C Sharp Logs

Importing existing code to svn with visualsvn and tortoise svn

2011-10-21T21:22:00.001+01:00

You might have some code which is not under version control, and it is mixed with binaries or other files that you don't really want in the svn repository. If the code in question contains both files that should be and should not be versioned, the easiest way to do it is this:

1. In visualsvn create a new repository
2. Rename the folder containing the source code you want to version
3. Create a new folder with the same name as the one you just renamed
4. Using tortoise svn do an svn checkout into the new folder you have just created
5. Move all the files from the renamed folder into the new folder
6. Using tortoise svn do an "add" operation on the new folder, and choose the files you want to include in svn
7. Using tortoise svn do a commit of the newly added files/folders into svn repository
8. Delete the renamed folder as it is not needed any more

TOSHIBA TECRA M2 Disassemble laptop yourself

2011-05-30T11:03:00.000+01:00

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/ToshibaM2/tecra_M2_disassembly_1.htm

VB .NET Converter

2009-09-28T10:08:00.003+01:00

First, worth to try the VS built in converter.

Another one that looks good, worth a try http://www.aivosto.com/project/vbnet.html - says it works with previous versions and there is trial for small projects.

Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Code Advisor can be used on VB6 before converting to VB.NET:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/ms789135.aspx

Finally a couple of more: http://www.vbto.net/

http://www.vbmigration.com/editions.aspx

Other useful links for migration of VB6 to .NET

http://blogs.msdn.com/ericnel/archive/2008/04/25/visual-basic-6-migration-to-net.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/vbrun/ms788233.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/dd408373.aspx

Finally here is a promissing link for 5 to 6 but can't follow it at the moment: http://www.topblogarea.com/sitedetails_17682-2.html

how to get the default schema for a user in MSSQL 2005

2009-09-24T15:09:00.002+01:00

execute the stored procedure sp_helpuser, for example

sp_helpuser 'domainname\username'

One of the resulting columns is DefSchemaName.

There is a similar proc sp_helpgroup to show the users in a group but does not include schema information.

Another way to get the schema information is

select name, default_schema_namefrom sys.database_principals uwhere u.name='username'

tick data

2009-09-23T11:04:00.001+01:00

http://www.traderji.com/development-software-utilities/26678-how-convert-tick-data-into-candlestick-chart.html

Online free university lectures

2009-09-23T10:57:00.000+01:00

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-sites-for-free-video-lectures-from-top-colleges-universities/

open source vertical database

2009-09-23T10:54:00.001+01:00

http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/index.html

SQL tutorials

2009-09-22T10:13:00.003+01:00

Nice website with tutorial but requires google gears to run the examples.
http://www.bin-co.com/database/sql_tutorial/

Visual Explanation of JOINs http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000976.html

SQL replicate permissions (copy)

2009-09-22T09:37:00.001+01:00

Found the following cool script at http://vyaskn.tripod.com/scripting_permissions_in_sql_server_2005.htm

along with a very good explanation

   1:  SET NOCOUNT ON

   2:  DECLARE @OldUser sysname, @NewUser sysnameSET @OldUser = 'HRUser'SET @NewUser = 'PersonnelAdmin'

   3:  SELECT 'USE' + SPACE(1) + QUOTENAME(DB_NAME()) AS '--Database Context'SELECT '--Cloning permissions from' + SPACE(1) + QUOTENAME(@OldUser) + SPACE(1) + 'to' + SPACE(1) + QUOTENAME(@NewUser) AS '--Comment'SELECT 'EXEC sp_addrolemember @rolename =' + SPACE(1) + QUOTENAME(USER_NAME(rm.role_principal_id), '''') + ', @membername =' + SPACE(1) + QUOTENAME(@NewUser, '''') AS '--Role Memberships'

   4:  FROM sys.database_role_members AS rm

   5:  WHERE USER_NAME(rm.member_principal_id) = @OldUser

   6:  ORDER BY rm.role_principal_id ASC

   7:  SELECT CASE

   8:  WHEN perm.state <> 'W'

   9:  THEN perm.state_desc

  10:  ELSE 'GRANT'

  11:  END + SPACE(1) + perm.permission_name + SPACE(1) + 'ON ' + QUOTENAME(USER_NAME(obj.schema_id)) + '.' + QUOTENAME(obj.name) +

  12:  CASE WHEN cl.column_id IS NULL THEN SPACE(0)

  13:  ELSE '(' + QUOTENAME(cl.name) + ')'

  14:  END + SPACE(1) + 'TO' + SPACE(1) + QUOTENAME(@NewUser)

  15:  COLLATE database_default + CASE WHEN perm.state <> 'W'

  16:  THEN SPACE(0)

  17:  ELSE SPACE(1) + 'WITH GRANT OPTION' END AS '--Object Level Permissions'

  18:  FROM sys.database_permissions AS perm

  19:  INNER JOIN sys.objects AS obj ON perm.major_id = obj.[object_id]

  20:  INNER JOIN sys.database_principals AS usr

  21:  ON perm.grantee_principal_id = usr.principal_id

  22:  LEFT JOIN sys.columns AS cl

  23:  ON cl.column_id = perm.minor_id

  24:  AND cl.[object_id] = perm.major_id

  25:  WHERE usr.name = @OldUser

  26:  ORDER BY perm.permission_name ASC, perm.state_desc ASC

  27:  SELECT CASE WHEN perm.state <> 'W' THEN perm.state_desc

  28:  ELSE 'GRANT' END + SPACE(1) + perm.permission_name + SPACE(1) + SPACE(1) + 'TO' + SPACE(1) + QUOTENAME(@NewUser)

  29:  COLLATE database_default +

  30:  CASE WHEN perm.state <> 'W' THEN SPACE(0) ELSE SPACE(1) + 'WITH GRANT OPTION' END AS '--Database Level Permissions'

  31:  FROM sys.database_permissions AS perm

  32:  INNER JOIN sys.database_principals AS usr

  33:  ON perm.grantee_principal_id = usr.principal_id

  34:  WHERE usr.name = @OldUser

  35:  AND perm.major_id = 0

  36:  ORDER BY perm.permission_name ASC, perm.state_desc ASC

outlook express with windows live email and o2 smtp settings

2009-09-19T09:18:00.006+01:00

Finally I got this to work, the tricky bit was using SMTP port not the 25 default but 587 (as I discovered somewhere on the web). Here are the screenshots of the settings:

The server settings:

The server authentication settings:

Note that in the above image you can enable the "Log on using Secure Password Authentication" and it will still work. Or you can use the option "Use same settings as my incoming mail server" and it will still work - actually this is a bit easier since you dont have to enter the same information twice.

Finally the advanced settings:

XML and XPATH editor : SketchPath

2009-09-09T11:03:00.001+01:00

Free and open source
http://pgfearo.googlepages.com/

Nice link with many tutorial videos on C\ and .NET

2009-09-08T16:35:00.001+01:00

www.questpond.com

ForFiles command - windows server 2008

2009-09-07T10:26:00.003+01:00

forfiles command is quite useful as it has the /d switch (date) which can be set to less than 30 days (-30) or more. The /m is a mask that you can set to the extension of files you wish to find to save you from doing a *.*. Then it will do the command in “ “ for each file that meets the criteria.

