A few weeks ago I added support for comment Gravatar icons in dasBlog.  This by no means indicates that it will be included in DasBlog as there may be some additional work required.  I finally had time to submit the code to the dasBlog folks for there review.  Here is an example of what it looks like: 

Ref: Original Post

I can't seem to find any documentation on this anywhere so I thought I'd jot it down.

I think I ran into a limit on the size of a Simple Mapi message body.  It looks like it's about 64k.  It didn't blow out, but it did truncate my message body down to around 5k.

Just out of curiosity I ran a 64k+ test with CDO and had no problem.

I always forget the lifecycle of custom server control classes with respect to web page, ie. aspx file.

The following results are based on a drop down list custom control:

customcontrol - Constructor
customcontrol - OnInit - Enter
customcontrol - OnInit - Exit
webpage - OnInit - Enter
webpage - OnInit - Exit
webpage - Page_Load - Enter
    customcontrol - could be altered here in page load, causing some event to fire
webpage - Page_Load - Exit
customcontrol - OnLoad - Enter
customcontrol - OnLoad - Exit

POSTBACK:

customcontrol - Constructor
customcontrol - OnInit - Enter
customcontrol - OnInit - Exit
webpage - OnInit - Enter
webpage - OnInit - Exit
customcontrol - LoadViewState - Enter
customcontrol - LoadViewState - Exit
webpage - Page_Load - Enter
webpage - Page_Load - Exit
customcontrol - OnLoad - Enter
customcontrol - OnLoad - Exit

customcontrol - OnSelectedIndexChanged - Enter
    webpage - xx_SelectedIndexChanged - Enter
        customcontrol - could be altered here in page load, causing some event to fire
    webpage - xx_SelectedIndexChanged - Exit
customcontrol - OnSelectedIndexChanged - Exit

This list is more for me than the masses.

* Application is free.
* Application has a scaled down free version.

Anti Virus AVG Free Edition*
Web Browser Mozilla Firefox*
Desktop Wallpaper Rotator Panorama 32*
Drive Imaging Acronis True Image (Also Norton Ghost)
PDF Reader Adobe Acrobat
Photo Editor Adobe Photoshop
Photo Album Adobe Photoshop Elements
Password Manager AI RoboForm
Blog Editor BlogJet
DVD Backup DVD Shrink*
DVD Player InterVideo WinDVD
Music Player Music Match, iTunes*
Office Productivity Software Microsoft Office, although OpenOffice* is an excellent free alternative.
CD Burner Nero Burning Rom
Media Player Apple Quicktime (comes with iTunes), RealPlayer, Divx Player
Remote Desktop RealVNC*
Hotkey Manager HotkeyControl XP*
File Comparer WinMerge*
Search and Replace InfoRapid Search and Replace*
Music Station Yahoo Messenger/Launchcast*
Find Filename Locate32*
Find Documents Window Desktop Search*
Notepad Notepad++*, Notepad2*
Task Switcher TaskSwitchXP*
Archiver WinZip
Binary File Editor Hex Editor
Little Tools ClipName, SysInternals... Process Explorer, AutoRuns, Junction, FileMon, RegMon, Power Toys... CmdHere, ImageResizer, Open Command Window Here
Explorer Replacement ExploreXP*, Explorer2, Directory Opus
Tivo Tools Tivo Desktop (Because I can't get Tivo HME to work)
Screenshots WinSnap
Launcher Launchy

Developer Tools

DBMS Microsoft Sql Server
IDE Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
Microsoft DirectX 9.0 SDK*
Color Picker Nattyware Pixie*
Snippet Compiler
Regular Expressions Testing The Regulator*
.NET Class Browser Reflector*
HTML Editor Dreamweaver, 1st Page 2000* which is just like Homesite

Others that I have used and like

Encryption PGP Desktop
Web Grabber WinHTTrack*
Remote Control PC Anywhere
Partitioner Partition Magic
Defrag O&O Defrag
Virtual Machine VMWare
Log File Analyzer AWStats using ActivePerl
Blog Engine DasBlog*

This is a question I ask myself everytime I start a new project that requires authentication.  And then respectively is it Sign Out, Sign Off, Log Out, or Log Off?

What is this all about?  Well I was trying to determine if there was a standard terminalogy used to describe entering your username and password to gain access to a system or application.

I found no definitive answer, but I did check out a few random web sites and operating systems to see what they used.

Most of the web sites I checked, mac, solaris, redhat w/gnome use Log In/LogOut.

