Ordinary Geek

Last thoughts on 2008

Codemunkee — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:22:00 -0500

Closing out 08 with a note to everyone that I'll be back in 09 with a different angle. Now that I've purged the rolls of spam comments before things got too out of hand, the rest should be relatively downhill.

My final points on 2008:

- My 360 has died for the second time and is sitting on a UPS truck on its way to Texas (Mesquite, that is!)
- Its "nuclear", not "nu-ku-lur". It has two syllables, not 3. I make this point in honor of my personal choice for 2008 GOTY - Fallout 3.
- In lieu of my 360, I'm back playing Warcraft. If you're a Horde on Dunemaul, drop me an email with your name and I'll drop you a line.
- Heath Ledger is simply phenomenal in The Dark Knight.

Happy New Year!

So, whats this thing about again?

Codemunkee — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:29:00 -0500

Someone recently asked what I "focus" on here at Ordinary Geek.

I wasn't prepared for the question, or the rambling answer that fell out of my mouth. I realized that I try to cover a lot of different things here - gaming, coding, project management and development, and some other odds and ends. Check out the categories - everything's posted for you right there.

In thinking it over this morning I hit on the answer... I'm writing about my interactions with technology. In some cases, they will involve my hobbies - gaming, electronics, coding. In other cases it will involve my work - coding, project management, leading developers. And in yet other situations it won't be one thing in particular, but it will more than likely relate to technology. Or maybe it won't. Sometimes you need to just vent or rant.

What I hope to accomplish in writing about my interactions with technology is ultimately providing you, the reader, with enough information to either help you solve a problem in your day to day life (at work, or at home) that relates to technology. Or, give you enough information to make a reasonably informed buying decision concerning a technologically-centered product (game, gadget, software). Most of all, I hope to do it in a manner that entertains, educates, and inspires you to think about it in some degree.

With that in mind, I've changed my tag to read Interactions with Technology. I think it accurately sums up what I try to share with you as much as I can, and why you come to Ordinary Geek.

In this episode, special thanks to Nelson over at Microsoft for access to Braid. I have a review coming in the next week or so. But here is the short version - you should buy this game. Right now.

Using C# and ASP.NET With Remote SQL Server DTS Execution

Codemunkee — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:19:00 -0500

One of our clients has hired us to pick up and run with an existing web application that their former development house had to walk away from. It's a hodge podge of programming best practices and some questionable architecture and design decisions, but that's a topic for another entry.

One of our tasks was to research a documented bug concerning a spreadsheet upload and data not being updated on an ad hoc basis (basically when the spreadsheet uploaded, the table that the spreadsheet imported into was not updating). On further inspection I noticed that there was no listener on the directory that the spreadsheet was being uploaded to, and there were some significant problems with the DTS job that was doing the heavy lifting for the import.

My solution was to implement a simple ASP.NET form with a file upload control and tap into the SQL Server 2005 DTS libraries. In just a few lines of code, the spreadsheet is uploaded, and the DTS job is fired.

The first thing you'll want to do (after creating a project) is set a reference to the DTS Object Library. Its an entry under the COM tab. You want the DTS Runtime 1.0 library. Adding this through Visual Studio will take care of all the work required to make the Interop wrapper; if you're using a different IDE run the appropriate commands.

After its added, your Bin folder should contain the Interop file (if you can't see your Bin folder, turn it on by right clicking the project and selecting "Add ASP.NET Folder > Bin").

(NOTE - My formatting tools simply will not format code properly. Please reference the link at the end of this post, which contains the source, and follow along...)

Now that you have the right type library added, the rest is a simple matter of creating a wrapper class that holds your code. I created a small class called DTS Wrapper with an overloaded constructor that accepts the target SQL Server server name and login credentials. You can extend this to include any specific DTS package credentials also.

Once that's done, it as easy as calling two methods to fire your DTS job. The first, LoadFromSQLServer, accepts 9 parameters that are mostly unremarkable except for the last one, pVarPersistStgOfHost, which will not be used in this exercise so you can just create a dummy null object for it.

