Azure Sql Services – let’s try!

I decided to ask for a test account in the preview phase of Azure sql services, and today I’m trying to connect to it.

The signup process is quite easy and simple; once logged, I reach the web administration console for my databases.

I created my first db, 1gb maximum size. Now I want to connect to it using SSMS (Sql Server Management Studio) from my laptop. In the console there is a useful link to ready made “connection strings”, I use them to fill the SSMS connection dialog – but hey! I cannot connect…

After some clicking around I notice that I can setup the “firewall rules” in order to gain access from my IP. Let’s try.

The connection error actually states that I cannot connect from 78.14.234.1, so I fill the form to setup a “grant access” rule, as in the screenshot below:

Now I can connect successfully! And I can launch a New Query against my db, and run some (useless, I know) statements like:

The statements are quite silly, just to prove that I can do DDL.

Now I see that I cannot use the SSMS native “Object Explorer”, and looks like it’s impossible.

Looks like there are some alternative tool in this field, with some limitation (it’s a brave new world…); for example http://hanssens.org/tools/sqlazuremanager/ – Sql Azure Manager; is a tool developed to connect to Azure. It’s a ClickOnce setup, around 3.76 Mb in size. Once downloaded and installed, it prompts for your database connection parameter and you’re in.

There is also a web-based tool, Omega.MSSQL, at https://onlinedemo.cerebrata.com/SQLAzureClient/default.aspx. I cannot connect through this, but I found good opinions on it, so maybe it’s a problem on my side.

Another tool: “Gem Query Tool for Sql Azure”, here: http://microguru.com/gem/ – it’s very simple and lacks a lot of features… but again, I think that all these tools are too young to tell.

So far so good. I’ll keep you informed on this subject as I understand better. Bye!

Windows Mobile Device Cannot Connect (or Quickly Disconnect or Drop) and Not Sync with Vista WMDC (ActiveSync)

Sometimes my Wondows Mobile phone stops syncing with the laptop, and I always go nut trying to discover the reason of this behavior.

Today while searching on Bing I found a page that shows  the solution in a very clear way, and here is the link to that:

Windows Mobile device cannot connect or quickly disconnect

Happy syncing!

.net, accessing web services test form

I know, this is a trivial thing for you all… but I still have problems in remembering, so I’ll note here this little snippet.

To enable the web service test form (that you can access only if call the web service in localhost) you will have to add to your web config these lines:

    <system.web>
    <webServices>
        <protocols>
            <add name="HttpGet"/>
            <add name="HttpPost"/>
        </protocols>
    </webServices>
    </system.web>

Windows 7 new shortcuts, very useful

New and absolutely useful shortcuts on Win7, thanks Claudio for showing me.

- WinKey + direction keys: moves around the top window (the one that has focus). If you press WinKey + up arrow, the window will bw maximized. Guess what the WinKey + down arrow dows?

- WinKey + shift + left or right keys: moves the current window on the corresponding screen if using more than one (why, are you still developing on a single monitor setup?)

- In Explorer windows, try Shift + Ctrl + n. Ok, I waited for this almost ten years…

Bye!

ila

Project Euler and Algorithmatic

I registered on Project Euler and Algorithmatic.com, and found this synergy: I uploaded my solution to http://projecteuler.net/ first problem on algorithmatic.com here: http://www.algorithmatic.com/algorithm/31/version-1/project-euler-1/

NoniGPSPlot – a great (freeware) GPS tracking tool

I don’t know why I missed this one until now – but NoniGPSPlot is a very good GPS tool, one that I will absolutely want on every windows mobile device I’ll have in my hands.

It’s a sort of GPS swiss knife, the number of possibile uses is endless. It will track your path on the display, showing… well, everything about your movements: speed, altitude, length, direction, start and end time… yesterday I discovered that in my way home I had to stop (traffic lights and so on) for 8 minutes on 35 total. And that my work place is higher than my house, and a lot of other things.

I don’t know if my enthusiasm is a geek one :-) but this tool is great. For sure I’ll donate some money to the developer for this.

Please read all about the features here and see some screenshots here!

NoniGPSPlot, windows mobile, freeware.

Ciao!

Google Wave – I’m in the dev sandbox

Yes, I’m in: still have to understand well how to move around… anyway if you’re in and want to “wave” at me I have two accounts: ila@wavesandbox.com and indialimaalpha@wavesandbox.com

See you there, Ciao!

Some good Windows Mobile free software

Recently I downloaded and installed some very good software on m win mobile phone. Just want to make a short list and give you some links, maybe you’re interested.

Iris browser: go here and download this web browser, Iris - http://irisbrowser.com/ – I’m using it and I’m very happy with it. Also Skyfire is very good, but on my device Iris is faster. I really like the three switchable views “desktop / column / mobile”. In Mobile mode gmail is rendered like you are on iPhone. This simply means that some fancy javascript features just work :-)

Pocket Sudoku: http://klargodut.com/sudoku/ this sudoku player / generator / solver is great.

