Citi sends unrequested credit cards - USATODAY.com

Citi sends unrequested credit cards - USATODAY.com

My wife just got a new credit card in the mail. I was stunned. I asked her if she had requested it and she said no. This is just bad business. Very upsetting that a company could get away with this. How will this affect our credit? Is there an opportunity for identity theft? Maddening. This shouldn't be allowed. The name Citi will now take a position on my "bad" list of companies I will not have anything to do with.

I want to be able to connect to the computers on my network. And I
want to do this even from outside the firewall. SBS 2003 has a great
web interface to launch this at http://yourdomain.com/remote.

But it wasn't working. I was getting the error: "Connectivity to the remote computer could not be established. Ensure that the remote computer is on and connected to the Windows Small Business Server network."

I found the solution here: http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=101&threadID=227304&messageID=2263999

"Remote Connections
I've seen this error too many times when I don't enable remote
coneections on workstations. The connection is being made, otherwise you would not get that error. Check and make that "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" is enabled. This is found on the Remote tab of my computer. As soon as I tenable it, I can remote login to workstation. This has worked for me every time without fail. "

This worked great and now I can connect to the machines that I want to connect to.

--
----------------------------
David Mineer Jr
Construction Monitor
435-586-1205 x101
----------------------------------------------------------
The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing
something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas,
but there are few who decide to do something about them now.
Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur
is a doer.

iGoldmine and Log On Local Rights.

After getting iGoldmine configured and allowing access through the firewall, I had a problem with regular users loggin in. I could, as an administrator, but my other users could not.

The first article I saw had me pull up the local Security settings Management console. I can't remember how they had me do that. But, when I clicked on "Allow log on Locally", the option to "Add user or group" is grayed out.

I found another article here. Here are the steps to use the Default Domain Controller Security Settings instead. This gave me the choice to add users or groups.

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Domain Controller Security Policy.
2. Double-click the Security Settings folder, double-click Local Policies, and then click User Rights Assignment.
3. Under the Policy column, click Allow Log on Locally, and then click Add.

I created a group called iGoldmine and added it to this policy. Now any user I add to that group can use iGoldmine.

ISA 2004 and iGoldmine

A few months ago I moved my sales staff to a new server. This put them on a seperate network with it's own internet connection. I have needed to get iGoldmine up and working but I had not done that. Until today. And it was a pain, which I actually started day before yesterday. The first nightmare was that my machine wouldn't reboot after installing iGoldmine. Turns out they have an incompatibility with one of the microsoft updates.
This is always a problem with goldmine. I am not real pleased with igoldmine but I have no other options owing to the fact that we use goldmine and want remote access. Anyway, the solution was to apply the iGoldmine patch in safe mode. Then I had to remove an icompatible windows patch after that. Pain in the but. This is a patch from back in April, 4 months ago. You would think they would get it fixed.
Anyway, after getting it installed, it worked from inside the firewall, but not outside. Goldmine tech support of course was of no assistance and said they dont' support firewall configurations, which is typical of their support, they are extremely unhelpful even though I am sure they have thousands of customers with the same issues. I didn't find much, other than people asking the same questions, in the forums.
So here is how I finally got iGoldmine working through my ISA 2004 firewall(I know you might think it so much more than a firewall and it may well be, whatever).
I am on Small Business Sever 2003, if that makes any difference to you

