Thursday, September 27, 2012

Breaking News: Packt finished publishing its 1000th Book

Aloha,

Packt is celebrating and I have been a part of this success story. Particpate in the celebration and get a free eBook to mark this occasion.

Just go to Packt's web site and register yourself if you are not already registered. The rest is simple.
 
If you are looking for jump starting your SQL Server / Applications you search for eBook versions of my books shown here:



Good luck
Mahalo
 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Windows Azure SQL Database Service Update

In a recent update to the Azure SQL database service the following features were added:
  • Support for linked servers-
  • Distributed Queries against the database-local & Azure databases
  • Support recursive triggers
  • Support for DBCC Show_Statistics
Firewall configuration at database level (previously at Server level)-You get better control
Firewalls can be set up at the portal or through T-SQL-makes life easier.
 
If you want to look at earlier service updates you can find them in my book:
 


 
Links to linked server, distributed queries etc. here,
 

MySQL Linked Server | Jayaram Krishnaswamy

jayaramkrishnaswamy.sys-con.com/node/1060191
Aug 4, 2009 – Jayaram Krishnaswamy is a technical writer, mostly writing articles that are related to the web and databases. He is the author of SQL Server ...

 

MS Access Linked Server, comparing providers | Jayaram ...

jayaramkrishnaswamy.sys-con.com/node/1004765Cached
Jun 16, 2009 – In this article on SSWUG.org web site, the MSDASQL OLE DB ODBC driver is compared with Microsoft Jet 4.0 as related to creating a linked ...

Microsoft Jet or MSDASQL for Linked Servers? | Jayaram ...

https://jayaramkrishnaswamy.ulitzer.com/node/1064612Cached
Aug 7, 2009 – Jayaram Krishnaswamy is a technical writer, mostly writing articles that are related to the web and databases. He is the author of SQL Server ...

 

Latest Articles in the Category SQL

dotnetslackers.com/articles/sql/?page=1&sort=2Cached
Jayaram Krishnaswamy, May 21, 2009. Views: 18,484 Avg Rating: 0/5 Votes: 0 Comments: 0. This article explains how to set up a Postgres linked server on SQL ...

Creating a linked Postgres Server on SQL Server 2008

dotnetslackers.com › Recent ArticlesSQLCached - Similar
... on SQL Server 2008. Published: 21 May 2009. By: Jayaram Krishnaswamy. This article explains how to set up a Postgres linked server on SQL Server 2008.

MySQL Linked Server on SQL Server 2008 | Packt Publishing

www.packtpub.com › Articles.NETCached - Similar
by Jayaram Krishnaswamy | August 2009 | .NET Microsoft. Linking servers provides an elegant solution when you are faced with running queries against ...


 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Mitigating the FBI Green DOT MoneyPak Virus

This was quite bothersome virus which froze the screen with its own screen purporting to be from FBI warning you of some dire consequences, unless you send $100 to them on recieving which they will unclock your computer.

I got this on my Laptop which was dual boot Win7/Win8. I could access Win8 but not WIn7. Win7 got infected.

The first thing I tried was to restore it to an earlier point. I chose a point some 3 days earlier to the day I encountered this frozen screen. It did not do any good. It came right back.
I searched the web here and there. At least I knew it was a scam. I did read someone got so scared he was contemplating committing suicide, may be he was doing something illegal and felt that he may be caught.

Then I got hold of Norton 360 6.0 and scanned the whole system on the Win7 side. It had no clue. It found some 7 non-consequential cookies which it removed. I called up Norton and chatted for a while. Well, they told me that Norton 360 6.0 should do the job but they would provide a technicain with whose help I could remove the bug. The cost was $99.99 for this service. I was not prepared to part with the money and I wanted to try other options. I also downloaded few others, but I was not quite sure they would do the job.

