mo.notono.us

Friday, October 28, 2005

VistaDB 2.1

My very first ad, for VistaDB 2.1:

VistaDB 2.1 database for .NET has been released This 2.1 update includes over 60 improvements, including new support for .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2005. VistaDB is a small-footprint, embedded SQL database alternative to Jet/Access, MSDE and SQL Server Express 2005 that enables developers to build .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 applications. Features SQL-92 support, small 500KB embedded footprint, free 2-User VistaDB Server for remote TCP/IP data access, royalty free distribution for both embedded and server, Copy 'n Go! deployment, managed ADO.NET Provider, data management and data migration tools. Free trial is available for download.
- Learn more about VistaDB
- Repost this to your blog and receive a FREE copy of VistaDB 2.1!

But I'm not a complete sell-out, I was actually thinking of using VistaDB for a smart app as well as the back-end for a DotNetNuke site, before I saw this offer. Honest.

[Via]

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Norway finally forgives women who slept with Nazi soldiers

About time: Telegraph | News | Norway finally forgives women who slept with Nazi soldiers

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Google's BigTable Presentation

The presentation referenced below is available in full from the University of Washington

Google's BigTable

(I seem to be getting a lot of my information from CS undergrads these days...)

I can only assume that what's powering Google Base is their BigTable system. Andrew Hitchcock has some details on his website

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Boston Census Data with Map

I mentioned SocialExplorer before, but didn't try their report feature: Census Data for areas around MIT

ReSharper Build 209

They beat their own predicition for the release: Download ReSharper Build 209 - JetBrains.net

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Wednesday, October 26, 2005

base.google.com

It appears to be ALMOST live now - if I could only log in, all I get after a brief preview session is the Sign in page. (As also noted on Google Blogoscoped).

My prediction is that the Google Base will be a bigger deal than GMail. It's already got the potential to beat out sites like Craig's List as is: when combined with a Google Wallet service, it'll become a marketplace similar to Amazon's Selling at Amazon or even eBay. I can't wait for the API.

Wilco Bauwer's Toolbox

Wilco Bauwer has created a smallish but GREAT .NET Toolbox. His Syntax Highlighter is a work of art, and I am going to have to study the rest of his code as well.

ReSharper 209 to be released Oct 28

Looks like build 208 was short-lived: In response to my posting about Bug 7682 - SourceGear Vault interaction?, Dmitry from JetBrains responded with
The problem is fixed in 209 which we plan to release in 2 days.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2005

and then there is ReSharper build 208...

Hopefully this is more stable than 207 (which was only slightly better than the unusable 206): Download - JetBrains.net New Features:
  • Ctrl-Mouse click jumps to declaration (the same as Ctrl-B but with the mouse)
  • Code Completion: option to autopopup on typing
  • Refactoring: Pull Members Up
  • Refactoring: Push Members Down
  • Refactoring: Move Static Members
  • Unit Test support: button to build necessary sources
  • Unit Test support: NUnit categories support
  • NAnt&MSBuild files support:
    Highlighting of unknown properties, targets, tasks and their attributes (with quickfixes)
    File Structure and File Structure Popup (Ctrl-F12)
    Alt-Up/Down navigates between targets
    Ctrl-Shift-/ to comment/uncomment block
  • Ctrl-N(Ctrl-Shift-N): Tab completes common prefix of items in the list
  • ASP support: Ctrl-W in ASP files
  • Parameter Info: option to show one signature at time (as in the native Visual Studio's parameter info)

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Friday, October 21, 2005

The World's Smallest Car

Go Rice! The World's Smallest Car

Thursday, October 20, 2005

SQL: IsReallyInteger

There are a number of problems with the ISNUMERIC function in TSQL, some of which were causing us grief recently. So I went looking for a solution, and found a UDF at aspfaq. What I really needed though, was a check for integers, so I concocted one as follows:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Purpose: Checks that the input string is really an integer of the specified type.  
-- To be used in place of the ISNUMERIC function, as it can't be trusted.
-- See http://www.sql-server-performance.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10194
--Inspired by: http://www.aspfaq.com/show.asp?id=2390 
--Created: 10/20/05 by Oskar Austegard.
--Updated: 11/16/05 by Oskar Austegard - fixed a rather serious bug...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALTER FUNCTION dbo.IsReallyInteger
(  
  @Num varchar(64), --Input string to be checked
  @Type varchar(8) --Type of integer: bigint, int, smallint, tinyint
)  
RETURNS BIT  
BEGIN  
  --Get the absolute value of the number by removing a leading - or +
  DECLARE @AbsNum varchar(64)
  SET @AbsNum = CASE WHEN LEFT(@Num, 1) IN ('-', '+') THEN SUBSTRING(@Num, 2, LEN(@Num)) ELSE @Num END

