Posts by samaru

No problem. Sounds like it would be easy getting the certification... sounds like it anyways, I never really took a sample test. I looked at some questions from a workbook and they were HTML/CSS questions.

It'll hurt my wallet. :P But it will pay off in a way. They did a hell of a lot of changes in the new version of CF, now being Java based. Macromedia also has certification for Dreamweaver and Flash, which would be neat to take.

Good job man! Congrats. I'm still waiting some time until I take the new ColdFusion MX Certification exam. I was going to take the ColdFusion5 exam this past summer, but I found out they were going to discontinue the certification and replace it with a new one starting Jan 1, 2003. They are also changing the format of the exam, and now it's even longer. Oh well. After that I plan on taking the Java Certification exam from Sun, which I heard was a pain on both ass cheeks. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck on your next exam!

Well for a lot of reasons. This question reminds me of myself and my old high school mentality. I would ask myself, "If C++ has one of the fastest execution times, why would any company use anything else? Anything else (like VB, COBOL, Delphi) would be slower." This was bad thinking. But it was ok though. I didn't know much about real world programming or the business world.

If I'm your boss and I tell you to make an application that generates invoices, and be meticulous on the GUI portion, what would you use? Oh yeah, and I told you that I need it tomorrow morning. Would you use Assembly? Visual C++? Visual Basic? I think we know the answer to that. Rapid software development matters. Execution time is not always an issue. It does matter, and it should, but creating the whole application in Visual C++ would not be worth it for just gaining some performance time. Well, not for this specific application. You could if you wanted create libraries in C++ that would handle any load processing from Visual Basic. But you get the idea.

Also, what if you were under a Unix/Linux OS? Could you use VB? Nope. You'd be limited to the tools available under Unix/Linux (which are a lot by the way).

The same issue applies to web languages. Rapid software development could be an issue. In this case we could use ColdFusion. But ColdFusion costs money... so then the current budget …

Glad you agree. I don't think though your test on which one (JDBC or ODBC) was faster was fair however. Where you testing the speed of the database APIs or the forums? Classic ASPs are interpreted and JSPs are turned to servlets and are compiled, so they (JSPs) would most of the time run faster than interpreted ASP pages.

It really depends on what database and operating system you're using. Microsoft tends to surround their products around ODBC which makes it easy for programming languages (especially VB, VC++, ASP) to access many databases including excel spreadsheets, even text files. Instead of you knowing how to interface with all these forms of databases, you communicate with only ODBC (from whatever language you're using) and ODBC handles the rest.

If you're using something like ASP, VB, VC++, classes and already-to-use tools exist within the language/IDE that makes connecting to a ODBC a snap. It's Microsoft, so it should already be included. On the other hand, if it's something like Perl, PHP, or even Java, you have to install classes or modules to connect to ODBC (unless you know the language well enough to code it yourself, but you'd rather download code that's been tried and tested).

Not all languages encourage ODBC, but a lot of them support it one way or another. For example, Java uses JDBC for databases. If you want to connect to an ODBC data source (database) then you'd have to go through JDBC to get to ODBC.

As far as being more powerful I can't honestly say so because I haven't worked with anything else under a Windows platform. A lot of my data sources are from Microsoft (SQL Server, Access database). I'm using Oracle right now for a project and I connect through JDBC. From what I've heard about ODBC is that it's …

Here's how to connect to an Access database file directly, without setting a DSN:

If the database file is in the same directory as the ASP page:

<% 
Set demoConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
demoFilePath = Server.MapPath("yourdatabase.mdb")
demoConn.Open "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=" & demoFilePath & ";" 
%>

Where "yourdatabase.mdb" is the name of your Access database file.

If your database is in another directory:

<% 
Set demoConn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
'this is the line to change
demoFilePath = "E:\database\yourdatabase.mdb"
demoConn.Open "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=" & demoFilePath & ";"
%> 

Where "E:\database\yourdatabase.mdb" is the obsolute path to your Access database.

