T-SQL: setting decimal value always rounds up or down
Forgive my brevity on this post but I am writing to you today from my cell phone. You may run into the problem I just had and I wanted to let you know what the issue was and how I solved it. Suppose you have the following code: DECLARE @decimalValue1 decimal = 5 DECLARE @decimalValue2 decimal = 10 DECLARE @resultValue decimal SET @resultVaule = @decimalValue1 / @decimalValue2 PRINT @resultValue You would expect to get a value of .5 but in fact the value is always 1. The problem here is that we did not specify the precision of the decimal data types. DECLARE @decimalValue1 decimal(18,2) = 5 DECLARE @decimalValue2 decimal(18,2) ...
Microsoft Releases Roslyn Project, Open Compiler API
This is amazing. Microsoft has made the inner workings of their IL compiler open to everyone by exposing the inner workings through an API. As the Overview describes, they've rewritten the IL compiler in managed code and in doing so have un-boxed the black box that was once the best IL compiler for Windows. It will be amazing to see how exposing this API will provide new development tools for increasing code-completion/style/correctness. Traditionally, compilers are black boxes – source code goes in one end and object files or assemblies come out the other end. The Roslyn project changes that model by ...
How to alter table column to increase varchar size
The top results in a general search through Google for keywords in the title of this post will return results which will not work with SQL server. Some suggest using the ALTER tablename MODIFY column syntax for which SQL Server does not support MODIFY. In order to change the size of a varchar column (or make many other changes to a column in SQL Server) one utilizes the ALTER [tablename] ALTER [columnname] syntax. So for the table: TABLE [Users] ( [userID] int identity, [State] varchar(2), ....) to change the size of column [State] from ...
myIP: A robust command line tool for retrieving local and remote IP addresses
In usual fashion I sat down the other day and tried to come up with a useful tool I could quickly code. After about a week of coding and testing I’ve come up with a simple command line tool that will retrieve and display both v4 and v6 IP address information for one or more network adapters enabled within a computer. Written in C#, it utilizes the NetworkInterface classes to retrieve information about your computer's network configuration. It also will ping a remote web service I created to retrieve your outward facing IP address if you’re on a proxy network. ...
Several considerations must be made when choosing a website design tool. Platform, hardware, and cost should all be taking into account before finalizing selection of a tool that will be used as your primary design software. For this topic, I have chosen to focus on tools available on the Windows platform.
Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Ultimate is the latest web design and development toolset from Microsoft Corporation. The product has come a long way since its first iteration and in this version includes many features important to a web design team. The center piece of the design capabilities is the new prototyping interface called SketchFlow. SketchFlow allows a designer to quickly and effectively map out and iterate the flow of an application UI, the layout of individual screens, and application state transitions. (Microsoft, 2010) The tool allows designers to interact with customer clients more effectively through digital story-boards that can be marked up and returned to the designer for further development. This digital collaboration allows for efficiency not seen before in an all-encompassing design package. The down side to Expression Studio is its learning curve. There is no easy way for new designers to simply pickup and design quickly and the overall price tag is $599 retail. This may not be in the price range of a small design shop.
Adobe Creative Suite 5 Web Premium includes many development tools that are staples to the serious web design professional. Among these are Photoshop for image manipulation, Fireworks for graphic page design, and Dreamweaver for standards-based web page coding. (Adobe) The price tag on this software suite is $1799, but when considering the multiple software suites included, it saves money overall than buying the products separately. Also, this suite is not for the new designer and will take considerable time and training to become proficient.
Lastly of the three is Mockingbird. This is simply a wireframe design product that exists solely on the web at http://gomockingbird.com/. The tool allows a designer to build a complete wireframe of their product and share it with others for manipulation or review. The site is supported across multiple web browsers and is highly portable. It does however have its limitations in that an internet connection must exist in order to use it. Also there is limited product support as it is a running Beta application. That said this product has promise for those designers that want to wireframe their product on the cheap. (Mockingbird)
Of these products a common problem is solved. That is the need to allow designers and clients easily and quickly exchange ideas and concepts efficiently. All these tools from the expensive to the free do this fairly well.
Posted in Ponderings Programming by .
