[CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread Constance Warner

Has anyone used Base, the database program of Open Office?

If so, what did you think of it?  What happened when you tried to use  
it?


Any other database recommendations?

For an acquaintance who's trying to organize a lot of documents to  
put on a website, I was going to recommend FileMaker Pro, which I've  
worked with for years and which can produce crash-proof databases.   
But it's kind of expensive.   What do you think?


--Constance Warner


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread Tony B
We've tried it. It worked good. But then, so did Zoho, and so does
Google Docs. What actually forced us to keep using Office was envelope
printing, which I could never quite get right in OO.

I've never actually tried to put a bunch of documents online, so I
can't speak with any experience. But I don't think Office can do it.
If they just want to make a list to be manually copied somewhere, that
could be done with virtually any app including notepad. If they're
making a website, they should probably work with whatever the site is
using (e.g. Wordpress). Actually, now I think about it, I do keep
maybe a dozen important company documents online - I just used
Dreamweaver to make a list.


On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 2:15 AM, Constance Warnercawar...@his.com wrote:
 Has anyone used Base, the database program of Open Office?

 If so, what did you think of it?  What happened when you tried to use it?

 Any other database recommendations?

 For an acquaintance who's trying to organize a lot of documents to put on a
 website, I was going to recommend FileMaker Pro, which I've worked with for
 years and which can produce crash-proof databases.  But it's kind of
 expensive.   What do you think?


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread t.piwowar

On Jun 19, 2009, at 2:15 AM, Constance Warner wrote:
For an acquaintance who's trying to organize a lot of documents to  
put on a website, I was going to recommend FileMaker Pro, which  
I've worked with for years and which can produce crash-proof  
databases.  But it's kind of expensive.   What do you think?


I'm confused. Are these documents or databases that are to be posted  
online? Flat files or relational model? The details make a big  
difference in software selection.



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[CGUYS] Reality Sets In -- Win7 to XP Downgrade Plan Contemplated

2009-06-19 Thread t.piwowar
http://gcn.com/articles/2009/06/18/microsoft-clarifies-windows-7- 
downgrade-rights.aspx?s=gcndaily_190609


As I would expect, M$'s first offer only applies to expensive  
versions of Win7. How long will it be before we get a downgrade plan  
for NetBooks?



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[CGUYS] Bing Usage Stats Bogus

2009-06-19 Thread t.piwowar

Why am I not surprised?

http://www.reuters.com/article/bigMoney/idUS17601820090618


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread Constance Warner
It's like this: I was visiting the offices of a small nonprofit  
dedicated to promoting civic activism and getting out the vote.  One  
of the staff members gestured towards a filing cabinet and some  
banker boxes and said, We'd like to get these [documents] organized  
and have a way to get these out to our field organizers when they  
want them and when we need to send them.  They'd been using fax,  
U.S. mail, and hand carrying the documents in the past.  Right now,  
most of the documents aren't even in electronic format.  They have  
basic computers, of course, but neither they nor their field  
organizers can afford the latest electronic bells and whistles (no  
iPhones, for example).  A lot of small nonprofits are like that.


So I was trying to offer them a few basic suggestions.  FileMaker Pro  
would be nice for them to use to index their documents, because it's  
easy to use and, once it's set up properly, it's practically crash- 
proof.  On the other hand, it's expensive.  Base is free, but I've  
never used it (and neither has anybody else I know).  Somebody else-- 
not me--will be doing the work for this nonprofit, but these are very  
nice people and I wanted to offer them a few signposts.


They're really brilliant, politically; they just haven't had the time  
to get really computer savvy, or the money for the latest computers,  
webmasters, or IT workers.


--Constance Warner


On Jun 19, 2009, at 10:49 AM, t.piwowar wrote:


On Jun 19, 2009, at 2:15 AM, Constance Warner wrote:
For an acquaintance who's trying to organize a lot of documents to  
put on a website, I was going to recommend FileMaker Pro, which  
I've worked with for years and which can produce crash-proof  
databases.  But it's kind of expensive.   What do you think?


I'm confused. Are these documents or databases that are to be  
posted online? Flat files or relational model? The details make a  
big difference in software selection.






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Re: [CGUYS] Bing Usage Stats Bogus

2009-06-19 Thread mike
Reuters is a stooge of MS too??  Oh when will it end?

*yawn*

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 9:51 AM, t.piwowar t...@tjpa.com wrote:

 Why am I not surprised?

 http://www.reuters.com/article/bigMoney/idUS17601820090618


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Re: [CGUYS] Bing Usage Stats Bogus

2009-06-19 Thread t.piwowar
On Jun 19, 2009, at 1:33 PM, mike shoots off his mouth without  
reading the link:

Reuters is a stooge of MS too??  Oh when will it end?


