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I'm sure you've all noticed that I've been less than active on the blog lately. I'm sorry for the lull, and the reason is that change is afoot. After 7.5 years working on the data team here in Office I've decided to make a change. Monday 3/3 I'm starting a new role with the Virtual Earth team. For those of you who aren't familiar, VE is an awesome (if you're a map geek like me) technology which allows you to see maps of the entire world complete with overlays of imagery taken from satellites or high resolution cameras mounted to the underbelly of a plane (bird's eye), location search, and travel directions.
They've got a really slick (and relatively new) 3D user interface for exploring the world, for which you can get a pretty good demo by checking out this virtual tour I put together of my time with MS (be sure to click "hybrid" at the top of the map, then "tour in 3D" on the pane at the left to get the best experience). If you find this stuff interesting, be sure to check out the Virtual Earth Blog for the latest info on what they're up to. Who knows, at some point I may make a re-appearance there.
Before I'm out the door though, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the wonderful passion you've shown for Access. This group has always been very open with feedback which helps us on the product team to understand the kinds of challenges you face every day in building your apps on the platform. We absolutely appreciate all of the time you spend here just trying to make Access better. The things we're doing in Access 14 are truly amazing, and I am more than a little disappointed that I won't get the first crack at sharing with you what we've been hard at work building for the last year or so. I really think you're going to find that the work we're doing is a direct path toward re-invigorating interest in Access as a platform across the app building community.
I'll leave you with a little taste of an update I've been working on for the Contacts template. This is something that I'm hoping to get up to a quality where we can share the .accdt directly with you soon. In the mean time though, here's a screenshot:
Wishing you all the best, Zac
Comments: (7) Collapse
Hi Zac Good luck mate! Any news on the Runtime upgrade inparticular the PDF Add in, before you go? Regards Brad
Hi Zac,
Well the very best of luck on the new job. Those VE people are lucky to get you on board. So who's going to fill the gap in the Access team? Tip: when applicable join the beta team for Access 14 ;-) Regards,
Maurice
Re: Bradley R Thanks man! This is definitely an exciting move for me. On the subject of the Runtime, although we don't have any public release dates, I can tell you that we're done with the engineering work and that the bits are now in the release pipeline. Once released, the update will be at SP1 level and will include the fixes for PDF/XPS export among other things. Keep your eyes on the blog for an announcement. I expect you'll be hearing something before long.
Hi Zac, Congratulations on the move. I think this could also be an opportunity to integrate GIS with Access. Over the past several years I have been integrating GIS and MS Access along with several other applications and see areas where the two could be more seemlessly integrated. I will be attending the Developer's Conference in Palm Springs, CA. in two weeks and would like to know if you have any staff that plan on attending, specifically in MS Access. I am part of the feedback team to the next version of MS Access; NDA agreement would have additional information. I have been working on forming a Developer's group in GIS and Visual Studio. You might say that Visual Studio staff would be who I need to speak with, but I focus on Application Integration. The majority of GIS customers are government entities and this is where I have done most of my Access development. If you or other staff are attending, I would like to provide feedback. Chris Sergent
Zac,
Thought you might be interested in this. It's a GIS site I frequently go to for free code. Here is the info: Display Geospatial Analysis results in Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth with ArcGIS Server arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp Chris
Hi Zac, 1. Some time ago we talk about problem with autonumbers fileds. Here is the sample, that simulate of such problem: imitech.net/sampledb.accdb 2. AccRT do not renamed objects, so I can't make simple DB upgrade or DB restore.
Chris: Sweet, thanks for the pointers man. I totally agree that Access could make a great GIS tool for ad-hock applications. If you'd like to build a 2007 template that does that kind of thing, please do follow up through the send email link. Templates submitted through the site directly can't contain VBA code, but the ones published by the Access team can. If you wanted to build something cool that reuses a web service or some such, you might be able to convince the Access PM team to put it up for you. Maxim: Since I'm no longer on the Access team, it would be good to follow up on these issues through the send email link as well. Hopefully someone there can help you out.
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