Ronda's Web Log

A site for the rest....

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:04:02 GMT

WORTH A LOOK

There is the Huffington Post , the Daily Kos, the New York Times ... I just discovered a site that has a little fun from another perspective! (Except that it documents the outrageous statements it makes)

http://obamawtf.blogspot.com/

Children's conversation provoking reading list

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:17:38 GMT

The topic came up today, when discussing politics, of "The Little Prince" - one of my all time favorite books. I love books that make you think. It reminded me of the glorious times I shared with my daughter before she was really reading on her own and even after she was reading until about the age of 10, where I read to her. It opened up all types of discussion about the world and how things worked and helped me to share my love of 'thinking' with her. So I thought I would start a list of some of the books that I read to her - I can add to this as more come to mind but here are a few that contributed to serious conversation about the world and how it worked. Of course we read fun books with little lasting meaning but this list is for the rest:

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry's
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key
The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien

911 - What if

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:12:12 GMT

When I was 16 I went to the State Fair with my best friend Lisa, we parked at the Routh St. Womens clinic downtown within walking distance of the fair since it didn't cost us $5.00 and her mom worked there as a counselor. When we came out that evening we discovered the car has been broken into. My stereo and some personal items including a tape recorder and a couple hundred dollars in cash had been stolen. I remember not the loss of property but the feeling of violation.

I was at home on Sept 11, 2001. I had a funeral to go to that day and had the news on when the first news reports of the devastation began to come in. The phone rang and my brother Robert and I were on the phone when the second plane hit. The same feelings of violation. I can only imagine the loss and immense feelings the families of those victims felt. But remember we were ALL victims. We all felt anger, felt that violation. I applaud George Bush for giving us back some retribution for 911. This will be a long battle and I hope that we never forget and we have the foresight to elect leaders that will act against these senseless acts of violence.

What if we had different leadership. Someone who felt calm negotiation was the more pc response. Would I be wearing a cloth across my face?

Lipstick on a Pig

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:10:09 GMT

The hoopla today is whether Obama was calling Governor Palin a pig. Mike Huckabee, Republican Arkansas Governor gives him a ride under the assumption that "You can put lipstick on a pig" is a common term. I find it interesting that it is a term Obama has not previously used in any public speeches and uses it only a day after Sarah Palin's statement regarding the difference between a hockey mom and a Pit Bull (lipstick). I have watched the tape of Obama and he tends to stutter if he is speaking impromptu.... he didn't stutter when he made this statement. So you can make your assumption - I have made mine.

Where's the Change?

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:04:04 GMT

Change!

It seems that 'Change' is what Obama based his platform on this political season and I must tell you - I was all ears - then he started elaborating and there was no content behind his statement, does he think we are all stupid? The main thing I have taken away from his rhetoric is that he is going to tax the big guys, corporations and the wealthier sect of our country and give a break to the little guys including the people who don't work and the people who arn't citizens and everyone else. Well I suspect the middle class is going to get screwed once again with this plan but either way - where is the change? Cut taxes, raise taxes .... this has been the party platform of somebody since I have been voting for the last 20 years. I still fondly remember Reagan and have been hopeful of another candidacy that could compare for years, but Obama, my friends, has nothing new to offer.

The Republicans have suprised me this year and given me hope that their big spending ways ARE going to change with the nomination of John McCain. McCain's record in going up against congress is long and filled with little battles on the senate floor that make me believe he has never been the favorite son of any party and this is the kind of change that I am looking for. Can you imagine in insider that doesn't tote the party baggage? I could not foresee a better candidate to really instigate some change in Washington. His 'August Suprise' with the selection of Sarah Palin further cemented the fact that he has no intenion of letting anyone run his candidacy but is going to do things his own way and I can not envision a better leader for our country. I believe McCain is in a unique position to know how the machine works. I think his age is a huge plus, remember Reagan, another old guy that knew what he was doing. McCain has already made all the friends he needs to make and he is one of the strongest patriots I believe we have ever elected to office. I personally believe he may go down as one of the top 10 best Presidents our country has ever known.

