https://www.x50.com/posts/ Recent content in Posts on X50.com Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/posts/2019-01-16-classic-asp-in-dotnet-core/ Wed, 16 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/posts/2019-01-16-classic-asp-in-dotnet-core/ Let’s say you are migrating a Classic ASP site to .net core - because you really should! And let’s say you can’t migrate all the pages at once, but you want the new site to be up and running as soon as possible. If so, you are going to need to find a way to run those classic asp pages in the new site… A .net Core web site arranges all static content (mostly front end resources like css and js) in the wwwroot folder in the project directory. https://www.x50.com/posts/2018/09/switching-to-hugo/ Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/posts/2018/09/switching-to-hugo/ Well now. It’s been a while. This site used to be hosted on a wordpress install on a shared hosting server. Then I let it sit for ages and did nothing with it while I got on with work. But I’ve wanted to bring it back to life and get my teeth into something a little more in line with my expertise, so it’s all moved. It’s now a JAM Stack site, built via Hugo and running on Netlify. https://www.x50.com/2012/12/25/merry-christmas-and-all-that/ Tue, 25 Dec 2012 11:41:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2012/12/25/merry-christmas-and-all-that/ So it looks like it’s Christmas Day - and here’s our Christmas tree project for this year. Mounting a full lit and decorated 7 foot tree on top of a post amid the Thames. Quite a challenge, getting the tide timing right was critical, as it happened high tide also coincided with a thunderstorm and a police helicopter overhead. So even with the three of us, twas a bit tricky. https://www.x50.com/2012/09/28/the-most-newest-sainsburys-in-the-world/ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 07:36:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2012/09/28/the-most-newest-sainsburys-in-the-world/ A very exciting day for us, our new Sainsburys Local opened at Kew Bridge. Such an anticipated event, we had barely climbed out of bed before we dashed over. Still bleary eyed and pyjama clad we stumbled around the aisles and marvelled at the, (actually quite good), range of products. We bought eggs, bacon, prosecco and other such essentials of modern living. Then the paralympic torch turned up. Wowsers! 2012 09 28 08 https://www.x50.com/2011/08/02/i-fly/ Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:21:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/08/02/i-fly/ It was R Kelly who sang “I believe I can fly” - but taking that into the past tense is me with “I believe I have flown” - which doesn’t quite work as well and sounds a bit wrong - but hey. It’s true. I have. Courtesy of Eugene and the Barry Flying Club of Canada (http://www.BarrieFlyingClub.com), I took control of a Sky Cruiser Ultralight at about 4000 feet somewhere over Ontario and… flew about for a bit. https://www.x50.com/2011/07/23/how-i-ate-my-body-weight-in-sushi/ Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:07:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/07/23/how-i-ate-my-body-weight-in-sushi/ ..and how you can too! Here’s how… go to New York visit Ichi Umi (6 East 32nd street - also in New Jersey) pay for the buffet optionally order a nice bottle of chilled sake (Honjozo my preference) fill your plate with a delicious selection of Nigiri, Maki, Sashimi.. whatever takes your fancy eat repeat steps 5 & 6 til stupid with food roll home…… Image1764 https://www.x50.com/2011/07/19/deserted-centreville/ Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:24:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/07/19/deserted-centreville/ In the summer, Toronto’s theme park in miniature on an island, Centreville (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centreville_Amusement_Park), will no doubt be packed with happy, screaming kids on their holidays. Visiting in early April gives a different vision. A bitterly cold wind sweeps across Lake Ontario, trees are bare and nothing is open. The occasional hardy jogger breaks the scene. The season is most definitely off. Later I find myself warming my hands under a hand dryer in a public loo. https://www.x50.com/2011/07/08/around-lisbon-and-how-to-get-from-the-airport/ Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:37:53 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/07/08/around-lisbon-and-how-to-get-from-the-airport/ I’ve been to Lisbon before - and also paid over the odds for a taxi - it’s surprising how things don’t change (or maybe not). Anyway everyone has to make a living, and sometimes the driver is really cool and gives you some inside tips and cultural perspective. So that’s ok. But hey - if you want to save a few pennies, then I’d always suggest figuring out how to get from the airport to wherever you lay your hat (and therefore is home) before you depart - even if it’s a shuttle bus to the city center (from where taxi’s will be cheaper) and then you can sit in silence with all the other tourists. https://www.x50.com/2011/06/12/tram-28-lisbon/ Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:57:16 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/06/12/tram-28-lisbon/ Sweeping and rattling around a maze of cobbled streets and grand squares, pausing