A full range of computer services in the Central Texas Hill Country.

No Job too small - Best Prices Guaranteed! Database Implementations Start at $70

I Peter 1

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

I service Windows + Linux, Solaris & some other Unix-like operating systems.

• Brief synopsis & comments follow; for more info click & contact
  
  • PostGreSQL - IMHO the very best open source SQL compliant database available. NOTE: Not always available for your website since most hosting companies are still running MySQL; see the note below.
  • MySQL - The SQL database I started with; still very good, but in recent years the packagers have started moving things around and changing things for no apparent reason; takes a little longer to sort out now. NOTE: This will not affect you on the website; the hosting company will already have worked this out and gotten it running. It does take a little longer to implement on an Intranet since your server is serving up the db, but there is no extra charge. I keep hoping the packagers will see the light.
  • XML - Acronym for eXtensible Markup Language - Good solution for a small web based database. Imagine HTML (XHTML) where you can define your own tags! Javascript routines are needed to parse your XML data for rendering in the users browser.
  • Microsoft .mdb database - first made popular on PC's bringing SQL ability to the masses on smaller Windows machines not in the league with SQL Server machines. Now can be processed on Linux & Unix as well with the proper drivers.
  • Microsoft SQL server - good SQL compliant server solution but still only an option for folks with deep pockets. For example, the only MS SQL Server database I ever implemented on a Windows NT server cost over $18,000 for the CALPACK (Client Access Licensing Pack) and other licensing. Add to that the almost $2,000 they paid for SQL Server with 5 CAL's (Client Access Licenses) and the cost of the Windows NT Server operating system and the server machine on which it was running and you get the idea. For a small office, entrenched in Windows OS's maybe 5 CAL's would be sufficient and then that cost is reasonable. I don't keep up with the current costs of SQL server, but will check it as long as you understand up front the cost involved in this solution. If you expect your user base to grow I recommend open source. It works very well and it will save you thousands of dollars.
  • Btrees - Old solution; not SQL compliant and requires coding of an in-house application. Click here to learn more. The source code is available in public domain and can be tailored to your uses; it might be sufficient for you. I've done it; it works. I don't recommend it starting out today. If you have it in place, I can probably fix any problem you might have and better yet I can port you to a good open source SQL compliant solution.
  • Other proprietary DB Solutions: Click here for more History.
    • Btrieve - Very popular & good code; developed by an Austin based company who had quite a following for many years.
    • DB4 - Purchased and matured by Borland International and various derivatives sprang up thereafter. I have at least bumped into most other proprietary DB4 derivatives. Again, good code, large following but time marches on.
    • Bottom Line: I can do these proprietary solutions including porting them to another platform. They were very good solutions for that era. I just don't recommend you go that way starting out, but if your already running these and having problems I can probably help you. It will require custom applications and may get expensive, but I will tell you what it will cost before launching a major project to recover your data.
    • First I have to see it in my shop; analysis of your database and an estimate of how much I can recover will cost $150 - the cost of recovery will be as fair as I can make it and might be done for the analysis fee depending on the work involved. I will port you to a different platform during the recovery process if desired for no extra charge.
  • Text databases - These are the least functional databases. I can repair them usually, but I don't implement these. They owe their existence to canned HTML editors and can lead nowhere. If your site has these and they grow you have problems. If your text db is vandalized, you have problems. No growth potential, but plenty of increased maintenance potential. There I said it; still I aim to please so if you need help with these call.
  • PICK database solution - developed and marketed by the late Richard Pick; first sold to the US Army to track helicopter parts in Vietnam in 1969. Non-SQL compliant; PICK is a dictionary driven system with each "Account" (think db table) having an attached dictionary file named DICT filename where you coded data access items inclusive of formatting. All access was through cryptic proprietary PROCS and the PICK Basic compiler integral to the system. NOTE: For many years system meant the proprietary integral operating system; then came the Unix version so PICK was finally running under something.
    
    You didn't know what "proprietary solution" meant until you were bagged by these folks. Way out of line even for that era. Imagine this - in addition to expected per user licensing you are on a machine built with special chips installed on the motherboard to keep you from doing anything their CCB (configuration control block) tapes did not allow.
    
    That meant if you added memory or added another hard drive or even replaced an existing drive with a larger one, the machine would recognize the hardware, but you would not be allowed to use any of the new resources beyond what your CCB allowed without purchasing another CCB tape to reconfigure those on board chips. There were a few outlaws going around and burning new chips on site to get around this (which rarely worked & was expensive). You get the idea.
    
    All PICK systems have a proprietary disk formatting utility in addition to the above and it isn't compatible with any other disk format on this planet. The best I can say about PICK is that it did work and was (maybe) less expensive than a mainframe solution for those who are on that scale of business. They sold it to the US Army and the gravy train was launched.
    
    The ADDS (Applied Digital Data Systems) Mentor PICK system was the absolute worst of the bunch; once they had you captive you paid a large fee for support every year or your system would soon quit working. To add insult to injury, the support people were often rude and arrogant; they're gone now like most such organizations. If you've already bought an old machine running this I can help you port to another platform. If you like it more power to you and how can I help you?
    
    R83 was the only microcomputer implementation of PICK and did not have even a full PICK feature set or instruction set in the proprietary, built in Basic compiler. Your PICK Basic programs had to be adapted if they were ported from a multi-user platform PICK machine. R83 was even more limited than the rest. None of the PICK variations could even network well with other PICK machines; you were locked in, zipped up, hog-tied; nuff said.
    
    Universe was the first (and only company I know of) to take the PICK database to Windows NT and Unix platforms and allow calling custom routines written in the C language; BRAVO, but probably too late. I can work this system very well; I just don't recommend it for a starting point anymore. If you already have it and don't want to move on, call me. I'll respect your wishes and do my very best to accommodate your needs.
    
    I can also port your data away from one of the more proprietary flavors; I had to write special applications using tape dumps to accomplish that. I've also written C programs to parse PICK database items and repair data corruption if that's happened to you. These C data recovery routines run only on Windows NT and Unix platforms. I aim to please.