Knowledge Gain: May 2008

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Hyper Terminal + USB to Serial on Vista

Most of you must be aware that Windows Vista lacks the Hyper Terminal even in the Ultimate Edition! also. I was really frustrated with a laptop with no COM port and Windows Vista that doesn’t have the Terminal Software. I was sure that there must be third-party software out there which will do the job, but will I really give up the trusty Terminal Services Client that I was so much used to?

I copied Hyper Terminal Software from a Windows XP SP2 machine, its easy to find via the Open Target Location option of the short-cut properties window. However when tried to start the copied program, the system complained about a missing hypertrm.dll file, which was again easy to find from the System32 folder of the XP system and copied it over to the System32 folder of the Vista system. I tried to open it again, wow…that’s more like it…it was working.

And then since my laptop did not have a built-in COM port, I used a USB to DB9 cable which used to self-install drivers like ‘magic’ in XP. Since my USB to DB9 cable didn’t have any logo, trademark,etc it was a little difficult to find a good working driver, however I stumbled upon a fortune cookie and soon I was configuring my Router!

Here is the Hyper Terminal + DLL file zipped.
And here are the USB to DB9 drivers for Vista 32-bit again zipped.
In case you need it here is the link which I downloaded the drivers, I think it might be handy since its got various other versions of the driver for various platforms.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Mac OS X: About the Archive and Install feature

Available in Mac OS X 10.2 and later, an Archive and Install installation automatically moves existing system files to a folder named Previous System, then installs Mac OS X again. You cannot start up your computer using a Previous System folder, nor can you "re-bless" the Previous System folder.

You can choose to preserve your user and network settings before installing. This option automatically moves existing users, Home directories, and network settings. This also skips the Setup Assistant after installation.

Note: Because the "Preserve user and network settings" option moves, not copies, existing users, Home directories, and network settings, from the Previous Systems folder to the newly installed System, these items will not exist in the Previous Systems folder after the Archive and Install is complete.

If Mac OS X is not already present, you cannot select Archive and Install. You must Install or Erase and Install instead.

Step by Step instruction manual for you....

Install Mac OS X 10.5 on an Intel Pentium 4

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

connection string for Excel database in .net

MS Excel OLEDB connection strings

Standard Security:

"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=\"{0}\";User ID=;

Password=;Extended Properties=\"Excel 8.0;HDR=YES\";";

connection string for Oracle database in .net

Oracle ODBC connection strings

Open connection to Oracle database using ODBC
"Driver= {Microsoft
ODBCforOracle};Server=Your_Oracle_Server.world;Uid=Your_Username;Pwd=Your_Password;"

Oracle OLE DB & OleDbConnection (.NET framework) connection strings
Open connection to Oracle database with standard security:
1. "Provider=MSDAORA;Data Source=
Your_Oracle_Database;UserId=Your_Username;Password=Your_Password;"
2. "Provider=
OraOLEDB.Oracle;Your_Oracle_Database;UserId=Your_Username;Password=Your_Password;"

Open trusted connection to Oracle database
"Provider=
OraOLEDB.Oracle;DataSource=Your_Oracle_Database;OSAuthent=1;"

connection string for MS SQL Server database in .net

SQL ODBC connection strings

Standard Security:
"Driver={SQLServer};Server=Your_Server_Name;Database=Your_Database_Name;
Uid=Your_Username;Pwd=Your_Password;"

Trusted connection:
"Driver={SQLServer};Server=Your_Server_Name;Database=Your_Database_Name;
Trusted_Connection=yes;"

SQL OLE DB connection strings

Standard Security:
"Provider=SQLOLEDB;Data Source=Your_Server_Name;Initial Catalog=
Your_Database_Name;UserId=Your_Username;Password=Your_Password;"

Trusted connection:
"Provider=SQLOLEDB;Data Source=Your_Server_Name;Initial
Catalog=Your_Database_Name;Integrated Security=SSPI;"

SQL OleDbConnection .NET strings

Standard Security:
1. "Data Source=Your_Server_Name;Initial Catalog=
Your_Database_Name;UserId=Your_Username;Password=Your_Password;" <>2.
"Server=Your_Server_Name;Database=Your_Database_Name;UserID=Your_Username;
Password=Your_Password;Trusted_Connection=False"

Trusted connection:
1. "Data Source=Your_Server_Name;Initial
Catalog=Your_Database_Name;Integrated Security=SSPI;"
2."Server=Your_Server_Name;Database=Your_Database_Name;Trusted_Connection=True;"

connection string for Access database in .net

MS Access ODBC connection strings

Standard Security:
"Driver={MicrosoftAccessDriver(*.mdb)};DBQ=C:\App1\Your_Database_Name.mdb;
Uid=Your_Username;Pwd=Your_Password;"

Workgroup:
"Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};
Dbq=C:\App1\Your_Database_Name.mdb; SystemDB=C:\App1\Your_Database_Name.mdw;"