Example

This deletes any files in c:\a:\test and its subdirectories that are older than 30 days:

   1:  forfiles /p /m *.txt c:\a\test /s /c "cmd /c del @file" /d -30

TightVNC and UltraVNC

2009-08-13T09:48:00.001+01:00

seems like ultra vnc http://uvnc.com/ is being more actively developed and has more features than tightvnc, but tightvnc has released a new version after a long time http://www.tightvnc.com/

read and write data

2009-07-31T16:41:00.001+01:00

   1:  using System;

   2:  using System.Collections.Generic;

   3:  using System.IO;

   4:  using System.Text;

   5:  using System.Windows.Forms;

   6:  namespace ReadData

   7:  {

   8:      public partial class Form1 : Form

   9:      {

  10:          static readonly StringBuilder outData = new StringBuilder();

  11:          readonly List<double> a = new List<double>(); // the 2 input TSs

  12:          readonly List<double> b = new List<double>();

  13:          public Form1()

  14:          {

  15:              InitializeComponent();

  16:          }

  17:          void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

  18:          {

  19:              LoadData();

  20:              int totalFound = 0;

  21:              double lastDiff = 0;

  22:              bool haveEntry = false;

  23:              const int window = 100; // how many values we use to estimate mean and stdDev

  24:              for (int i = window; i <= a.Count; i++)

  25:              //for (int i = 144; i < 145; i++) // one sample only, for testing

  26:              {

  27:                  double meanA = GetMean(a, i - window, i);

  28:                  double meanB = GetMean(b, i - window, i);

  29:                  double stdA = GetStd(a, i - window, i, meanA);

  30:                  double stdB = GetStd(b, i - window, i, meanB);

  31:                  double aNorm = (a[i - 1] - meanA) / stdA;

  32:                  double bNorm = (b[i - 1] - meanB) / stdB;

  33:                  double diff = aNorm - bNorm;

  34:                  double absDiff = Math.Abs(diff);

  35:                  if (haveEntry &amp;&amp; ((lastDiff > 1 &amp;&amp; diff <> -1)))

  36:                  {

  37:                      Console.WriteLine("==== Exit index " + i);

  38:                      haveEntry = false;

  39:                  }

  40:                  //outData.AppendLine(i + ", " + diff); // for writing to file

  41:                  // outData.AppendLine(diff.ToString()); // for writing to file

  42:                  outData.AppendLine(string.Format("{0:d4}", i-window+1) + " " + diff); // for writing to file

  43:                  if (absDiff > 15)

  44:                  {

  45:                      totalFound++;

  46:                      Console.WriteLine("Found at index " + i + " diff " + diff);

  47:                      if (absDiff < Math.Abs(lastDiff) &amp;&amp; !haveEntry)

  48:                      {

  49:                          Console.WriteLine("==== Entry index " + i);

  50:                          haveEntry = true;

  51:                      }

  52:                  }

  53:                  lastDiff = diff;

  54:              }

  55:              Console.WriteLine("total found " + totalFound);

  56:              WriteData();

  57:          }

  58:          static void WriteData()

  59:          {

  60:              const string fileout = "out.csv";

  61:              if (File.Exists(fileout))

  62:              {

  63:                  File.Delete(fileout);

  64:              }

  65:              using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(fileout))

  66:              {

  67:                  sw.Write(outData.ToString());

  68:              }

  69:          }

  70:          static double GetStd(IList<double> array, int start, int limit, double mean)

  71:          {

  72:              double sum = 0;

  73:              for (int i = start; i < limit; i++)

  74:              {

  75:                  sum += (array[i] - mean) * (array[i] - mean);

  76:              }

  77:              sum = Math.Sqrt(sum);

  78:              sum /= (limit - start);

  79:              return sum;

  80:          }

  81:          static double GetMean(IList<double> array, int start, int limit)

  82:          {

  83:              double sum = 0;

  84:              for (int i = start; i < limit; i++)

  85:              {

  86:                  sum += array[i];

  87:              }

  88:              sum /= (limit - start);

  89:              return sum;

  90:          }

  91:          /// <summary>

  92:          /// Assume input file has 2 columns, one for each TS we want to track.

  93:          /// </summary>

  94:          void LoadData()

  95:          {

  96:              using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("5m-db.csv"))

  97:              {

  98:                  string newData;

  99:                  a.Clear();

 100:                  b.Clear();

 101:                  while (sr.Peek() != -1)

 102:                  {

 103:                      newData = sr.ReadLine();

 104:                      string[] line = newData.Split(',');

 105:                      a.Add(double.Parse(line[0]));

 106:                      b.Add(double.Parse(line[1]));

 107:                  }

 108:                  Console.WriteLine("Loaded " + a.Count + " data points.");

 109:              }

 110:          }

 111:      }

free drive

2009-07-31T08:47:00.001+01:00

http://www.freedrive.com/folder/23026

R stuff for normal distribution fitting

2009-07-29T14:31:00.005+01:00

Look at this site for more: http://www.bigre.ulb.ac.be/Users/jvanheld/statistics_bioinformatics/practicals/microarray_fitting_solutions.html

1:

   2:  # data loading

   3:  filepath <- system.file("data", "morley.tab" , package="datasets")

   4:  mm <- read.table(filepath)

   5:  m <- mm[,1]

6:

   7:  hist(m)

8:

   9:  ## install

  10:  library(fBasics)

11:

  12:  skewness(m)

13:

  14:  kurtosis(m)

15:

  16:  plot(density(m))

17:

  18:  plot(ecdf(m))

19:

  20:  qqnorm(m)

  21:  abline(0,1)

22:

  23:  gal <- m

24:

  25:  ## Calculate estimators

  26:  m <- mean(gal,na.rm=T)

  27:  s <- sd(gal,na.rm=T)

28:

  29:  ## Draw the density histogram of the galactose microarray values

  30:  h <- hist(gal,breaks=100,col='#CCCCFF',border='#CCCCFF',freq=F)

31:

  32:  ## On the histogram, draw vertical bars at the following values :

  33:  ## mean, mean + 1*sd, mean -1*sd, mean +2*sd, mean -2*sd

  34:  abline(v=c(m,m-s,m-2*s,m+s,m+2*s),col="#000088",lwd=1)

35:

  36:  ## Superimpose the theoretical distribution

  37:  lines(h$mids,dnorm(h$mids,m,s), type="l", lwd=2,col="red")

FITTING DISTRIBUTIONS WITH R

2009-07-29T11:49:00.000+01:00

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=r+normal+distribution+fit&meta=

Very nice SQL articles and some tools

2009-07-23T15:24:00.001+01:00

http://www.sommarskog.se/

SQL List indexes in db with fragmentation > 30 %

2009-07-23T12:15:00.002+01:00

   1:  SELECT

   2:      OBJECT_NAME(object_id) ObjectName,

   3:      index_id,

   4:      index_type_desc,

   5:      avg_fragmentation_in_percent

   6:  FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats

   7:      (DB_ID('AdventureWorks'),NULL, NULL, NULL, 'LIMITED')

   8:  WHERE

   9:      avg_fragmentation_in_percent > 30

  10:  ORDER BY

  11:      OBJECT_NAME(object_id)

ADO and MARS

2009-07-21T09:26:00.000+01:00

Very good article of using MARS for asynchronous data access. There are also other nice posts in the same website

http://www.emoreau.com/Entries/Articles/2006/11/MARS-and-Asynchronous-ADONet.aspx

WEKA machine learning applications

2009-07-20T11:36:00.002+01:00

TClass -- A supervised learning algorithm for multivariate time series:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~waleed/tclass/
Weka - Modified for Data Mining Course at WPI http://davis.wpi.edu/~xmdv/weka/

GPGPU -- very interesting

2009-07-17T17:09:00.001+01:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPGPU

Adaptive NNs

2009-07-17T16:12:00.002+01:00

recurrent NNs http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/rnn.html

Nice NN book http://www.amazon.com/Neural-Networks-Comprehensive-Foundation-2nd/dp/0132733501/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234982901&sr=8-6

Correlation code http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/miscellaneous/correlate/

C# neural networks NN library

2009-07-15T11:22:00.000+01:00

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/recipes/aforge_neuro.aspx?fid=360112&df=90&mpp=25&noise=3&sort=Position&view=Quick&fr=101&select=1789411

Mobile UK directory - remove

2009-07-10T11:47:00.000+01:00

You might want to send this on to your friends in the UKMaybe you have heard about this but early next week all UK mobiles will be on a directory which will mean that anyone will be able to access the numbers. It is easy to unsubscribe but it must be done before the=0beginning of next week to make sure that you are ex directory. You could be swamped by unsolicited messages and calls. Removal is recommended by the BBC - see link below. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/8091621.stm

Just done this myself. Double checked it wasn't a scam and it is actually on the bbc website recommending doing this.The Directory of Mobile Phone numbers goes live next week. Apparently, all numbers including those belonging to children will be open to cold calling and the general abuse that less scrupulous telesales people subject us too.To remove your number go here. (you need your mobile phone with you to do this, they text youa code) http://www.118800.co.uk/removeme/remove-me.html

When on the site, click "Home" then "Ex-directory" this will remove you from the directory.You can remove your number from this list, and tell all your friends - especially those with children who have mobile phones. A mobile number is private and you should be able to choose who you give it to - none of us agreed to this when we signed our mobile phone contracts.