1. Open "Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server" Management Console.
2. Click on your server
3. Click on "Firewall Policy"
4. Right click and chooose New/Access Rule (or click "Create a New Access Rule" int he task menu.
5. Name it what you want, I chose "iGoldmine". Click Next
6. Choose "Allow". click next.
7. For "This rule applies to" choose "Selected Protocols"
8. Click Add
9. Now you are at the "Add Protocols" Window.
10. You will notice at the top of the protocol "type" list there is 3 menus. New, Edit Delete. Edit and Delete may be grayed out if you haven't selected a protocol
11. Click New, then Choose Protocol
12. Give it a name, I like to confuse myself so I called it "iGoldmine". Same name, but this is a protocol and not an access rule.
13. Choose New in the "New Protocol Definition Wizard"
14. You want the following: Protocol Type:TCP, Direction:Outbound:Port Range from 491 to 491. Probably the only changes you need to make are to the port range values, the rest are probably defaulted correctly.
15. Click Ok
16. Click new again
17. This was the one that got me. You need an inbound filter for port 80.
18. Protocol Type:TCP, Direction:Inbound, Port Range From 80 to 80. If you don't use port 80 you will need to change this in the iGoldmine cluster manager, but you do have that option
19. Click ok
20. Click Next
21. Choose No on Secondary Connection, Click next.
22. Click Finish
23. No to add them you will need to find them in the "Add protocols" window. Probably the easiest is to choose All protocols and find them in alphabetical order. You ned to choose the ones you just added and click add to add them to the protocols section of the New Access Rule Wizard.
24. Click close once you have done that.
25. Click next
26. Access Rule Sources. Choose External. Click next
27. Access Rule Destinations. Choose "Local Host"
28. Click next
29. Leave default "All Users", Click next
30. Click Finish.

That should do the trick. It should work immediately.
The next problem I had was giving users log on local rights. I was able to logon immediately after the above as an admin on the iGoldmine server, but regular users could not until I made some changes. I will talk abou that in my next post.

"Error 15023: User or role '%s' already exists in the current database."

Got this error recently when I downloaded a clients database from a shared host to my local machine. Tried to add the same user.

This article resolved it for me: http://www.codeproject.com/database/OrphanedSQLUsers.asp.

Here is the SQl that I ran "sp_change_users_login 'auto_fix', 'user'"

Tethering my Blackberry to my Laptop

When I first got my blackberry one of the things that interested me was the fact that I could "Tether" myh blackberry to my laptop. Which means that I could use my blackberry to get high speed internet access from anywhere I could use my cell phone(blackberry) Well the software to allow that didn't work with Windows Vista, so I kind of forgot about it for a while. Until today. I figured out that the motel my wife had got from hotwire didn't have high speed internet(I always try to remind her how important that is for me).

Anyway I called verizon and had them add the $15 a month thing that I needed for this to work and got instructions on how to download the software that I needed. The told me to go to http://www.vzam.net/. After driving around for about an hour I finally found an open wireless connection and was able to download the VZAccess Manager that I needed.

Wow. Here I am sitting in the middle of a big parking lot at some factory stores near Park City Utah, checking email and doing other tasks. And it was fast. I had a full bar EVDO connection and it screamed. The connection back at the motel is only 2 bars and it is bearable for email and surfing, although noticeably slower.

Turns out this "Motel" is actually condos and there was a DSL modem sitting on the floor unplugged. I plugged it in and I have DSL so I didn't even really need to set up the Broadband access with verizon, but hey I will be getting stuff done while the family is school shopping so I am going to stick with it for at least this month. Where I live, we don't have the EVDO towers. I wish verizon would get that rolled out to all their towers.

David Mineer

Ten ColdFusion 8 OneLiners

Ten ColdFusion 8 OneLiners

Blog entry about some of CF8's best new features.

Importing Outlook Email into Google Apps (Gmail)

Here is an article about different ways to import existing email into your new Google Apps account.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MigratingAFamilyToGoogleAppsFromGmailThunderbirdOutlookAndOthersTheDefinitiveGuide.aspx

This is mentioned in that article, but looks like a tool to make some migrations very simple: http://www.limitnone.com/products.php

Maybe not free, but what is your time worth?

Yslow for Firebug

As mentioned in Sean Coorfield's Blog. Yslow for firebug is a great little utility to use on your own web site.

The proper way to ask questions in newsgroups and other forums

Sean Corfields blog had a great post about blunt to the point article about posting quesitons to newsgroups, email lists and other forums for technical answers. I am one that is always nervous to ask a question, but this does not offend me, yet instead offers some good insight on the effort we should all take before we expect someone else to spend their valuable time helping us. There are alot of people that offer alot of help and to them I am grateful. The article:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Problem Rotating Images

Several Times my users have complained to me that they were unable to rotate images using windows picture and fax viewer. This seems odd to me because they can rotate other pictures, just not some.

