Database / barcodescanners & DVD backup

[Gregorydroberts]

Hi all.

I'm just looking at databases at the moment as I am running a
distribution store for work.

Basicly I will be invortoring every thing and then asigning barcodes
to each and every item.

The reason for this is that every item has it's own serial number that
I have to account for. When a person ask me for a piece of equipment
I have to either a) write down each item name and serial number then
the individual signs for the equipment ( an issue voucher) or b). I
manualy type in the product name and code print out the form and then
they sign.

So by introducing barcodes to the products I am hoping to scan the
items which are then listed on the form, it prints off and bingo all
equipment & serial numbers are then assign to the form that the
individual signs.

Further to this when I Re-scan the items another form is created that
is electronicaly saved and archieved showing that the equipment has
indeed been returned.

Also if any stock is out being calibrated then this too is highlighted
on the database.

Would bento 2 be able to let me accomplish this or do I need filemaker
10.

I also need to then get the barcode scanner that works with macs.

I am hoping if all of this works I can then sync my iPhone and have
the invortory to hand at all times. It doesn't need to be synced
over the air but just updated when I plug it in via USB.

The problem with all of the above is that I have to buy this on my
own. Why? Well it makes my job at work a whole lot easier.

On a lighter note what software do I need to transfer my DVD box set
onto my external fghard drive.

May many thanks to all in advance.
Greg

Sent from my iPhone
07525 204 211

[Drew Reece]

Assuming you are either just backing up the 'box set' (probably still piracy in the eyes of the studios) or you own the copyright. You'll need MacTheRipper <- the site seems dead at present so find it on Version Tracker instead. It will rip the disc to a VIDEO_TS folder. Handbrake combined with VLC should allow you to transcode if you need a different format from the disc.

PS MMUG is a public group, you may want to remove your telephone number from your signature & welcome to MMUG :)

Re:co

On 24 May 2009, at 03:41, Gregorydroberts wrote:

Hi all.

[Gregorydroberts]

Hi and good afternoon drew reece and many thanks for your swift reply.

When I next go on line I will have a look for that software.

I don't suppose you could summerise my data base prediciment that quickly?!

Cheers. 

Greg 
Sent from my iPhone

[Drew Reece]

Sorry, the last barcode scanner I used was an iSight with Delicious Library, not quite what you need. Version Tracker would be a good place to see what is out there though.

Re:co

[Patrick Neame]

I've no idea about bar code scanners and bento but if you google
barcode scanners and Filemaker it turns up plenty of information.
Here's one:-

http://www.peninsula-group.com/

It's worth keeping an eye on ebay for FileMaker as some bargains,
particularly for the older versions, turn up from time to time. But
don't bother with anything below V8 and get the Advanced version if
you can afford it as it's worth the extra for the script debugger alone.

[Benjamin Stanley]

Hi Greg, Try these people...

http://www.peninsula-group.com/quicktrackpro/

I have their software here and a barcode scanner to do pretty much
what you're asking for. We book out equipment in and out to people and
projects so we can see who has used what and when.

You could just buy the £99 scanner from them and write your own
FileMaker or Bento database. At £325 for the software and scanner it
depends how valuable your time is.

Only extra costs is labels to print out bar codes to stick on things
that don;t have them. We use the tiny Avery labels, 64 per sheet,
which work well.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
B.



2009/5/24 Gregorydroberts <gregory...@me.com>:

--
Benjamin Stanley - Technical Director - Trilby Multimedia
47-49 Loveday Street, Birmingham, B4 6NR
Telephone: 0121 333 6860 www.trilby.co.uk

[Peter Morris]

Any USB barcode scanner should work with a Mac. The computer just see it as
a keyboard. It inputs to wherever the cursor is.

Bento would be fine for an inventory database.

Pete

[Gregorydroberts]

Hi pete and thank u for your idea. Bento would certainly be cheaper
and an ideal base to start from.

I may look at getting bento over the next few weeks and then spend a
few more weeks playing to see if bento can offer everything.