  --Remove leading zeros
  WHILE LEN(@AbsNum) > 1 AND LEFT(@AbsNum, 1) = '0'
    SET @AbsNum = SUBSTRING(@AbsNum, 2, LEN(@AbsNum))

  SET @Length = LEN(@AbsNum) 
  --Reinsert the - in negative numbers
  SET @Num = CASE WHEN LEFT(@Num, 1) = '-' THEN '-' + @AbsNum ELSE @AbsNum END

  --Check for empty string or non-digits
  IF @AbsNum = '' OR PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%', @AbsNum) > 0
    RETURN 0

  --Check limits by type
  IF (@Type = 'bigint' AND (@Length < 19 OR (@Length = 19 AND (@AbsNum < '9223372036854775807' OR @Num = '-9223372036854775808'))))
    OR (@Type = 'int' AND (@Length < 10 OR (@Length = 10 AND (@AbsNum < '2147483648' OR @Num = '-2147483648'))))
    OR (@Type = 'smallint' AND (@Length < 5 OR (@Length = 5 AND (@AbsNum < '32768' OR @Num = '-32768'))))
    OR (@Type = 'tinyint' AND LEFT(@Num, 1) <> '-' AND (@Length < 3 OR (@Length = 3 AND @AbsNum < '256')))
    RETURN 1 --Success
  --Else
  RETURN 0 --Failure
END  

I then wrap this function in another for the most common usage:

ALTER FUNCTION dbo.IsReallyInt
(  
 @Num varchar(64) --Input to be checked
)  
RETURNS BIT  
BEGIN  
 RETURN dbo.IsReallyInteger(@Num, 'int')
END  
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Friday, October 14, 2005

del.icio.us downtime?

I can't get to my del.icio.us bookmarks - looks like they're down. At least my Spurl.net is up...

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Joel on Software - The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code

As usual, Joel Spolsky is on the money: Joel on Software - The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code:

The Joel Test

1. Do you use source control?
2. Can you make a build in one step?
3. Do you make daily builds?
4. Do you have a bug database?
5. Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
6. Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
7. Do you have a spec?
8. Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
10. Do you have testers?
11. Do new candidates write code during their interview?
12. Do you do hallway usability testing?

Sadly, I'm not at a 10, 11, or 12, at least not if answering honestly. But at least I agree that these are important...

To Help Protect Your Computer...


ToHelpProtectYourComputer, originally uploaded by mo.notono.us.

I got this one today...

Actually, I think the culprit was the new utility I installed today - qliner hotkeys.
UPDATE: I don't think qliner hotkeys was to blame, it's been behaving exemplary, so far, and is a recommended download. It was just time for a reboot, I guess.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Google Adds Tagging

Nathan Weinberg points out that » Google Adds Tagging to their Personalized Search History feature. Pretty cumbersome at the moment, but could definitely give del.icio.us a run for their money (if they have any)...

Son of Spam

Amusing: Urban Legends Reference Pages: Notes (Son of Spam)
[Via]
Someone managed to put [nearly] all spam clichees in a single mail...

Monday, October 10, 2005

Yet another name-change: mo.notono.us

Not that anyone cares, but del.icio.us got me in a copy-cat mode, so I registered notono.us, and renamed this blog: The new name is mo.notono.us, and it will be found at http://mo.notono.us (as well as here at http://austegard.blogspot.com).

del.icio.us/austegard

I sense a definite decline in my future blogging frequency now that I finally get del.icio.us. Once upon a time I used the Yahoo Toolbar's bookmarks, but with the death of my Yahoo account, and my subsequent self-imposed boycott of Yahoo!, that went away. When Google bought Blogspot, I figured I'd give that a try as a way to remember stuff, and initially I only intended to use the blog for links, but as the posts above (and this) clearly indicate, the soapbox was too tempting...

Now, finally I have del.icio.us/austegard - should have created it a year ago.

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Presentation Zen: Visual simplicity: Steve Jobs does it again

Presentation Zen: Visual simplicity: Steve Jobs does it again:

simple yet effective

Emily Chang - eHub

Emily Chang - eHub:

eHub is a constantly updated list of web applications, services, resources, blogs or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Authenticate against an NT domain in ASP.NET

Sahil Malik demonstrates how to Authenticate against an NT domain in ASP.NET - Without using Kerberos

Boston Mashup Roundup - Gridskipper

Boston Mashup Roundup - Gridskipper

They're out there...

...fer shor: UFO Maps [Via]

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Links for later

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