Anyway I found an article that provided the fix for this:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.photos/browse_thread/thread/bf93b6a7f38c2520/68e7606cddf2dd30%2368e7606cddf2dd30

Just click the ctrl and X button in windows picture and fax viewer and it will reset the warning message, which, if you choose yes to go ahead anyway will rotate the picture.

Yep, as simple as getting the dialog box back. I guess you just have to answer the dialog box each time.

Next N records, paginated sql server results

I have several places on my web site where I let the user page through search results and recordsets. Usually this is inneficient because your return all resulsts and essentially hide everything but the rows they want to see. This is very inneficient and the only examples of doing this correctly were difficult at best.

Well, with SQL Server 2005 there is a new feature - ROW_NUMBER() that makes this simpoler to implement. Not 100% intuitive but I was able to figure it out. The following link is a good tutorial that helped me:

http://www.davidhayden.com/blog/dave/archive/2005/12/30/2652.aspx

Dynamic SQL Where statements

I was trying to figure out how to use an if statement in the where clause of a sql statement. I came across this article that explains the use of coalesce. This is a great way to handle this.

http://www.sqlteam.com/item.asp?ItemID=2077

SELECT Cus_Name,
Cus_City,
Cus_Country
FROM Customers
WHERE Cus_Name = COALESCE(@Cus_Name,Cus_Name) AND
Cus_City = COALESCE(@Cus_City,Cus_City) AND
Cus_Country = COALESCE(@Cus_Country,Cus_Country)

Read the article to understand it. Basically if there is a value provided to the stored procedure then the comparison is done. If there is no value it essentially includes all records or (matches itself). I know, that doesn't make sense.

Setting Parameters in Crystal Reports .NET

Well, I missed the post about setting parameters. That was one of the puzzle pieces too and I got lazy and didn't post about it. Here it is.

Setting Parameters in Crystal Reports .NET

A number of methods out there use the CrystalReportViewer control to set parameters. That's great unless you need to export your report to PDF (or XLS or RTF). This is a code snippet I use, it comes from Business Objects tech support:

rptCount = New ReportDocument
rptCount.Load(Server.MapPath("reportname.rpt"))

''Get the collection of parameters from the report
crParameterFieldDefinitions = rptCount.DataDefinition.ParameterFields
''Access the specified parameter from the collection
crParameter1 = crParameterFieldDefinitions.Item("Param1")
crParameter2 = crParameterFieldDefinitions.Item(“Param2")

''Get the current values from the parameter field. At this point
''there are zero values set.
crParameter1Values = crParameter1.CurrentValues
crParameter2Values = crParameter2.CurrentValues

''Set the current values for the parameter field
crDiscrete1Value = New ParameterDiscreteValue
crDiscrete1Value.Value = Request.Form(“param1value“)

crDiscrete2Value = New ParameterDiscreteValue
crDiscrete2Value.Value = Request.Form(“param2value“)

''Add the first current value for the parameter field
crParameter1Values.Add(crDiscrete1Value)
crParameter2Values.Add(crDiscrete2Value)

''All current parameter values must be applied for the parameter field.
crParameter1.ApplyCurrentValues(crParameter1Values)
crParameter2.ApplyCurrentValues(crParameter2Values)

Crystal Reports Database Login

The last major piece of my puzzle. This code lets me pass database and login information.

http://diamond.businessobjects.com/node/134

VB.NET
---------

Imports CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine
Imports CrystalDecisions.Shared


Dim crtableLogoninfos As New TableLogOnInfos()
Dim crtableLogoninfo As New TableLogOnInfo()
Dim crConnectionInfo As New ConnectionInfo()
Dim CrTables As Tables
Dim CrTable As Table
Dim TableCounter

'If you are using a Strongly Typed report (Imported in
'your project) named CrystalReport1.rpt use the
'following:

Dim crReportDocument As New CrystalReport1()

'If you are using a Non-Typed report, and
'loading a report outside of the project, use the
'following:

Dim crReportDocument As New ReportDocument()

crReportDocument.Load("c:\myReports\myReport.rpt")

