[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[The Doctor via cctalk]

--- Original Message ---
On Friday, August 18th, 2023 at 13:38, Sellam Abraham  
wrote:

> Not to mention that that could well be a criminal act since it would 
> constitute unauthorized
> access of a computer system.

Maybe. Possibly. I'm not a lawyer, I just know what I learned for my day job. 
That
said, 18 USC 1030 can be argued any number of ways. There is the argument that,
if you put a web server online and have it serving a website, and you don't 
make any
particular attempt to protect it (e.g., login page, HTTP basic auth), it's open 
season.
You put it up for people (and software) to browse, so it's perfectly reasonable 
for people
and software to browse it.

> If anyone has actual evidence of this happening now then please show it to 
> me, and I'll take
> the necessary legal steps to bring Larry and Sergey to justice.

There is no law that says that your web crawler has to respect robots.txt. 
Which is
to say, there is no law that says that your web crawler /has/ to comply with a 
given
RFC or standard.

Well outside of my expertise, Cornell has at least one paper that talks about 
the law
as it pertains to search engines: 
https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2681=facpub
Again, I'm not a lawyer, but it seems like it's salient.

Additionally, there's the whole "Google is a multi-billion dollar megacorp" 
angle,
so any kind of court-related pushback is just not going anywhere. Hence,
the development of firewall rules.

The Doctor [412/724/301/703/415/510]
WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/
Don't be mean. You don't have to be mean.

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[The Doctor via cctalk]

--- Original Message ---
On Friday, August 18th, 2023 at 12:35, Paul Koning via cctalk 
 wrote:

> Really? It would be interesting to have evidence supporting that, because if 
> so, they
> could be subjected to pain for violating an explicit order not to do so.

There are some of us elsewhere on the Net (in Fedi, if you're around) who, for 
various
reasons are pushing back against the big G and Bing due to the generally lousy 
state of
search these days, and so dropped their crawlers into robots.txt (per those 
search
engines' documented entries for said file) to tell their crawlers to go away.  
It was
subsequently discovered that their crawlers (Google's for sure, Bing's less so) 
spidered
and indexed new stuff on those sites anyway.  Said new stuff still comes up in 
search
results, just without text summaries.  So, we are now looking into iptables and 
pf rules
for blocking their crawlers.

That's the extent of what I know right now, because my day job hasn't afforded 
me as
much continuous time to devote to the discourse.

The Doctor [412/724/301/703/415/510]
WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/
Don't be mean. You don't have to be mean.

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Wayne S via cctalk]

Off the original subject but here’s Google’s description of robots.txt and how 
Google can show your page in results.

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro


Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 18, 2023, at 13:39, Sellam Abraham via cctalk  
wrote:

On Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 12:35 PM Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:



On Aug 18, 2023, at 12:48 PM, The Doctor via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

--- Original Message ---
On Thursday, August 17th, 2023 at 13:29, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:


On 8/17/2023 2:14 PM, John Herron via cctalk wrote:

Why would you give all your data to Google?

They pretty much have it all anyway.  Even if you use /robots.txt to
block
them, they still spider and index pages,

Really?  It would be interesting to have evidence supporting that, because
if so, they could be subjected to pain for violating an explicit order not
to do so.


Not to mention that that could well be a criminal act since it would
constitute unauthorized access of a computer system.

If anyone has actual evidence of this happening now then please show it to
me, and I'll take the necessary legal steps to bring Larry and Sergey to
justice.

Sellam

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Sellam Abraham via cctalk]

On Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 12:35 PM Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

>
>
> > On Aug 18, 2023, at 12:48 PM, The Doctor via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> > --- Original Message ---
> > On Thursday, August 17th, 2023 at 13:29, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> On 8/17/2023 2:14 PM, John Herron via cctalk wrote:
> >>
> >> Why would you give all your data to Google?
> >
> > They pretty much have it all anyway.  Even if you use /robots.txt to
> block
> > them, they still spider and index pages,
>
> Really?  It would be interesting to have evidence supporting that, because
> if so, they could be subjected to pain for violating an explicit order not
> to do so.
>

Not to mention that that could well be a criminal act since it would
constitute unauthorized access of a computer system.

