Microsoft Access is celebrating its 25th year this month. It’s an amazing accomplishment for a software product to be so successful for so many years. We at FMS were there since the beginning.
Read our first hand, historical account of watching Microsoft Access take over the Windows desktop database market, and how we became the world’s leading 3rd party developer of Microsoft Access products.
Discover how we watched MS Access rise from nothing to the leading Windows desktop database application. This directly caused the implosion of Borland International which previously dominated the desktop database industry. Witnessing this in person was an amazing experience of how quickly technology can change established, large software businesses.
The video is from the November 1992 COMDEX conference where a very young Bill Gates personally announced the debut of Microsoft Access. He remains a big fan of Access and was actively involved in its design and development.
FMS Inc. founder and president, Luke Chung, was invited to speak at the Access developer’s convention in Vienna, Austria April 1-2. Luke provided his insight on:
The Access Challenges that developers like himself face
How Access has changed and evolved over the years,
Demonstrations of many of FMS Inc.’s products and their features.
Along with Luke’s presentations, DevCon saw Microsoft Access Team members Michal Bar and Mike Sullivan, who gave overviews of Access 2016 and what is coming in the future. Thomas Pfoch, from picoware, showed new features relating to treeview customization. Peter Bryant, from Corylus Business Systems, provided insight in communicating with JSON Services. Microsoft Access MVP, Juan Soto, spoke about Optimizing Access with SQL Server. Danish Microsoft Access MVP Andres Ebro provided techniques and tricks to help with image handling, classes, and using reports inside a form. Paul Rohorzka of TechTalk presented automated testing of Access applications. Kevin Bell of COMC shared his thoughts on tools to extend Access development.
The conference was a great, informative success! The event, organized by Microsoft Access MVP Karl Donaubauer, was sold out! FMS Inc. was grateful for the opportunity to meet and present for all of those in attendance.
Additionally, due to the enormous success of the event this year, 2018 will host the 2nd Access DevCon Vienna on April 7-8. To stay updated on the event for next year, make sure to check out Karl’s page about the event! Access DevCon 2018
FMS President Luke Chung was a presenter at the Microsoft Access DevCon 2017 in Vienna, Austria in early April.
Before giving two conference presentations, he was sat down and spoke with Philipp Stiefel of codekabinett.com of Germany. Philipp is creating a series of videos discussing VBA development.
How end-users migrate from Excel to Access, then learn how to code
Why people are hesitant to purchase third party products and how FMS overcomes that by showcasing the value we offer
Using tools like Total Access Analyzer to catch errors before shipping and learning best practices
Using the module code in Total Visual SourceBook to address problems we’ve already solved so you can focus on the unique issues in your applications
The value of creating consistent, quality code
How to improve code for developers of all backgrounds
Being in constant “growth” mode to look for ways to become a better developer
FMS Inc. is proud of the quality of products we have produced for the past 30 years. We are honored to continuously be regarded as a leading expert in the Access community. Thank you for supporting us and we hope you enjoy the 20 minute interview!
You can quickly create surveys with Excel and make them available online with all results saved in the spreadsheet hosted in Office365. Just create an Excel spreadsheet in Office365 and choose the Survey item on the ribbon to design it.
A link is provided to share with people to respond. They don’t need to have Excel or Office365. Just a web browser. Try our sample by clicking the image below:
Shorten the URL
Excel provides a very long URL to share your survey. By using a site like bit.ly, you can create a shorter one to email to your contacts. This is important to avoid problems when URLs get word wrapped in emails. For instance, this survey is shortened to https://bit.ly/2qmSweG.
Results in Your Spreadsheet
The results go directly into your spreadsheet with each submission as a separate row:
Having the ability to create a survey and see the results in a spreadsheet in minutes, is a terrific tool to help your projects!
We are pleased to introduce new versions of Total Access Statistics for Microsoft Access 2007 and 2003; versions 12.9 and 11.9 respectively. They include the many features we introduced with the latest Access 2016 version.
Total Access Statistics is an add-in that is the most powerful data analysis program for Microsoft Access. It extends the power of Access queries to analyze the data in your local or linked tables. It generates results in tables you can view or include in other queries, forms, and reports. It offers a wide range of statistical functions such as:
Field Descriptives
Financial Cash Flow Calculations
Percentiles
Running Totals and Moving Averages
Field Comparison
Frequency Distributions
Regressions
Advanced Cross-Tabulations
Group Analysis (t-Tests and ANOVA)
Record Analysis and Rankings
Non-Parametric Analysis
Probability Calculator
New Features
Additional percentile types can be assigned to a field in your table
Enhanced data formatting
Improved financial calculations for IRR and XIRR
Updated user manual
Support for Windows 8 and 10
New Add-in and Runtime Library Files
Version 12.9 and 11.9 include new files for the Access add-in. It also has new runtime library files.
