SQL Server 2005 to be launched the week of November 7
"Paul Flessner, Senior Vice President at Microsoft, announced this morning in his Tech.Ed keynote that SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 will launch the week of November 7."
Very cool... Not quite at PDC, but pretty close.
I expect we'll get RC's at PDC...?
Reading the access Db remarks & Field type . on Developer Newsgroups
Dim DatabaseConnection As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection
Dim SchemaTable As DataTable
DatabaseConnection.ConnectionString = 'Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;' & _
'Data Source=E:\My Documents\db1.mdb'
DatabaseConnection.Open()
SchemaTable = DatabaseConnection.GetOleDbSchemaTable(System.Data.OleDb.OleDbSchemaGuid.Columns, _
New Object() {Nothing, Nothing, 'PutTheTableNameHere'})
Dim RowCount As Int32
For RowCount = 0 To SchemaTable.Rows.Count - 1
Console.WriteLine(SchemaTable.Rows(RowCount)!COLUMN_NAME.ToString)
Next RowCount
'Shows what information is available
DataGrid1.DataSource = SchemaTable
DatabaseConnection.Close()
Code leached to avoid losing it in the future (since it was posted to a forum/news group). All rights retained by the original author, etc, etc, etc...
Using GetOleDbSchemaTable is not the easiest thing in the world, so I wanted to capture this...
Past Post XRef:
MS Access System Information via OleDbCommand.GetOleDbSchemaTable
CodeGuru: Compression Classes Enhance I/O in .NET 2.0
"... Specifically, it demonstrates reading and writing compressed data with the new System.IO.Compression namespace.
The System.IO.Compression namespace introduces a series of classes that provide compression and decompression capabilities. The classes exhibit similar behaviors and characteristics, but the compression classes operate against streams. To my knowledge, the .NET Framework 2.0 will include two algorithms for compression/decompression: Deflate and GZip.
..."
Another short posting about the new System.IO.Compression namespace.
In my mind, I'm still balancing the space saving of file compression verses convenience/performance.
I deal with millions of files or file fragments (email bodies in RTF/Plain text, etc), so saving a little file/db space can make a huge difference. BUT it is very nice to be able to see these files/fragments in their native form with first uncompressing them (for QC/troubleshooting/etc).
Right now space is not a major issue. Performance (in-out throughput actually) is king. Network performance is also not a major issue, so compressed bits on the wire is not all that attractive.
Also there are actions that require the uncompressed file/fragment (full text indexing, exporting, etc).
Now if I could get my primary consumer to accept compressed files (but then again, that system would have to decompress them for indexing, delivery, etc) so it's not likely.
Looks like I've talked myself out of it (for now). :/
Past Post XRef:
System.IO.Compression (.Net 2.0)
zVarchar example [SQL Server 2K5 .Net UDT]
Paul Stubbs : Announcing VSTO 2005 for Outlook 2003
"Today during Steve Ballmer's keynote speech he announced VSTO for Outlook. Now in addition to Word and Excel, you can create Outlook add-ins using VSTO 2005 for Office 2003. VSTO will create managed add-ins for Outlook that will appear to Outlook as a COM add-in. VSTO for Outlook also fixes some of the problems associated with managed add-ins for Outlook. You no longer need a COM Shim or worry about the shutdown bug. ..."
Very nice. This will make Outlook developer's lives much easier...
Blogs.RegexAdvice.com - smells like community spirit
"http://blogs.regexadvice.com/ is really starting to pick up. I haven't posted there a lot myself, but looking at the latest batch of posts - people are really investing time and effort into writing useful stuff. And it's all regex centric.
As worthy of a community, there's even a big debate going on right now as to whether one should even use Regex to validate things such as email address or dates. You'd be surprised as to what the 'gurus' think.
So - if you're at all interested in Regular expressions, much like SqlTeam.com weblogs is a great place for internal-hardcore data, so is http://blogs.regexadvice.com/ *starting* to be.
..."
Since I seem to be in a RegEx mode, http://blogs.regexadvice.com/ is a site I might need someday.
The Code Project - Regular Expression Library Builder - C# Programming
Brian Delahunty, the author of the cool Regular Expression Library Builder has just posted an article on Code Project about it, which also includes the source...
Very cool...
(Source code always makes me a happy camper... not that I usually do anything with it, but still it is SO nice to have, just in case)
Past Post XRef:
Regular Expression Library Builder
WordNet - Princeton University Cognitive Science Laboratory
"WordNet is an online lexical reference system whose design is inspired by current psycholinguistic theories of human lexical memory. English nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are organized into synonym sets, each representing one underlying lexical concept. Different relations link the synonym sets. ..."