The choice of Sarah Palin was wise beyond McCains years! He picked someone not unlike me; someone truly representative of the people of this country. When is the last time we had a VP that was so representative of the people? A governor with 60%, 70%, 80% approval ratings? WOW! And talk about progressive - who would have ever thought it would be the Republicans who stepped up and nominated a woman in this campaign? I believe Obama's decision to snub Hillary will be his downfall. I wouldn't have voted for him anyways but I do believe the race would have been different if his arrogance had not got in his way.

I am still listening in case Obama figures out what 'change' means but I suspect we are going to hear the 'same old thing'.

Total Summary Rows in Datagrid with DataItem

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:43:24 GMT

There are a gazillion ways to create a summary row in the footer of a datagrid. I think this is one of the slicker, faster ways. Using the dataitem enables you to use friendly names and variables throughout - so when you have many many columns it makes it a lot easier to keep track and manage.

Declare some integers for holding the values

Private MonthlyGoal As Integer = 0
Private FiscalYrYTD As Integer = 0

In your Databound event add up the values:

Public Sub dgAttainment_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As DataGridItemEventArgs)

If e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Item Or _
e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.AlternatingItem Then
‘add the items as you bind each row
‘Intellisense will not have the datafield name when you choose
‘e.item.dataitem but just add it anyways – it is the datafield
‘that you have used in your datagrid column
MonthlyGoal += e.Item.DataItem.MonthlyGoal
FiscalYrYTD += e.Item.DataItem.FiscalYrYTD

ElseIf (e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Footer) Then
‘put the added values into the appropriate column in the footer

e.Item.Cells(6).Text = FormatCurrency(MonthlyGoal, 2)
e.Item.Cells(9).Text = FormatCurrency(FiscalYrYTD, 2)

end if

End Sub

Domains for Sale

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:24:10 GMT

After supporting these domains for years - planning on eventual development - I am curious as to whether there is any interest that would be worth selling them. Below are the domains I am considering selling if anyone is interested in making an offer.

www.ItsABigDeal.com
This would be an excellent site for bargains, closeouts, special purchases - online auctions.
www.acreageagent.com
www.acreagefinder.com
www.collincountyacreage.com
www.dfwacreage.com
www.homeswithacreage.com
Real estate sites - some of them are regional specific - some generic with a national appeal.

www.dfwnetwork.com
www.dfwclothing.com
www.dfwcoffee.com
www.dfwplanners.com
www.dfwacreage.com
What can I say..... Dallas specific Domains - kinda self-explanatory

Books!
www.fratboybooks.com
Possible tagline - (ummmm barely used!)
www.utbookbargain.com

Clothing
www.popularFootwear.com
www.popularhandbags.com
www.dfwclothing.com

Miscellaneous
www.UltimateSpaces.com
I was thinking --- remodeling - design - but it could be used for many things
www.Sick101.com
Bad Jokes? or Medical Reference?

I have more that I will post... but this is a start!

You are making it too difficult.

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 05:03:47 GMT

About 2 years ago my mailbox was getting overwhelmed with the mail I get from listservers. It seemed I was getting overwhelmed with lack of time to read the posts but couldn't bring myself to just delete the incomng unread mail. I moved all of my lists except one to my gmail account, which has been a godsend, and it has greatly helped with my time management. I kept one listserver in my regular inbox - 'sqlqueriesnocode'. This morning I was thumbing through the entries that came yesterday and saw this one - the subject was "join sql server and oracle table on openquery select statement". The poster showed his tables and his query that was not working and was asking for help. I read it quickly - assumed I had no input on a sql/oracle query (it also was rather confusing) and moved on to the next post.

