Being a compulsive information gatherer/cataloger, from early on and before MP3 and P2P, I had my CD collection cataloged in Access. I had over 500 discs, and wanted to make sure that I explored a decent cross-section of my collection. I had a CD boombox at work, so I wrote a selection randomizer that would walk my list and assign a 1% chance of a disc being selected.

But I added all sorts of lovely complications. First, I had bit fields to exclude albums (I don't want Christmas music not in December). Then it would remember that an album had been selected in the last five passes and skip it. It would spit out a list of ten discs to grab (the number that fit in my CD wallet) and that would be my mix for the week. I've done other similarly pointless database projects, fun for me but nothing that I'd bother releasing to the public at large.

It was fun, and all but totally pointless. But it certainly helped in my Access programming. It's certainly not a technique that I would be likely to put into a production scenario.

Now I design card games using Access as both the data repository and the form generator for doing the printing. I just have to figure out if I'm going to attempt it on my Mac with something like File Maker, or continue running Parallels and flipping over to my XP install. My initial feelings with File Maker is that I'll be ice skating in Phoenix in August before that happens.

Last December I gave myself a musical resolution: listen to all of my music in iTunes -- alphabetically! It took 7-8 months, IIRC.

It's a good thing to twist your neurons on occasion.