The second function is the Execute call, which tells the job to fire. In my function below, you'll notice an argument being passed, PackageName, which is a String - this is the name of your DTS package exactly as it appears in SQL Server.

The guts are pretty self-explanatory, except for the loop in the Try block. If you've ever executed a DTS job manually, you know that your job may have multiple steps. Each step returns a status that is checked before the next stage to determine whether or not to perform a particular workflow step. The loop goes through the Steps collection, held by the DTS class, and checks the ExecutionResult (an Enum) and ensures that the result is NOT failure. If so, we log the error and throw it for trapping in our Finally block.

This loop is key, since workflow steps that will fire on Completion or on Failure will also be checked here. If you've put your DTS package together well, you'll know at any time what the status is and where it failed. This is a good supplement to your DTS log files as well.

The rest is just tidying up our objects and calling it a day. You can also see that I make use of the ExceptionManagement classes, which are a must have in my opinion.

Your comments and improvements are strongly encouraged! If you find this useful, I'd love to know. The source includes the Interop wrapper, a sample form, and the DTSWrapper, all in C# 2.0. The web form checks and does all the work with an Excel spreadsheet, but you can change this to work with any valid DTS data import source (Access, CSV, etc.)

Download the source files (63 KB ZIP file)

Bug Found! Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Codemunkee — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:16:00 -0500

I'll have to see if I can get this on video.

I started a game, played through just fine until I hit Act 4, Scene 2.

After gearing up I went downstairs to the bottom floor. There are 2 doors. I pointed my squad to the door on the left of you as you head down. Then I told them to breach and clear.

Each time, I died (which wasnt the problem), but the game never pulled up the death screen prompting me to reload the last checkpoint. It just sat there while my squad fought the remaining enemies. So, I manually hit reload on the last checkpoint.

After that I noticed that I stopped earning XP for kills. I didnt get any for my kills or my squad kills. I was, however, earning bonus XP.

Anyone else seen this? Or, if you have your own Vegas 2 bug, share it with me.

Now that that's over...

Codemunkee — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:38:00 -0500

I had the pleasure of watching The Beyond after my ears perked up reading how Tarantino published the redistribution rights from Lucio Fulci...

I liked it, but I just don't get how so many current reviews describe this as gruesome or horrifying. Sure, there is some gore in it, but its so over-the-top and obviously fake that one can only laugh.

Its worth the B-rated trip down memory lane if you haven't seen it (original release was 1981).

Observations of Value Shifts for Gamers

Codemunkee — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:25:00 -0500

I got to thinking about something after reading some outrage on Kotaku over the possible length of Too Human. Early review aside (and I tried the demo and was not really impressed graphically - Gears of War and Mass Effect still set this bar extremely high), the reviewer complained about the fact that he was halfway through the campaign and being halfway through it in six hours.

I'm not sure how much of his annoyance comes from the decade of hype surrounding the game, but even if it did not have a lot to live up to, the writer highlights a possible weakness in the title due to the fact that its only a possibly twelve hour long campaign.

But does this even matter anymore? In the Nintendo era, campaign length was not really an issue. Part of this could be attributed to the limited genres at the time. You had platformers, some RPGs, and a couple of side scrolling shooter and adventure games, with some sports titles thrown in (Tecmo Bowl - I remember playing Barry Sanders and laughing and laughing). Beat the season and the playoffs? Fire it up again and start from the beginning. Did you beat Super Mario Brothers? Fire it up again. Same goes for Zelda, Final Fantasy, and some other titles. As a general observation, gameplay extended length. And that natural, organic way to extend the life of your games makes me think to some degree that its an era gone by that will never return.

When RPGs took over the US (I'd mark it with the release of Final Fantasy 7), we started seeing two and three disc packages coming to market. And somewhere along the way, campaign length started becoming more and more important to consumers. FF 7's main campaign could be beaten in... 40 hours? You would have to get through all the cutscenes, level your character high enough simply to survive certain boss encounters, and travel to points on the map to progress the storyline. Don't get me wrong - most of you who know me already know my love for what I would call the greatest game of all time - but while some elements of the game are critical to the story, and are there to genuinely extend game play (the Gold Saucer, materia hunting, hidden characters), some others just seem contrived (level grinding).