Only Windows OS’s and a couple we sites used Log On/Log off.

And then Sign In/Sign Out was rather limited.

Now granted, my selection of web sites is farely limited and I did not check any actual client applications.

There is a term called Single Sign On, yet I did not run across any systems which actually term their username and password screen Sign On.

Sign In/Sign Out yahoo mail gmail hotmail expedia ofoto shutterfly tivo netflix turbotax amazon ebay espn cnn usps national geographic dell oracle

Log In/Log Out Mac OS 9.0, 10, X Sun Solaris OS GNOME 2.2.0 in Redhat 9 sun buy logitech gamespot webex americawest mac mail redhat sourceforge roboform swa avis united nwa americanairlines delta paypal paypal development flickr snapfish qvc ameritrade schwab american express evite fedex motley fool ivillage brinannica lycos bugzilla blogjet novell rsa

Log On/Log Off Windows NT, 2000, 2003, 95, 98, Me, longhorn chase etrade oracle sql plus

Sign On/Sign Off I didn't run into any.

Oracle TNS Names Configuration

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

4:12 PM

 

A question I am frequently asked is how do I set up a PC's TNSNAMES.ORA file so that it contains an entry pointing at a particular oracle database instance.

 

Adding an ODBC DSN is out of the scope of this document, but I will mention the following:

Once this configuration is done you can use the ODBC Administrator to add an Oracle DSN.  In the Oracle ODBC Driver Configuration window, in the TNS Name Service text box, you can enter the net service name as you entered it in the setup below, or you can enter the fully qualified net service name as it appears in the tnsnames.ora file.

 

Ok, here is the configuration:

 

Please note that the following screen shots may slightly vary if this is not the first name service entry you have added.

 

Run the Oracle Net Configuration Assistant from:

 

Start Menu / All Programs / OraHome90 / Configuration and Migration Tools / Net Configuration Assistant.   (OraHome90 may be named something different.)

 

Select "Local Net Service Name configuration", then "Next".

 

 

Select "Add", then "Next".

 

 

Select "Oracle8i or later database or service", then "Next".

 

 

Enter the name of the service.  This will most likely need to be the fully qualified service name of the oracle service instance. (Not necessarily the name of the machine, because more than one oracle database service instance can run on a single machine.)

 

If you do not know the service name, one way to find it is to run the "Oracle Net Manager" on the server and expand "Oracle Net Configuration", then expand "Local", then expand "Service Naming".  This will then contain a list of service names.

 

 

Select "TCP", then "Next".

 

 

Enter the host name of the computer that the oracle database service is running on.  This can be the IP address, the NetBIOS computer name (like "computer1"), or fully qualified domain name of the computer (like "computer1.mydomain.com").

 

 

Select "Yes, perform a test", then "Next".

 

 

Because the first test is done using the "scott" and "tiger" username and password, it will likely fail and you must select "Change Login".

 

 

Change the default username and password to a valid username and password for the database service you entered.  Then click "OK".

 

 

After changing the login, the test will automatically rerun and hopefully you will have success.  If so, select "Next".

 

 

Enter any net service name you like here which will be used as a reference to the configuration you just set up.  Then select "Next".

 

 

 

At this point your configuration has been saved to your TNSNAMES.ORA which will be somewhere like:  C:\Program Files\Oracle\ora90\network\admin\tnsnames.ora

 

And will look something like:

 

# TNSNAMES.ORA Network Configuration File: C:\progra~1\oracle\ora90\network\admin\tnsnames.ora

# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.

 

MYSERVICENAME.MYDOMAIN.COM =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS LIST =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = computer1)(PORT = 1521))

)

(CONNECT DATA =

(SERVICE NAME = myoracleservice.mydomain.com)

)

)

 

Select "Next".

 

Select "Finish" and the configuration application will close.

 

What I love about Mozilla Firefox is all the great extensions for it.  Here are my favorites…

DOM Inspector*
Dictionary Search
IE View*
Nuke Anything
wmlbrowser
Clone Window*
Adblock*
Web Developer*
Image Zoom*
Tabbrowser Preferences
Yahoo Toolbar*
BlogJetThis!
ColorZilla
Greasemonkey*
Download Manager Tweak
AI Roboform Toolbar*
MeasureIt

* These are items I can’t live without!

This weekend I added support in DasBlog for Gravatar icons/images next to posted comments.  When I have time later this week I will send Scott the information to see if they are interested.

