tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-134877372012-01-10T15:39:23.612-07:00Personal observations and opinions about information technology issues of the day.Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.comBlogger1101100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-69863549768524023602010-04-25T10:11:00.003-07:002010-04-25T10:34:01.710-07:00

Today I moved my web hosting to GoDaddy in Scottsdale AZ. Hurray!When I set up my web site back around 1996 my domain was registered with Network Solutions and hosted at Internet Now in Tempe; my ISP was CompuServe for dial-up. Seems like such a long time ago. . .Fast forward to the 21st Century: I moved registration from Network Solutions to GoDaddy; Internet Now went thru several name changes;

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-50290329202943095542010-04-04T06:26:00.002-07:002010-04-04T06:35:18.525-07:00

Continuing my testing of the ClamWin free AV as an alternative to AVG. After good results with Win 2K and Server 2003, I decided to convert my ThinkPad with Win XP Pro from AVG 8 to ClamWin.The uninstall of AVG and install of ClamWin went well, with one exception - the Windows XP Security Center does not recognize ClamWin, so the red security icon appeared in the system tray to notify me that

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-35488842427470470392010-03-29T04:16:00.006-07:002010-03-29T05:01:03.556-07:00

If you are using AVG anti-virus and still on version 8, you have no doubt seen these messages numerous times, urging you to move to version 9.My own tests of version 9 showed it to be even more resource-intensive than version 8, but after a quick search at SourceForge I found ClamWin which is a free open-source virus scanner. So far the results have been favorable.I am running Windows 2000, XP

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-52981929771956090732009-11-14T07:32:00.002-07:002009-11-14T07:53:22.185-07:00

I had previously mentioned the intrusive popup message to upgrade to AVG 9, so last night I decided the only way to avoid that irritation was to do the upgrade. Bad idea.I thought that I had downloaded the upgrade & saved to my hard drive. But when I ran it, what I had was just a download manager which then took about 20 minutes to download the actual program. Very slowly - my Cox connection

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-6229148276923216992009-11-05T17:04:00.002-07:002009-11-05T17:07:07.039-07:00

Here we go again, AVG version 9 is now available & announces itself right smack in the middle of your screen, stealing focus from whatever useless activity you were involved in at the time.I still don't understand why they insist on these intrusive messages.

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-41981711657382886162009-11-04T16:33:00.003-07:002009-11-04T16:45:19.625-07:00

We had a power outage last week, but when the lights came back on my 7-year-old cable modem refused to reconnect. I called my ISP, Cox Communications, and after I got past the IVR system & spoke with a tech, they were extremely helpful trying to get me back online.Unfortunately, in spite of being plugged into surge protector, the modem was trashed, so I ran out to pick up a new one, plugged 'er

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-76033173322129920142009-09-25T20:49:00.003-07:002009-09-25T21:15:17.024-07:00

Back in February I had predicted some consolidation in the wireless industry.There has been talk of T-Mobile (which is actually part of Deutsche Telekom) considering the acquisition of Sprint Nextel, according to a September 13 article in cellular news. There are major technology disconnects between the companies i.e. CDMA vs. GSM vs. iDEN and the whole alphabet-soup of acronyms. Certainly some

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-51405074538664269742009-08-03T05:13:00.004-07:002009-09-25T20:48:46.735-07:00

EDIT ON 09/25/2009 ... the nag message has been long gone, so apparently AVG decided that this was not such a good idea after all. Thanks to AVG for correcting this situation.I've been using AVG Free for quite some time now, but a recent update has added a nag window that pops up from time to time that encourages me to "upgrade" to the paid version.This is not good. Either it's free, or it

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-26414412410088894312009-05-16T07:06:00.003-07:002009-05-16T08:03:17.469-07:00

Recently the term Vampires has been applied to electronic devices that consume energy even when they are powered "off" such as TV's, computers, and battery chargers. Numerous articles have appeared that urge users to unplug devices when they are turned off, or to use a power strip for your computer & accessories so you can power-down & then just flip the switch. These can be effective in reducing

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-9549896287373295572009-04-11T04:07:00.003-07:002009-04-11T04:51:07.392-07:00

Many cities across the US are rolling out speed cameras & red-light cameras in an effort to improve public safety. These are truly high-tech devices that include digital cameras, video cameras that record to DVR's, and high-speed links to upload images to the local PD.I am strongly in favor of red-light cameras, especially after a harrowing incident that happened a few days ago.I had just left my

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-55243734867828180432009-03-13T08:04:00.002-07:002009-03-13T08:24:33.765-07:00

Consultants have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects in many different environments. When working on a new project, or with a new customer, it is common to relate stories about other similar projects and how those were done & issues resolved. In some cases this is quite necessary, so that the customer is aware that you have the skills & experience applicable to their project.But

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-91161845771042652282009-02-28T08:02:00.003-07:002009-02-28T08:54:01.232-07:00

Within the next 7 to 10 years, all the major wireless carriers will establish a standard shared cellular network technology with consistent performance all across the United States.That would be nice, wouldn't it?Wireless communication has become a critical part of the U.S. infrastructure, but all the competing technologies are preventing it from going that last mile, no pun intended.Anywhere

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-30616691524316563842009-01-31T08:07:00.004-07:002009-01-31T09:51:21.206-07:00

EDIT: Less than two hours after this post, Google fixed their search engine so the problem described is now gone. Hurray!I was curious about the gadget that's been advertised on TV, supposedly you just plug it into a network jack & then plug in a telephone to call anywhere for a flat annual fee.Being cautious about things that may be to good to be true, I thought I would just Google it first.