for the occasional errant car or pedestrian, Tram 28 takes you West to East (or tother way round, should you prefer) across a grand tour of Lisbon, taking in many famous landmarks, monuments, churches and gardens. For local transport, it’s the one to get, but ride the subway afterwards just to compare and contrast. Start at Martim Moniz and you’ll probably get a seat. https://www.x50.com/2011/05/30/taking-the-via-rail-train-across-canada/ Mon, 30 May 2011 11:35:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/05/30/taking-the-via-rail-train-across-canada/ Excuse me while I catch up on posting some photos and stories since I’ve got back to the UK…ready for some time travel? https://www.x50.com/2011/05/26/the-murals-of-hornepayne-station/ Thu, 26 May 2011 16:11:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/05/26/the-murals-of-hornepayne-station/ Right in the middle of nowhere, well right in the middle of Ontario actually, is the township of Hornepayne. There’s not a lot to say about it really. It has a thousand people and is there because the railway is there. However, the train had stopped, and after three days on a train, if it stops, you want to get off. And so I did. The station building, once a hotel apparently, had now fallen into disrepair. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/22/frozen-waterfalls-and-ice-caves-in-maligne-ca/ Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:12:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/22/frozen-waterfalls-and-ice-caves-in-maligne-ca/ Having seen the canyon from up above, (during my biking expedition), and noticed many footprints down below, it took mere nano-seconds of my gigantic Holmesian-like intellect to deduce there was some walking type activity on the frozen river that would gush through the many gorges of Maligne Canyon in the summer. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/22/sushi-places-i-havent-eaten-at/ Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:59:54 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/22/sushi-places-i-havent-eaten-at/   Yeah, the name wasn’t exactly selling it to me. Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t insist on sushi for every meal. In this case I had a blueberry fritter from Tim Hortons. It was disgusting. But at least I knew what I was letting myself in for. No disillusionment there. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/20/adventures-in-the-colombia-icefield/ Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:07:31 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/20/adventures-in-the-colombia-icefield/ Here’s an idea - rent a car and drive around for a bit. If you’re anywhere near the Canadian Rockies then amazing scenery is guaranteed. Additionally, just down the road from Jasper is the Colombia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier - where, for a few dollars more, you can take a rather funky 70’s style space bus on to the glacier itself. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/19/snow-biking-in-jasper/ Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:38:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/19/snow-biking-in-jasper/ Despite being told all the trails around Jasper were closed, I nevertheless fearlessly (or foolhardily) rented a mountain bike (a Kona something or other) from Freewheel cycles in town (recommended) and threw myself about the countryside. I had a good day tiring myself out, and discovered that it’s really quite hard to cycle in the snow.   The trick seems to be to put lots of weight on the rear wheel and keep the steering light and loose. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/19/poker-lessons-with-chalkmaster-dave/ Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:20:35 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/19/poker-lessons-with-chalkmaster-dave/   During a short late night stopover in Winnipeg, (where everything had closed except for a coffee shop). I struck up a conversation with one of my fellow train passengers. And over large cups of green tea we discussed all kinds of nonsense about pets, art, news reporting, festivals, fugitive hitch-hikers and life in general. Oh, and poker. Something which I’d learnt when I was at school (no really) but hadn’t bothered with since. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/17/all-the-way-from-west-to-east/ Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:40:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/17/all-the-way-from-west-to-east/ On the Canadian - the famous cross-country train from Vancouver to Toronto (with a stop at Jasper)… It’ll take a few days… https://www.x50.com/2011/04/17/vancouver-city-of-two-days-london-fog-and-tin/ Sun, 17 Apr 2011 10:27:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/17/vancouver-city-of-two-days-london-fog-and-tin/ I only had two days in Vancouver - so, what to do? I had some really great Sushi (but of course). And as mentioned in previous posts, went biking around Stanley Park and visited a Sake Brewery (note: the only Sake brewery in Vancouver). As well as these, a couple more delights are worth more than a brief mention… https://www.x50.com/2011/04/16/notes-on-new-zealand/ Sat, 16 Apr 2011 21:51:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/16/notes-on-new-zealand/ Kayaking across the sea at night (and