YomoMedia RSS reader: http://www.yomomedia.com/reader.php Yomomedia is a combination between a desktop, web based rss aggregator and a windows mobile client. Both apps can modify settings, add channels, and so on, and the other client will adapt. This hybrid solution (even if I do not like so much the fact that someone has my rss choices on his server) gives a better and faster experience. Free. Very good. http://twitter.com/yomomedia

amAze gps: more than 2 years ago a free gps navigation software caught my attention; then, given the fact that they had no windows mobile versions of their software I almost forgot of it, but some days ago I went back to http://www.amazegps.com/ and discovered that now the WinMo version is available… and it works perfectly, at least on my Asus P552w. A free GPS navigation software, works both with internal and external GPS. http://twitter.com/amAzeGPS

Windows 7 and Cisco

Yesterday i installed Windows 7 on my work laptop, and one of the first software I tried to run is the Cisco VPN Client.

The release of the Cisco client I used before (5.0.00.0340) wasn’t working anymore. It did not even start correctly. I searched on the web and found that you can make it work applying some workarounds (see here for example); anyway I had the chance to install a newer version, 5.0.05.0290, and with this I can connect correctly to my work network.

Telnet on Windows 7

I noticed that telnet is not enabled by default in my Win7 laptop. Do not know if this is something that happens by default on alla the Win7 setups, anyway you can re-enable it doing so:

• Open Control Panel
• Go to Programs
• Click on “Turn Windows features on or off”
• Scroll down, you’ll find the “Telnet Client” unchecked. Check it, confirm, you’re done.

Windows 7

As Microsoft released the RTM for Windows 7, on MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/) I decided to go along the upgrade path for my Windows Vista Ultimate laptop.

First of all, I had to download the dvd iso to my pc. And even if it’s middle august I thought that I had to show some patience… but to my surprise (and I think thank to Akamai) I could download and burn the 2.4GB image in less than 2 hours. Better than torrents :-)

Now, let’s start the in-place upgrade. It’s 8:45 in the morning. Setup starts.

First, some compatibility checks, and I have to uninstall Avira, Setup states that’s not compatible… ok, I’ll find a solution after. Uninstall Avira, reboot, restart setup.

From now on, I have nothing to do on the setup: it will restart the computer three or four times, but it will need no user input.I have the first automated  reboot after about one hour. Then I forget the pc, until the last reboot at… 16:30!!!

Incredible: 2 hours to download, almost eighth to install!!!

Now I have Win7 running, it kept all of my previous desktop setup, comprising Fences that  use to unclutter my desktop icons, and all the startup utilities like Clipx or others.

I still need time to get used to the new interface – mainly on the taskbar settings. I’ll tell you more in a few days, probably.

In the end I have to say that everything went fine, it only took more time than I expected.

Ciao!

This post speaks of a plugin that will link to this post through Twitter

I’m using Windows Live Writer to write these posts, and today I added a new plugin that will permit to tweet a link to this post on Twitter.

The plugin is here on the Windows Live Gallery, and the use is really simple. You can modify the "publishing template mask” in the WLW Options menu, and when you publish the post the plugin fires a new Tweet, with the post’s url shortened on TinyUrl.

Very useful!

This post is boring.

The web is an exciting place, isn’t it?

Well, sometimes not so much.

I encountered only a couple days ago the “Dullest Blog in the World”, at dullestblog.com – and found it addictive in a strange, unexpected way.

The boring aspect of this is that the blog is not even updated, and this is perfectly “in style” with the blog.

An article on this Dullest Blog appeared some weeks ago on MSNBC here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27792365/?pg=1#Tech_PCWorld_11LamestBlogs 

A site that around here had a huge success, and that is “useless” more than “boring”, is http://www.zombo.com “you can do anything on zombo com” is the site’s claim.

And now I found also a Twitter account that looks promising, http://twitter.com/dullestweet – more or less in the same mood of the mentioned blog.

Any other recommendations for “boring” sites?

A Mobile Wikipedia

I missed completely this, but Wikipedia officially launched a mobile version, at http://mobile.wikipedia.org/

For me this is a great news, as the “standard” Wikipedia interface is difficult to handle on a mobile device, even with a good browser as SkyFire is (non-us residents read this). And I often look for info on Wikipedia, both english an italian versions, on my mobile device.

Tried it, and it’s good: fast and well-organized, all internal links point to “mobilized” versions of the pages, I like this.

Friend Connect here on Indialimaalpha

I added the friend connect gadget on this Blogger blog.

It was (obviously) easy: as Blogger is a Google platform, I did not have to upload any file on the hoster site, I simply had to fill up a form and copy the (customized) gadget html snippet on this page, using the standard tools offered.

So… let’s see how this FriendConnect works!

