Custom software developer. IT consultant. Geek.
Blog
Cozi.com – Online calendar management for families
Aug 20, 2008
I can’t tell you how long I’ve been wishing and looking for something like this — a calendar application to manage a family’s calendar.
In my family, we just use a single Outlook calendar to manage everyone’s calendar. This way, I can look at my PDA and easily see where everyone is. Of course, my kids are 2 and 4, so this method works right now because I can easily distinguish between my entries and my wife’s entries. OF course, sometimes it gets more complicated, and we end up putting appointment titles in like "John and kids – Home Depot Workshop." More >
LogMeIn from my Windows Mobile Phone
Aug 15, 2008
I ran across a fantastic nugget of information this morning… LogMeIn has a client for Windows Mobile!
I’ve actually started using LogMeIn Free more and more, given that it is (a) free, (b) secure, and (c) a snap to install or walk a remote user through installing. No more firewall port forwarding like is necessary for Remote Desktop (or port changes via the registry if you need to remote desktop to more than one computer inside the same network).
So to my delight today, I went to http://www.logmein.com from my phone, a Samsung SCH-i760 running Windows Mobile 6 (it’s huge but it can do a More >
Microsoft Surface is coming to Sheraton Hotels, including BOSTON!
Aug 14, 2008
Since I first saw a demo video on Microsoft Surface, I’ve been chomping at the bit to see it in action, and more importantly get my hands on it!
Yesterday, I read an article that Sheraton Hotels has become the third company to sign on to purchase Surface computers (behind Harrah’s and AT&T).
Sheraton has purchased 13 units: Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers (3 units), Sheraton Boston Hotel (2 units), Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers (3 units), Sheraton Seattle (3 units), and Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Hotel Airport (2 units).
So it looks like I might need to find an excuse to head More >
Manually restoring the Windows XP registry
Aug 14, 2008
Let me start by saying I hate things like this, but sometimes you just need to do it… I had a client with a laptop that was stuck in an endless reboot loop. Safe mode, command prompt, etc. all led to a quick blue screen (“something about the registry”) and a reboot. For anyone who’s been there, this means registry corruption.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have my copy of ERD Commander with me, so I couldn’t use that to come to the rescue.
Fortunately, I found a great online resource that walks you through, step by step:
- Boot into the recovery console using the More >
IntelliSense in SQL Server 2008 Management Studio – Only if you’ve upgraded your database server
Aug 12, 2008
Well, I finally got SQL Server 2008 installed today. I had downloaded the DVD last week when it RTM’ed, uninstalled SQL 2005, and fully planned to install 2008 on the release date, but alas had to wait because SQL Server 2008′s installation complains if you have Visual Studio 2008 installed WITHOUT SP1 installed. VS2008 SP1 was released yesterday, so today I was go for launch for VS2008 SP1 and SQL2008 installation.
So the biggest thing I was looking forward to in SQL 2008 was IntelliSense. In the past, I’ve thought about buying Red Gate’s SQL Prompt tool just for the IntelliSense feature, More >
Info et Cetera has a new website
Aug 12, 2008
We rolled out a new website for Info et Cetera consulting today.
The big change we made was switching from the focus being a resume-like list of projects to a case study approach that highlights some of the more interesting projects we’ve done, while giving visitors a flavor for the type of work we do.
We used Graffiti CMS as the platform for the site, which is actually the same platform that this blog is running on now. Very impressed with the ease of theming the site. In particular, I love that you can create different templates for various categories.
So check out the More >
Switched to Grafitti CMS
Aug 7, 2008
I decided to pull the trigger and switch to Graffiti CMS. In the past, I have used dasBlog, before switching to Blogger. I’ve decided it’s really something I want to host myself, and I like the direction that Graffiti is taking.
Sorry to any feed subscribers that may be showing all of my posts as new — side affect of importing.
Trouble upsizing Access database to SQL Server at shared hosting provider
May 30, 2008
For the past two weeks, one of my clients has been having trouble upsizing his Microsoft Access 2003 database (MDB) into a SQL Server database at his shared hosting provider. The problem was that the tables would be created fine, but then the upsizing would fail when Access attempted to insert the data.
I attempted the same procedure on my machine, to the same database, using Access 2007 and did not have any trouble. The table and data were upsized properly.
So my initial thought was something wrong with my client’s specific installation of Access 2003. However, he installed Access 2003 on More >
Trouble accessing Public Folders in the Exchange System Manager on Small Business Server
Apr 16, 2008
I ran across a problem this morning getting into the Public Folders node in Exchange System Manager on a Small Business Server 2003 machine. Everytime I would try to access this node I would receive the message:
80090308 "The token supplied to the function is not valid"
A bit frustrating. The MSKB suggested turning off the SSL requirement for the Exadmin virtual directory in IIS, but that alone did not solve the issue. I ended up finding a blog post that gave instructions for changing a value in ADSIEdit, which did the trick!
http://blogs.technet.com/petergal/archive/2006/05/12/428152.aspx
Great CSS Reference
Feb 1, 2008
I just got an email about a CSS Reference online-book over at SitePoint.com. I checked it out, and it’s really great, so here’s the link for anyone else who is interested…