Categories
Alias in View Bug in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
Wednesday May 10, 2006 @ 2:47 pm by joecmI knew I should have waited for SP3, but SSMS has a much nicer tabbed interface. It integrates Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer into one place and in general improves my productivity. But it clearly should still be in beta. I’ve had a number of problems with DTS which I won’t go into now, but I just ran across a crazy bug.
I have a SQL Server 2000 database that has 4 tables and a view. We recently had to add a column to one of the tables. Simple right? I used SSMS and added a varchar(10) to the end of the table. When I went to test the results, my app started spitting out all kinds of jumbled data. Huh? What the hell is going on? I only added a column.
I soon traced it to the view and I was suprised at what I had found.
Sharks vs Oilers - 5-on-1 Power Play
Tuesday May 9, 2006 @ 8:29 pm by joecmPlayoff hockey is exciting. But this was off the hook. The San Jose Sharks had 2 men in the box and 2 had lost their sticks. Watch as the kill a penalty with basically one “fully armed” defender. Thanks to whoever posted this on You Tube as I was at the Giants game and missed it live.
It has been awhile…
Tuesday May 9, 2006 @ 8:00 pm by joecmOk, I know it has been a while since I posted. I realized it even more when it took me more than 10 minutes to log in. First, I had forgotten the admin URL — so I was off to a good start. After getting past that one, It took me a dozen tries to get my username/password combo right. My guess is that is why my traffic is so high.
Oh crap, now I just realized I don’t have a category that this fits into. I want to go with Miscellaneous, but how the hell do you spell it? Damn spell checker has ruined my brain. I can’t spell sh*t anymore. Thank you answers.com for the spelling. I’m sure that category name is going work well in links.
So sorry for not posting in ages. I’ve been busy watching 7th Heaven and ANTM (if you don’t know this acronym, you are just not cool). I will try to post more often for my loyal readers^H (thanks for the hits, Mom).
The Financial Abortion Card
Sunday March 12, 2006 @ 10:39 pm by joecm
A lot of news has been made of a new lawsuit that attempts to allow us men to opt out of a pregnancy. The theory being that since women have the right to abort the baby, shouldn’t men be given the same right? Equal rights are guaranteed after all. Realizing the insanity of trying to make a woman have an actual abortion against her will, the lawsuit seeks what is cleverly being called a financial abortion. If the lawsuit succeeds, a man would have the opportunity to tell the woman that he did not wish to have the baby, and that he is severing all financial responsibility for the child. Now, this lawsuit seems flawed in many ways, but as I see it, the biggest flaw is that there is no way that a man would have such a conversation. We would rather chew our arm off than have a serious discussion. Right ladies?
Does that mean it can’t work? No. I suggest a Financial Abortion Card (FAC). What is that you ask? In soccer (football to all your non-americans), when a penalty occurs the official does not walk over to the offending player and have a conversation about what went wrong. He simply reaches into his pocket and pulls out a yellow card and holds it in the air. Enough said! The player knows what happens, the official knows what happens, everybody around knows what happens. No long conversation about it, play just resumes. The Financial Abortion Card works in a similar way. A man can keep it in his wallet and at the appropriate moment, he can simply take it out, hold it in the air for all to see, and walk away. Maybe even hand the card to the woman as a sort of receipt. I even have a good slogan for it, get the FAC’s. Ah, a fine system indeed.
Microsoft AntiSpy vs Symantec Norton Anti-Virus…
Friday February 10, 2006 @ 5:35 pm by joecmI came into work this morning and was greeted by an alert from Microsoft Anti Spyware Beta 1 that I was infected with a Trojan, “PWS.Bancos.A (Password Stealer)”. MSAS had marked this particular item as severe. It had found a number of entries in the Registry, but no files. The entries looked legit, but knowing how trojan writers enjoy trickery, I had MS remove the entries (it was “severe” afterall). I then re-scanned to make sure it was gone. The second scan yielded one result, so I clicked remove again.
At this point, I decided to run Norton (better safe than sorry). Norton would not start the full scan. After first considering that I might have a virus on my machine that was blocking Norton, I wondered if MS had detected Norton as this Trojan. To test this theory, I uninstalled Norton. I ran the MS scan again and it found no trojan. Then I installed Norton and sure enough, MS detected the trojan again.
For the Paranoid: I have to admit, this is a great strategy with One Care on the horizon. Just have AntiSpy disable everyones Anti Virus software and then offer them a discount on One Care.
TV Shows about Presidents
Wednesday February 8, 2006 @ 12:12 am by joecm
Three Shows about Presidents
1) The West Wing. This is one of my favorite shows. After years as a top ratings winner, the show started a couple of down seasons and was eventually moved to Sunday. Sundays are where shows go to die (just ask the cast of Las Vegas). Ironically, the show has had its best season. Too bad everyone spends Sunday nights on Hotjobs looking for a new job — or is that just me?
2) Commander in Chief. Ok, it was a novelty. A woman as president. I admit the first few episodes were pretty good, but it was the same thing over and over again. President good, Donald Sutherland bad. President good, Donald Sutherland bad. President good, Donald Sutherland a racist. The show is now on a six week hiatus. Hopefully it will improve.
