Basecamp Backups Are Very Reliable

For the last 2 years we have been using Basecamp XML backups to update our offline database of Project, People, Messages, ToDos, Milestones but particularly the Timesheet entries which we use for billing. We do this every other day and once the request for the backup is created, we receive a download location. For as long as I can remember the download email arrives inside a couple of minutes. I take my hat off to the guys at 37signals for this terrific service. All online companies should provide this as part of their service.

Note: We sell two complimentary tools to convert the download XML to a database, Treacle for SQL Server and DryToast for MS Access.

Garry Robinson
Editor of vb123.com

Getting Files online

Microsoft have a pretty neat folder system for sharing files online and it can be found here
http://skydrive.live.com/

Folders have individual security and can be shared worldwide readonly. The only problem with the system is that people need a Windows Live Passport first before you grant Access to the folder(s). Users would also need to send you that email address.

Garry Robinson
Editor vb123.com

Microsoft Are Gearing Up For The Cloud

Microsoft are starting to pull out some big guns to make real corporate data available from The Clouds. Some good links into beta versions of their offerings on this page.

Click for the MS Access article

Treacle for Basecamp has been released

Ever since releasing the DryToast database program for loading basecamp xml backups into an Access database, it has been our intention to provide the same tool to work with SQL Server 2005. This tool is now available and is called Treacle n Toast

http://www.thicktoast.com/ for more

Video of DryToast

Here is a video of DryToast, an Access database that loads BaseCamp backup XML files. The software can be purchased at http://www.thicktoast.com/

LinkedIn Business Networking

I was asked into LinkedIn, a business networking site with 25 million users, signed up and looked around and thought, what a boring place. Then I imported my contacts using the csv option (the online outlook connector didnt work) and surprisingly I found that 15% of my contacts had a LinkedIn profile. So I connected to a lot of them.

Summary: If nothing else, I had a reason to ping people and the take up rate was very good. So intitial thoughts are more positive than negative. Lets see if it translates into some business down the track. Here is my public profile

Using Microsoft Access (or VBA/VB) with Highrise

Want to learn how to retrieve and post data into the clouds using VBA, then read these two articles that I wrote for databasejournal.com.

“In the clouds” ~ Using Microsoft Access to query and update Web sites

Posting Microsoft Access Information “Into the clouds”

Garry Robinson
editor of Thicktoast