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-53594474485103337012009-01-28T17:13:00.003-07:002009-02-15T09:09:14.913-07:00

My last post chastised Microsoft for taking away the familiar Office interface & replacing it with The Ribbon. The very next day, an anonymous comment led me to ToolbarToggle (http://www.toolbartoggle.com) which is an add-in for Office 2007 that restores the old familiar menus & toolbars of earlier versions.I like it.This is a COM add-in that works with the 2007 versions of MS-Office Word, Excel

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-68633916514465264102009-01-24T07:04:00.004-07:002009-01-24T08:01:11.074-07:00

Ever since the departure of Bill Gates from the helm of Microsoft, the company has changed its business model, and not for the better.It used to be that their new product introductions made you want to upgrade for flashy new screens and features, but nowadays they mirror the auto industry with the rapid release of new models and versions, while the older products are being retired quickly which

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-90579208882311063312008-11-12T17:09:00.004-07:002008-11-12T18:16:31.626-07:00

I'm not a writer, I'm a computer guy, but I strive for my writing to be as clear as possible so it will be understood.One of my major pet peeves is technical writing that doesn't get proof read.In a study guide for a certification exam, the author described how to create partitions in SQL Server 2005. The code sample for the right partition was a copy / paste of the code for the left partition

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-6948748156511957412008-11-09T07:14:00.003-07:002008-11-09T07:32:48.854-07:00

Nine months ago I listed some predictions about MS products, let's see how I did...SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 5; support is extended beyond April 2008. Wrong. Many shops are still using it but all support including hotfixes has evaporated.SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3. Soon. The Community Technical Preview (CTP) is out now, which rolls up all prior patches & includes some compatibility tweaks

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-68899993648194453122008-09-25T05:08:00.002-07:002008-09-25T05:38:55.764-07:00

I've been doing online banking and bill paying for quite a few years, so when I needed to order parts for some plumbing fixtures I just went to the manufacturers' web sites to save time. The names have been changed to protect the guilty ;-)K---Ordered the part without having to register. Fine. Received an email confirmation, but it stated:"Unfortunately, due to the fact that you chose not to

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-81266337895060737412008-09-23T21:00:00.003-07:002008-09-23T21:08:58.738-07:00

In a previous post, I made a comment regarding the NASA mission to Pluto that "there are no service packs in outer space" but I was wrong - check this out from just two weeks ago...'Brain Transplant' Successful as Checkout Continues"The first major order of business in New Horizons’ second annual checkout was accomplished as planned, as operators uploaded an upgraded version of the software that

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-59108814347762144622008-09-07T06:40:00.002-07:002008-09-07T07:32:30.388-07:00

The technical press seems to be really pushing for the adoption of Vista. A frequent comment is that migration to Vista, although slow, is not unlike the slow migration from Windows 2000 to XP.Just wait a minute there...When XP came out, Win 2K was a mere two years old. The business migration from NT to 2K was a major effort since it often included moving to Windows 2000 Server, so many shops

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-48688473464087754082008-08-16T09:50:00.005-07:002008-08-16T10:20:01.561-07:00

I've never tried to hide the fact that I am not a fan of Windows Vista, and I've often posted issues that I've run into when running the OS on my test PC's.A recent issue of ComputerWorld ran an opinion column titled "Reconsidering Vista" and although the author's intention was surely to encourage migration to the new OS, I've pulled a few quotes from the column that pretty much sum up my

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-70132034760472320732008-05-16T18:19:00.002-07:002008-05-16T18:31:05.391-07:00

I recently switched this blog to use moderated comments, which is a Blogger feature that allows me to preview comments before they are actually posted online. I hope that doesn't discourage future comments.There was an anonymous comment added to my prior post about junk email that I felt was inappropriate - the comment mentioned a person by name and gave their email and cell phone. I have no way

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-45341427539852450092008-04-19T09:28:00.004-07:002008-04-19T09:45:13.174-07:00

Just received a spam message that actually threatens you to NOT report the message as spam, with dire consequences if you do:"You are receiving this email message because you opted to at one of our affiliate websites on 10/16/2007 10:20 with a sign up IP of 85.155.99.46 If you no longer wish to receive these messages from us, Please DO NOT Press Spam In Your Email Account! To remove from further

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-25876748805876279902008-04-13T11:04:00.001-07:002008-04-13T11:06:09.714-07:00

According to Wikipedia, "Aloha in the Hawaiian language means affection, love, peace, compassion, mercy, goodbye, and hello, among other sentiments of a similar nature. It is used especially in Hawaii as a greeting meaning hello and goodbye."I can't think of a more fitting term to describe the end of Microsoft's extended support on 4/8/2008 for Visual Basic 6.A recent article by John K. Waters in

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-70468957709674650922008-04-12T12:51:00.004-07:002008-04-13T11:09:54.364-07:00

There is certain information that should never be included in a resume - age, weight, height, marital status, religion, or political affiliation. The only exception would be if any of that data is relevant to the specific position you are applying for. Examples - IT positions at a health club, retirement community, or a religious or political organization.You should never include salary