If anyone has actual evidence of this happening now then please show it to
me, and I'll take the necessary legal steps to bring Larry and Sergey to
justice.

Sellam

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Aug 18, 2023, at 12:48 PM, The Doctor via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> --- Original Message ---
> On Thursday, August 17th, 2023 at 13:29, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> 
>> On 8/17/2023 2:14 PM, John Herron via cctalk wrote:
>> 
>> Why would you give all your data to Google?
> 
> They pretty much have it all anyway.  Even if you use /robots.txt to block
> them, they still spider and index pages, 

Really?  It would be interesting to have evidence supporting that, because if 
so, they could be subjected to pain for violating an explicit order not to do 
so.

paul

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[The Doctor via cctalk]

--- Original Message ---
On Thursday, August 17th, 2023 at 13:29, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk 
 wrote:


> On 8/17/2023 2:14 PM, John Herron via cctalk wrote:
> 
> Why would you give all your data to Google?

They pretty much have it all anyway.  Even if you use /robots.txt to block
them, they still spider and index pages, they just don't show any salient
bits that reflect the user's search query (which probably drops the search
rank to some degree as well).

The Doctor [412/724/301/703/415/510]
WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/
Don't be mean. You don't have to be mean.

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Bill Gunshannon via cctalk]

On 8/17/2023 2:14 PM, John Herron via cctalk wrote:

I'm a little surprised noone mentioned Google sheets or something that's
cloud native? Probably only accessible from newer systems though but I've
debated it since it would be instantly accessible from phone also.


Why would you give all your data to Google?


bill

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Ali via cctalk]

> I'm a little surprised noone mentioned Google sheets or something
> that's cloud native? Probably only accessible from newer systems though
> but I've debated it since it would be instantly accessible from phone
> also.

Sheets is a spreadsheet program, right? Spreadsheets, while nice for keeping 
inventory, aren't great for searching and organizing. For parts and inventory 
you really need a DB so you can get a list of all of your EISA cards, or all of 
your 8-bit ISA NICs, etc. One of the best programs (and by far the easiest) 
that I ever used was File Maker Pro. It had a WYSIWIG design paradigm so you 
would lay out your form/input sheet/whatever using whatever object you needed - 
say a drop down box. You would then use the same design to input data and to 
search.

The benefit of setting up a SQL DB is that it can run on a modern server but 
can have a very simple text interface for searches and editing delivered 
through a client or plain text web site (running on the same server). As long 
as you are not getting fancy with your "output" page even Lynx can be used to 
search and edit the DB.

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Wayne S via cctalk]

Is Sheets free or do you have to have a paid google account? I just used it at 
work (paid account) and wondered if a normal consumer could get it for free.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 17, 2023, at 11:14, John Herron  wrote:


I'm a little surprised noone mentioned Google sheets or something that's cloud 
native? Probably only accessible from newer systems though but I've debated it 
since it would be instantly accessible from phone also.

On Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:02 PM Wayne S via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:
If you’re okay using a MS product that you can find cheap, Microsoft Access is 
pretty good. Lotsa tutorials and works well for small databases. Only drawback 
is it’s Windoze.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 17, 2023, at 08:31, Ali via cctalk 
> mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:
>
> 
>>
>> That may be the rub.  The installation and update process is... well,
>> let's just say it
>> gives me fits and I spent a non-trivial amount of time working out the
>> procedure.  Suffice
>> it to say that I think quite poorly indeed of composer and yarn, and
>> really don't think
>> that there needs to be a software build process for a webapp written in
>> PHP.
>
> 
>
>> that.  What I can
>> speak to, however, is text mode.  Loading my install in Lynx shows a
>> somewhat bewildering
>> version of the UI and the ever helpful message "Please activate
>> Javascript to use all
>> features," which I think pretty much says it all.  I'm not able to do
>> anything meaningful
>> with it from Lynx, even after logging in.
>
> After looking at it some more and playing with the online model they have for 
> testing my excitement has waned. Add to this the fact that it doesn't let you 
> produce simple pages (a la your issues with Lynx) and I think my search 
> continues. The idea is what I am looking for but this particular execution 
> doesn't do it for me. I may have to buckle down and learn SQL after all... Or 
> some other DB language/program that has been around since the DOS days and is 
> still in use today
>
> -Ali
>

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[John Herron via cctalk]

I'm a little surprised noone mentioned Google sheets or something that's
cloud native? Probably only accessible from newer systems though but I've
debated it since it would be instantly accessible from phone also.

On Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:02 PM Wayne S via cctalk 
wrote:

> If you’re okay using a MS product that you can find cheap, Microsoft
> Access is pretty good. Lotsa tutorials and works well for small databases.
> Only drawback is it’s Windoze.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Aug 17, 2023, at 08:31, Ali via cctalk  wrote:
> >
> > 
> >>
> >> That may be the rub.  The installation and update process is... well,
> >> let's just say it
> >> gives me fits and I spent a non-trivial amount of time working out the
> >> procedure.  Suffice
> >> it to say that I think quite poorly indeed of composer and yarn, and
> >> really don't think
> >> that there needs to be a software build process for a webapp written in
> >> PHP.
> >
> > 
> >
> >> that.  What I can
> >> speak to, however, is text mode.  Loading my install in Lynx shows a
> >> somewhat bewildering
> >> version of the UI and the ever helpful message "Please activate
> >> Javascript to use all
> >> features," which I think pretty much says it all.  I'm not able to do
> >> anything meaningful
> >> with it from Lynx, even after logging in.
> >
> > After looking at it some more and playing with the online model they
> have for testing my excitement has waned. Add to this the fact that it
> doesn't let you produce simple pages (a la your issues with Lynx) and I
> think my search continues. The idea is what I am looking for but this
> particular execution doesn't do it for me. I may have to buckle down and
> learn SQL after all... Or some other DB language/program that has been
> around since the DOS days and is still in use today
> >
> > -Ali
> >
>

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Wayne S via cctalk]

If you’re okay using a MS product that you can find cheap, Microsoft Access is 
pretty good. Lotsa tutorials and works well for small databases. Only drawback 
is it’s Windoze. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 17, 2023, at 08:31, Ali via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> 
>> 
>> That may be the rub.  The installation and update process is... well,
>> let's just say it
>> gives me fits and I spent a non-trivial amount of time working out the
>> procedure.  Suffice
>> it to say that I think quite poorly indeed of composer and yarn, and
>> really don't think
>> that there needs to be a software build process for a webapp written in
>> PHP.
> 
> 
> 
>> that.  What I can
>> speak to, however, is text mode.  Loading my install in Lynx shows a
>> somewhat bewildering
>> version of the UI and the ever helpful message "Please activate
>> Javascript to use all
>> features," which I think pretty much says it all.  I'm not able to do
>> anything meaningful
>> with it from Lynx, even after logging in.
> 
> After looking at it some more and playing with the online model they have for 
> testing my excitement has waned. Add to this the fact that it doesn't let you 
> produce simple pages (a la your issues with Lynx) and I think my search 
> continues. The idea is what I am looking for but this particular execution 
> doesn't do it for me. I may have to buckle down and learn SQL after all... Or 
> some other DB language/program that has been around since the DOS days and is 
> still in use today
> 
> -Ali
> 

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Ali via cctalk]

> That may be the rub.  The installation and update process is... well,
> let's just say it
> gives me fits and I spent a non-trivial amount of time working out the
> procedure.  Suffice
> it to say that I think quite poorly indeed of composer and yarn, and
> really don't think
> that there needs to be a software build process for a webapp written in
> PHP.



> that.  What I can
> speak to, however, is text mode.  Loading my install in Lynx shows a
> somewhat bewildering
> version of the UI and the ever helpful message "Please activate
> Javascript to use all
> features," which I think pretty much says it all.  I'm not able to do
> anything meaningful
> with it from Lynx, even after logging in.

