One day in your life,
You’ll remember the love you found here.
You’ll remember me somehow,
Though you don’t need me now.
I will stay in your heart,
And when things fall apart,
You’ll remember one day…

-Michael Jackson

There are many ways to export data from SQL Server to Excel but I think the one way to do it by real simple coding is to export the data as an XML file and then opening it in Excel.

First we fill the data in a DataSet and then export that data to an XML file. Although the file is an XML one, I give it an extension of ‘.xls’ so that Excel opens it by default and then it can be saved it as the Excel format in some other sheet.

Dim con as SqlConnection
con = New SqlConnection(”Data Source=SERVER; Initial Catalog=dbTest;uid=sa;pwd=123″)
Dim cmd As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand
con.Open()
cmd.CommandText = “spExportData”
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure

cmd.Connection = con
Dim ds As New DataSet
Dim da As New SqlDataAdapter
da.SelectCommand = cmd
da.Fill(ds)
Dim savefileName As String = Application.StartupPath & “\ExportedFile.xls”
ds.WriteXml(savefileName)
con.Close()
cmd.Dispose()
da.Dispose()

If in a table, some columns occasionally contain null values, then while trying to retrieve the values, the following error is shown:

Conversion from type ‘DBNull’ to type ‘String’ is not valid.

To solve this problem, we can check if the Datareader has a null value for the column, and if yes, then just getting the TextBox to show an empty string.

If DBNull.Value.Equals(dataReader1(“Column_Name”)) Then

TextBox.Text = “”

Else

TextBox.Text = dataReader1(“Column_Name”)

End If

Chris Connell writes about what separates software engineering form computer science. Quoting:

Formal software engineering processes, such as cleanroom engineering, are gradually finding rigorous, provable methods for software development. They are raising the bright line to subsume previously squishy software engineering topics.

Microsoft’s developing of a gaming system which takes motion sensing to next level.

Google wave: Hands On

Top 10 everything of 2008, by Time Magazine.

Jack D. Herrington (a senior software engineer with more than 20 years of experience) writes in detail on how to build a chat system on a web application using Ajax, XML and PHP.

To view the detailed information about the wireless networks in the Airport menu (hidden by default), hold down the option key while clicking the AirPort menu icon in the menu bar. The detailed information below the name of the connected network is:

• MAC address of the wireless station
• Channel is in use
• Signal strength, RSSI, the lower it is, the weaker the connection
• Indication of the data transmission rate

On hovering the mouse over the network name for a second, a tool tip displays the network’s signal strength and the type of security it’s using. This is useful for quickly finding the public connection with the strongest signal.

While browsing, I came across this page which details the current projects DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is working on. After reading it all, I have to agree, it is truly bad-ass.

Another one from Collegehumor. In their words:

Parody of Slumdog Millionaire, if the gameshow had been the Price is Right and Drew Carey had been the one beating the truth out of that kid.

In a network system, connecting to your Windows PC from the Mac is a real easy process.

First you have to make sure that the folders you want to access are being shared from the Windows PC. On a PC, a folder can be shared by right clicking the icon, selecting the properties option and then the sharing tab.

If your Mac is connected to the network, then in the Finder menu, click ‘Go’ and then ‘Connect To Server’.

In the address bar, type in the name of the PC you want to connect to prefixing it by smb:// and then click connect. Read the rest of this entry »