Why am I not surprised?


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Re: [CGUYS] Bing Usage Stats Bogus

2009-06-19 Thread mike
*the news from Reuters that Bing has pushed Microsoft's (MSFT) share of the
search market to 12.1 percent should have Larry and Sergey a little spooked.
*

There they go again, Reuters carrying MS's water.  Good call Tom, glad you
are always on the lookout for more evil stuff MS is always doing.

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:55 AM, t.piwowar t...@tjpa.com wrote:

 On Jun 19, 2009, at 1:33 PM, mike shoots off his mouth without reading the
 link:

 Reuters is a stooge of MS too??  Oh when will it end?


 Why am I not surprised?


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread Brian Jones
I have tried to use Open Office to mail merge to email... discovered it was 
not possible (as of 2008).  I suspect there are other shortfalls in Open 
Office as well.
Constance, If this is a paid consult, I would steer them towards the more 
expensive (but better supported and more reliable) products to help them 
achieve their mission and reflect better light on yourself.  Saving them 
money is good, but only if you are SURE that it won't backfire on your 
reputation.


 - Brian

- Original Message - 
From: Constance Warner cawar...@his.com

Subject: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?


Has anyone used Base, the database program of Open Office?

If so, what did you think of it? 



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Re: [CGUYS] Bing Usage Stats Bogus

2009-06-19 Thread t.piwowar

You really have a reading comprehension problem. This explains a lot.

On Jun 19, 2009, at 2:06 PM, mike wrote:
There they go again, Reuters carrying MS's water.  Good call Tom,  
glad you

are always on the lookout for more evil stuff MS is always doing.



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Re: [CGUYS] I Got 9

2009-06-19 Thread Ellen Rains Harris

I still have neither 7 or 9 and I'm inside the Beltway.

Ellen H.

- Original Message - 
From: phartz...@gmail.com phartz...@gmail.com

To: COMPUTERGUYS-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 12:23 AM
Subject: Re: [CGUYS] I Got 9



On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 11:03 PM, t.piwowart...@tjpa.com wrote:


Finally today. Signal strength is between 85 and 90, which is plenty good
enough, but not the 100 I get with most other stations. Hooray!


 The problem with digital OTA transmissions has been well exhibited
by our local governments.  They have pretty much all switched to
digital modes of radio comms from analog, and have suffered a series
of well publicized problems as a result.  OTA TV viewers are now
experiencing many of the same issues.

 OTA digital is quite prone to all sorts of interference problems.
When OTA DTV works well it is good, but when it doesn't work well, it
is very bad.  Would you rather have a highly reliable, albeit lower
resolution television service, or a higher resolution unreliable one?
Think about that in computer terms.  Which you you rather have in a
computer?  One that is somewhat slower but very reliable, or a faster
one that craps out routinely?

 Steve


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[CGUYS] links cut off

2009-06-19 Thread Tony B
Is it the list or gmail? I've noticed a lot of very short links
lately. This one is de-linked right between the 7- and the down.
There's no space there so it makes no sense. But it breaks the link,
making it bad. Very inconvenient.

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:57 AM, t.piwowart...@tjpa.com wrote:
 http://gcn.com/articles/2009/06/18/microsoft-clarifies-windows-7-downgrade-rights.aspx?s=gcndaily_190609


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread Tony B
Okay, so we have a whole honking *file cabinet* full of paper
documents that need to be scanned and put online. This is not going to
be an easy task.

But you're skipping all the way to almost the end of the project and
asking about databases. Long before you worry about a db you need to
figure out how to scan the stuff. Most commercial scanners will come
with some sort of document management app. I think.

Monumental task, not for a database app at all. What you want is a
sheet-fed scanner with document management software. I dunno, but
here's a random link via a search for sheet fed document management:
http://ask-leo.com/fujitsu_scansnap_a_fast_sheetfed_document_scanner.html


On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 1:06 PM, Constance Warnercawar...@his.com wrote:
 It's like this: I was visiting the offices of a small nonprofit dedicated to
 promoting civic activism and getting out the vote.  One of the staff members
 gestured towards a filing cabinet and some banker boxes and said, We'd like
 to get these [documents] organized and have a way to get these out to our
 field organizers when they want them and when we need to send them.  They'd
 been using fax, U.S. mail, and hand carrying the documents in the past.
  Right now, most of the documents aren't even in electronic format.  They
 have basic computers, of course, but neither they nor their field organizers
 can afford the latest electronic bells and whistles (no iPhones, for
 example).  A lot of small nonprofits are like that.