Audit SQL server

2009-07-09T15:38:00.002+01:00

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1071

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Security/auditingii/697/ (requires free login)

SQL start end time timing

2009-07-03T15:33:00.001+01:00

   1:  declare @starttime datetime

   2:  set @starttime = getdate()

3:

   4:  --SQL

5:

   6:  print ' ... substring took ' + cast(datediff(ms,@starttime,getdate()) as varchar) + 'ms'

   7:  set @starttime = getdate()

Excel data reader library in codeplex

2009-07-02T09:08:00.002+01:00

http://exceldatareader.codeplex.com/

SQL output parameters in stored procedures

2009-07-01T09:50:00.004+01:00

In C# add parameter of type output and obtain its value after cmd execution:

   1:  cmd.Parameters.Add("@newId", SqlDbType.Int);

   2:  cmd.Parameters["@newId"].Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;

   3:  cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

   4:  int result = (int)cmd.Parameters["@newId"].Value;

   5:  return result;

In sproc, declare the parameter as type output:

   1:  Create procedure... (

   2:  @param1 int, etc

   3:  @newId int OUTPUT

   4:  )

   5:  begin

   6:  ...

   7:  set @newId = 123

   8:  return

   9:  end

XYNTService: start a program automatically

2009-06-25T17:13:00.001+01:00

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/XYNTServiceWrapper.aspx

Get database roles users principles

2009-06-25T11:32:00.003+01:00

   1:  SET NOCOUNT ON

2:

   3:  --Execute two select statements.

   4:  SELECT 'IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT NULL FROM sys.sysusers WHERE [name] = ' +

   5:  QUOTENAME(dp2.[name],'''') +  ') ' + CHAR(13) + '  CREATE USER ' +

   6:  QUOTENAME(dp2.name) + ' FOR LOGIN ' +

   7:  QUOTENAME(dp2.name)

   8:  FROM sys.database_principals dp

   9:  JOIN sys.database_role_members rm ON dp.principal_id = rm.role_principal_id

  10:  JOIN sys.database_principals dp2 on dp2.principal_id = rm.member_principal_id

  11:  WHERE dp2.[name] != 'dbo'

  12:  AND dp.[name] = 'GroupNameHere'

13:

  14:  SELECT 'CREATE ROLE [GroupNameHere] AUTHORIZATION [dbo]'

  15:  UNION

  16:  --Returns database role members.

  17:  SELECT

  18:  'EXEC sp_addrolemember N''' + dp.[name] + ''', N''' + dp2.[name] + ''''

  19:  FROM sys.database_principals dp

  20:  JOIN sys.database_role_members rm ON dp.principal_id = rm.role_principal_id

  21:  JOIN sys.database_principals dp2 on dp2.principal_id = rm.member_principal_id

  22:  JOIN sys.server_principals sp ON sp.sid = dp2.sid

  23:  WHERE dp2.[name] != 'dbo'

  24:  AND dp.[name] = 'GroupNameHere'

SQL return the insert row id

2009-06-24T15:09:00.002+01:00

   1:  alter procedure [dbo].[usp_SomeName] (

   2:  @value varchar(100)

   3:  ) as

   4:  declare @id int

   5:  create table #out(id int, value varchar(100))

   6:  INSERT INTO test2

   7:  (value)

   8:  output inserted.* into #out

   9:  VALUES

  10:  (@value)

  11:  return (select top 1 id from #out)

SQL Error catching

2009-06-24T09:27:00.002+01:00

   1:  begin catch

   2:  DECLARE

   3:  @ErrorMessage NVARCHAR(4000),

   4:  @ErrorNumber INT,

   5:  @ErrorSeverity INT,

   6:  @ErrorState INT,

   7:  @ErrorLine INT,

   8:  @ErrorProcedure NVARCHAR(200);

   9:  -- Assign variables to error-handling functions that capture information for RAISERROR.

  10:  SELECT

  11:  @ErrorNumber = ERROR_NUMBER(),

  12:  @ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY(),

  13:  @ErrorState = ERROR_STATE(),

  14:  @ErrorLine = ERROR_LINE(),

  15:  @ErrorProcedure = ISNULL(ERROR_PROCEDURE(), '-');

  16:  -- Build the message string that will contain original error information.

  17:  SELECT @ErrorMessage = 'Error %d, Level %d, State %d, Procedure %s, Line %d, ' + 'Message: '+ ERROR_MESSAGE();

  18:  -- Raise an error: msg_str parameter of RAISERROR will contain the original error information.

  19:  RAISERROR

  20:  (

  21:  @ErrorMessage,

  22:  @ErrorSeverity,

  23:  1,

  24:  @ErrorNumber, -- parameter: original error number.

  25:  @ErrorSeverity, -- parameter: original error severity.

  26:  @ErrorState, -- parameter: original error state.

  27:  @ErrorProcedure, -- parameter: original error procedure name.

  28:  @ErrorLine -- parameter: original error line number.

  29:  );

  30:  end catch

VPS

2009-06-23T16:32:00.001+01:00

UK based

http://www.rapidhost.co.uk/Hosting/VPS

http://www.tagadab.com/virtual-private-servers

instant SQL print error message

2009-06-23T14:30:00.001+01:00

set @msg = convert(varchar,getdate(),108) + ' - ' + some message here ...'
raiserror(@msg,0,1) with nowait

Free download manager

2009-06-18T09:33:00.001+01:00

All I can say, WOW!!! http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

ORM fluent hibernate

2009-06-18T09:31:00.000+01:00

Nice ORM without XML

http://wiki.fluentnhibernate.org/show/HomePage

SQL search for object by name, for one database only

2009-06-17T09:22:00.001+01:00

   1:  SELECT name, type_desc, modify_date

   2:  FROM sys.objects

   3:  WHERE OBJECT_DEFINITION(object_id) LIKE '%somestring%'

automated trading resources

2009-05-11T17:29:00.000+01:00

This is a very nice link, has a lot of useful information

http://coreyhoffstein.com/?page_id=24

Very nice SQL site with tutorials

2009-05-11T17:00:00.000+01:00

http://www.tek-tips.com/faq.cfm?pid=183

rounding errors between SQL and .NET - why helps to use decimal type instead of float

2009-04-23T15:59:00.002+01:00

I came across a situation where when the database datatype is float, and we read the data into a .NET datatable, the automatic conversion is from float to double. For some reason when this happens there are occasionally cases of rounding errors. The way to overcome this (other than changing the float columns to decimal(18, 6) or some other decimal spec, is to access the float data using some CONVERT(decimal(18, 6) col_name_here) so that the .NET data table has decimal type in the column in question.

.NET Numeric Scientific Libraries

2009-04-22T13:10:00.003+01:00

Overview article: http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/04/Meta-Numerics

Links to the 3 libraries mentioned in the article above:

Meta Numerics
IL Numerics
dnAnalytics

cursor to fetch database views

2009-04-21T09:08:00.005+01:00

   1:  declare @fetchStatus as int;

   2:  set @fetchStatus = 0

   3:  declare @str as varchar(100), @views as varchar(100)

   4:  declare tmp cursor for

   5:  select    [name] from    sys.views

   6:  open tmp

7:

   8:  while @fetchStatus = 0 begin

   9:  fetch tmp into @views

  10:  set @fetchStatus = @@fetch_status

  11:  if @fetchStatus = 0 begin

  12:  print @views

  13:  set @str = 'select * from ' + @views + ' where 0 = 1'

  14:  exec (@str)

  15:  end

  16:  end

17:

  18:  close tmp

  19:  deallocate tmp

GUI design ideas / practices

2009-04-17T16:28:00.005+01:00

http://quince.infragistics.com/#/Main
http://designinginterfaces.com/
About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design (Paperback)

Implement datetime (and other) sorting in ASP.NET gridview

2009-03-16T13:34:00.003Z

We need some code to load data into the table, then we use the following functions (also add the gridView_Sorting function to handle the OnSorting event of the grid, in the gridview definition in the .aspx file (OnSorting="gridView_Sorting"), same for OnPageIndexChanging event: OnPageIndexChanging="gridView_PageIndexChanging").

