I got sick of trying to get my blog working with Community Server so I've migrated over to DasBlog. The installation was painless and making skins is significantly easier than with CS. Now that I've got this working correctly, stay tunned for some exciting new posts.

I was wondering the other day while at work why when I right-click in a command window that windows pastes whatever is in the clipboard and doesn't show the context menu. I tried it at home and all I got was the right-click menu. Now I've grown very attached to this quick pasting feature so started to dig around to find out how I could get me home PC to do the same thing. As it turns out it is really very easy. Here are the steps involved:

1. Go to Start->Run
2. Type cmd and click Ok.
3. Right-click on the title bar and go to properties
4. Then select QuickEdit Mode on the right.
5. Click Ok and choose to change the default settings.

After some cool tools, check this out http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmans2005UltimateDeveloperAndPowerUsersToolList.aspx

Ever seen this before:
Exception Details: System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException: Syntax error in INSERT INTO statement.

Well 7 hours later after reading and debugging and then reading and debugging some more I finally found a solution. What I was trying to do was something like this

Sub addData(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
 Dim objConn As OleDbConnection
 Dim objCmd As OleDbCommand
 Dim objRdr As OleDbDataReader
 
 objConn = new OleDbConnection(“xxxx")
 
 objCmd = new OleDbCommand("INSERT INTO MyTable(Name, Email, Password)VALUES (@Name, @Email, @Password);",objConn)
    
    'add all our parameters
   objCmd.Parameters.Add("@Name", "UserID")
   objCmd.Parameters.Add("@Email", "no@no.com")
   objCmd.Parameters.Add("@Password", "hardpassword")
 
 objConn.Open()
 Dim blnReturn as Boolean = objCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
 objConn.Close
 
 If blnReturn THen
  lblError.Text = "Success"
 End If
End Sub

The database being used was Microsoft Access 2003. The insert statement would run perfectly in Access but via ADO.net..nope...Invalid Synatax! As it turns out all the different implementations of SQL have a different set of reserved words, password being one of them. Simply placing [] around the value in question fixes the problem. So what are all these reserved words?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/assistance/HP010322491033.aspx - for Access 2003
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/assistance/HP010322481033.aspx - Access Data Types
http://doc.ddart.net/mssql/sql70/ra-rz_8.htm -  SQL Server / MSDE

Ever think it would be really handy to take all your favorites with you where ever you go?? Personlly I hate it when I find a link to a really great site when at work, place it in my favorites and then wonder where it is when I get home. If you can relate to this then check out this http://del.icio.us. The site allows you to sign up and then store your favorite sites online. There are a couple of good links you can use to easily add new links as well. Very simple idea, very useful Web App.

I Found out something interesting about Symantec's latest Antivirus product the other day which I thought may be of interest to some.

Apparently when a machine boots the DoScan.exe uses a large amount of memory and CPU. When the DoScan.exe completes RTVScan is using about 40MB of RAM.

The solution from Symantec is as follows:

One possible workaround is to create a reg key and import it to each user before running the SAV 10 install. Creating and setting CreatedUserQuickScan to 1 before running the SAV install should prevent the creation of the Auto-Generated QuickScan for that user.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Intel\LANDesk\VirusProtect6\CurrentVersion\CustomTasks]
"CreatedUserQuickScan"=dword:00000001

I got thinking about blogging the other day….perhaps a little too hard. I was lucky enough to have grown up on a farm. Wide open spaces, fresh country air and those good old fashion friendly people you could waste hours with talking about the weather. It was a good life. I remember this old neighbour we had, he’d walk on in from the paddock bare-foot and rough as guts. He and my old man would talk for ages about just about anything. The weather, farm pests, the new way to kill the pests, news, politics but mostly they shared and enjoyed each other individual perspective on the world.

This may seem a little long winded but it struck me the other day while reading an argument about blogging at channel9 (Check it out here) that blogs are slowly replacing friendly social interacts with 1’s and 0’s. Why do we love blogging so much? What makes it so alluring? Why will we avoid the major news sites just to find 3 sentences from some unknown a million miles away? Or why read about the adventures of our neighbours on a screen when they are sometimes only metres away? To many I think blogging has replaced the ‘chat over the backyard fence’. When you think about it though, there is something more real, more personal invested in a blog that you don’t find elsewhere. It becomes the author’s unique perspective on life, the world as they see it and we love it. Blogging to me is reminiscent of a farmyard chat but in years to come will our social interaction be limited to an exchange of keystrokes? I hope when I’m old and grey some friendly folks pay me a visit and blogs the old fashion way over some coffee and scones(with jam and cream of course).