Once it is up and running in Base, I plan to use some of my precious spare time to work out what I need to do to make a front end to MySQL. I've been gagging for an excuse to teach myself Ruby and Ruby on Rails, and this seems like as good an excuse as any. Now all I need is the spare time...