wala lang

End RDP Session Remotely

2010-03-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

Another note. I'm sure it happened a lot of times for somebody who has worked on a Windows Server. You can't log in because the terminal service allows only 2 connections. Error message is: "Terminal Server has exceeded the maximum number of allowed connections." This happened to me when my Windows XP crashed while RDP'd to one of our servers. Problem is I can't log in again to that particular server. Here's what I did in command line to end my session remotely so I can log back in.

Try the following command from your local machine. If 'query' command isn't working, you can try logging in to another server or machine that has 'query' command enabled, then do the following...

SSIS Bug – The DataFlow task has no components

2010-01-27T15:10:00.001-08:00

Have you ever experienced this nasty bug in SSIS. You create a package in SSIS and after adding all your data flow tasks and making sure you got everything ok, now when you finally run your package, nothing happens. Then looking at the progress window, you see this warning message: “[DTS.Pipeline] Warning: The DataFlow task has no components. Add components or remove the task.” What happened? Then you try to run it again, then nothing happens still. Now when you close your project and re-open it. Some of your control flow items no longer can be read or some are missing. Huh! Now blood pressure starts to rise.

What’s going on? Apparently, something’s gone wrong with the XML serializer. Remember all packages are saved in XML format. So somehow when it’s done that, some of the components were not recorded properly. When I tried to trace which components gone bad, I was able to determine that it was my Flat-file connection. I got this error message when I tried to edit it:

As it turned out, the flat file itself has some weird characters in the first line. Because I’m using the first line to get my column names, this causes the serializer error. So my solution is to skip the first line and just use the generic Column 0, Column 1 headings. The downside is I have got ambiguous columns but at least not that nasty error.

Again, just a note to myself.

SQL SERVER – Shrinking Truncate Log File – Log Full

2009-11-23T18:08:00.001-08:00

I always forget how to do this. Here’s how it is done:

SQL SERVER – Shrinking Truncate Log File – Log Full « Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave

GridView with ModalPopupExtender - Do not enclose in UpdatePanel

2009-10-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

I will write this up later on. It took me a while to figure this out. Apparently there's a collision between UpdatePanel and ModalPopupExtender, they don't play nice together. I'll stub this for a moment and I will explain later.

CSS Code Snippet Green Dark Background

2009-10-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

I like this CSS code snippet. I got it from here. Looks like a very good idea for distraction free writing.

body { font: 16px "Courier New"; color: #00ff00 !important; background: #000 !important; width: 800px; margin: 10px auto; }

How to Upgrade to the Latest Padre

2009-09-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

Very simple!

perl -MCPAN -e "CPAN->upgrade('/^Padre/')"

Insurance 411

2009-09-24T20:50:00.001-07:00

http://www.insurance-411.org/

Fill this out, I will later. I think this is very important. From the website...

Welcome to Insurance 411, a Web tool which allows users to keep personal insurance information at their fingertips in the event of an emergency. By entering important policy and emergency contact information users can print out a credit card-sized information sheet to keep in their wallet.

How to Install Aranight Color Theme (Style) for Padre

2009-08-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

If you liked the Padre color theme from my previous posting. You can install it now by following this procedure. As a side note, in Padre lingo, code color theme is called a "Style". Aranight is still a work in progress and as you know Padre is also a work in progress, so there's a lot of changes that are happening, so be patient and check back for updates. I will be updating Aranight style here as I go. Enjoy!

Locate the local Padre config folder by clicking Help > About. Create a styles folder in that location. Here's how the folder looks like in Win32: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Perl\Padre\styles\
Download Aranight style from here. Copy to the styles folder created earlier.
Download Monaco font from here. Install.
Restart Padre.
In Padre, click View > Style, select Aranight.
In Padre, click Edit > Preferences > Appearance. Now select the Monaco font. Change the "Editor Current Line Background Color" to R7, G65, B16. Click Save.

Here are some screenshots:
Padre IDE:

Perl file:

YAML file:

CSS file:

I discovered Padre, a new Perl IDE

2009-08-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is really cool. Padre that is. I installed it alongside Strawberry Perl in my Win32 box. It is multi-platform, so I installed it in my Ubuntu box as well. It supports syntax highlighting for Perl 5 and Perl 6. There are plugins available now for Perl 6 as well as Catalyst, more to come. I think there's a lot of potential for Padre. The cool thing also about this IDE is it's built using no other than Perl language itself. So if you want to contribute or tweak it, you can.

Btw, I tried to customize the highlighting theme by creating a new style and here's what I came up with. You can get instructions from here.

ASP.NET Utility to create SQL Server Database for Membership and Roles Management

2009-06-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok. I always forget so to save me some time, here it is...

Open up command line from Visual Studio, then run... cmd>aspnet_regsql.exe

Then execute the following...

-- Register Application
EXEC dbo.aspnet_Applications_CreateApplication 'AppName', NULL

-- Check if Application was registered
SELECT * FROM dbo.aspnet_Applications

-- Create a Role
EXEC dbo.aspnet_Roles_CreateRole 'AppName', 'Administrator'

-- Check if Role was created
SELECT * from dbo.aspnet_Roles

-- Add myself as Admin
DECLARE @Date AS DATETIME
SET @Date = (SELECT GETDATE())
EXEC aspnet_UsersInRoles_AddUsersToRoles 'AppName', 'DOMAIN\username', 'Administrator', @Date

-- Check if I got added as Admin
EXEC dbo.aspnet_UsersInRoles_GetUsersInRoles 'AppName', 'Administrator'

Google App Engine Notes

2009-06-28T02:49:00.000-07:00

Development console is here:
http://localhost:8080/_ah/admin/

Google App Engine Steps in Adding New Functionality

2009-06-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

I sure want to take note. Just so that I don't forget. I got this from this book entitled Using Google App Engine.

In order to add a new functionality to our application, take the following steps:

Decide on the URL that you want to use for the new feature.
Write a new handler—the handler can initially be simple and just handle a GET request that renders a new template.
Add a routing entry in main() to send the URL to a new handler.
Add new templates as needed.
Update the _base.htm to add any new navigation that is needed.
Build the rest of the handler code and test your new functionality.

CSS Blues

2009-06-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, I'm no designer so I don't know much about CSS. Whenever I needed to work on CSS, I google. Well I think working on CSS is both easy and difficult. Easy because it's mainly just formatting, difficult because it's frustrating at times especially when working on something that works in one browser but not on the other. Or something that works in one version but not on the other version.

Well, I just want to take note of what my CSS code looks like that works on 3 browsers, IE8, IE6 and Firefox3.

I commented the codes I added to make it work in IE6. I'm explaining this later on when I have time.

#container
{
    width: 100%;
    margin-top: 2em;
}
 
#content
{
    margin-right: 295px;
    overflow: hidden; /* IE6 cure */
    height: 100%; /* IE6 cure */
}
 
#nav
{
    float: right;
    width: 250px;
    padding: 1em;
    border: 1px silver solid;
}
 
table
{
    margin-left: 1px; /* IE6 cure */
    width: 99.9%; /* IE6 cure */
    border-collapse: collapse;
    border: 1px solid #7bb1db;
}

How to schedule a job that runs an SSIS Package in SQL Server

2009-03-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

Again I just want to document how I did it. It's hard to remember sometimes the steps taken to make things work. Specially for things that are not done everyday. In this particular case, it is confusing which user accounts or login to specify to be used by the server agent. Anyway, here's a recipe on how to make this work, just follow along...

1. Create a credential.
2. Create a proxy under SSIS Package Execution using the above credential.
3. Create a job in SQL Server Agent, and this is the important part, specify "sa" as the owner of this job.
4. Now add a Step, select SQL Server Integration Services Package type. Again this is the crucial step: Go to the Run as dropdown, then select the proxy specified above.

Now test your package and let me know if it works for you.

How to import SSIS package protected by password to Integration Services

2009-03-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so that I can remember how to do this again. When importing SSIS package from development machine to server and the package protection level is "Encrypt sensitive data with password", this is for example, when you have a package that queries from an Oracle database, and you wanted to encrypt your credentials. I always forget to specify the package protection level. I don't know if it's because of me or the UI, the Protection level textbox is grayed out so one would normally assume that it's not needed. Then one would think that everything is ok until the package is executed, and you wonder why it errors out. So anyway, so I don't forget and to save me time in finding errors that traces back to not specifying passwords properly, I'm taking these notes on how to specify package protection level...

1. In Stored Packages, right click in MSDB then select Import Package...
2. For Package Location, select File System.
3. Specify Package path and Package name.
4. Then click the ellipsis button next to the Protection level textbox...

5. Now select "Encrypt sensitive data with password", then enter password...

The breakpoint will not currently be hit

2009-03-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

This is so annoying. I'm using Visual Studio 2005, and for some reason I cannot set breakpoints to do my debugging. I tried several suggestions I can find from the net but still it doesn't work. Since I don't know the solution yet, but will expand this writeup once I figure out. But for me to debug on my ASP.NET Project right now, I added the following in my code. Important thing for me now is to debug my project.

System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break(); // DEBUG

Constructor Dependency Injection Design Pattern

2009-03-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

Note on Constructor Dependency Injection design pattern. This is how it is in C#.

private IContactManagerRepository _repository;
 
public ContactController()
    : this(new EntityContactManagerRepository())
{ }
 
public ContactController(IContactManagerRepository repository)
{
    _repository = repository;
}

Perl Design Patterns

2009-03-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

Lookin' at Design Patterns for Perl. Here's the link.

Configuring Job Property Notifications for Sql Server 2005

2009-03-03T15:49:00.000-08:00

I spent so much time figuring out how to configure Notifications in SQL Server 2005 job. One of the properties that can be enabled in a Job is "Notifications", when the job succeeds or fails or completes. I wanted to know when the Job I setup fails and so I set it to my E-mail as well as "When the job fails". But one thing about SQL Server Management Studio is that it doesn't tell you if you're lacking some more configurations. I wished it prompted me that I needed to do some other settings for it to work. Anyways, below I just wanted to outline what I did to make this work.

1. Setup Database Mail. Follow this.
2. Setup a Sql Server Agent Operator. Follow this.
3. Now Restart SQL Server Agent.

Thank you for those who wrote the posts I followed above.

Update table with data from another table in SQL Server

2009-02-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, pretty much self explanatory

UPDATE table1
SET table1.col1 = table2.col1,
table1.col2 = table2.col2
FROM table1, table2
WHERE table2.col = table1.col

Or using alias:

UPDATE A1
SET A1.col1 = A2.col1,
A1.col2 = A2.col2
FROM table1 A1, table2 A2
WHERE A2.col = A1.col

Best Practices for Query Optimization

2009-02-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take note of few tips from Pinal Dave. Certainly good reminders when creating queries.

Configure Module::Starter::PBP in Windows XP

2009-02-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

I decided to use Module::Starter::PBP when creating modules. But I got this error the first time:

C:\dev\perl\modules>module-starter --module=Dir::Walk
The Module::Starter::PBP template: t/C:./Documents isn't in the template directory (C:\Documents and Settings\user\.module-starter\PBP)

Some quirky stuffs in Windows when using this module. The initial configuration as outlined in cpan doesn't work. You need to tweak your config a little bit to accomodate this. It's not really the module's fault, but more on the way Windows handles directories, you know, spaces and backslashes, which is really a constant annoyance when you are programming perl in Windows. Anyway, here's what I did to make it work.

1. Move C:\Documents and Settings\user\.module-starter\PBP to another directory, in my case I moved it to C:\dev\perl\modules\templates\PBP.
(It's the spaces in 'Documents and Settings' that's causing the issue).

2. Modify C:\Documents and Settings\user\.module-starter\config as follows: (Note that I changed the backslashes to forwardslashes).

author: Sam Dela Cruz
email: myemail@address.com
builder: ExtUtils::MakeMaker Module::Build
plugins: Module::Starter::PBP
template_dir: C:/dev/perl/modules/templates/PBP

Plugin to Bookmark a Page in Your PDF files

2009-01-27T17:58:00.001-08:00

Books in PDF formats are very popular nowadays. But annoying thing is that the Adobe Reader which is the standard PDF reader at work doesn't come with a bookmark functionality. I just need a simple bookmark like those good old paper bookmarks. Well I found one that does the job, a plugin from this post. Thank you very much.