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-54088049906722256802008-03-08T09:07:00.004-07:002008-03-08T09:52:51.446-07:00

Legacy seems to have become a bad word lately. If you're not running the latest software from (fill in the blank) then you need to upgrade. One software vendor has even portrayed users of their old product versions as dinosaurs.The fact is, the reason legacy systems are still around is that they still work. Change for the sake of change doesn't make sense to me. Old is not necessarily bad, and

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-85114208306272437522008-02-21T06:57:00.001-07:002008-02-21T08:05:51.338-07:00

Yesterday 2/20/2008 Yahoo mail was running incredibly slow, but the company did not post any sort of notice on their web site. Maybe they thought nobody would notice?I sent an email via Yahoo to a customer around 8:00 AM, stating that I would be in the area & offered to stop in if they needed anything that morning. They received the message two hours later, around 10:00 AM.Around 1:30 PM, I sent

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-24948169418210803732008-02-14T08:00:00.005-07:002008-02-14T08:12:57.907-07:00

This week's automatic updates from MS cover the same old ground - security fixes for Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, and "the operating system that would not die" i.e. Windows 2000. Once again, it plays the stealth update game - the update icon appears in the system tray, then disappears, but when you go to shut down, the option reads "install updates and shut down." A previous post describes how

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-3346966229600208562008-02-02T09:10:00.000-07:002008-02-02T09:22:00.460-07:00

One thing that is always certain, you can't predict what is coming from MS, and 2008 is no different. Here are a few things that could happen.SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 5; support is extended beyond April 2008.SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3.Internet Explorer 8 is released; IE 6 is still the most-used, but continues to lose ground to Firefox.Visual Basic 6.0 Service Pack 6; support is continued

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-39557252937604913692008-01-29T08:12:00.000-07:002008-01-29T08:22:20.218-07:00

My web site at Office Live has some nifty user reports that track page views, browsers, and operating systems. This is not my main web site, so the volume of traffic is slight but the user reports are interesting. Submitted without comment...BrowsersIE 6 at 83%; Mozilla and IE 7 are tied at around 8%; the last 1/2 percent being Opera.Operating systemsWin XP at 93%; Vista at 2.4%; OS X and Linux

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-52887490984432394272008-01-19T15:38:00.000-07:002008-01-19T16:12:41.908-07:00

Microsoft has released a new add-in for Outlook that allows you to view, respond, and otherwise access your Windows Live or Hotmail account. From my testing, it works wonderfully.I happen to be running MS Office 2007 Enterprise on a Windows Server 2003 Standard R2, but results on PC's would be expected to be the same. When you install the add-in, it create an additional Inbox-type folder in

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-71493643920305996402008-01-09T06:40:00.000-07:002008-01-09T07:05:02.343-07:00

This week Microsoft released two security updates via Automatic Updates, this time it was one for TCPIP and the other for LSASS security vulnerabilities. Plus, another version of the venerable Malicious Software Removal Tool which has yet to find anything malicious on any of my systems.Both of these "security issues" affect Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003; the TCPIP issue affects Vista, but

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-54972152328287161192007-12-16T07:49:00.000-07:002008-01-09T07:07:27.101-07:00

I am troubled by the "us vs. them" attitude that seems to pervade forum discussions about DBA's and application developers. When you get right down to it, if it weren't for app devs, there would be nothing for the DBA's to do. Except perhaps to sit and stare at master, msdb, model and tempdb. On the other hand, without the DBA's even a well-written application will not perform to the customer

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-48422264404671747172007-12-05T16:59:00.000-07:002007-12-05T17:13:52.157-07:00

I recently removed my public email address from my web site, due to the surge in spam from many sources. But the most annoying of all was the blank messages with no subject and no sender - neither my web host, ISP nor Outlook have any mechanism for flagging those messages as undesirable - without any visible content there's nothing to tell the filters to block. If that makes sense. Still haven't

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-37794397491494848982007-11-14T06:10:00.000-07:002007-11-14T06:36:32.925-07:00

This week I was instructed to halt further development on an Access program for batch processing of invoice payments, because the project was "way over budget." Invoice payments are normally entered via a web application, but the Access program provides an interface that allows the user a much faster method of data entry & also lets the user easily reconcile the batch payments to the bank

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-85045060566123839692007-11-11T07:43:00.000-07:002007-11-11T07:55:22.703-07:00

The task:Create an html page with VBA code with all the color-coding and indents that you see in the VBA IDE.The purpose:Within the VBA environment, the formatting makes it easier to work with your code, but if you copy and paste that code directly into an html document using Word or FrontPage, all the formatting is lost.The solution:1. From the VBA module, select all the text (Ctl-A) and copy to

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-34330285782958020722007-11-10T09:32:00.000-07:002007-11-10T09:50:39.678-07:00

This is a follow-up to my previous comments about the Access 2007 Bible.I started out by reading every word, but after the first three chapters the authors settle down into a complete course on using Access from the ground up. Great for those just starting out, but experienced developers will find about 1,000 pages of how to create database objects, beginning VBA programming, and the like. Except

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-22253453745949468222007-10-26T07:18:00.000-07:002007-10-26T07:30:50.762-07:00

Microsoft Word has offered the "click and type" feature for quite some time, but I recently decided to give it a try, and it is really quite useful.I was preparing some user documentation with screen shots, using Alt-PrtScr to capture the active window and then paste into my Word document. I would then crop the image as necessary to better fit the printed page.I had a section with dialog boxes