A digitally signed MDE library for MDB databases that support users of Access 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007 and 2003.
The Access 2007 version includes an ACCDE runtime library for ACCDB databases for Access 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007 users
The Access 2003 version includes a runtime library for Access 2000 and 2002 users
We are excited to announce our release of Total Access Admin 2016! Total Access Admin is our administrator tool to help you monitor the users going in and out of your Microsoft Access databases (ACCDB and MDB formats) in real-time:
See who is currently connected to your Microsoft Access database (you can manage multiple databases from one screen)
Monitor up to 150 databases at one time
Keep a log of users entering and exiting each database
Identify workstations or users disconnecting in a suspect manner which may be the source of database corruption
Compact your database when all users exit it
Prevent new users from logging into your database
Log off idle users
Communicate with your users in real-time
New Features
Total Access Admin 2016 is an update from the 2013 version and includes these enhancements:
Monitors ACCDB and MDB format databases created by Microsoft Access 2016 (32 or 64-bit version) and earlier versions of Access
Works in environments where Access 32 or 64-bit versions is installed, including installations from Microsoft Office365
Does not require Microsoft Access to be installed on the machine
Up to 150 databases can be monitored at one time (up from 100)
Setup program supports Windows 8 and 10, Server 2012 and later, with an option to launch the program after its installed
The day after an amazing personal interview of Julian Assange by Sean Hannity aired on his TV show, FMS President Luke Chung was invited to discuss the related technology on his radio show.
Hannity traveled to London to interview Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy where he’s seeking asylum. They discussed an overview of Assange’s role as founder of WikiLeaks, and their obtaining and publishing the emails from the Democratic National Committee the weeks before the US Presidential election. Some people attribute Hillary Clinton’s loss to the revelations in those emails especially from John Podesta, the former White House Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Clinton campaign. They are also accusing the Russians for hacking (stealing) and providing the data to Assange so Donald Trump could win the election.
Radio Show
On January 4, 2017, I was on the radio show with Sean Hannity and Brigadier General Eli Ben Meir, former Israeli Military Intelligence chief. The three of us discussed the WikiLeaks disclosures. I commented specifically on:
Cyber attacks and the security breach at OPM disclosed non-classified government employees and by omission who were covert at American Embassies globally.
Noting Julian Assange’s careful word choices to exclude Russia as source without excluding them as the ultimate source of his sources.
The need for WikiLeaks’ to keep their sources confidential and how they amplified the data from Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden.
Different approaches to preventing cyber attacks depending on the cause. “It’s one thing when someone steals your car because they broke into it. It’s another thing when someone steals your car because you left your keys in the ignition.”
Here’s the audio of the show:
My segment starts at the 6:50 mark. Sean and General Meir speak first, then I start around 9:25. Final comments at 14:15 and it wraps up by 14:50.
Additional Issues
Only a limited amount of information can be discussed in such a short interview. Some additional issues to consider are:
Data Security
Securing data over the internet and inside organizations is very challenging. Threats may come from:
External hacks that need to be monitored and defeated
Internal people who unintentionally leave the front door unlocked
Internal people who intentionally leak information
Different solutions are required for each type of threat. Some are at the software vendor, design, and developer level, while others involve end-user training, background checks, and monitoring.
Applications can be built so that simply disclosing a user name and password doesn’t compromise the whole system by require two-factor authentication and registering devices that can use those credentials.
Unfortunately, many systems were built well before today’s cyber threats existed. The cost of making those systems more secure without breaking their existing functionality will be daunting and expensive. In many cases, the original source code, development environment and/or vendor are long gone, so the only option is to replace them which is also very expensive and time consuming.
Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are Not Heroes
We need to keep in mind that the WikiLeaks exposed top secret US information by publishing the disclosures from Manning and Snowden. Lives were put at risk and lives may have been lost because of those publications. The Arab Spring was inflamed in part by the disclosure of diplomatic communications and one could argue the human tragedy in Syria is tied to this as well. While Republicans are celebrating and defending Assange and WikiLeaks now for the DNC emails, the tables may turn very quickly.
Data That’s Not Exposed May be More Dangerous
While many are focused on the DNC emails, it’s not unreasonable to assume the people who hacked that also got the RNC emails. Data can be power, and in the wrong hands, data can be used for nefarious purposes such as blackmail.
