RE: OT? databases?

I have been toying with the idea of setting up a database for a company 
that I do work for. They want to be able to track assets (such as machines 
and cases of inventory delivered) at specific locations. They want to be 
able to track, customer, address and contact info, duration of placement, 
etc, etc. They want to be able to have this information readily available 
either on a secure web server or even (if it were possible) to get this 
updated information to sync to their Palm devices at certain intervals of 
the business day.

 From what I have heard in round about conversations on database creation 
and management.

1. Access is easy to work with, but the fact that it is a Microsoft product 
makes it unstable and insecure.
2. MySQL is a little harder to work with, but is a lot more secure when 
deployed properly. And to beat all, MySQL is free.
3. Oracle and other solutions exist, but come at an enormous price and high 
learning curve.

Please correct me if I am wrong in any of these assessments. Also, if 
anyone could lead us to some helpful online resources to learn more about 
database creation and management.

Thanks,

ALG2



At 06:07 PM 10/9/2001 -0400, JCS wrote:
>This is definitely html/css/web related so don't apologize for asking.  It
>really all depends on how fancy you want to get, how much money you want to
>spend and whether you want to use it to feed web pages.  I work for a local
>college with approximately 3000 students and umm, maybe 700 (?) staff.  I
>use Microsoft Access and ASP or Perl for web output.  I find Access to be
>easy to use and for my purposes it works fine.  However, MySQL is another
>option as is Oracle (LOTS of money)... If this is your first time going at
>it, I would recommend you start with Access and when you get familiar with
>databases you can always purchase something else and import your records
>into a new product.
>
>This, of course, is just my opinion but I hope it helps.
>
>Jennifer C. Swartz
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
>[mailto:owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org]On Behalf Of psalmon
>Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 4:59 PM
>To: hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org
>Subject: OT? databases?
>
>
>This might not be the appropriate list to ask, but everyone here seems to
>have a very diverse background and computer education --I am sure you all
>could offer me some sound advice.
>
>I need to start a database for my business. I have several hundred customers
>and I need to get all their names/address's and ordering information into
>some sort of database.
>
>Which program would you recommend that would serve my purpose. I was
>thinking of just starting a new address book in my outlook program since
>there is room for information such as ordering etc., but I feel that a
>database program might be easier? Am I wrong ?
>
>Again, I apologize that this is not web/html/css related.
>
>Sincerely
>
>Patti Salmon

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