For some reason this really took off and a lot of titles focused on X number of hours of game play. But where was the fun factor? And how can a human being reasonably be asked to complete an entire storyline in that kind of time? Unless it is an exceptional title (Dragon Quest VII, Final Fantasy 7), or a sandbox title (Oblivion, Grand Theft Auto, Morrowind), most of the time it is just not going to happen. Yet this is emblazoned on the back of boxes as a way to justify the game's cost. Blue Dragon is a perfect example. It takes almost an entire disc just to get the storyline going. And even then it still seems disjointed.

I took a brief informal survey at Seasoned Gamers, which I think represents the new majority gamer demographic, and asked two questions:

1. How many games have you completed in the last 12 months, across all owned consoles?
2. How many games do you have in your entire collection?

Out of 50 respondents:

- 10% have not completed a game in the last year
- 62% have completed between 1 and 5 games
- 74% own at least 11 games
- 50% own at least 15 games

With family, children, and other options to select from besides gaming, people are not losing interest in finishing games. That is making campaign length increasingly irrelevant. It will never be completely irrelevant, but as a matter of value, I do not see people continuing to buy titles if they cannot finish them.

Blue Dragon's 60 hours of game play is far too much to engage a player. But shorter campaigns get grumbles from the community, especially if the game is not online playable. To make matters worse, I would argue that gameplay innovation overall has slowed down a lot, simply because the industry is not new (Nintendo Era 80s new) as it was in the past. Aside from the rising popularity in music genre games, the market is filled with shooters and movie spinoffs. And just how much campaign time will you get out of those? Would you have finished Halo 3 if the campaign was 40 hours? Probably not.

So, why ARE they buying titles? I think we are seeing a new shift in gamer values, one that isnt centered around length, but co-operative online game play. Developers are finally giving the gamers what they want by adding co-op features to campaigns, which is breathing new life into their titles. Some are doing it brilliantly (Halo 3, Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas), others have backslid a bit (Vegas 2), and some others on the horizon look downright fantastic (Gears of War 2, Call of Duty World at War). Even RPG titles like Fable 2 and Tales of Vesperia are molding the genre to fit around co-op gaming. I think we will continue to see a downward trend in single player games simply because today's gamer is looking to stretch their dollar, and the best way to do that now is through online play. And that's the prevailing reason why titles are being bought - for their online gameplay value. To me, thats what makes the 360's model so innovative - sales of the console may be down, but title sales will continue to increase because the service foundation is based on this premise. Sony and Nintendo continue to play catchup here. For Nintendo, its not as bad, because they have done such a great job of marketing the console to families, but Sony is very late, and Home is very delayed (and was a glaring omission from E3 08).

This fall and holiday shopping season is going to be explosive, contrary to the general economic vibe throughout the US, and its because the development community has finally picked up on the changing values of gamers. We dont want lengthy single campaigns that we may never see the end of - well, maybe, if its another Star Wars KOTOR or Oblivion - we want an engaging experience with my friends both on and offline. We're getting it through competitive AND cooperative play! The release cycle for these next two quarters shows this new direction being plotted, which is one I think the industry will be heading in for the foreseeable future.

Dream Challenge Points Giveaway Over?

Codemunkee — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:22:00 -0500

The Microsoft Dream Challenge points giveaway I mentioned earlier this week apparently had some pretty high demand; now when you attempt to create a car and submit it for points, a small-font notice on the left of the screen tells you that the points for the promotion have reached their cap.

I realized this yesterday when I tried to submit a car, then voted for a car, and my total did not increase. After trying again this morning, I noticed the blurb.

Enter cars anyway because the daily prizes are still pretty good, but if you're in the market for the free points, you're either out of luck, or we'll have to wait for a new batch to come out of the oven!

