Posts by Reverend Jim

It shows that the poster is currently online (hover over it for a pop-up)

I just noticed the little purple dot on the threads with a pop-up indicating "user is currently online". Have I been overlooking this for a while or is this a brand new feature? In any case, I like it.

There are a couple of things to try. I'm not using Windows 8 yet so I'm not sure where to find this (on Windows 7 it is under My Computer/Properties/Advanced/Environment Variables).

Make sure PATHEXT includes .VBS

In a command shell with admin rights, type

WSCRIPT //H:wscript //S

To set the default engine. You might also try right clicking on a VBS file and setting the default by using OPEN WITH and browsing for WSCRIPT.EXE.

I'd like to ask why <MICHAEL>'s last post was deleted. He expressed an opinion (a valid one if you ask me). It seems that the only reason it was deleted was out of fear of offending riahc3. There was no name calling. Every system has its foibles (or "personality" if you will). All problems are ranked on a scale from serious to not. The developers have some idea as to the effort required to fix each one. The effort is weighed against the annoyance factor and the perceived benefit. Then the problems are addressed in turn. This is how a business operates. If anyone finds that the existing problems are too annoying to live with then he/she is free to take their business elsewhere. As far as I can tell, that was the gist of <MICHAEL>'s post. I don't think it should have been deleted.

If you check here as well as a few other sources you will see that the modern version of Santa Claus is in fact an amalgam of many old myths/legends/possibly historic figures. Sorta like Robin Hood and Jesus.

My father was born in Canada but both his parents came from the Netherlands in the late 1800s. You are likely familiar with the old threat that bad boys and girls would get a lump of coal in their stockings. In Holland, bad children were told they would get a (not sure of the spelling) slaypee which was a dried turd on a string. Sheesh. At least you can burn coal to stay warm.

Do you recall some of the old ads that used Santa (the modern Coca Cola version) to sell cigarettes?

You could create a class level variable to use as a semaphore. Any thread could use it as follows:

wait until semaphore is available
set semaphore to this thread ID
call shared function
clear semaphore

You will also have to define EmployerID in the Employee table as a foreign key and you can define a contraint to ensure that it exists in the Employer table. How you do this depends on your DBMS. I use MS SQL but because my dev system is in for repairs I can't give you instructions on how to set this up at the moment.

You will also have to decide which fields are required and deselect the Allow NULLS option.

Please check the dates on threads before you post. This thread is more than four years old and your input is likely no longer needed.

I can't make a blanket statement without seeing the code. And, unfortunately, my main computer (with all the dev tools) is in the shop for a few days. All I have at the moment is a browser on an old laptop. I'd like to try a test with something similar to your code before making a suggestion so unless someone else steps in I hope you can wait a few days.

I would also imagine his problem is with security. His current connection string uses trusted security (based on the current logged in user). If the database is on another computer then the current security model will likely not allow the user to connect.

So, basically two problems.

Can you be more specific as to what kind of trouble you are having? If it is a connection problem related to security you may have to set up a database account with a userid and password and change your connection string to use those.

You'll have to add the EmployerID field to the Employee table in order to link the two tables. Also, what are the definitions of Firstname & Lastname as applied to an employer? For example, I used to work for Manitoba Hydro, which would be entered under CompanyName (which is not a required field???). No one person owns that company so what gets entered for Firstname/Lastname? Only Lastname is a required field. Firstname is not. Yet in the employee table only the ID is required which is pointless because an employee must have a name. You still have some thinking to do.

How is this in any way related to the original question which asked about a Yes/No status field?

You haven't posted the structure of the tables so a definitive answer isn't possible, however I suspect you haven't related the tables. Your Employer table will need at least two fields such as

Employer
EmployerID (identity)
EmployerName (varchar)

And the Employee table will need the same type of fields plus it must contain the field, EmployerID so that each EmployeeName record relates to a record in the Employer table. The EmployerID field in the Employer table will be either an integer (auto-increment) or a GUID value. In a real-world situation, EmployerName would actually be broken down into separate fields such as FirstName, MiddleName and LastName.