After looking at it some more and playing with the online model they have for 
testing my excitement has waned. Add to this the fact that it doesn't let you 
produce simple pages (a la your issues with Lynx) and I think my search 
continues. The idea is what I am looking for but this particular execution 
doesn't do it for me. I may have to buckle down and learn SQL after all... Or 
some other DB language/program that has been around since the DOS days and is 
still in use today

-Ali

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[The Doctor via cctalk]

--- Original Message ---
On Tuesday, August 15th, 2023 at 09:19, Ali via cctalk  
wrote:

> This sounds like something I have been looking for and was actually thinking 
> of
> learning SQL so I could implement myself. But if someone has already done the 
> heavy
> lifting... One question: how complex are the web pages it generates? That is 
> can older

That may be the rub.  The installation and update process is... well, let's 
just say it
gives me fits and I spent a non-trivial amount of time working out the 
procedure.  Suffice
it to say that I think quite poorly indeed of composer and yarn, and really 
don't think
that there needs to be a software build process for a webapp written in PHP.

> browsers, or even TEXT based e.g. Lynx, browsers also view inventory and/or 
> edit the DB?
> I would ideally love a solution that I can access from both my modern systems 
> and the
> vintage system I am currently working on. TIA

I normally interact with PartDB-server using Chrome (on my work laptop) or 
Firefox (on my
personal machine).  I don't have any older browsers (and I'm not sure what you 
mean by
that, specifically - old-school Netscape v4.x?) so I can't speak to that.  What 
I can
speak to, however, is text mode.  Loading my install in Lynx shows a somewhat 
bewildering
version of the UI and the ever helpful message "Please activate Javascript to 
use all
features," which I think pretty much says it all.  I'm not able to do anything 
meaningful
with it from Lynx, even after logging in.

The Doctor [412/724/301/703/415/510]
WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/
Don't be mean. You don't have to be mean.

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Aug 15, 2023, at 12:24 PM, Hans-Ulrich Hölscher via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> I can provide SQL database dumps (PostgreSQL, but adaptable for other SQL
> databases) for:
> 
> * ~38,000 hardware items (table "hwr"), e.g. "KA630" "MicroVAX II CPU"(99%
> DEC items)

Does it use the information in the Option/Module List documents (on Bitsavers)?

paul

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Hans-Ulrich Hölscher via cctalk]

I can provide SQL database dumps (PostgreSQL, but adaptable for other SQL
databases) for:

* ~38,000 hardware items (table "hwr"), e.g. "KA630" "MicroVAX II CPU"(99%
DEC items)
* ~117,000 hardware item variants (table "hwrvar"), e.g. "KA630-AB" "1MB
without floating point"

There are tables for other kinds of items, too, e.g.: "swrpro" (software),
"doc" (manuals), "swrpac" (software packages), ...

And there are the "link tables" that glue the "base tables" together, e.g.:
"doc_hwr" (which manuals describe certain hardware items).

For the database specialists: Referential integity is strictly inforced

Finally there is a user-interface, too, built with LibreOffice Base.

Last but not least I must admit that the "DECdoc" database is VERY helpful,
but it needs some understanding of databases, and it lacks a web interface.

Let me know when you want to try ...

Ulli

Am Di., 15. Aug. 2023 um 18:19 Uhr schrieb Ali via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org>:

> > I can think of a couple of options that might be what you're looking
> > for.  The first is
> > Part-DB-server (https://github.com/Part-DB/Part-DB-server).  It was
> > originally meant for
> > managing inventories of parts but I've found that it's also good for
> > managing my inventory
> > of retrotech.
>
> This sounds like something I have been looking for and was actually
> thinking of learning SQL so I could implement myself. But if someone has
> already done the heavy lifting... One question: how complex are the web
> pages it generates? That is can older browsers, or even TEXT based e.g.
> Lynx, browsers also view inventory and/or edit the DB? I would ideally love
> a solution that I can access from both my modern systems and the vintage
> system I am currently working on. TIA
>
> -Ali
>
>
>

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Ali via cctalk]

> I can think of a couple of options that might be what you're looking
> for.  The first is
> Part-DB-server (https://github.com/Part-DB/Part-DB-server).  It was
> originally meant for
> managing inventories of parts but I've found that it's also good for
> managing my inventory
> of retrotech.  

