Microsoft Excel Workbook Links

Opening certain Excel or Comma Separated Value (CSV) files in Excel may (correctly or incorrectly) produce the following error message:

This workbook contains one or more links that cannot be updated.

Depending on how the file was opened (either through the GUI or programmatically), the following message box may appear:

Clicking the "Edit Links..." button opens the following window:

Selecting just about any option continues loading the file; however, if the files was accessed programmatically, user intervention is required through the GUI (even when the application has set Application.DisplayAlerts = false).

To disable the automatic update of Workbook links in Microsoft Excel 2007, which suppresses the prompt:

• Open Excel
• Click on the Microsoft Office button (in the upper left corner of the application)
• Click "Excel Options" near the bottom of the menu
• Select "Trust Center" tab
• Click the "Trust Center Settings..." button
• Select "External Content" tab
• Select "Disable automatic update of Workbook Links"
• Click "OK" button to close the "Trust Center" window
• Click "OK" button to close the "Excel Options" window

Addition information pertaining the issue is available through Microsoft's support website:

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813977

Visualizing Numerical Data

I was looking into visualizing numerical data and came across the following website:

• http://www.visitmix.com/labs/descry/theobesityepidemic/

Overall, MIX Online does an impressive job of allowing an average user to quickly and easily understand complex three dimensional data: time, space, and value.

Based on the visualization, it was interesting to see that the number of obese people in most U.S. states has approximately doubled since 1994. It was also interesting that the research does not take into account people who are underweight.

Bookmarklet - View Rendered HTML Source Code

Developing DHTML applications can be challenging, often the rendered HTML source code is dynamically assembled via JavaScript or AJAX and is dramatically different than the original source code of the Web page.

To view the raw rendered source code of an HTML page, save the following link as a bookmark, then navigate to the HTML page and click the bookmark.

javascript:document.write('<pre>' + document.body.innerHTML.replace(/</g,'&lt;').replace(/>/g,'&gt;') + '</pre>');

Classic ASP Permanent Redirect

In Classic ASP, the Response.Redirect method causes the server to send a temporary redirect code (302) in the response header.

To send a permanent redirect code (301) in the response header, use the following code instead:

Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"
Response.AddHeader "Location", "/new-page.asp"
Response.End

Replace "/new-page.asp" with the absolute or relative URL of the destination page.

MySQL Detailed Table Information

Use the following query to view detailed information about each table in the specified database:

SHOW TABLE STATUS FROM `database`;

Explanation

The SHOW TABLE STATUS command will show the following information about each table in the specified database:

• Name
• Engine
• Version
• Row Format
• Rows
• Average Row Length
• Data Length
• Max Data Length
• Index Length
• Data Free
• Auto Increment
• Create Time
• Update Time
• Check Time
• Collation
• Checksum
• Create Options
• Comment

Replace database with the name of your database.

MySQL ISNULL() Function

If you are familiar with Microsoft SQL you may have used the ISNULL() function; the equivalent function in MySQL is IFNULL().

In Microsoft SQL, the syntax is as follows:

SELECT ISNULL(NULL, 'Some Value')

In MySQL, the syntax is as follows:

SELECT IFNULL(NULL, 'Some Value')

Fix Extremely Slow Firefox Localhost Connections

Dan Wahlin discovered why Firefox runs so slowly when connecting to localhost. The Firefox IPv6 localhost bug significantly impacts page load times for the integrated Web servers in Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, as well as local AJAX development. Dan explains the issue and outlines the resolution:

It turns out that the slowness is caused by an IPv6 issue with DNS and can easily be resolved by turning IPv6 support off in Firefox while doing localhost testing. To make the change, type about:config in the address bar, locate the network.dns.disableIPv6 setting and double-click on it to set it to true. This does the trick for the Firefox localhost issue on Vista and everything is running fast again.

 

Xbox 360 - New Xbox Experience (NXE)

On November 19, 2008, Microsoft launched the New Xbox Experience (NXE) for the Xbox 360 console in North America. Most people with Xbox Live have probably already heard about the new avatars; however, a really slick feature is the ability to embed your avatar in a webpage by linking to a special image directly on Microsoft's servers.

Here's an example of my Xbox Live avatar:

To display your avatar on a Web page, insert an image with one of the following URLs:

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Verious/avatar-body.png
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Verious/avatarpic-l.png
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/Verious/avatarpic-s.png

Replace "Verious" with your Xbox Live screen name.

MySQL Row Number

Use the following MySQL query to return a row number for each record in a recordset:

SELECT @row := @row + 1 AS `RowNumber`, SomeTable.*
FROM SomeTable, (SELECT @row := 0) `DerivedTable`;

Explanation

MySQL allows variables to be assigned and selected in the same statement; therefore, @row := @row + 1 increments the value of the @row variable by one and selects the result. Because the default configuration of MySQL does not allow multiple queries, the value of @row is initialized through a sub-select in the FROM portion of the query. It is important to note that MySQL requires a name for each derived table, in this case the derived table was named DerivedTable. SomeTable and SomeTable.* should be replaced with your table and field list respectively.