exploring a volcanic island), long beaches and broken trees (and learning to surf), so much sushi (not as good as Hong Kong, except for that amazing Unagidon one lunchtime), Hokey Pokey Squiggles (great name, soso biscuit), personalised signboxes (which I didn’t see in the dark), 12 hours on a train (and reading about Peter Jackson reading on the same train), zombie outbreak (I think we’ll be ok), catching up with family (mine and others), Elven forests (and playing at Lord of the Rings), the Weta museum (and my Hobbit scarf), shortcut to mushrooms (and then finding some), windy Wellington (and more sushi), endless rolling hills (from south to north), flying to Canada… https://www.x50.com/2011/04/14/colourful-mud-and-smelly-steam-at-rotorua/ Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:46:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/14/colourful-mud-and-smelly-steam-at-rotorua/ A short trip south out of Rotorua takes you to the Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland, a site of intense geo-thermal activity. Here you can walk around a tiny portion of the site on gently cordoned off paths and experience the sights and smells of the demonicly named craters. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/13/biking-through-stanley-park/ Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:10:14 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/13/biking-through-stanley-park/   Here’s a fun thing to do of an afternoon in Vancouver. Go to Stanley Park, rent a bike from one of the many shops at the top of Denman street. Take about two hours to cycle round the seawall, with a loop on some of the bike trails inside the park too. I went for Spokes bike rental at Denman and West Georgia, and a 5 speed cruiser. Great fun and about 12. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/12/i-found-a-sake-brewery-i-may-be-sometime/ Tue, 12 Apr 2011 01:02:57 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/12/i-found-a-sake-brewery-i-may-be-sometime/   For 5 of those Canadian dollars you can try not one, not two, but three fabulous hand crafted Junmai Sakes at Masa Shiroki’s (micro) brewery, 1339 Railspur Alley on Granville Island in the heart of Vancouver. Made in a space the size of a small shop, they’re all quite lovely and surprisingly fruity. He’ll also educate you in any and all aspects of his noble art; how temperature affects the brewing process as well as the flavour come serving time, the different grades of sake, how to taste it and where the flavours come from (it’s all in the rice). https://www.x50.com/2011/04/10/giant-nz-latte/ Sun, 10 Apr 2011 07:36:08 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/10/giant-nz-latte/ They certainly know how to do their coffee over here in New Zealand. I was served this giant latte in what was basically a soup bowl (hand for size reference) somewhere on the North shore near Auckland. It was a breakfast in itself. Which is all the more surprising since you consider the cafe culture is a recent invention in this country. Ten years ago you would be hard pressed to find such things. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/05/the-start-of-a-very-long-train-trip-indeed/ Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:25:28 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/05/the-start-of-a-very-long-train-trip-indeed/   For the next 12 hours, I’ll be on New Zealands Overlander train, from Wellington to Auckland. Originally built in 1908 and “covering every kind of scenery there is, from coastline to volcanoes to mountains, from lush green farmland to thick New Zealand bush” (from http://seat61.com/Overlander.htm).   Apparently this journey was also the inspiration for a young Peter Jackson to film The Lord of The Rings here - he started reading the https://www.x50.com/2011/04/02/48140313/ Sat, 02 Apr 2011 08:15:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/02/48140313/   One of the reasons for going on a trip is to learn new things, to do new things. Pick up a skill, because it’s fun, but you also learn about yourself. How you react to new situations, who you are, and it encourages the feeling side of the brain (rather than the thinking).   Surfing is a curious thing. More lifestyle than sport - but it’s hard to pin down why. https://www.x50.com/2011/04/01/black-sands-and-rainforests/ Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:57:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/01/black-sands-and-rainforests/ Most people come to New Zealand for the amazing scenery, rather than any city pursuits. And it’s not hard to see why - even for this city lover.   So barely an hour out of Auckland you have the Waitakere Ranges for the rainforest environment (it rained while I was there - I felt like I got my moneys worth) and the notoriously dangerous Piha beach (it did look a bit dangerous - but I contented myself with taking photos of seaweed, rather than of people dying). https://www.x50.com/2011/04/01/sleeping-on-the-train/ Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:50:06 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/04/01/sleeping-on-the-train/   At Raglan, New Zealands surf capital, one of the best places to stay is SolScape (http://www.solscape.co.nz). An eclectic hostel of converted train carriages. Stylish and cost effective - plus close to the beach…   Hey I’m not working for them, but I have been learning to surf here - and surprise surprise, I can actually surf! Another watery accomplishment to add to my portfolio. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/30/theres-lots-of-volcanos-in-new-zealand-this-i/ Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:41:37 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/30/theres-lots-of-volcanos-in-new-zealand-this-i/ Mt Eden in Auckland. Dormant now, and though it’s a active field (with an eruption due next week - or maybe 200 years away) a new eruption is likely to be at a new site. Maybe out to sea, or maybe in the centre of Auckland… https://www.x50.com/2011/03/30/just-in-case-i-wasnt-sure-where-i-am/ Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:15:47 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/30/just-in-case-i-wasnt-sure-where-i-am/ This pretty much applies to all the roads round here. But it’s good to know there’s a special Kiwi road above all the other Kiwi roads.   I didn’t go down it. I’m not from round here. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/28/looking-at-stuff-from-very-high-up/ Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:53:11 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/28/looking-at-stuff-from-very-high-up/   One way to get an overview of a city is to get to the highest point - and have a good look round. Luckily Auckland has provided the Sky Tower http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/Attractions/Skytower.html to provide you with that very opportunity. So my brother and I went up, and had a good look at stuff. Being 328 meters tall makes stuff look very small.   Then I had a Chicken Caesar Salad and a Piña Colada. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/26/auckland-autumn-arrival/ Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:50:10 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/26/auckland-autumn-arrival/ More like the late summer, but the allure of a triple alliterative title was too much to resist. A nice flight over with Air New Zealand and a glass of sparkling wine. It’s a bit rainy in NZ, we’re promised nicer weather later. But I don’t really care, it’s just nice to see family down under… https://www.x50.com/2011/03/26/hong-kong-epilogue-what-i-think-about-when-im/ Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:45:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/26/hong-kong-epilogue-what-i-think-about-when-im/ I guess most people associate Hong Kong with Blade Runner-esque cityscape of neon, skyscrapers and people - although there’s far more to it than that - no wait. that’s not the point here…   Why am I doing this? Why am I writing these posts? Is it to connect, to stay in touch with friends and family and show them what I’m up to? https://www.x50.com/2011/03/26/the-woosung-street-temporary-cooked-food-hawk/ Sat, 26 Mar 2011 03:50:11 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/26/the-woosung-street-temporary-cooked-food-hawk/ For my last night in Hong Kong, I thought I’d do the street food experience. Right opposite my hotel (The Evergreen Hotel - cheap and decent wifi - essential for the modern traveller) was the Woonsung Street Temporary Cooked Food Hawker Bazaar (located here http://www.waybird.com/+9SHOIP0UA ) - a formidable sounding name and not the most high class dining experience you could imagine - but hey. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/25/boat-life-in-hong-kong/ Fri, 25 Mar 2011 03:21:43 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/25/boat-life-in-hong-kong/ It’s a bit strange I went almost half way round the world, only to end up on another boat - or maybe not strange at all. Anyway, the majority of my stay in Hong Kong was aboard the good ship Bobo. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/23/the-mystery-of-11035/ Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:13:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/23/the-mystery-of-11035/ As you might gather, I am not the one to do the usual holiday things. So when the opportunity presents itself to board the abandoned wreck of a racing yacht for a bit of an explore (and just because we happened to be passing) I’ll only pause to check I have my camera. Fan of abandoned rubbish that I am. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/23/why-is-the-volcano-stoned-baked-hell-spicy-sa/ Wed, 23 Mar 2011 07:42:15 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/23/why-is-the-volcano-stoned-baked-hell-spicy-sa/ All at Kam Tin Long Sushi, their web site http://www.kamtinlongsushi.com/ and their location http://www.waybird.com/+9SHOIDYUG yum yum!     https://www.x50.com/2011/03/21/where-are-the-cats-on-the-boat/ Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:11:12 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/21/where-are-the-cats-on-the-boat/ There are three cats on the boat. Can you find them all? For every cat you find, make a mark on your worksheet. If you have time at the end of the lesson, you can draw a picture of the cats. Meanwhile, I’ve been spending my Monday evening learning more Filipino street fighting moves on some Hong Kong backstreet near Aberdeen docks. I like a nice, quiet, safe time me. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/19/terror-of-the-zombie-village/ Sat, 19 Mar 2011 04:05:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/19/terror-of-the-zombie-village/ Not quite, but alongside luxury apartments and hi-rises of Hong Kong, there are plently of semi-abandoned fishing villages dotting the coastline. This one, on the east side of Tai Tam bay seems to have been used as a military defence point during WW2. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/16/nutrional-malt-cone/ Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:42:25 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/16/nutrional-malt-cone/   Not three words I expect to hear together, surely the idea of an Ovaltine ice cream (found at a 7 eleven in Repulse Bay) is bad enough, but to label it as a Nutrional Malt Cone? I stuck to the choclate bar… It was a Dove choclate bar, hopefully my skin will be nice and smooth now… Curious confectionary in Hong Kong! https://www.x50.com/2011/03/15/stormy-weather-on-the-south-china-seas/ Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:13:43 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/15/stormy-weather-on-the-south-china-seas/ As weather is taking a turn for worse, we are moving from Deep Water Bay over to Tai Tam Bay, which has more shelter - it did mean crossing some pretty rough seas. I enjoyed it hugely, but the ships cats (three of them) didn’t take it so well - so there’s a bit of a mess downstairs. Poor cats. https://www.x50.com/2011/03/15/hong-kong-by-accident/ Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:29:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/15/hong-kong-by-accident/   So, I’m in Hong Kong. I was supposed to be going to Japan, but come Friday morning and as news of the Great East Japan earthquake was breaking on television it all suddenly seemed like maybe not such a good idea after all. A few calls to Trailfinders and I find myself booked on the next flight to Hong Kong instead, with a view to maybe https://www.x50.com/2011/03/12/6-weeks-and-one-bag-my-packing-list/ Sat, 12 Mar 2011 13:16:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2011/03/12/6-weeks-and-one-bag-my-packing-list/ Because there’s nothing worse than carting a whole load of luggage around. I would exclude the netbook but it’s needed for work reasons, otherwise what you see is my entire baggage for 6 weeks across Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Canada and USA. I’m considering ditching the blue towel, so it may get even lighter… https://www.x50.com/2010/01/29/fuzzy-matching-with-user-defined-functions-in-sql/ Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:22:05 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2010/01/29/fuzzy-matching-with-user-defined-functions-in-sql/ Quite often, when matching data sets, I come across the problem of what happens when data is “dirty” in someway. In other words, it’s become corrupted, either by a spelling mistake (such as HSBC becoming HSBBC) or by abbreviation (such as Gangle and Wotsit Limited becoming Gangle and Wotsit Ltd) or by contraction (such as Gangle and Wotsit Financial Adviser Ltd becoming Gangle and Wotsit Ltd). In these cases a direct comparison will return no match, so it’s good to have a way of returning data that is, roughly, approximately, a match. https://www.x50.com/2009/11/23/post254342541/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:52:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2009/11/23/post254342541/ In which I decided to take up Ryanair on one of their many sales, and travel to Norway and back. In one day. On a flight costing 2p. Return. It was fun - though slightly hectic. Up at 7am, back by midnight, about 11 hrs of travel and 6 hours in the scenic town of Sandefjord, Norway. https://www.x50.com/2009/10/23/name-parsing-aka-splitting-names-into-constituent-parts/ Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:39:30 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2009/10/23/name-parsing-aka-splitting-names-into-constituent-parts/ A bit of a long winded code segment this, it could probably be shortened significantly with a lookup table of titles (like Mr, Mrs, etc.), but this code is written with badly formatted databases in mind. In this case it takes a full name field (like “Mr John D Smith” for example) in table called tblNames and splits it out into different fields for title, first name, middle name and surname. https://www.x50.com/2009/06/15/scheduling-legacy-dts-from-within-sql-2005/ Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:05:50 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2009/06/15/scheduling-legacy-dts-from-within-sql-2005/ A useful little hack if you’ve installed support for DTS in SQL Server 2005 but also need a way of scheduling the packages. The solution I came up with (warning: not pretty) was to enable the xp_cmdshell system stored procedure and make an external call to the DTSrun program. Of course, you would be better off just calling it as a scheduled task from windows, but in case that’s not an option (for whatever administrative reasons), here’s the workaround… https://www.x50.com/2009/04/04/making-a-database-copy-in-sql-server/ Sat, 04 Apr 2009 06:01:42 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2009/04/04/making-a-database-copy-in-sql-server/ There are many ways of doing this, mine is just one. I find this a quick method when you want an exact copy, and the database can be taken offline for a few moments. First, mark the source db as offline in the management console. Then, in windows explorer, make a copy of the data and log file. Put the source db back online. Rename the copies to your desired new database name. https://www.x50.com/2009/02/26/field-concatentation-via-a-user-defined-function-in-sql/ Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:16:01 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2009/02/26/field-concatentation-via-a-user-defined-function-in-sql/ I always have a preference for doing as much processing in SQL as possible. In this scenario, I needed to get the address out of a database in one line. The data was stored in multiple fields (one per line), some of which may be empty or null. create FUNCTION [dbo].