   1:  static SortDirection lastSortDirection = SortDirection.Ascending;

   2:  static DataTable roadmapTable;

3:

   4:  static string ConvertSortDirectionToSql(SortDirection sortDirection)

   5:  {

   6:      string m_SortDirection = String.Empty;

7:

   8:      switch (sortDirection)

   9:      {

  10:      case SortDirection.Ascending:

  11:          m_SortDirection = "ASC";

  12:          break;

13:

  14:      case SortDirection.Descending:

  15:          m_SortDirection = "DESC";

  16:          break;

  17:      }

18:

  19:      return m_SortDirection;

  20:  }

21:

  22:  protected void gridView_PageIndexChanging(object sender, GridViewPageEventArgs e)

  23:  {

  24:      roadmapGridView.PageIndex = e.NewPageIndex;

  25:      roadmapGridView.DataBind();

  26:  }

27:

  28:  protected void gridView_Sorting(object sender, GridViewSortEventArgs e)

  29:  {

  30:      if (roadmapTable == null)

  31:      {

  32:          return;

  33:      }

34:

  35:      lastSortDirection = lastSortDirection == SortDirection.Ascending ? SortDirection.Descending : SortDirection.Ascending;

36:

  37:      DataView m_DataView = new DataView(roadmapTable);

  38:      m_DataView.Sort = e.SortExpression + " " + ConvertSortDirectionToSql(lastSortDirection);

  39:      roadmapGridView.DataSource = m_DataView;

  40:      roadmapGridView.DataBind();

  41:  }

Speed up internet explorer

2009-03-04T15:52:00.010Z

0. Start IE without addons

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)

1. Disable the Phishing Filter

The Phishing Filter in IE7 is another area for performance improvement. If you mainly visit sites you trust and have used a lot, you can consider disabling the Phishing Filter in IE7.

In the IE7 Tools menu, select Phishing Filter.
In the submenu select Turn Off Automatic Website Checking.

2. Disable sounds in webpages, under options - advanced - multimedia

3. Disable RSS feed updates - under options - content - feeds

4. Increase max simultaneous connections - I am experimenting with 32 [Edit: max possible is 16 decimal...)

Start the Registry Editor. From the Windows Start menu, select Run. In the Run box, type regedit and click OK.
In the Registry Editor, locate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
With the key selected, open the Edit menu, click New and then select DWORD Value.
In the name field for the new value, type MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server.
Create another new DWORD Value and name it MaxConnectionsPerServer.
Now right-click the new entries one-by-one, and select Modify in the popup menu.
Enter the value for the maximum number of connections. By default Hexadecimal entry is selected, so if you type a value of 10 for these new DWORD values you will have a maximum of 16 downloads at the same time.
Close the Registry Editor. Select Exit from the File menu.
Finally reboot your computer and you’re ready to maximize your internet bandwidth usage by downloading multiple files at a time!

5. Limit reserved bandwidth to 0

Open the Run option in the Start menu.
Type gpedit.msc and click OK.
Open the tree as shown in the image (Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Network->QoS Packet Scheduler).
In the right-hand panel, double-click the Limit reservable bandwidth option.
Next, change the option from Not Configured to Enabled.
the Bandwidth Limit (%) value, enter zero (0).
Click the OK button.

6. force IE7's menu bar to the Top

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser]
"ITBar7Position"=dword:00000001

undo the change:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser]
"ITBar7Position"=-

7. Hide IE search box

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\InfoDelivery\Restrictions]
"NoSearchBox"=dword:00000001

and undo this

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\InfoDelivery\Restrictions]
"NoSearchBox"=dword:00000000

8. TCP IP Buffers

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]"ForwardBufferMemory"=dword:00024a00
"NumForwardPackets"=dword:0000024a
"MaxForwardBufferMemory"=dword:00024a00
"MaxNumForwardPackets"=dword:0000024a

from http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/index.php/t90257.html

PC Cooling Silent

2009-02-25T14:21:00.001Z

Good site for advice on cooling your pc while keep noise levels to near silent J
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

SQL replace cursor with while loop

2009-02-17T16:13:00.003Z

The key here is to get all the item categories which fit our WHERE clause into a memory table and use the Primary Key of this table to pick up each successive item category.

   1:  --Declare variables

   2:  DECLARE @item_category_id INT

   3:  DECLARE @order_id INT

   4:  DECLARE @purchase_order_id INT

5:

   6:  --Declare a memory table

   7:  DECLARE @item_table TABLE (primary_key INT IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL, --THE IDENTITY STATEMENT IS IMPORTANT!

   8:  item_category_id INT,

   9:  order_id INT

  10:  )

11:

  12:  --now populate this table with the required item category values

  13:  INSERT INTO @item_table

  14:  SELECT  -- Same SELECT statement as that for the CURSOR

  15:  it.item_category_id

  16:  ,ord.order_id

  17:  FROM dbo.item_categories it

18:

  19:  INNER JOIN dbo.orders ord

  20:  ON ord.item_category_id = it.item_category_id

21:

  22:  WHERE ord.order_date >= '1-sep-05'

  23:  and it.isSuspended != 1

24:

  25:  DECLARE @item_category_counter INT

  26:  DECLARE @loop_counter INT

27:

  28:  SET @loop_counter = ISNULL(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM @item_table),0) -- Set the @loop_counter to the total number of rows in the

  29:  -- memory table

30:

  31:  SET @item_category_counter = 1

32:

  33:  WHILE @loop_counter > 0 AND @item_category_counter <= @loop_counter

  34:  BEGIN

  35:  SELECT @item_category_id = item_category_id

  36:  ,@order_id = order_id

  37:  FROM @item_table

  38:  WHERE primary_key = @item_category_counter

39:

  40:  --Now pass the item-category_id and order_id to the OUTPUT stored procedure

  41:  EXEC dbo.usp_generate_purchase_order @item_category_id, @order_id, @purchase_order_id OUTPUT

42:

  43:  /*

  44:  Call other code here to process your pruchase order for this item

  45:  */

46:

  47:  SET @item_category_counter = @item_category_counter + 1

  48:  END

SQL Statistics information

2009-02-13T16:37:00.001Z

from an amazing blog post here http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1550 : (recommended to read)

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[usp_Detail_Index_Stats] @table_name sysname AS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ******VARIABLE DECLARATIONS****** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DECLARE @IndexTable TABLE ( [Database] sysname, [Table] sysname, [Index Name] sysname NULL, index_id smallint, [object_id] INT, [Index Type] VARCHAR(20), [Alloc Unit Type] VARCHAR(20), [Avg Frag %] decimal(5,2), [Row Ct] bigint, [Stats Update Dt] datetime ) DECLARE @dbid smallint --Database id for current database DECLARE @objectid INT --Object id for table being analyzed DECLARE @indexid INT --Index id for the target index for the STATS_DATE() function ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ******VARIABLE ASSIGNMENTS****** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SELECT @dbid = DB_ID(DB_NAME()) SELECT @objectid = OBJECT_ID(@table_name) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ******Load @IndexTable with Index Metadata****** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INSERT INTO @IndexTable ( [Database], [Table], [Index Name], index_id, [object_id], [Index Type], [Alloc Unit Type], [Avg Frag %], [Row Ct] ) SELECT DB_NAME() AS "Database" @table_name AS "Table" SI.NAME AS "Index Name" IPS.index_id, IPS.OBJECT_ID, --These fields included for joins only IPS.index_type_desc, --Heap, Non-clustered, or Clustered IPS.alloc_unit_type_desc, --In-row data or BLOB data CAST(IPS.avg_fragmentation_in_percent AS decimal(5,2)), IPS.record_count FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats (@dbid, @objectid, NULL, NULL, 'sampled') IPS LEFT JOIN sys.sysindexes SI ON IPS.OBJECT_ID = SI.id AND IPS.index_id = SI.indid WHERE IPS.index_id <> 0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ******ADD STATISTICS INFORMATION****** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DECLARE curIndex_ID CURSOR FOR SELECT I.index_id FROM @IndexTable I ORDER BY I.index_id OPEN curIndex_ID FETCH NEXT FROM curIndex_ID INTO @indexid WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 BEGIN UPDATE @IndexTable SET [Stats Update Dt] = STATS_DATE(@objectid, @indexid) WHERE [object_id] = @objectid AND [index_id] = @indexid FETCH NEXT FROM curIndex_ID INTO @indexid END CLOSE curIndex_ID DEALLOCATE curIndex_ID ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ******RETURN RESULTS****** ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SELECT I.[Database], I.[Table], I.[Index Name], "Index Type"= CASE I.[Index Type] WHEN 'NONCLUSTERED INDEX' THEN 'NCLUST' WHEN 'CLUSTERED INDEX' THEN 'CLUST' ELSE 'HEAP' END, I.[Avg Frag %], I.[Row Ct], CONVERT(VARCHAR, I.[Stats Update Dt], 110) AS "Stats Dt" FROM @IndexTable I ORDER BY I.[Index Type], I.[index_id]

More on SQL indexes

2009-02-13T14:52:00.009Z

the command to show index statistics:

dbcc show_statistics (tablename, indexname)

The lower the "All density" value the better, means the index is highly selective.