How to make a quick copy of SQL Server database table

2009-01-23T16:29:00.000-08:00

Here's how to create a quick copy of a database table including the data in SQL Server.

select * into [dbo].[TableName_Bak] from [dbo].[TableName]

My very first perl6 program

2009-01-07T23:41:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I promised to do some perl6 hacking over the holidays, but as it turned out, I didn't have the time to do it. Having 2 kids in the family and tons of activities lined up over the holidays didn't really gave me much room to doing other things like hacking with my computer. Anyways, another thing I did over the holidays was... tada I got a G1. And I really, really love it! Absolutely amazing piece of work. The downside is, it's going to hurt on our monthly utility bills. So my wife and I were thinking cutting down our cost. We are thinking of giving up our landline, since we both have wireless anyway. But of course wireless minutes aren't cheap either, so we gotta figure out who are actually calling us and who do we call from our landline.

Well, that can be done very easily. Since we are subscribed to comcast, incoming and outgoing phone calls are easily downloadable from their website. And so, this is a good opportunity for me to use the perfect tool for the job. Perl. But this time, I want to use Perl6. And here's what I came up with.

#!/usr/bin/perl6

my %number_of;

my $file = "CallRecords.txt";
if (my $fh = open $file, :r) {
    for =$fh -> $line {
        next if $line !~~ /Answered/ or $line ~~ /Private/;
        my ($name, $phone) = $line.split("\t")<2, 3>;
        %number_of{$name.uc} = $phone;
    }
} else {
    say "Could not open $file";
}

for %number_of.sort.kv -> $name, $phone {
    say $name ~ ' ' ~ $phone;
}

Here's the output:

0 ABXXON ROLLY  (408) 386-XXXX
1 AGUXXAR R & J (408) 251-XXXX
2 AGUXXAR RONNIE        (408) 768-XXXX
3 ALMXXEN FAMILY        (408) 997-XXXX
4 XXER FRATERNAL        (408) 984-XXXX
5 AQXXNO GREG   (408) 297-XXXX
6 AQXXNO GREG R (408) 297-XXXX
7 ARGONCXXLO S  (408) 937-XXXX
8 ARGONCXXLO SUSA       (408) 937-XXXX
9 ASXXAS DAISY  (831) 240-XXXX
10 BALIXXIT VENTUR      (408) 251-XXXX
11 XXNK OF AMERICA      (866) 512-XXXX
12 BEXXER LIVING I      (408) 561-XXXX
13 BOUXXER      CO      (303) 786-XXXX
14 CALIFOXXIA EAR       (650) 494-XXXX
15 CAMXXHO GEMMA        (408) 849-XXXX
...

(I replaced some letters and numbers with X's in this post for security purposes.)

Oh my goodness! What an elegant piece of code that is. And it didn't take me a while to figure it out. I simply read tutorials from Gabor and Jonathan. I tell you, I can't believe the expressiveness of the latest and greatest perl. I have barely scratched the surface, it's got tons of other amazing stuffs! Try it for yourself.

Safari Login

2009-01-05T12:04:00.000-08:00

My little secret Safari Login. Just for me to see if I can access Safari from my T-Mobile G1 with Google Phone, Black (T-Mobile).

Yey! It's working, now I can read books from my G1.

Project setup using GitHub

2009-01-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

Just taking notes on how to setup project in GitHub. These notes are from GitCasts and GitHub Guides.

1. Setup, Initialization and Cloning

Global setup, these apply to all projects on the system:

git config --global user.name 'User Name'
git config --global user.email username@gmail.com
git config --global color.status auto
git config --global color.branch auto
git config --global core.autocrlf true

To save project in git repository:
1. First, create the project.
2. cd to the project, then do the following:

git init
git add .
git ls-files --cache
git commit -m "Initial Commit"
git status
git log

To clone existing code in the git repo:

git clone git://github.com/sammydc/publictalkscheduler.git

If it's your own repo, use this instead:

git clone git@github.com:sammydc/publictalkscheduler.git

2. Normal Workflow

Create .gitignore file, this is to specify which files we don't want to add to git, like as follows:

log/*.log
tmp/**/*

Editing files and commiting to repo:

git status
git add [filename]
git commit
OR:
git commit -a -m 'My Next Commit' #automatically add and commit all changed files
git ls-files --stage
git rm public/robots.txt #remove a file, git not to track the file anymore
git status
git commit -m 'robots file removed'

Now push to remote repo:

git remote add origin git@github.com:sammydc/publictalkscheduler.git
git push origin master

Take note that if you get the error message:

fatal: protocol error: expected sha/ref

You need to make sure that .git/config [remote "origin"] url entry is in the form of

git@github.com:sammydc/publictalkscheduler.git

When working on another machine, to get latest changes:

git pull

VIM syntax highlighting for Perl6

2008-12-17T18:22:00.000-08:00

Just want to take note on what I did to enable syntax highlighting in VIM for Perl6. I followed this excellent procedure. Thanks Ovid.

Then if you are using NERD_commenter.vim plugin like I do. This is the best commenter for me by the way. You need to add another file type for perl6, as follows:

elseif a:filetype == "perl6"
    call s:MapDelimiters('#', '')

Want to try Perl6? Here's how to get started in Windows.

2008-12-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

02/19/2009: UPDATED for Parrot-0.9.1

I have my eyes on the next version of Perl. Perl6. I always wanted to somehow try it but never get the chance. Now that I'm preparing for a long holiday due to company shutdown, I want to play with it. I choose Rakudo Perl, which is an implementation of Perl6 targetting the Parrot virtual machine. As you already know, Perl6 is a set of specifications on this language. One of it's implementations is Rakudo.

Anyway, here's a procedure on how to install Perl6 on Windows XP. Rakudo Perl (Perl6 on Parrot), that is...
1. Download latest Windows build of Parrot and parrot-rakudo addon from here. Total of 2 executables.
2. Install and take all defaults.
3. Now do a smoke testing of the install:

C:\parrot-0.9.1>perl smoke_languages.pl

If returns ok, then congratulations, your rakudo install is successful. If not, then proceed with the rest of this procedure.

4. Go to C:\parrot-0.9.1\bin, create a file and call it perl6.cmd. Have it contain the following:

@echo off
rem adjust the path below to suit your environment
set PARROT_ROOTDIR=c:\parrot-0.9.1
%PARROT_ROOTDIR%\bin\parrot.exe %PARROT_ROOTDIR%\lib\parrot\languages\rakudo\perl6.pbc %*

5. Rename C:\parrot-0.9.1\bin\perl6.exe to perl6.ex_. Just to prevent .exe from running.

Update 02/19/2009, I'm still using the workaround above because when I attempted to use the perl6.exe that came with the rakudo addon, I got this error message:

C:\dev\perl6>perl6 hello.pl
"load_bytecode" couldn't find file 'PCT.pbc'
current instr.: '' pc 405 (src\classes\Object.pir:20)
called from Sub 'parrot;Perl6;Compiler;main' pc -1 ((unknown file):-1)

Since this is a work in progress, I assume that these will all be fixed in the next release.

Now the moment of truth...

C:\dev\perl6>perl6 hello.pl
Hello World!

Hurray! Success. Now I can play with perl6. I plan on looking and writing some test that I can probably contribute back. Thank you so much to you all perl6 team.

By the way, just so you know, this is just a workaround. In the procedure that I found, perl6.exe can be built using a utility called pbc_to_exe, but it didn't work for me. So instead I followed this.

In the future, my wish is to have a one-click-installer for Windows of everything Rakudo. Meaning, an installer that will install Parrot, then perl6.exe or create perl6.cmd and set the environment variable. Which also can handle upgrading to latest build. That would make it easier for people to install and use it. Thanks.

Update 02/19/2009, in parrot-0.9.1, path environment variable is automatically set during install. Then about the issue above, I logged a new ticket in parrot regarding this.

Update 02/20/2009, speedy answer from the parrot team, ticket resolved. So for V.0.9.1, you don't need the workaround outlined above. Thanks a lot parrot guys!

Free book: Higher Order Perl

2008-12-09T13:41:00.000-08:00

This is one book I always wanted to have. Now, the author, Mark-Jason Dominus is giving it for free. Fantastic. Here's where you can download: http://hop.perl.plover.com/book/

Thank you very much, Mark-Jason.

Install sqlite3-ruby for Rails on Windows XP

2008-11-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

A little bit of trouble when installing sqlite3-ruby on Windows. I get this error message:

C:\ruby\bin>gem install sqlite3-ruby
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing sqlite3-ruby:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

C:/ruby/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb install sqlite3-ruby
checking for fdatasync() in rt.lib... no
checking for sqlite3.h... no

nmake

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 1.50
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp 1988-94. All rights reserved.

NMAKE : fatal error U1073: don't know how to make 'ruby.h'
Stop.


Gem files will remain installed in C:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.4 for inspection.

Results logged to C:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.4/ext/sqlite3_api/gem_make.out

Here are the steps I followed to install it:
1. Download sqlite-3 and sqlitedll-3 from sqlite download.
2. Unzip the files to c:\ruby\bin. Total of 3 files, sqlite3.exe, sqlite3.dll, sqlite3.def.
3. In command line: gem install --version 1.2.3 sqlite3-ruby

C:\ruby\bin>gem install --version 1.2.3 sqlite3-ruby
Successfully installed sqlite3-ruby-1.2.3-x86-mswin32
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for sqlite3-ruby-1.2.3-x86-mswin32...
Installing RDoc documentation for sqlite3-ruby-1.2.3-x86-mswin32...

Enjoy...

Nice Introduction to REST

2008-11-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take note of this link to a video by Joe Gregorio. It's a nice introduction to REST architectural style.

jQuery notes

2008-11-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

Looking into jQuery. Some of my notes as I go...

It is interesting to note that for the $() function, it removes the need to do a for loop to access a group of elements since whatever put inside the parentheses will be looped through automatically and stored as a jQuery object.

Common examples on using the $() factory function:

Element	Sample jQuery	Meaning
tag name	$('p')	gets all paragraphs in the document.
id	$('#some-id')	gets the single element in the document that has the corresponding some-id ID.
class	$('.some-class')	gets all elements in the document that have a class of some-class.

In search of... Latin Phrases

2008-11-20T10:31:00.000-08:00

We use common phrases that are really not english but are well understood. Where do those come from really? And what do they actually mean? Next time if you encounter "et al.", "e.g.", "carpe diem", "alter ego", "alma mater", "de facto", "pro bono", they are what's called 'Latin Phrases'. Some of them are really very interesting. I listed some phrases that are very common.

If you want to access more, look at wikipedia.

