Prakash Samariya - IT Professional

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2011-01-05T18:44:00.001+05:30

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About Swine Flu (H1N1 - Influenza)

2009-08-13T12:12:00.001+05:30

What are the symptoms?

Swine flu symptoms are similar to the symptoms of regular flu and include fever of over 100.4°F, fatigue, lack of appetite, and cold. Some people with swine flu have also reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Nearly everyone with flu has at least two of these symptoms.

So, how do you know if you have flu or just cold?
There is one clue: when you have the flu, you feel flu symptoms sooner than you would cold symptoms, and they come on with much greater intensity. With the flu, you may feel very weak and fatigued for up to 2 or 3 weeks. You'll have muscle aches and periods of chills and sweats as fever comes and goes. You may also have a stuffy or runny nose, headache, and sore throat.

Can I compare flu symptoms with cold symptoms?
Yes. The following chart can help you compare flu symptoms with cold symptoms. Use it to lean the differences and similarities between flu and cold symptoms. Then, if you get flu symptoms, call your doctor and ask about an antiviral drug.

Symptoms	Cold	Flu
Fever	Rare	Characteristic, high 100-102 degrees F); lasts 3-4 days
Headache	Rare	Prominent
General aches, pains	Slight	Usual; often severe
Fatigue, Weakness	Quite mild	Can last up to 2-3 weeks
Extreme Exhaustion	Never	Early and prominent
Stuffy Nose	Common	Sometimes
Chest Discomfort,Cough	Mild to moderate; hacking cough	Common; can become severe

You cannot confirm if you have swine flu just based on your symptoms. Like seasonal flu, pandemic swine flu can cause neurologic symptoms in children. These events are rare, but, as cases associated with seasonal flu have shown, they can be very severe and often fatal.

Doctors may offer a rapid flu test, but what you need to understand is a negative result doesn't necessarily mean you don't have the flu. Only lab tests can definitively show whether you've got swine flu. State health departments can do these tests.

Source: WebMD

What should you do immediately?

Those of you who have travelled from the affected countries in the past ten days and show symptoms swine flu like fever, cough, sore throat and difficulty in breathing should immediately contact the telephone number given below or visit the nearby Government Hospital.

Important contact numbers:
Outbreak Monitoring Cell (Control Room, NICD): 011-23921401

Websites: www.mohfw.nic.in and www.nicd.nic.in
You can also contact a toll free number 2392 1401 at the National Institute of Communicable Disease

Contact number for each cities:
Bangalore
BIAL Swine Flu Center - 91-80-22001490

SDS TUBERCULOSIS & RAJIV GANDHI INSTITUTE OF CHEST DISEASES(Govt. of Karnataka), Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560029
Helpline No: 91-80-26631923

Chennai
Communicable Disease Hospital, 87, T.H. Road, Tondiarpet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Hyderabad
Govt. General and Chest Diseases Hospital, Erragadda , Hyderabad
Hospital Helpline Number - 040-23814939

Kolkata
Beliaghata Infectious Diseases Hospital, 57, Beliaghata Main Road, Kolkata

Mumbai
Kasturba Hospital, Arthur Road, Sane Guruji Marg, Mumbai 400011
Ph: 022- 23083901 / 23092458 / 23000889

New Delhi
Yellow Fever Quarantine Centre, Near AAI Residential Colony, New Delhi
Ph: 91-11-25652129

Influenza Ward, Ward no 5, Second Floor, New Building, RML Hospital, Delhi-1
RML- 91-11-24525211,23404328,23365525- Ext 4328

Source: Swine Flu India website

Click Here for Other More Info & Downloads on Swine Flu

Who is at risk?

Those who are more at risk from becoming seriously ill with swine flu are people with:

chronic (long-term) lung disease, including people who have had drug treatment for their asthma within the past three years,
chronic heart disease,
chronic kidney disease,
chronic liver disease,
chronic neurological disease (neurological disorders include motor neurone disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis),
suppressed immune systems (whether caused by disease or treatment),
diabetes,
pregnant women,
people aged 65 or older, and
young children under five.

Source: National Health Service, UK website

How does it spread?

The new swine flu virus is highly contagious, that is it spreads from person to person. The virus is spread through the droplets that come out of the nose or mouth when someone coughs or sneezes. If someone coughs or sneezes and they do not cover it, those droplets can spread about one metre (3ft). If you are very nearby you might breathe them in.

Or, if someone coughs or sneezes into their hand, those droplets and the virus within them are easily transferred to surfaces that the person touches, such as door handles, hand rails, telephones and keyboards. If you touch these surfaces and touch your face, the virus can enter your system, and you can become infected.