3) George W Bush. Ok, he isn’t a TV show… Actually he seems more like a really bad made for TV movie. Like Magma or Super Volcano where the earth looks like it is on the brink until a miraculous last minute plan saves us all. Let’s hope we can all make it to ‘08. McCain vs Edwards…. Pretty Please.
Free and Nearly Free Stock Photos
Tuesday February 7, 2006 @ 11:33 pm by joecm
There was a time when web developers and others would have to pay incredible amounts of money for stock photography. I remember having to pay $30+ for low-res images, and a lot more if you wanted to put a high res image in an ad. You could always go to Google images and take what you find, but you could run into some copyright issues. Here are a few site you can use to save a few bucks on images, and reduce your risk of being arrested:
Free Images:
- Nearly Free Images:
Gmail catches a break
Sunday February 5, 2006 @ 10:40 pm by joecmApproaching its second birthday, Gmail has caught a break. On April 1, 2004, GMail burst onto the scene with some cool new features that redefined free online email services. Its gigabyte storage and Ajax interface gave Gmail an edge on its well established competitors; Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL. They have all spent the last 2 years furiously working to develop slicker interfaces, matching the storage quotas, and working hard to retain their customer bases. And in my eyes, they have been effective.
Now, after all that hard work, Yahoo and AOL have announced a plan to charge a fee to ensure email delivery. I am a longtime Yahoo Mail user. Actually, I am a Yahoo Mail Plus user, which means that I pay money for my “free” email account. Yahoo and AOL claim that this plan will help stop SPAM, but in reality it will hit mailing list owners and legitimate ISPs the hardest. It will also give major corporations a major advantage in communication and the little guy will be silenced. Oh, and one more consequence, if this plan is successful, I will be heading to GMail. Because even though GMail could not tempt me away from Yahoo, Yahoo certainly has found a way to drive me away. And I’m pretty sure I won’t be the only one.
Read more about the plan here.
Ellen Pompeo Punk’d
Tuesday December 27, 2005 @ 2:44 pm by joecm
Ellen Pompeo, you’ve been punk’d!!! The star of Grey’s Anatomy portrays a sweet girl that everybody loves, but I never knew how good an actress she was until I saw her tear up a waitress on the show. The premise of the joke was simple. Ellen and her fiancé, Chris, would have lunch at a restaurant and the waitress would flirt with him. Ellen would get jealous and the laughs would ensue. It all seemed innocent enough, but it was the strangest, not even funny bit I’ve ever seen on that show. And it was only made stranger with her Boston accent.
Below is a rough transcript of some of the crazier parts, you really need to see the show to understand however:
(Chris and Ellen arrive and order. During the order, the waitress calls him “honey” which really seemed to bother Ellen. When the waitress leaves the following happens)
(Ellen at this point looks really annoyed and Chris begins laughing)
Ellen: “Honey”, is she kidding? I think she’s got too much makeup on and it is affecting her thought process.
Chris: Baby, I think you need to relax, okay? She’s just trying to get her tip, probably.
Ellen: I have a tip for her, less foundation. Otherwise, there is a Greyhound bus leaving for vegas at 4:30. She could probably catch it if she hurries.
(The waitress returns and brings the food. She compliments Chris on his hat and asks about it. The waitress then says, “That is a bad-ass hat. It looks great on your by the way.” She then leaves and the following happens. )
Ellen: I… I don’t understand. I really honestly don’t understand it.
Chris: Don’t understand what?
Ellen: I don’t understand why she would think it is okay to keep talking to you like this.
Chris: What do you want me to say? “Don’t talk to me.”? I haven’t said a word.
Ellen: I hope you are spending every waking minute thinking about how you are going to make this up to me. Because right now, you are in so deep.
Chris: Wow, I really [bleeped] it up today, huh?
Ellen: Yeah, you really did
Chris: Now you want to ignore me.
Ellen: I just can’t believe this broad is sweating you like this at this table. Like, it is hysterical to me. Like, is she not expecting me to stab her? Because I could. (starts laughing) The blood can trickle down and she can lay there and the Los Feliz police can come and take her away. And the foundation can all smudge off cause the blood is dripping down.
Chris: Come on baby, stop it.
Ellen: Her eye makeup will be smeared all over the place. There will be lipstick all over the sidewalk where her face was pressed against the cement.
Chris: You are really starting to lose it. Stop it.
RIP John Spencer
Tuesday December 27, 2005 @ 12:12 pm by joecm
John Spencer (December 20, 1946 – December 16, 2005)
Just four days shy of his 59th birthday; John Spencer suffered a heart attack. It was eerily reminiscent of a storyline last season on the West Wing where his character suffered a heart attack and nearly died. Unfortunately, in life we don’t get to write the ending and sadly he has died.
Though he is probably most famous for his role as Leo McGarry on the West Wing, I remember him fondly from my childhood from two movies; Wargames and Hiding Out. Though the roles were small, he always stood out to me in those two movies.
His patriarchal role on the West Wing will not easily be filled. There is some speculation that NBC will be forced to recast his part since he has appeared in a scene three years in the future and is currently running for Vice President. I doubt they could find an actor who could capture the magic he brought to the role.
Rest in peace John Spencer, you will be missed. But you will live on in the characters that you so expertly brought to life.