Latin Phrase	Literal Translation	Meaning
ad hoc	to this	Generally means "for this", in the sense of improvised on the spot or designed for only a specific, immediate purpose.
ad interim	for the meantime	As in the term "chargé d'affaires ad interim" for a diplomatic officer who acts in place of an ambassador.
affidavit	he asserted	A legal term from Medieval Latin referring to a sworn statement. From fides, "faith".
alma mater	nourishing mother	Term used for the university one attends or has attended. Another university term, matriculation, is also derived from mater. The term suggests that the students are "fed" knowledge and taken care of by the university. The term is also used for a university's traditional school anthem.
bona fide	in good faith	In other words, "well-intentioned", "fairly". In modern contexts, often has connotations of "genuinely" or "sincerely". Bona fides is not the plural (which would be bonis fidebus), but the nominative, and means simply "good faith". Opposite of mala fide.
carpe diem	seize the day	An exhortation to live for today. From Horace, Odes I, 11.8. By far the most common translation is "seize the day," though carpere normally means something more like "pluck," and the allusion here is to picking flowers. The phrase collige virgo rosas has a similar sense.
caveat emptor	let the buyer beware	The purchaser is responsible for checking whether the goods suit his need.
circa	around	In the sense of "approximately" or "about". Usually used of a date.
de facto	in fact	Said of something that is the actual state of affairs, in contrast to something's legal or official standing, which is described as de jure. De facto refers to the "way things really are" rather than what is "officially" presented as the fact.
e.g.	'for the sake of example'	Abbreviation for exempli gratia, below.
et al.	'and others'	Used similarly to et cetera ('and the rest'), to stand for a list of names. Alii is actually masculine, so it can be used for men, or groups of men and women; the feminine, et aliae (or et aliæ), is appropriate when the 'others' are all female. Et alia is neuter plural and thus properly used only for inanimate, genderless objects, but some use it as a gender-neutral alternative.[4] APA style uses et al. if the work cited was written by more than two authors; MLA style uses et al. for more than three authors.
habeas corpus	having the body	A legal term from the 14th century or earlier. Refers to a number of legal writs to bring a person before a court or judge, most commonly habeas corpus ad subjiciendum (you may have the body to bring up). Commonly used as the general term for a prisoner's legal right to challenge the legality of their detention.
in absentia	in the absence	Used in a number of situations, such as in a trial carried out in the absence of the accused.
modus operandi	method of operating	Usually used to describe a criminal's methods.
per annum	"through a year"	Thus, "yearly"â€”occurring every year.
per capita	"through the heads"	"Per head", i.e., "per person". The singular is per caput ("through a head").
per diem	"through a day"	Thus, "per day". A specific amount of money an organization allows an individual to spend per day, typically for travel expenses.
persona non grata	"person not pleasing"	An unwelcome, unwanted or undesirable person. In diplomatic contexts, a person rejected by the host government. The reverse, persona grata ("pleasing person"), is less common, and refers to a diplomat acceptable to the government of the country to which he is sent.
prima facie	"at first sight"	Used to designate evidence in a trial which is suggestive, but not conclusive, of something (e.g., a person's guilt).
pro bono	"for the good"	The full phrase is pro bono publico ("for the public good"). Said of work undertaken voluntarily at no expense, such as public services. Often used of a lawyer's work that is not charged for.
qui pro quo	literally qui instead of quo	Unused in English, but common in other modern languages (for instance Italian, Polish and French). Used as a noun, indicates a misunderstanding.
quorum	"of whom"	The number of members whose presence is required under the rules to make any given meeting constitutional.
re	"[in] the matter of"	More literally, "by the thing". From the ablative of res ("thing" or "circumstance"). Often used in e-mail replies. It is a common misconception that the "Re:" in correspondence is an abbreviation for regarding or reply; this is not the case. The use of Latin re, in the sense of "about, concerning", is English usage.
semper fidelis	"always faithful"	Motto of Exeter and several other cities; more recently has become the motto of United States Marine Corps and the Swiss Grenadiers. Also the motto of the Rot-Weiss Oberhausen and Plymouth Argyle football clubs. The US Marines often abbreviate it to Semper Fi.
sic	"thus"	Or "just so". States that the preceding quoted material appears exactly that way in the source, despite any errors of spelling, grammar, usage, or fact that may be present. Used only for previous quoted text; ita or similar must be used to mean "thus" when referring to something about to be stated.
status quo	"the situation in which"	The current condition or situation. Also status quo ante ("the situation in which [things were] before"), referring to the state of affairs prior to some upsetting event (cf. reset button technique).
sub poena	"under penalty"	Commonly rendered subpoena. Said of a request, usually by a court, that must be complied with on pain of punishment. Examples include subpoena duces tecum ("take with you under penalty"), a court summons to appear and produce tangible evidence, and subpoena ad testificandum ("under penalty to testify"), a summons to appear and give oral testimony.
verbatim	"word for word"	Refers to perfect transcription or quotation.
veto	"I forbid"	The right to unilaterally stop a certain piece of legislation. Derived from ancient Roman voting practices.

Lock request time out period exceeded

2008-11-12T10:50:00.000-08:00

Got this error today from one of my databases I'm working on. Last night I added an index to one of my tables not realizing that it may result to slow inserts. Well, as my SSIS package ran early in the morning, it's taking time for it to finish. So I had to resort to brute force to stop it. Problem is when I did that, lock for that particular table wasn't automatically released, so how do I release it? Here's how...

-- list processes which are locked
exec sp_lock

-- find out dbid of database
-- try each of the dbids to find out
-- in this case '9' is the dbid of my database
select db_name(9)

-- look for the 'TAB' (table) type
-- then kill that process
-- to find the table, try ObjId's
USE <YourDb>
SELECT OBJECT_NAME(<ObjId>)

-- now kill
kill 57

My List of VIM Commands And Shortcuts

2008-10-31T11:02:00.000-07:00

I would like to start compiling a list of common commands and shortcuts I'm using for VIM. Sometimes I forget what I have specified in my _vimrc file. This list is going to remind me and will build up in time.

Shortcut/Command	Meaning
:TOhtml	Convert code to html
<F3> for :TlistToggle	Open up tag list (code browser plugin)
<F4> for :NERDTreeToggle	Open up NERD Tree Explorer (file and directory explorer plugin)
<F5>	Run programs
,pt	Perl Tidy
Alt + C	Block comment/uncomment using EnhancedCommentify
,cl	Block comment using NERD Commenter
,cu	Block uncomment using NERD Commenter
,c<spacebar>	Toggle comment/uncomment using NERD Commenter
zfm	Create fold of movement m
zo, zc, zd	open, close, delete fold
:PrettyXML	XML nice formatting

PIVOT Is Elegant Solution In Summarizing Data

2008-10-31T10:05:00.000-07:00

Project I'm working on has to do with counting how many machines are being used in our environment. In our database, I'm able to list data like the following:

LocationCode	MachineType	MachineStatus
SJO	Desktop	Production
SJO	Notebook	Production
FSK	Desktop	Factory
TMP	Desktop	Production
AUS	Notebook	Production
TMP	Desktop	Factory
FSK	Notebook	Production
SJO	Desktop	Production
FSK	Desktop	Production

Now I need to provide a summary like as follows:

Category	San Jose	Fishkill	Tempe	Austin
Qualified Desktop	2	1	1	0
Qualified Notebook	1	1	0	1
Factory Desktop	0	1	1	0

Here's the solution using PIVOT:

SELECT
    Category AS [Category],
    [AUS] AS [Austin],
    [FSK] AS [Fishkill],
    [SJO] AS [San Jose],
    [TMP] AS [Tempe],
    [AUS]+[FSK]+[SJO]+[TMP] AS [Total]
FROM
    ( SELECT
    LocationCode,
    (CASE
        WHEN MachineStatus = 'Production' AND MachineType = 'Desktop' THEN 'Qualified Desktop'
        WHEN MachineStatus = 'Production' AND MachineType = 'Notebook' THEN 'Qualified Notebook'
        WHEN MachineStatus = 'Factory' THEN 'Factory Desktop'
    END) AS [Category]
    FROM V_PcCount_Hardware) AS SourceTable
PIVOT
(
    COUNT(LocationCode)
    FOR LocationCode IN([AUS], [FSK], [SJO], [TMP])
) AS PivotTable

Lesson on Multiplicity

2008-10-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

One concept in relationships is what is called Multiplicity. It shows the number of objects that can participate in a relationship.

To illustrate, here are some examples:

Relationship	Example
One To One	One class occupies one classroom
One To Many	One teacher teaches many classes
Many To Many	One teacher teaches many students. One student learns from many teacher. So in short, it's 2 One To Many relationships combined.

Practical Django Projects - TinyMCE Integration Issue

2008-10-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

Following James Bennett's book, I got stalled in Chapter 3 (Customizing The Simple CMS) when I tried to integrate TinyMCE. The solution is rather simple, just move the tiny_mce entry in the urlpatterns one line up.

Here's my urls.py:

from django.conf.urls.defaults import *

# Uncomment the next two lines to enable the admin:
from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # Example:
    # (r'^cms/', include('cms.foo.urls')),

    # Uncomment the admin/doc line below and add 'django.contrib.admindocs'
    # to INSTALLED_APPS to enable admin documentation:
    # (r'^admin/doc/', include('django.contrib.admindocs.urls')),

    # Uncomment the next line to enable the admin:
    (r'^admin/(.*)', admin.site.root),
    (r'^tiny_mce/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve',
        { 'document_root':'C:\\dev\\python\\django\\media\\tinymce\\jscripts\\tiny_mce' },),
    (r'', include('django.contrib.flatpages.urls')),

)

By the way, this, this and this are excellent in outlining the code changes from Django 0.96 to 1.0, which should coincide with the book.

The right combination: SSIS, Oracle and Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Oracle

2008-09-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted anything. I have been busy with so many things in my life. Work and family.

I would like to take note of this issue with SSIS. It took me a long time to figure this out. Thanks to this post. It gave me a clue on what's going on. In SSIS, it's very typical that when you are working on your development box, everything works fine, but the moment you deploy it to another machine, it doesn't run. Adding to complexities is when you try to schedule it via SQL Server Agent. I will probably discuss this complexity on another post, but for now, I would like to take note of the right combination when dealing with Oracle.

When I configure a new OLE DB Connection Manager, there are 2 different providers that I can choose from:

1. "Oracle Provider for OLE DB"
2. "Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Oracle".

At least in my case, one could have been probably installed when I installed Oracle client, the other one is a MS default. I think what happened initially is I assumed that either one of them should work ok, and in fact it worked ok in my dev. But deploying to the staging server, causes this error:

"SSIS Error Code DTS_E_OLEDBERROR. An OLE DB error has occurred "Microsoft OLE DB Service Components".

The reason is because I chose "Oracle Provider for OLE DB". So eventhough the Oracle installed in my dev box is exactly the same as in the staging server, it's still possible that there is a difference. But anyway, what solved my problem? I created another OLE DB Connection Manager using the other one, "Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Oracle", issue fixed!

What gives? Anybody has an idea what the difference between the two?

Django notes

2008-06-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

I'm learning Django framework. Here are notes that I want to remember as I go...

Create a project:

django-admin.py startproject projectname

Start development server:

python manage.py runserver

Invoke python shell:

python manage.py dbshell

Create or update database:

python manage.py syncdb

Create a new application within a project:

python manage.py startapp appname

When talking on the phone, how do you spell?

2008-05-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

It's hard sometimes to convey your message over the phone, at times you want to spell what you mean. Most of the time, it's hard to remember what spelling words to say. I remember before that a friend of mine who was a telephone operator then had to memorize a list of spelling words, ok so searching thru the web, I came across a page in wikipedia entitled NATO phonetic alphabet. Hey that's what I need. Oh how I love wikipedia.

NATO Phonetic Alphabet:

Letter	Code Word	Letter	Code Word
A	Alpha	N	November
B	Bravo	O	Oscar
C	Charlie	P	Papa
D	Delta	Q	Quebec
E	Echo	R	Romeo
F	Foxtrot	S	Sierra
G	Golf	T	Tango
H	Hotel	U	Uniform
I	India	V	Victor
J	Juliet	W	Whiskey
K	Kilo	X	X-ray
L	Lima	Y	Yankee
M	Mike	Z	Zulu

Intranet Applications with Role-based Security using Windows Authentication and SQL Server

2008-04-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

First of all, I would like to thank ScottGu, again for a job well done on this tutorial on how to implement Windows authentication for an INTRANET website that works against a sql server database.

I recently added authentication scheme for an intranet website that I developed. There are some reports and tools that are supposed to be accessed only by some priviledged people within the organization. No login is required since this is an intranet application. But I needed a way to restrict access to some pages. The easiest way to maintain such a website is by adding a role-based security that is tied-in to Active Directory user account. Anyways, following this recipe that Scott Gu concocted, I got up and running quickly. Thank you Scott!

Btw, I translated the Visual Basic code to C# below...

private void PopulateRoleList(string userName)

{

if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(userName))

{

RoleList.Items.Clear();

foreach (string roleName in Roles.GetAllRoles())

{

ListItem roleListItem = new ListItem();

roleListItem.Text = roleName;

roleListItem.Selected = Roles.IsUserInRole(userName, roleName);

RoleList.Items.Add(roleListItem);

}

private void UpdateRolesFromList()

{

foreach (ListItem roleListItem in RoleList.Items)

{

string roleName = roleListItem.Value;

string userName = TxtUserName.Text;

bool enableRole = roleListItem.Selected;

if (enableRole == true && Roles.IsUserInRole(userName, roleName) == false)

{

Roles.AddUsersToRole(new string[] { userName }, roleName);

}

else if (enableRole == true && Roles.IsUserInRole(userName, roleName) == true)

{

Roles.RemoveUserFromRole(userName, roleName);

}

protected void LookupBtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

PopulateRoleList(TxtUserName.Text);

UpdateBtn.Visible = true;

LabelRoleMembership.Visible = true;

}

protected void UpdateBtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

UpdateRolesFromList();

PopulateRoleList(TxtUserName.Text);

}

Features in Hardy Heron Release of Ubuntu

2008-04-04T18:52:00.001-07:00

I can't wait for the latest version of Ubuntu named "Hardy Heron". If you are interested to see what's new in this new version look here. I have been using Ubuntu since "Hoary HedgeHog". I have used a number of Linux distros, but the first time I looked at Ubuntu, I liked it right away and stayed with it. It's the best Linux distro for me. In case you're wondering what the past and future versions of Ubuntu were called, here's a list I compiled...

