tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38094364232828688312009-11-20T10:36:12.001-08:00Living in an Internet-enabled worldMishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]Blogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-83914977948436279282009-08-09T05:30:00.000-07:002009-08-10T05:31:11.954-07:00

Previously, I demonstrated a simple technique for creating SQL queries that produce crosstab-style output. The technique involves wrapping CASE statements in aggregate functions, which makes for clean, readable source.In the previous examples, I used hardcoded individual cases to compute each shipper in its own column. While easy to do, this isn't exactly a data-driven solution. It would be

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-7356912665649632342009-08-08T05:30:00.000-07:002009-08-08T05:30:00.677-07:00

This week's programming exercise is using SQL to generate crosstab-style datasets from a SQL Server database. Using the Northwind database as our sample, we'll say that we want to derive crosstab reports to show aggregates of orders by customer.A clever use of the SQL Server CASE statement is helpful here. The CASE statement in a query allows a column to be computed based on multiple possible

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-79447812014334044112009-08-06T05:30:00.000-07:002009-08-06T05:30:00.828-07:00

Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of country music. When I first heard about the band Her & Kings County, I was told they're a good country band, actively gigging across the U.S.A and opening for the likes of Kid Rock. While the country influence is definitely there, to call Her & Kings County a country band is to unfairly limit them to a single genre when there are all kinds of musical

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-81872606574710086882009-08-03T05:30:00.000-07:002009-08-03T05:56:32.779-07:00

The Nintendo Wii has recently reached a milestone, selling over 50 million units since its debut in 2006. Its typically-bundled companion, Wii Sports, has worldwide lifetime sales in excess of 47 million. A quick look through Wikipedia suggests that Wii Sports is the best-selling video game of all time, and thus quite likely the most-played video game of all time.Of course, Wii Sports' sales

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-62769339910884577412009-08-01T13:10:00.000-07:002009-08-01T14:47:09.849-07:00

The C# programming tip this week is a follow-up to last week's Simple Dirty Tracking for WinForms in which I demonstrated a simple technique for coding the functionality of tracking whether or not a user has changed a document since its last save. This is useful for prompting the user to "save changes" upon closing a "dirty" document. The technique involved creating a controller class that

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-39997467914408581912009-07-30T05:30:00.000-07:002009-07-30T05:30:01.152-07:00

It is amazing to me what a difference a polished photo or image can make in a blog article. You can see a difference - blogs with great article content but no pictures feel like they are lacking something. It may be that the splash of color or other artistic composition in an image appeals to one part of the brain while the words appeal to another, providing a more holistic experience as a

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-66805070340365292852009-07-28T05:00:00.000-07:002009-07-28T05:54:35.462-07:00

It feels like we're on the cusp of a new industry - or at least an upheaval in an existing one. A battle is emerging among startups and established giants over streamed video games, one that I see as a precursor toward streamed computing.The players are staking their claims. We have Onlive, whose approach centers around solving the growing problem for publishers that games are costing more and

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-44117560223906193692009-07-26T05:30:00.000-07:002009-07-26T05:30:00.689-07:00

I consider myself a terrible writer. Part of the reason I began this blog was the possibly misguided hope that forcing myself to write more frequently would improve my ability to communicate. It may be that I'm too hard on myself, but the process of writing is something I continue to find more tedious than joyful. I am hoping that in time, and with practice, that can change.I do respect those

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-67208717289010847272009-07-25T12:14:00.000-07:002009-07-25T20:37:45.927-07:00

A common requirement for Windows Forms applications is to track whether or not a user has made changes to a document. Upon closing, the application can check if the document has been changed (considered "dirty") and prompt the user to save. If the document isn't "dirty" - if it hasn't been changed since its last save - the application can forego such a prompt.A simple way to create this

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-75571876688423662632009-07-24T05:30:00.000-07:002009-07-24T05:30:00.585-07:00

A good portion of my job involves deriving useful information from data - through extraction, analysis, modeling, waterboarding... whatever it takes to make the data talk. I am fascinated by the presentation of data and discovered the web site http://infosthetics.com. "Infosthetics" is a portmanteau of "information aesthetics" and the site is a blog highlighting interesting presentations of

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-20664678553817649612009-07-22T05:00:00.000-07:002009-07-23T10:50:18.730-07:00

Barnes & Noble announced this week the launch of their eBookstore, selling digitally distributed books, akin to Amazon's Kindle service. B&N provides reader software for the iPhone/iPod Touch and Blackberry devices as well as PC and Mac operating systems. Their announcement also included a statement of a strategic partnership with Plastic Logic, whose e-Reader device currently under development

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-73290355819973584492009-07-20T05:31:00.000-07:002009-07-21T10:27:00.340-07:00

From time to time I stumble upon a web site that offers something of unique utility for me. The other day I discovered BlankSheetMusic.net, which as the domain name implies, offers a toolset for creating and printing custom blank sheet music.There are some terrific music notation software packages available, but for composition I still appreciate the creative freedom that comes when sketching

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-90067550145546320262009-07-16T06:09:00.001-07:002009-07-16T06:18:20.681-07:00

I had a strange exchange with Windows Vista in which I was prompted to run my favorite text editor as Administrator. I ended up clicking “Yes”, and then realized that my text editor was no longer recognizing the drives mapped by my favorite FTP-mapping-to-drive utility.Assuming the elevation in access was putting me in a different user account context, I decided the solution was to re-run the

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-12154831426556982552009-07-09T13:40:00.000-07:002009-07-09T14:01:54.940-07:00

A month ago I wrote an article about several trends in web computing that were marginalizing the importance of the traditional PC operating system, at least from an average user's perspective as a platform for running applications. Significantly this month, Google has announced the Google Chrome OS - a lean operating system based on a Linux kernel that treats the Chrome browser as the

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-69419639497161186942009-06-06T17:06:00.000-07:002009-07-22T23:37:45.109-07:00

Ah, the Operating System. That layer of software that speaks directly to the hardware in a computer, functioning as a host for applications. It is the interface that lets application developers avoid having to deal with the complex inner workings of the hardware itself. OS's like CP/M, MS-DOS, System 1.0, Windows 3.1 all seem humble today, but their evolution and their descendants have helped

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3809436423282868831.post-8845946995805405722009-05-27T12:48:00.000-07:002009-07-22T17:41:53.350-07:00

I was in attendance recently at the Usual Suspects radio show, where the spry host asked each of us present for a definition of cloud computing. The ensuing conversation was interesting, and though we touched on Web 2.0-style applications, generally speaking we settled on something like the following definition: cloud computing is the delivery of hosted services over the Internet. Our

Mishahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11925183997827187124[email protected]0