Then I saw Arnie Rowlands answer and it changed my attitude about a lot of things in just a moment. It changed my attitude about the tasks I am facing today, including a job interview. I have to share this post with you. The first line of Arnie's response was "You are making it too difficult." The answer was a very simple join. I think many times I tend to focus on 'that which I don't know' instead of 'that which I do know'. I believe it is a matter of attitude that could make such a monumental difference in the way we approach everything. I could have answered this post had I possessed a different attitude towards the content. Facing my first job interview in several years I have been focused on all of the skills that I don't have, the things I don't understand and negating the things I do know, the things I don't even have to think about anymore. This was a great realization for a Monday and frankly may have an impact on my approach to everything that is to come ~ R

Community Server

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:54:14 GMT

WOW.... those guys at telligent are really on the ball. I installed community server for my hometown and haven't advertised it yet but it looks like it is truly going to rock!

I installed it here http://downtowncleburne.com/cs/Default.aspx but plan on changing the URL soon

I am trying to get some folks in the area to add some commentary before I start exploring avenues for disseminating it to the public. Take a look and please feel free to send me any comments regarding Forums/Blogs or other content.

I am looking forward to seeing how receptive the public is to this project.

Cheers,

Ronda

SQL Dupes

Tue, 31 May 2005 12:06:10 GMT

I saw a post on one of my lists today for retrieving only duplicate records and it reminded me of how valuable Pentons article has been to me over the years.
One of the issues we almost always encounter when dealing with other peoples data (it could not happen to us directly because we always have excellent DB design) is dealing with duplicate records. David Pentons 'analyzing duplicate records' script is too lengthy to paste here but check it out when you get a chance: Analyzing Duplicate Records

Populate a DropDown List from SQL Query

Tue, 24 May 2005 06:27:21 GMT

'Declare your connection, command and SQL
Dim myConnection As SqlConnection
Dim myCommand As SqlCommand
Dim strSQL As String
'Assign your values
'I have concatenated the partnumber with the product name for ease of the user
strSQL = "select item_id,part_number,(part_number + '-' + productname) as theitem FROM products "
myConnection = New SqlConnection(conString)
myCommand = New SqlCommand(strSQL, myConnection)
'Open your connection
myConnection.Open()
'My dropdownlist is named drpProducts
drpProducts.DataSource = myCommand.ExecuteReader()
'Use the values from the SQL to populate the text and value fields of dropdown
drpProducts.DataTextField = "theitem"
drpProducts.DataValueField = "item_ID"
drpProducts.DataBind()
'Give your dropdownlist a default value
drpProducts.Items.Insert(0, "Choose Item")
'Close your connection
myConnection.Close()

ExecuteScaler to populate a label

Tue, 24 May 2005 06:20:50 GMT

Easy example of using ExecuteScaler to populate a single value

'Declare your connection & command objects along with your SQL String
Dim myConnection As SqlConnection
Dim myCommand As SqlCommand
Dim strSQL As String
'Build your SQL and populate your other values
strSQL = "select myPrice FROM myproducts where itemid= " & drpProducts.SelectedItem.Value
myConnection = New SqlConnection(conString)
myCommand = New SqlCommand(strSQL, myConnection)
'Open your connection
myConnection.Open()
'Assign your retrieved value to an object
lblItemPrice.Text = myCommand.ExecuteScalar()
'Close your connection
myConnection.Close()

I'm gonna BLOG about YOU!

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 07:14:58 GMT

It happens every time I have EXCEPTIONAL customer service. And isn't that the factor that makes the difference in most comparable products. It all boils down to people. Quick response when frustrated with a product brings a certain type of joy that is incomparable. Quite likely good customer service makes such an impact because we have all spent countless hours of our lives on hold, only to get a rude, incompetent person on the other end who has never used the product. I don't use the term "exceptional customer service" lightly. It must have all of the factors - patience with what may often be just a user error, competence with the product in question, timely response; because whether they are patient and competent if they do not reply in a timely manner then your initial frustration only grows. Of course when we speak of exceptional customer service I must preface this with the fact that the product must be supportable - in other words it must be an exceptional product to warrant a mention in this blog.

ASP.Net Email is a phenomenal product. Aleviating many of the automation nightmares we often encounter when dealing with mass mail. We utilize the product for retrieving XML files (sent from Yahoo) to a mail box to parse them and push them into our SQL. The support team has stuck with me through 2 server moves (mailenable and smartermail) and the response time is AWESOME. They offer support lists as well as individual support at no cost and I can't say I have been more pleased with a product for quick install, quick configuration and seamless integration.