This sounds like something I have been looking for and was actually thinking of 
learning SQL so I could implement myself. But if someone has already done the 
heavy lifting... One question: how complex are the web pages it generates? That 
is can older browsers, or even TEXT based e.g. Lynx, browsers also view 
inventory and/or edit the DB? I would ideally love a solution that I can access 
from both my modern systems and the vintage system I am currently working on. 
TIA

-Ali

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Bill Degnan via cctalk]

Here is a good place to start, dump this into a database table
https://www.pdp-11.nl/fieldguide.html
Bill

On Tue, Aug 15, 2023 at 11:06 AM Douglas Taylor via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> How many items do you need to keep track of?  Is it less than 100, a
> thousand?
>
> I tried using LibreOffice Calc to keep track of what I had so I wouldn't
> go and buy something I already had.  Alas, you know the rest of the story.
>
> In order to help organize things at the physical level, I use a number
> of identical size boxes to keep parts in.  Then I label them CPU,
> Memory, Serial, etc, to organize them to that level.  These boxes fit
> nicely into one book case and the labels are easy to read.
>
> I would say I have ~300 items to keep track of.
>
> Doug
>
> On 8/14/2023 6:47 PM, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
> > I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all
> > of my PDP-8 stuff.
> >
> > I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision,
> > board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.
> >
> > If you have any good ideas, please let me know.
> >
> > I'm using a simple spreadsheet for now and it's not what I'm looking for.
> >
> > Thank you.
>
>
>

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[The Doctor via cctalk]

--- Original Message ---
On Monday, August 14th, 2023 at 15:47, Mike Katz via cctalk 
 wrote:

> I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all of
> my PDP-8 stuff.
> 
> I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision,
> board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.

I can think of a couple of options that might be what you're looking for.  The 
first is
Part-DB-server (https://github.com/Part-DB/Part-DB-server).  It was originally 
meant for
managing inventories of parts but I've found that it's also good for managing 
my inventory
of retrotech.  All of the item features you mentioned are either first-class 
fields on
whatever you add to the database or can be added to an entry's Parameters tab; 
I already
do this for board revision, current firmware version, and what I bought them 
for (X units
of foo for project Alpha, Y units of foo for project Beta, Z units of foo as 
spares in case
I screw up).

The other application, which I haven't had a chance to test yet but am checking 
out for
inventorying other stuff in the house is Homebox 
(https://github.com/hay-kot/homebox),
which is basically a home inventory application.  In terms of complexity it's a 
single
executable (written in Go, which means it's cross-compilable if you don't feel 
like
downloading the latest pre-built release from Github) and uses a built-in 
SQLite database.

The Doctor [412/724/301/703/415/510]
WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/
Don't be mean. You don't have to be mean.

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Bill Degnan via cctalk]

An XML DTD for computer inventory might be an interesting and useful tool
to attempt for injecting and querying parts from a database.  The actual
table structure should be easy enough. The key is to streamline to use only
fields that are shared by all items.  I would much rather create my own
than find a piece of software for it, but that's my opinion
Bill

On Tue, Aug 15, 2023, 11:06 AM Douglas Taylor via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> How many items do you need to keep track of?  Is it less than 100, a
> thousand?
>
> I tried using LibreOffice Calc to keep track of what I had so I wouldn't
> go and buy something I already had.  Alas, you know the rest of the story.
>
> In order to help organize things at the physical level, I use a number
> of identical size boxes to keep parts in.  Then I label them CPU,
> Memory, Serial, etc, to organize them to that level.  These boxes fit
> nicely into one book case and the labels are easy to read.
>
> I would say I have ~300 items to keep track of.
>
> Doug
>
> On 8/14/2023 6:47 PM, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
> > I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all
> > of my PDP-8 stuff.
> >
> > I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision,
> > board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.
> >
> > If you have any good ideas, please let me know.
> >
> > I'm using a simple spreadsheet for now and it's not what I'm looking for.
> >
> > Thank you.
>
>
>

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Douglas Taylor via cctalk]

How many items do you need to keep track of?  Is it less than 100, a 
thousand?