There must be some way I can use this...
(via .NET Undocumented - Semantic Web and Ontologies)
Regular Expression Library Builder
"Regular Expressions are an immensely powerful tool in a developer's arsenal and the flavour of regexs and the classes surrounding them that are available in the .NET Framework is, in my humble opinion, excellent. One of the most useful methods of all the methods available on all the types in the System.Text.RegularExpressions namespace is the static CompileToAssembly method of the Regex class.
The CompileToAssembly method allows you to compile a regex to a standalone assembly ...
...
The solution: a "Regular Expression Library". CompileToAssembly came to my rescue. I wrote a tool to quickly allow me to easily add multiple regular expressions to a "Regular Expression Library". I can create new libraries, load and modify existing ones, quickly add, remove, modify regular expressions and then redistribute the "Regular Expression Library" assembly via an auto-update to the application. The "parent" application can get new über-efficient regular expressions and continue working without any user intervention.
...
The RegexLibrary builder allows you to:
..."
Now that sounds pretty darn cool. I like the whole comple to assembly idea. I can see using it in just the way described above...
Downloaded.
How To Save Money and Stop Cat Urine Odor
"Save Money - Stop Household Damage With Solutions That Eliminate Cat Urine Odor
The Cat Urine Odor Advisor helps you save money and stop the damage in your household by offering solutions that work together to eliminate cat urine odor from your home.
If you're a cat owner like me, you need to have a clean-smelling home. Even the most well behaved cat may have an accident from time to time. On the other hand, if you're frustrated by your kitty's chronic litter box problem like I was with my kitty, Scout, then I have answers and solutions for you.
You won't have to take time away work and your family to take kitty to vet, trying to figure out what's wrong with her.
You'll be happier, because the cat urine odor is gone. Your family will also be happier, since there won't be any more tension over kitty's toilet habits, and your time will be freed up to enjoy your feline and family again. ..."
This is an all around cat owner cool, must have bookmarked, kind of site.
From cleaning tips, to little box info, to food, to using Law and Order like black lights to hunt for the "evidence", to cat anxiety (with tips on where to purchase car downers...lol) information.
If you have a good cat, or kitty from hell, I'll bet there is info here you'll need sooner or later.
15 Seconds : Reading and Writing XML in .NET Version 2.0 - Part 1
"...In this series of three articles, we'll look in detail at how the new features of the XmlReader and XmlWriter classes in version 2.0 of the .NET Framework can be used to read and write XML documents, and interact with the new XML document store objects. This includes:
The new 'settings' classes and static Create methods for XmlReader and XmlWriter
Creating and using an XmlReader to read and validate XML documents and fragments
Two of the useful new features of the XmlReader class
Creating and using an XmlWriter to write XML documents and fragments
Some useful new features of the XmlWriter class
How the XmlReader and XmlWriter can be used with the XmlDocument class
Some of the useful new features of the XmlDocument class
Along the way, we'll look into the issues involved in using the new classes, the reasoning behind the changes, and how the new features simplify your code and provide better overall efficiency for your applications. This first article concentrates on the XmlReader class, and how the new XmlReaderSettings class makes it easy to create XmlReader instances with specific properties such as validation and access control for use in your applications. ..."
Also see Part 2 here.
The need for effecient reading and writing, both from a coding and performance point of view, of XML is only going to grow (yeah I know... "Well DUGH Greg..."). Given all the news on Office 12's new file formats, going to grow big time.
Runaway Bride: The Official Portrait - June 2, 2005
Wow, talk about "deer in the headlights"...
I'm glad she's paying for her actions, but also glad she doesn't have to do jail time. Also I'm happy this story is now over. (please, please, please...)
Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News
"Taipei - Fast alternatives to traditional harddrive storage have been a trend that especially resulted in Flash-based drives. Gigabyte showed at this year's Computex an even speedier device: A RAM disk with up to 4 GByte capacity and a battery to protect content when a PC is shut down.
... The RAM disk will be shipping in the third quarter of this year and will carry a price tag of about $80. "
Sahil's right, this could be awesome. I'd easily put down $80 for this... Think about putting your page file on this? Or, like the article says, even Windows itself? (Yeah, I'm not all that sure that I'd put Windows there, but Page Fale and TEMP? Oh yeah, no question).
I'd even pony up for the SATA controler, since I don't have one, just so I could get this... Won't every game machine need one of these? ;)
(via Sahil Malik [MVP C#]- Now THATS AWESOME !!!)
Rocketboom
Rocketboom just kills me. Today's was great, with an over the top weather report.
Glad no one was in the office to hear me laughing (it was a little extreme :)
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