Earn Free MS Points - Paint Some Cars!

Codemunkee — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:16:00 -0500

This has taken away some of the sting of the Bungie disappointment from E3 this week...

Microsoft and Dodge have teamed up for a sweepstakes - paint a 2009 Dodge Challenger and submit it for community review, and you can earn up to 100 MS points per day until September 19th! The tools are relatively full featured (you can upload non-copyright images, add graphics, and more - its like a mini Forza 2 paint shop), and there are some NICE looking cars up already.

Check out http://www.dreamcarchallenge.com/main/Default.aspx for the details. Here's the short version:

- Paint a car. It can technically be anything as long as its not obscene and it does not contain copyrighted material.
- Register. The personal info can be bunk but the email address MUST be valid.
- Upload your car.

Then go check your mail. In a little while you should receive a code to redeem at http://points.microsoft.com (do not try to enter the code directly into the Redeem Code area of the 360 - it will not work because these are points you have to allocate first on the website). Voila! You've just earned 100 points.

To earn more points (up to 100 per day), create a car every day (its 24 hours from the previous entry), and submit it for 50 points. Then, vote on someone else's car to earn another 50 points. The total points will accrue up to a maximum of 2,000 until September 19th, when you will be emailed another code to redeem your bounty.

There's some good daily and weekly giveaways too.

More on the Bungie Fiasco

Codemunkee — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:12:00 -0500

There are more and more reports coming in about the Bungie mess. ~~A few people are attributing the so-called postponement to Microsoft, but according to HBO,~~ ~~Kotaku~~ ~~only mentions "... a sudden decision made by a certain, shall we say, jejune high-level executive."~~

Presumably they're talking again about Harold Ryan, who again is NOT the president of Bungie, as far as I know; he was last reported to be the Studio Manager as recently as September 21st, 2007.

And again, what's with the timing of the announcement? I have a hard time believing that the 7pm posting of the "official" email is a coincidence. But more sources, including HBO's Louis Wu, are coming out saying basically that this is not a joke.

Maybe last time was a browser issue, but ILoveBees still has the counter running... but this time it looks like its been reset.

Still just over 90 minutes left before the time the announcement would have come... if this is some kind of stunt, I have to say I'm very impressed... but the general consensus is this is not a joke. I wont believe it until 7:08 though.

UPDATE: 1Up has confirmed that Bungie indeed points the finger at Microsoft for this sudden delay.

This is only going to get better (worse?) as details emerge. There is some kind of acrimonious dealing going on at Bungie, and for it to knock off arguably the 360's biggest developer is something that will not be forgotten right away.

EDIT - the deadline has passed, there has been no page update. And now IGN reports that someone at Microsoft may have slipped that a new Halo installment is indeed in the works. The plot sickens.

Bungie Presents... What?

Codemunkee — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:38:00 -0500

For days many of us have been following Bungie's latest trail of cryptic messages and hints that were meant to lead up to tomorrow's big announcement, timed for 7:07 am, about... well, we dont know.

And now it seems we'll never know.

It seems something colossal happened within the last few hours to effectively kill the buzz surrounding the announcement.

From the page (in case you cant read it):

From: Harold Ryan
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7PM
Subject: E3 Announce

Over the last several months, we've been building toward a reveal of something exciting that Bungie is working on. We were looking forward to sharing that with out fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were just changed by our publisher.

We realize that many of our fans are disappointed by this turn of events; members of the Bungie team share that disappointment.

When the right time comes, we look forward to sharing this exciting announcement with you. Until then, we appreciate your continued support and patience.

Harold Ryan
President
Bungie LLC

Most outlets are reporting this is real - NeoGAF got the official word on it when Luke Smith pretty much said sorry, its not a joke.

Or is it?

Lets see... The posted time of the notice is 7:00pm, which is NEVER a coincidence for Bungie. The countdown timer is stopped exactly at 12 hours. Why would Luke Smith confirm this announcement on NeoGAF and not on the Halo community forums?

