Jon Gallant's Blog

How to Export RSS Feeds to an OPML File in Outlook 2010

2009-06-26T04:19:41Z

For some reason this feature is hidden in Outlook 2010. 1) Click the Office Button in the upper left hand corner. 2) Click “Open” and then “Import” 3) Import and Export Wizard Dialog Appears. Select “Export RSS Feeds to an OPML file”. 4) Select the feeds you want to export. Click Next 5) Enter a file name. Click Next HTH Jon...(read more)

How To Highlight Rows Based on a Cell Value in Excel

2009-06-18T00:30:37Z

Here’s how to highlight rows based on a cell value in Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. Reference this page for previous versions of Excel 1) Select the table you want to apply the custom formatting to 2) Go to the Conditional Formatting ribbon option and select “New Rule” 3) Format Setting Select “Use a formula to determine which cells to format” in the “Select a Rule Type” box Enter the INDIRECT function into the Rule Description Text Box INDIRECT...(read more)

Microsoft will Donate 8 Meals to Feeding America for Every IE8 Download

2009-06-18T00:04:19Z

Microsoft will donate 8 meals to Feeding America for every IE8 download. Very creative way to get people fed. Browser For The Better explains the program in detail....(read more)

FreeRice.com – Synchronously Learn for free and feed the hungry

2009-06-17T15:11:42Z

I stumbled upon FreeRice.com today and had to share. The site has quiz software that tests you on Math, Language, Art, Chemistry, English and Geography. For each question you answer correctly 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program . The sponsors of the site display ads under the quiz, which pays for the rice. According to FreeRice.com each person consumes 400 grams of rice per day and there are about 48 grains of rice per gram. So, 400x48 = 19,200...(read more)

Dimecasts.net – A great Video Based Learning Resource for Developers

2009-06-04T17:54:09Z

I love short and sweet learning. That is exactly what Dimecasts.net provides. Videos that are 10 minutes or less (hence the “dime” in the name) and cover many dev topics, such as design patterns, LINQ, C# and MVC. Check them out here: www.dimecasts.net ...(read more)

How To Create a New Category in Outlook

2009-06-04T04:47:37Z

Creating a new category in Outlook isn’t very intuitive. 1) Right click on the item you want to categorize 2) Select “Categorize” 3) Select “All Categories” 4) Click the “New…” button 5) Enter the Name of the Category 6) Click “OK” Hope that helps. Jon ...(read more)

Solution to the “You tried to assign the Null value to a variable that is not a Variant data type.” Exception

2009-05-03T01:15:00Z

By default the DataSource wizard passes parameters for AutoNumber primary keys. If you are getting this error: You tried to assign the Null value to a variable that is not a Variant data type. Then you need to remove that default parameter. This is what Visual Studio adds by default: 1: InsertCommand="INSERT INTO [Partner] ([PartnerId], [PartnerGuid], [Name]) VALUES (?, ?, ?)" .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace;...(read more)

Solution to the “Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index 0.” Exception

2009-05-02T23:09:00Z

You are probably using the wrong DbConnection class. If you are using Access then make sure you use OleDbConnection, not SqlConnection…and vice versa. Alternatively you could be referencing your MDB file wrong. Here’s the proper way: <connectionStrings> <add name="Videos" connectionString="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source={0}App_Data\Videos.mdb" providerName="System.Data.OleDb"/> </connectionStrings> public static string ConnectionString = string.Format(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["Videos"].ConnectionString,...(read more)

How to watch ABC.com shows on Windows 7

2009-05-01T06:33:00Z

For some reason ABC.com does an OS check when loading the MoveNetworks player. If you are using Windows 7 you’ll see an error like this: Oops Our new video player is only available for: Windows XP/Vista - Internet Explorer, Firefox Mac - Firefox, Safari. To watch, please download the appropriate browser. You can get around this by first installing the player from MoveNetworks.com http://www.movenetworks.com/install-move-player Install the player and then go back to the ABC site and reload the player....(read more)

Solution to “Operation must use an updateable query” Exception when writing to an Access Database from ASP.NET

2009-04-06T17:58:00Z

Could be a couple of things: The file is marked as read-only. Right click on file, uncheck “read only”. The application pool identity doesn’t have write permissions to the folder that contains the MDB. Find the identity of the application pool (using IIS) and (using Windows Explorer) give that identity (usually Network Service) write permissions to the folder.' Check this KB for more possible reasons: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/175168 Jon Gallant dev lead @ microsoft...(read more)

Mobile Browser Detection in ASP.NET

2009-04-03T23:10:18Z

Before last week the only two viable Mobile Browser Detection options were: WURFL – Great for non-.NET solutions. .NET APIs lack support DeviceAtlas – Great for .NET solutions, but it’s starts at $99/server/year. DeviceAtlas claims to have better UAProf support than WURFL. To solve this problem Microsoft developed an ASP.NET friendly browser detection solution using a standard “ .browser ” file called “ Mobile Device Browser File " or MDBF . This is the same solution that is being...(read more)

Mobile Web Design Book References

2009-04-02T21:46:00Z

I just finished Cameron Moll’s “ Mobile Web Design ” book. Not only is it a great book…short, sweet and comprehensive, but it has a lot of great references. I figured I’d help others find the references by bookmarking them on delicious.com (with Cameron’s permission of course). Here’s the direct link with the complete list of references: http://delicious.com/tag/mobilewebdesignbook And here’s a snippet of the links using the delicious widget....(read more)

Solution to “To install the software, you must log on as a member of the Administrators group.” error when installing a Canon Printer

2009-03-22T14:50:56Z

I had to install my Canon MP980 software on to my new Windows 7 laptop and even though my domain account is in the Administrators group I was getting this error: “To install the software, you must log on as a member of the Administrators group.” I tried right click “Run as Administrator” and then running from Command Prompt with Administrator privileges, neither worked. I got it to work by logging into the machine with a local user account that is in the Administrators group. You first need to create...(read more)

How to copy tables from one Access database to another

2009-03-13T22:58:30Z

It’s simple. Use the import function. Open the destination database. Right click in the table pane. Select Import. Choose the origination database. Choose the tables you want to import. Select to copy structure and/or data. Done. Jon...(read more)

Access Database Membership, Profile, Role and Personalization Providers for ASP.NET

2009-03-13T22:44:30Z

ASP.NET doesn’t ship with Membership, Profile, Role or Personalization providers out of the box. Imar Spaanjaars has a great article on how to setup a site using the “Sample Access Providers” provided by Microsoft. http://imar.spaanjaars.com/ http://imar.spaanjaars.com/QuickDocId.aspx?quickdoc=404 Hope this helps, Jon...(read more)