Version	Code Name	Release Date
4.10	Warty Warthog	2004-10-20
5.04	Hoary Hedgehog	2005-04-08
5.10	Breezy Badger	2005-10-13
6.06	Dapper Drake	2006-06-01
6.10	Edgy Eft	2006-10-26
7.04	Fiesty Fawn	2007-04-19
7.10	Gutsy Gibbon	2007-10-18
8.04	Hardy Heron	2008-04-24
8.10	Intrepid Ibex	2008-10-30

Interesting to note from this list is that if you look in the version number, the first number is the year it was released, the second number after the dot is the month it was released. Based on the dates, I have been using Ubuntu for 3 years now!

Do you want charts on your webpages? Use the Google Chart API

2008-01-04T14:04:00.000-08:00

Wow! This is excellent. If you want to dynamically create charts for your webpages, you can make use of the Google Chart API. You don't know how much money we spent in the company where I work just to create embedded charts for our webpages. Google makes this simple like as follows:

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=s:hW&chs=250x100&chl=Hello|World

The above snippet produces this:

Hide Console Windows in Perl

2007-12-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice snippet if you want to hide console windows that open up when calling utilities or commands using backticks. Perl, being an excellent duct-tape language, makes this easy, just add this snippet at the bottom of your code:

BEGIN
{
Win32::SetChildShowWindow(0)
if defined &Win32::SetChildShowWindow;
}

Tip in using FileSystemWatcher class, make use of InternalBufferSize

2007-10-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

There are a few gotchas in implementing FileSystemWatcher. One of them that I have recently encountered is the use of InternalBufferSize property. Previously, I built a windows service that watches for new files created in a directory. The files are then processed and the data uploaded to a sql server database. During my testing and initial deploy, I didn't see any issue nor did I think of any potential problems. Until one day I noticed that it is not picking up all the files. Some files are being left out at random. After some investigation, I found out that this is happening because of an overflow in the buffer that supports the FileSystemWatcher. The default setting for this property is only at 8K, imagine it has to keep track of all the events and info about the files. Approximately according to this, 8K can only hold info for as much as 80 files at one time. So for me, my solution is to increase the buffer size to 32K, which is 32768. The setting should be in multiples of 4K as noted in msdn.

Here's how I implemented the class:

public partial class NXPFileWatcher : ServiceBase

{

FileSystemWatcher FSWatcher = null;

public NXPFileWatcher()

{

InitializeComponent();

}

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)

{

try

{

FSWatcher = new FileSystemWatcher();

FSWatcher.Path = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["WatchPath"];

FSWatcher.InternalBufferSize = 32768;

FSWatcher.NotifyFilter = NotifyFilters.CreationTime;

FSWatcher.Filter = "*.xml";

FSWatcher.Created += new FileSystemEventHandler(FSWatcher_Created);

FSWatcher.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

SendNotification("has Started");

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

Log.Write(ex.Message);

}

protected override void OnStop()

{

try

{

FSWatcher.Dispose();

SendNotification("has Stopped");

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

Log.Write(ex.Message);

}

protected override void OnPause()

{

OnStop();

}

protected override void OnContinue()

{

OnStart(null);

}

protected override void OnShutdown()

{

try

{

FSWatcher.Dispose();

SendNotification("has stopped due to system shutting down");

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

Log.Write(ex.Message);

}

private void FSWatcher_Created(object sender, FileSystemEventArgs e)

{

// Now open the file

XmlFile xml = new XmlFile();

xml.FullPath = e.FullPath;

xml.Process();

}

List of Access Modifiers in C#

2007-09-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

I have been programming in C# for more than 3 years now, always I forget the specifics on keywords like access modifiers. The most commonly used access modifiers are of course 'public' and 'private', and it's pretty obvious what they mean. But for example "protected internal", I just cannot recall on top of my head what it pertains to, so just as a note, here's all of them:

Access Modifier	Meaning
public	Available to all classes
protected	Available only to the current class or to derived classes
internal	Available only to classes in the current assembly
protected internal	Available only to the current class, derived classes, or classes in the current assembly
private	Available only to the containing class
virtual	Creates a virtual method or property that can be overriden by a subclass

My Son's Playing in His First Piano Recital

2007-09-24T23:03:00.001-07:00

He had been practicing at least once daily for the past few weeks to prepare for his first recital ever. His perseverance and hard work surely paid off. In his short program, he played two pieces back to back, Baby Face and Swing Town. My goodness, no tense, nor flustered he is, he just played it, beautifully. As for me, it was nerve wracking, but I made it. Just ecstatic! I'm proud of you son.

Hey There Delilah

2007-09-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

Another song I like. By Plain White T's. There are songs that just strike your heartstrings. This is one of them. This song reminded me of when my then girlfriend had to leave to go to another country. I liked the song, first because of the lyrics, hmmm... a bit similar to the words that I said in my letters and phone calls to her. Hey, this guy is just simply retelling a segment of my life. Second, the melody of the song is just great, hauntingly folkish. Btw, just a little bit of trivia about this song, this was actually released in 2005. And now that the band had reached superstar (or superband?) status, some of their songs had been revisited, this song was one of them. It got re-released and reached the Billboard's top spot in July 2007. Now even considered as the biggest hit of the summer. Read more from here.

Hey there Delilah,
What's it like in New York City?
I'm a thousand miles away,
But girl tonight you look so pretty,
Yes you do,
Time Square can't shine as bright as you,
I swear it's true.

Hey there Delilah,
Don't you worry about the distance,
I'm right there if you get lonely,
Give this song another listen,
Close your eyes,
Listen to my voice it's my disguise,
I'm by your side.

Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me,
What you do to me.

Hey there Delilah,
I know times are getting hard,
But just believe me girl some day,
I'll pay the bills with this guitar,
We'll have it good,
We'll have the life we knew we would,
My word is good.

Hey there Delilah,
I've got so much left to say,
If every simple song I wrote to you,
Would take your breath away,
I'd write it all,
Even more in love with me you'd fall,
We'd have it all.

Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me.

A thousand miles seems pretty far,
But they've got planes and trains and cars,
I'd walk to you if I had no other way,
Our friends would all make fun of us,
And we'll just laugh along because,
We know that none of them have felt this way,
Delilah I can promise you,
That by the time that we get through,
The world will never ever be the same,
And you're to blame.

Hey there Delilah you be good,
And don't you miss me,
Two more years and you'll be done with school,
And I'll be making history,
Like I do,
You'll know it's all because of you,
We can do whatever we want to,
Hey there Delilah here's to you,
This one's for you.

Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me,
Oh it's what you do to me,
What you do to me.

Ohhh

How to search all stored procedures in a db for a particular "text"

2007-09-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

After migrating a large db from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005, one of the changes I needed to make was to switch from using xp_smtp_sendmail to sp_send_dbmail using the new "Database Mail" feature. Since I'm dealing with a db with at least a couple hundred stored procedures, I didn't want to manually look at each one. Here is a blogpost I found tackling this issue.

Summarizing, here's what I have used:

use mydb;
go

select routine_name, routine_definition
from information_schema.routines
where routine_definition like '%xp_smtp_sendmail%'
and routine_type = 'procedure'
go

SSIS problems with Excel Source

2007-09-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

I'm working on an import to my databases from an Excel sheet. This should have been a breeze with SSIS if not because of issues with the Excel Source data flow, which is apparently because of Jet OLEDB. Let me describe the issue. When data is read from an Excel worksheet, the Jet samples the first few rows for the data type, the problem is that when it encounters a different one other than what it assumed at first, instead of raising an exception, it just simply drops the data and replaces it with NULL. And so, what happened at first, I thought that all data was imported in the database not knowing that some of them were NULL. Bad...bad...bad.

Anyhow, here's the solution, enjoy:

1. Going to the Excel Connection Manager, I changed the Connection Strings to: Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=H:\BillingReport\Upload.xls;Extended Properties="EXCEL 8.0;HDR=YES;IMEX=1";

I added IMEX=1

2. Went to the registry of where the package will run and changed: Hkey_Local_Machine/Software/Microsoft/Jet/4.0/Engines/Excel/TypeGuessRows to 0 (zero for maximum).

This solution came from these posts:

msmvps
sqlteam
bi-polar23

Thank you all!

SQL Server 2005 Error: User or Role already exists in the current database

2007-08-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

Just for me to remember. I'm currently doing migration of our applications and databases from the East Coast going to California. This is something that came up when I migrated one of my databases. I certainly would like to remember...

This is what happens when you restore the database to a new server, you expect that accounts could be configured to access the database via the "User Mapping". But instead there is this error message: "Error 15023: User or role already exists in the current database." Apparently, this is just a case of SID mismatch. Here's the solution:

SQL Server has a built in stored procedure to handle this issue:

sp_change_users_login

Use the parameter 'Update_One' to update one SID:

USE YourDatabase
GO

EXEC sp_change_users_login Update_One, 'yourLogin', 'yourLogin'
GO

Go to this post for further reading.

Nothing Left to Lose

2007-06-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

I just love this song by Matt Kearneythe very first time I heard it on the radio. Here's the lyrics of this song courtesy of splatr:

Something’s in the air tonight
The sky’s alive with a burning light
You can mark my words something’s about to break

And i found myself in a bitter fight
While I’ve held your hand through the darkest night
Don’t know where your coming from but your coming soon

To a kid from Oregon by way of California
All of this is more than I’ve ever known or seen

Come on and we’ll sing, like we were free
Push the pedal down watch the world around fly by us
Come on and we’ll try, one last time
I’m off of the floor one more time to find you

And here we go there’s nothing left to choose
And here we go there’s nothing left to lose

So I packed my car and headed east
Where I felt your fire and a sweet release
There’s a fire in these hills that’s coming down

And I don’t know much but i found you here
And I can not wait another year
Don’t know where your coming from but you coming soon

To a kid from Oregon by way of California
All of this is more than i’ve ever known or seen

Come on and we’ll sing, like we were free
Push the pedal down watch the world around fly by us
Come on and we’ll try, one last time
I’m off of the floor one more time to find you

And here we go there’s nothing left to choose
And here we go there’s nothing left to lose

I can still hear the trains out my window
From Hobart street to here in Nashville
I can still smell the pomegranates grow
And I don’t know how hard this wind will blow
Or where we’ll go

Come on and we’ll sing, like we were free
Push the pedal down watch the world around fly by us
Come on and we’ll try, one last time
I’m off of the floor one more time to find you

And here we go there’s nothing left to choose
And here we go there’s nothing left to lose

Object Oriented Analysis and Design

2007-06-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

I'm reading this bookabout Object-Oriented Analysis and Design. These are some excerpts I would like to take note of:

The Role of Decomposition

"The technique of mastering complexity has been known since ancient times: divide et impera (divide and rule)". When designing a complex software system, it is essential to decompose it into smaller and smaller parts, each of which we may then refine independently. In this manner, we satisfy the very real constraint that exists on the channel capacity of human cognition: To understand any given level of a system, we need only comprehend a few parts (rather than all parts) at once. Indeed, as Parnas observes, intelligent decomposition directly addresses the inherent complexity of software by forcing a division of a system's state space.

The Role of Abstraction

Earlier, we referred to Miller's experiments, from which he concluded that an individual can comprehend only about seven, plus or minus two, chunks of information at one time. This number appears to be independent of information content. As Miller himself observes, "The span of absolute judgment and the span of immediate memory impose severe limitations on the amount of information that we are able to receive, process and remember. By organizing the stimulus input simultaneously into several dimensions and successively into a sequence of chunks, we manage to break ... this informational bottleneck". In contemporary terms, we call this process chunking or abstraction.

As Wulf describes it, "We (humans) have developed an exceptionally powerful technique for dealing with complexity. We abstract from it. Unable to master the entirety of a complex object, we choose to ignore its inessential details, dealing instead with the generalized, idealized model of the object". For example, when studying how photosynthesis works in a plant, we can focus on the chemical reactions in certain cells in a leaf and ignore all other parts, such as the roots and stems. We are still constrained by the number of things that we can comprehend at one time, but through abstraction, we use chunks of information with increasingly greater semantic content. This is especially true if we take an object-oriented view of the world because objects, as abstractions of entities in the real world, represent a particularly dense and cohesive clustering of information.