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-19446023930860557922007-10-14T08:48:00.001-07:002007-10-14T08:55:52.196-07:00

Microsoft Update seems to be confused lately. I have two machines that have never had Office 2003 installed; they are both running Office 2007 Enterprise Edition. One is running Server 2003, the other has Vista Business.Both PC's had been previously running other OS's and Office's, but then I did what I call a bare-metal install; starting by reformatting the hard drive and then installing fresh

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-46540946412994494912007-10-13T08:44:00.000-07:002007-10-13T09:03:50.093-07:00

Microsoft Update has recently evolved into a system of stealth updates, taking away the control of updating from the user. This is not a good thing.I usually set my Automatic Updates for "download, but ask to install" and when the updates would be released, the Automatic Updates icon would appear in the system tray, alerting me that "something" was ready to install. I would then click the icon &

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-7641693410520969162007-08-19T10:17:00.000-07:002007-08-19T10:45:48.703-07:00

I thought I had a decent disaster recovery plan in place - a UPS on each PC, accessories like modems & routers plugged into surge suppressors, and I periodically copy my critical files to one or more other PC's on the network, and the extra-special stuff goes on thumb drives too.However, last Tuesday about 3:00 AM there was a major electrical storm in the area. I lost my Internet connection;

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-83319161030514131742007-08-09T08:09:00.000-07:002007-08-09T08:17:24.147-07:00

There seems to be a trend that some software packages will bundle unwanted extras, without any opt-out options. Two recent examples:Updating a Windows XP machine with Internet Explorer 7 bundled the Google Toolbar, with no option to reject it. The installer stated that "it can be uninstalled afterwards" which I did, but why subject the user to that extra step & wasted time?Updating Yahoo

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-4136309356685716092007-08-07T21:46:00.000-07:002007-08-07T22:19:29.916-07:00

I just finished the 3rd chapter of the Access 2007 Bible, and I'm surprised that somebody actually published it with so many bad ideas, good gosh. Chapter 3 speaks of "Bulletproofing" your database, but following their recommendations would certainly leave gaping holes in your protection.After stumbling through a clumsy explanation of normalization, they start talking about how you might decide

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-27544823505839654852007-08-05T12:50:00.000-07:002007-08-05T13:17:45.548-07:00

The Windows Explorer in Vista leaves out two important features from previous versions:The up-folder icon is missing from the toolbar. Somebody at MS got the great idea that they're going to copy the behavior of the Linux File Browser, where the folder hierarchy is spread out across the address bar, likeComputer ~ DRV1_VOL1 (C:) ~ Share ~ Sysinternalsand to go up one level, you need to click on

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-31352472586279697152007-08-04T08:03:00.000-07:002007-08-04T08:46:00.529-07:00

Nowadays I'm a database guy, but over the years I've done countless software installs, hardware upgrades, and recently I built myself a server starting with an empty box, system board, cards, drives, and cables.However, Friday afternoon I paid a quick visit to a customer and I was unexpectedly pulled in to a malware situation on one user's PC. It started with a radio playing in the background (?)

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-13969320270881377792007-07-15T10:44:00.000-07:002007-07-15T10:56:39.741-07:00

I am running Vista Business on an older PC that "meets" the minimum requirements. But Vista does not meet my minimum requirements.I have several computers on a LAN - a mix of Win 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista. Oh yes, and one more running Linux. I can use remote desktop to connect from & to another (except that I use RealVNC for the 2K machine, and RealVNC & SMB for the Linux box).However, when I

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-9679767109352090332007-06-24T12:18:00.000-07:002007-06-24T12:36:41.618-07:00

I don't normally do book reviews, but the Access 2007 Bible is the first book that I've purchased from the Wiley "Bible" series and I have a few comments to share. Usually I select from the QUE "Special Edition Using", SAMS "Teach Yourself", Peachpit "Visual Quickstart", or O'Reilly "Definitive Guide" series, but this was the first one I found at the bookstore that discusses customizing the

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-30497230156300953832007-06-23T10:13:00.001-07:002007-06-23T10:34:41.991-07:00

Microsoft's complete redesign of Access 2007 has reconfirmed their commitment to their flagship desktop database. No other product on the market has the same capabilities and user-accessibility. The rich object model, queries, forms, reports; all contribute to its popularity. In addition, VBA allows the Access professional to continue to develop complete solutions within a single program, without

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-27522678395233496722007-06-03T08:45:00.000-07:002007-06-03T08:59:57.678-07:00

Here's my problem - I have two CD's of Office 2003 Pro, one is installed on my desktop & the other on my laptop, but I lost track of which CD was installed on which PC.There is a great program, Belarc Advisor www.belarc.com/free_download.html that is free for home use, that can list out every ProductID and 25-letter code for all of your installed software, and not just the MS products. It also

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-90983227172971336532007-05-30T08:10:00.000-07:002007-05-30T08:22:32.876-07:00

I was trying to automate a WinZip file download via Internet Explorer, and un-checked the "Always ask before opening this file" but the file opens in the Temporary Internet Files folder, which is not what I wanted.The solution is to open Windows Explorer and then click Tools ~ Folder Options ~ File Types and then scroll down to the ZIP extension, click on it and then click Advanced.At the "Edit