Threat Sentry - from PrivacyWare is another one of 'those' products that has changed my peace of mind. It is an intrusion detection system that smoothly integrates with IIS and notifies me when hackers are testing my security. Not only does it notify me via email but it blocks them based on criteria I have set up. The support team again merits an EXCEPTIONAL rating and I can't praise it enough.

A Tale of Two Gates - Automated gates... while this might be a limited audience I have to tell you guys about my recent 'gate experience'. My mother has an automated gate for 2 years. She has had more downtime then uptime and replaced the mother board TWICE. So when I put in a wrought iron fence and decided to spring for an automated gate it was a clear decision that whatever gate I went with it would not be the brand she chose. I got lucky and wound up with an US Automatic gate. Saturday morning my gate stopped working - okay this happens for a variety of reasons - the motherboard has a reset switch, testing lights that trouble shoot the problem, various DIP switch settings to manipulate the gate, etc... I downloaded the manual (Grateful that it was available to download because I have no idea where my originial copy is - ALL manufacturers should offer PDF downloads of manuals!). I then proceeded to trouble shoot according to manual instructions. Nothing! So for kicks on Saturday morning I emailed the support team from the website. 15 minutes later someone calls me - at home - on SATURDAY morning! He spent an hour on the phone with me until we identified what we believed was the issue (a bad charger - resulting in a bad backup battery). He then told me HE WOULD check back with me. I had different priorities for Saturday so when he called I was not around - I had decided to deal with it on Monday. Guess what? 8:00 Monday morning HE CALLED me again. You just don't find that kind of support from most manufacturers and of course once we were ready to get off the phone I paid him the highest compliment "I'm gonna BLOG about YOU!"

Busier than a ...

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 23:43:01 GMT

It has been SO long since I have blogged I had to look up my admin page to create this entry. I bought a new house - which is going to be awesome after a LOT of work. It is 1930's rock cottage right in the midst of town on an acre of land with all kinds of kitschy out buildings and character. I still have a house in Dallas to sell - thus am making two house payments right now if anyone is thinking of relocating - I am becoming more and more negotiable as the weeks roll by.

Oh on the subject of remodeling - I offer a tidbit of wisdom -- NEVER buy cheap sandpaper when sanding wood floors. Always spring for the most expensive stuff

I came across a rollover image control that Chris Garrett put together - I don't usually do rollovers but am trading out a web site for a heavy metal band (they are doing some construction for me) and they want rollovers. I started to do it with client side javascript and googled it with .net and found this clean, neat little user control to throw into your library.

I finally had some time tonight and spent a couple of hours in the microsoft newsgroups - it is amazing how much time programmers don't have - most especially if they have any outside interests like gardening, moving, side-work to support double house payments, not to mention any kind of social life (right). My listservers are all going to my gmail account (which really is the best solution in the world for lists) and I haven't checked it in more than a week or two- so I almost want to go in and just archive everything but I have never been able to do that. I really do admire those of you with clean mailboxes - I keep almost everything; which results in tons of folders for organinzing and lots of archived .pst files.

When I started this post I had some interesting items (VB.net) to mention but they are eluding me now - so maybe I will consolidate my thoughts, empty out my pda, get my notes together (darn I have been meaning to install one-note) and try another post soon... ~

Mobility To Go Roadshow

Sat, 13 Nov 2004 11:27:35 GMT

On Tuesday I attended the .Net To Go Mobility Roadshow and really enjoyed it. It looks like the show is about done but if you get the chance to catch it in the future, well it is a winner! Thom Robbins was one of the most compelling and inspiring speakers I have heard, he has a conversational style and excellent timing that prevents one from ever glancing at the clock.

I was fortunate and scored "The Definitive Guide to the .Net Compact Framework" which was nice since my 'Hello App' was created before I went to bed that night and it has been a good resource while working on a CF project all week in my free time (like programmers ever really have free time - so much to learn). The framework is not so different than any other .Net development but there are limitations and nuances to deal with and I haven't yet ventured into ADO with the SQLServerCE so I have some challenges ahead.