Elements of the Object Model

1. Abstraction
2. Encapsulation
3. Modularity
4. Hierarchy

By major, we mean that a model without any one of these elements is not object-oriented.

There are three minor elements of the object model:

1. Typing
2. Concurrency
3. Persistence

By minor, we mean that each of these elements is a useful, but not essential, part of the object model.

Abstraction:

Abstraction focuses on the essential characteristics of some object, relative to the perspective of the viewer.

Encapsulation:

Encapsulation hides the details of the implementation of an object.

Abstraction and encapsulation are complementary concepts: Abstraction focuses on the observable behavior of an object, whereas encapsulation focuses on the implementation that gives rise to this behavior. Encapsulation is most often achieved through information hiding (not just data hiding), which is the process of hiding all the secrets of an object that do not contribute to its essential characteristics; typically, the structure of an object is hidden, as well as the implementation of its methods. "No part of a complex system should depend on the internal details of any other part". Whereas abstraction "helps people to think about what they are doing," encapsulation "allows program changes to be reliably made with limited effort".

Modularity:

Modularity packages abstractions into discrete units.

Hierarchy:

Abstractions form a hierarchy.

Typing:

Strong typing prevents mixing of abstractions.

Concurrency:

Concurrency allows different objects to act at the same time.

Persistence:

Persistence saves the state and class of an object across time or space.

Update Active Directory using Perl

2007-05-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I received a phone call from my manager because there was an emergency to help out in a site migration that was happening somewhere in Texas. One of the things that was needed to be done is to import data from an Excel spreadsheet to a new active directory setup. Well, this is a pretty easy thing to do with perl.

Here's my solution:

#set_user_account.pl
#Program to import data to Active Directory
#by: Sam Dela Cruz
#date: 05/04/2007

use Win32;
use Win32::OLE qw(in);
use Win32::OLE::Enum;
use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Simple;

#list should be in the form of
#userid,lastname,firstname,middlename,organization,location,street,city,state,zip,phone,mobile,fax

my $data_source;
unless (@ARGV) {
    print "Enter input file: ";
    chomp ($data_source = );
}
else {
    $data_source = shift @ARGV;
}

my $xls = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Simple->read($data_source)
    or die "Cannot read $data_source: $!\n";

foreach my $sheet ($xls->sheets()){
    while ($sheet->has_data){
        my ($usb,
            $ln,
            $fn,
            $mn,
            $org,
            $location,
            $street,
            $city,
            $state,
            $zip,
            $phone,
            $mobile,
            $fax ) = $sheet->next_row;

        my $user;
        if($user = get_user($usb)){
            $User->GetInfo();

            #Set Info
            set_object_property($User,
                                "sn",
                                remove_before_after_space($ln)); #lastname
            set_object_property($User,
                                "givenName",
                                remove_before_after_space($fn)); #firstname
            set_object_property($User,
                                "initials",
                                remove_before_after_space($mn)); #middlename
            set_object_property($User,
                                "department",
                                remove_before_after_space($org)); #organization
            set_object_property($User,
                                "physicalDeliveryOfficeName",
                                remove_before_after_space($location)); #location
            set_object_property($User,
                                "streetAddress",
                                remove_before_after_space($street)); #street
            set_object_property($User,
                                "l",
                                remove_before_after_space($city)); #city
            set_object_property($User,
                                "st",
                                remove_before_after_space($state)); #state
            set_object_property($User,
                                "postalcode",
                                remove_before_after_space($zip)); #zip
            set_object_property($User,
                                "telephoneNumber",
                                remove_before_after_space($phone)); #phone
            set_object_property($User,
                                "mobile",
                                remove_before_after_space($mobile)); #mobile
            set_object_property($User,
                                "facsimiletelephonenumber",
                                remove_before_after_space($fax)); #fax

            unless ($User->SetInfo()){
                print "Uploaded,$usb,$ln,$fn,$mn,$org,$location,$street,$city,$state,$zip,$phone,$mobile,$fax\n";
            }
            else{
                print "Cannot upload $usb info: ".Win32::OLE->LastError."\n";
            }
        }
        else{
            print "Unable to open $usb\n";
        }
    }
}

sub get_user {
    my $usb = shift;
    my $user;
    my $ldap = "LDAP://cn=$usb,ou=corporate,ou=users,ou=corporate,dc=acme,dc=acme,dc=com";

    if($user = Win32::OLE->GetObject($ldap)){
        return $user;
    }
    return 0;
}

sub set_object_property {
    my ($object,$property,$value)=@_;
    if ($value) {
        print "Error: ".Win32::OLE->LastError."," if ($object->Put($property,$value));
    }
    else {
        print "Error: ".Win32::OLE->LastError."," if ($object->PutEx(1,$property,$value));
    }
}

sub remove_before_after_space {
    my $data = shift;
    $data =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
    return $data;
}

There is just one gotcha. When setting up object property with the value of NULL or if you want to blank out that property, you will have to use a different method called PutEx with the ADS_PROPERTY_CLEAR = 1, thus:

Instead of

$object->Put($property,$value)

$object->PutEx(1,$property,$value)

Access Lotus Notes using Perl via Win32::OLE

2007-03-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

Are you a Lotus Notes user? Did you ever wonder how you can extract text out of Lotus Notes using Perl? Here's a script that I wrote to extract notification emails:

use Win32::OLE;

my $server;
my $database;
my $folder;

my $file = "temp_file.csv";

my $ini = "get_emails.ini";
if (-e $ini)
{
    open (INI,$ini) || die "Not able to open $ini: $!\n";
    chomp ($server = );
    chomp ($database = );
    chomp ($folder = );
}
else
{
    print "\nEnter Notes Server: ";
    chomp ($server=);
    print "\nEnter Notes Database: ";
    chomp ($database=);
    print "\nEnter Folder you want to access: ";
    chomp ($folder=);
}

#connect to the Notes database
my $Notes = Win32::OLE->new('Notes.NotesSession') || warn "Cannot start Lotus Notes Session object: $!\n";
my $Database = $Notes->GetDatabase($server, $database);

#Fetch contents of the folder
my $Response = $Database->GetView($folder);
my $Count = $Response->TopLevelEntryCount;
my $Index = $Count;

open (OUT, ">$file");

#loop through all emails
for (1..$Count)
{
    my $Document = $Response->GetNthDocument($Index--);
    my $subject = $Document->GetFirstItem('Subject')->{Text};
    my $body = $Document->GetFirstItem('Body')->{Text};
    print OUT "Subject: $subject\n",
              "Body: $body\n";
}

`start excel.exe $file`;

This works if you have Lotus Notes Client installed on your machine. As you can see the script uses OLE to access your mail database via the client. There is a way to connect to any Lotus Notes database without having to install Lotus Notes. It can be accessed using the ever popular Perl DBI module. The latter is the one that I use to synchronize Lotus Notes databases to Oracle, MySQL and SQL Server. Will discuss more about that... stay tuned.

Notes on Business Intelligence Solution

2007-03-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

These are some practical tips taken from this book - Practical Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005.

Suggested Approach: Build a consistent relational data warehouse with a dimensional schema optimized for queries.

Overall Solution Diagram:

Choose between Star or Snowflake for a Dimension? Answer: It Depends

Choose snowflake when the dimension's attributes come from different sources.
Snowflake when the dimension has a strong natural hierarchy. It is easier to manage the ETL process in this case.

Use a surrogate key for every dimension table. Surrogate keys are used as primary identifiers for all dimension tables in the data warehouse, and every fact table record that refers to a dimension always uses the surrogate key rather than the business key(primary key). All relationships in the data warehouse use the surrogate key, including the relationships between different dimension tables in a snowflake structure. Because the data warehouse uses surrogate keys and the source systems use business keys, this means that one important step in the ETL process is to translate the business keys in the incoming transaction records into data warehouse surrogate keys before inserting the new fact records.

Making a List of Candidate Attributes and Dimensions When you are reviewing the information you have collected, look for terms that represent different ways of looking at data. A useful rule of thumb is to look for words such as by(as in, "I need to see profitability by product category"). If you keep a list of all these candidate attributes when you find them, you can start to group them into probable dimensions such as Product or Customer.

One thing to be careful of is synonyms: People often have many different ways of naming the same thing, and it is rare that everyone will agree on the definition of every term. Similarly, people in different parts of the business could be using the same term to mean different things. An important job during the modeling process is to identify these synonyms and imprecise names and to drive the business users toward consensus on what terms will mean in the data warehouse. A useful by-product of this process can be a data dictionary that documents these decisions as they are made.

Making a List of Candidate Measures At the same time that you are recording the attributes that you have found, you will be looking for numeric measures. Many of the candidate measures that you find will turn out to be derived from a smaller set of basic measures, but you can keep track of all them because they might turn out to be useful calculations that you can add into the OLAP cube later. The best candidates for measures are additive and atomic. That is, they can be added up across all the dimensions, including time, and they are not composed from other measures.

Grouping the Measures with the Same Grain into Fact Tables

Figuring out how to group measures into fact tables is a much more structured process than grouping related attributes into dimension tables. The key concept that determines what measures end up on a fact table is that every fact table has only one grain. After you have your list of candidate measures, you can set up a spreadsheet as shown in the Table below with the candidate dimensions on the columns and the candidate measures on the rows.

	Product	Customer	Date
Sales Amount	SKU	Customer	Day
Quantity	SKU	Customer	Day
Budget Amount	Category	N/A	Month

For each measure, you need to figure out the grain or level of detail you have available. For example, for a specific sales amount from a sales transaction, you can figure out the customer that it was sold to, the product SKU that they bought, and the day that they made the purchase, so the granularity of the sales amount measure is Product SKU by Customer by Day. For budget amount, the business is only producing monthly budgets for each product category, so the granularity is Product Category by Month.

From the example in Table, we end up with two different fact tables. Because the Sales Amount and Quantity measures both have the same granularity, they will be on the Sales fact table, which will also include Product, Customer, and Date dimension keys. A separate Budget fact table will have Product Category and Date dimension keys and a Budget Amount measure.

Identifying the granularity of every measure sounds simple in principle but often turns out to be difficult in practice. So, how do you know when you have made a mistake? One common sign is when you end up with some records in the fact table with values for one set of measures and nulls for the remainder. Depending on how you load the data, you could also see that a given numeric quantity ends up being repeated on multiple records on a fact table. This usually occurs when you have a measure with a higher granularity (such as Product Category rather than Product SKU) than the fact table.

High Level Architecture

Most important dimensional modeling lesson: A single fact table must never contain measures at different levels of granularity.

Baby Ivana Visits Us!

2007-03-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

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This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called Ivana & Ara - Mar 2007. Make your own badge here.

Cute little baby Ivana. Our friends' first baby. Surely a delight to be visited. My daughter doesn't know how to react at first since she's always the youngest one in the house. Ivana's really a sweetie, she smiles in a whim, she likes my voice and laughs at my talking. She's just adorable!

Powerful Regular Expressions in Perl

2007-03-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

Perl is rich with regular expressions. Most programs written in perl would normally have at least one regex for pattern matching. Having regular expressions actually ingrained directly into the language's core as well as into the minds of perl programmers, most tasks involving string manipulations are easily done in perl.

Well, last week I had an opportunity to answer one interesting question posted on ActivePerl forum. The question apparently has something to do with parsing a DNA sequence.

Here is the question:


Given the string $temp= "XXXXAAAZZZZBBBSSSSCCCGGGGBBBVVVVVBBB"

Write a regex for filtering out the string between...
AAA
BBB
CCC
so in the above case, the output should be:
AAAZZZZZBBB
BBBSSSSSSCCC
CCCGGGGBBB
BBBVVVVVBBB
All combinations of start and end for AAA BBB CCC.

My solution:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $dna_sequence  = 'XXXXAAAZZZZBBBSSSSCCCGGGGBBBVVVVVBBB';
my @dna_tags      = ('AAA',
                     'BBB',
                     'CCC',
                    );
my $joined_tags   = join "|", @dna_tags;
my $tag_pattern   = qr($joined_tags); #regexp quoting mechanism
foreach ( $dna_sequence =~ /(?=($tag_pattern.*?$tag_pattern))/g ) {
    #do whatever on the captured string
    #in this case, I just want to print it out
    print $_, "\n";
}

The trick here is in the lookaround construct. Using positive lookahead specified with the special sequence (?=...), in the above snippet, (?=($tag_pattern.*?$tag_pattern)). Parentheses inside the construct grab the matched string. This is what is called zero-width look-ahead, since at this point, the match engine has not advanced at all. But because of the /g modifier, the engine notices that it has not moved forward so it advances one character position, then does the same match until it reaches the end of the string. So in this case, the effect is overlapping matches.

