Alan Daveline's Blog

I just finished My Father's Dragon by Gannett, Ruth Stiles; Gannett, Ruth Chrisman; Ruth Chrisman Gannett on Kindle for Android! http://www.amazon.com/kindleforandroid/

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How come my Chrome spell checker stopped working in the Posterous editor??? Did it ever work?

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:06:00 -0800

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"Difference of two datetime columns caused overflow at runtime" Fix

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:03:31 -0800

DATEDIFF produces an error if the result is out of range for integer values. For milliseconds, the maximum number is 24 days, 20 hours, 31 minutes and 23.647 seconds. For seconds, the maximum number is 68 years.

To work around this issue you can do something like following

instead of calculating the difference in seconds, you can calculate it in minutes, then multiply it by 60

convert(bigint,datediff(mi,'19000101','20100101')) * 60

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Salesforce.com Acquires Dimdim

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:18:00 -0800

http://www.salesforce.com/company/news-press/press-releases/2011/01/110106.jsp#

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Thematic, A WordPress Theme Framework

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:49:00 -0800

Thematic is a free, open-source, highly extensible, search-engine optimized WordPress Theme Framework featuring 13 widget-ready areas, grid-based layout samples, styling for popular plugins, and a whole community behind it. It's perfect for beginner bloggers and WordPress development professionals.

via themeshaper.com

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Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console for advanced users

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:38:00 -0800

Check out this website I found at support.microsoft.com

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How come there isn't a text editor in the windows recovery console?

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:28:00 -0800

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Available switch options for the Windows XP and the Windows Server 2003 Boot.ini files

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:11:00 -0800

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833721

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5 Quick Steps to Remain Virus & Malware Free in the New Year.

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 14:13:00 -0800

As an IT professional for over 12 years, I frequently remove viruses/malware from computers. I got fed up with the major anti-virus companies, because their products never seemed to prevent and/or clean viruses. Why was I spending so much of my time cleaning things manually? Why was I paying big money to these antivirus companies if they don't solve the problem?

For this reason, I have NEVER used an antivirus program for my personal computers. Surprisingly my home computers have NEVER been infected. After reflecting on my home network & computer setup I have come up with 5 simple rules to remain malware free.

1. Use a web based email service which scans emails for viruses. I am particularly fond of Gmail & Google Apps

2. Don't click on emails from senders you don't trust & can't validate their authenticity.

3. Use OpenDNS to manage and protect your DNS. OpenDNS is the world's leading provider of Internet navigation and security. It makes your network safer, faster, smarter and more reliable without the cost and complexity of traditional security services. You can get the following for little or no cost.

Web Content Filtering
Anti-Phishing
Malware Site Protection / Botnet Protection

4. Avoid nefarious websites & applications. These include, but are not limited to the following

Gaming (Poker, Gambling, and the like)
Pornography
Warez/Torrent
Free Music/Movie/TV Downloads (Amazon MP3, iTunes, Pandora, Grooveshark,YouTube, Netflix, Hulu are OK, but if something is "free", you should use extreme caution)
Anything else shady, unethical, illegal

5. Don't install untrusted applications on FaceBook. FaceBook is a great thing, but it can allow for potential malware & security threats. Do not give permissions to any application that you don't trust the source. Yes, this means games, poker, what twilight character are you, and whatever else might come your way.

Also review your existing FaceBook applications and remove any application you don't actively use or care about. See the following link http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=applications

Bonus Step

6. Get a good anti-virus/anti-malware program. After fixing a particularly challenging virus on a client's server this past week, I finally decided it wasn't worth risking not having an antivirus program installed. After much research I decided to go with ESET Smart Security (http://www.eset.com).

Some other "free" anti-virus/anti-malware programs I have experience with and would recommend if you can't spend any money.