[udf_concat_fields] (@add1 varchar(255), @add2 varchar(255)) RETURNS varchar(512) AS BEGIN declare @catadd varchar(512) set @catadd = case isnull(@add1, '') when '' then '' else @add1 + ', ' end + case isnull(@add2, '') when '' then '' else @add2 end if (right(@catadd, 2) = ', ') set @catadd = left(@catadd, len(@catadd)-1) --clean out unnecessary commas at end of the line return (@catadd) END The function can then be called recursively https://www.x50.com/2008/11/06/geocoding-101-in-sql/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:46:49 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2008/11/06/geocoding-101-in-sql/ Ok - lets play a game called “imagine” for a bit. Lets imagine you have a database called Postcodes with a table called tblPostcodes which has a list (a very big one) of all the postcodes in the UK with their corresponding eastings and northings. Now you can do some fun stuff like work out how far the addresses in your database are from a specified postcode… Lets setup some variables. https://www.x50.com/2008/10/03/a-cursory-look-at-word-counting-in-sql/ Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:52:23 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2008/10/03/a-cursory-look-at-word-counting-in-sql/ One of the (many) things that I do is various ad-hoc statistical reports on data in SQL databases, so I’m forever churning out weird little SQL routines and cursors with the hope of extracting meaning from data. Here’s a handy little number I put together just recently which counts the number of words in a field in a table. Words are counted individually (the delimiter inside a field is a space). https://www.x50.com/2008/09/07/8/ Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:03:00 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2008/09/07/8/ It seems like the last couple of months I’ve been doing nothing but data cleaning and transformations. As a result, I’ve been having to create all kinds of strange temporary functions to manipulate data to extract the required information. Particularly, date transformations. Of course, different installations of SQL Server (not to mention different database systems) handle dates in different ways - so it’s been important to handle them consistently. This little bit of T-SQL has been very useful in that regard… https://www.x50.com/2008/04/13/binding-a-multidimensional-array-to-the-datagridview-control-programmatically/ Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:21:08 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2008/04/13/binding-a-multidimensional-array-to-the-datagridview-control-programmatically/ Another day, another puzzle. This time, binding a multidimensional array to a Data Grid View Control. Ok, so it would be a lot simpler to just bind the data source directly to the control, but in this case I had to make a fair few tricky transformations to the data. Long story short - how do I dump my data into the grid view control at run time? The solution provided here proved perfect. https://www.x50.com/2008/02/29/the-hidden-viewstate-field-deleting-it-and-exporting-a-gridview-to-excel/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:27:33 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2008/02/29/the-hidden-viewstate-field-deleting-it-and-exporting-a-gridview-to-excel/ So why would you want to get rid of the html hidden viewstate field from your aspx files? My reason was that I was using the gridview control on a page and changing the response.content to excel Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel" to act as quick data extract into a spreadsheet - messy but it works, at least it did in classic ASP. Moving to ASP.NET and adding a form and gridview control drops in the __VIEWSTATE form field which then ends up in the first row of the spreadsheet. https://www.x50.com/2007/12/21/howto-thunderbird-ms-exchange-server-download-squad/ Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:59:18 +0000 https://www.x50.com/2007/12/21/howto-thunderbird-ms-exchange-server-download-squad/ Having had some problems with Outlook working with IMAP mail stores, and having a few computers needing setup quickly, and facing a lack of valid licenses - it seemed an ideal time to have a quick look around for alternatives. And its interesting to see Thunderbird being adopted in the corporate environment. This article being the inspiration for my trial… HowTo: Thunderbird & MS Exchange Server - Download Squad “It is now possible to use Thunderbird at home and work and still get all of your exchange server email as well as your company’s Global Address Book.