In project management, scope can refer to both project scope and product scope. Project scope is the work that needs to be performed to deliver a product, and product scope is the features and functions of a product, or functional requirements. If there are no standard procedures to follow regarding the management of functional requirements, projects will often find themselves unable to effectively manage change controls and scope creep may ensue. (Wikipedia, 2010)
Scope creep is the term used to define the phenomenon of adding additional scope to a project design outside of the requirements definition project cycle phase. In it’s simplest form, a development cycle will consist of design, develop, test, and release phases. Within the design phase is where most of a product’s functional requirements are designed and documented. If a project team does not clearly define the scope of the product release, developers will not have a clear understanding of what to develop, testers will not know if requirements were met, and finally a release date will most inevitably be missed. (Wikipedia, Scope creep, 2010)
Scope creep can be introduced in many ways but more often than not, the customer and management will have something to with the injection of new requirements after the design phase. If a customer decides that a certain functional requirement must exist in the release of the product, software design documents including work breakdown structures and schedules will most likely be updated to reflect the additional time and effort needed to implement the additional scope. If the client or management do not get a grip on the additions to the project scope, a project can easily spiral out of control, called thrashing, where developers are constantly making changes for new scope rather than completing the original design specification.
In order to prevent scope creep, project managers must be extremely mindful of what is implemented in an initial project design. All requirements will never be initially thought of and specified in the first release of a product so it should be understood by the client that additional requirements can be defined in another release of the product. Using an iterative milestone-based project life cycle such as Agile, managers can track and organize project scope easier and allow the customer have a better understanding of the development lifecycle unto which they’re relying upon to meet their deadline. (The Agile System Development Life Cycle) Developers must be sure to use a robust change control system for versioning of product source code and documentation. Finally, solid communication between all parties is a must to ensure everyone is on the same page throughout the entire lifecycle. If a project slips a milestone date, there must be definitive documentation provided and approved by the customer to ensure that they are aware that any action on their part has direct consequences with the release schedule.
Posted in Ponderings Programming by .
There are several considerations when choosing what multimedia technologies to use while designing your website. In general, one must consider the end user of the web site and their method of visiting the website in order to determine what type of multimedia technologies should be used within the site. For instance, one would not use Flash media files if one was attempting to allow iPhone users to use the site since iPhone does not currently support the technology out of the box. (Will iPhone Ever Run Flash?, 2007)
Another consideration with multimedia is with image file format. Internet explorer and other web browsers support common image formats such as GIF, JPEG, and PNG. One should not use image formats that may not be supported by the web browser such as BMP, PSD, or PCX. (Choosing the best graphic format for the job) These file formats are generally used for other programs outside of web pages.
Another multimedia format for consideration would be audio files. There are many methods of distributing audio to the end user via a web page but one should be mindful of the file types that are cross platform without additional software to install. Most browsers will play wav and mp3 files. You should avoid mpeg-4 or other formats that require additional software. One can simply use the embed element to have the audio file load when the content of the web page is displayed. (Demonstration of Different Ways to Play a Sound from a Web Page)
In conclusion, it is best for a web designer/developer to use commonly used multimedia formats. This will likely assure that the multimedia content will be able to be rendered by the largest amount of web browsers and operating system platforms viewing the content.
Posted in Ponderings Programming by .
Nov 10
22
Why XHTML?
The web community has for some time been moving toward the adoption of XHTML for several reasons. One reason has been a need to move away from presentation as priority with new focus on data structure. Since the inception of HTML 1.0 in 1993, there’s been a constant battle by browser developers to render hyper-text pages in a consistent and proper manor. (Wikipedia, 2010) With standards support and rendering inconsistencies between popular web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, web designers were having to do double the work encoding their pages in a manner that would ensure they could render properly on both browser platforms.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) moved to recommend a branch of the HTML specification that would be based off of the XML 1.0 standard. (Shannon, The History of HTML, 2010) In this regard, a stricter HTML standard would allow for better data structure and thus future-proof the syntax for future devices that may want to render the page content outside from the typical popular web browsers of the time. So the theory goes that since XHTML is a very strict standard, makers of devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, and internet kiosks, don’t have to accommodate their rendering engines for poorly formatted documents.
Immediate benefits of moving to the XHTML standard are forward-compatibility with future rendering devices because XHTML is the standard that the web will be built upon in the future. Editing and managing XHTML source code becomes easier since the content is more streamlined and self-documenting. Gone are the many styling attributes; replaced by a Common Style-Sheet document that defines styles of the document and elements within. (Shannon, XHTML Explained, 2010)
Works Cited
Shannon, R. (2010, Nov 08). The History of HTML. Retrieved Nov 19, 2010, from Your HTML Source: http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/starthere/historyofhtml.html
Shannon, R. (2010, Jan 08). XHTML Explained. Retrieved Nov 19, 2010, from Your HTML Source: http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/xhtmlexplained.html
Wikipedia. (2010, Nov 10). XHTML. Retrieved Nov 19, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML
Posted in Ponderings Programming by .