And who is Harold Ryan? He's not Bungie's president. Halopedia says:

Harold Ryan is an American game tester and configuration tester. He has worked on several video games, including the Close Combat series, Crimson Skies, and Halo. He was born and raised in eastern Washington, his father served in the US Navy. He is currently a senior employee of Bungie Studios.

I'm going to call fake on this one. Something smells delightfully fishy.

The Problem With Projects

Codemunkee — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:27:00 -0500

At the company I work for (which will continue to remain nameless to protect the innocent), we have what I consider to be an incredibly odd problem within our development cycle.

My latest task is to identify problems within our project lifecycle that can cause bottlenecks in the delivery process. Normally this would point to internal inefficiencies: insufficient collaborative tools, technical problems, or misunderstanding of functional/business/QOS requirements.

it turns out we do pretty well here (we have our share of problems, many of which have been relieved with my recent rollout of Team Foundation Server). Where we get nailed is, interestingly, when clients fade away from the project.

That's right - clients who make considerable investment in design and development services simply lose sight of the project and disappear from view. It is not unusual for clients to go over a month without returning emails or telephone calls. Of course, when they DO resurface, they are shocked and amazed to learn that their project has not moved forward (either from lack of feedback or some dependent deliverable that has not made it over to us). And that's when the bad feelings arise.

In thinking about this, I started to analyze the things we are doing, within the context of some initiatives we've implemented to keep the client engaged.

- We provide 24/7 development site access. Clients can view progress in real time, and they can "touch and feel" the project with feedback opportunities along the way.
- We provide weekly status reports describing the project state, dependencies not delivered, anticipated risks, and evolving scenarios that may complicate the schedule.
- Phone calls and emails are made at least once a week seeking updates on missing deliverables.
- A financial penalty is applied if a project is stalled because of missing client interaction or deliverable for at least 2 weeks.

Its this last item that I have the hardest time with, because of the greater ill will it creates for the customer/client. Is the new perception going to ruin the current or future business relationship? Its hard to say, but all signs point to yes.

We have had one customer who basically told me "I'll call you when I'm ready to move on this". He disappeared for a year, after investing eight thousand dollars in his project. He resurfaced, profusely apologetic, looking to start again, with a code base and requirements over a year old. Reluctantly we did so, and he disappeared again for another four months. This time we stopped the project and explained that we were very behind, there were a large number of dated unknowns, and we could not move without re-speccing the project, requiring authorization for a change order. He balked and accused us of trying to unfairly increase project costs. This customer completely ignored the concept of the worth of his dollar a year ago, combined with the intrinsic costs of rekicking a project, among other things, and expected the same project to be delivered within the same cost.

This is a true story, and we have other customers who have disappeared (not for as long). It presents a customer relations and project management nightmare. But it is impossible to convey the hidden costs overruns on projects to the customer, especially when there is a semi-fixed cost estimate involved.

Changing the process to incorporate more milestones can help, but only partially. This is because once a milestone is reached, and momentum is generated, clients can get a false sense of project status. It also blows up the estimate model to some degree, since revisions and iterations in the same milestone period can give the appearance of inflated time (especially when using agile methods, notoriously known for increasing scope creep). It really isn't - its adaptation based on client input - but the estimate gives an impression of a fixed cost, so it is difficult to justify why other features have to be dropped over the course of a timeline and budget.

In any case, it is a problem with no easy answer. Usually it is the client who does the browbeating. I have never worked in a scenario where those roles are reversed.

ASP.NET - Configuring Team Foundation Web Access 2005 Email

Codemunkee — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:57:00 -0500

In installing Team Foundation Web Access 2005 recently, I was a little puzzled by a step in the wizard that asked whether I wanted to send alerts via SMTP. I was puzzled, because although it asked me for an SMTP server, no settings were actually written to the web.config file.

I discovered this when I attempted to send mail and I got an error that read "Sending email is not enabled. Please contact an adminstrator.". So it turns out you have to modify the web.config file by hand to support email.

