The power of association

Dear readers

This post (unfortunately ;) ) has nothing to do with programming; however I thought it worth sharing since it can speak to many of us and deals with being successful (which I sincerely hope that many of my readers want to be!).

Here it is:

The Power of Association is too real: The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don't help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don't increase you will eventually decrease you.

Consider this: Never receive counsel from unproductive people. Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always first to tell you how. Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person. Don't follow anyone who is not going anywhere and most importantly, don’t follow anyone who is running away from your life. With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it. Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life. Wise is the person who fortifies his life with the right friendships. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl, but if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights.

"A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses." The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate - for the good and the bad. Note: Be not mistaken. This is applicable to family as well as friends. 

“When I compliment you, I compliment myself, because I am who I associate with.”

~ Jarod Kintz

Macro for batch converting in Excel

Hi folks

Today I needed to batch convert over a hundred Excel file from the old extension (.xls) to the new extension (.xlsx). By far the easiest way was to record a macro while doing one file and then adapting the code to run for all the files in the specific directory.

Here follows the code:

Happy coding!

Hermann

Microsoft File Transfer Manager not working

Morning everyone

I just want to mention a quick workaround for an issue with Microsoft File Transfer Manager not working in IE11 (please also note that it seems to not be working in any 64-bit browser from Microsoft).

For IE11, press F12 to bring up the developer console and then scroll down on the left to get to the Emulation console. From here choose the Document Mode 9 and the Internet Explorer 9 as the User agent string. Your Microsoft subscription page will then reload and once this has finished, try to download the file again. This time, FTM should pop up.

Good luck. Sorry for the short post without explaining the reasons behind the issues. No time today :)

Happy coding!

Hermann

Creating Date and Time dimensions for your data warehouse

Good morning fellow coders!

I won't write long, but I figured that it was worth mentioning that I found quite a nice article that will help you easily and quickly create Data and Time dimensions for your SQL data warehouse (or any other warehouse for that matter, but you would obviously have to modify the scripts slightly).

Enjoy the following link to its fullest:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Data+Warehouse/106149/

Happy warehousing!

SQL Server 2008 R2 "Out of Memory" exception

Dear Readers

I have been away from this blog for much too long, but I'm back and getting back into posting about some of my favorite technologies. I ran into an interesting problem today. It's definitely common, but it was the first time for me. I was running a stored procedure on SQL Server 2008 R2 and got an "Out of Memory" exception.

I googled around and came across a fix which is quite easy. Well, let me not call it a fix since obviously it might not work for everyone; however it is currently working for me (running as I'm typing) so I thought I'd share.

Apparently, what happens is that you receive a .NET Exception. This happens when the result set that your query returns (in my case, I am using a "SELECT" statement to extract values into a cursor) is very large and you exceed the limits of a 32-bit virtual address space (2GB). The workaround is to run the stored procedure using the "sqlcmd" utility (as obviously CLI tools require way less resources).

Simply type 'sqlcmd' -S <servername> into your command prompt and press enter. Then type 'Use <database>' name to change to the relevant database. Press Enter' Type 'exec dbo.<sp_name>' to execute the stored procedure. Quite simple. Please let me know if this doesn't work for you. It would be interesting to try to solve more complicated problems.

Happy coding!

Hermann

Microsoft Surface RT

Hi guys,

This is my review of the new Microsoft Surface RT. I got my tablet one day ago so in the future I might post a more informed review.

Let's discuss the hardware first. The tablet has a very solid construction. It is pretty obvious that quite a lot of thought and money have gone into this design, which is something that is not very surprising giving Microsoft's need to get into the mobile market. The tablet offers all the functionality that people have come to expect from tablets, except for a GPS. Microsoft stated (regarding the lack of 3G support for the tablet) that consumer research showed that tablets the size if the Surface don't leave areas where Wi-Fi is available very often. It seems fair to assume that this might be at least a partial reason not to include a GPS either.

In addition the surface has a USB port, Micros SD card slot, and an HDMI video out slot. Clearly Microsoft is trying to penetrate the business world with its first offering. The tablet is a little more professional-looking in my opinion and thus not as sexy as an iPad. However, once again I think this simply demonstrates where Microsoft if focusing some of its efforts as well.

The software has impressed me although I will admit that the Windows store is not yet up to par with either Google Play or the Apple Store. As far as the OS goes, Microsoft has done very well as far as I can tell and there is a lot of potential there. I would suggest to wait a little bit if you want to buy a Surface, since the price might drop a little bit and the Windows Store is just going to get bigger. I will mention that it was nice when I received an email last night with a PowerPoint attachment, which I could open directly on the tablet without even skipping a beat.

Right now the Surface is a very solid offering, but if you wait a little bit, it will only get better. Like I said, there are still some things that Microsoft can (and I think will) improve. In addition, as I run into more of the tablet's particulars, I will keep mentioning them.

For those of you who already bought one, enjoy.

Hermann

Update:

I have been very impressed by the content that is available in the media store for the Xbox. I am not sure how it stacks up against the offering from Amazon, but it definitely beats Google's heftily.

Android connection problems to Google servers

Hi guys,

One of my friends ran across an issue with her new Samsung Galaxy S and I wanted to jot it down, since it seems like she is not the only person to have come across this issue. The fix in her case was quite simple.

A quick description of the issue:

When you try to sync your Google account with your phone, after inputting your username and password, the following message appears:

Your phone has to connect with Google servers to set up your account. This may take up to five minutes.

The after a while it shows the following message:

Can't establish a reliable data connection to the server.

And the fix in this case:

Go to Menu -> Settings -> Accounts & Sync -> Background Settings (Tick this)

And then Settings -> Accounts & Sync -> Add Account -> Google -> (create your account or log in)

Hope this helps some of you.

Enjoy your Android devices :)

Hermann