 So I was trying to offer them a few basic suggestions.  FileMaker Pro would
 be nice for them to use to index their documents, because it's easy to use
 and, once it's set up properly, it's practically crash-proof.  On the other
 hand, it's expensive.  Base is free, but I've never used it (and neither has
 anybody else I know).  Somebody else--not me--will be doing the work for
 this nonprofit, but these are very nice people and I wanted to offer them a
 few signposts.

 They're really brilliant, politically; they just haven't had the time to get
 really computer savvy, or the money for the latest computers, webmasters, or
 IT workers.


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Re: [CGUYS] links cut off

2009-06-19 Thread t.piwowar

The link worked for me accessing it using Apple Mail.


On Jun 19, 2009, at 4:25 PM, Tony B wrote:

Is it the list or gmail? I've noticed a lot of very short links
lately. This one is de-linked right between the 7- and the down.
There's no space there so it makes no sense. But it breaks the link,
making it bad. Very inconvenient.

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:57 AM, t.piwowart...@tjpa.com wrote:
http://gcn.com/articles/2009/06/18/microsoft-clarifies-windows-7- 
downgrade-rights.aspx?s=gcndaily_190609



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Re: [CGUYS] Bing Usage Stats Bogus

2009-06-19 Thread mike
I know, I have trouble understanding Piwowar, it's like trying to understand
mandarin while under water.

On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 12:59 PM, t.piwowar t...@tjpa.com wrote:

 You really have a reading comprehension problem. This explains a lot.

 On Jun 19, 2009, at 2:06 PM, mike wrote:

 There they go again, Reuters carrying MS's water.  Good call Tom, glad you
 are always on the lookout for more evil stuff MS is always doing.



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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread Ellen Rains Harris

Constance,

If I were them, I would scan all the docs as PDF files, then index them in a 
hyperlinked .xls file that serves as the index.


It's simple to do, you can throw the whole directory up on a website behind 
a login and password, and with a reasonable scanner, they can do about a 
five drawer filecabinet a week.


Further, if they choose to, they can bulk OCR them and make each page that's 
legible searchable.


It's cheap and easy and I've done it with OpenOffice.

- Original Message - 
From: Constance Warner cawar...@his.com

To: COMPUTERGUYS-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 1:06 PM
Subject: Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?


It's like this: I was visiting the offices of a small nonprofit  dedicated 
to promoting civic activism and getting out the vote.  One  of the staff 
members gestured towards a filing cabinet and some  banker boxes and said, 
We'd like to get these [documents] organized  and have a way to get these 
out to our field organizers when they  want them and when we need to send 
them.  They'd been using fax,  U.S. mail, and hand carrying the documents 
in the past.  Right now,  most of the documents aren't even in electronic 
format.  They have  basic computers, of course, but neither they nor their 
field  organizers can afford the latest electronic bells and whistles (no 
iPhones, for example).  A lot of small nonprofits are like that.


So I was trying to offer them a few basic suggestions.  FileMaker Pro 
would be nice for them to use to index their documents, because it's  easy 
to use and, once it's set up properly, it's practically crash- proof.  On 
the other hand, it's expensive.  Base is free, but I've  never used it 
(and neither has anybody else I know).  Somebody else-- 
not me--will be doing the work for this nonprofit, but these are very 
nice people and I wanted to offer them a few signposts.


They're really brilliant, politically; they just haven't had the time  to 
get really computer savvy, or the money for the latest computers, 
webmasters, or IT workers.


--Constance Warner


On Jun 19, 2009, at 10:49 AM, t.piwowar wrote:


On Jun 19, 2009, at 2:15 AM, Constance Warner wrote:
For an acquaintance who's trying to organize a lot of documents to  put 
on a website, I was going to recommend FileMaker Pro, which  I've worked 
with for years and which can produce crash-proof  databases.  But it's 
kind of expensive.   What do you think?


I'm confused. Are these documents or databases that are to be  posted 
online? Flat files or relational model? The details make a  big 
difference in software selection.






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Re: [CGUYS] I Got 9

2009-06-19 Thread phartz...@gmail.com
On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 4:02 PM, Ellen Rains
Harrisel...@goodshiptabasco.com wrote:

 I still have neither 7 or 9 and I'm inside the Beltway.