Robbins offered a challenge for a free CF Device and I thought a few of you may want to rise to the challenge. His October 20th post on his blog http://weblogs.asp.net/trobbins has all of the details. Basically submit an app and the top 5% will score "A Windows Powered Mobile Device!", either a phone or PDA.

Holiday Travel

Thu, 04 Nov 2004 10:49:40 GMT

As the holidays approach and you are examining your travel schedule you may find yourself in need of some new luggage. I own several pieces of Glenroyal - a Scottish line from Checker Leather in Scotland. It is constructed of a heavy yet soft PVC that lasts forever and trimmed in leather. If you shop at GlenRoyalOnline.com you can get a 10% off coupon with Free shipping by using the coupon code "prefcustomer" on checkout.

The laptop cases are roomy enough for the older Dells and come with an extra small bag for power cord. Several interior pockets and one large exterior pocket. It is lightweight compared to many bags and may not offer as much padding as you would expect from a laptop bag.

The line has everything from garment bags, handbags, cosmetic cases, messenger bags, etc... and makes great holiday gifts.

Celebratory Meal or Comfort Food

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:01:15 GMT

The election is over! It was exciting, the debate was inspiring and I had a lot of fun helping to usher President Bush back into office for another 4 years. I sincerely hope that he does the job we expect of him. I would never expect that he could make everyone happy but hopefully he will keep the majority of the country proud and hopefully pull some of Kerrys' supporters into his confidence.

My daughter came home from college to vote and we had a great evening watching the election returns together before she had to go back. Since the temperature in Dallas dropped 20 degrees just in time for the election we planned a succulent, but easy meal. If you have ever had La Madeleine's Tomato-Basil soup you know that it is a decadent soup. This is a knock-off recipe from www.recipezaar.com that I think you will find quick and easy. We had garlicky french bread and a caesar salad to accompany.

La Madeleine's Tomato-Basil Soup

Ingredients
4 cups of Fresh Tomatoes, cored/peeled/chopped
OR you may use 4 cups of canned whole tomatoes crushed
4 cups of Tomato Juice or 3 cups of tomato juice and a can of chicken sotck
12-14 Fresh Basil Leaves
1 Cup of Heavy Cream (commonly called whipping cream)
1/4 lb of Sweet Unsalted Butter
Salt
Cracked Black Pepper

Instructions
Combine the tomatoes, juice/and or stock in heavy saucepan
Simmer 30 minutes
Puree, along with the basil leaves in a blender or food processor
Return to saucepan and add butter and cream while stirring over low heat
Garnish with Basil Leaves

This soup will make you feel good about any Presidential election... if the election is not going your way then have a second serving!

Political Humor

Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:28:47 GMT

This campaign has once again brought out the creative element in our community. I can't possibly list all of the really funny political pieces here but feel free to add some new ones in your comments. Here are a couple of my favorites:

A bit slow loading but "Welcome to the Waffle House" by the RightBrothers is a catchy new song that I think you will enjoy.

http://www.WaffleHouseSong.com/

The John Kerry "Ultimate Ad" is a great piece of work:

http://johnkerryads.websiteanimal.com/

This other John Kerry Ad again takes advantage of his wavering attitudes towards everything!

http://www.clubforgrowth.net/

Bohemian Rhapsody which is non-partisan... just funny

http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/6019/bohemianrhapsody.swf

If you are having a political party the night of the election. You might want to play Presidential Bingo:
http://www.planetsocks.com/bingo.asp

UPDATE*
Mike Pope added this really funny Florida Voting Booth link - I had to add it!
(Read Mikes Blog - linked on the menu)

http://www.aguycalledmare.com/Voting_Machine.wmv

And from T-Shirt Hell

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 11:09:28 GMT

I'm not really fond of T-Shirt hell, but they do have some really funny stuff. This T-Shirt came out after the latest Osama video was released. I'm not sure what the terrorists intent with the timing of this release was. Were they ultimately supporting Kerry or were they secretly supporting Bush as it afforded them the opportunity to continue to kill Americans whilst we were in Iraq?