--
How to view index fragmentation (replace database and table names)

   1:  select str(s.index_id,3,0) as indid,

   2:  left(i.name, 20) as index_name,

   3:  left(index_type_desc, 20) as index_type_desc,

   4:  index_depth as idx_depth,

   5:  index_level as level,

   6:  str(avg_fragmentation_in_percent, 5,2) as avg_frgmnt_pct,

   7:  str(page_count, 10,0) as pg_cnt

   8:  FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats

   9:  (db_id('_DBNAME_<dbname>'), object_id('<tablename>_TABLENAME_'),1, 0, 'DETAILED') s

  10:  join sys.indexes i on s.object_id = i.object_id and s.index_id = i.index_id

How to reorganise an index (online operation) - only affects the leaf nodes.

1:

   2:  ALTER INDEX <indexname> _INDEXNAME_ on _TABLENAME_ <tablename> REORGANIZE

To rebuild the index without taking the database offline you need the enterprise edition of MSSQL 2005.

   1:  ALTER INDEX  _INDEXNAME_ on _TABLENAME_  REBUILD

If space is an issue it is better to disable a nonclustered index before rebuilding it, then we only need about 20% of the index size as free space to do the rebuild.

Also the Fill Factor can be adjusted based on how we expect the data to be used. This specifies how full the data pages or leaf level index pages will be. Lower fill factor is better when there are many data updates and inserts.

Clustered and non-clustered indexes in MSSQL server

2009-02-12T15:53:00.014Z

Columns to include in clustered index

. Those that are often accessed sequentially
. Those that contain a large number of distinct values
. Those that are used in range queries that use operators such as BETWEEN, >
<= in the WHERE clause . Those that are frequently used by queries to join or group the result setWhen to use non-clustered index . Queries that do not return large result sets . Columns that are frequently used in the WHERE clause that return exact match . Columns that have many distinct values (that is, high cardinality) . All columns referenced in a critical query (A special nonclustered index called a covering index that eliminates the need to go to the underlying data pages.) (based on the book SQL Server 2005 Unleashed, Sams 2006). Note: if there are columns usually required in the results but not in the query conditions, we can add them as "included columns" (for non-clustered index), which means they will exist in the leaf nodes of the index for faster retrieval. This is similar to a covering index (same?)To improve index performance, we can "REBUILD" them (drop and recreate) or just "REORGANIZE" them (like defrag, without drop). When we reorganise we have the option to compact large objects. Index can be disabled, in this case if we rebuild it we don't need to have extra temp space. Index can be applied on a view, but there are several conditions that must be met before this can be done. See online documentation. A composite index will only be used optimally (i.e. index seek instead of index scan) if its first column is part of the search argument or join clause. When deciding on an index another parameter to consider is the selectivity of the index i.e. the number of distinct rows returned on the index keys / number of rows in the table. The higher this number the better. e.g.

   1:  select count(distinct surname) from sometable / select count(*) from sometable

as a rule of thumb we require this to be > 0.85

Example sql code to determine the statistical distribution of values for a specific column

   1:  select state, count(*) as numrows, count(*)/b.totalrows * 100 as percentage

   2:  from authors a, (select convert(numeric(6,2), count(*)) as totalrows from  authors) as b group by state, b.totalrows

   3:  having count(*) > 1

   4:  order by 2 desc

   5:  go

SQL datetime as string representation

2009-02-06T14:01:00.002Z

   1:  CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), [StartDate], 103)

Also experiment with different values instead of 10, to get only the days/month part of date for example.

GreyBox popup window with C# ASP.NET DataBound GridView application

2009-02-05T16:37:00.005Z

GreyBox is a nice free animated popup window: http://orangoo.com/labs/GreyBox/

In order to get it to work dynamically with a databound GridView in ASP.NET in C# I had to make the following change in the .aspx page:

in the part of the gridview definition, added another template field:

and of course include the greybox folder in the website, and the correct entries in the header section. I hope this helps someone, it took me some time to figure out.

get database views based on system table - uses cursor

2009-01-30T11:36:00.001Z

   1:  declare @fetchStatus as int; set @fetchStatus = 0

   2:  declare @str as varchar(100), @views as varchar(100)

   3:  declare tmp cursor for

4:

   5:  select [name] from sys.views

6:

   7:  open tmp

8:

   9:  while @fetchStatus = 0 begin

  10:      fetch tmp into @views

  11:      set @fetchStatus = @@fetch_status

  12:      if @fetchStatus = 0 begin

  13:          print @views

  14:          set @str = 'select * from ' + @views + ' where 0 = 1'

  15:          exec (@str)

  16:      end

  17:  end

18:

  19:  close tmp

  20:  deallocate tmp

MSSQL catch block to raiseerror using ErrorMessage, ErrorSeverity and ErrorState

2009-01-12T09:38:00.003Z

   1:  BEGIN CATCH

2:

   3:  DECLARE @ErrorMessage        NVARCHAR(4000)

   4:  DECLARE @ErrorSeverity        INT

   5:  DECLARE @ErrorState            INT

6:

   7:  SELECT

   8:  @ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE(),

   9:  @ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY(),

  10:  @ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();

11:

  12:  RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage, -- Message text.

  13:  @ErrorSeverity, -- Severity.

  14:  @ErrorState -- State.

  15:  );

16:

  17:  END CATCH

Nice GUI article

2008-12-16T17:21:00.001Z

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/15/10-useful-techniques-to-improve-your-user-interface-designs/

Configuring Kerberos Authentication

2008-12-12T14:06:00.003Z

Configuring Kerberos Authentication (requires registration) but a very good article

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Security/65169/#

The query to check connections on SQL server (including their authentication type) is

   1:  SELECT

   2:  s.session_id

   3:  , c.connect_time

   4:  , s.login_time

   5:  , s.login_name

   6:  , c.protocol_type

   7:  , c.auth_scheme

   8:  , s.HOST_NAME

   9:  , s.program_name

  10:  FROM sys.dm_exec_sessions s

  11:  JOIN sys.dm_exec_connections c

  12:  ON s.session_id = c.session_id

Kerberos is configured usually using an Active Directory admin account and the utility SETSPN to set the service principle names required for proper operation.

Additional security: Secunia Personal Software Inspector

2008-12-11T13:50:00.000Z

Secunia Personal Software Inspector

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

Microsoft Application Verifier

2008-12-09T10:28:00.001Z

"Application Verifier is a runtime verification tool for unmanaged code that assists in quickly finding subtle programming errors that can be extremely difficult to identify with normal application testing.

Application Verifier is designed specifically to detect and help debug memory corruptions and critical security vulnerabilities. It makes it easier to create reliable applications by monitoring an application's interaction with the Windows operating system, profiling its use of objects, the registry, the file system, and Win32 APIs (including heaps, handles, locks, and more). It also includes checks to predict how well the application will perform under Least-privileged User Account operation, compatibility tests to be used in logoing, and print tests to verify your usage of the print subsystem.

Running Application Verifier is easy; simply turn on the tool then run your project and go through your normal testing scenarios with a debugger attached. When your tests are completed, view the Application Verifier logs for any errors that may have been detected."

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=D2DD7EE0-AAA2-402A-821D-43795D6CF139&displaylang=en

MDAC Utility: Component Checker

2008-12-09T10:24:00.000Z

"The Component Checker tool is designed to help you determine installed version information and diagnose installation issues with the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). MDAC is installed with numerous Microsoft products and can also be redistributed using the redistribution program (mdac_typ.exe) that you can download from the MSDN Data Access and Storage Developer Center. Windows XP SP2 or later versions of Windows also installs MDAC as an ‘out of box’ system component of the Windows operating system. Since MDAC in Windows XP SP2 or later is newer than the version (MDAC 2.8 SP1) in the last MDAC redistribution program, mdac_typ.exe no longer installs MDAC on Windows XP SP2 and later version. For more information about MDAC history and supportability please visit Data Access Technologies Road Map

Component Checker performs the following tasks:

Identifies the current MDAC installation on a computer.
Creates a series of reports about the files identified for the current MDAC installation."

