Went digging around for ways to view the active connections in Microsoft SQL 2008. To my surprise Microsoft moved the Activity Monitor. Apparently they did this way back in SQL 2005. I skipped 2005 so I missed that. To view the open connection:
Simple as that!
I don't know if this has changed since Flex 3, but I couldn't find any information about how to access Flash vars from within a Flex 4 application. Since the beta was only recently released it's no surprise that documentation is lacking. One thing that I couldn't find was how to access flash vars passed via HTML from within a Flex 4 application.
In Flex 3 I used this:
In Flex 4 it's a little more intuitive, but not documented (at least not where I could find it).
In Flex 4 do this to grab the flash vars:
Pretty simple, but elusive.
I was trying to decipher a user agent setting and stumbled across this handy website:
http://www.useragentstring.com
Give it a browsers USER-AGENT string and it will parse it and give you some helpful information.
I've been using IE8 since it's official release. Microsoft recently started pushing it as a recommended update.
For me the most compelling reason to upgrade is the new interactive Javascript debugger, included in the Developer Toolbar. Anyone who is doing web development understands just how difficult it can be to debug javascript code. A debugger makes it so much easier.
Think Firebug for Internet Explorer.
IE8 includes the Developer Toolbar by default, which can be activated by pressing F12.
The new tools inlude the usual DOM and CSS explorers as well as the new debugger.
The debugger interface is pretty straighforward and should be easily accessible to anyone who has used an interactive debugger.
Today was very inspiring! I just hope our new leader is as great as he seems. Time will tell and I wish him the very best.
Subversion can be hard to setup and manage. Luckily the good people at Visual SVN provide an MMC like interface for Windows. Visual SVN Server is a free download. It provides quick Windows based install program to get Subversion and Apache up and running. Also included is an MMC like interface which will be familiar to Windows admins. Some additional features include
I finally got a small project that allowed me to utilize the Ruby language. It was a simple script to pull information from an Access database, put it in a flat file, and then upload it to an FTP site.
Normally I write jobs like this in Coldfusion. I know it's better suited to web site development but it's fast and easy to create little programs like the one I needed. In this case I did not have access to a Coldfusion server so I needed something that could run on it's own.
I recently bought a new Dell D630. I maxed out the memory (a mere 4GB). I wanted to be able take advantage of all that memory so I installed Vista Ultimate 64-bit. When I rebooted I got this nasty bluescreen before Windows started. After much dismay and very little help from Dell, my good pal and co-worker Brian found the answer. Since Brian doesn't have a blog I thought I would post it here.
The solution is pretty simple. Just install the latest Intel Turbo Memory drivers. They can be found here under the SATA drives section.
I'VE UPDATED THIS ENTRY TO INCLUDE WINDOWS 7
I had some experience installing Coldfusion 8 on a Windows Server 2008 box last week. I captured some screenshots so I could do this brief tutorial.
First, Microsoft has locked down everything in Server 2008. Thankfully they've been a bit smarter about it this time. Rather than installing everything by default and prompting you to "cancel or allow" it they have introduced server roles. This means that if I want to setup a webserver I need only install the pieces of software for hosting webpages.
I've been offically bitten by the "testing bug". Meaning, I'm sold on unit testing. I'm always a johnny come lately when it comes to development tools and processes. Usually it's a real pain to switch tools or add something to my development process.
So I've been hearing about this thing called "unit testing" for a while. "Unit tests will change your life!"..."Unit testing is the way to go Joe!"...blah blah. You mean I have to write more code?
A resounding YES I WRITE MORE CODE! I write better code and I write alot more of it.
