I Love Juan's Profile Pic Stardate 2026.0519: I just have to say that I absolutely LOVE moderator Juan Rivera's new profile pic (below). I am calling on all Trekkies to follow suit. Make it so! LLAP RR

Crazy Busy Week Stardate 2026.0518: I just realized it's been about a week since I last updated the Captain's Log, so I wanted to let everyone know that yes, I'm still here. It's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks. Between recording new videos, preparing content that's already scheduled for the next few days, and continuing work on the SQL Server course, there's been a lot going on behind the scenes. Time seems to be...

Feature Update from Access DevCon Stardate 2026.0511: Karl from Access Forever posted an article and a video on the new features coming soon for Access. Check it out. LLAP RR

I Would Rather Eat the Empty Jar Stardate 2026.0510: Review of Walden Farms "Peanut" Spreads - I Would Rather Eat the Empty Jar I bought both the regular peanut spread and the chocolate peanut spread because I was looking for a low-calorie alternative to peanut butter. I love peanut butter, but at 90 to 100 calories per tablespoon, it adds up fast when you're standing in the kitchen at 11:00 PM with a bag of celery sticks, trying to be good, but...

The Best Features Start as Side Projects Stardate 2026.0508: I think a lot of the criticism aimed at the Access team lately misses an important piece of context. I've seen people in Forums and such asking why Microsoft is "wasting time" on features like cascading combo boxes, form zooming, large-format monitor support, and other quality-of-life improvements when there are supposedly bigger issues to tackle. But after attending both the MVP Summit and...

Cascading Without VBA Stardate 2026.0507: There are moments in the Microsoft Access universe when you can almost feel the gears turning at Microsoft HQ. This week was one of those moments. At the MVP Summit, and again during the demonstrations at Access Day, Microsoft showed off a feature that honestly made a lot of seasoned Access developers smile: native cascading combo boxes without requiring VBA code. Yes, really. Built in. Out of...

AI Hit a Knowledge Wall Stardate 2026.0506: I watched an interesting video last night about artificial intelligence, and one point in particular stuck with me. The argument was that AI may have already consumed most of the useful human knowledge available online. Books, articles, code repositories, forums, research papers, social media posts, Wikipedia, technical manuals, Stack Overflow answers, cat memes, conspiracy theories, recipes for...

Why Over-Reliance on AI Can Bite You Stardate 2026.0503: Today was a reminder that as powerful as AI has become, it still isn't something you can blindly rely on, especially if it sits anywhere near the critical path of your workflow. I ran into an issue with something I haven't touched under-the-hood in a couple of months. It's part of my Access database system where I generate images using the OpenAI API. I've been using it for all kinds of things,...

I Don't Like Dead Air Stardate 2026.0501: Last week I talked about quality over quantity, and I still stand by that. My goal is to spend more time building higher-end developer content and more in-depth material for my paid members. That hasn't changed. That's still where a lot of my focus is going. But after a couple of weeks of working that way, I noticed something I didn't like. There hasn't been much going out publicly on the...

Can It Play Doom? Stardate 2026.0427: Check out this video. It's pretty cool. Someone else posted it in another forum and I had to share it because it's one of those "wait, what?" moments where you realize just how far technology has come. It's wild what people are doing now. I mean, we've gone from "can it run Doom?" as a joke to... well... this. Not exactly warp drive yet, but we're definitely not in Kansas anymore...