To do this:

Locate the web.config file for TSWA, in the Web folder of your target's TSWA installation directory.
Open the web.config file and go to line 41
Change the "sendingEmailEnabled" attribute to "true"
Go to line 48, and change the "from" attribute to the desired email address
Depending on your SMTP configuration, you will need to either use the default NETWORK credentials (change the host and any other attributes to reflect your setup), or pass in any required credentials using the other commented-out NETWORK element

Email worked straight away after that!

God of War - Chains of Olympus: 30 Second Review

Codemunkee — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:59:00 -0500

Kratos is back in the prequel to the Sony franchise - does it rock the faces off PSP owners?

Graphics: 10
By far the best looking PSP game to date, rivalling some PS2 titles. Incredible textures, fluid animations, lighting, particle effects... A graphical showcase for the PSP.

Gameplay: 9
Plays just like the PS2 versions, which is both good and bad. I wish there were more huge boss battles. Starts with a huge boss battle bang, but then taper off quickly. Couple of rough framerate spots as well. Combat is still amazingly fun, but if you have big hands like I do you will need some practice getting faster with combos. Sometimes the button mini-games flash the button prompts just a bit too quick, making working with them a bit tougher than they should be. The special mini-game with the girls is back too!

Sound: 10
Beautifully done ambient soundtrack. The original voiceover cast is back and sounds great. Appropriate crescendos and mood music everywhere.

Controls: 10
Everything you did in the console versions you can do here, and its an almost identical controller layout. Usage of the shoulder buttons in particular is well done. The controls were already smooth, and now you can launch combos and magic attacks without taking your finger off the analog nub.

Overall: 10
The PSP's greatest achievement, bar none. Its short (under 7 hours), but the core gameplay, God mode difficulty, weapon, combo, and magic unlockables, Challenge of Hades, and other goodies will keep you coming back for more.

ASP.NET - Exporting to Excel Without Excel Installed on a Server, An Approach

Codemunkee — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:10:00 -0500

NOTE! I'm sorry for the code formatting. My blog's code formatting is bugged and looks terrible. Also, there is a FireFox issue with the lines running past the right side column of content, so longer lines have been broken up for readability only. Source code will be available for this post ASAP. I apologize :)

I spent a while writing a class for a customer with a requirement to export data from SQL Server 2000 into an Excel spreadsheet. Piece of cake, until I realized upon installation that Excel was not installed on the target server.

I spent a while working through the various approaches I came across. One, that I had done in the past, involved exporting the data into a invisible DataGrid and using its RenderControl method to write the physical HTML to a pre-existing Excel file.

A great quick solution, but there's two problems with this. One, is there is no control over what worksheet the data gets sent to. It always defaults to the first sheet. So if you have multiple datasources, you cannot target specific worksheets. The second problem is you have limited formatting control over what gets placed in the spreadsheet. You're going to get the DataGrid rendered exactly as it appears in your ASPX page, which may not be desirable either.

Instead I chose to use the Excel document as a type of template and turn it into an OLEDB data source, and write my data directly to it using queries. I can create spreadsheets simply by running CREATE TABLE commands, I can enforce Types, and its all in plain format.

I started by creating my Excel template, with the cell formatting already defined. This way I dont have to worry about the end client receiving a file with cells that don't match up to their data types. Then, I worked with the copy.

After that it was a simple matter of creating an OleDb connection and running a handful of Command statements.

Imports System.Data.OleDb
Imports System.Data

    Private Sub CreateWorkbook()

        ' make a copy of the template
        Dim ExportFileName As String = "\xlExport_" & System.DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString & ".xls"
        System.IO.File.Copy(Server.MapPath(Request.ApplicationPath) & "\xlExport.xls", 
        Server.MapPath(Request.ApplicationPath) & ExportFileName)

        ' connection string pointing to Excel file    
        Dim m_ExcelConn As String = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" & 
       Server.MapPath(Request.ApplicationPath) & ExportFileName & ";Extended Properties=""Excel 8.0;HDR=YES;"""