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-63070001641871414222007-05-22T06:17:00.000-07:002007-05-22T06:27:49.831-07:00

This is a follow-up to my prior post about uninstalling Norton AV.My previous approach for my ThinkPad was to simply go into Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, but apparently that was the reason for the 16-bit snafu.Norton provides its own uninstall program via the Start Menu, and when I used that method on my HP desktop, it did not create the 16-bit problem that I encountered on the

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-30425860275929994592007-05-12T18:14:00.000-07:002007-05-12T18:30:07.197-07:00

I decided not to renew my Norton Anti-Virus for my ThinkPad, so I uninstalled it from Control Panel and replaced it with the AVG 7.5 Free Edition. I had already tried AVG on my Vista test PC, and felt quite comfortable with it.Unfortunately, I discovered that the Norton uninstall left a fragment behind in the registry - when I would launch a 16-bit program I got a message about the 16-bit

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-58825260161284174422007-04-28T13:11:00.000-07:002007-04-28T13:39:13.506-07:00

My first job out of college was in the Engineering Dept. at Hammond Organ Company in Chicago. The founder, Laurens Hammond was an incredible genius, who invented the tone wheel generator that was responsible for the Hammond Sound that powered the famous B-3 organ. Other diverse inventions included the synchronous electric motor (that kept constant speed regardless of the AC line voltage, making

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-91467740867409764032007-04-24T08:13:00.000-07:002007-04-24T08:29:02.721-07:00

The remarkably fast, efficient FoxIt Reader for PDF files has been updated to version 2.0. The file size has grown from about 3 to 4 Megs, but is still half the size of Adobe's Acrobat Reader.The new version includes support for interactive fill-in forms. However, that feature requires another little update for JavaScript support, but FoxIt tells you that & directs you to the proper site to

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-78561918446946965522007-04-20T06:55:00.000-07:002007-04-20T06:59:39.841-07:00

The May 2007 issue of PC World Magazine describes more issues with Vista security, this time it is IMHO the worst possible type of insecurity - the Malware engine that drives Windows Defender can choke on a specially-crafted PDF file, and hand over control of your system to the bad guys. So MS security makes your PC less secure.So much for Trustworthy Computing.

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-40754212971288188522007-04-15T11:43:00.000-07:002007-04-15T11:55:18.929-07:00

After attempting to install Ubuntu Linux in a dual-boot with Vista, apparently the GRUB loader spoiled the Vista boot record. I could boot into Linux, but Vista only presented the progress bar and a black screen. I Googled that problem, but the solutions (using ntfsprogs and ntfsfix) did not do the trick for me; still too much of a Linux newbie I suppose.Back to square one - I decided that I

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-5367950818296319672007-04-14T17:43:00.000-07:002007-04-14T17:44:41.987-07:00

I'm preparing my Vista test PC to install Ubuntu Linux in a dual-boot configuration. According to my copy of Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks they recommend doing a disk defrag before re-sizing the hard disk partions to accommodate Linux.From the (Windows Classic) Start menu, I clicked Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter, and to my surprise the disk defrag was set by default as a scheduled

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-48031490092915226552007-04-07T09:28:00.000-07:002007-04-07T09:49:13.523-07:00

My first experience with email was using Compuserve back in the mid-90's, when it was pretty much a dial-up world. Their email client was quite versatile - you could view the mail messages pending in your inbox, and then choose to download them (or not) which really saved precious bandwidth back then.Today, the future of email is rather bleak. My Web site displays my public email address, which

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-78234108494058517422007-03-31T06:43:00.000-07:002007-03-31T07:02:33.028-07:00

My Vista test PC had been having trouble finding the hard disk for the last few weeks. The first attempt at bootup would yield a white-on-black DOS-looking screen with the message "Operating System Not Found" but I had suspected the CMOS battery was weak - the 2nd or 3rd attempt would always boot into Windows. Not yesterday, though.I booted with my Ubuntu Linux Live CD to verify that the PC was

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-33017400122207686002007-03-16T14:42:00.000-07:002007-03-16T14:50:30.262-07:00

It seems that every time I turn around, there is yet another article about turning off this feature, or that feature, in the new MS Vista.I am "guilty" of that myself, having followed virtually every tip I've seen about reverting Vista to an ordinary-looking OS. After all the hacks & a few whacks, my test PC looks surprisingly like Win 2000 or XP Classic - even the Start Menu can be reset to the

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-55349296440547086832007-03-11T07:37:00.000-07:002007-03-11T08:08:50.362-07:00

I have often referred to "the beast" PC which is an older CTX computer, with an unfortunately non-upgradable AMD K6/2 CPU but at various times it was running Windows 2000, Ubuntu Linux, and most recently Windows Server 2003. This PC was on a KVM switch, but some careless plugging / unplugging (my guess) damaged the keyboard & mouse ports on the motherboard. It would still boot & I could log in

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-77653502198716000922007-02-17T08:50:00.000-07:002007-02-17T09:00:54.202-07:00

I'm on the soapbox this morning, after a careless visit to Microsoft Update that netted me numerous updates that I neither expected nor wanted.First of all, if you're not aware of this, the U.S. has changed the rules for Daylight Savings Time to begin sooner and end later. However, I am in Arizona and we don't observe DST; Windows knows my time zone, but still installed that particular

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-84107456000175482852007-02-03T06:21:00.000-07:002007-02-03T06:23:31.869-07:00

I'm happy to report that Microsoft has completed the updates to the Office Live email client. You can now add contacts to the online address book simply by clicking the link.

