Tiki Techie Timbo

Move Over .com, I want .earth!

2008-06-27T09:24:00.001-07:00

I wonder how much .stuff will go for…

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/technology/27icann.html?bl&ex=1214712000&en=4026f0e3cf93a6ef&ei=5087%0A

Running Firefox 2 and 3 simultaneously

2008-06-16T08:32:00.001-07:00

http://blog.codefront.net/2007/08/20/how-to-have-firefox-3-and-firefox-2-running-at-the-same-time/

I haven't tried it yet. I'm waiting for the final release of 3 tomorrow.

Unicode and Large Data Types in SQL Server

2008-05-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Use nvarchar as a datatype in SQL Server 2005 to preserve unicode characters. Compare the following strings,
nvarchar: “hello” éЀЙẅç
varchar: “hello” é???ç

Varchar gets most but not all. Use nvarchar to be safe when working with international symbols.

Here's some good stuff I found on using unicode with SQL Server 2005, pay special attention to the Large-Value Data Types section:

Unicode Basics
The easiest way to manage character data in international databases is to always use the Unicode nchar, nvarchar, and nvarchar(max) data types, instead of their non-Unicode equivalents, char, varchar, and text.

Pasted from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187828.aspx

Using Unicode Data
Use of nchar, nvarchar, and ntext is the same as char, varchar, and text, respectively, except that:
· Unicode supports a wider range of characters.
· More space is needed to store Unicode characters.
· The maximum size of nchar columns is 4,000 characters, not 8,000 characters like char and varchar.
· The maximum size for nvarchar columns, using the max specifier, is 2^31-1 bytes. For more information about nvarchar(max), see Using Large-Value Data Types.

Pasted from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191200.aspx

Using Large-Value Data Types
Use varchar(max), nvarchar(max), and varbinary(max) data types instead of text, ntext, and image data types.

Pasted from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178158.aspx

Storage and Performance Effects of Unicode

Pasted from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189617.aspx

Remove the Blogger Navigation Bar

2008-05-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Posting this so I don't forget it again. If you want to hide the navigation bar on your blogspot blog, go into the Layout settings, click 'Edit HTML' and paste the following code right above the CSS definition for the body tag, probably right below where it says /* ---( page defaults )--- */ or /* Primary layout */.

#navbar-iframe {
height: 0px;
visibility: hidden;
display: none;
}

A solution to the problem of ColdFusion caching the table structure

2008-05-12T10:42:00.001-07:00

After changing the structure of a table in the database, I'll sometimes get the following error:

[Macromedia][SQLServer JDBC Driver]Value can not be converted to requested type.

Or, I'll add a field to the table, but ColdFusion won't recognize the change.

After googling, I found this post: Odd Issue w/ CFQueryParam from Ray Camden, which puts to rest a lot of the mysterious behavior of ColdFusion query caching that has been haunting me for so long. Turns out it's triggerred by the presence of the CFQUERYPARAM tag. Here's the solution I found (thanks Eric!):

The solution: due to caching of the odbc driver, you do NOT have to restart CF.
1. Go in the settings of the current datasource an UNCHECK 'Maintain Connections' --> submit the change
2. Rerun the page with the changed view/table/sp and make sure it's running fine.
3. Go back into the odbc settings an re-enable the 'Maintain Connections' --> submit the change
4. done!
Now everything should be working fine without restarting CF where a lot more i cached, like templates etc.

To get to the Maintain Connections option, I had to click on 'Advanced Settings' in the datasource properties in CFAdmin.

I can finally stop adding random spaces or tabs in my queries to stop ColdFusion from using the cached copy!

Getting Google Enabled: Using Google Docs - Enable Encyclopedia Britannica, Dictionary, Thesaurus

2008-02-28T13:38:00.000-08:00

Getting Google Enabled: Using Google Docs - Enable Encyclopedia Britannica, Dictionary, Thesaurus

CFLOCATION and CFFLUSH headache

2008-01-18T12:04:00.001-08:00

I wish I had known this earlier, cflocation has no effect when used after cfflush.

Sheesh.

Technology Flops

2007-12-21T11:13:00.001-08:00

Here's an old article in Computerworld I ran across today. Some of my favorites:

Smart appliances

Your refrigerator knows when you are low on milk and automatically orders more over the Internet. The cow juice and your other groceries are delivered to your front door. How has our species survived so long without this?

