foxpro.catalyst «

FoxPro workBLOGS and MORE… . . .

I acquired a new pet today, a three and a half feet fire-breathing orange eyed lizard with fifteen fingers.

For those who have been following this site for quite some time, I’m sure you have heard about my tiger and pterodactyl. Well this lizard is the newest.

… and the most arrogant.

I’m starting to call this one IKIA, a short cut for ‘I Know It All’. Ikia claims he knows C++, Java, VB6, VB.NET and SQL. He even understands Clipper and VisualFoxpro as well. He claims his fifteenth finger was meant for the space bar and that he can create a program to generate a 7x7 magic cube in less than five minutes.

Impressive claims if you’d ask me… but until I can find another keyboard for him to use, I won’t be allowing his slimy fingers to touch this Logitech keyboard of mine.

Ikia seem to know it all. He started blobbing about certain operating concepts, kernels, threads and other stuff which I believed were discussed when I was in college. Too bad I was busy doodling some non-cs related illustrations then.

Then he proudly stated the words ‘I am good because I can solve things fast.’

BEEP.

I have seen this before, good programmers and even good students bragging that this and that are easy.

Well… while programming is indeed about problem solving, it is not just about problem solving. It is about solving problems efficiently.

Not just solving problems efficiently today… or this month or this year, but solving problems retroactively, currently and beyond. Unlike hardware, software, especially database applications are not meant to deteriorate.

Well at least, that’s how I see things.

02:08AM.

Unholy hour for some… but for me this is the holiest of holy hours. Every thing’s calm and at peace and I can code the way I want. Of course there are those times (especially when the sun is up) when I would prefer coding when U2, Paul Oakenfold, Enigma, NIN or even the soulful music of ColdPlay pounds in my ears… but when the sun decides to dream, I prefer silence.

Ah… enough of these things. I did promise myself to concentrate on work blogs once more. To discuss more programming/freelancing/system-analysis-related issues and insights would be the priority. The info-links you used to see will still be there, probably underneath each ‘work blog’.

So what have I been working on for the past few hours?

IMCS.CPanel.DataTransferModule

What in wakahalarovha’s name is that?

IMCS stands for Integrated Media Center System and CPanel for Control Panel. Like most control panels you see in this world, this module aims to give the user the ‘lowest level access’ to some core parts of the program. Most settings and configuration are in there.

One of my measurements on how ‘good’ a program/system is, lies on how it can stand alone independent of the programmer who created it. If it can run for 7 years or more without my intervention, the hacker-part of this soul would be lust-ified.

That is why the CPanel is there.

Of course certain ‘outside factors’ like operating system variables, upgrades, environment, meteorites, non-thinking management and millions of other factors, pose a great challenge to that ‘independence’. Include some marketing related factors too. But, that would be another blog for now.

It has been my practice too, to make the database systems I develop compatible with a certain client’s other existing database applications. And since the Registrar and Cashiering (which involves different student information-related modules) are already handled in four of my clients by another software development company years before me, I made the Transfer Module as a means to export their databases to my database applications.

Of course I could make use of their database directly inside their own folders, but I prefer using my own re-structured database for a number of reasons.

One’s to be safe. If something happens on their part of the application, the database applications I am maintaining would not be affected. Same holds true the other way around. If corruption or any variation of those things happen, their system would not suffer.

And trust me when I say I don’t want a fellow Foxpro programmer to suffer… especially in my own hands.

Second reason is I am very particular with how I name the fields, the name formats and such. If you maintain several programs, it would be good for you if you’re using your own easy-to-remember conventions which would be hassle-free for you to recall once you switch on your development process to and fro from within your tasks pool.

Third reason involves the way I normalize fields and records. Fields such as Relative01, Relative02, Relative03 and so on is a big no no for me. Well, at least most of the time. This would be a different story though if it is a RelativeGivingOutiPodsandG5sToDevelopers. If this is the case… the more the merrier applies instead.

But following a database system that is not yours is not that easy. Even if both systems are developed in Visual Foxpro and you’re only scratching the database parts.

For one, the other database programmer can change the structure of the database at any point, and you, like me, find yourself re-coding some parts of your program, which in my case, the Data Transfer module.

These occur too especially if the other software development company has more than one programmer who seems to juggle with their field naming convention. CLIENT_01 uses MTELNO and FTELNO for their parent’s phone numbers. CLIENT_02 on the other hand uses MBTELNO and FBTELNO where I suppose ‘B’ stands for Business. Client_01 don’t have equivalent names for those fields. And in this digital world, one bit makes a BIG difference.