Responsible Journalism?

Thu, 28 Oct 2004 10:51:59 GMT

At what point did we become a nation that had to be suspect of the validity of our media? The liberal biases of the mainstream media have always shown through but it seems that lately there is an air of irresponsibility that has placed a doubt in the minds of the readers/viewers on every 'breaking' story.

It started with the CBS - Dan Rather fiasco and now the New York Times has jumped on the boat by blowing up a potential 'non-incident' with the missing munitions in Iraq. According to the IAEA records there is a discrepancy on whether we are talking about 270 tons or 380 tons of munitions and the New York Times has followed up the initial story today with 3 eyewitnesses that claim that there was rampant looting shortly after the Americans came in - no shit! Please do tell how the looters, who were to say the least, 'disorganized', in April of 2003 managed to stealth away 380 TONS of munitions. It is not even plausible. I am of the opinion that Sadam moved them before we moved in. That is the most logical assumption since it is totally illogical to assume that looters could have relocated this size cache.

The fact that Kerry has made this story a key point of his campaign effort makes me further doubt that there is any real story here at all. A senator who seems to care little about fact and has no qualms about making statements that he can easily retract tomorrow he has proved to be a very reactionary 'leader'. Trusting what spewed from Kerrys’ lips has never been a question for me but it would be nice to be able to believe that our Journalists are not subject to the same inflammatory, non-investigative attitude in reporting the stories that should be relevant to Americans.

Stored Procedure to DataSet - Easy Example

Mon, 04 Oct 2004 11:25:12 GMT

Most of the stored procedure examples out there seem to be for tying the data to a datagrid. But if you are working with XML or need a Dataset you may want an easy example to fill a dataset with your Stored Procedure returned data. Here goes...

'Set up your connection Info
Dim conDB As New SqlConnection(Me.conString)
Dim Command As New SqlClient.SqlCommand("GetVendorOrders")
Command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
Command.Connection = conDB

'Create your Parameters (I created 2)
Dim vendorCode As New SqlClient.SqlParameter()
vendorCode.ParameterName = "@vendorCode"
vendorCode.SqlDbType = SqlDbType.NVarChar

Dim marking As New SqlClient.SqlParameter()
marking.ParameterName = "@flaggedValue"
marking.SqlDbType = SqlDbType.Int

'Set Parameter Values
vendorCode.Value = "AZ"
marking.Value = 3

'Add your Parameters
Command.Parameters.Add(vendorCode)
Command.Parameters.Add(marking)

'Create DataAdapter and place into Dataset
Dim daSalesByCategory As New SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter()
daSalesByCategory.SelectCommand = Command
Dim dsOrders As New DataSet()
daSalesByCategory.Fill(dsOrders)

It really doesn't get any easier than that... gotta love .Net!

Return Values from Stored Procedure

Sun, 03 Oct 2004 11:32:35 GMT

When dealing with multiple tables and you need to connect them with common information such as the ID of an order it is often necessary to insert a record, get back the ID and then go on to do other things utilizing that ID. The easiest way is using the @@Identity of the first table.

Example Sproc might look something like this:

Create Procedure "InsertnewOrder"

As

Insert into Orders(orderDate, orderStatus) Values(getdate(),'Shopping')

RETURN (@@IDENTITY)

In our page we could do something like this to get back the ID of the new record:

Dim myCon As SqlConnection
myCon = New SqlConnection(conString)
Dim myCmd As SqlCommand
myCmd = New SqlCommand("InsertnewOrder", myCon)
myCmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
myCmd.Parameters.Add("@return", SqlDbType.Int)
myCmd.Parameters("@return").Direction = ParameterDirection.ReturnValue
myCon.Open()
myCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()
Session("orderID") = myCmd.Parameters("@return").Value.ToString()

That is about it... pretty simple huh?

