Via the Geeks are Sexy blog Computer Game's High Score Could Earn The Nobel Prize In Medicine.  (Note the fold.it Web site may be clogged.)

"Gamers have devoted countless years of collective brainpower to rescuing princesses or protecting the planet against alien invasions. This week researchers at the University of Washington will try to harness those finely honed skills to make medical discoveries, perhaps even finding a cure for HIV.

A new game, named Foldit, turns protein folding into a competitive sport. Introductory levels teach the rules, which are the same laws of physics by which protein strands curl and twist into three-dimensional shapes -- key for biological mysteries ranging from Alzheimer's to vaccines."

This is an awesome idea that could make a huge difference to mankind.  Seriously. 

On a computer that is running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows XP, an incorrect value is returned when an application queries the identity column value of a newly inserted row in various versions of SQL Server 2005 and of SQL Server 2000

Now I don't know that this affects Access but the KB article states "Applications that use the ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) interface ..."

Thanks to fellow MVP Steve Foster for mentioning this KB article.

Short story:

I was trying to copy the backend MDB from the front end but hadn't closed a database variable pointing to the backend MDB.  I used the presence and absence of the backend LDB file in Windows Explorer to track down the problem.

Long story:

The client wanted to email PDF copies of daily field tickets in his pickup truck while on site to his clients using the cell phone system data network. Given that his laptop would be out in the field and subject to hazards including theft I decided to also give him the ability to email a zipped copy of the backend MDB to the office. As this is a single user app I wasn't concerned about other folks also access the backend MDB. So my code closed all open forms and copied the backend database to the temp folder while giving it a name that ended in the yyyy-mm-dd format.

After I installed some updates on their systems it starting giving them the permission denied message. Well, they were running on Windows Vista and I was on Windows XP. So, despite it having previously worked on their system, I decided that it was a weird Windows Vista problem and said I'd figure it out later. I did not test it myself on my system at that time. Cue ominous music.

Later, just for grins and to avoid the time spent in copying the 9 Gb Virtual PC hard disk file to make a test install, I decided to test it myself. Oops, I got the same error. Ah hah, not Windows Vista. Cue dumb *ss assumptions music with Goofy hyuk hyuk laughter.

Turns out I had added some code to update the backend table, field, indexes and relationships when I gave them a new version. So I opened a database object against the backend MDB to do these updates but I forgot to close the database object.

Now I always use a GlobalOptionsHidden form to store those Global Options variables and reference through out my application. These are things such as Goods and Service Taxes percentages, account numbers, default settings, email address, email server name and so forth. But when I started the app, got to the main menu and I closed the GlobalOptionsHidden form I saw that the LDB lock file was still present for the backend MDB in Windows Explorer.

As the main menu did not have a record source or combo box referencing tables I knew it couldn’t be the problem. Although I could've double checked this by closing that form and looking to see if the backend MDB's LDB file was still present.

It took a bit of debugging to figure out where the problem was. But I could track it by running Windows Explorer looking for when the LDB file was created in the code which started when the MDB was opened. Once I saw the OpenDatabase I went looking for the close database in the same subroutine and discovered I had forgotten it.

I emailed the client the new copy of the front end MDB and phoned them to tell them I was a dumb *ss.  They just chuckled and were happy that it was working.

They figure this app will save the company owner about an hour a day in hand writing.   Figuring his time is worth $100 an hour his system will pay for itself in less than two months or so.  Including the cost of the laptop.

Here's an interesting and much more obscure variation of that error - Debugging Access “Permission Denied” Errors

I read the Jack Cowley's Rodeos posting on fellow MVP Steve Schapel's Real World Access blog.  His blog is "a series of articles about where Microsoft Office Access applications have found a real-world niche."

I felt the description of the tasks behind organizing a rodeo was very well done.   I can just see the volunteers in behind muttering under the breaths as they get the last minute phone calls and such.   And hey, the photo was down right genius. 

Ken Sheridan, long time resident of the Microsoft Access newsgroups, posted a very interesting paragraph in a thread title Duplicates

A year or so ago I witnessed a remarkable coincidence when attending a  hospital clinic.  Two patients, both female, both with the same date of birth  and both with the same names were attending.  I happened to overhear the staff talking about it and it appeared that the 'key' used for identifying  patients was a combination of name, gender and date of birth, so the staff were having difficulty distinguishing the medical notes of one from the  other.  One wonders what might have happened if they hadn't spotted the problem!

My brother, who shares my last name Toews, has a very troublesome time whenever stopped by the police, which seldom happens, or whenever he crosses the border into the U.S.A.  Turns out he has the same first, middle and last name and birth date with a Canadian who has a lengthy criminal record.  My brother now adds an hour to his estimated border crossing times.   Although his last crossing they must've had a photo of the bad guy.  He was being interrogated in a side room when another US Border guy came in and told them that it was someone else.

Of course then there's George Foreman's five boys named George.