I tried using LibreOffice Calc to keep track of what I had so I wouldn't 
go and buy something I already had.  Alas, you know the rest of the story.


In order to help organize things at the physical level, I use a number 
of identical size boxes to keep parts in.  Then I label them CPU, 
Memory, Serial, etc, to organize them to that level.  These boxes fit 
nicely into one book case and the labels are easy to read.


I would say I have ~300 items to keep track of.

Doug

On 8/14/2023 6:47 PM, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all 
of my PDP-8 stuff.


I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision, 
board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.


If you have any good ideas, please let me know.

I'm using a simple spreadsheet for now and it's not what I'm looking for.

Thank you.

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Jon Elson via cctalk]

On 8/14/23 21:40, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote:


I've been using Libre Office Calc (Linux) to keep track of my new computer
collection.


I use gnumeric.  When it first came out, it was a toy.  Now, 
it is a VERY good spreadsheet, with excellent graphing 
capability, wide import and export support, and does just 
about any kind of statistical or logical operations on 
columns of data.


Jon

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Dennis Boone via cctalk]

 > I would also appreciate any recommendations for database software.

In addition to GCstar, which is an application you run on your
workstation, there are some open source collection management tools
aimed at museums and the like.  Most of the latter probably require some
server side support.  A few examples are listed here:

https://www.oedb.org/ilibrarian/5-free-and-open-source-tools-for-creating-digital-exhibitions/

De

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Sellam Abraham via cctalk]

On Mon, Aug 14, 2023 at 4:32 PM Mike Katz via cctalk 
wrote:

> I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all of
> my PDP-8 stuff.
>
> I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision,
> board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.
>
> If you have any good ideas, please let me know.
>
> I'm using a simple spreadsheet for now and it's not what I'm looking for.
>
> Thank you.
>

I've been using Libre Office Calc (Linux) to keep track of my new computer
collection.

It has 18 sheets.  The largest sheet has nearly 450 rows, and a few others
have over 300 rows; the majority are under 100 rows.

The structure of each sheets is nearly the same, with minor adjustments
depending on the item type.  For example, books will have title, author,
publisher, year of publication, edition, printing, ISBN, category; hardware
will analogously have a model, manufacturer, year of manufacture, etc.

It is starting to become unwieldy, especially in terms of searching.  The
search facilities in Calc are less than desirable.  And it's slowing down.
And once in a while I get these very strange data integrity errors, and I
have to go repair random cells here or there (I keep regular backups so
worst case I can retrieve any missing data from backups).

I've been wanting to find a database paradigm that has no structure.  I
just want a datablob that I feed stuff into and it sorts itself out using
computer magic, and then I can query it in various ways to tell me what I
have.  I'm not entirely sure how this will work.  I'm hoping someone else
already figured it out.

I would also appreciate any recommendations for database software.

Sellam

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Richard via cctalk]

In article <20230814235627.9b9f64ab...@yagi.h-net.msu.edu> you write:
> > I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all of 
> > my PDP-8 stuff.
>
> > I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision, 
> > board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.
>
>If you're using a unix-like operating system, GCstar seems relatively
>usable, and lets you define your own database fields.

It's not unix specific.


--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book 
The Terminals Wiki 
 The Computer Graphics Museum 
  Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) 

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Mike Stein via cctalk]

What do you find lacking in the spreadsheet? Which one, BTW?

On Mon, Aug 14, 2023 at 7:32 PM Mike Katz via cctalk 
wrote:

> I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all of
> my PDP-8 stuff.
>
> I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision,
> board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.
>
> If you have any good ideas, please let me know.
>
> I'm using a simple spreadsheet for now and it's not what I'm looking for.
>
> Thank you.
>

[cctalk] Re: Good Inventory Program for keeping track of my DEC boards, parts, computers, etc?

[Dennis Boone via cctalk]

 > I'm looking for a good inventory program to help me keep track of all of 
 > my PDP-8 stuff.

 > I would like to keep track of physical location, board etch revision, 
 > board modification revision, bus type, where used, etc.

If you're using a unix-like operating system, GCstar seems relatively
usable, and lets you define your own database fields.

De