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Some observant persons may note that I haven't posted in a while. Well, not a lot has been going on.
Most of my days have been spent trying to wrestle my data into a useful format. Hence, I have been trying to convert it into real databases in MicroSuck Access. * The fact that this is extremely boring as well as complicated does not help this process. Nor does the fact that my laptop does not HAVE microsoft access. And so I spend much of my time pestering the good people in the Stat Lab with questions.
In addition, like most spreadsheet programs, Access is not so good at doing computations in non-decimal currency, leading me to wonder whether the whole database thing is really worth it in the first place. Grace's Godfather commented that perhaps it would have been better if the British hadn't converted theiir currency over in the '70's--then they would have had to come up with software that can function in £.s.d. As it is, I'm considering constructing an abacus.
I bumped into![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yaleartificer the other day, and was bemoaning this problem.
"Well, you could write a PERL script for it," was his response.
My knowledge of PERL extends about as far as how to spell it. This is where I really regret not taking those CompSci courses at Williams. I mentioned these facts.
"But hey," repliedyaleartificer. "What a great excuse to learn it! I mean, in the course of my research I"D certainly take the opportunity to procrastinate and learn a new programming language."
I guess I can relate. In the course of my career, I've taken courses in Greek, Hebrew and Spanish more or less for the hell of it, read Grace's textbooks at length, and distracted myself from my real project to consider questions like how large 15th century Konstanz was, or who the Jacobite candidate for the English throne would be.
But somehow I don't think I'm going to be learning PERL. I have enough to do. And I'm sick of copying data in and out of text files as it is...
(*And also figure out what questions I need to ask the said data.)
Most of my days have been spent trying to wrestle my data into a useful format. Hence, I have been trying to convert it into real databases in MicroSuck Access. * The fact that this is extremely boring as well as complicated does not help this process. Nor does the fact that my laptop does not HAVE microsoft access. And so I spend much of my time pestering the good people in the Stat Lab with questions.
In addition, like most spreadsheet programs, Access is not so good at doing computations in non-decimal currency, leading me to wonder whether the whole database thing is really worth it in the first place. Grace's Godfather commented that perhaps it would have been better if the British hadn't converted theiir currency over in the '70's--then they would have had to come up with software that can function in £.s.d. As it is, I'm considering constructing an abacus.
I bumped into
yaleartificer the other day, and was bemoaning this problem."Well, you could write a PERL script for it," was his response.
My knowledge of PERL extends about as far as how to spell it. This is where I really regret not taking those CompSci courses at Williams. I mentioned these facts.
"But hey," replied
yaleartificer. "What a great excuse to learn it! I mean, in the course of my research I"D certainly take the opportunity to procrastinate and learn a new programming language."I guess I can relate. In the course of my career, I've taken courses in Greek, Hebrew and Spanish more or less for the hell of it, read Grace's textbooks at length, and distracted myself from my real project to consider questions like how large 15th century Konstanz was, or who the Jacobite candidate for the English throne would be.
But somehow I don't think I'm going to be learning PERL. I have enough to do. And I'm sick of copying data in and out of text files as it is...
(*And also figure out what questions I need to ask the said data.)