And the IBM PCjr. We actually owned one of those when I was a kid. It's amazing to hear how short a product lifetime it actually had.

Comparing Code in Eclipse

2007-10-30T14:13:00.001-07:00

In Eclipse, you can compare two code files and see the differences between them. This is invaluable if your live and dev versions of a certain file are different, but you don't remember how! (obviously, I experienced this today ;)

To do this, select each file by ctrl-clicking them. Then right click and select Compare with -> each other.

Link Checking Savior

2007-10-30T10:38:00.001-07:00

I found a marvelous Firefox add-on that checks links on any page. A life saver. Just install it and run it! It turns your links different colors depending on the return from the server.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/532

Syncing Outlook with SharePoint

2007-10-29T14:53:00.001-07:00

Apparently, Outlook and SharePoint are build to work well together:

http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/archive/2007/09/28/sharepoint-outlook-the-perfect-link.aspx

What I like abou this post is the ability to pretty much view any SharePoint data from Outlook, including task lists and documents, but especially the Calendar.

In my attempt to sync my Outlook calendar with SharePoint, I was given the instruction to click on 'Actions' then 'Connect to Outlook' but the 'Connect to Outlook' item was not in the menu.

I then came across this post:

http://mindsharpblogs.com/kathy/archive/2007/09/02/2802.aspx

Apparently, the feature needs to be enabled?

Pictures from CFUnited

2007-07-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

The main ballroom.

The expo.

My CFUnited Experience

2007-06-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

Until this week, I had never been to a programmer conference. Until this week, I've felt pretty isolated from the programming world. Until this week, I really didn't know where to find resources that would make me a better programmer or tools to help me code more effectively, not to mention that there even existed such things! Well, I'm extremely delighted to say that I finally feel "in the loop."

CFUnited is the "premier ColdFusion conference." Hosted just down the street in North Bethesda, I attended the main three days where they held sessions on a wonderful variety of topics from things specific to ColdFusion to general software development best practices. It's also a great place to learn what other people are doing and learn from their experiences. It's also a great place to find bloggers to read! I've added a section to the right that displays the posts I find particularly interesting.

Attachment limit for Gmail is now 20 MB

2007-05-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how big an attachment can be before it's too big? Well, if you're sending it through Gmail (I haven't tested Knell.org mail, but my guess is it's the same), the attachment limit is now 20 MB.

Official Google Blog: Bigger attachments in Gmail

Picasa Videos... YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!

2007-03-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

We can now share all those videos we have of cute babies, cute apartments, and cute ...uh...campuses? Click here to learn how!

Traffic in Google Maps...finally!

2007-03-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it took them so long!

Official Google Blog: Stuck in traffic?

Welcome to Knell.org Documents!

2007-02-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know, that now, in addition to email and calendaring, Knell.org now provides an easy way to share documents online. Just go to docs.knell.org and sign in.

Why is this so cool? If I told you, I'd have to kill you...

2007-02-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

My Dad

So I'm testing publishing to blogger using Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and it seems like a pretty good idea. The images are stored on the docs server, not blogger so the file size limitation is smaller. All the same, it was a seamless publishing process. Uploading an image in Blogger doesn't work using IE7 yet, so this might be the way to go when I'm not using Picasa or want to store the image on knell.org.

IE7 Problem with Embeded Google Video

2007-02-05T07:30:00.001-08:00

I was having a problem playing embedding Google Videos in my web pages. I finally found this post: http://weblogs.asp.net/derekh/archive/2005/08/16/422743.aspx which says to click here: http://www.macromedia.com/go/full_flashplayer_win_ie and install the Flash Player plugin. I got an error message and clicked 'Ignore' and it still works.

Short answer:

Click here. If you get an error "Abort, Retry, Ignore" click Ignore.

Google Maps for Windows Mobile

2007-02-01T12:54:00.000-08:00

So, I'm constantly looking for cool things to do with my Pocket PC. I subscribe to the official Google Blog and just now read this post about the new Google maps for the Windows Mobile platform. I tried to install their earlier version of Google Maps Mobile, the one that works on cell phones, but even with some hacks I found, it didn't ever work very well. I am excited to try this and let you know if and how it works. For more info on Google Maps Mobile, click here: Google Maps.