Well, if you want to connect to Access database through something like Visual Basic or ASP, it's good to setup an ODBC connection. First you have to establish a DSN, preferably a System DSN. You do this by the following:

System DSN

1. go to the control panel
2. click on "Data Sources (ODBC)" - If you have Win2k, go to Administrative tools, click on "Data Sources (ODBC)"
3. A window "ODBC DataSource Administrator" will show up. Click on the "System DSN" tab.
4. Click on the "Add" button. A new window that says "Create New Data Source" will pop up.
5. Because you said you wanted to use an Access database, then look for "Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)"
6. Click finish once selected.
7. A new window will pop. "ODBC Microsoft Access Setup"
8. Pick a name for "Data Source Name." Try not to use spaces in your name. Give a description if you want.
9. After selecting a name, click on the "Select..." in the Database part of the window. Now choose your Access file.
10. After you've selected the database, hit ok.

And that's all folks. Hit Ok in the "ODBC DataSource Administrator" window. There's more options in how you set it up, but I'll let you figure it out.

Theoretically you don't need to go through ODBC. You can access the database file directly. If you need code for that, or further explanation, let me know.

Hey. Thanks.

Well, there's a lot to explain here, and it's difficult to do so without screenshots. It's quicker if you visit a few sites on "connecting visual basic to a database." Check out the following. If you need any help, just post another question.

http://www.dutchthewiz.com/vb/db/
http://www.developerfusion.com/show/10/

In most cases, if you have a database such as SQL Server or Access, it's better to go through ODBC then access it directly (for Access). If you need help with that, let me know. :)

Good feedback. Thanks! I wasn't sure about it. If it came to a commercial solution, and cost was a strong issue, I'd only consider MySQL or PostgreSQL. Of course I'd rather prefer Oracle or SQL Server, but those are just a tad costly. ;)

Do you know of any other good database servers? If you do, do share. Thanks again.

It will be a cold day in hell the day I turn to the other side of the force. :P

I just read about this. New free enterprise db server that has many features that other free dbs don't offer. It's compatible with a lot of OS's. Definitely something to try out.

http://www.sapdb.org/

That's not a quote, is it? Hehe. Here are two others:

Nobody's perfect. I am nobody. Therefore I am perfect.

Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Not lifting weights doesn't kill me. Therefore not lifting weights makes me stronger.

That reminds me of some of good quotes:

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
--H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
--Bill Gates, 1981

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
--Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
--Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
--Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would payfor a message sent to nobody in particular?"
--David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

http://www.kartoo.com/

What's the problem?

http://www.kf.ee/flash/xiaoxiao.shtml

http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/236217&mode=thread&tid=145

Yes. Available but the source code is not open like PHP. Only thing that comes close is the Mono project, from what I know anyways. I just wish someone in the Linux community made an IDE for PHP/Perl/Python as awesome as Visual Studio. In this area(IDEs), in my opinion, is where Microsoft always wins hands down.

Try/Catch blocks, Private, Public, Protected variables/functions, and more. Import functions through namespaces....finally! This language is reminding me more of C++.

Read more about it here:
http://www.phpvolcano.com/articles/php5/index.php

The Next Wave: "Visual Studio for Yukon"

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/roadmap.asp#section4

I was going to say the same with you! LOL! :P

Yes, I think this post is very important. A while back someone from work deleted some of the posts I had on a forum I created in PHP. A stupid mistake I made a while back. But hey, that's how we learn... from our mistakes. :)

This is a very important issue to consider when you're using form/url variables in databases. A user can cleverly put in SQL statements and manipulate your db server as he sees fit if you don't take the necessary precautions. I get the feeling that there are several people that aren't aware of this when they develop their apps. I crashed a page from jumptheshark.com a while back doing this and I e-mailed them about their bug. They seemed to fix it the next day but I never got a thank you! :D

If expecting integer, on a script, check if it's of type int, and check if it's within boundary of integer - if it's expecting numbers from 1-20, then just make it within this boundary, if larger or less than this boundary, take necessary action.