These are some related sites where you may find some help:
http://www.spywareremove.com/removefbigreendotmoneypakvirus.html
http://www.zimbio.com/Remove+Malware/articles/9kb7G7Lpj5K/Uninstall+FBI+Green+Dot+Moneypak+Virus+Effective
http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-360/MoneyPak-FBI-virus-Green-Dot/td-p/808830

My advice, forget about Norton, don't pay them $99.99 not even $9.99, send me a $1 for my advice.

If anyone is interested I can provide the transcript of the chat.
Here is my fix:
I went back and restored the computer to a date in August 2012. It's gone and I am rid of that ransomeware. MSFT has a good thing in its SYSTEM Restore.

BTW, when you choose to restore choose the OS that is infected, in case you have multi-os on your computer.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Cute Windows 8 Phone from HTC

Competition is heating up. HTC launched two NFC supported phones Phone 8x (for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) and Phone 8S with Windows 8 with screen resolution of 1280x720 (8x) and 800x480(8c).

Both use the Snapdragon S4 processor from Qualcom's system on a chip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_(system_on_chip)#Snapdragon_S4). Some say that 8x almost indistinguishable from Lumia 920,http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57516060-94/htc-windows-phone-8x-vs-nokia-lumia-920-specs-and-more/ (competition heating across the board at all levels!).

HTC is third behind Apple and Samsung in the market share in North America (http://www.hartware.de/news_55910.html).

 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Research in Motion goes for Microsoft's exFAT

This deal will be one of several taht Microsoft signed with others such as, Panasonic, Sony and Cannon (all Japanese). The motivation for RIMM is to be able to face Apple and Google squarely in the face and of course it aligns with Microsoft's wish as well.

exFAT created for flash drives has better specs than the FAT system (which is not all that fat, could not stiffle the pun) in terms of file sizes (32 exabytes vs 32GB), formatting size, files in a directory limits all eliminated. Vista was not popular but exFAT was made its debut in Vista SP1. You may ask why not NTFS but NTFS has overheads for its special structure not suited for a small footprint.

exFAT is not just for Microsoft windows you can use it on MAC as well for models later than with SnowLeopard (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2790170?start=0&tstart=0)

Well, good luck to you RIMM.


Get a some more tech info here:
http://www.on-time.com/rtos-32-docs/rtfiles-32/programming-manual/in-embedded-applications/

Of course there is a lot on Wikipedia as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT
 

Friday, September 14, 2012

Troxell's 3rd Annual Education Day in Honolulu


The advances in the Internet; Video & Audio, and computer software have made it possible to address the growing need of Interactive presentation with preconfigured, easy to use array of hardware and software solutions.

Troxell (www.etroxell.com) brought several vendors of these together at their 3rd Annual Education Day in Honolulu  (9/14/2012) at the Hawaii Community college.

I interacted and spoke with some of the vendors and reviewed the demos. I would say the gamut of devices available was very impressive. I gleaned talking to them that quite a lot of them were sold to schools and I wonder how come our education system is not all that we can brag about. One of them made a very interesting comment. He said, 'some of them have the required devices, but they are not sure how to use them as quite a lot of them are not computer savvy'. Well if the school is going to drop dollars in purchasing they should at least train some people to use them'.

When I was growing up, we just had black board and chalk (it was actually called chalk-piece which the teachers once in a while used as a projectile to alert an inattentive student). Years later the 'Magic lantern' made its debut. Then came the slide projectors.

Even in recent years some of this technology has not made its way to the meeting rooms in technology presentations; you still hear the audio system making more noise than delivering signal with the hapless speaker seeking some desperate help. I am sure the audio-video systems in many of the hotels that provide venue for the various events need a complete overhaul.

I interacted with some of the vendors and enjoyed the demos:

FrontRow (goFrontrow.com)-Giving every student a front row seat.
The demo of a public address system such as those used in seminars and technical talks was quite impressive. The main speaker microphone and optionally four from the audience can all call up the same system and the whole audio interaction captured and saved for archival purposes. Sound reproduction was excellent and above the general din.

NEC (necdisplays.com)-Large screen LCD Displays, Desktop LCD Monitors and Multimedia Projectors

ELMO (www.elmousa.com): Document Camera [a digital magic lantern] (wireless slate/tablet). I was pleasantly surprised that they are still in business. I knew some people at ELMO in Nagoya eons ago.

OWI -Incorporated (Private schools and Charter schools may get a free class room media system-call them, info@owi-inc.com or 310-515-1900)

SP Controls, Inc.  (www.doceri.com or www.spcontrols.com)-Professional iPad interactive whiteboard and screen cast recorder

Optoma (www.optomaUSA.com)-Environment friendly (LED) projectors were on display-I may even buy a TL50W that you can carry in your coat packet. For a small device it was quite good.

Samsung (www.samsungPresenterusa.com)-High Resolution Digital Presenter

Lumens Integration Inc.(www.myLadibug.com), HD document camera (cute looking) with lot of interactive software.

Hitachi- LCD projectors

Smart Technologies (www.smarttech.com)-Interctive white board, Integrated porjectors etc.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Musings on Apple minus NFC on iPhone5


Looks like Apple is satisfied with Passbook for now and has not gone for NFC. What are they thinking? Do they want to shore up passbook against a more useful NFC Technology. Despite Apple not choosing NFC, it will be a thing that is sure to come and stay. Apple says NFC adoption is slow but how long did it take to go from desktop to smartphone? Proxama (http://www.proxama.com/products-and-services/)has taken upon itself to provide an interface to NFC from iPhone5 could only be a temporary fix. Follow the full story here. here:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231257/iPhone_5_Why_no_NFC_



SmarterPhones than Apple such as those from Google,Microsoft,Nokia have accepted to support NFC including many wireless carriers.

Read previous NFC posts here:

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2012/05/will-nokia-bundled-with-nfc-steal.html

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2012/07/e-komo-mai-windows-8-phone.html


Thursday, September 06, 2012

ATIV S is just the tip of the iceberg

Here is some brief  info gathered from Samsung's site: http://www.samsung.com/global/ativ/


ATIV S with Windows 8 debutted recently is just the tip of the iceberg and soon more of it will be visible and available. A rather serious contender for the Apple's hegemony.


ATIV Tab, a tablet that runs a great marathon with Windows RT and what its makers call 'outstanding mobility'



ATIV Smart PC - a tablet and a notebook PC combo that morphs easily from one to the other.

ATIV SmartPC Pro designed for Windows 8 with Full PC Experiecne with Intel Coe i5/i3 processor, clam shell design with a full qwerty.

Watch these stocks: MSFT, NOK 
Even Mad Money Cramer likes MSFT and says Steve is going to resurrect MSFT

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Over 1 billion ID database


Have you heard of Aadhaar?

If not, read the following:
The following is copied over from:
http://uidai.gov.in/what-is-aadhaar-number.html



"Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the Government of India.

This number will serve as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in India.

Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident in India and satisfies the verification process laid down by the UIDAI can enrol for Aadhaar.

Each individual needs to enroll only once which is free of cost.

Each Aadhaar number will be unique to an individual and will remain valid for life. Aadhaar number will help you provide access to services like banking, mobile phone connections and other Govt and Non-Govt services in due course.


Some other information about Aadhaar:
Aadhaar will be:
Easily verifiable in an online, cost-effective way
Unique and robust enough to eliminate the large number of duplicate and fake identities in government and private databases
A random number generated, devoid of any classification based on caste, creed, religion and geography"

I guess building Pyramids was a lot easier!! Crime should come down. Identity theft can become more difficult. Any big brother watching issues, I know not. Well it is just identifying scheme nothing to do with any other activity such as entitlements etc.

The technology used which is open source can be viewed here:
http://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar-technology.html

Progress so far:





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