Source: National Health Service, UK website

Can it be prevented?

Influenza antiviral drugs also can be used to prevent influenza when they are given to a person who is not ill, but who has been or may be near a person with swine influenza. When used to prevent the flu, antiviral drugs are about 70% to 90% effective. When used for prevention, the number of days that they should be used will vary depending on a person's particular situation.

Follow this general procedure to reduce the risk of catching or spreading the virus, you should:

Cover your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, using a tissue
Throw the tissue away quickly and carefully
Wash your hands regularly with soap and water
Clean hard surfaces (like door handles and remote controls) frequently with a normal cleaning product
Keep away from others as much as possible. This is to keep from making others sick. Do not go to work or school while ill
Stay home for at least 24 hours after fever is gone, except to seek medical care or for other necessities. (Fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)
Drink clear fluids (such as water, broth, sports drinks, electrolyte beverages for infants) to keep from being dehydrated
Wear a facemask – if available and tolerable – when sharing common spaces with other household members to help prevent spreading the virus to others.

Source: CDC, National Health Service, UK website

Will it help to wear a mask?

Information on the effectiveness of facemasks and respirators for decreasing the risk of influenza infection in community settings is extremely limited. So, it is difficult to assess their potential effectiveness in decreasing the risk of Swine Flu virus transmission in these settings. However, a well-fitted, FDA-approved mask together with other preventive measures MAY reduce the risk of contracting the flu. Those who are sick or caring for someone who is ill should consider using a mask or respirator if leaving the house becomes necessary.

Source: CDC

What precautions should one take at home?

Two things - soap and water can reduce the chance of infection by 30 per cent. All you need to do is keep washing your hand with soap and water frequently. Wash hands frequently with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand cleaner when soap and water are not available. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth

Eat healthy: Proteins are essential to help your body maintain and build strength. Lean meat, poultry, fish, legumes, dairy, eggs, and nuts and seeds are good sources of protein.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends that adults eat 50 grams of protein per day. Pregnant and nursing women need more. By eating foods high in protein, we also get the benefit of other healing nutrients such as vitamins B6 and B12, both of which contribute to a healthy immune system.

Vitamin B6 is widely available in foods, including protein foods such as turkey and beans as well as potatoes, spinach, and enriched cereal grains. Proteins such as meats, milk, and fish also contain vitamin B12, a powerful immune booster.

Minerals such as selenium and zinc work to keep the immune system strong. These minerals are found in protein rich foods such as beans, nuts, meat, and poultry.

Exercise: Regular exercise may help prevent the flu. According to recent findings, when moderate exercise is repeated on a near daily basis, there is a cumulative immune-enhancing effect. That is, your strong immune system can fight flu better. When you exercise, your white blood cells -- the blood cells that fight infections in the body -- travel through your body more quickly, fighting bacteria and viruses (such as flu) more efficiently. To maintain good health, experts recommend at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity such as walking, swimming, biking, or running each day.

Source: Flu India website, CDC, WebMD

What precautions should one take at schools?

Avoid close contact with people who are sick
People who are sick with an influenza-like illness should stay home and keep away from others as much as possible, including avoiding travel, for at least 24 hours after fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Fever should be gone without the use of fever-reducing medicine). Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing
Wash your hands often
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth

Source: CDC

Is it safe to travel?

Avoid traveling unnecessarily. However, if you must travel, check how the country you're going to handles swine flu. Although, the WHO doesn't recommend travel restrictions, many countries have set up their own H1N1 policies, and some travelers have been screened or quarantined in other countries because of swine flu concerns.

Source: WebMD.com

Very Important for Every PC USER

2009-08-11T18:41:00.000+05:30

During a recent visit to an optician, one of my friends was told of an exercise for the eyes by a specialist doctor that he termed as 20-20-20 ." It is apt for all of us, who spend long hours at our desks, looking at the computer screen. I Thought I'd share it with you. 20-20-20

Step I :-
After every 20 minutes of looking into the computer screen, turn your head and try to look at any object placed at least 20 feet away. This changes the focal length of your eyes, a must-do for the tired eyes.

Step II :-
Try and blink your eyes for 20 times in succession, to moisten them.

Step III :-
Time permitting of course, one should walk 20 paces after every 20 minutes of sitting in one particular posture. Helps blood circulation for the entire body.