If the RNC data were compromised, we should be extremely worried if the hackers discovered it was more valuable to keep private than public. Whether they use it directly or sell it to another party or country, the information can make victims puppets by threatening the exposure of their personal data. It’s not uncommon during E-discovery of an email server to discover all sorts of inappropriate language, behavior and activity conducted by individuals in an organization. Disclosures of affairs, homosexual activity, underage sex, bribery, unethical business dealings, breeches of confidentiality, collusion, and actual crimes are often found in email threads and can be used for blackmail.
FMS Inc., a leader in software database development and design, is proud to announce it is joining the Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Alliance.
Celebrating 30 years in software development, FMS has a long track record of building mission-critical solutions for a wide range of organizations around the world. From desktop to web and mobile solutions, FMS serves tens of thousands of customers in over 100 countries ranging from small to large commercial organizations, non-profits, educational institutions, and government agencies.
The Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Alliance offers an innovative way for FMS Inc. to integrate its innovative products and services with Microsoft Corp.
“We’ve helped many organizations create and deploy database applications on the Microsoft Azure cloud,” said Luke Chung, President and Founder of FMS, Inc. “With Microsoft’s cloud center, our solutions are hosted on an enterprise quality infrastructure platform that’s highly scalable and reliable. It eliminates the headaches of managing our own hardware and connectivity, and best of all, it’s a fraction of the cost compared to doing it ourselves. That translates to quicker time to market and lower costs for our customers.”
Since 1986, FMS has created innovative software solutions for commercial and government organizations. A Microsoft partner since 1992, FMS is a leading provider of products for Microsoft Access and Microsoft Office. Our Professional Solutions Group offers custom solutions on Windows, web and mobile platforms. Our Advanced Systems Group created Sentinel Visualizer, an advanced link analysis and data visualization product for the intelligence, defense and law enforcement communities. For 30 years, FMS has helped over 50,000 customers in more than 100 countries make better data-driven decisions.
Total Visual Agent is the world’s most popular maintenance scheduling tool for Microsoft Access/Office and Visual Basic 6 (VB6) is now available for Microsoft Access 2016 (and earlier). This is the ninth major release of Total Visual Agent and introduces many enhancements to automate maintenance chores easier than ever.
To keep your Microsoft Access databases healthy, you need to regularly compact them. For disaster recovery, you should also be making backup copies of your database regularly. You may also have regular tasks such as printing reports that are performed regularly. Total Visual Agent does this and much more on a schedule you specify. Run tasks hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or just one time. Perform database chores, run Access macros or Windows command lines. A complete audit trail is maintained, and you can even be notified by email if something goes wrong. Total Visual Agent can also be run as a Windows service to restart if the machine reboots and for added security since a user doesn’t need to be logged in.
Total Visual Agent 2016 leverages our vast expertise, and offers the best database management solution with many new features:
Supports Microsoft Access 2016
Supports Windows 8 and 10
Does Not Require Access to be Installed on your PC
Database Lock Error Identifies Offending Machines
Activity Log is Separated from Settings Database
Activity Log Shows Duration of Each Activity
Email Notifications Support TLS and Office365 SMTP
Tasks are Not Run at the End of an Event Interval
Enabled/Disabled Status Shown on the Event Form
More Robust Windows Service Feature
Improved Monitor Settings Tab
Default Location of Archive and Extract Folders Moved
With the recent release of Total Access Emailer for Microsoft Access 2016, we are pleased to release updates of earlier versions to include the many new features:
Total Access Emailer 2013, Version 15.7
Total Access Emailer 2010, Version 14.7
Total Access Emailer 2007, Version 12.7
Total Access Emailer is the most popular email blaster for Microsoft Access. Easily send personalized emails directly from your Access database. Quickly communicate with every email address in your table or query. Use fields from your data source to customize each subject and message. Attach files from disk and also attach reports as PDF files filtered for each recipient.
The new X.7 version includes many new features since their previous version:
Email Validation to check the syntax of the values in your email field so you can flag invalid emails in your table before you send your blast
Save Attached Files to Disk. This lets you document the attached files sent to all your contacts without using blind cc (Bcc).
This can also be used independent of sending emails as a way to distribute files and PDF reports to disk. You can even create folder names based on field values.
Preview Saving Files to Disk
New VBA Function to Preview Email Blasts with Save Files
Code Generator Supports Preview Email with Save Folder
Support for Office365 and other SMTP Services using TLS
Enhanced setup for Windows 10 and 64-bit installations
Microsoft Access is celebrating its 25th year this month. It’s an amazing accomplishment for a software product to be so successful for so many years. We at FMS were there since the beginning.
You can quickly create surveys with Excel and make them available online with all results saved in the spreadsheet hosted in Office365. Just create an Excel spreadsheet in Office365 and choose the Survey item on the ribbon to design it.
Background
Email Validation to check the syntax of the values in your email field so you can flag invalid emails in your table before you send your blast