Also check that your integers/reals that your script is expecting from the user are less/greater than than large integer/reals or whatever the max/min of the language you're using... sometimes a big or small enough number can cause the page to crash. For example, if you define something expecting an integer, and a user manually puts in 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 it can cause unexpected results.

Strings - if its a value from a list box or pull down menu, error check for those values in the script... if anything else, take necessary action. If it's a string the user has to put in, check if the first chars are: ' or " or ; - (If the …

You ever use Perl? What are you thoughts? How does it compete with newer languages? Can it be used for the enterprise arena?

Not found. If this is a plug that's not relevant to this site, I suggest you go elsewhere. Thanks.

That "guest" post above was me again. :shock:

Good news (if anyone cared, lol). Microsoft has fixed this problem in SP3. Took them long enough. :)

Whoops. I meant out of the scope, not within the scope.

Hey guys. I came across this just recently, but I'm not sure if you guys are aware of it. It crashes csrss.exe (thus W2K, NT, XP) through the command console. I tried writing the same program in Perl, and it did in fact crash my system. I did not see a BSOD, just automatically froze for a millisecond then rebooted. <br /><br /># The Perl code was very simple:<br /><br />while($x=1) {<br /> print "testing\t\b\b\b\b\b\b\b";<br />}<br /><br />csrss.exe seems to have a problem handling many backspaces after a tab when being displayed in the command console. As this loops infinitely, it tries to access memory within the scope of this string value, and causes csrss.exe to crash. Any programming language that has access to the command console, and execute programs, can do this. As long as it is displayed, it will crash, so even a text file in the console will do so. There are some instances when the bug will not be replicated. For more info check out the following.<br /><br />http://homepages.tesco.net/~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/csrss-backspace-bug.html<br /><br />http://www.zappadoodle.com

I just think it should be taken out because it doesn't receive as many posts as other sections. It's kind of pointless if we have a section where it receives hardly any posts... at this point anyways. I still like the idea, but I don't think it's worth it when the sections receive about three posts a month.

By the way, Aeinstein, do you work for Cablevision? :P

Do you guys think we should take out the Links Section for each topic? Not too many people post in them (besides me) unless for a few replies, so I think we should combine them with the other sections. What do you guys think?

Hey guys. Wondering what your all time favorite games are for any console. Here are my favs:

NES: Megaman Series (especially Megaman III), Zelda, SuperMario 3, Castlevania 3

SNES: Secret of Mana, Zelda (Link to the Past), Sim City, SuperMario Kart, StreetFighter II, Starfox, Megaman Series

Of course these are not current games, but I got more enjoyment out of these games than I ever got from any other current game... well, except "Diablo II Lord of Destruction" for the PC and StreetFighter Alpha III for the Playstation.

I'd like to hear your list of fav games.

Remember when you showed me an app you were working on? I think it was a db of people you knew or something. Anyways, what was on the heading part? I remember there was a humongous string value that seemed encrypted... What was that? It seemed to be there for no reason.

Oh really? Yeah, but a lot of features are missing I hear (there would have to be). Not to mention all the other external tools that Studio comes with and documentation. Definitely looks like a handy tool though. Going to definitely try it out.

This is a nice free tool that Microsoft released to help out ASP.net Web Developers. It's a WYSIWYG development tool that kind of looks like Visual InterDev/Visual Basic.

From Microsoft's site:
http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/default.aspx?tabindex=4&tabid=46

An article from "The Register"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25898.html

This better not destroy my computer. I've had to reformat my computer after the first times I installed each service pack (1 & 2). Not fun. :)

You can go two ways: using the command "mysqldump" which generates a text file of sql commands that would generate your current database. This is what I think you're doing now. The other way is to just copy the database directly. You might want to do this, but I don't know if you'd have access to the database files. Are you afraid that the backup file will not work correctly when restoring? You should try (if you haven't done so) set up some sort of schedule so it backs up the db once in a while.