        ' copy made, lets create a Worksheet in it. 
        Dim cnExcel As New OleDbConnection(m_ExcelConn)
        Dim cmdExportCmd As New OleDbCommand

        cnExcel.Open()
        cmdExportCmd.Connection = cnExcel

        ' do this for each spreadsheet you wish to create.
        cmdExportCmd.CommandText = "CREATE TABLE [MyTable] (SampleCol1 char(255), SampleCol2 int, SampleCol3 datetime)"
        cmdExportCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

        ' table/sheet is created, now lets add information.
        cmdExportCmd.CommandText = "INSERT INTO [MyTable] (SampleCol1, SampleCol2, SampleCol3) 
        VALUES ('Character Data', 3, GetDate())"
        cmdExportCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

    End Sub

You can also use InsertCommands, UpdateCommands, and DeleteCommands for the above function. If you had a DataSet with multiple rows, like I did, you can wrap the INSERT statement into a loop, which is a little unwieldy because you'll have to append each field to your CommandText object and then run the statement. This can cause performance problems, so I do not recommend this with thousands of rows - install a copy of Excel and do a true export, or use DTS.

If you do choose to use the loop, you can do what I did - create a StringBuilder object and loop through the Rows collection, then the Columns collections, and Append as necessary.

 Dim cmdString As New System.Text.StringBuilder
        Dim cmdStringComplete As String
        Dim cmdStringNoComma As String

        For Each MyRow As DataRow In MyDataList.Tables(0).Rows
            ' the command creates the table but removes spaces in the table name
            ' and replaces them with underscores
            cmdString.Append("INSERT INTO [MyTable] (SampleCol1, SampleCol2, SampleCol3) VALUES ('")

            For Each MyCol As DataColumn In MyDataList.Tables(0).Columns
                cmdString.Append("'" & MyRow(MyCol).ToString & "'," & ControlChars.Lf)
            Next

            cmdStringComplete = cmdString.ToString
            cmdStringNoComma = cmdStringComplete.Remove(cmdStringComplete.LastIndexOf(","))

            cmdExportCmd.CommandText = cmdStringNoComma & ")"
            cmdExportCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

            cmdString.Remove(0, cmdExportCmd.CommandText.Length)
        Next
    End Sub

Keep the StringBuilder out of your loop; you only need to instance it once since you call Remove at the end of the loop step to reset it. Notice the INSERT statement's table name - it must have a dollar sign appended to the front of it and the name itself must be in brackets. Note that if your table name has spaces, they will be replaced by underscores in your worksheet title, and you have to reflect this in your INSERT statement as well.

Close your connections and commands and cleanup - and voila - you should now have an Excel spreadsheet with your exported data. This works out to be a good middle ground between HTML control rendering and creating an Excel document using the Office 11 object libraries, which, if not installed on the target server, will not execute (even with Interop files in your BIN directory and the PIA files installed!)

Playstation Home Delayed - Again

Codemunkee — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:44:00 -0500

PS3Fanboy reports that Playstation Home is being delayed again in order to "...refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today", according to Kazuo Hirai.

While I understand the delay (lots of stuff has been delayed and been stellar in its eventual release), I don't understand the focus on Home in light of the fact that Xbox Live's social features still blow the PS3's away. It is simply much easier to collect your friends together for a game of your mutual choosing and have a good time. This fact seems to be lost on Kaz.

I had a chance last week to study the XMB in detail and while I love the simplicity of it over Xbox's (the Live Dashboard feels so overwhelmingly cluttered now with advertising that it makes it hard to navigate), there's very little the user has to control. It seems like Home is concentrating more on creating a social gathering spot than making it easier to do what the system's primary purpose is - play games.

The PS3 train is picking up serious steam this year, and I dont see Xbox Live throwing out anything earth-shattering to help contend with the growing momentum, but Sony's not taking advantage of any openings, it seems... and a lot of things have fallen their way in the console wars as of late (bad MS publicity, the death of HD-DVD, a lackluster release cycle after Call of Duty 4).