FAQ - Swine Flu (H1N1 Virus Influenza)

2009-08-11T18:07:00.001+05:30

What can I do to protect myself from catching influenza A(H1N1)?
The main route of transmission of the new influenza A(H1N1) virus seems to be similar to seasonal influenza, via droplets that are expelled by speaking, sneezing or coughing. You can prevent getting infected by avoiding close contact with people who show influenza-like symptoms (trying to maintain a distance of about 1 meter if possible) and taking the following measures:

avoid touching your mouth and nose;
clean hands thoroughly with soap and water, or cleanse them with an alcohol-based hand rub on a regular basis (especially if touching the mouth and nose, or surfaces that are potentially contaminated);
avoid close contact with people who might be ill;
reduce the time spent in crowded settings if possible;
improve airflow in your living space by opening windows;
practise good health habits including adequate sleep, eating nutritious food, and keeping physically active.

What about using a mask? What does WHO recommend?
If you are not sick you do not have to wear a mask.
If you are caring for a sick person, you can wear a mask when you are in close contact with the ill person and dispose of it immediately after contact, and cleanse your hands thoroughly afterwards.
If you are sick and must travel or be around others, cover your mouth and nose.
Using a mask correctly in all situations is essential. Incorrect use actually increases the chance of spreading infection.

How do I know if I have influenza A(H1N1)?
You will not be able to tell the difference between seasonal flu and influenza A(H1N1) without medical help. Typical symptoms to watch for are similar to seasonal viruses and include fever, cough, headache, body aches, sore throat and runny nose. Only your medical practitioner and local health authority can confirm a case of influenza A(H1N1).

What should I do if I think I have the illness?
If you feel unwell, have high fever, cough or sore throat:

stay at home and keep away from work, school or crowds;
rest and take plenty of fluids;
cover your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing and, if using tissues, make sure you dispose of them carefully. Clean your hands immediately after with soap and water or cleanse them with an alcohol-based hand rub;
if you do not have a tissue close by when you cough or sneeze, cover your mouth as much as possible with the crook of your elbow;
use a mask to help you contain the spread of droplets when you are around others, but be sure to do so correctly;
inform family and friends about your illness and try to avoid contact with other people;
If possible, contact a health professional before traveling to a health facility to discuss whether a medical examination is necessary.

Should I take an antiviral now just in case I catch the new virus?
No. You should only take an antiviral, such as oseltamivir or zanamivir, if your health care provider advises you to do so. Individuals should not buy medicines to prevent or fight this new influenza without a prescription, and they should exercise caution in buying antivirals over the Internet.

What about breastfeeding? Should I stop if I am ill?
No, not unless your health care provider advises it. Studies on other influenza infections show that breastfeeding is most likely protective for babies - it passes on helpful maternal immunities and lowers the risk of respiratory disease. Breastfeeding provides the best overall nutrition for babies and increases their defense factors to fight illness.

When should someone seek medical care?
A person should seek medical care if they experience shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, or if a fever continues more than three days. For parents with a young child who is ill, seek medical care if a child has fast or labored breathing, continuing fever or convulsions (seizures).

Supportive care at home - resting, drinking plenty of fluids and using a pain reliever for aches - is adequate for recovery in most cases. (A non-aspirin pain reliever should be used by children and young adults because of the risk of Reye's syndrome.)

Should I go to work if I have the flu but am feeling OK?
No. Whether you have influenza A(H1N1) or a seasonal influenza, you should stay home and away from work through the duration of your symptoms. This is a precaution that can protect your work colleagues and others.

Can I travel?
If you are feeling unwell or have symptoms of influenza, you should not travel. If you have any doubts about your health, you should check with your health care provider.

Swine Flu and Tulsi

2009-08-11T18:03:00.001+05:30

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Wonder herb Tulsi can not only keep the dreaded swine flu at bay but also help in fast recovery of an afflicted person, Ayurvedic practitioners claim.

"The anti-flu property of Tulsi has been discovered by medical experts across the world quite recently. Tulsi improves the body's overall defense mechanism including its ability to fight viral diseases. It was successfully used in combating Japanese Encephalitis and the same theory applies to swine flu," Dr U K Tiwari, a herbal medicine practitioner says. Apart from acting as a preventive medicine in case of swine flu, Tulsi can help the patient recover faster.

"Even when a person has already contracted swine flu, Tulsi can help in speeding up the recovery process and also help in strengthening the immune system of the body," he claims. Dr Bhupesh Patel, a lecturer at Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar is also of the view that Tulsi can play an important role in controlling swine flu.

"Tulsi can control swine flu and it should be taken in fresh form. Juice or paste of at least 20-25 medium sized leaves should be consumed twice a day on an empty stomach."

