From: Melissa M. Wedig
Date: January 2003
Has anyone figured out a way to save us from ourselves when
it comes to the inevitable point where multiple people need
to be working with the same information?
I'm working with a small business that's developed a
sustainable way to raise aquaponic fish and hydroponic basil.
There's a lot of
technical data and some very complex spreadsheets and
databases. All of this is run off of 10 Macs plus a G4 tower
that acts as a server. But you could watch the algae grow
waiting for the server to respond and there's just not a lot
of money for updating everything to 100BaseT.
Net result: everyone makes their own copy of the files and
hoards information in little fiefdoms on their hard drives to
avoid slushing through everyone else's copy of everyone
else's copy of everyone else's copy. . . . The files reproduce
faster than the fish!
In my last job, I worked with developers who used version
control software. They checked out files to work on and then
checked them back in again so there was always only one copy
in one place.
It seems like such a universal issue. Has anyone developed
something similar for the rest of us server-serfs? Some way
to check the file out of the server, work on it locally using
your own processing power, but then automatically save it all
back to the server and not the local hard drive?
All of this to say, please, please, please write a book on
networking and server stuff for those of us who have managed
to gain some mastery one-on-one with our own computers, but
who now have to learn how to share the sandbox with our
coworkers and their computers too!
Thanks much!
PS. Also, a solid vote for a book on FileMaker with special
emphasis on how to use it as a springboard for moving your
web site from brochure-ware to form-filled functionality.
Strange. The network really shouldn't be that slow. People should be
able to open the documents on the server without actually copying them
to their local machines. I can't imagine what's going on. Is it
possible they are actually running the application on the server? That
would certainly slow things down.
In the meantime, if you're using Mac OS X, you might consider
command-dragging the file you intend to copy to the local machine. That way you move it rather than copying it, which at least avoids the
Version Hell problem.
Good luck!
David
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