Last June, I also found myself in a position where another database structure was change and I cannot even edit it until I open the database exclusively. A feature which I should be adding on the Database Utility Module (equivalent to Clipper’s DBU) I made.

A utility which I will discuss further in another blog… in another time.

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Good luck, Arctic Team… may you find what you’ve been looking for. Same shout outs to Cassini and the Mercury Messenger as well (472 million dollars for 7.9 billion kilometer journey eh?).

Aloe vera may treat battle wounds. Nah… I prefer peace, unity and discussion. Deal with things the way ‘good’ programmers handle problems. War was never a solution… and never will it be. How come we never learn from the past?

Make way for Doom’s Day instead.

Mark Anthony Panizales is now bloggin’… and Ceazar Ryan Sealana too. If you could remember they were part of the first call-to-blog post of mine. I’ll be posting a second batch of roll calls within the week.

Looks like SCO gets it.

I don’t get it.

Nevermind.

Happy birthday, Neil Armstrong.

One more cyber-info-data-hoppin’ trail before I fire up some work:

• Data/Language Integration in .NET
• Time ever marches on…
• Anders Hejlsberg – Programming Data in C# 3.0
• Foundation for Object / Relational Databases: The Third Manifesto

Sometimes I do wonder what the reactions are inside Microsoft everytime pro-Foxpro comments are unleashed. But I’ll be most happy to see more data-centric capabilities inside C Sharp in the future… and happier if its syntax clarity is as good as the Foxpro/xBase models.

Every time I see a new model of a TabletPC, electronic inks and its variations, I remember an old joke again. Of course I know these ‘advanced technologies’ are not a joke.

Argh. I tried looking in the archives for that joke but after a couple of hours searching, re-filtering and manually scanning things, I can’t seem to find it. It seems that I’ll be needing WinFS to even locate it, but since that would be released probably a year from now and moving of release dates often occur, let me just recreate it.

Fast forward to the future… a couple of scientists ‘out in the field’ re-discovers paper. And of course since they’ve been dependent on paper-less and advanced nano-quantum (or whatever they call it) computer technologies already, they don’t have any idea what it is.

Scientist_001: Station-1029 we discovered something.
HQStation-1029: Be careful spaceboy… can you describe it?
Scientist_002: It’s light… thin… white… lighter and thinner than those laptops issued by EarthGov-00290 last September.
S001: And it comes with a pen-like thing… let me read… it says ‘Pencil’ (‘pen-like’? I guess pens outlived papers)
HQS-1029: Be careful, these might be advanced mines planted by our galactic enemies.
S001: I don’t think so HQ. I haven’t seen something like this before. I’m a pessimist by nature but I feel something good on this.
S002: … and this could be a discovery of the millenniury! (OK… i made up that word)
S001: Wait look! Using this pen-like thing I can write on it!
S002: Where’s the CPU? This is so advanced the CPU is i think so thin and invisible to the eye.
S002: Hooo… I can even flush the things I wrote using the other edge of this pen-like thing. I don’t have to press DEL and click on OK a number of times.
S001: And I think it has an auto-purge feature. No need clean the trash… unless the trash of this thing is located on a different sector.
HQS-1029: Whoa… bring it once here.
S001: Look… look I can even fold it and it doesn’t break. You can’t do that with the computers.
S001: ARGH I dropped it. Hey wait… the data is still there. And it seems to be working fine. No damages so far… not even a scratch.
HQS-1029: WHOA! You can’t do that on these ultra-computers of mine. One crash and it’s goodbye slick baby.
S002: And it can fit the pocket perfectly! And it fits in the other pocket as well. I guess it adjusts to its container automatically. I bet I can even eat this thing!
HQS-1029: Return to base, spaceboys. An unidentified objects are entering the premises of your location. These are probably manned Quasi-borg SPE-OPlanes!
S001: Oh no! They probably have intercepted the communication frequencies.
S002: Something this thing don’t have. More reason to return this to base and replicate things… they’re probably after this thing!
HQS-1029: We’re sending backups… hold on to your sectors. Transmission interrupted.

OK… I did over-bloat some parts, but it holds the gist of it. If you know where and who the links and authors of the ‘original version’, please be kind enough to inform me.

Get well soon, Steve Jobs.

All this memory optimization stuff is but a hoax?