Cheers Greg

Sent from my iPhone
07525 204 211

[Drew Reece]

It looks like this reader supports Bento, with an option to print
barcodes too.
http://www.intelliscanner.com/products/soho/integration.html

Re:co

[Gregorydroberts]

Hi there B and thanks for your reply.

Would it be possible to try and get in touch some time just so I can
ask a few thing the software

Safe

Greg

Sent from my iPhone
07525 204 211

>> Greg
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 07525 204 211
>>
>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>

[graham thompson]

I found what looks like some very good advice here. I don't know if anyone else has seen or experienced the accuracy of the information and would appreciate comments.

Graham

[Drew Reece]

Intriguing, probably not entirely true either :^(

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/cellphones.asp

I heard that 112 can also locate the mobile phone unlike 999, probably another urban myth.

Anyone really want to try using the reversed PIN in an ATM to see what happens?

Re:co

[Benjamin Stanley]

I’m sure the PIN thing can’t be right, if your code was 4114 you’d
have the police after you every time you used the cashpoint!



2009/5/25 Drew Reece <drew...@mac.com>:

[pcwooldridge]

I believe in Faeries.

[Derek Buttery]

... and I believe in Father Christmas, (so does NASA allegedly!)

--
Regards

Dek

VTID

http://familybutteryincanada.blogspot.com/





Please note that the following is a disclaimer and a protest at the collection,
retention and sharing of my personal mail by the state.

By adding a string of key words, it will guarantee that each and every
mail that I send will now need to be manually viewed as it is picked
up by the auto scan software. If every person in the UK does exactly
the same, then the entire system will quickly become so unmanageable,
so unwieldy that it will become unworkable.

Key words, the Royal Family, Queen of England, homeland security, RCMP, bomb, assassinate, president, brown, Osama, Obama, Sarkozy,
Merkel, government, target, location, rocket, grenade, al-Qaeda, Taleban
Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, UK, America, guns, jets, bombs, IRA,
machine-gun, terrorists, MP's, pigs, troughs, France, Germany, Italy,
nuclear, Korea.

[javad hashemi]

I think this is not true. can check it on site called hoax-buster.com( or similar name )

[Dave Cooper]

I used to be a first aider at work. This required me to attend an update course every three years.
These St John courses where usually taken by a paramedic.
They suggested that we use 112 when calling the emergency services from a mobile.

Dave C.

http://web.mac.com/forcooperman/

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, at 12:26AM, "Derek Buttery" <derekb...@inetlink.ca> wrote:
>... and I believe in Father Christmas, (so does NASA allegedly!)
>
>On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 4:58 PM, pcwooldridge
><pcwool...@googlemail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> I believe in Faeries.
>>

>> On 25 May 2009, at 21:51, Benjamin Stanley wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > I’m sure the PIN thing can’t be right, if your code was 4114 you’d
>> > have the police after you every time you used the cashpoint!
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > 2009/5/25 Drew Reece <drew...@mac.com>:
>> >> Intriguing, probably not entirely true either :^(
>> >> http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/cellphones.asp
>> >> I heard that 112 can also locate the mobile phone unlike 999,
>> >> probably
>> >> another urban myth.
>> >> Anyone really want to try using the reversed PIN in an ATM to see
>> >> what
>> >> happens?
>> >> Re:co
>> >> On 25 May 2009, at 20:07, graham thompson wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I found what looks like some very good advice here. I don't know
>> >> if anyone
>> >> else has seen or experienced the accuracy of the information and
>> >> would
>> >> appreciate comments.
>> >> Graham
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Benjamin Stanley - Technical Director - Trilby Multimedia
>> > 47-49 Loveday Street, Birmingham, B4 6NR
>> > Telephone: 0121 333 6860 www.trilby.co.uk
>> >
>> > >
>>
>>
>> >
>>
>
>

[Derek Buttery]

it's because 112 is 'easier' to dial from the layout of the cell phone keypad.... the old rotary phone, the '9' was near the bottom of the dial. There were even P.S.A.s advising how to dial 999 in the dark...

also 112 is easier for non-English speaking europeans to say, not to mention the confusion 999 would have with our German friends...

