Using .NET

I've spent the last 27 years programming in various languages. I started with Fortran and moved on from their. Almost any language after a break I can pick up again pretty quickly. I don't know if it is just me but this isn't the case with .NET. I always seem to spend hours doing the simplest kind of stuff (Making a grid update a database). You have table-adaptors and datasets and grids and all seem to have an update command but finding which ones to use is painful. In the examples, the seem to do everything directly from the ADO connection/command and dataset objects.
In the end it only ends up being a couple of lines of extra code but why can't you throw a grid on a screen, bind it to a recordset and make it automatically manage add/update/delete. If you want to manage this yourself then you add extra code. The problem is that I only do this every six months or so and if I still had an older version of VB or Visual Studio that supports ASP I would probably use those. It would be a lot more coding but I would spend less time stuffing around.

Upgrade Vista

Next Windows Version after Vista. He He He

Computer switching itself off.

A customer has an XP computer that just switches itself off after running for a little while. My first thought was a dusty CPU cooler. The CPU protects itself by shutting the system down.

I went to the site and the computer would not even switch on. I took the covers off the tower and disconnected the microswitch. I shorted the pins with a screwdriver to try and start the computer but no-go. I used a PSU tester and all the lights came on (except -5V) so I knew it was supplying power. I thought the -5V light on my tester may have burnt out from banging around in my tool bag.

I was thinking motherboard at this stage, the computer was an older Pentium 4 machine and a motherboard replacement would be costly and the customer would probably opt for a new machine. I packed up the computer and took it back to my workshop. I tried to start the computer by shorting the pins and this time it worked. I reconnected the microswitch and it wouldn't work so the switch was broken (which I have also seen switch a computer off randomly). I installed a new switch cycled the computer a few times. I left the computer on and went off to write out the invoice thinking another case solved. I turned around and the computer had turned itself off again. It wouldn't switch itself back on either until sometime later. I tried a new powersupply and this seemed to fix it. I cycled the machine 4 or 5 times and left it on for a few hours and it performed okay and marked this as solved.
Update: I also discuss this subject on my website "computer shuts down"

Computer Security

I recently had a customer who had just gone through a divorce. She had gotten the computer but the husband had changed the password on the computer. We do have password changing tools but I got in through a common error people make. If you log into XP using safe mode the Administrator account appears. In most cases people don't password this account. Logging into this account enables you to change the passwords of the other accounts. So to better protect your computer ensure the administrator account has a password.

Once into the computer, I checked to see if anything else had been done. He had also setup content advisor to stop access to the web. To remove this I just went to the registry. I can never remember exactly where to find these things so I simply searched on the value in the hint field.

In short security is good but if somebody physically gets your computer, it is difficult to keep them getting all of your information.