Official Guidelines for User Interface Developers and Designers.

Do you want an Official Doom III Hardware Guide to come along with that?

Patchin’ time.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-025
Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (867801)
Read full details here.

Oh please don’t give me that ‘shift-to-another-browser’ solution. I prefer the fix-first-then-shift-after approach… but wait, probably it is the _best_ solution. So here’s a hack to remove Internet Explorer from your system (This includes some registry works).

Now of course we can expect Microsoft to ‘un-hack’ it.

Now here… to satisfy your MP3 cravings: ONE MILLION free and legal music tracks.

From 1975 to well 2005 next year, looks like not much has change… movie piracy-wise.

Speaking of piracy… if ever you consider this piracy-related: Apple vs Real Networks – Round 01 – Round 02 – Round 03. Isn’t technology about improving lives not improving the lawyer’s standard of living?

It’s not about piracy really… but ‘hacking’ is not the appropriate word either. Can we just restore the old glory days of the word ‘hack’?

Keith Brown: The .NET Developer’s Guide to Windows Security.

Today’s article: Un-Dynamics of Software Development, or, Don’t Bite the Flip Bozo. A little ‘warp’ but interesting and true. Here’s a snip:

The Perfect Software CompanyThere is a perfect software company. It is where I work. The coffee is excellent. The chairs are comfortable, the computers are wicked fast, and we take a lot of video game breaks. The humidor is well-stocked with Cohibas, there is a killer library, and naps are encouraged. The furnishings are handsome, and the décor is pleasant. There are no cubes. The Managers sign checks and buy whatever software, computers, books, gadgets, and video games are desired. Schedules are not set until requirements are defined, software release dates are only announced after the features are done and rock solid. There are no suits. No ties. No cubes, and no timesheets. The work hours are very flexible but long, but I show up because I have more fun there than anywhere else.

Hmm… imagine when hard disks were this huge? Here’s an overview of that picture.

As expected Microsoft expands it’s quest for innovation. Yes… we do have different thoughts what ‘innovation’ really is. Now it’s crawling into searching, anti-virus (once there was MSAV right), mobile phones, XBox consoles, Tablet PCs and more.

Nice… but how come this move? Is this part of that promise a couple of months ago to fight and stop spam in the future?

Technology Review has something about Holograms, tweezers and teleportation. Now that’s news… beam me up, cowboy.

On the pixel-side of things, MIGHTY DEPTHCORE released the Infinity Pack. I don’t have any submission in that pack though since I’ve been busy battling out with Miss TCP/IP this week. But with or without me… the pack rocks.

Two more interesting reads: Dan Bricklin’s Software That Lasts 200 Years and Paul Graham’s Great Hackers.

Early-bird feeds:

• The evolution of mascara in Windows UI (Raymond Chen)
• Mozilla 1.7.1 ActiveX Control Installer
• Dinner with Bill Gates (Jeff Maurone) and here’s the first post about this topic
• Particle Chains Make Quantum Wires
• Achieving Effective Beta Programs

Not much programming-related workblogs these days from me. I’ve been busy with hardware related stuff, installing LAN cables and other network-related tasks inside this regular job of mine.

After this, I’ll install the Registrar and Accounting deparment-related programs I have created for the past year.

Using Visual FoxPro to call .NET Web Services for Data Access (Rick Strahl).

James Avery’s Ten Must-Have .NET Tools Every Developer Should Download Now

The July 2004 VFUG Newsletter is out.

And finally I caved into this technocarnalust of mine.

This involves the ‘monitor dilemma’ I mentioned earlier on my blog.

You see, yesterday (make that the other day since it is 2 in the morning already) after returning a refurbished 15” Samsung monitor that behaves as if it was dissected by three trigger happy aliens, I happen to bump into the shop’s delivery truck that delivered ‘fresh goods’.

The golden loot of that afternoon was a crystal crisp 21” Sun flat screen monitor displayed at the center of the shop, which the vendors are eagerly ‘marketing’.

But who can blame them… it was so lovely… even lovelier than the ViewSonic E70F flat screen monitor I have on my previous workplace in Davao… and ViewSonic has been on top of my list along with the different models of HP.

It’s a refurbished monitor but aside from the one returned, we have purchased around 9 refurbished monitors on that shop already (Samsung, NEC, Toshiba and Sony) and after 7++ months, these monitors are still A-OK. 15” monitor costs around P1,800 (1 dollar is approximately 55 pesos) and 21” sells at around P4,000.