'Set the ConnectionInfo properties for logging on to
'the Database

'If you are using ODBC, this should be the
'DSN name NOT the physical server name. If
'you are NOT using ODBC, this should be the
'physical server name

With crConnectionInfo
.ServerName = "DSN or Server Name"

'If you are connecting to Oracle there is no
'DatabaseName. Use an empty string.
'For example, .DatabaseName = ""

.DatabaseName = "DatabaseName"
.UserID = "Your User ID"
.Password = "Your Password"
End With

'This code works for both user tables and stored
'procedures. Set the CrTables to the Tables collection
'of the report

CrTables = crReportDocument.Database.Tables

'Loop through each table in the report and apply the
'LogonInfo information

For Each CrTable in CrTables
CrTableLogonInfo = CrTable.LogonInfo
CrTableLogonInfo.ConnectionInfo =
crConnectionInfo
CrTable.ApplyLogOnInfo(crtableLogoninfo)

'If your DatabaseName is changing at runtime, specify
'the table location.
'For example, when you are reporting off of a
'Northwind database on SQL server you
'should have the following line of code:

crTable.Location = "Northwind.dbo." &
crTable.Location.Substring(crTable.Location.LastIndexOf(
".") + 1)
Next

'Set the viewer to the report object to be previewed.

CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = crReportDocument

Crystal Reports Export to PDF

Well, I finally did it. The code below is what lets me export a crystal report to a pdf file. Previous entries outline some of the steps I have taken to get here. Not sure if all were necessary but it works. No I have to figure out how to pass parameters, datasource and login information. On to figure that out.

Option Strict On
Imports CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine
Imports CrystalDecisions.Shared
Partial Class _Default
Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
Private exportPath As String
Private myDiskFileDestinationOptions As DiskFileDestinationOptions
Private myExportOptions As ExportOptions
Private myReport As ReportDocument
Private selectedNoFormat As Boolean = False
Private Sub ConfigureCrystalReports()
myReport = New ReportDocument()
myReport.Load("C:\websites\rpt\report1.rpt")
'myCrystalReportViewer.ReportSource = myReport
End Sub

Protected Sub Page_Init(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Init
ConfigureCrystalReports()
ExportSetup()
myExportOptions.ExportFormatType = ExportFormatType.PortableDocFormat
myDiskFileDestinationOptions.DiskFileName = exportPath & "PortableDoc.pdf"
myExportOptions.DestinationOptions = myDiskFileDestinationOptions
myReport.Export()
End Sub
Public Sub ExportSetup()
exportPath = "C:\Exported\"
If Not System.IO.Directory.Exists(exportPath) Then
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(exportPath)
End If
myDiskFileDestinationOptions = New DiskFileDestinationOptions()
myExportOptions = myReport.ExportOptions
myExportOptions.ExportDestinationType = ExportDestinationType.DiskFile
End Sub
End Class

Use a javascript confirm box to ask the user if they want to delete.

Found this here: http://psacake.com/web/iw.asp

<a onclick="return confirm('Are you sure you want to delete?')" href="delete.page?id=1">Delete</a>

Crystal Reports XI on Windows Vista

http://support.businessobjects.com/downloads/service_packs/crystal_reports_en.asp

Talked to tech support about this and this was the link he gave me for the new build that is vista compatible.

Crystal Report Viewer missing images

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I had done the server install for the .net crystal report viewer appication or whatever you want to call it. Everything worked except for the images on the toolbar weren't showing up. I found this post concerning that which fixed my issue:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=566717&SiteID=1

Look at the post marked as the answer.

Tutorial: Exporting to Multiple Formats

I have been eager to get back to the office and continue my quest to get Crystal reports exporting to .pdf. Today I worked on a tutorial to export to different format. I am mainly interested in .pdf but the tutorial went through exporting to many different formats. The link to the tutorial is below.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms227606(VS.80).aspx

I didn't hit many roadblocks. This tutorial does not show you the exported file, it only gives you a message of success or failure. You have to browse to the location of export (Default: C:\exported\) to see the file that was created. I am sure a redirect wouldn't be too dificult, but I can do that later.

Now, on to passing parameters to the reports.

Dave