[Dom Barnes]

What the hell is a rotary phone? (jk) ;-)

[pcwooldridge]

Standard dialing mechanism used pre Cro Magnon Man (HSS).

[Matt Moran]

Plus being at the bottom of the dial it was harder to dial by accident
- 111 might have been done by nudging the dial against something but
999 would never get dialled without serious need (theoretically at
least!)

Matt

On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 10:23 AM, Derek Buttery
<derekb...@inetlink.ca> wrote:

--

Bette Davis - "Brought up to respect the conventions, love had to end
in marriage. I'm afraid it did." -
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bette_davis.html

[Matt Moran]

I'd quite like an old-fashioned red rotary-dial phone. As a mobile!
You could make one as a case for a mobile phone, and then when making
a call, reach into your jacket & pull out this beast, slowly dial the
number & make the call - imagine the looks on people's faces! :-D

--

Mitch Hedberg - "My fake plants died because I did not pretend to
water them." - http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mitch_hedberg.html

[Patrick Neame]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999_(emergency_telephone_number). It
would appear to be based on how easy it is to modify coin phone boxes
to allow free calls. Dialling zero was already free so modifying the
phoneboxes to allow 9 to be dialled free was pretty easy.

[Robert Sharl]

In Hong Kong I've seen old fashioned handsets on curly cables that
attach to mobile phones. If you want to turn heads I can pick you one
up..

Sent from my iPhone

[Marc Carter]

They sell them in the UK, gadget shop type stores have them, got my
brother one 3 or 4 years back, made people laugh when he used of to
answer calls especially with the right ringtone.

[Derek Buttery]

I have a black, bakerlite one in my lounge....  found it languishing in a box in one of the sheds when bought this place... couldn't believe it when it actually worked!! must be old, as it's not made in china.

[gregory d roberts]

Hi there everyone.

I am deploying away with work for six months and have decided to give my white imac to my parents.  Unless one of you would like to make me an offer, still in the box!!!

But anyway i detract.

Because my mom and dad will be using the machine i would like to roll it back to when i put OS X onto it some time last year.  The problem is i dont have my disks anymore.

All of my .me email settings are on here and my computer name and logon.

I have been using time-machine for occasional backups but what im afraid about is that my mother might accidently stumble across a file that i haven't deleted!!!!!! (i dont think my dad would mind)!!!

So if anyone has any ideas please let me know as i only have the next three days to try and give them a machine with an operating system that feels like new.

Im a bit skint to be buying another copy of OS X especially if mom and dad dont infact get on with the machine so that would be £££ down the pan.


Many many thanks in advance.

Greg




Gregory D Roberts

gregory...@me.com

Mobile:  07525 204 211

Sent from the cloud @me.com

[Drew Reece]

Add a new user account & set it to auto login. If they are 'light' users they shouldn't need to go snooping into your stuff. You could also add a new admin account (you always need one) and then delete your old one (assuming yours was an admin account). It might be a good idea to make a bootable backup before you start since you have no install disks to fix any potential mistakes :^)

You'll also need to check that you don't have any files that are not in your home folder (eg at the root of the HD).

Deleting the account will give you options for what to do with the data (archive to dmg, leave as is, or erase it from disk).

You may want to check that third party apps still work, since they can sometimes apply the license on a per user basis, meaning that the new accounts will need a new license.

Once the data is gone spotlight *should* remove it from its index, and it also shouldn't show data from other users unless they have the correct permissions to your stuff.

You could also use the 'secure erase of free space' feature in disk utility to overwrite the files you have removed, but seriously, do you have time & the need for that?

Re:co

[Gregorydroberts]

Drew that is absolutely fantastic .

I really want mom and dad to have a "freash" user experiance/account and to delete absolutly everything bar apps from the machine, as it is 250gig hdd but I have only 30gig free.  If apps are deleted then so be it I can reinstall the apps, no problem at all.  I belive I have nearly everything backed up onto 1.5tereabytr drive and my work stuff on USB flash drives.

