ashleedawg
"Here for a good time"
- Local time
- Yesterday, 17:42
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2017
- Messages
- 154
Twenty-five years ago today, November 13, 1992, Microsoft's Project code-name Cirrus was officially released to the public as Microsoft Access 1.0, marketed as the "Business Information Access Program plus Menu Developer's Kit". (Ahh the unlimited potential in a career as a professional Menu Developer.)
An introductory price of $99 USD (eventually marked up to $299) bought you Eight glorious 1.2MB capacity 5½" diskettes, plus a 360KB (almost 10MB total!), plus over 1000 pages of printed documentation. Alas, powerful software required a powerful system: Microsoft recommended an Intel 80486 processor, 4MB of RAM and minimum 14MB Hard Drive running Windows 3.0. A separate version of Access 1.0 was available for MS-DOS 3.0 (although the focus was on communication, with limited database functionality).
More powerful than Microsoft Works database, yet far less expensive than SQL Server, Access provided an affordable option for students and business seeking a simpler way to create and manage relational databases. Quickly knocking out the competition: Paradox, dBase and even Microsoft's recently acquired FoxPro, and helping Microsoft towards full-filling Bill Gates' unrealistic-sounding prediction of "a computer on every desk and in every home."
Microsoft was nearing 12,000 employees, and the debut of Access helped push Microsoft to 1992's record-breaking sales of almost $2,800,000,000. It's unknown how many developers were involved in the creation of Access 1, but it is rumored that even Bill brushed up on his coding skills to assist during crunch time as the release date neared.
A few days after it's release, Access was showcased at the '91 Comdex in Las Vegas. In an interview with The Computer Chronicles, Bill praised Access's graphical interface.
I received a promotional copy of Access 1.0 but it remained unopened for years. Even as a geeky teen, relational database development seemed daunting. Little did I know the impact that the application would have omn my life. I don't know what happened to that original copy, but a sealed copy of 1.0 sells can sell for $100's on auction sites and others. I began using Access professionally in restaurant management, followed by automation of countless tedious reporting tasks for a government Lottery authority, including a live feed from thousands of gambling machines, and constantly analyzing for irregularities and potential fraudulent behavior.
A few years later, I was leading a small team of Access developers automating performance reporting, payroll, forecasting & statistics over thousands of telephone agents for a major American Long Distance company. My most "bittersweet" development was an individualized automated report sent to the each manager on the first of every month, listing names of up to 50+ phone agents who were making the least money for the company, and thus were to be fired that day. I was commended for the huge savings generated by this reporting, while VBA silently pumped out a list of people who's lives were to be ruined that day. On the other hand, I also received financial recognition from the company VIP's when they saw and circulated screen shots of a color pie chart automatically updated every few seconds. What these "executives" failed to notice was that the chart was nothing more than an experimental learning exercise, and was comprised of completely irrelevant metrics, like comparison between the number of agents currently on a call versus the number of seconds past midnight versus the number of files in my temp folder. It took minutes to slap together but sadly created excitement exponentially more than the 6 months of 18 hours days put into the rest of the project since data "isn't fun". That day I learned a lesson about the importance of formatting.
I've found countless other uses for Access over the years, both at home, work, and even for purely recreational reasons (like my recent Analog Clock, just to see if I could, which hasn't been touched since!)
Being self-taught, almost exclusively by Google + Forums, with Access World Forums easily topping the list (although I didn't register until this year, the original purpose to properly thank ridders for providing the exact code I needed at the exact right time, and kicking my development-self back into high gear, giving back when I can). The incredible dedication, knowledge and patience of he and so many others (such as you!) on sites such as this one, is inspiring and overwhelming.
What's your Access story?