NOTE: This is a reprint of content that was originally on the now defunct emailaddressmanager.com website. I am reprinting it here for record as this information was very useful for me when setting up my accounts on my phone.
Hotmail Settings
As other web based email services, Hotmail is using the HTTP protocol for connecting you to your mailbox. If you want to send and receive Hotmail emails using an email client software, then your software must support Hotmail HTTP access for your email account. Some email clients, such as Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook, offer built-in support for Hotmail accounts, so you only have to select HTTP when you are asked to select your email account type and select Hotmail as the HTTPMail Service Provider.
Mail Server Settings for Hotmail using the Microsoft Outlook Connector
If you are using Microsoft Outlook & the Outlook Connector, you can define your Hotmail account just like any regular POP3 email account:
Hotmail Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop3.live.com (logon using Secure Password Authentication – SPA, mail server port: 995)
Hotmail Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) – smtp.live.com (SSL enabled, port 25)
Yahoo! Mail Settings
Yahoo Mail offers standard POP3 access for receiving emails incoming through your Yahoo mailbox, by using your favorite email client software. To setup your email client for working with your Yahoo account, you need to select the POP3 protocol and use the following mail server settings:
Update 2/25/2011:
I’ve added additional information below on how to get Yahoo IMAP working with Outlook by simply using the Android servers.
Yahoo Incoming Mail Server (IMAP): android.imap.mail.yahoo.com, SSL (port 993)
Yahoo Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): android.smtp.mail.yahoo.com, SSL (port 365) use auth
Original…
Yahoo Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop.mail.yahoo.com (port 110)
Yahoo Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) – smtp.mail.yahoo.com (port 25)
POP Yahoo! Mail Plus email server settings
Yahoo Plus Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – plus.pop.mail.yahoo.com (SSL enabled, port 995)
Yahoo Plus Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) – plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com (SSL enabled, port 465, use authentication)
Google GMail Settings
The Google GMail service offers email client access for retrieving and sending emails through your Gmail account. However, for security reasons, GMail uses POP3 over an SSL connection, so make sure your email client supports encrypted SSL connections.
Google Gmail Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop.gmail.com (SSL enabled, port 995)
Outgoing Mail Server – use the SMTP mail server address provided by your local ISP or smtp.gmail.com (SSL enabled, port 465)
MSN Mail Settings
The MSN email service allows you to use the MSN POP3 and SMTP servers to access your MSN mailbox.
MSN Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop3.email.msn.com (port 110, using Secure Password Authentication – SPA)
MSN Outgoing Mail Server – smtp.email.msn.com (select “My outgoing server requires authentication”)
Lycos Mail Settings
The Lycos Mail Plus service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Lycos mailbox.
Lycos Mail Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop.mail.lycos.com (port 110)
Outgoing Mail Server – smtp.mail.lycos.com or use your local ISP SMTP mail server
AOL Mail Settings
The AOL email service is a web based system, designed for managing your AOL mailbox via HTTP IMAP access. Unlike Hotmail, you can use any email client to access your AOL mailbox, as long as it supports the IMAP protocol.
AOL Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) – imap.aol.com (port 143)
AOL Outgoing Mail Server – smtp.aol.com or use your local ISP SMTP mail server
Mail.com Mail Settings
The Mail.com email service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Mail.com mailbox.
Mail.com Mail Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop1.mail.com (port 110)
Outgoing Mail Server – use your local ISP SMTP mail server
Netscape Internet Service Mail Settings
The Netscape e-mail system is web-based, which means you can access their e-mail from any Internet connection. Netscape Internet Service also supports AOL® Communicator, Microsoft® Outlook, Microsoft® Outlook Express, and other POP3 e-mail software. The outgoing mail server needs SSL support, so make sure your email client software supports SSL connections over the SMTP protocol.
Netscape Internet Service Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop.3.isp.netscape.com (port 110)
Netscape Internet Service Outgoing Mail Server – smtp.isp.netscape.com (port 25, using a secure SSL connection)
Tiscali Mail Settings
The Tiscali email service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Tiscali mailbox.
Tiscali Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop.tiscali.com (port 110)
Outgoing Mail Server – use your local ISP SMTP mail server
Freeserve Mail Settings
The Freeserve email service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Freeserve mailbox.
Freeserve Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop.freeserve.com (port 110)
Outgoing Mail Server – use your local ISP SMTP mail server
Supanet Mail Settings
The Supanet email service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Supanet mailbox.
Supanet Incoming Mail Server (POP3) – pop.supanet.com (port 110)
Outgoing Mail Server – use your local ISP SMTP mail server
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