Exclusive:
"Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};
DBQ=C:\App1\Your_Database_Name.mdb; Exclusive=1; Uid=Your_Username; Pwd=Your_Password;"

MS Access OLE DB & OleDbConnection (.NET framework) connection strings
Open connection to Access database:
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data
Source=c:\App1\Your_Database_Name.mdb; User Id=admin; Password="

Open connection to Access database using Workgroup (System database):
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data
Source=c:\App1\Your_Database_Name.mdb; Jet OLEDB:System
Database=c:\App1\Your_System_Database_Name.mdw"

Open connection to password protected Access database:
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data
Source=c:\App1\Your_Database_Name.mdb; Jet OLEDB:Database Password=Your_Password"

Open connection to Access database located on a network share:
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data
Source=\\Server_Name\Share_Name\Share_Path\Your_Database_Name.mdb"

Open connection to Access database located on a remote server:
"Provider=MS Remote; Remote Server=http://Your-Remote-Server-IP; Remote
Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data
Source=c:\App1\Your_Database_Name.mdb"

Monday, May 19, 2008

Play Video Files in your Site

Include Flash player in your application folder. Include this code with in embed tag.

src="flvplayer.swf" bgcolor="#00aabb" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" play="true" loop="false" quality="high" flashvars="file=http://localhost:1252/sample/video/BILLA_2007_AJITH_CNN-IBN_VIDEO.flv
&image=http://localhost:1252/sample/video/BILLA_2007_AJITH_CNN-IBN_VIDEO.flv
&showdigits=true&autostart=false&showfsbutton=true&
fullscreenpage=fullscreenplayer.html" height="200" width="300"

File Generation

It's going to generate a text file and save it in the similar to CSV format.

Code In-Line:

try
{
string FileName = "D:\\IENFeed_" + System.DateTime.Today.ToShortDateString().Replace("/", "-") + "_" + System.DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString().Replace(":", "-").Replace(".", "-") + ".txt";
FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(FileName);
StreamWriter swr = new StreamWriter(fi.FullName);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.Append(len("",9),0,9);
sb.Append(len(txtName.Text, 26), 0, 26);
sb.Append(len(txtTitle.Text, 20), 0, 20);
sb.Append(len(txtCompany.Text, 26), 0, 26);
sb.Append(len(txtDivision.Text, 26), 0, 26);
sb.Append(len(txtDept.Text, 20), 0, 20);
sb.Append(len(txtBPB.Text, 26), 0, 26);
sb.Append(len(txtBPBCity.Text, 17), 0, 17);
sb.Append(len(txtBPBState.Text, 2), 0, 2);
sb.Append(len(txtBPBZip.Text, 9), 0, 9);
sb.Append(len(txtTelephone.Text, 10), 0, 10);
sb.Append("$", 0, 1);
swr.WriteLine(sb.ToString());
swr.Close();
}
catch (Exception es)
{
Response.Write(es.Message);
}

protected string len(string value, int count)
{
string output = null;
int len = 0;
len = value.Length;
for (int i = 0; i <=count-len; i++)
{
output += " ";

}
return value+output;
}

Result:

sample Admin Testing Developer abc@abc.com 12345 chennai Ta600001 12345 $

Create Directory, Sub-Directory and Delete Directory

Code In-Line:

using System.IO;
using System.Text;

protected void btnDir_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
string DirName = txtDir.Text;
string SubDirName = txtSubDir.Text;
dir.CreateSubdirectory(DirName);
string concat= DirName + "\\" + SubDirName;
dir.CreateSubdirectory(@concat);
Response.Write("Directory created");
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}

protected void btnDelDir_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
string DirName = txtDir1.Text;
string concat= @"D:\" + DirName;
DirectoryInfo dir1 = new DirectoryInfo(concat);
dir1.Delete(true);
Response.Write("Directory deleted");
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}

File Read & write using StreamReader

Code In-Line:

using System.IO;
using System.Text;

FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(@"D:\feed.txt");
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(@"D:\");

protected void btnRead_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
StreamReader sr = fi.OpenText();
string input = null;
while((input=sr.ReadLine())!=null)
{
Response.Write(input);
}
sr.Close();
}

protected void btnWrite_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
StreamWriter wr = new StreamWriter(fi.FullName,true);
try
{
StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder();
str.Append(txtName.Text);
str.Append(txtPassword.Text);
str.Append(txtEmail.Text);
wr.WriteLine(str.ToString());
wr.Close();
Response.Write(str);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Response.Write(ex);
}
}

Friday, May 16, 2008

8 tips to avoid being an IT scapegoat

Failed IT projects happen all the time, often to the amazement of participants who think they’re somehow immune to IT problems. Most failures are caused by shortsightedness, complexity on both business and technical sides, and poor management. Anyhow, there are certain steps a project leader can take to reduce the likelihood of failure.