  Those two channels did migrate from temporary UHF digital
frequencies to VHF frequencies on June 12.  A VHF capable antenna
would probably be needed to receive them now while a UHF antenna was
needed earlier.  From inside the beltway, a fairly simple VHF antenna
such as the venerable rabbit ears should work.  However, these
digital transmissions are highly prone to all sorts of anomalies as
opposed to the previous analog mode of television signal transmission.
 We have all now entered a highly complex and potentially troublesome
era of TV broadcast reception, which is going to leave a lot of folks
wondering if the available programing is really worth the effort to be
able to receive it.

  Steve


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread t.piwowar

On Jun 19, 2009, at 1:06 PM, Constance Warner wrote:
It's like this: I was visiting the offices of a small nonprofit  
dedicated to promoting civic activism and getting out the vote.   
One of the staff members gestured towards a filing cabinet and some  
banker boxes and said, We'd like to get these [documents]  
organized and have a way to get these out to our field organizers  
when they want them and when we need to send them.  They'd been  
using fax, U.S. mail, and hand carrying the documents in the past.   
Right now, most of the documents aren't even in electronic format.   
They have basic computers, of course, but neither they nor their  
field organizers can afford the latest electronic bells and  
whistles (no iPhones, for example).  A lot of small nonprofits are  
like that.


This does not look to me like a job for a database.

Step 1 would be digitizing all the documents. A huge job. So step  
zero is identifying a (hopefully small) subset that is most used.  
These would be scanned to PDF and possibly OCRed by Acrobat for  
searching. That's what summer interns are made for and this year  
those are easy to get. So Acrobat would be the big expense. They need  
to check with Stone Soup to see if they qualify for the non-profit  
price.


The storage schema really depends of what their content looks like. A  
series of hierarchical folders may suffice. Storage using a tagging  
file system would probably be the best. There are $25 add-ons for OS  
X that support this. MS cancelled that promise for Vista.


Also need to make sure that backups are up to snuff. I know of one  
association that moved years of documents online and then lost all  
their files.



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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread Stephen Brownfield

t.piwowar wrote:

This does not look to me like a job for a database.

Step 1 would be digitizing all the documents. . . .  So Acrobat would 
be the big expense. They need to check with Stone Soup to see if they 
qualify for the non-profit price.

Tom,
   Did you mean TechSoup I do recommend that they check with them 
(http://www.techsoup.org/) 


Steve


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread t.piwowar

On Jun 19, 2009, at 6:02 PM, Stephen Brownfield wrote:
   Did you mean TechSoup I do recommend that they check with  
them (http://www.techsoup.org/)


Thanks Steve. Yes that was a brain cramp.


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread db
Somebody I know uses Open Source Alfresco document management with a 
commercial canon scanner.


But there is a lot of techie setup and server overhead and sometimes 
paper and drawers are in certain ways just easier and cheaper.


basically tech by itself ... a software program or a digital tool ... 
isn't an answer without the tech skills and overhead that set it up, do 
the training of users and maintain it thereafter.


db

Tony B wrote:

Okay, so we have a whole honking *file cabinet* full of paper
documents that need to be scanned and put online. This is not going to
be an easy task.

But you're skipping all the way to almost the end of the project and
asking about databases. Long before you worry about a db you need to
figure out how to scan the stuff. Most commercial scanners will come
with some sort of document management app. I think.

Monumental task, not for a database app at all. What you want is a
sheet-fed scanner with document management software. I dunno, but
here's a random link via a search for sheet fed document management:
http://ask-leo.com/fujitsu_scansnap_a_fast_sheetfed_document_scanner.html


On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 1:06 PM, Constance Warnercawar...@his.com wrote:
  

It's like this: I was visiting the offices of a small nonprofit dedicated to
promoting civic activism and getting out the vote.  One of the staff members
gestured towards a filing cabinet and some banker boxes and said, We'd like
to get these [documents] organized and have a way to get these out to our
field organizers when they want them and when we need to send them.  They'd
been using fax, U.S. mail, and hand carrying the documents in the past.
 Right now, most of the documents aren't even in electronic format.  They
have basic computers, of course, but neither they nor their field organizers
can afford the latest electronic bells and whistles (no iPhones, for
example).  A lot of small nonprofits are like that.

So I was trying to offer them a few basic suggestions.  FileMaker Pro would
be nice for them to use to index their documents, because it's easy to use
and, once it's set up properly, it's practically crash-proof.  On the other
hand, it's expensive.  Base is free, but I've never used it (and neither has
anybody else I know).  Somebody else--not me--will be doing the work for
this nonprofit, but these are very nice people and I wanted to offer them a
few signposts.

They're really brilliant, politically; they just haven't had the time to get
really computer savvy, or the money for the latest computers, webmasters, or
IT workers.