It didn’t help much that the Gravatar dns lookup failed all weekend.  But I was able to do a whois on gravatar.com and get their name server and query it for their ip adders.  Ahh the things us developers do to implement even the silliest of features.

Update:  7/30/2005 Well I've been a little too busy to get the source code off to the DasBlog folks, but in due time. :)
Update:  7/31/2005 Ok, I made it a point to get the source code sent off today for review. Click here for a screen shot.

First off let me tell you how much I love this remote control. I got rid of my 5 remote controls and now just use the Logitech Harmony 880 Remote Control. It's a bit pricey but considering my wife can now use the entertainment system, it's well worth it!

Now back to the Tivo situation. After first setting up the remote to work with tivo I noticed that the quick button response/performance that i was used to from the tivo remote was now slow with the harmony remote. After doing some digging around I found 2 settings that make the remote work just as well as the tivo remote...

1. Setting the Inter-Key Delay to 0
First set the Inter-Key Delay to 0. If this causes problems you can set it a bit higher, but 0 works for me. I also have Inter-Device Delay set to 500, but this is not important for what we are trying to do here. So to change this setting, which defaults to 500, from the Harmony Home Page select the 'More Options' link next to the Tivo device (not the tivo activity). The Device Options page should appear, from which you should select 'Adjust the Delays (speed settings)'. In the Inter-key Delay box, enter 0 and click Next, then click Next again from the next page.

2. Setting command repeat count to 0
Secondly and lastly set the command repeat count to 0. So to change this setting, which defaults to 3, from the Harmony Home Page select the 'Troubleshoot' link next to the Tivo device (not the tivo activity). The Adjusting Setup:Device Problems page should appear, from which you should select 'Show me more problems' radio button and then click Next. On the next page, choose 'TIVO doesn't appear to receive every command correctly.' and click Next. On the next page select 'The device responds too much to some commands (for example, volume up increases the volume too quickly).' and click Next. A list of numbers 0 to 5 will appear. This is the number of times the remote will send a command to Tivo which defaults to 3. Set this to 0 which works fine for me. If you have problems with this try increasing it to 1.

And that's it. Once I changed these settings, my tivo responded to my harmony 880 remote as quickly as it did to my tivo remote.

A couple more little tricks

To facilitate quicker fast forward and rewinds, I mapped the up arrow and down arrow respectively.  I just found it a little difficult to quickly locate the fast forward/rewind and play buttons.

Since I also have a ‘Tivo Stereo’ activity, I added a custom button to lower the volume on the tivo.  This also works with other activities like DVD.  I tried just muting the tv, but the tv leave the word ‘MUTE’ on the screen.

Thank you Harmony for providing my best gadget purchase in quite some time.

Ok, I admit it, I'm a Tivo addict. I can't amagine going back to watching tv with out it... commercials? what commercials? A few months ago I installed the Tivo HME SDK and after some wierdness I took a look at some pretty cool applets running on my Tivo. I thought I'd give it another whirl here in July and ran into the same problems as before. My applications just don't want to be seen by Tivo. Ok, ok, so I use a wireless usb adapter to connect my Tivo to my home network which has given me nothing but trouble. I have to unplug the usb adapter at least once a week since tivo seems to forget it's there. But beyond that problem I was not able to get the HME stuff u[ an running again. Kudos to you out there that don't have a problem with this, I envy you. In any case I am looking forward to some of these applications maturing and getting the apparent connectivity quirks worked out of the system.

Recently I ran across some rants and raves about replacing table tags with div and span tags altogether.  I did some research and practicing with this concept and although I like the concept … a lot … in practice I find it to be much to complicated than it should be for complex/well table embedded web pages.  For simpler pages it seems pretty slick, then again for simpler web pages what’s the big deal in using a table?

I’m sure I’ll need some more practice to fully appreciate it, but for now I’m sticking with the old trusted table tag.

If you are interested in some nice links regarding this topic.

http://www.healyourchurchwebsite.com/archives/001403.php

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/practicalcss/

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum83/5428.htm

http://www.pragmaticprose.com/PermaLink,guid,9c6bd17f-c2c6-4b1f-9701-38d35043f7e6.aspx

We all love the simple little applications that come with the Windows OS, but while we use them we inevitably want just a little more out of them.  I’ve started replacing some of them…

Notepad:  I’ve been using Notepad++ but Notepad2 is ok as well.

Task Switcher:  TaskSwitchXP Pro (it appears this link is dead right now, so try this one.