What happens if you supply the IP address as part of the server name? For example, on my regular computer my SQL Server instance is

JIM-PC\SQLEXPRESS

But I imagine (I can't verify this because my computer is in the shop) I could also use

\\192.168.1.104\SQLEXPRESS

I don't recall the show, but one character dissed the new-age beliefs of another and received a vigorous slap in return. He replied, "ah, yes. The sound of one hand clapping".

If certain parties had their way that would be the accepted theory on how all rabbits came to be (only with a much more ancient magician).

And the more devious "God is on our side".

As for GM foods, my biggest problem is that the companies that make them are blocking legislation (and lying and breaking the law while doing it) that would require nutrition/content labels to identify products with GM content. Whether they cause cancer or other problems (or not), I want to know so I can decide for myself whether to buy or not.

World famous lies? Hardly. Try

• It's the Jews' fault (Hitler)
• There are WMDs in Iraq (Bush)
• Katrina was the fault of the gays and lesbians (Pat Robertson)
• Trickle down economics works (Reagan)
• Trees cause more pollution than cars (Reagan)
• You could store the yearly waste from a nuclear reactor under your desk (Reagan)

Now those are world class lies. And, yes, Regan was some piece of work.

I think the question makes about as much sense as "what is the sound of one hand clapping". It is supposed to be profound but it's actually just nonsense.

@diafol - where the US is headed

At the time it was a black/white thing but intolerance of all kinds runs deep.

I'm not sure why you need to call UpdateUI at all. What do you mean by

we need to update some datam every milli second

even if the UI needs to be refreshed (and I'm not convinced it does), five times a second is overkill.

Thanks for the feedback. I'd just like to point out that it's a good idea to check the dates on threads. This one is two years old and likely has been long since resolved or abandoned.

Religion and politics. They both divide people into "us" and "them" camps. And once you do that it is almost impossible to use reason. Any attempt to use logic and facts to refute an opinion or belief just strengthens the tribal bonds.

But I'm getting off the thread topic. Apologies.

Some people claim that all religion is a threat to society.

Clearly, any mention of banning certain weapons brings the expected response from those taking a specific interpretion of the second amendment. I am assuming that these people would agree that allowing private citizens to possess and freely carry stinger missiles and grenade launchers would be outside the second amendment guidelines and clearly not in the public interest. Given that, where would they agree is a reasonable place to draw the line between the public's right to safety and the public's right to bear arms?

Just about anything involving the phrase "mutual funds" when spoken by a financial advisor.

@TnTinMN - Just curious - is their an advantage to doing this rather than using My.Settings?

I don't think you should be allowed to use that particular avatar until you have had a job that required supporting end-users (or working with engineers).

@diafol - I realize the petition numbers are small (even if you include Chuck Norris) but it is interesting that they are all in financially have-not states.

It's not you. It's me.

I'm hoping Obama grows a pair soon. With the GOP steadily morphing into the Monster Raving Looney Party and their base (older heterosexual white male Christians) shrinking daily, I expect the Republicans (as they are now) will have even less influence in four years (barring further electoral fraud). Has anyone noticed that all of the states that have "threatened" to secede are red states that get back more in federal aid than they pay in taxes? Seems kind of ironic considering the GOP is against entitlements (except for the rich and corporations).

I'm thinking they don't have the correct version of the dotnet framework installed.

You could try this for starters.

The Coen's at their finest.

The solution to the gun problem is more guns.

The boss from Office Space.

@Michael - Colossus is the US supercomputer built to take over the defense of the country. It is self repairing and once turned on cannot be turned off. Unknown to the US, the Russians enable their version named Guardian. Colossus and Guardian link up, then Guardian is subsumed by Colossus who now has the combined missile power of both countries to enforce its will.