There is an excellent article about this same regular expressions constructs that can be found in perl.com in this post.

I would recommend reading these two books: Mastering Regular Expressions and Perl Cookbook. Perl Cookbook is actually where I got the basic solution on this problem.

A Cube Example

2007-02-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

Again taken from msdn...

A cube is defined by its measures and dimensions. The measures and dimensions in a cube are derived from the tables and views in the data source view on which the cube is based, or which is generated from the measure and dimension definitions.

The Imports cube contains two measures, Packages and Last, and three related dimensions, Route, Source, and Time.

The smaller alphanumeric values around the cube are the members of the dimensions. Example members are ground (member of the Route dimension), Africa (member of the Source dimension), and 1st quarter (member of the Time dimension).

Measures

The values within the cube cells represent the two measures, Packages and Last. The Packages measure represents the number of imported packages, and the Sum function is used to aggregate the facts. The Last measure represents the date of receipt, and the Max function is used to aggregate the facts.

Dimensions

The Route dimension represents the means by which the imports reach their destination. Members of this dimension include ground, nonground, air, sea, road, or rail. The Source dimension represents the locations where the imports are produced, such as Africa or Asia. The Time dimension represents the quarters and halves of a single year.

Aggregates

Business users of a cube can determine the value of any measure for each member of every dimension, regardless of the level of the member within the dimension, because Analysis Services aggregates values at upper levels as needed. For example, the measure values in the preceding illustration can be aggregated according to a standard calendar hierarchy by using the Calendar Time hierachy in the Time dimension as illustrated in the following diagram.

In addition to aggregating measures by using a single dimension, you can aggregate measures by using combinations of members from different dimensions. This allows business users to evaluate measures in multiple dimensions simultaneously. For example, if a business user wants to analyze quarterly imports that arrived by air from the Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere, the business user can issue a query on the cube to retrieve the following dataset.

			Packages		Last
			All Sources	Eastern Hemisphere	Western Hemisphere	All Sources	Eastern Hemisphere	Western Hemisphere
All Time			25110	6547	18563	Dec-29-99	Dec-22-99	Dec-29-99
	1st half		11173	2977	8196	Jun-28-99	Jun-20-99	Jun-28-99
		1st quarter	5108	1452	3656	Mar-30-99	Mar-19-99	Mar-30-99
		2nd quarter	6065	1525	4540	Jun-28-99	Jun-20-99	Jun-28-99
	2nd half		13937	3570	10367	Dec-29-99	Dec-22-99	Dec-29-99
		3rd quarter	6119	1444	4675	Sep-30-99	Sep-18-99	Sep-30-99
		4th quarter	7818	2126	5692	Dec-29-99	Dec-22-99	Dec-29-99

After a cube is defined, you can create new aggregations, or you can change existing aggregations to set options such as whether aggregations are precalculated during processing or calculated at query time.

Why use UDM?

2007-02-22T16:49:00.000-08:00

Continuing with my research about Data Warehousing, the following are some of my notes in Data Modeling. Taken from this tutorial in SQL Server from msdn.

UDM - Unified Dimensional Model

A user who wants to retrieve information directly from a data source, such as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) database, faces several significant challenges:

The contents of such data sources are frequently very hard to understand, being designed with systems and developers instead of users in mind.
Information of interest to the user is typically distributed among multiple heterogeneous data sources. Even if dealing only with different relational databases, the user must understand the details of each, such as the dialect of SQL that is used. Worse, those data sources might be of very different types, including not only relational databases but files and Web services.
Whereas many data sources are oriented toward holding large quantities of transaction level detail, frequently the queries that support business decision-making involve summary, aggregated information. With increased data volumes, the time that is required to retrieve such summary values for interactive end-user analysis can be prohibitive.
Business rules are generally not encapsulated in the data sources. Users are left to make their own interpretation of the data.

The role of a Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) is to provide a bridge between the user and the data sources. A UDM is constructed over one or more physical data sources. The user issues queries against the UDM using a variety of client tools, such as Microsoft Excel.

There are advantages to the end user even when the UDM is constructed only as a thin layer over the data source: simpler, more easily understood model of the data, isolation from heterogeneous backend data sources, and improved performance for summary type queries. In some scenarios, a simple UDM can be constructed automatically. Greater investment in the construction of the UDM can generate additional benefits that accrue from the richness of metadata that the model can provide.

The UDM provides the following benefits:

Greatly enriches the user model.
Provides high performance queries supporting interactive analysis, even over large data volumes.
Captures business rules in the model to support richer analysis.
Supports ‘closing the loop’: letting users can act upon the data they see.

Cool Snow in Bear Valley

2007-02-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

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This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called Bear Valley Feb 2007. Make your own badge here.

We just got back from a three hour drive from Angel's Camp where we stayed for 2 nights. Bear Valley was just an hour away from where we stayed. Driving to highway 4 going to north, one would not think that there's lots of snow once you get on the top of the mountains. Bear Valley is so nice, we particularly enjoyed the not so angled slopes and vast stretch of snow, well suited for our 3 and 4 year old kids. My son who's 9 years old, especially enjoyed the 2 sledding hills. He got to the hills countless times tirelessly. I asked my daughter if she really enjoyed it, she said "Yes" and what she enjoyed the most, well "making snowballs".

Five Reasons Why I Sleep Past Midnight Everyday

2007-02-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

This is in response to a contest called "Five Things" hosted by one of my favorite blogs //engtech. So without further ado, here's my "five things":

Five Reasons Why I Sleep Past Midnight Everyday:

So I can do things after putting my children to bed.
So I can catch up on my reading and study materials.
So I can surf the net.
So I can have quiet time for myself.
I have Insomnia, which is probably the result of the first 4 reasons mentioned.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the result could also be the reason why I do the first 4. It's a cycle you know, it's a never ending thing.

Kill Processes in Windows using Perl

2007-02-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

When doing install automation, sometimes, it is necessary to disable some processes before proceeding. This can be done easily using perl's kill() function. But sometimes some processes are hard to kill, so what I have been using is this script that I borrowed from Dave Roth in his book Win32 Perl Scripting.

Here's how I do it:

use SamTools::Process;

#Kill Anti-Spywares
kill_process('gcasServ');
kill_process('gcasDtServ');
kill_process('SpySweeper');
kill_process('SpyBot');
kill_process('Ad-Watch');

sub kill_process {
    my $process = shift;
    my $result = 0;

    my $pid = SamTools::Process::getpid($process);

    if ($pid){
        if (SamTools::Process::kill_pid($pid)){
            $log->message("Process=Successfully killed $process\n");
        }
        else{
            $log->exception("Process=Cannot kill $process\n");
        }
    }
    else{
        $log->message("Process=$process not found\n");
    }
}

I modularized it below:

package SamTools::Process;

use Win32::PerfLib;
use Win32::API;
use Win32::Process::Info;

sub getpid {
    my $process = shift;

    my $server = $ENV{COMPUTERNAME};
    my $pid;

    Win32::PerfLib::GetCounterNames($server, \%counter);
    %r_counter = map { $counter{$_} => $_ } keys %counter;
    $process_obj = $r_counter{Process};
    $process_id = $r_counter{'ID Process'};
    $perflib = new Win32::PerfLib($server) || return 0;
    $proc_ref = {};
    $perflib->GetObjectList($process_obj, $proc_ref);
    $perflib->Close();
    $instance_ref = $proc_ref->{Objects}->{$process_obj}->{Instances};
    foreach $p (sort keys %{$instance_ref}){
        $counter_ref = $instance_ref->{$p}->{Counters};
        foreach $i (keys %{$counter_ref}){
            if($counter_ref->{$i}->{CounterNameTitleIndex} ==
               $process_id && $instance_ref->{$p}->{Name} eq $process){
                $pid = $counter_ref->{$i}->{Counter};
                last;
            }
        }
    }

    #try again using a different approach WMI
    unless ($pid){
        if (my $pi = Win32::Process::Info->new($server)){
            my $processes = $pi->GetProcInfo();
            my $number = @$processes;
            foreach (@$processes){
                if ($_->{Name} =~ /$process/i){
                    $pid = $_->{ProcessId};
                }
            }
        }
    }

    $pid?return $pid:return 0;
}

sub pidalive {
    my $pid = shift;
    my $server = $ENV{COMPUTERNAME};

    Win32::PerfLib::GetCounterNames($server, \%counter);
    %r_counter = map { $counter{$_} => $_ } keys %counter;
    $process_obj = $r_counter{Process};
    $process_id = $r_counter{'ID Process'};
    $perflib = new Win32::PerfLib($server) || return 0;
    $proc_ref = {};
    $perflib->GetObjectList($process_obj, $proc_ref);
    $perflib->Close();
    $instance_ref = $proc_ref->{Objects}->{$process_obj}->{Instances};
    foreach $p (sort keys %{$instance_ref}){
        $counter_ref = $instance_ref->{$p}->{Counters};
        foreach $i (keys %{$counter_ref}){
            if ($counter_ref->{$i}->{Counter} == $pid){
                return $pid;
            }
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

sub kill {
    my $process = shift;
    my $pid = getpid($process);
    if ($pid){
        Configure();
        $iResult = ForceKill( $pid );
        return 1 if( $iResult );
    }
    return 0;
}

sub kill_pid {
    my $pid = shift;
    Configure();
    $iResult = ForceKill( $pid );
    return 1 if( $iResult );
    return 0;
}

sub ForceKill {
    my( $Pid ) = @_;
    my $iResult = 0;
    my $phToken = pack( "L", 0 );
    # Fetch the process's token
    if($OpenProcessToken->Call($GetCurrentProcess->Call(),
                               $TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES | $TOKEN_QUERY,
                               $phToken )){
        my $hToken = unpack( "L", $phToken );
        # Set the debug privilege on the token
        if( SetPrivilege( $hToken, $SE_DEBUG_NAME, 1 ) ){
            # Now that we have debug privileges on the process
            # open the process so we can mess with it.
            my $hProcess = $OpenProcess->Call( $PROCESS_TERMINATE, 0, $Pid );
            if( $hProcess ){
                # We no longer need the debug privilege since we have opened
                # the process so remove the privilege.
                SetPrivilege( $hToken, $SE_DEBUG_NAME, 0 );
                # Let's termiante the process
                $iResult = $TerminateProcess->Call( $hProcess, 0 );
                $CloseHandle->Call( $hProcess );
            }
        }
        $CloseHandle->Call( $hToken );
    }
    return $iResult;
}

sub SetPrivilege {
    my( $hToken, $pszPriv, $bSetFlag ) = @_;
    my $pLuid = pack( "Ll", 0, 0 );
    # Lookup the LIUD of the privilege
    if( $LookupPrivilegeValue->Call( "\x00\x00", $pszPriv, $pLuid ) ){
        # Unpack the LUID
        my $pPrivStruct = pack( "LLlL",
                               1,
                               unpack( "Ll", $pLuid ),
                               ( ( $bSetFlag )? $SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED : 0 )
                               );
        # Now modify the process's token to set the required privilege
        $iResult = ( 0 != $AdjustTokenPrivileges->Call( $hToken,
                                                       0,
                                                       $pPrivStruct,
                                                       length( $pPrivStruct ),
                                                       0,
                                                       0 )
                    );
    }

    return $iResult;
}

sub Configure {
    $TOKEN_QUERY             = 0x0008;
    $TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES = 0x0020;
    $SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED    = 0x02;
    $PROCESS_TERMINATE       = 0x0001;
    $SE_DEBUG_NAME           = "SeDebugPrivilege";

    # Prepare to use some specialized Win32 API calls
    $GetCurrentProcess     = new Win32::API( 'Kernel32.dll',
                                             'GetCurrentProcess',
                                             [],
                                             N ) || die;
    $OpenProcessToken      = new Win32::API( 'AdvApi32.dll',
                                             'OpenProcessToken',
                                             [N,N,P], I ) || die;
    $LookupPrivilegeValue  = new Win32::API( 'AdvApi32.dll',
                                             'LookupPrivilegeValue',
                                             [P,P,P], I ) || die;
    $AdjustTokenPrivileges = new Win32::API( 'AdvApi32.dll',
                                             'AdjustTokenPrivileges',
                                             [N,I,P,N,P,P],
                                             I ) || die;
    $OpenProcess           = new Win32::API( 'Kernel32.dll',
                                             'OpenProcess',
                                             [N,I,N],
                                             N ) || die;
    $TerminateProcess      = new Win32::API( 'Kernel32.dll',
                                             'TerminateProcess',
                                             [N,I],
                                             I ) || die;
    $CloseHandle           = new Win32::API( 'Kernel32.dll',
                                             'CloseHandle',
                                             [N],
                                             I ) || die;
}

1;

__END__

=head1 NAME

SamTools::Process - Sam's Process controllers.