The point to my posting being that you can't use name and birth date as a unique key.    This also goes for corporation names.   There could conceivably be duplicate names in provinces and states as these are usually provincially/state incorporated.   Also if you are dealing with different branches of the same company you will likely want to include city and province in your inquiry screens.

Paul asked

"I sometimes get frustrated that Access does not always update references between versions...for example a calendar control or Outlook reference"

1) Use a calendar form or the API calls which is what the calendar control uses behind the scenes.  See the Calendar Tips page at my web site

One alternative is MonthCalendar is a completely API generated Month Calendar derived directly from the Common Control DLL.  There are links to several downloadable calendar forms at my web site.   As these are forms you can also do anything with them you want.

You can also use the calendar form which comes in the Access <insert your version here> Developers Handbook by Litwin/Getz/Gilbert, publisher Sybex  www.developershandbook.com.  These books are well worth spending money.  Every time I open one I save the price of the book.

Duane Hookum has an awesome and simple calendar in a report.  See the Calendar Reports sample. 

2) Late binding means you can safely remove the reference and only have an error when the app executes lines of code in question.  Rather than erroring out while starting up the app and not allowing the users in the app at all.  Or when hitting a mid, left or trim function call. 

This also is very useful when you don't know  version of the external application will reside on the target system.  Or if your organization is in the middle of moving from one version to another.

For more information including additional text and some detailed links see the "Late Binding in Microsoft Access" page.

In a comment to my Multi Row Tab control posting Diana asked:

"Just curious, is your form really that blue color?  Is it in production?  How do your users feel about that color?  Would you design a web page that color?

I'm always curious why Access developers pick colors for the background of their forms like pink or bright blue or whatever.  I guess I always think of my forms like web pages and design accordingly."

This is the only time I've ever changed the background colour of a form and was due to a client's comment.  Users were getting confused between the Equipment form and the Service form in my Fleet Management System as they had a striking similarity.   I also realize the colour blind folks, generally males, will have problems with this.  Not sure what can be done in that situation.  (Maybe colour blind males can read better than non colour blind males.  <smile>)

I might do the same thing for a web page in a similar circumstance.

I haven't had any comments, negative or positive on these forms. 

"The EMS investigation centres on why the Voice-over-Internet protocol company's call centre did not appear to transfer the emergency phone call to Calgary's 911 dispatch."

A friend had a situation where a foster child was choking.  They had called 911 using a cell phone.  But the 911 call was answered in a different city.  The operator insisted that address didn't exist.   The operator didn't think to ask what city they were in.

Also if your ADSL or cable modem and router aren't on a Uninterruptible Power Supply then your Internet phone is not going to work in a power failure.    I'd suggest testing that this will run for at least five or ten hours every year by unplugging the UPS from the wall socket.  Batteries have a shorter life after a few years.

Tot dies after Internet 911 call fails to reach dispatchers

So you're looking at this posting and thinking "how retro".  What is that old fart Tony up to?   Well, yes, I did use line numbers a lot when I first started as a programmer in this business almost thirty years ago.  The IBM 5110 computer booted from 32 Kb of ROM, ran in 32 Kb of RAM and had two eight inch floppy drives.  Basic on that system used line numbers and had variable names that were either a single letter or a single letter and a digit.  For example A or Z9.  

Among other things we ran clients with a complete General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable on that system.   I also worked on a payroll system which had 700 employees.

But these days?  Well, yes.  I got a email about my Auto FE Updater stating Type Mismatch in one subroutine for two PCs at a location in Australia.    All the other PCs are running just fine.  That's a pretty generic message so how do I debug that?  I decided to add line numbers using MZTools and email the person a special copy of the Auto FE Updater.

MZTools has a very handy command button which adds line numbers to every executable line of code in a function or subroutine and another command button to remove them.  

Not surprising there is nothing in the help text so I had to do some searching but I found the key system defined variable Erl.   So the code looks like the following.

740       FindMatchingMSAccessEXE = True

tagExit:
750       Exit Function
tagError:
760       Call ShowMsgBoxForm("1018 - The following problem occurred in routine 'FindMatchingMSAccessEXE' " & _
              "Line Nbr: " & Erl & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & Err.Description)
770       Exit Function

End Function

Note the line wrapping on line 760.

Fixed prices for IT projects are unethical is an blog posting with a provocative title.  It in turn links to Why Fixed Bids Are Bad for Clients.  That article explains quite well my philosophy of doing software development for clients.   I start delivering something useful within a week or two.  

If working at client sites then I deliver updates every few hours or day or two.  Which is why I created the Auto FE Updater.

Access 2003 hotfix package: April 16, 2008

"- In Access 2003, when you save an .mdb database in the design view, the properties of the sub-database in the .mdb database are lost.
- You install the Office 2003 Service Pack 3 on a client computer. Then, in Access 2003, the Append dialog box of an append query does not show all the tables within the database."