Colossus, from the Forbin Project.

There's a movie I haven't seen in years. One of a few that actually followed the book reasonably well. The book (three, actually) are classics in the genre (by D. F. Jones). I recommend them if you can find them. They are:

1. Colossus
2. The Fall of Colossus
3. Colossus and the Crab

The movie leaves out a lot of the book.

I don't, however, I've never used VB 2003 and I am not familiar with UpdateUI. Is that a system call, or is it a call to a Sub that you have written? I'm not a fan of loops like this. It goes against the intent of event driven programming.

All you need to distribute is that file

That is not necessarily the case. If you are creating a console app then probably. Otherwise, you have to distribute the entire folder. And that may not be enough. It depends on the infrastructure already in place on the target PC. It may be missing components (current runtime files, etc). You'll likely have to create an install file.

Probably because they don't have to create anything. All they have to do is criticize the work of others. Sort of like film critics who seem to feel as if they are failing at their jobs if they don't have something negative to say.

But I'm not bitter.

I had to deal with the QA people at the office who had no idea how to do what my group did but still managed to form completely uneducated opinions about how we should be doing it.

Also from Sinterklaas (Netherlands)

It. Laughable show but great performance (as always) by Tim Curry

I don't know what happens when you try to modify the control from another thread. I'm without my dev system at the moment, again (back in the shop for the second time in two months) so I can't play around with it. Also, because I don't have your version of VB I really can't try anything out here.

Normally (with just the main thread) you can access a control's properties directly as in

lblStatus.Text = "online"

however, if you are trying to access the control from another thread you must use a delegate. So what I do is wrap the code in a sub such as

Private Sub UpdateStatus (text As String)

    If lblStatus.InvokeRequired Then
        Dim dlg As New dlgUpdateStatus(AddressOf UpdateStatus)
        Me.Invoke(dlg, text)
    Else
        lblStatus.Text = TimeOfDay & " " & txtAddress.Text & " is " & text
    End If

End Sub

The InvokeRequired method returns True if you are trying to access the control from another thread. In that case you use the delegate which I define at the Class level as

Private Delegate Sub dlgUpdateStatus(text As String)

I do not know if InvokeRequired is available in VB 2003.

it's important to note this is not a Microsoft failure, and instead a change in direction

Semantics. Just like saying "it's not a problem, it's an opportunity" or "it's not a bug, it's a feature". When you remove features that most customers want then I classify that as a failure. Especially when MS could have easily give us a choice of

1. do you want Metro or Desktop as your default environment
2. do you want a start button type menu

The interface that is being forced down our collective throats is geared toward tablet (ie content consumer) users while MS thumbs their noses at the many content producers. My former place of business has several thousand desktop computers. These will never be upgraded to Windows 8 until MS allows the above choices.

the OS lacks serious bugs

Every OS has serious bug. Windows 8 just hasn't been around long enough for the bugs to surface. Windows 7 was supposed to be "relatively bug free". I just installed service pack one and had to watch as over 40,000 updates were applied.

Reading the news, checking the mail, and getting the weather are great improvements for the Metro interface

These three tasks occupy less than 1% of my daily computer use. MS put a lot of effort into supposedly improving performance in such a small area. That isn't my definition of smarter computing. As for my former place of business, if those employees spent a great …

I got another call back from Dell. They now want the entire laptop back. I hope they do a better job this time. This is the first time in five years I have had a problem with their repair service.

On a related note, have you considered that recipes don't "scale up" easily when it comes to things like cooking times?

What do you mean by "the MySql command is being skipped"? Please remove the TRY/CATCH/FINALLY/END TRY statements and post the exact text of the error message that is displayed. Your MsgBox which displays only "ERROR" is useless for debugging. It would also greatly help if you were to post the resulting SQL commandUpdate text.

I'm using the 90W adapter that came with the laptop. I just spoke to Dell and they are sending a replacement (which they should have done while it was in the shop).