=head1 SYNOPSIS

    use SamTools::Process;

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This module controls processes on Win32 Systems.  Currently, only has killing capability.

use SamTools::Process;

=head1 kill

SamTools::Process::kill('ProcessName');

Data Warehousing Concepts

2007-02-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

I'm reading a book on Data Warehousing. This is in preparation for a project that I'm involved in. The project is to build a global reporting solution for IT using SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. Here are some key words I want to remember about data warehousing:

This term	Means this
Attribute	Information about a specific dimension member
Data warehouse	A relational database designed to store management information
Dimension	A list of labels that can be used to cross-tabulate values from other dimensions
Fact table	The relational database table that contains values for one or more measures at the lowest level of detail for one or more dimensions
Foreign key column	A column in a database table that contains many values for each value in the primary key column of another database table
Join	The processes of linking the primary key of one table to the foreign key of another table
Measure	A summarizable numerical value used to monitor business activity
Member	A single item within a dimension
Member property	An attribute of a member that is not meaningful when grouping values for a report, but contains valuable information about a different attribute
Primary key column	A column in a database dimension table that contains values that uniquely identify each row
Snowflake design	A database arrangement in which attributes of a dimension are stored in a separate (normalized) table
Star design	A database arrangement in which multiple attributes of a dimension are redundantly stored in a single (denormalized) dimension table

Design considerations:

Use integers for dimension members to reduce size of the fact table and to gaurantee uniqueness of each member key in a dimension table.
Use surrogate keys so that the fact table consumes less space. The ability to create multiple instances of the same product–or the same customer–is an extremely important benefit of surrogate keys, and it is particularly important in a data warehouse where you are maintaining historical information for comparison. Surrogate keys are a critical part of most data warehouse design. The foreign key in the fact table and the primary key in the dimension table are then completely under the control of the data warehouse.
Values in a data warehouse are not changing as dynamically as they would in a production database, so storing the values redundantly is less important than is retrieving the values as quickly as possible for a report.

Understanding OLAP and Analysis Services:

This term	Means this
Aggregation	Summarized values of a measure
Cache	Server-based storage locations both in memory (automatic) or on disk (designed) that enhance query performance
Calculated member	A mechanism for aggregating measures using formulas more complex than those stored in a cube
Cube	A collection of one or more related measure groups and their associated dimensions
Cube metadata	Instructions for creating and querying OLAP structures such as cubes and dimensions
Hierarchy	Levels of aggregation within a single dimension
Measure group	The conceptual container of detail values from a single fact table, along with all possible aggregations for one or more dimension hierarchies
Online analytical processing (OLAP)	A database system optimized to support decision-making processes
Online transaction processing (OLTP)	A database system used to manage transactions such as order processing
Unified Dimensional Model (UDM)	The measure groups and dimensions that define your organization's BI data; essentially synonymous with a cube

Benefit of an OLAP cube over a relational database:

Consistently fast response - prestoring calculated values.
Metadata-based queries
Spreadsheet-style formulas

Design considerations:

Use Database model OLAP instead of Spreadsheet model OLAP. Advantages and disadvantages, the biggest benefit of OLAP stored using the database model is the ability to avoid data explosion. Because you need relatively few aggregate tables to provide fast results, you can have much larger cubes with many more dimensions and attributes than by using a spreadsheet model. Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of OLAP stored by using a database model is that there is no inherent way to physically store values that are calculated using nonassociative operators.

Progress GUI in perl using Win32::GUI

2007-02-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

Did you ever need a progress GUI injected in your program? I did, and I still do. A progress GUI is something that is nice to have to show how a long running program is progressing. You don't want a user to think that your program is stuck. Last thing you want to happen is the user doing Ctrl+Alt+Delete then End Task. And so my solution is to display something like this:

Here's how my module is used:

use SamTools::ProgressGUI;

my $GUI = SamTools::ProgressGUI->new({
           Title       => 'Organization Name - Install Status',
           ProgressBar => 1,
       });

$GUI->show("Installing Software...");

foreach (1..10) {
    $GUI->step();
    sleep 1;
}

$GUI->hide();

Here's the module. I will probably contribute this to CPAN, just need to find time to prepare it, but here you go, enjoy...

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#
#   This is module for displaying progress GUI
#   Written By: Sam Dela Cruz
#   Date      : 05/18/2006
#   Version   : 1.00
#

package SamTools::ProgressGUI;

use strict;
use Win32::GUI;
use Win32::GUI::BitmapInline;

#   Constructor
sub new {
    my $proto  = shift;
    my $class  = ref($proto) || $proto;

    my $self = {};
    bless($self, $class);

    #initialize object
    return $self->_init(@_);
}

#   Initialize object
sub _init {
    my $self = shift;

    # default values
    $self->{'title'}        = 'Install Progress';
    $self->{'progressbar'}  = 0;

    # Have we been passed anything
    if (@_ != 0){
        # We are expecting our configuration to come as an anonymous hash
        if (ref $_[0] eq 'HASH'){
            my $hash=$_[0];
            foreach my $key (keys %$hash){
                $self->{lc($key)}=$hash->{$key};
            }
        }
        else {
            ( $self->{'title'}, $self->{'progressbar'} ) = @_;
        }
    }
    #create the GUI
    return $self->_createGUI;
}

#   Create the GUI
sub _createGUI {
    my $self = shift;

    # Program Icon
    $self->{'icon'} = newIcon Win32::GUI::BitmapInline( q(
    AAABAAEAICAAAAAAAACoCAAAFgAAACgAAAAgAAAAQAAAAAEACAAAAAAAgAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEA
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAACAAACAAAAAgIAAgAAAAIAAgACAgAAAwMDAAMDcwADwyqYA8PDwAJn//wCZ1JkA
    /9SZAP/M/wCZmf8AMCIiABEAAAAiAAAARAAAAFUAAAB3AAAAiAAAAKoAAADdAAAA7gAAAAARAAAA
    IgAAAEQAAABVAAAAdwAAAIgAAACqAAAA3QAAAO4AAAAAEQAAACIAAABEAAAAVQAAAHcAAACQAAAA
    qgAAAN0AAADuADMAAABmAAAAmQAAAMwAAAAAMwAAMzMAAGYzAAChMwAAzDMAAP8zAAAAZgAAM2YA
    AGZmAACZZgAAzGYAAP9mAAAAmQAAM5kAAGaZAACZmQAAzJkAAP+ZAAAAzAAAM8wAAGbMAACZzAAA
    zMwAAP/MAAAz/wAAZv8AAJn/AADM/wAAAAAzADMAMwBmADMAmQAzAMwAMwD/ADMAADMzADszMwBm
    MzMAmTMzAMwzMwD/MzMAAGYzADNuMwBmZjMAmWYzAMxmMwD/ZjMAAJkzADOZMwBmmTMAmZkzAMyZ
    MwD/mTMAAMwzADPMMwBmzDMAmcwzAMzMMwD/zDMAAP8zADP/MwBm/zMAmf8zAMz/MwD//zMAAABm
    ADMAZgBmAGYAmQBmAMwAZgD/AGYAADNmADMzZgBmM2YAmTNmAMwzZgD/M2YAAGZmADNmZgBmZmYA
    mWZmAMxmZgD/ZmYAAJlmADOZZgBmmWYAmZlmAMyZZgD/mWYAAMxmADPMZgBmzGYAmcxmAMzMZgD/
    zGYAAP9mADP/ZgBm/2YAmf9mAMz/ZgD//2YAAACZADMAmQBmAJkAmQCZAMwAmQD/AJkAADOZADMz
    mQBmM5kAmTOZAMwzmQD/M5kAAGahADNmmQBmZpkAmWaZAMxmmQD/ZpkAAJmZADOZmQBmmZkAmZmZ
    AMyZmQD/mZkAAMyZADPMmQBmzJkAmcyZAMzMmQD/zJkAAP+ZADP/mQBm/5kAmf+ZAMz/mQD//5kA
    AADMADMAzABmAMwAmQDMAMwAzAD/CNQAADPMADMzzABmM8wAmTPMAMwzzAD/M8wAAGbMADNmzABm
    ZswAmWbMAMxmzAD/ZswAAJnMADOZzABmmcwAmZnMAMyZzAD/mcwAAMzMADPMzABmzMwAmczMAMzM
    zAD/zMwAAP/MADP/zABm/8wAmf/MAMz/zAD//8wAMwD/AGYA/wCZAP8AzAD/AAAz/wAzM/8AZjP/
    AJkz/wDMM/8A/zP/AABm/wAzZv8AZmb/AJlm/wDMZv8A/2b/AACZ/wDd3d0AzJn/AGbM/wAAAIgA
    /wDMAJkzAAAzZjMAAGaZADMzMwDw+/8ApKCgAICAgAAAAP8AAP8AAAD//wD/AAAA/wD/AP//AAD/
    //8A//////////8KgVdXXVdXXXtXXXtXXXsJ///////////////2//b/9lcZ/Bn8GRkZGRkZGRkZ
    GVHV9v/29v/2//v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7
    +/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7+/v7++0LCu2AXFZW
    elZWelZWVlZWVlZWVVZWVlZWVlYHCwoL///VGRn8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pyr///2
    1Rn8/Pz8/Pz8Gfz8Gfz8Gfz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pyr/85zUPz8/PwFUBkZ/HvOD8/VD87IGfz8UAUF
    BQVQGfyrK/m5/Pz8T/mWGRmBD/n5D//5+fnP/AX5+fn5+fm5UPzc+fn8/Py6+fkZgf/h+fkK9vn5
    +f/Pc/n5K9zc+fkqGZX5+VD8Gfn5+Z3//+H5+f//+fn5//8OuXMZGRm6+flzBfn5c/xz+fn54Qr/
    +fnh///5+fn///8OGRkZ/HT5+bpQ+fkFGbn5+fn5Cg/5+ej///n5+f////97Gfz8lvn5BRj5+bkY
    +fm5+fkPD/n5D///+fn5/////3sZ/AUr+flQ/Nz5+QX5+VDc+dzo+fkKCv/5+fn///8Ke1AqK/n5
    lvz8lfn5+fkq/Mb5+Ssr+f////n5+f///wrd+fn5KwX8/PwF+fn5+QX8zvkrKyvi////+fkr//8K
    4fn5+blRGfz8/FD5+fn5UPzVKysrK+j///8rKyv//w/5+flP/Pz8/Pz8Gfn5+Sv8/IHoKyv5D///
    /ysrK///6Pn5Bfz8/Pz8/Pz83Pn5lvz8/J0rK/kK////Kysr///i+fl0/Pz8GRn8/PyW+flz/Pz8
    /Csr3P////8rKyv/q3P5+blzUJcqc/wZGQUr3Pz8/Pz8livh/wr///n5K8/8/Lr5+fn5+fm5/NUZ
    dCuW/Pz8/PxzK8HVCc/V3PkrGfz8GZcrK/kr3HOr/9UZGfz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/PwZ
    Ufz8q////9X8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8/Pz8GQn//////wpX/Pz8GRkZGRkZGRkZGRkZ
    GRkZGRkZGfyr////a2trkGtIRENIQ0NJQ0NJQ0NJQ0NJQ0NJQ0NJa2uQa2v6+vr6IiIiIiIiIiIi
    IiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIvr6IiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIiIia2tra2tr
    a2tEQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDQ0NDa2tra2tra2v//////////wpXV1dXV1dXV1dXV1dXV9X/////////
    /wAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
    ) );