Here’s a list of 8 tips to prevent your IT project from going down the tubes, as compiled by Baseline magazine:

Get your head out of the software. Most project managers spend too much time in their project-planning applications and not enough time doing the briefing and communicating for which they are solely responsible.
Plan and define as much as possible—but don’t go overboard. A perfectionist could spend all his or her time in the planning stage. There’s no way to anticipate every variable so at some point, you have to pull the trigger.
Manage scope creep—for real. Rely on the fact that the project you think you’re heading for may bare only a passing resemblance to the one you end up with.
Don’t be lazy with risk management Manage the risk by deciding ahead of time that, as reliable as your vendor has been in the past, there’s little margin for error. Going with two or three vendors might be more complicated but in the end, it may save your project.
Get a grip on expectations. Ask vendors and consultants for the best, most likely and worst-case scenarios and then use your own resources to calculate the aggregated risk so you can determine the probable outcome.
Govern with strength. To the degree you can, refer to the approaches you documented and discussed with your team. If planned properly, your team should be able to tackle the problems early on before they become major hindrances.
Prepare for intervention. Create an intervention plan before the project starts and communicate the plan to everyone directly and indirectly involved.
Drive behavior to use the technology. Make sure you have a hand in educating and training users.

10 reasons for IT failure

Readers of this blog know IT initiatives generally fail for business, organizational, or cultural reasons. Sure, technology screw-ups occur all the time, but that’s one of the realities to be managed. Success or failure ultimately depends on how project leadership manages the full range of technical- and non-technical issues.

Blogger and enterprise architect, who’s obviously been through some battles, has created ten guidelines describing critical areas of weakness in many projects:

Poor Communication. Enterprise projects usually impact a large amount of people. This requires constant communications to all levels of people throughout the organization. A strong communication strategy can help with this.
Underestimating or ignoring impact of change. This is another way of saying poor change management. People need to know WIIFM (what’s in it for me). Resistance to change can kill any project. Your initiative must have a champion who carries a lot of clout.
Lack of Leadership. IT Leadership requires excellence in three key areas: Technology, Business, and People. If the leadership is missing any of the three components you are doomed.
Lack of strong executive sponsorship. For these projects to succeed you must have somebody high up in the organization with a lot of clout.
Poor project management. Often, large enterprise initiatives have a ton of logistics that need to be identified and managed accordingly.
Poor Planning. This could also fall into a category of unrealistic expectations. Initiatives like SOA require a well thought out strategy. Many IT shops do not have the patience for this and rush into their project head first without a clue of how to actually accomplish their goals.
Trying to do it cheap. Organizations want it all, but they don’t want to invest the time and money. I have seen many projects get completed using this strategy, but they almost always run over budget, are late, are missing many features, and have many various quality or process issues due to the quick-n-dirty approach.
Lack of technical knowledge. You wouldn’t ask me to remove your appendix so why would you have somebody with little or no knowledge of the technology at hand lead your enterprise initiative.
Lack of sound business case. You can get all of the other issues right but if your solution has no business context then you are wasting your time.
Poor vendor management. Somebody hires a high priced group of consultants and let’s them run wild. You should make sure that what they build meets your requirements, your standards, your needs, and your timelines.

10 attributes of bad CIOs (self test)

You are uncomfortable working with senior management. It would be a real problem if you aren’t comfortable working with senior management since, as CIO, you are senior management.
The concepts of financial management totally elude you. It’s common for the IT budget to represent anywhere from 3% to 5% of the total expenses in a company. Financial management is a major part of the CIO’s job.
You have no desire to participate in business strategic planning. It is the job of the CIO to understand all of the aspects of the marketplace in which the company participates to help it effectively use information technology to address these challenges.
Any kind of change drives you crazy. As the CIO, you are the company’s primary change agent.
You think SOX is a garment. The CIO must understand all aspects of compliance requirements and issues. As CIO, you will be required to assist the company in avoiding the liabilities associated with noncompliance with these regulations.
To you, asset management and building management are the same things. The CIO must understand asset life cycles and the techniques for managing assets through their life cycle. The CIO also needs to know the value of those assets and must be able to manage them efficiently.
The idea of selling anything scares you to death. A CIO should not be frightened of selling or the sales process; it’s a large part of the job.
Indecision is one of your strong points. A CIO is required to make hundreds of decisions a day. Some are popular; some are not so popular.
You’re really skilled in one key area of information technology. The CEO and the rest of the senior management team are going to expect you to be the senior information technology person. Therefore, they will just assume that you are knowledgeable in all areas of IT. You and I both know that’s impossible. The key is to develop an understanding of the different technologies and surround yourself with experts in each.
You believe that CIO stands for “career is over.” [M]any CIOs are progressing to the CEO position within their company. So if you think that becoming a CIO is the end of your career, you may want to rethink whether you have what it takes to be a CIO.

Knowledge Gain