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1169392883683769962007-01-21T08:12:00.000-07:002007-01-21T08:21:25.596-07:00

I needed to extend my network to the "workshop" which is a brick building 30-35 feet from the house. Past attempts at using wireless have been inconsistent due to distance, electrical wiring, and stucco construction with an underlying wire mesh.I found the Netgear XE102G Wall-Plugged Ethernet Extender Kit which runs around $80 US at Staples - and it works!The kit comes with two matching units,

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1168698929988317322007-01-13T07:32:00.000-07:002007-01-13T07:37:41.493-07:00

I've been working with Office Live Basic, and it turns out that the email client is unable to add contacts - but they are working on it. A recent message to support yielded the following:"Based on the information that I received, you are unable to add contacts to you and it gives you an error message stating that "report this problem to Microsoft". It also does not add the new person to your

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1168008863776311482007-01-05T07:46:00.000-07:002007-01-05T07:54:24.163-07:00

How's that for a news flash? While MS continues to re-create the Windows operating system, this time it's Vista; the Linux groups continue to build on stable ground, and that stability is drawing more users into the Linux fold.Oracle now offers enterprise support for Linux, in the same fashion that they support their namesake database, for about $99 per user. Word is that Red Hat charges way, way

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1167003234642531062006-12-24T16:10:00.000-07:002006-12-24T16:33:54.930-07:00

The newest version of SharePoint is now available for download, so I thought I would experiment using my trial copy of Windows Server 2003 to explore this newest addition. Unfortunately, my "beast" PC is only 400 MHz and thus could not install SQL Server 2005 Express, which is a prereq for SharePoint 2007.Attempting to install Sp 2007 was a total nightmare. I am accustomed to Visual Studio

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1166838395569705852006-12-22T18:34:00.000-07:002006-12-22T18:49:19.146-07:00

Microsoft has a new offering, under the banner of Office Live. There are three levels of Live; I signed up for Basic which is totally free, including the domain name registration.I already have a web site www.wvmitchell.com which has been online since 1996, but I wanted to establish more of a corporate presence on the web; my personal site has oodles of technical articles for developers; the new

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1165852752804169312006-12-11T08:53:00.000-07:002006-12-11T08:59:13.383-07:00

I downloaded Puppy Linux 2.12 and burned the iso file to a CD. This happens to be another one of those "live CD" distros so I was able to check it out on the Sony notebook before committing it to the hard drive.Turns out that Puppy has a comic-book interface IMNSHO which rivals Windows XP's "bliss" (the default desktop which reminds me of the tele-tubbies from PBS) for the most toy-like interface

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1165779762869706972006-12-10T12:27:00.000-07:002006-12-11T08:24:21.323-07:00

This weekend I decided not to "work" in favor of working on my infrastructure. To be more specific, I needed to learn more about Windows Server 2003 and SharePoint Server 2007, and I also wanted to explore a Linux variant named "Puppy Linux" which is a mere 85 Megs. (Before you call a foul, note that Windows Server 2003 R2 is a 580 + 123 Meg giant.)I deleted the Ubuntu Linux from the CTX "beast"

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1165693780980651262006-12-09T12:49:00.000-07:002006-12-09T12:49:41.350-07:00

Windows Vista introduces a new concept that should eliminate the need for users to be set up as local admins to install and run software, or modify settings.Very similar to the setup in Ubuntu Linux, a user who is not a local admin will need to supply the administrative password to continue certain changes. (In Ubuntu, the parallel to Administrator is the root account, which by default is

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1165071982504915632006-12-02T07:47:00.000-07:002006-12-02T08:06:22.706-07:00

This week, I attended an msdn event that covered a new product currently in CTP, Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals.All I can say is wow.This new product allows you to place the database schema under source control, and apply versioning just as you would with executables.The presenter Rob Bagby began with a statement relating to the "truth" of your database schema. Today,

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1163257130176686242006-11-11T07:56:00.000-07:002006-11-27T17:09:33.803-07:00

I firmly believe in the importance of vendor certifications. I started working with Access 2.0 in 1995, and by 1998,with the introduction of Access 95 followed by Access 97, there seemed to be an awful lot of people doing similar work in Access, and I felt that I needed a "unique selling point" as it were, so I took my first exam on Microsoft Access, which earned me the MCP, Microsoft Certified

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1162147687761767452006-10-29T11:45:00.000-07:002006-10-29T11:51:41.156-07:00

When I was in electronics school in the 1970's, we often spoke of a "black box": You would define the required outputs for all possible combinations of inputs. It didn't matter how the black box worked on the inside; only that it met the required spec. The engineer would develop a product using some number of various black boxes, promoting reuse and allowing focus on the results rather than the

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1160837859370675842006-10-14T07:31:00.000-07:002006-10-14T07:57:39.390-07:00

Windows XP's Remote Desktop feature introduces a new world of connectivity (even with its shortcomings). The first time I connected via VPN to a customer server, I knew that this was truly the future.My primary home office workspace has a HP desktop with a 19" CRT, alongside a ThinkPad notebook. I will RDP from the HP to the ThinkPad where I keep my latest files, using the HP's huge disk for

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1160665310870256382006-10-12T07:56:00.000-07:002006-10-12T08:01:50.886-07:00

There is a new development on the horizon coming from the Windows Longhorn Server project, it is called Windows Server Core. Quoting from the Redmond Magazine article:"Server Core can only act as a file server, domain controller, DNS server or DHCP server. As such, it's far from being a full-fledged Windows operating system (although Microsoft is considering other roles for future versions).