Network Terminology: Gateway

2006-11-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

This is an independent learning. I need to understand more specifics about networks and network terminology. I'll start with the term 'gateway.'

Gateway: The following is from Wikipedia:

Gateways that connect two IP-based networks, like TCP/IP with IPX/SPX, have two IP addresses, one on each network. An address like 192.168.1.xxx is a Local Area Network address, and is the address to which traffic is sent from the LAN. The other IP address is the Wide Area Network address, this is the address to which traffic is sent coming from the WAN. When this is the Internet, that address is usually assigned by an ISP.

When talking about the gateway IP address, commonly the LAN-address of the gateway is meant.

The addresses of computers connected to the LAN are hidden behind the gateway. That is, the WAN can only see the gateway's IP address. To regulate traffic between the WAN and the LAN, the gateway commonly performs Network Address Translation (NAT), presenting all of the LAN traffic to the WAN as coming from the gateway's WAN IP address and doing packet sorting and distribution of return WAN traffic to the local network.

A gateway can be a router, such as the one in someone's home. It can also be the ISP; there can be multiple gateways.

Here is another good blurb from Wikipedia:

Gateway, in networking technology, is a node that serves as an entrance to another network, and vice-versa. This is, in fact, an earlier name for Routers and both acutally focus on the same concept - that is, hardware or software that routes (and filters) data coming through it. This retronym, however, now describes the same hardware or software technology that are mostly implemented in corporate enterprises that not only does routing and filtering of data, but also can include added routing, proxy functionality, as well as being advanced as to have Antivirus software scanning and filtering capabilities.

Other terms to study:

subnet mask
statefull, stateless (as in statefull firewalls)

Building Drop-Down Menus

2006-10-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

I'm going to learn how to build drop-down menus. I've seen dozens of sites with them, and it's high time I learn how.

I've looked at the source code on a few websites (e.g., youngliving.com) and found an article on the ever resourceful alistapart.com.

Questions/Further Study:

What is the 'em' unit and why do people use it?
CSS Positions (relative, absolute, etc.)
What does the > in li > ul mean in a css definition?

Lecture 4: Security Tools (CSCI E-170)

2006-10-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Security Tools: reading list

Cisco Access Control Lists: a tool used to filter traffic using IP addresses and ports, specific to incoming, outgoing and established connection traffic.

Automatic Extraction of Computer Virus Signatures: wow, what a long document. Pretty technical. I'll read it later.

ARP Spoofing and Poisoning (www.linux-magazine.com): ARP stands for 'address resolution protocol.' An internal attack, "ARP spoofing puts an attacker in a position to sniff and manipulate local traffic." ARP maps IP addresses to MAC addresses.

ugh...I just spent too long reading about Homestar Runner on www.hrwiki.org.

Okay. I'm done for today.

First Post: Statement of Intent

2006-10-20T07:26:00.000-07:00

I've created this blog for a specific purpose: to log my studies in information technology. I am a student at Harvard's Extension School working towards a masters degree in information management systems (with the possibility of switching to software engineering). I am in my second semester and have already taken CSCI E-160, Java for Distributed computing.

This will also be a general IT weblog. I can see how this would be useful in case I ever want to remember what I had learned after the fact.

Let me explain the name of the blog. When I was a child, my mom would read a book to me called Tikki Tikki Tembo about a boy with a very long name who gets stuck in a well. His brother, Chen, runs to get help, but it takes him so long to say his brother's long name, that his brother nearly drowns in the well. It is a traditional Chinese folktale to explain why Chinese names are so short. I take it to mean 'keep things simple.' I changed the spelling of the first word out of ignorance, but you can find interesting information about the definition of the word 'tiki' here. The second word change should be obvious: this is a tech blog. The third word 'Timbo' was what my roommates would call me in college. So I thought it fitting to use it here. The URL for this blog is different because tikitikitimbo is easier to remember and explain than tikitechitimbo (whew!).

I don't expect anyone else to read this but me. If I do get some readership, I can see how their comments and suggestions could enhance my learning. I welcome it, but see that as highly unlikely.

And with that...