nmonsey's comments

slashdot.org still has some activity.

The database was Microsoft Access.

I used Microsoft Access, because the users usually have a Microsoft Office Professional license.

Another reason for using Microsoft Access, is that I can teach average people how to use Microsoft Access in a few minutes.

I created an inventory management for a state government organization.

The department was paying contracting companies to inventory assets.

At the end of the inventory, the contracting company would deliver the inventory on paper which would be filed in a managers office for a few years.

The inventory database was fairly simple just a few tables when the application was first developed.

Eventually a different manager decided the electronic data entry would be useful.

We added a few forms for data entry using a tablet.

With the data in a database, the person doing the inventory could pull up the inventory from the previous years and check off the equipment that was still at the location.

There was a form for entering new equipment and a form for transferring equipment between locations.

The manager who helped me got an award for reducing the time required for the inventory from months down to a few weeks.

I initially started the project just to maintain my development skills.

The inventory database remained in use for several years with very little maintenance except for writing a few reports and showing a few people how to use the reports.

Instead of a not very useful pile of paper, we had a database that contained the inventory.

When a manager wanted to know how many laptops or desktops needed to be refreshed each year, he could run a report listing the devices with specific attributes like how much memory or which CPU type and use the report to budget for the next years equipment refresh.

This was over ten years ago, and the sites were managed by different IT organizations, so at the time, it was just a simple task to save time for people on a different team.

Sometimes when I use multiple monitors and have several windows open, I select text so I don't lose my place when reading. I wish the colors of the letters would not change color when selected.