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1160327391232523752006-10-08T09:52:00.000-07:002006-10-08T10:11:15.416-07:00

There are many exciting things going on in the open-source world. One of the most ambitious is the Portable Apps Suite which includes "...web browser, email client, web editor, office suite, word processor, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client and FTP client, all preconfigured to work portably and be easy to back up. Just drop it on your portable device and you're ready to go."In fact,

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1157504867100076842006-09-05T17:45:00.000-07:002006-09-05T18:07:47.186-07:00

Continuing my noob-ness with Ubuntu, so far I have a Sony P-III laptop and a CTX K6/2 desktop running Ubuntu 6.06 on the home office network.Connecting to my router revealed that both machines had their DHCP IP addresses, but the "client hostname" was blank. I found out that in some systems, the hostname is assigned by the DHCP server, but not in my case. So "somewhere" there was a configuration

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1157163002760438922006-09-01T18:59:00.000-07:002006-09-01T19:10:02.773-07:00

I needed to set up email capability for the customer's POS station, but alas we did not have an extra MS-Office license to install Outlook. Hmmm.Since Outlook Express is free that was the first consideration; as it turned out OE could send but not receive emails from Exchange - which in this case was just fine with the customer.However, we quickly found that you can't press Print Screen and then

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1157037907444382732006-08-31T08:14:00.000-07:002006-08-31T08:25:07.496-07:00

If you've been following this blog, you know that I had previously tested the Oracle developer edition product. I had only given it a cursory examination, since running it on a PC-class computer (not a server) was using a huge amount of resources (that I wasn't willing to part with for some basic familiarity testing).Still wanting to keep my options open, I recently subscribed to Oracle Magazine.

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1156864897942990402006-08-29T08:10:00.000-07:002006-08-29T08:21:37.996-07:00

The title of the IE window, by default, looks something like this:Google - Microsoft Internet ExplorerMS KB article 176497 describes how to change the window title by adding an entry to the registry. For example, you can create the following .reg file and right-click to add to the registry:Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]"Window

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1156557822018989912006-08-25T19:02:00.000-07:002006-08-25T19:03:42.033-07:00

What's wrong with this picture?"You have been unsubscribed from our newsletters and you will receive confirmation by email soon."'Nuff said.

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1156256013836100792006-08-22T06:50:00.000-07:002006-08-22T07:13:33.870-07:00

This weekend (which spilled over to Monday) I continued to extend the usefulness of my "personal" PC. As reported previously, loading Windows 2000 in a dual-boot configuration gave this machine a new lease on life. . .Wanting to install my copy of Visual Studio .NET 2002 Professional, I needed additional hard drive space so I shopped online & purchased a Western Digital 80 GB EIDE drive from

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1156005571643407162006-08-19T09:21:00.000-07:002006-08-19T09:39:31.660-07:00

HTML was originally supposed to be a universal language (just like XML, but don't get me started). But now that there are so many platform-specific extensions, quite a few Web sites just plain don't work (or furnish bad advice).This morning I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.5 running under Ubuntu Linux 6.06, and my attempt to view some videos at KPNX-TV's site ended abruptly when it told me that I don't

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1155651220502980392006-08-15T06:52:00.000-07:002006-08-15T07:13:40.573-07:00

There has been a lot of hype describing the upcoming MS-Office 2007 as a "serious development platform" and it gets pretty tiring after a while. A quick visit to the Office 2007 pages yields numerous articles about how great the new system will be.Quoting from the MSDN Windows Vista and Microsoft Office Beta Experience Newsletter No.5,"Office has evolved from a traditional suite of client-side

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1155306688426003962006-08-11T07:08:00.000-07:002006-08-11T07:31:28.466-07:00

Continuing my explorations of Ubuntu Linux, so far the look and feel is very comfortable using the GNOME desktop; much more so than Suse 9.2 which used KDE. Furthermore, it just feels like a smaller OS - running on the old AMD K6/2 at 400 MHz with 384 Meg RAM and 30 G HD - less cluttered, more responsive.Let us not forget that, open-source or not, Linux is still a big OS, no doubt about it - but

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1155165791228937512006-08-09T16:01:00.000-07:002006-08-09T16:32:21.283-07:00

My trial version of Windows 2003 Server is coming to its end. How do I know? because every time I power it up and log on, Windows tells me that I have xx days remaining, please "upgrade to the retail product". Even though I also installed the trial version of R2 which supposedly expires in December. Oh well. Easy come, easy go...I attempted to re-load Windows 98, which is what my test machine

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1152921690073257502006-07-14T16:49:00.000-07:002006-07-14T17:01:30.093-07:00

Recently I needed a quick utility to script out a SQL Server 2000 database, for comparison purposes, to evaluate "other developer changes" to the system. Even though I've worked with .NET since it first came out, I could not see any advantage to using unmanaged code in a .NET solution, adding unnecessary complexity; so I fired up VB 6.0 and used the SQL-DMO library, along with the Scripting