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8F0A8DF6-4A21-4B43-BF53-14332EF092C9&displaylang=en

free sql tools and other utilities

2008-12-04T16:06:00.000Z

SQL tools:

http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp/archive/2007/11/20/Free-SQL-Server-tools-that-might-make-your-life-a.aspx

Other utilities (requires free registration to read the article)

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tools/64908/

Utilities (software) tools list

2008-12-04T12:15:00.000Z

Not sure I agree on all but overall very good list

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmans2007UltimateDeveloperAndPowerUsersToolListForWindows.aspx

.NET books list

2008-12-02T15:29:00.008Z

from a poster in amazon...

My top recommended books:
1. "Accelerated C#" by Trey Nash
2. "Programming .NET Components" by Juval Lowy
3. "Test Driven Development in Microsoft .NET"
4. "Head First Design Patterns" [in Java but good]
5. "CLR Via C#" by Jeffrey Richter
6. "Code Complete" [Steve McConnell]
7. "Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform" [Excellent]
8. "Framework Design Guidelines"
9. "WCF" by Juvy Lowy [Advanced stuff, but excellent]
10. "Pro LINQ Language Integrated Query in C# 2008"

Improve windows startup time

2008-11-27T16:02:00.001Z

http://lifehacker.com/5087101/the-complete-guide-to-speeding-up-your-pcs-startup

Also make sure you follow the link at the bottom to debunking Windows performance-tweaking myths.

.NET Cheatsheets

2008-11-27T15:43:00.001Z

http://john-sheehan.com/blog/index.php/net-cheat-sheets/

For Mac Lovers ...

2008-11-14T10:23:00.000Z

http://www.flyakiteosx.com/screenshots/

SQL Index Defrag

2008-11-12T13:50:00.003Z

Looks neat http://sqlfool.com/2008/11/updated-index-defrag-script-2005-2008/

For the standard version of SQL server the script is: (all credits to the author in the link provided above):

   1:  IF EXISTS(SELECT OBJECT_ID FROM sys.tables

   2:  WHERE [name] = N'dba_indexDefragLog')

   3:  BEGIN

4:

   5:  DROP TABLE dbo.dba_indexDefragLog;

6:

   7:  PRINT 'dba_indexDefragLog table dropped!';

8:

   9:  END

10:

  11:  CREATE TABLE dbo.dba_indexDefragLog

  12:  (

  13:  indexDefrag_id    INT IDENTITY(1,1)   NOT NULL

  14:  , objectID          INT                 NOT NULL

  15:  , objectName        NVARCHAR(130)       NOT NULL

  16:  , indexID           INT                 NOT NULL

  17:  , indexName         NVARCHAR(130)       NOT NULL

  18:  , fragmentation     FLOAT               NOT NULL

  19:  , page_count        INT                 NOT NULL

  20:  , dateTimeStart     DATETIME            NOT NULL

  21:  , durationSeconds   INT                 NOT NULL

  22:  CONSTRAINT PK_indexDefragLog

  23:  PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (indexDefrag_id)

  24:  );

25:

  26:  PRINT 'dba_indexDefragLog Table Created';

27:

  28:  IF OBJECTPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID('dbo.dba_indexDefragStandard_sp'),

  29:  N'IsProcedure') IS Null

  30:  BEGIN

  31:  EXECUTE ('Create Procedure dbo.dba_indexDefragStandard_sp

  32:  As Print ''Hello World!''');

  33:  RAISERROR('Procedure dba_indexDefragStandard_sp created.'

  34:  , 10, 1);

  35:  END;

  36:  Go

37:

  38:  SET ANSI_Nulls ON;

  39:  SET Ansi_Padding ON;

  40:  SET Ansi_Warnings ON;

  41:  SET ArithAbort ON;

  42:  SET Concat_Null_Yields_Null ON;

  43:  SET NOCOUNT ON;

  44:  SET Numeric_RoundAbort OFF;

  45:  SET Quoted_Identifier ON;

  46:  Go

47:

  48:  ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.dba_indexDefragStandard_sp

49:

  50:  /* Declare Parameters */

  51:  @minFragmentation     FLOAT           = 10.0

  52:  /* in percent, will not defrag if fragmentation

  53:  less than specified */

  54:  , @rebuildThreshold     FLOAT           = 30.0

  55:  /* in percent, greater than @rebuildThreshold

  56:  will result in rebuild instead of reorg */

  57:  , @executeSQL           BIT             = 1

  58:  /* 1 = execute; 0 = print command only */

  59:  , @tableName            VARCHAR(4000)   = Null

  60:  /* Option to specify a table name */

  61:  , @printCommands        BIT             = 0

  62:  /* 1 = print commands; 0 = do not print commands */

  63:  , @printFragmentation   BIT             = 0

  64:  /* 1 = print fragmentation prior to defrag;

  65:  0 = do not print */

  66:  , @defragDelay          CHAR(8)         = '00:00:05'

  67:  /* time to wait between defrag commands */

  68:  AS

  69:  /********************************************************************

  70:  Name:       dba_indexDefragStandard_sp

71:

  72:  Author:     Michelle F. Ufford

73:

  74:  Purpose:    Defrags all indexes for the current database

75:

  76:  Notes:      This script was designed for SQL Server 2005

  77:  Standard edition.

78:

  79:  CAUTION: Monitor transaction log if executing for the first time!

80:

  81:  @minFragmentation     defaulted to 10%, will not defrag if

  82:  fragmentation if less than specified.

83:

  84:  @rebuildThreshold     defaulted to 30% as recommended by

  85:  Microsoft in BOL;

  86:  > than 30% will result in rebuild instead

87:

  88:  @executeSQL           1 = execute the SQL generated by this proc;

  89:  0 = print command only

90:

  91:  @tableName            Specify if you only want to defrag indexes

  92:  for a specific table

93:

  94:  @printCommands        1 = print commands to screen;

  95:  0 = do not print commands

96:

  97:  @printFragmentation   1 = print fragmentation to screen;

  98:  0 = do not print fragmentation

99:

 100:  @defragDelay          time to wait between defrag commands;

 101:  gives the server some time to catch up

 102:

 103:  Called by:  SQL Agent Job or DBA

 104:

 105:  Date        Initials  Description

 106:  ----------------------------------------------------------------

 107:  2008-10-27  MFU       Initial Release

 108:  2008-11-17  MFU       Added page_count to log table

 109:  , added @printFragmentation option

 110:  ********************************************************************

 111:  Exec dbo.dba_indexDefragStandard_sp

 112:  @executeSQL         = 1

 113:  , @printCommands      = 1

 114:  , @minFragmentation   = 0

 115:  , @printFragmentation = 1;

 116:  ********************************************************************/

 117:

 118:  SET NOCOUNT ON;

 119:  SET XACT_Abort ON;

 120:

 121:  BEGIN

 122:

 123:  /* Declare our variables */

 124:  DECLARE   @objectID         INT

 125:  , @indexID          INT

 126:  , @schemaName       NVARCHAR(130)

 127:  , @objectName       NVARCHAR(130)

 128:  , @indexName        NVARCHAR(130)

 129:  , @fragmentation    FLOAT

 130:  , @pageCount        INT

 131:  , @sqlCommand       NVARCHAR(4000)

 132:  , @rebuildCommand   NVARCHAR(200)

 133:  , @dateTimeStart    DATETIME

 134:  , @dateTimeEnd      DATETIME

 135:  , @containsLOB      BIT;

 136:

 137:  /* Just a little validation... */

 138:  IF @minFragmentation Not Between 0.00 And 100.0

 139:  SET @minFragmentation = 10.0;

 140:

 141:  IF @rebuildThreshold Not Between 0.00 And 100.0

 142:  SET @rebuildThreshold = 30.0;

 143:

 144:  IF @defragDelay Not Like '00:[0-5][0-9]:[0-5][0-9]'

 145:  SET @defragDelay = '00:00:05';

 146:

 147:  /* Determine which indexes to defrag using our

 148:  user-defined parameters */

 149:  SELECT

 150:  OBJECT_ID AS objectID

 151:  , index_id AS indexID

 152:  , avg_fragmentation_in_percent AS fragmentation

 153:  , page_count

 154:  , 0 AS 'defragStatus'