Create a printable page

Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:48:32 GMT

In your Page Load or wherever you want it - add attributes for a Print button. Because my content is small I made a small popup window.

butPrint.Attributes.Add("onclick", "window.open('http://www.mydomain.com/myfolder/temp.html',null,'height=400, focus=yes,width=450,status= no, resizable= yes, scrollbars=yes, toolbar=yes,location=no,menubar=yes ');")

For this example I put the content of what I wanted to print into a Label (lblOutput)

When I pulled the content from the database I went ahead and made a temp file with the content I wanted to print

Dim sw As StreamWriter
sw = File.CreateText("C:\webs\myWebPath\www\foldername\temp.html")
sw.WriteLine("<html><head></head><body onload='self.focus();'>")
sw.WriteLine(lblOutput.Text)
sw.WriteLine("</body></html>")
sw.Close()

I also set my Print button to visible at this time to assure I had content in my file before I allowed the visitor to print

butPrint.Visible = True

That is a pretty simple way to get only the items you want into a page. You may want to clean up and delete the temp.html page when the visitor leaves.

Make Excel Report from Datagrid

Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:18:22 GMT

Frequently it is convenient to be able to download a report in an Excel format. This is a quick and easy way to turn your datagrid into an excel report.

Make your subroutine to create your datagrid

Sub pullRecords(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)

'I have eliminated code to build the SQL String but basically create a datagrid in this subroutine like you normally would

Dim dreader As System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader
dreader = cmdReturn.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)
dgOrders.DataSource = dreader
dgOrders.DataBind()

dreader.Close()
conDB.Close()
conDB.Dispose()

End Sub

Okay once you have your datagrid returning to the page to send it to an Excel Doc do something like this:

Sub downloadReport(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
pullRecords(sender, e)
' Set the content type to Excel.
Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
' Remove the charset from the Content-Type header.
Response.Charset = ""
' Turn off the view state.
Me.EnableViewState = False

Dim tw As New System.IO.StringWriter()
Dim hw As New System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter(tw)

' Get the HTML for the control.
dgOrders.RenderControl(hw)
' Write the HTML back to the browser.
Response.Write(tw.ToString())
' End the response.
Response.End()
End Sub

I have initiated the creation of my Excel Report with a button on the page but you could incorporate it other ways.

Social Skills Declining?

Sun, 18 Apr 2004 00:14:23 GMT

My daughter and I went to Macaroni Grill for dinner this evening and as expected on a Saturday night we had about a half hour wait. We waited outside on the bench near the front door and made some interesting observations. Whilst watching patrons come and go I remarked that it really bothered me when I was coming out a door - given a situation where there are two doors at an entrance - and as I open the door - the door on the right as is customarily the door I use when exiting a building - there may be someone standing on the outside about to come in, instead of opening the door on their right they will stand there and wait for me to go through the door and then use the 'exit door' to go in. Not surprisingly my daughter told me that was one of her personal pet peeves. So we regaled one another with recent stories of people who practiced this odd social custom of using the 'wrong' door.

The very worst is when a man will wait while I go out the 'right' door and then he will go in the 'wrong' door (the door I just exited) and never even gesture to grab the door or offer to hold it as I exit. As we waited on our table we began counting door usage and interestingly out of over 70 groups or individuals going in and out of the restaurant only about 10% used the correct door. Many, if they saw a door opening - the exit door - as someone was leaving, would wait and use that door instead of extending their arm out and open the door on their right. A couple of folks were on their cell phones as they entered the building and while holding thier phone in their right hand would reach toward the left hand door. Several people exiting would use the door on their left and it would swing toward people who were about to enter only to look irritated that the people were 'in their way'. The incidence of Men vs. Women using the wrong door was about the same. Over 90% of minorities used the wrong door and slightly less for non-minorities.

I know this is probably somewhat of a trivial thing but it is just good manners to use the door on the right when entering or exiting a building. We won't even go into the rudeness of not opening doors for other people because I could rant on that all day long. I open doors for both men and women. It is also way beyond rude when someone lets a door slam behind them in your face. Anyways the food was good and it was an interesting conversation to have with my daughter. I am grateful that I raised her with some social skills and feel confident she will pass them on to her children one day....