This SUN monitor was being sold at a higher price… 4,500.

And there was I faced between a LackofImmediateNeed and, as Avatar puts it, the ThisOppurtunitySeldomComes data collection battling inside my head.

I was able to convince the head of that shop though to reserve the monitor to me up to 10:30AM the next day (the shop opens around 10AM), until I can decide if I should acquire it.

Back home I did a little research on these Sun monitors.

The ‘net showed that these monitors are really manufactured by Sony for Sun. Some even are bundled for Sun’s 20,000 dollar computer packages. The new model line of Sun 21” monitors even sells for around P52,000 (850+ euros and 952+ dollars if my memory serves me right).

Other reviews were good and convincing too.

There are also refurbished and second hand monitors being sold online but there’s a big difference when it is just around approximately 10 blocks away from your place and you have personally seen it.

The other factors that hinders me to buy the monitor are things I can override and justify but it’s the LackofImmediateNeed reason that for a spend-only-when-needed type of guy like me, makes things a little harder to decide.

So I let sleep and dreams process subliminally the data, the ‘values’ and other factors gathered.

The next day (that was yesterday morning) I found myself in front of the shop 15 minutes before it even opened, fast forward… and I was carrying a heavy load upstairs to our room and I get to enjoy too, the 1600×1200 wallpapers I created the way they should be displayed sans the resizing.

Now here at 2AM in front of this huge thing, that if I think is not suffering from a major jet lag, would probably be happily devouring me especially that there no one else’s is looking.

Ah yes… same reason why the room lights are still on.

From Visual-Foxpro-to-.NET-programming-related blogs. (via Aleksoft)

And here’s the link to the RSS feed of the blog above. I presume that most Blogger.com/Blogspot accounts has this default atom.xml feed attached to their ‘home url’.

I am not a hundred percent sure though. But I tried it a couple of times already… and it’s working fine.

On this day, July 27… one my favorite cartoon character, Bugs Bunny, mades his official appearance in the animated cartoon A Wild Hare, the discovery of insulin was announced and Atlantic Cable was completed which allowed the first transatlantic telegraph communication…

… and here I am at 3:33AM still undecided how to resolve this monitor dilemma of mine (More on this one later).

Last Saturday, qs and I bought some PC peripherals and stuff. You see… in my regular job, I’m not only in charge with the development of database applications and systems-related functions, I also do hardware related tasks, canvassing and purchasing of computers, haggling with vendors, installation of lan cables, crimping, crawling and networking, hardware inventory and auditing, maintenance and sometimes preparing and arranging some defective computer parts for the weekly roof top practice target shooting.

Most of the time during these purchases, I am just given a budget and I will be the one in-charge to ‘configure’ the specs and joggle the needs to fit those tight budgets.

With a budget this time of 27K in our pockets (1 US dollar is approximately 55 Pesos), we were able to purchase 1 CPU with an AMD Athlon 2000+ processor and a decent MSI motherboard, a good looking transparent case with an extra fan in the side, an 80GB 7200 rpms barracuda hard disk, another 40GB 7200 rpms hard disk for another department which needs this upgrade after their 2GB hard disk crashed from too much porn, 1 256 DDRAM and another 128 DDRAM, three floppy disk drives, two 52X LG CD-ROM drives, (because of the tight budget in last last week’s purchase I refrain from buying those disk and CD-ROM drives), an Epson scanner (CHED is now requiring photos in TORs), an 8 port CNET switch, two Logitech keyboards (one for me), an AVR and a Logitech mouse.

All in all it was a good loot for 26.5K, I got a discount of P375.00, which is quite less compared to the average 1K discount I got from the previous two purchases.

So while waiting for the CPU to be assembled, we roam around the mall. QS found an MP3 CD-ROM which contains the soundtracks of Shrek 2, Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights and 13 Going on 30, which she has been pining for… for quite some weeks now.

I, on the other hand, found a copy of Red Hat 9 Linux installation CDs. I was looking for a copy Fedora which after reading from a number of FilTech blogs online, have stirred my curiosity, but couldn’t find one.

I tried downloading Fedora online but since Wednesday last week, I still can’t get a connection that doesn’t say ‘Busy’. From the looks of it looks like Fedora 3 will be released before I can download Fedora 2.