 155:  /* 0 = unprocessed, 1 = processed */

 156:  INTO #indexDefragList

 157:  FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats

 158:  (DB_ID(), OBJECT_ID(@tableName), NULL , NULL, N'Limited')

 159:  WHERE avg_fragmentation_in_percent > @minFragmentation

 160:  And index_id > 0

 161:  OPTION (MaxDop 1);

 162:

 163:  /* Create a clustered index to boost performance a little */

 164:  CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX CIX_temp_indexDefragList

 165:  ON #indexDefragList(objectID, indexID);

 166:

 167:  /* Begin our loop for defragging */

 168:  WHILE (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM #indexDefragList

 169:  WHERE defragStatus = 0) > 0

 170:  BEGIN

 171:

 172:  /* Grab the most fragmented index first to defrag */

 173:  SELECT TOP 1

 174:  @objectID         = objectID

 175:  , @fragmentation    = fragmentation

 176:  , @indexID          = indexID

 177:  , @pageCount        = page_count

 178:  FROM #indexDefragList

 179:  WHERE defragStatus = 0

 180:  ORDER BY fragmentation DESC;

 181:

 182:  /* Look up index information */

 183:  SELECT @objectName = QUOTENAME(o.name)

 184:  , @schemaName = QUOTENAME(s.name)

 185:  FROM sys.objects AS o

 186:  Inner Join sys.schemas AS s

 187:  ON s.schema_id = o.schema_id

 188:  WHERE o.OBJECT_ID = @objectID;

 189:

 190:  SELECT @indexName = QUOTENAME(name)

 191:  FROM sys.indexes

 192:  WHERE OBJECT_ID = @objectID

 193:  And index_id = @indexID

 194:  And type > 0;

 195:

 196:  /* Look for LOBs */

 197:  SELECT TOP 1

 198:  @containsLOB = column_id

 199:  FROM sys.columns WITH (NOLOCK)

 200:  WHERE

 201:  [OBJECT_ID] = @objectID

 202:  And (system_type_id In (34, 35, 99)

 203:  -- 34 = image, 35 = text, 99 = ntext

 204:  Or max_length = -1);

 205:  -- varbinary(max), varchar(max), nvarchar(max), xml

 206:

 207:  /* See if we should rebuild or reorganize; handle thusly */

 208:  IF @fragmentation < @rebuildThreshold             Or IsNull(@containsLOB, 0) > 0

 209:  -- Cannot rebuild if the table has one or more LOB

 210:  SET @sqlCommand = N'Alter Index ' + @indexName + N' On '

 211:  + @schemaName + N'.' + @objectName + N' ReOrganize;'

 212:  ELSE

 213:  SET @sqlCommand = N'Alter Index ' + @indexName + N' On '

 214:  + @schemaName + N'.' + @objectName +  ' Rebuild '

 215:  + 'With (MaxDop = 1)'; -- minimize impact on server

 216:

 217:  /* Are we executing the SQL?  If so, do it */

 218:  IF @executeSQL = 1

 219:  BEGIN

 220:

 221:  /* Grab the time for logging purposes */

 222:  SET @dateTimeStart  = GETDATE();

 223:  EXECUTE (@sqlCommand);

 224:  SET @dateTimeEnd  = GETDATE();

 225:

 226:  /* Log our actions */

 227:  INSERT INTO dbo.dba_indexDefragLog

 228:  (

 229:  objectID

 230:  , objectName

 231:  , indexID

 232:  , indexName

 233:  , fragmentation

 234:  , page_count

 235:  , dateTimeStart

 236:  , durationSeconds

 237:  )

 238:  SELECT

 239:  @objectID

 240:  , @objectName

 241:  , @indexID

 242:  , @indexName

 243:  , @fragmentation

 244:  , @pageCount

 245:  , @dateTimeStart

 246:  , DATEDIFF(SECOND, @dateTimeStart, @dateTimeEnd);

 247:

 248:  /* Just a little breather for the server */

 249:  WAITFOR Delay @defragDelay;

 250:

 251:  /* Print if specified to do so */

 252:  IF @printCommands = 1

 253:  PRINT N'Executed: ' + @sqlCommand;

 254:  END

 255:  ELSE

 256:  /* Looks like we're not executing, just print

 257:  the commands */

 258:  BEGIN

 259:  IF @printCommands = 1

 260:  PRINT @sqlCommand;

 261:  END

 262:

 263:  /* Update our index defrag list when we've

 264:  finished with that index */

 265:  UPDATE #indexDefragList

 266:  SET defragStatus = 1

 267:  WHERE objectID  = @objectID

 268:  And indexID   = @indexID;

 269:

 270:  END

 271:

 272:  /* Do we want to output our fragmentation results? */

 273:  IF @printFragmentation = 1

 274:  SELECT idl.objectID

 275:  , o.name AS 'tableName'

 276:  , idl.indexID

 277:  , i.name AS 'indexName'

 278:  , idl.fragmentation

 279:  , idl.page_count

 280:  FROM #indexDefragList AS idl

 281:  JOIN sys.objects AS o

 282:  ON idl.objectID = o.OBJECT_ID

 283:  JOIN sys.indexes AS i

 284:  ON idl.objectID = i.OBJECT_ID

 285:  AND idl.indexID = i.index_id;

 286:

 287:  /* When everything is done, make sure to get rid of

 288:  our temp table */

 289:  DROP TABLE #indexDefragList;

 290:

 291:  SET NOCOUNT OFF;

 292:  RETURN 0

 293:  END

 294:  Go

SQL Server Best Practices

2008-11-11T16:40:00.000Z

by Microsoft technet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sqlserver/bb671430.aspx

windows server 2008 workstation

2008-11-11T11:43:00.001Z

interesting approach between vista and XP

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/17/12TC-windows-workstation-2008_1.html

Google visualization API

2008-11-04T15:09:00.004Z

Released, blogged here: http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/11/introducing-powerful-visualizations-for.html

Nice example here: http://jpbi.blogspot.com/2008/03/motion-chart-provided-by-google.html#

Home here: http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/

Also on a related note: http://www.gapminder.org/ (check the links section too)

SQL Server Language Settings

2008-10-30T09:53:00.012Z

This is to solve the problem where we want to be using British English in SQL but it insists in using US English.

   1:  PRINT @@LANGUAGE

Will show you current default server language (should be British).

   1:  sp_defaultlanguage 'your-domain\your-username'

will make your username take on the default of the server. (of course replace username with the one you want to change). If the logins are done via groups and not individual users, you will need to change the group's default language (by using the group instead of the specific user as parameter to sp_defaultlanguage).

also read for more information:

sp_defaultlanguage doc:
http://doc.ddart.net/mssql/sql70/sp_da-di_7.htm

default language options:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa196707(SQL.80).aspx

sp_configure doc:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa259616(SQL.80).aspx

If all fails you can use SET DATEFORMAT eg

   1:  SET DATEFORMAT dmy

for European, inside the stored procedure you are executing, but I prefer the first solution based on user settings. On the other hand the SET DATEFORMAT command in the stored procedure makes it more robust, its up to you.

Failing all can use:

   1:  ALTER LOGIN user1 WITH DEFAULT_LANGUAGE = British

Programmatically select DataGridView row

2008-10-24T09:47:00.004+01:00

This can be useful if we are updating a row in a DataGridView and we want to refresh the DataSource, still the selected row to remain the same.

   1:  if (selectedIndex > -1 && dataGridView1.Rows.Count > selectedIndex)

   2:  {

   3:      dataGridView1.Rows[selectedIndex].Selected = true;

   4:      dataGridView1.FirstDisplayedScrollingRowIndex = selectedIndex;

   5:  }

Recycling

2008-10-20T14:13:00.003+01:00

Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) is a place to pass along no longer needed items and possibly find something you need - better passed along than in a landfill. A LaserJet III probably won't be your first choice for a business proposal or resume, but it's OK for a draft copy of anything or printing a program listing. It's a great deal if it's free and toner cartridges are still plentiful and cheap.

Craig's List (www.craigslist.org) has free, for sale, and wanted sections. You can find lawn and garden, furniture, computers, entertainment gear, kids' stuff and lots more. That 18 year old truck was sold via Craig's list and I had cash-in-hand in 24 hours from the time the ad was posted - there's no charge to post or sell on Craig's List.

Portable database VistaDB

2008-10-20T11:28:00.003+01:00

This is an alternative to sqlite, http://vistadb.net/vistadb3/features.aspx. Although it is commercial, they also offer a free version. The database is written in .NET and seems to have all the basic features you would want. Worth considering for projects requiring a small database.

