> On Mon, 29 Sep 1997 13:05:47 -0400, Digest Cesar Flores <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> >I am amazed that there are not alot of high quality software packages out
> >there that would serve to manage a honey business from top to bottom. It
> >seems like such an obvious and simple(?) application.
Simple ? maybe but I learnt from working with this that this is simple with
big modification.
Beekeepers are not that confirm, and each of us think we have found the way
more or less successful. What we expect from software for beekeeping is very
variant from beekeeper to beekeeper. Some just need a few notes to a hive
and other want the software to dig into future such as if I do so what can I
expect? So making a software covering all what all beekeepers need is not
that simple at the end. It is very easy to get to sit between two chairs, I
know because I have been there.
> >I would actually be more interested to know of record keeping techniques
> >people are using that are NOT computer based.
This is an issue worked with for years in different countries and I think
you can find a national developed hivenote card, that cover most of what you
need. Here in the Scandinavian countries we have a hive note card that
compared to each other is very very similar, and I once have that stupid
thought that what is working in Scandinavia also could work in the rest of
the world.
> I thought it is time again to resurrect this old BEE-L thread in light of
> new software, new hand-held computers and new beekeepers.
I know I have been contributing to this thread a lot to much, but the world
goes on, and since my first try in this field computers have changed, and
development have gone on in software, so you can get nearly all you need if,
and I think this is the isue, You want to pay for it.
Developing software is not cost-free; and it is very common to pay around
US$35/$40 (some developers take more), and to cover the cost there mostly is
a demand of US$400 for a specialised developed software. EDBi and I have
decided to make the software we are developing low-cost. We are not
compromising in quality, but our goal is to help the beekeeping not to
profit on it. So we set a price of max US$100 for our software.
> I realise brick marking and grease crayon marking will never go out of
> style, but I can see that a new day is dawning in the beeyard. I
> thoroughly enjoyed the presentation at the AFB in San Diego about
> using bar codes.
If I can put this in, this is rearly a step forward in note taking, special
when we are talking aabout using PDA as a Help in notetaking. Think about
having 3000 hives registred on the Palm. I have tried this in a test and
then finding the correct record to edit in a snap. It was not that easy, but
with a barcode scanner and a barcode on the hive it was just that easy.
Simply scan edit next hive. Ok it still demand you to think, but the
triviality is cut down, and you are getting more time for handling the bees.
And home, just hotsync with the desktop software while you have time for the
family and the trivial work is drastical cut down. And with a modem and a
Mobil Phone it can even be finished before you get home. And more, if you
have more workers maybe working far away from basic, then you can get
updated at home about every hive visited the same day regardsles if you have
hives in British Columbia and/or in Alberta.
> I fully intended to take this one back, but first I had to prove to myself
> what a useless toy it was.
> I have always known that a relational database would be be ideal, but have
> considered it a fairly daunting development task with limited payback.
Each software is designed for a special task. Excell is for counting and
budgets, Access is for database enginering, Word is for Documents and so on.
For small beekeepers Excell is well and usefull, but it is not designed for
use as a Database. Access is much more for this purpose. The problem im my
eyes is that people are doing much to much paperwork, and creating a
database to contain all those notes made is not that easy, but it can be
done if you take some study in database development.
Bidata is a relational database, with barcode support and scanning facility
on the PDA, if you can use it with my build in limitations, fine it is free
for you up to 10 hives, steep 20-40 hives $45 or 9 million hives $100 up to
you. But still there are other dabases around, and I think also more will
come. I though hope for the bebefit of beekeeping and not for profit.
Best regards
Jorn Johanesson
Multilingual software for beekeeping since 1997
hive note- queen breeding and handheld computer beekeeping software with
barcode support
10-04-2001 added grouping and colouring of hives + a lot more.
all you need and a little more. being a little beekeeper or a big queen
breeder
free of charge up to 10 hives.
Language added : Dutch, Pourtuguise, French
home page = HTTP://apimo.dk
e-mail [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
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