For a while now, I've been interested in learning more about databases and how to design them properly. In my job, I deal with sifting through massive amounts of poorly organized data all the time so I thought maybe as an educational exercise I'd try building a database from scratch and a shave tracker seems like as good a place as any to start. I thought about using MS Access at first but I'll probably do most of the work on this in my spare time, sitting on the couch with my Macbook and there's no MS Access for Mac. So I decided to install MySQL and phpmyadmin on the Mac (Apache and PHP are already in OS X) and build the database that way. That should give me the option to put the tracker out on the web some day if I ever finish it . So I'm basically ready to design and start building it. If anyone has thoughts on what kind of data you'd like to be able to pull from a shave tracking database, please let me know. I'd like to try to incorporate any ideas you have. Like I said, this is an educational exercise for me and it'll probably take me a long time to finish, if I ever do. I don't have tons of spare time and I know almost nothing about how to do this right now, so I'm not making any promises.
I rate my shaves on 4 dimensions, it would be nice to track these along with the normal shave items. Irritation A Closeness A Smoothness A Sharpness A-
I just use a small notepad and list the blade on it. Then hash marks under it until I'm finished with the blade. When I'm done, if the blade is not so long lasting or if it performs unusually, I will note it. This is compact, fast, and easy to use.