    # Start Pop-Up Window GUI
    $self->{'screen_width'}  = Win32::GUI::GetSystemMetrics(0);
    $self->{'screen_height'} = Win32::GUI::GetSystemMetrics(1);
    $self->{'font1'}         = new GUI::Font(-name=>"Tahoma",
                                             -height=>8,
                                             );
    $self->{'font2'}         = new GUI::Font(-name=>"Tahoma",
                                             -height=>14,
                                             -bold=>1,
                                             );
    $self->{'font3'}         = new GUI::Font(-name=>"Tahoma",
                                             -height=>9,
                                             -bold=>1,
                                             );
    $self->{'font4'}         = new GUI::Font(-name=>"Tahoma",
                                             -height=>11,
                                             -bold=>1,
                                             );

    $self->{'Popup'} = new GUI::DialogBox(
                       -name   => "Popup",
                       -text   => $self->{'title'},
                       -size   => [400, 150],
                       -pos    => [(($self->{'screen_width'}/2)-200),
                                   (($self->{'screen_height'}/2)-125)],
                       -font   => $self->{'font1'},
                       -helpbutton => 0,
                       );

    my $wc = $self->{'Popup'}->Width();

    $self->{'Popup'}->SetIcon($self->{'icon'});

    $self->{'Popup'}->AddLabel( -name    => "PopupLabel",
                                -text    => "",
                                -top     => 20,
                                -left    => 20,
                                -height  => 80,
                                -width   => $wc-40,
                                -font    => $self->{'font1'},
                                );

    #display progress bar if specified in object creation
    if ($self->{'progressbar'}) {
        $self->{'Popup'}->AddProgressBar( -name   => "ProgressBar",
                                          -width  => $wc-40,
                                          -height => 10,
                                          -top    => 80,
                                          -left   => 20,
                                          -smooth => 1,
                                          );

        $self->{'Popup'}->ProgressBar->SetPos (0);
        $self->{'Popup'}->ProgressBar->SetRange(0,50);
        $self->{'Popup'}->ProgressBar->SetStep (1);
    }

    $self->{'Popup'}->SetForegroundWindow();

    return $self;
}

#   Methods
sub show {
    my $self = shift;
    my $message = shift;
    $self->{'Popup'}->PopupLabel->Text($message);
    $self->{'Popup'}->Show();
    Win32::GUI::DoEvents();
}

sub step {
    my $self = shift;
    $self->{'Popup'}->ProgressBar->StepIt() if ($self->{'progressbar'});
    Win32::GUI::DoEvents();
}

sub hide {
    my $self = shift;
    if ($self->{'progressbar'}){
        $self->{'Popup'}->ProgressBar->SetPos(50);
        sleep 1; # give chance to show completion of progress bar
    }
    $self->{'Popup'}->Hide();
    Win32::GUI::DoEvents();
}

1;

__END__

=head1 NAME

SamTools::ProgressGUI - Sam's Simple Progress GUI

=head1 SYNOPSIS

use SamTools::ProgressGUI;

# Pretty format, all the parameters
my $GUI = SamTools::ProgressGUI->new({
            Title       => 'Organization Name - Install Status',   # define the window title
            ProgressBar => 1,                                      # display progress bar
        });

# Typical usage
my $GUI = SamTools::ProgressGUI->new({
            Title       => 'Organization Name - Install Status',
            ProgressBar => 1,
        });

# Display status window with the message
$GUI->show("Installing Software...");

# Move the progress bar
$GUI->step();

# Hide the status GUI
$GUI->hide();

=head1 DESCRIPTION

I is a class providing methods to display a progress GUI.  There are a number
of parameters that can be passed to allow configuration of the GUI.

=head1 REQUIRED MODULES

Win32::GUI;
Win32::GUI::BitmapInline;

=head1 METHODS

There are no class methods, the object methods are described below.
Private class method start with the underscore character '_' and
should be treated as I.

=head2 new

Called to create a I object.  The following optional named parameters can be
passed to the constructor via an anonymous hash:

=over 4

=item Title

Defines the window title.  If not defined in the
constructor then it will use the default "Philips NA IT - Install Progress".

=item ProgressBar

Used to determine if a progress bar is needed.
Default is none.

=back

=head2 _init & Private methods

I method to initialise the object on construction.  Called by C.
All I methods start with B<_> and should be treated as PRIVATE.  No other
private methods are documented (since they are private).

=head2 show

The C method is used to show the Progress GUI with message specified.

eg.  $GUI->show("Installing Software...");

=head2 step

C is used to step the progress bar if progress bar is turned on.

=head2 hide

C is used to hide the GUI.

=head1 KNOWN ISSUES

none

=head1 AUTHOR

Sam Dela Cruz, sammydc at gmail dot com

=head1 LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2006 - Sam Dela Cruz. All rights reserved. This
program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut

Perl Best Practices

2007-02-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

I always wanted to tidy up my perl code. But most of the time, because of the nature of work and tasks, I don't need to worry about this because my programs are mostly throw-away scripts, write and use once. But through the years that I'm programming in perl, I have accumulated a bunch of snippets here and there that are really worthy of reuse. Problem is when I look at them again, I need to re-read and re-understand my code again. Something I left out before is naming and layout convention. So with the purpose of rewriting and improving readability, consistency and maintainability of my codes, I set to follow some standards. I found this wonderful book called Perl Best Practices. It outlines coding layouts, naming conventions and well, best practices, perl style. Below are my notes for Naming Conventions taken from thisbook by Damian Conway.

#Identifiers

# Packages and Classes
# Noun::Adjective::Adjective
package Disk;
package Disk::DVD;
use base qw( Disk );
package Disk::DVD::Rewritable;
use base qw( Disk::DVD );

# Variables
# noun, preceded by zero or more adjectives
my $next_client;
my $prev_appointment;
my $estimated_net_worth;
my $final_total;
my $cumulative_total;

# Hashes and Arrays for look-up tables
# noun, preceded by zero or more adjectives, then preposition
my %title_of;
my %ISBN_for;
my @sales_from;
# and later...
while (my $month = prompt -menu => $MONTH_NAMES) {
    for my $book ( @catalog ) {
        print "$ISBN_for{$book} $title_of{$book}: $sales_from[$month]\n";
    }
}

# Subroutines and Methods

# imperative_verb noun
sub get_record;

# imperative_verb noun preposition
sub get_record_for;

# imperative_verb noun
sub eat_cookie;

# imperative_verb adjective noun
sub eat_previous_cookie;

# imperative_verb noun
sub build_profile;

# imperative_verb adjective noun
sub build_execution_profile;

# imperative_verb adjective noun participle
sub build_execution_profile_using;

# Notice how clear this is:
@config_options = get_record_for($next_client);
for my $option (@config_options) {
    build_execution_profile_using($next_client, $option);
}

# Booleans
# begin with is_ or has_, but not always

sub is_valid;
sub metadata_available_for;
sub has_end_tag;

my $loading_finished;
my $has_found_bad_record;

# and later...

if (is_valid($next_record) && !$loading_finished) {
    METADATA:
    while (metadata_available_for($next_record)) {
        push @metadata, get_metadata_for($next_record);
        last METADATA if has_end_tag($next_record);
    }
}
else {
    $has_found_bad_record = 1;
}

# Reference Variables
# suffix _ref to any variable that is supposed to store a reference
sub pad_str {
    my ($text, $opts_ref) = @_;

    my $gap   = $opts_ref{cols} - length $text;
    my $left  = $opts_ref{centred} ? int($gap/2) : 0;
    my $right = $gap - $left;

    return $SPACE x $left . $text . $SPACE x $right;
}

# Arrays and Hashes
# Name arrays in the plural and hashes in the singular

my %option;
my %title_of;
my %count_for;
my %is_available;

# and later...
if ($option{'count_all'} && $title_of{$next_book} =~ m/$target/xms) {
    $count_for{$next_book}++;
    $is_available{$next_book} = 1;
}

my @events;
my @handlers;
my @unknowns;

# and later...

for my $event (@events) {
    push @unknowns, grep { ! $_->handle($event) } @handlers;
}

print map { $_->err_msg } @unknowns;

# but arrays as random-access look-up table, should be singular

my @factorial = (1);
for my $n (1..$MAX_FACT) {
    $factorial[$n] = $n * $factorial[$n-1];
}

sub factorial {
    my ($n) = @_;

    croak "Can't compute factorial($n)"
        if $n < 0 || $n > $MAX_FACT;

    return $factorial[$n];
}

# Underscores
# Use underscores to separate words in multiword identifiers

FORM:
for my $tax_form (@tax_form_sequence) {
    my $notional_tax_paid
        = $tax_form->{reported_income} * $tax_form->{effective_tax_rate};

    next FORM if $notional_tax_paid  < $MIN_ASSESSABLE;

    $total_paid
        += $notional_tax_paid - $tax_form->{allowed_deductions};
}

# Capitalization
# Distinguish different program components by case
# Use lowercase only for the names of subroutines,
# methods, variables, and labeled arguments
# $controller, new( ), src=>$fh

# Use mixed-case for package and class names
# IO::Controller

# Use uppercase for constants
# $SRC, $NODE

my $controller
        = IO::Controller->new(src=>$fh,  mode=>$SRC|$NODE);

# Abbreviations
# retain start of each word
# This example is easily comprehended:

use List::Util qw( max );

DESC:
for my $desc (@orig_strs) {
    my $len = length $desc;
    next DESC if $len > $UPPER_LIM;
    $max_len = max($max_len, $len);
}

# Utility Subroutines
# Prefix "for internal use only" subroutines with an underscore
sub _find_fib {
    my ($n) = @_;

# Walk up cache from last known value, applying Fn = Fn-1 + Fn-2...

    for my $i (@fib_for..$n) {
        $fib_for[$i] = $fib_for[$i-1] + $fib_for[$i-2];
    }

    return;
}

Kid's Surprise

2007-01-13T23:43:00.000-08:00

Kid's Surprise

This is a great idea from the 3 moms. They arranged this get-together to surprise our kids with presents. It was amazing to see how they really appreciated simple gifts. You can see from their eyes the moment they opened the gifts the sparkle. This is nice, we got to do this at least once a year.

Online Exercise Journal

2007-01-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

I spent a few minutes on the web trying to find an online exercise journal so I can track my progress. I found FitDay. Not only that it tracks daily exercise activities but also tracks diet. Then based on the journal entry, answers fitness questions, including:

How many calories am I eating?
What's my fat/carb/protein calorie breakdown?
How many calories does each food contribute?
Am I getting my recommended requirements of vitamins and minerals?
How many calories do I burn?
Where am I burning my calories (exercise, BMR, lifestyle)?
Am I achieving a caloric balance?
How many miles did I run (swim, walk, bike) over the past few weeks?
How is my weight changing?
Is my weight within a healthy range for my height?
Am I achieving my personal weight goal?
Am I achieving my personal nutrition goals?

The chart above shows how healthy(?) I am at the moment. There is a way to enter fitness goals. My goal is to be 150 lbs. by the end of the year. Let's track my progress!

Let's Take A Walk!

2007-01-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

After years of no exercise whatsoever, this week I started walking just 30 minutes a day. Oh what a feeling! (from a song, if I may borrow). A difference it makes indeed.

It's Friday

2006-11-10T16:18:00.000-08:00

Another week is over. What have I accomplished this week? A lot I suppose, but not too much. This week in a hurry I did the following:

Composed and delivered a talk.
Took my 2 kids to the doctor due to common cough and cold.
Rescheduled a public talk.
Learned about dotnetCharting for work.

I worried to much about my 2 kids being sick this week, everytime this happens I would remember how sick my youngest had been a few years back. It was my first time to have experienced putting a baby in a tub full of water. Her temperature had reached 103 degrees at about 11:30 that night. While I was talking to her pediatrician on the phone, I turned on the tub faucet and filled it with water, then 2 minutes later, soaked my baby while she was crying and screaming. Quite an experience. I'm sure most parents have their share of these experiences. This week it was my son who brought this viral sickness in my house. He must have gotten it from school. Their pedia suggested he bring hand sanitizers to school and wash hands often specially after touching things like doorknobs and keyboards in school. My wife also was slightly sick, problem sometimes is that, she has trouble of knowing if she had cold or an allergy attack. Allergy attack indeed, just a night after taking her medications, she is back as a hyperactive mom. I too got the cold bug, but as usual I'm not allowed to get sick, so while taking in 2 pills in 2 nights, still did my daily routine. Well, so much for that, hopefully after taking the prescribed medications, my kids would be their usual selves, hyper and makulit (stubborn).