When we arrived home, the first thing I did was to make that spare 40GB hard disk the primary disk, reconfigured the boot up sequence and booted from the Red Hat 9 installation CD. It was five years ago since I was beside our system administrator when she (yup it’s a she) configured and installed Red Hat in three out of our four office servers. Quite a long time already and a lot has changed since then.

I installed using the default settings ‘probed’ by the Red Hat installer. The Red Hat ‘look’ is even cool that my three year old daughter pulled one chair and sat beside me during the installation. She was quite intrigued too with the blue light the CPU case emits.

Every thing was smooth until my daughter who got intrigued by the little silvery power button located on the edge of the case, pushed it.

I ‘Graaa-ed’, my daughter giggled knowing she did something wrong, then kissed me on the cheeks. I guess Linux-users just develop this kind of charm when they start using this penguin-powered OS, eh?

Anyway… the installation run smoothly afterwards. There are just some little things that could have made the installation smoother and a number more things, in my opinion that needs to be removed or remedied to make Red Hat Linux appeal more to the non-geeks in this world.

You see, if Linux or any bundle of its variation wants to be widely used by ‘ordinary humans’, it should lower down a little to a more ‘duh-i’m-a-noob’ level. Of course, without sacrificing its strength… security-related features included.

I’ll delve more on that one on another post but let me give you one example which probably hard-core Linux users overlooked. During start-up, the geeks’-love-for-details is being reflected in a Linux boot up. Those Initializing processes with OK or Failed brackets coupled with some three letter acronyms… you see, ‘normal users’ don’t give a rat’s arse about those things.

Of course to a geek administrator it means a lot but to Mr. O’ Charlie who only wants to run a word processor those things are gibberish. Microsoft during ‘normal’ boot ups would only display their Windows XP logo which I’m sure has a thousand of subliminal hypnotizing subtle messages floating somewhere around it.

There’s more but I’ll delve into that in another blog.

I don’t have much time to explore deeper last Saturday so I made my last quest of changing the display to a much higher resolution. I’m a sucker for higher resolution displays… and since I used the default VESA drivers, the Linux I installed only can go far as the 800×600 dimension limit.

Just for the heck of it I tried misconfiguring the drivers, rebooted (required)… then I got this cyan over blue screen which displays a Yes and a No option with no message.

How in Olympus’ name could I figure that out?

I tried clicking Yes then No but both tries were futile.

After a couple of reboots it was able to restore the old settings though. Again… this was just a rush test installation, I’ll explore more one of these days.

UPDATE:
I installed another Red Hat 9 Linux on an aging and always cranky AMD500 MHz computer of mine in the office today. I paid more attention to details this time and it was able to ‘probe’ my GeForce2 video card and the LG Studioworks monitor which made the resolution better compared to that installation I have done last Saturday.

I tried the Terminal and the other applications and had fun browsing the screensavers. Anyway it will stay there for quite a long time since that old PC crashes often in Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP installations… yup I’ve tried installing them all in the span of three months.

Red Hat 9 is sailing smooth so far.

Here… splice up your life with some Bioengineered household stuff.

My wife, qs, is a PolSci major… I on the other hand, well… studied ComSci. Just a two letter difference but what a big difference it makes in the ‘real world’. ‘Real world’ here would mean beyond the boundaries of an academic classroom.

Two letter difference which I often used on jokes against her. Jokes such as if programmers are running this country of ours in its current state, things would be better. That programmers are problem solvers while some politicians I see often sees problems as a way to bring spotlights into them. They convert problems to votes… while programmers find solutions.

Programmers are often focused on solving the problem at hand while politicians have to consider a lot of factors, linkages, resources, influence before dealing on a certain problem.

While of course I’m well aware that not all PolSci majors are involved with the government and politics, but still having the word ‘Political’ (or Politics-related), the responsibility of government of a country rests on them. They’re supposed to be the future.

In a way or another the studies derived from her course, should’ve been used to improve certain situations… or at least minimized the things that’s pulling us down, such as corruption and other magic-related processes existing in the government/politics.

Compared to computer science, political science has been there since… what? Aristotle’s time..? Herod’s time..? I’m thinking it’s way back there even if the term ‘political science’ was first coined in 1880 by Herbert Baxter Adams, a Johns Hopkins University professor.

Anyway I remember these stuff when I read Jeff Davis’ A programmer’s society replaces a lawyer’s society post from Rick Klau’s What if lawyers became programmers? blog.

And here’s another take from Corante: Hackers, Lawyers, Society and the INDUCE Act (IICA).

Looks like I’m not the only one having those type of thinking.