Alternate Syntax

If MySQL is configured to allow multiple statements per command (this is turned off by default to prevent several types of SQL injection attacks), you can use the following alternate syntax, which does not require a derived table:

SET @i = 0;
SELECT @i := @i + 1 AS RowNumber, SomeTable.*
FROM SomeTable;

MySQL Numeric Data Types

Signed

Type	Minimum	Maximum
TINYINT (1 Byte)	-128	127
SMALLINT (2 Bytes)	-32768	32767
MEDIUMINT (3 Bytes)	-8388608	8388607
INT (4 Bytes)	-2147483648	2147483647
BIGINT (8 Bytes)	-9223372036854775808	9223372036854775807

Unsigned

Type	Minimum	Maximum
TINYINT (1 Byte)	0	255
SMALLINT (2 Bytes)	0	65535
MEDIUMINT (3 Bytes)	0	16777215
INT (4 Bytes)	0	4294967295
BIGINT (8 Bytes)	0	18446744073709551615

Source MySQL Numeric Data Types

Microsoft to Ship jQuery with Visual Studio

Microsoft has announced they will be shipping the JavaScript jQuery library with Visual Studio. From the jQuery Blog:

We have two pieces of fantastic, albeit serendipitous, news today: Both Microsoft and Nokia are taking the major step of adopting jQuery as part of their official application development platform. Not only will they be using it for their corporate development but they will be providing it as a core piece of their platform for developers to build with.

This is important news for developers because they will now be able to standardize on the jQuery library for all JavaScript development.

Windows Live ID Web Authentication SDK

Recently I have been researching Single Sign-On options to streamline the user's experience. One interesting provider I found is Windows Live ID Web Authentication, which allows visitors to logon to a website using their Hotmail or Windows Live account. Microsoft describes the Windows Live ID Web Authentication SDK as follows:

The Windows Live™ ID Web Authentication software development kit (SDK) gives you a platform-neutral way to bring the power of the Windows Live ID authentication service to your own Web site.

According to Microsoft the benefits include:

• Ability to use Windows Live gadgets and controls to incorporate authenticated Windows Live services into websites
• HTTP-based, platform-neutral interface for implementing Windows Live ID authentication in existing websites, even if they are hosted by third-parties
• Freedom from the technical details of authentication
• Huge user base: any of the millions of users who have a Windows Live ID can login to Windows Live ID Web Authentication websites

Download Windows Live Web Authentication SDK 1.1

Manage Windows Live Web Authentication Websites

Windows Live Alerts

Microsoft recently released a new version of Windows Live Alerts, which provides several exciting new features:

Windows Live Alerts enables customers to instantly connect to the information that they care most about via Windows Live Messenger, Mobile, and Hotmail.

When you update your blog or other RSS feed, Windows Live Alerts will automatically send a headline to all subscribed readers. The power of Windows Live Alerts is that users can choose where and when to receive alerts.

Learn about the new RSS feature of Windows Live Alerts.

Subscribe to Windows Live Alerts for this website by clicking on the following button (you can unsubscribe at any time by visiting alerts.live.com):

Amazon Web Services

The new TiltedAxis website is written in ASP.NET (C#) and integrates seamlessly with Amazon Web Services.

WPF TransitionContainer Control

The following video demonstrates the Microsoft WPF TransitionContainer control, which provides animated transitions between ViewStates:

The TransitionContainer control was written by Pavan Podila.

WPF ElementFlow Control

The following videos demonstrate the Microsoft WPF ElementFlow control, which supports CoverFlow, Carousel, and many other ViewStates:

CoverFlow ViewState (with reflections)

Carousel ViewState

Other ViewStates

The ElementFlow control was written by Pavan Podila.

XNA Animation Library

XNAnimation is a skeletal animation library for XNA. The library allows developers to easily manipulate, playback, interpolate and blend animations. See the following video for a demonstration:

Yahoo! Chart API

Yahoo! has released version 2.5.2 of the Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) Chart Library. The Chart Library requires Flash Player 9.0.45 or higher. Supported chart types include:

• Horizontal & Vertical Bar Charts
• Line Charts
• Pie Charts

Google Chart API

Google has recently published the Google Chart API, which lets developers dynamically generate and embed static charts into Web pages.

Some of the supported chart types include:

• Pie Chart

• 3D Pie Chart

• Line Chart

• Bar Chart

• Stacked Bar Chart

• Venn Diagram

• Scatter Plot

• Radar Chart

• Maps

XNA Creators Club Tour

Checkout the following video for a quick introduction to Community Games Beta on Xbox Live. The video covers the following topics:

• How to join XNA Creators Club
• Creating and sharing games on Xbox Live