Thanks. Glad you guys liked the look. The layout still needs a tad more work. Dani and I will get together sometime to update it. Oh, and about the quote "Where cool techies unite," somehow I came up with that right away. I did a search for it on Google but couldn't find a match, so I went with it. It's super schweet. ;)

Looks like NEAT turned out to be a MESS. :)

A little late for a compliment, don't you think? I'll take it anyways! ;)

http://associates.amazon.com/exec/panama/associates/join/developer/faq.html/103-8950212-6803811

That blanket rules. I could carry around that blanket everywhere like Linus.

Thinkgeek rules. They have some funny stuff. I don't think I could force myself to wear any of their t-shirts though... not my style. 8)

Everyone knows that usually every Perl program should start with something along the lines of "#!/usr/bin/perl" ... what's often called as "shebang." Anyone know why? I just read this cute post on google...

The exclamation point has been nicknamed "bang" for as long as I can remember. (Back in the uucp days, you would give an email address as "machine1, bang, machine2, bang, machine3, bang..." for "machine1! machine2!machine3!...")

The "#" sign has a knickname of "sharp" (The "#" is used in sheet music to mark "sharp" notes. In the old AT&T Unix, the default INTRUPT key was defined as the "sharp". I imagine that "sharp-bang" was shorted to "shebang" in later years. Shebang is a slang American expression which means the organization or "the works" as in "the whole shebang". qazwart@my-deja.com (qazwart@my-deja.com)

If anyone knows anything more, let me know. =)

Hmm... yeah, no one responded. I guess they don't like video games. Either that or they can't read. ;)

I wish they brought back the series Street Fighter again. It's not as popular as it used to be. I used to dominate in Street Fighter Alpha III... and of course.... ahem.... Super Mario Kart. :D

Anyone? I was a big fan of the second one...

http://builder.com.com/article.jhtml?id=u00320020624gcn01.htm

From article:

[ When to use MySQL]

Why would you use MySQL over PostgreSQL? First, we need to consider the needs of the applications in terms of database requirements. If I want to create a Web application and performance is an issue, MySQL will be my choice because its fast and designed to work well with Web-based servers. However, if I want to create another application that demands transactions and foreign key references, PostgreSQL is the choice.

As an open source developer, I work with both databases on a regular basis, and I typically use all the features of a given database in the design and development process. It wouldnt suffice for me to use PostgreSQL for a database-driven Web site when my application requires performance.

Even though MySQL is not fully compliant with the ANSI SQL standard, I should mention that, while PostgreSQL is closer to the ANSI SQL standard, MySQL is closer to the ODBC standard.

Let me suggest some reasons for using MySQL over PostgreSQL:

MySQL is relatively faster than PostgreSQL.
Database design will be simpler.
You can create a basic Web-driven Web site.
MySQLs replication has been thoroughly tested.
Theres no need for cleanups in MySQL (Vacuum).

[ When to use PostgreSQL ]

Not many Web developers use PostgreSQL because they feel that the additional features degrade performance. The article "Many Web developers prefer MySQL" offers a glimpse …

Check out what it claims to do... nifty. Requirements seem to be a bit high though.

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/proom/pr/2002/flash_com_mx.html

Builder.com made a survey about web technologies. Which are used the most/least. Very interesting. It's based out of 557 people. Here's what it covers:

General Technology Skills covered things not necessarily tied to a particular technology or vendor: e.g., XML, database design, and Web services.

Programming Languages included a collection of 13 programming languages and technologies like Java, Visual Basic, and COM.

Web Development covered languages associated with Web application development: e.g., ASP, Flash, and PHP.

Databases included the results for each of the different database systems we asked you to rate yourself on.

http://builder.com.com/article.jhtml?id=u00320021009adm01.htm&page=1

I once saw a magazine called "Kool Beans" at Tower Records. ;)