Source, more Access history, and further reading:
- Microsoft Access on Wikipedia
- A Brief History of Access
- Access History on UtterAccess
- Access version & packaging history
- Access at Comdex '92, on Youtube
- Advertisement in PC Magazine, Feb 1993
- History of Microsoft 1992
- History of Microsoft on Wikipedia
An introductory price of $99 USD (eventually marked up to $299) bought you Eight glorious 1.2MB capacity 5½" diskettes, plus a 360KB (almost 10MB total!), plus over 1000 pages of printed documentation. Alas, powerful software required a powerful system: Microsoft recommended an Intel 80486 processor, 4MB of RAM and minimum 14MB Hard Drive running Windows 3.0. A separate version of Access 1.0 was available for MS-DOS 3.0 (although the focus was on communication, with limited database functionality).
More powerful than Microsoft Works database, yet far less expensive than SQL Server, Access provided an affordable option for students and business seeking a simpler way to create and manage relational databases. Quickly knocking out the competition: Paradox, dBase and even Microsoft's recently acquired FoxPro, and helping Microsoft towards full-filling Bill Gates' unrealistic-sounding prediction of "a computer on every desk and in every home."
Microsoft was nearing 12,000 employees, and the debut of Access helped push Microsoft to 1992's record-breaking sales of almost $2,800,000,000. It's unknown how many developers were involved in the creation of Access 1, but it is rumored that even Bill brushed up on his coding skills to assist during crunch time as the release date neared.
A few days after it's release, Access was showcased at the '91 Comdex in Las Vegas. In an interview with The Computer Chronicles, Bill praised Access's graphical interface.
I received a promotional copy of Access 1.0 but it remained unopened for years. Even as a geeky teen, relational database development seemed daunting. Little did I know the impact that the application would have omn my life. I don't know what happened to that original copy, but a sealed copy of 1.0 sells can sell for $100's on auction sites and others. I began using Access professionally in restaurant management, followed by automation of countless tedious reporting tasks for a government Lottery authority, including a live feed from thousands of gambling machines, and constantly analyzing for irregularities and potential fraudulent behavior.
A few years later, I was leading a small team of Access developers automating performance reporting, payroll, forecasting & statistics over thousands of telephone agents for a major American Long Distance company. My most "bittersweet" development was an individualized automated report sent to the each manager on the first of every month, listing names of up to 50+ phone agents who were making the least money for the company, and thus were to be fired that day. I was commended for the huge savings generated by this reporting, while VBA silently pumped out a list of people who's lives were to be ruined that day. On the other hand, I also received financial recognition from the company VIP's when they saw and circulated screen shots of a color pie chart automatically updated every few seconds. What these "executives" failed to notice was that the chart was nothing more than an experimental learning exercise, and was comprised of completely irrelevant metrics, like comparison between the number of agents currently on a call versus the number of seconds past midnight versus the number of files in my temp folder. It took minutes to slap together but sadly created excitement exponentially more than the 6 months of 18 hours days put into the rest of the project since data "isn't fun". That day I learned a lesson about the importance of formatting.
I've found countless other uses for Access over the years, both at home, work, and even for purely recreational reasons (like my recent Analog Clock, just to see if I could, which hasn't been touched since!)
Being self-taught, almost exclusively by Google + Forums, with Access World Forums easily topping the list (although I didn't register until this year, the original purpose to properly thank ridders for providing the exact code I needed at the exact right time, and kicking my development-self back into high gear, giving back when I can). The incredible dedication, knowledge and patience of he and so many others (such as you!) on sites such as this one, is inspiring and overwhelming.
What's your Access story?
- When and how did you become involved with Access? How did you learn? Your favorite Access resources of past & present?
- What was your biggest project? Your favorite? Most trivial?
- How will you be celebrating Microsoft Access's 25th birthday?
Source, more Access history, and further reading:
- Microsoft Access on Wikipedia
- A Brief History of Access
- Access History on UtterAccess
- Access version & packaging history
- Access at Comdex '92, on Youtube
- Advertisement in PC Magazine, Feb 1993
- History of Microsoft 1992
- History of Microsoft on Wikipedia
Last edited:
