August 2004 Blog Posts
What's going on here? Check my previous post.
Here's how to do it without actually creating a file. Thanks to Bogo for pointing me to the memorystream.
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
System.IO.MemoryStream mStream = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
System.IO.StreamWriter writer = new System.IO.StreamWriter(mStream);
writer.AutoFlush = true;
writer.WriteLine("BEGIN:VCALENDAR");
writer.WriteLine(@"PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook MIMEDIR//EN");
writer.WriteLine("VERSION:1.0");
writer.WriteLine("BEGIN:VEVENT");
//Fill in data
DateTime dueDate;
dueDate = DateTime.Parse(maintenance.DueDate);
writer.WriteLine("DTSTART:" + dueDate.Year.ToString() + dueDate.Month.ToString() + dueDate.Day.ToString() + "T170000Z");
writer.WriteLine("DTEND:" + dueDate.Year.ToString() + dueDate.Month.ToString() + dueDate.Day.ToString() + "T170000Z");
writer.WriteLine("LOCATION:" + asset.Site.SiteDescription + " - " + asset.Location.LocationDescription + " - " + asset.Room.RoomDescription);
writer.WriteLine("CATEGORIES:Maintenance");
writer.WriteLine("DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:" + maintenance.MaintenanceDescription + "=0D=0A");
writer.WriteLine("SUMMARY:" + asset.Product.ShortDescription...
Here's some neat code I put together for my company's Asset Management product. Basically users can assign scheduled maintenance to their assets (example: on dec 1st, 2004 defrag the hard drive of this pc). I wanted to give them an easy way of reminding themselves to do the maintenance without having to log into the program and check their alerts. I wanted this to be specific to each asset since no one person is likely to be responsible for everything.
Doing some research, I found that the outlook calendar appointment is just a formatted text file. So I decided to generate...
@10:10AMfrom the watch-out-or-it'll-chew-you-up dept.LostCluster writes "WinXP SP2 has just been released to the public via Automatic Update, but eWeek and PC Magazine are together reporting that Windows XP SP2's 'Windows Security Center' is just about as insecure as it could possibly be. According to them, any program (including ActiveX controls) can access and edit the Windows Management Instrumentation database, and therefore spoof the security status of an insecure box to report that it is properly secured."
So let me get this straight... It's possible to hack an insecure box. Really now? Are you sure? Gee I better go install linux.
Look...
http://www.telligentsystems.com/Solutions/Products.aspx
I downloaded and installed their forums product on one of my company servers last night. The server runs windows 2003 standard with SQL server. It installed like a dream... no problems, easy wizard options. It's up and running and works just fine.
I'm going to be trying this forum thing out for my business, allowing customers and potential customers to give feedback to my company and to eachother, we'll see how it goes. It's pretty empty now since I just released it, but if you'd like to take a peek its:
http://forums.easywebapps.com
Also, I have built and released the free trial server for...
As most of my readers know, I do have my own software start-up (http://www.easywebapps.com). As my asset program gets nearer to final release, I've been pondering taking on some additional developers to work on some new projects that have come into my head and help maintain and extend my asset program.
In addition, for you contractors out there, I'm planning on offering two versions of my asset program for sale. One is hosted and managed by my company, and will be updated/supported through a subscription service. The other version will be source included and self-hosted. I'm sure that companies that purchase the...
Some of you know that I recently married a Swedish citizen. She came here to the US on the fiancee visa, we got married, and then we had to wait SIX MONTHS before they approved her to leave the country for travel. Her daughter from a previous relationship lives with the father in Sweden. So this whole time she has been unable to see her daughter b/c the immigration service in our country sucks.
So now she finally got approved so we're looking for some airline tickets to get her to sweden and bring her daughter here for a visit. I...
Fellow blogger Jay Kimble has been writing about his experiences with reporting services.
I however, have not had a positive experience so far with reporting services, and so this weekend I decided to install and run the trial version of Active Reports .NET.
To be fair, I followed the same process that I used for SQL reporting services which is follows:
Installation
Integration into Visual Studio
Simple report with grouping/subtotals
Display of report on a webpage
Installation
SQL Reporting Services installation is a god awful mess. You have multiple reboots, very strict “clean install” requirements, and it tends to bomb for alot of people. Now any installation program that...
Canadian science fiction author Robert J Sawyer takes a positive look at a typical day in 2014 for Backbone Magazine, looking at where both scientific and sociological advances of the next decade will take us.
