1.
database.SetQuery("select *\n from " + TABLE);
\n in the middle of a simple select * query? That’s just weird, man.
(Besides that it’s not particularly good form to use select * in the first place. Although it’s not good form on my part for not responding to most of your comments–will do tonight.)
2.
> now, what did you say was holding you up from declaring a
> proper datetime datatype?
I have inherited the database. Unfortunately because the date field is
of type varchar, there exist some incorrect dates, so I need to clean up
the data….You will feel a slight shift in the Force when I have rectified the
datatype error.
I’m in this situation! Except I don’t have time to make all the necessary changes to the code. It would be much appreciated to withhold any snide comments such as, “The real WTF is that you’re using MySQL.”
(Quote from [thelist] MySQL Convert String To Date)
June 18th, 2008
6 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Computer-fu
Apologies to those of you who use this site as a work diversion. I’ve no time for a proper post.
I humbly submit today’s Daily WTF, the Sage, as alternate reading material.
March 26th, 2008
5 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Computer-fu, Patently Ineffective
Really late on this one. My weak-shelled attempt at playing Polly this week will be covered later.
Take a gander at move 36, with Black to move. If you notice a strong White move that we both missed during the game, give yourself a pat on the back.
Quick Chess Publisher tip: If you want to use quotation marks (”) in the comments, you have to use " instead. It has to do with how browsers parse HTML (and in order for me to write that, I had to use & to get the ampersand. A list of HTML character codes can be found here, but I don’t know if it’s exhaustive.)
March 9th, 2008
6 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Chess, Computer-fu, Tournament of Lepers
At work, I use the Thunderbird e-mail client (I cannot recommend it above Microsoft’s Outlook, although you can’t beat the price), and every so often get an e-mail which is supposed to have an Excel attachment. However, there’s only a winmail.dat file, which is full of gibberish.
The problem is with (at least) some versions of Outlook, which don’t necessarily get along with other e-mail clients. It’s not politically expedient for me to say “Y0r email client sux, n00bler”, so I used the following solution:
1. Open up the winmail.dat attachment in a text editor.
2. Search for the string “ÐÏ” (without quotes) in the file, and delete everything before it.
3. Save the file as an Excel file.
Presto; you now have a spreadsheet.
However, upon doing some actual research on the problem, there’s a program called Winmail.dat Reader which will do the conversion for you. Mac users can use TNEF. Please note I haven’t tried these out.
If you are the one using Outlook and don’t want to bother your friends with the mysterious winmail.dat attachment, send a plain text e-mail if you’re sending an attachment (configurable for each recipient in address book, or use the Format menu if it’s a one-time thing).
February 24th, 2008
1 comment
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Computer-fu
Microsoft really wants to make sure have all the latest security updates for your comp: the default settings have the computer automatically download and install your security patches. And when that gets finished, Windows prompts you every 10 minutes “Do you want to restart your computer now?”
Now, if you’re in the middle of doing something on the computer (which you are, because you’re reading the blasted message), you choose “Restart Later”. 10 minutes later, it asks you again. This may start to get a smidgeon annoying.
But you have the power to change how often it pops up (or even eliminate it altogether):
1. Click the Start button, then Run (for those of you who speak keyboard shortcuts, it’s Windows key + R)
2. Type gpedit.msc in the box and hit enter.
3. You’ll see a window titled “Group Policy”. Open the folders as follows:
Local Computer Policy
+ Computer Configuration
+ Administrative Templates
+ Windows Components
Windows Update
4. The setting we want is “Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations”. (If no one’s messed with it, the state will say “Not configured”, which defaults to showing the restart message every 10 minutes.)
Double-click to open.
5. Select the “Enabled” button, and fill in the box with the delay in minutes before the restart box will pop up, and click “OK”. Or you can disable it if you never want to see it again.
December 14th, 2007
12 comments
Posted by Donnie
Filed under Computer-fu