Bye,

Andrea

Twitter: not only "What are you doing?"…

I’m amazed at seeing the tons of tweets that are flowing right now regarding the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

You can follow this flow using for example the hashtags.org service, here for the #mumbai tag:http://www.hashtags.org/tag/mumbai – but you can search other similar services on the web, that use Twitter as a source, filtering tweets with different technologies and scopes.

As you will see, and as you will see in any other similar occasion, the tweets that users are writing are very focused on giving other people real time news, and exchanging practical information: now I’m reading the phone number that you can try if you want to donate blood in Mumbai, to help the injured, but this is only an example.

This is a characteristic of Twitter that always surprises me.

On Twitter you have a list of “followers” and you “follow” other people. Normally the choice on who you’re going to follow is based on common interests, other times you decide to follow someone because in some tweets you see that one of your direct contacts are quoting some interesting tweets of other users that you go and follow directly… in this way the community network is linked in a previously unpredictable way, and the synapses create paths that permit an information flow that’s really new, and amazing.

I’m very happy to be a Twitter user, in this kind of situations. 

BTW, I’m http://twitter.com/ila

Windows Mobile: Messaging not working, a solution

Sometimes in WM5 (but also in WM6, I’m sure) the messaging system stops working. You cannot even open the inbox, or send an SMS, nothing.

If you find yourself in this situation… try this:

- open your storage card file system
- look for a folder named Inbox.mst12345678 (the number here may change) 
- delete it and reboot your device.

This should work, hope this helps!

Shutdown! Now!!!

Sometimes I need to do a shutdown on computers thru command-line, and every time I need to look for the correct parameters list. So I decided today to write here some hints.

The command needed to force a restart on a windows vista computer is:

shutdown /t 0 /f /r

Btw you can force a shutdown or restart also on remote computers, and in this case the command is

shutdown /t 0 /f /r /m \\computername

I noticed that depending on the OS version you will be using “-“ instead of “/” to prefix commands. So for example on Win Server 2000 you could be using:

shutdown -t 0 -f -r

And finally here’s a complete parameters list:

C:\>shutdown
Usage: shutdown [/i | /l | /s | /r | /g | /a | /p | /h | /e] [/f]
    [/m \\computer][/t xxx][/d [p|u:]xx:yy [/c "comment"]]

    No args    Display help. This is the same as typing /?.
    /?         Display help. This is the same as not typing any options.
    /i         Display the graphical user interface (GUI).
               This must be the first option.
    /l         Log off. This cannot be used with /m or /d options.
    /s         Shutdown the computer.
    /r         Shutdown and restart the computer.
    /g         Shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is
               rebooted, restart any registered applications.
    /a         Abort a system shutdown.
               This can only be used during the time-out period.
    /p         Turn off the local computer with no time-out or warning.
               Can be used with /d and /f options.
    /h         Hibernate the local computer.
               Can be used with the /f option.
    /e         Document the reason for an unexpected shutdown of a computer.
    /m \\computer Specify the target computer.
    /t xxx     Set the time-out period before shutdown to xxx seconds.
               The valid range is 0-600, with a default of 30.
               Using /t xxx implies the /f option.
    /c "comment" Comment on the reason for the restart or shutdown.
               Maximum of 512 characters allowed.
    /f         Force running applications to close without forewarning users.
               /f is automatically set when used in conjunction with /t xxx.
    /d [p|u:]xx:yy  Provide the reason for the restart or shutdown.
               p indicates that the restart or shutdown is planned.
               u indicates that the reason is user defined.
                 if neither p nor u is specified the restart or shutdown is unplanned.
               xx is the major reason number (positive integer less than 256).
               yy is the minor reason number (positive integer less than 65536).

Accessing web services from swf – never use virtual directories

Today I learned something, as usual the hard way :-(

We were deploying a “dynamic banner” developed in flash, and we were already late: this banner is going to access a web service (that we developed, .Net 2.0, Sql server-based) every time is loaded in a web page.

Now, to keep things easy, I decided to deploy the web service in a virtual directory in the production servers, such avoiding the need of updating DNS etc etc (the domain is maintained elsewhere, we are only host for this initiative).

Then when we switched in the production environment, the banner loaded from other domains… simply did not call anything but the web service WSDL.

After one “panic hour” without understanding where the problem was, and modifying in every known way the crossdomain.xml file, it came to my mind that maybe the problem was the virtual directory.

We moved as fast as possible everything in a new domain by itself and – MAGIC – now everything works.

So when dealing with swf that need to access server resources – never use virtual directories!!!

Bye

Networking and Volume Icons in notification area

Sometimes, for reasons that are obscure to me, the networking and volume icons in the notification area disappear, and there is no way to have them back, as the corresponding check boxes in the Notification Area panel are greyed out and not clickable. Note, I’m running Windows Vista Business edition, do not know if this solution applies to all Vista flavours.

There are different ways to solve this, through Policy editing, or through registry hacking.

I prefer the registry way, it’s simpler and faster: you only have to be careful.

The solution is simply to remove the registry keys named

- HideSCAVolume

- HideSCANetwork

from:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Hope this helps!