I thought this was a pretty cute article, but this guy really needs to consult an IT professional before making statements like these. For example:
Throughout the day, your wristband — a combination cellphone, PDA, camera, and e-book display, all controlled by spoken commands — will be your lifeline.
Uhhh wristband? E-book display? Are you kidding me? Do you know how freaking HUGE that device would be? There...
There's been alot of blogging about where lazy loads are appropriate and where they aren't so I figured I'd toss my opinion into the wild.
Like most things in developing, there is no “silver bullet” for whether or not to lazy load. There are advantages and disadvantages to both solutions, which you can apply to your runtime environment to make a logical decision.
Advantages of Lazy Loads:
Decreased Network Bandwidth- You're reading data out in smaller chunks. This can be fairly significant when the pipe is limited.
Decreased Memory Footprint- Why load 100 lines of data into memory when only 5 are going to be...
Thanks to Greg
Check out his blog, it's way more ambitious with information and links than mine is. He says he's not getting enough traffic on blogspot so spin that hit counter!
I'm starting to feel like the only geek that doesn't have one...
*Edited thanks to Mark's insight*
Figured I'd post this sql stored procedure that's been giving me a migraine for the last 5-6 hours.
Basically I'm querying a webservice that returns a big message, and I wanted to store it in another company's POS system to print out on the receipt at the counter. Problem is the receipt is only 44 characters wide and they store receipt messages in a TransactionID, LineNumber, Message format in the table so I had to parse it myself while being sure not to break up any words.
It's pretty easy to modify it to specify any...
My start-up company, http://www.easywebapps.com is nearing the final release of our asset management software. This project has been long in the works, starting with just myself working nights and weekends around my full time job, and then taking on a personal friend who is a developer and another friend who is a validation engineer to help polish things up. The only things left to do are to finish up the user help documentation and build some preliminary reports (we're counting on our users to tell us what additional reports they need).
Company concept is pretty simple, we are going to have some...
So windows firewall isn't as good as other programs?
You know... I feel really bad for Microsoft sometimes. If they package a product like IE/Outlook with the operating system, the 3rd party companies and especially the OSS community go up in arms about stifling competition etc.
For years they've been bitching about the “lack of security” in windows.
So Microsoft does some work, patches a huge amount of the OS, adds a firewall that is default turned - on and is usable but not powerful enough to interfere with more robust solutions...
And people still aren't happy.
If you have the time and ambition, rank the following job perks in how effective they'd be to getting you to work for a company as a full-time developer. I'm just curious as to what extra perks would really motivate good developers.
1. All expenses paid trip to one major microsoft conference (PDC, VSLive, etc).
2. 100% reimbursement for Microsoft Certifications (tests and materials).
3. Telecommute x days per week.
4. Reduced work-week (35hrs instead of 40)
5. Reduced work-week (work 4 10 hour days with every Friday off)
6. Reduced work-week (work 9 hour days, every other Friday off)
7. Reduced work-week (paid lunch, 8 hour day means...
A silly quiz!
Which OS are You?
Another perk to the MSDN subscription, installed the sp2 official release tonight. Went off without a hitch. The security center stuff is pretty cool, looks like it will help clueless people stay out of trouble a bit easier. IE Popupblocker is neat but I didn't really need it since I use the google toolbar.
Nice job though microsoft!
I'd like to thank Mr. Sink for showing me the other side of an interesting essay on programmers and psychology
http://software.ericsink.com/entries/No_Great_Hackers.html
It kind of reminds me of a previous post I wrote.
One of the biggest challenges I've had managing the projects I've taken on over my career have been properly estimating the cost and schedule of a project. In the majority of situations, cost and schedule seem to end up being a shot in the dark of me guessing how long something will take, then increasing the time just to be safe.
Here is a glance at how I estimate things (keep in mind I do web development and favor a basic 3 tier design):
Do user interviews and get a good solid grasp of the project's goals.
Make a list of objects that will...
I get home today from a nice relaxing weekend in ohio with the folks, and I have a notice in my mailbox from the New York DMV. Apparently my license has been suspended for not paying a speeding ticket fee!
So... last... September or so, I got picked up for speeding. I paid a traffic lawyer to go to court for me, his office mailed me a copy of the letter they sent to the court that they'd be representing me.
I never heard anything... not from the lawyer, not from the court. Until the suspension notice today!
So I have to give...