I'm also letting my dad have my iPhone and trying to get them into the whole mac experiance. Including setting up there own .me account.

Are there any third party apps that may help me to remove all the "crap" and sort any hidden directory issues out?

I will be buying a MacBook next month as I have just bought an ebook (packard bell m series 11inch screen) with xp on which is absolutely rubbish but I needed a portable machine at cheap cost.  I keep Reading up on hackingtosh to put osx onto it but I'm pure pettrified!!

If I knew I could run OSX from the ebook I would buy the family licence for both machines.

Again drew many many thanks for your thourgh and detailed guide towards helping me out.

Greg.

Sent from my iPhone

07525 204 211

[Dom Barnes]

The other option is to start with your clean install, or what ever state you want it back in, and use Carbon Copy Cloner, or SuperDuper to do a clone of your drive, to another drive. This will be a mirror image of your disk and OS as it is, files, folders, apps and documents.  

Then, when you're parents are finished, just restore that image back to your iMac and its like they never touched it.

Regarding the "crap", tools like Onyx will help clean caches, and other stuff, but regarding hidden directories, they are hidden for a reason, so best to leave them as they are. Its better than accidentally deleting some important files which you can't restore as you haven't got your discs. Since you have a 250GB drive, its not like you'll be fighting for space.

Dom

[gregory d roberts]

Hi there Dom.

Thank you for your swift reply.

When you say start with your clean install do you mean start with a freshly bought copy of  X or is there a way within the system that i can reset every thing to default, week one day one settings?

I have totally sold the mac idea to mom and dad yet im absolutely petrified of them finding the stuff that parents never believe that their siblings ever ever watch or any of my msn chats!  Oh and the pictures as-well.

The family license i would buy but unless i am 90% confident of installing osx onto my packard bell notebook and it working smoothly, then i would rather place this money into a brand new shinny 13"macbook pro next month.

I am already looking into apple airport and attaching an external drive to it for mom and dads time machine backups but as i listen to the  podcast a lot of folk say that time machine is not really as good as it makes out.

Im glad you mentioned the Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper.  I have been meaning to do this for a while but i never get around to it.  Which is the better out of the wo of them or should i use both?  I only ask as of yet i have never researched either.

Guys the response that you reply  with your top tips is absolutely amazing.  Next year i will attend one of the user group meets and introduce myself.  But work and my geographic location always seems to place a spanner in the works!!!

Thank-you again

Greg

Gregory D Roberts

gregory...@me.com

Mobile:  07525 204 211

Sent from the cloud @me.com

[Drew Reece]

There are things like 'App Zapper' that are meant to clean up the prefs that deleted apps leave behind. Try re-running any installers you have first, they may have an uninstall option in the menu or main window.

The chances are though that the prefs are all in your user account anyway, so will be gone when the home folder is wiped. It's possible that there are 'global' prefs for some applications inside /System/Library/Preferences & /Library/Preferences, but as Dom said it's not somewhere to go deleting stuff without the ability to reinstall. Once you have cleared out the crap & set up a new user consider using Carbon Copy or SuperDuper! to clone it incase your folks love it but need a reinstall down the line.

A slightly more complex way is to use Disk Utility to make a 'Disk image from folder' & select the entire HD, save it as a compressed image. Then you use Disk Utility to 'scan the image for restore' then you can just use the restore tab in Disk Utility to clone the contents of the disk image to the HD. You will need to be booted from another system to make the initial image & do the restoring, but this could be another mac with the iMac's HD mounted via Target drive mode (T on startup, with firewire connecting the macs).

Hope that is clear, LOL

Re:co

[gregory d roberts]

Phew how deep is this reinstalling  busness!!

If i wasnt traveling to germany to meet the mrs then i would be off to apple in the bull ring and just buy a copy.

I will attempt to try what you guys have covered and will ender to let you know how i get along!!

And i should really blame the mrs for all this as it was she that started to make me think....  to mac or not to mac?!!  But as they say once you have had mac you never go back!

Gregory D Roberts

gregory...@me.com

Mobile:  07525 204 211

Sent from the cloud @me.com