Task Manager:  Sysinternals Process Explorer (I do wish it would start up quicker though.)

Windows Explorer: xplorer² is small and fast (updated).  I tested Directory Opus, which was awesome!!! BUT it was just too slow to use and it is not freeware.

Web Browser: Firefox (I just love the extensions.)

Virtual Desktop: Virtual Dimension (updated)

Windows File Name search:  Locate32

Windows file contents search and replace:  Inforapid Search and Replace

Wow, I’m caught between them.  I just love the multiple tab interface and being able to split windows in Notepad++. But to close a tab you have to go up and click an item in the left hand part of the toolbar, as opposed to the de-facto standard of having the tab close button to the right of the tabs.  So half the time I end up closing the whole app down on accident. The non-standard search and replace window also throws me sometimes.

Notepad2 is definitely a prettier application with most of the same functionality, just packaged a little bit better.  Unfortunately there are no tabs and no way to split the a window.

I suppose I’ll just have to live with Notepad++ for now.  It’s a great application, it just needs a little gui work.

I don't have a whole lot time for gaming, for those of you just starting out with Guild Wars, here are two great links.

Starting Off on the Right Foot

Compilation of Everything I know about Pre-Seering Ascalon

 

My Directory Opus 8.1 evaluation license expired today and I regret that I will not be purchasing it. I just found the performance to be unacceptable.  I love all the features but it's just too slow.

Back in the old days on the Commodore Amiga, dopus where it was at!!! :)

Do you remember Pat from Saturday night live?  Well it turns out Pat, or Julia Sweeney as her name really is, is full of surprises.  I was listening to NPR/PRI’s This American Life just by coincidence one day and ran into the most unusual broadcast called “Godless America”.  Normally I try to avoid the this topic like the plague, but I have to give Julia a plug here as I was quite entertained and moved by her “Letting Go of God” dialog.

Unfortunately I missed her play in Los Angeles… well actually it’s unfortunate that it was only in Los Angeles, as I am not.  She is working on a CD version of the play and you can hear an excerpt here as the 2nd half hour of the This American Life broadcast.

I'm not sure when this started but I noticed that my Exchange Server's POP3 and IMAP4 services were no longer being started. When I would manually start them I would get 'Error 1083: The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service.'

I found the Q277770 Microsoft Knowledge base article which addresses this and fixed the problem. However I still do not know what caused this as it was working at some point in the past.

I downloaded the latest dasblog source code, compiled it, and upgraded my version. Let's just hope I copied over the correct files... nothing more, nothing less.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done an import and ended up with the wrong database owner.  Use this following script to change the owner on all tables in a database.

In the sql below, set the @oldowner and @newowner variables appropriately.

DECLARE @oldowner sysname, @newowner sysname, @sql varchar(1000)

SELECT
  @oldowner = 'OLD_OWNER',
  @newowner = 'dbo',
  @sql = '
  IF EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
  WHERE
      QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA)+''.''+QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) = ''?''
      AND TABLE_SCHEMA = ''' + @oldowner + '''
  )
  EXECUTE sp_changeobjectowner ''?'', ''' + @newowner + ''''

EXECUTE sp_MSforeachtable @sql

(I found this somewhere on the internet some time ago but have lost it's reference.)

Here is the lifecycle of a Windows Service from .Net

--Clicked Start from gui
Main()
Service1() Constructor
InitializeComponent()
OnStart()
--END Clicked Start from gui

--Clicked Restart from gui (looks just like clicking stop and then start)
OnStop()
Dispose()
Main()
Service1() Constructor
InitializeComponent()
OnStart()
--ENDClicked Restart from gui (looks just like clicking stop and then start)

--Clicked Stop from gui
OnStop()
Dispose()
--END Clicked Stop from gui

--Ran from VS.NET by hitting "Play" button and only calling "(new Service1()).OnStart(args);" from Main().
Main()
Service1() Constructor
InitializeComponent()
OnStart()
Dispose()
--END Ran from VS.NET by hitting "Play" button and only calling "(new Service1()).OnStart(args);" from Main().

To retrieve an unordered set of rows:

SELECT * FROM orders WHERE rownum < 2 ;

To retrieve rows of an ordered result set:

SELECT o.* FROM (SELECT * FROM orders ORDER BY orderid) o
WHERE rownum < 2 ;

This is because rownum is assigned to the result set when the records are retrieved and before they are sorted.