ASP.NET MVC framework beta

2008-10-17T09:27:00.002+01:00

Nice article explaining the features of ASP.NET MVC framework in its beta state
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/10/16/asp-net-mvc-beta-released.aspx. Looks quite neat.

Active directory group and member properties, DirectorySearcher PropertiesToLoad possible values

2008-10-14T15:05:00.015+01:00

Normally you would use code like this, to retrieve values for specific properties of an Active Directory group (specified in string groupName):

   1:  DirectorySearcher search = new DirectorySearcher {Filter = String.Format("(cn={0})", groupName)};

   2:  search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("member");

3:

   4:  List<string> userNames = new List<string>();

5:

   6:  if (result != null)

   7:  {

   8:     for (int counter = 0; counter < result.Properties["member"].Count; counter++)

   9:     {

  10:        string user = (string)result.Properties["member"][counter];

  11:        userNames.Add(user + Environment.NewLine);

  12:     }

  13:  }

14:

  15:  return userNames;

but what are the possible values of properties you can use in PropertiesToLoad.Add()? I couldnt find this information anywhere so I wrote a little snippet to retrieve them, here is the result (29 properties)

textencodedoraddress
distinguishedname
dscorepropagationdata
grouptype
objectsid
whencreated
msexchalobjectversion
mailnickname
name
usnchanged
objectcategory
samaccounttype
instancetype
reporttooriginator
cn
proxyaddresses
showinaddressbook
objectclass
mail
usncreated
member
objectguid
adspath
displayname
legacyexchangedn
samaccountname
whenchanged
memberof
msexchpoliciesincluded

The best programming fonts list... ever

2008-10-14T09:47:00.001+01:00

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/work/FontSurvey.aspx

XML command line manipulation open source utility

2008-10-09T10:44:00.002+01:00

This might be handy if you have to do a lot of work with XML, or even to quickly query large XML files that you want to search for specific information, although I don't know how well it can deal with large files:

http://xmlstar.sourceforge.net/

Database search methods

2008-10-07T13:29:00.003+01:00

This one is based more on database interaction: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Full-Text+Search+(2008)/64248/ (requires free registration).

This one uses the open source lucene framework: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/library/IntroducingLucene.aspx

Online book resources

2008-10-07T09:11:00.001+01:00

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-best-6-sites-to-get-free-ebooks/

Microsoft light web platform

2008-10-07T09:09:00.003+01:00

The equivalent of LAMP from Microsoft... http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx plus an IDE to boot. Package includes including IIS7, Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Express Edition and the .NET Framework, based on a single installer.

Compress image size by yahoo

2008-10-07T09:06:00.003+01:00

New tool available from yahoo. Seems to suggest the optimum compressed size that doesn't affect the quality much.

http://smushit.com/

Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability

2008-09-29T10:05:00.002+01:00

This is a PDF book from Microsoft, seems quite well written at first glance

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8A2E454D-F30E-4E72-B531-75384A0F1C47&displaylang=en

Linked server double hop

2008-09-26T09:28:00.002+01:00

This is the best article I've found regarding the proper setup of servers for double hop in MS SQL 2005: http://blogs.msdn.com/sql_protocols/archive/2006/08/10/694657.aspx

It is the best overview and most complete and yet simple explanation of the problem and the solution.

PC maintenance and optimisation

2008-09-25T09:20:00.002+01:00

PC maintenance and optimisation

http://www.cio.com/article/print/450652

How to make objects available as datasources for databound controls

2008-09-24T10:32:00.008+01:00

This attribute goes to the class:

   1:  // makes objects of this class suitable for binding to controls

   2:  [System.ComponentModel.DataObject]

And this goes to the method:

   1:  // this attribute is so that the method will show up in the

   2:  // ObjectDataSource wizard

   3:  [System.ComponentModel.DataObjectMethodAttribute(

   4:  System.ComponentModel.DataObjectMethodType.Select, true)]

Open source version control

2008-09-19T14:52:00.002+01:00

Nice list and good comparison of 7 open source version control systems:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/09/18/the-top-7-open-source-version-control-systems/

Stanford free online courses

2008-09-19T14:13:00.001+01:00

This looks really cool, now to find some time...

http://www.deviceguru.com/2008/09/17/stanford-frees-cs-robotics-courses/

ADO.NET Entity Framework Tutorial

2008-09-17T14:41:00.001+01:00

Looks nice and well written, I will post more details when I actually try it:

http://www.codeguru.com/csharp/.net/net_general/netframeworkclasses/article.php/c15489/

Nice online dictionary with audio

2008-09-17T12:08:00.002+01:00

It has the pronunciation, this is cool!!!
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

Finally CodePlex supports svn!!!

2008-09-16T09:37:00.003+01:00

Now I don't know yet how good this support is, but you can read all about it here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/codeplex/archive/2008/09/14/codeplex-launches-support-for-tortoisesvn.aspx

They used to support svn in the past but it required a local installation of SvnBridge. Now it is integrated into their repository.

Typical URL format is https://projectname.svn.codeplex.com/svn

20 tech habits to improve your life

2008-09-02T11:25:00.000+01:00

Very good read, with some useful tips: 20 tech habits to improve your life

The .NET source code

2008-09-02T11:24:00.004+01:00

Official site for the .NET source code, including instructions (although out of date in VS 2008 last time I checked, they were for VS 2005...)
http://referencesource.microsoft.com/serversetup.aspx

For VS 2008 SP1 there is another option which is not included in the Microsoft website at this moment:

Wizard implementation in C#

2008-09-02T11:20:00.002+01:00

Very nice article explaining the implementation of a wizard in C#. The article skips over some details of the implementation (i.e. it is unclear at some points) but this is not a problem because clarification can be obtained by looking at the source code which is provided. On the other hand, the article has a comprehensive coverage of various events and it is definitely a worthwhile read. No doubt Microsoft will come up with some wizard component in the future, but until they do, this is a good alternative, and it any case a very educational resource.

Part 1
Part 2

Visual Studio 2008 code clone detective

2008-08-28T10:28:00.000+01:00

Nice tool for improving code quality (removing redundancy). Free VS addon and it actually works, it’s quite cool. Currently available for C# only.

It works by identifying potential code duplication. Sadly it does not do anything resolving the issue at this stage, but it still helps to point out areas where code quality could be improved.

Article: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/08/27/Cloned-code-finder-offered-for-Visual-Studio_1.html

Project : http://www.codeplex.com/CloneDetectiveVS

Nice paging stored procedure in MS SQL T-SQL

2008-08-18T17:27:00.004+01:00

This also demonstrates the use of the WITH heyword.

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Employee_Paged] ( @maximumRows int = 10, @startRowIndex int = 1 ) AS

BEGIN

SET NOCOUNT ON;

WITH [EmployeeByPage] AS

(

SELECT

row_number() OVER (ORDER BY Employee.Id ASC) AS rowid,

Employee.Id,

Employee.Name

FROM

Employee

)

SELECT

Paged.Id,

Paged.Name

FROM

[EmployeeByPage] AS Paged

WHERE

Paged.rowid BETWEEN @startRowIndex AND @startRowIndex + @maximumRows

END

Source: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3263486&SiteID=1

And some irrelevant links...

2008-08-18T09:17:00.004+01:00

interesting reads:

8 ways to make money online

Startup Ideas

Best freeware software lists

2008-08-13T12:18:00.007+01:00

Some links which have lists of (mainly) free software:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/

http://www.portablefreeware.com/

http://www.digitaldarknet.net/thelist/

http://www.freebyte.com/programming/database/

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/enhance-or-replace-integrated-windows-applications-with-these-great-alternatives/

http://tech.msn.com/products/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=6729042

http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/12/10/in-search-of-free-open-source-apps/
has links to:
http://opendesktop.org/
http://ostatic.com/
http://mashable.com/2007/09/23/open-source/

Call .NET dll from MS SQL server - analyse query plan

2008-08-08T09:30:00.003+01:00

This is a very well presented article which explains how we can obtain the query plan - estimated execution time for a query in SQL Server. It is also very useful because we can see in detail the process of registering and calling a .NET assembly from within SQL Server. Applies to: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual C# .NET, but most likely will be possible to use a similar or even the same process in SQL Server 2008 and later.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345130.aspx