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Re: [CGUYS] I Got 9

2009-06-19 Thread Ellen Rains Harris
I have a digital antenna that ties into a coax plug marked digital on my 
fancy TV, with my analog cable plugged into the analog coax plug.


I have room for many other inputs, but no other antennae


- Original Message - 
From: phartz...@gmail.com phartz...@gmail.com

To: COMPUTERGUYS-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 5:13 PM
Subject: Re: [CGUYS] I Got 9



On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 4:02 PM, Ellen Rains
Harrisel...@goodshiptabasco.com wrote:


I still have neither 7 or 9 and I'm inside the Beltway.


 Those two channels did migrate from temporary UHF digital
frequencies to VHF frequencies on June 12.  A VHF capable antenna
would probably be needed to receive them now while a UHF antenna was
needed earlier.  From inside the beltway, a fairly simple VHF antenna
such as the venerable rabbit ears should work.  However, these
digital transmissions are highly prone to all sorts of anomalies as
opposed to the previous analog mode of television signal transmission.
We have all now entered a highly complex and potentially troublesome
era of TV broadcast reception, which is going to leave a lot of folks
wondering if the available programing is really worth the effort to be
able to receive it.

 Steve


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Re: [CGUYS] Databases: Open Office Base?

2009-06-19 Thread Constance Warner
Thanks for the tip on the Fujitsu scanner--you can get a nice tray- 
feed scanner for a lot less than when I used a $3,000 Canon tray-feed  
scanner to to make tiffs for a fax-on-demand service.


However, scanning is the EASY part.  I've worked on--and supervised-- 
scanning projects and digital document archives before.  A well- 
thought-out classification system, preferably embodied in an idiot- 
proof, robust database (planned BEFORE you start scanning) is a  
must.  I say this from sad experience.  The last such project I  
worked on had an Excel spreadsheet (in lieu of a real database) to  
keep track of the documents, with a vague classification system and  
minimal data in the spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet was kind of an ad- 
hoc affair, altered whenever the supervisor decided that the project  
needed improvements.  Result: the association members, who were  
supposed to log into the website to download the documents, couldn't  
find anything.  They complained a lot before they just gave up on  
using the system entirely.


Needless to say, I wasn't supervising THIS project.

By contrast, the computerized fax-on-demand service, which I DID  
supervise: I used a FileMaker Pro database; the paper documents were  
classified and entered into the database before anything was  
scanned.   I always knew where to find any type or category of  
document--or any particular title--and the members did too.


And as for the nonprofit with the cabinet full of documents to be  
scanned: Im betting they have friends in other organizations with  
tray-feed scanners they can use, and interns to run them.  These  
small political nonprofits tend to be cash-poor--which is why I'm  
hoping that Base will work for them--but they're connection-rich.


--Constance Warner

The previous system
On Jun 19, 2009, at 4:35 PM, Tony B wrote:


Okay, so we have a whole honking *file cabinet* full of paper
documents that need to be scanned and put online. This is not going to
be an easy task.

But you're skipping all the way to almost the end of the project and
asking about databases. Long before you worry about a db you need to
figure out how to scan the stuff. Most commercial scanners will come
with some sort of document management app. I think.

Monumental task, not for a database app at all. What you want is a
sheet-fed scanner with document management software. I dunno, but
here's a random link via a search for sheet fed document management:
http://ask-leo.com/ 
fujitsu_scansnap_a_fast_sheetfed_document_scanner.html



On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 1:06 PM, Constance Warnercawar...@his.com  
wrote:
It's like this: I was visiting the offices of a small nonprofit  
dedicated to
promoting civic activism and getting out the vote.  One of the  
staff members
gestured towards a filing cabinet and some banker boxes and said,  
We'd like
to get these [documents] organized and have a way to get these out  
to our
field organizers when they want them and when we need to send  
them.  They'd
been using fax, U.S. mail, and hand carrying the documents in the  
past.
 Right now, most of the documents aren't even in electronic  
format.  They
have basic computers, of course, but neither they nor their field  
organizers

can afford the latest electronic bells and whistles (no iPhones, for
example).  A lot of small nonprofits are like that.

So I was trying to offer them a few basic suggestions.  FileMaker  
Pro would
be nice for them to use to index their documents, because it's  
easy to use
and, once it's set up properly, it's practically crash-proof.  On  
the other
hand, it's expensive.  Base is free, but I've never used it (and  
neither has
anybody else I know).  Somebody else--not me--will be doing the  
work for
this nonprofit, but these are very nice people and I wanted to  
offer them a

few signposts.

They're really brilliant, politically; they just haven't had the  
time to get
really computer savvy, or the money for the latest computers,  
webmasters, or

IT workers.



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