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Hex 37 as an answer to software problems - ?

greenowl

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I decided the other day it might be a nice idea to learn MySQL (open-source database application). However, I'm already having trouble: it doesn't want to install and I've already spent about an hour trying to search out what I'm doing wrong in various forums, etc.

Such exercises can of course solve one's problem; they can also turn into time-consuming chase-your-tail adventures.

(Note: I'm reasonably certain that the problem isn't something really simple and stupid-ish, along the lines of a corrupted download.)

MySQL is something I wouldn't mind learning, but it's not so important to me to keep at it if it's going to grow legs every step of the way. (Haven't we all had computer problems like that. *rolleyes*)

So I asked Yi:

"I seem to be having problems even getting started with MySQL. What should my attitude be towards this endeavor?"

Answer: Hexagram 37, Family Duties, unchanging.

Does this mean I should 'be faithful as a good wife' to MySQL - continue to work away at it?

Or does it mean that I should stick closer to my own hearth and home, and not go chasing after alluring databases?

Or is it more likely to mean something else entirely?

Thanks, everyone...
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kevin

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Chuckles

37 - Dwelling People.

Refers to the family and clan... your people.

I think the Yi might be saying something like:

"Go and get help from your clan, the IT clan perhaps"

The trigrams seem to sugest that accepting guidance lets you influence the outer world - SQL here?

Best of luck.

--Kevin
 

greenowl

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Thanks, Kevin. I hadn't thought of it in that way (obviously), and it makes sense.

Do you think it's reasonable to take it one step further, and conclude from the reading that if I 'get help from the IT clan' (continue looking in the forums, as I'd started to do) I'll likely be successful?

GreenOwl

P.S. What did you mean by 'SQL here'?
 
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bruce

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I like Kevin's look at 37 for this.

Another possibility might be that a family is an image of order with a unit. Unit being your computer. So learning is a 'first things first' proposition, it would seem.

I notice there's plenty of Google links for "SQL", just in case Kevin's right.
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gentle intro
 

hilary

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Two thoughts came to mind. One the same as Kevin's - I've found online coding people to be fantastically helpful.

Another, if 'people in the home' is the attitude to take to MySql, maybe it's a matter of thinking about where it fits with everything else you're doing, and letting that determine how much time it gets.

Make that three - there are web hosts all over the shop that already have mySql installed. Would that be a good place to start, just to test if it's useful to you?
 

greenowl

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Thanks, everybody! I really appreciate all the different 'takes' on what hex 37 could be saying here - most of the time it's just confusing that one hexagram can say many different, though related, things, but in this case it's refreshingly useful.

Bruce: 'sqlzoo.net' - hee hee! Sounds like a good place for me. Have it open; will go peruse.

Hilary: 'How this fits into my life' is really the crux of the matter (my question probably should have been worded better.)

Your suggestion about web hosts that already have mySQL installed - I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that, BUT it might be what I should look into, and without your comment I wouldn't have thought of it. My original motivation wasn't web pages at all; it was to try to get an Access database I made out of Access and into something that can be compiled as a standalone app (not that I know how to do any of that either, but I do have a Visual Basic compiler downloaded...
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But - there's maybe nothing so magical about doing it that way! Since I'm just getting started and know nothing at all, maybe learning web stuff would be more productive than learning VB stuff. So - THANKS for that comment.
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hilary

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Well, the only place I knew mySql even existed was on Unix-flavour web servers. (Or maybe eating acorns in trees.) I never knew it worked on Windows. Learn something new every day...
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Have you presented the whole problem from the start on those nice coder forums, not just the mySql option? Maybe they will have some easier method.
 

greenowl

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'eating acorns' *g*

Actually you're hitting the nail on the head - I suspect that trying to run it on Windows might be my problem.

There ARE Windows downloads of mySQL (about halfway down), but the error message I got when I ran the installer was a complaint about my operating system.

Complicating matters is the fact that I'm running Windows 98SE instead of XP, and for all I know that's the problem. (Yes I know I should upgrade to XP, lo these many years after its release. I know I know I know.)

The 'nice coder forums' can indeed be a good source of information, and it sounds as if you've had fruitful experiences with them. So have I.

But sometimes, the answer to a seemingly 'simple' question (Will mySQL run in Windows 98?) can be harder to find than one would expect. Sometimes it seems as if the answer is either stumbled upon in 5 minutes, or Googled upon for 4 hours, with equal likelihood of success. And if the real answer is 'No, it won't' - that's maybe a bit like trying to prove a negative...

In this case, I Googled for about an hour, found nothing, and thought to myself 'Okay...is it gonna be one of those - am I on a dead end road here - or am I just a lousy searcher today?'

That's when I decided to do the I Ching reading.

(Plus which, I've read this article, which pretty much flatly states that the coder forums are not very nice, on purpose. I mean, if you already have nice coder-forum friends, don't read that! It will frighten you!)
 

greenowl

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I should probably clarify that the installation error message was not from the basic package - it was when I tried to install the GUI Query Browser, without which the program isn't very useful, unless one can and wants to do everything from a command prompt. (Which would not be me.)
 

hilary

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One for the Modern I Ching annals: Hexagram 37 as operating system. Love it!
 

greenowl

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Really? Are you saying that's what it means - Hex 37 is the 'operating system' and so by giving me that one unchanging it's directly saying 'Right-o! Operating system problem! Take care of the Operating System!'

Okay...in the process of typing that out I've convinced myself that's exactly what you and Yi meant. What wonderful sense - the operating system as the application's 'family' or 'dwelling.' Did I get that right?

(Oh, what wonders hath a little more background detail wrought, and I thought it would be needlessly boring. Thanks, Hilary!
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hilary

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Well, it feels right to me!
You'd think that if it meant 'absolutely incompatible with Windows' you might've got 38 instead.

Doesn't mean you can't use the other applications of 37, too.
 

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