Note: In Sql Server, use the TOP keyword.

Sometimes (especially when running web applications) it's nice to see how many open connections you have to your database. Use this select statement to get them (ignore SID of <="5).

select * from v$lock

Cross reference SID with:

select * from v$session where sid=1234

I found out how to make nested categories in dasblog.  When you add a new category us the vertical pipe character as a delimiter between master and sub-categories.  For example: Database|Oracle.

In order for them to display properly, you must have a blog item in both the master category and sub category.

DasBlog themes seem to be scarce, so I thought I’d start a list.

My own theme: Portal  http://johnnynine.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,990e80f0-7d04-44dd-81eb-6da988e4d691.aspx

ThemePro  http://www.dhinakar.com/blogs/PermaLink,guid,9f98da66-5366-45af-a5f5-9ede3b5ee5e5.aspx
Theme #1  http://kevinrector.com/PermaLink.aspx?guid=9c805206-a7b3-4336-81dd-f8f28690d0f1
Custom  http://www.ejball.com/EdAtWork/PermaLink.aspx?guid=a50a84a7-755a-4356-937d-92e424d29655
BlogXP http://jelle.druyts.net/PermaLink.aspx?guid=d45ca3a7-fd22-4282-9079-9d5e9e1f575d

Updated 8/2/2005
dasBlogThemeAutumn.aspx">Autumn http://johnritsema.com/Blog/dasBlogThemeAutumn.aspx

If you are interested in creating your own theme, you can find some doumentation at http://www.dasblog.net/documentation/CategoryView.aspx?category=Templates%20and%20Macros

I couldn’t find a vacation packing checklist that suited me on the internet so I compiled my own.  I’ve included just the generic portion of my full list.  I have more specialized lists for things like ski trips, scuba trips and such which I will post at a later date if anyone is interested.  Comments are welcome.

 

PRE TRIP TO DO LIST

 

Set up out of office email notification

Turn off ac/heat

Turn off computer

Close the windows

Lock the doors and windows

Take out trash

Run dishwasher

Water plants

Mail / Pets

Clean out refrigerator

 

 

VACATION PACKING CHECKLIST

 

Documents

airline tickets/itinerary

frequent flyer/rental car cards

airline drink coupons

credit/debit card customer service #’s

 

Clothes

casual clothes (shoes, socks, underwear, shirts, shorts, pants, jeans, belt, skirt, dress)

dress clothes (shoes, socks, belt, shirt, slacks, tie, jacket, knee-highs, pantyhose, skirt)

sweatshirt

pajamas (shorts, shirt, lingerie)

tank tops

tevas

hat

sunglasses and cleaner

jewelry (rings, earrings, watch, etc.)

 

Toiletries

Standard (toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, shampoo, conditioner, soap, razor, shaving cream, deodorant, comb, q-tips, hair gel/spray, tampons/pads)

vitamins

birth control

tums / pepcid ac /ammonium ad

ibuprofen

first aid kit

neosporin

allergy medicine / afrin

leatherman / pocket knife

body lotion

makeup (face lotion, foundation, powder, mascara, lipstick/pencil)

vision (glasses, contacts, case, solution, eye drops)

 

Camera

camera

film

waterproof camera

digital camera and batteries and cord

 

Currency

cash

credit cards

atm cards

 

Beach/Pool

swimsuits

beach towel

sun block

aloe vera

flip flops

watch (waterproof)

 

Miscellaneous

earplugs

headphones for airplane

pen / paper

calculator

weightlifting gloves and straps

garbage bags

laptop computer and power cord (for digital pictures and music)

football

frisbee

napkins, wet wipes

 

To Pass the Time

books

magazines

deck of cards

CDs / music / audio books

 

Reference

maps

printed directions

phone #’s for lost credit cards

hotel address and phone #

palm pilot

 

Snacks

protein bars

granola bars

crackers

 

Beverages

water

blender

plastic cups

 

International Travel

Passport & 2 photocopies (leave 1 at home)

Travel permit/visa

birth certificate (state issued)

foreign language dictionary

dollar bills for tipping in mexico

cipro for poor drinking water

 

I’m giving blogjet a try.  I’ve tried w::bloggar but it doesn’t handle images well at all and that’s an understatement.  We’ll see if blogjet can hold its own.

It sure would be nice if BlogJet could copy images to a folder instead of using ftp.

I just installed Das Blog 1.7.5016.2, so far so good.  I wish I could find a theme/skin that I liked.