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1151025143768110052006-06-22T18:00:00.000-07:002006-06-22T18:13:57.366-07:00

My test machine is running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2, and I wanted to repartition the 30 GB hard disk, to create a 10 GB D: drive for SQL Server files, but discovered that my edition of Partition Magic stated that it was not compatible with the server OS and/or NTFS. In either event, I was stuck...Open source to the rescue! I located the free Linux utility GParted which handles virtually

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1149951488809666752006-06-10T07:35:00.000-07:002006-06-10T07:59:36.776-07:00

This week I decided to attempt an update for my "personal" PC which was still running Windows 98 because (so I thought) my antique peripherals were not compatible with a more "modern" OS.Another down side was that my 1998-era PC has only a 6.4 GB hard disk, with 2-1/2 free. So I pulled out my Special Edition Using Windows 2000 Professional and found a section about dual-booting Windows 98 and

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1149691201776188352006-06-07T07:23:00.000-07:002006-06-07T07:42:40.590-07:00

At the same time that PC World magazine has named Adobe the "Software Company of the Year", I have finished removing the company's bloated software from my computers. Instead of the endless online updates and so forth, I've settled into a 2-part solution.Several years ago, one of my customers wanted to create PDF's from Access but they didn't want to spend $$$ on the licensing for the full Adobe

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1148309925915158452006-05-22T07:25:00.000-07:002006-05-22T07:58:45.960-07:00

I started pursuing Microsoft certification back around 1996. I knew a great deal about MS-Access and I wanted to have something to show for it. After spending $$$ on exam review books I finally sat for the Microsoft Access exam in 1998 and aced it within 45 minutes. That year MS decided that completing any exam would earn the MCP, Microsoft Certified Professional credential, and I was on the

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1148155989901459222006-05-20T13:01:00.000-07:002006-05-20T13:16:49.806-07:00

IE7 Beta 2 has a handy feature that can be, at times, extremely irritating.The browser allows opening pages in tabs, very nice; when you close IE7 it will ask you if you want to open those same pages & tabs next time, also very nice BUT if you hide the options (or click 'don't ask any more') and just click Close, then next time you open IE it will only load your same stale home page just like IE6

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1147913944926620152006-05-17T17:36:00.000-07:002006-05-17T17:59:04.956-07:00

Everything seems to be pre-release software lately. The Microsoft Anti-Spyware got a new name but it's still not RTM; both Yahoo and Google have their cute little web mail clients, in perpetual beta.Not as imaginary as vaporware, but still lacking, these betas indicate that nobody seems to be in charge "over there" at these software houses. Maybe you could call it cloudware, as everybody's in a

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1147561398813066162006-05-13T15:07:00.000-07:002006-06-23T18:13:24.570-07:00

When Microsoft released the original version of Visual Studio .NET it promised (among other things) easy deployment, and the avoidance of "dll hell", since all pertinent files and supporting bits would reside in a single folder structure that would allow "XCOPY deployment" much like the old days of DOS. No more would the installer infest the registry with all sorts of obscure entries (potentially

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1146709108908802382006-05-03T19:11:00.000-07:002006-05-07T18:41:07.780-07:00

Continuing my IE7 trials. The tabbed browsing and zoom feature, though different from the way Opera introduced those features (many years ago) are cool ideas that will take a bit of getting used to. I need to spend some time with the Options, but there's lots of 'em to discover.By the way, this blog can be consumed as an RSS feed -but- you need a reader compatible with the so-called "atom.xml"

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1146496297872749802006-05-01T07:56:00.000-07:002006-05-01T08:11:37.890-07:00

IE7 promises an improved browsing experience with tabbed pages, phishing filters, enhanced security and so on, so I thought I would give it a test drive on my eval edition of Win 2003 Server.First of all, the new interface takes some getting used to. By default, the address bar is now at the very top of the screen, and the toolbar buttons you're used to seeing are jammed at the far right edge.My

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1145802849570466722006-04-23T07:05:00.000-07:002006-04-25T07:27:55.540-07:00

It is now official - Microsoft has ended all support for Win 98, even including paid support. How many Win 98 machines are still in service? At least one that I know of ;-)In spite of all the derision, I have found Windows 98 to be quite stable and useable. And, behind a router and firewall it is just as secure as any other OS - dependent more on the actions of the user, than the design of the

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1145034230421526082006-04-14T09:32:00.000-07:002006-04-14T10:03:50.496-07:00

The preliminary specs are out for Office 2007, and it looks like Win 2000 users will be out of luck - you'll need at least Windows XP, or Server 2003, to run the next version of Office.Of course, this is nothing new - you needed at least Win 95 to run Office 95; Win 98 to run Office XP; Win 2000 to run Office 2003; and so it goes. But where does it stop?The company mantra is twofold: That the new

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13487737.post-1143996499805120502006-04-02T09:27:00.000-07:002006-04-08T08:39:19.186-07:00

I am very satisfied with Windows XP, but it didn't start out that way. I had beta tested XP Beta 2 and RC1 on my old "workhorse" PC with much less than breathtaking results. Aside from absolutely dismal performance from a puny 400 MHz CPU, the new interface was too far from what I was used to. The night before XP went live at retail, I purchased Windows 2000 as a hedge against the New

Bill Mitchellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04373828339706140353noreply@blogger.com0