"This increases the resistance of the body and, thereby, reduces the chances of inviting swine flu," believes Patel. When asked as to what extent Tulsi should be used in treating swine flu, the lecturer said, "It all depends upon the intensity of the disease. And the dose is administered accordingly." Dr Narendra Singh, who worked with the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the erstwhile King George Medical College, Lucknow, also believes that Tulsi can help in containing swine flu.

"Three varieties of Tulsi leaves - Krishna (Ocimum sanctum), Vana (Ocimum gratissimum) and Katuki (Picrorriza kurroa) improve cell mediated immunity. These are anti-viral agents and improve body's resistance against various diseases including swine flu," he said.

Moreover, the practitioners said taking Tulsi is safe as it has no side effects and can be taken along with other medicines.

Very Important Note: Despite everything claim, It is advisable to remain under medical supervision of a qualified and experienced Doctor/Hospital.

MOZILLA FIREFOX KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

2009-07-31T12:08:00.001+05:30

How to navigate the internet at lightning speed

Mozilla Firefox is a great browser, but one of its greatest features is one that few people bother to use - keyboard shortcuts. Spending just a few minutes learning the most common shortcuts can greatly increase the speed at which you browse web pages.

Entering URLs

To go to http://www.google.com, for example, press Ctrl+L, type "google," and then press Ctrl+Enter.

Action	Shortcut
Location Bar	Ctrl+L
Automatic .com Address	Ctrl+Enter
Automatic .net Address	Shift+Enter
Automatic .org Address	Ctrl+Shift+Enter

Basic Navigation

You can access each of the navigation toolbar commands using keyboard shortcuts. They are listed below in the order in which they appear on the toolbar.

Action	Shortcut
Previous Page	Alt+Left
Next Page	Alt+Right
Refresh Page	Ctrl+R
Home	Alt+Home
Stop	Esc
Location Bar	Ctrl+L
Bookmark Current Page	Ctrl+D
Search Engine	Ctrl+K

Tabbed Browsing

In order to open a new (blank) tab, press Ctrl+T. To close a tab, press Ctrl+W. If you closed a tab by mistake and would like to recover it, press Ctrl+Shift+T.

If you are entering an address in the location bar, and would like to open it in a new tab, press Alt+Enter (or Alt plus any of the three combinations listed in the "Entering URLs" section). If you are browsing a page and see a link you would like to open in a new tab, hold Ctrl while clicking the link with your mouse (Ctrl+Click), press Ctrl+Enter after you Tab onto the link, or middle click the link. (Doing each of these will open the link in the background. In order to open the link in the foreground, also hold Shift during each of these shortcuts.)

If you have multiple tabs, you can directly access the first tab using Ctrl+1, the second tab using Ctrl+2, and so on up to Ctrl+8 (Ctrl+9 takes you to the last tab, regardless of its number). To move from one tab to the next, or one tab to the previous, press Ctrl+PageUp or Ctrl+PageDown.

Finally, to start a whole new group of tabs (that is, a new window), press Ctrl+N.

Action	Shortcut
New Tab	Ctrl+T
Close Tab	Ctrl+W
Recover Closed Tab	Ctrl+Shift+T
Open Address in New Tab	Alt+Enter
Open Link in New Tab (Background)	Ctrl+Click Ctrl+Enter MiddleClick
Open Link in New Tab (Foreground)	Ctrl+Shift+Click Ctrl+Shift+Enter Shift+MiddleClick
Select Tab	Ctrl+(1 to 8)
Select Last Tab	Ctrl+9
Next Tab	Ctrl+PageDown
Previous Tab	Ctrl+PageUp
New Window	Ctrl+N

Searching Page Text

To find a specific word or phrase in the text of a page, press Ctrl+F. To use the various search commands listed in the search bar, such as to find the "Next" instance of the word, press Alt and the letter underlined in the corresponding command. In the case of "Next" word, it would be Alt+N.

Action	Shortcut
Find	Ctrl+F
Next Result	Alt+N
Previous Result	Alt+P
Highlight All	Alt+A
Match Case	Alt+C

Miscellaneous

Action	Shortcut
Bookmarks	Ctrl+B
History	Ctrl+H
Downloads	Ctrl+J
Zoom In	Ctrl++
Zoom Out	Ctrl+-
Reset Zoom	Ctrl+0
Full Screen	F11
Advance to Next Link	Tab
Help	F1

Notes

This list is not exhaustive because I've omitted, for brevity, most of the obvious shortcuts (e.g., PageDown), redundant shortcuts (e.g., Alt+D), and esoteric shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+D).

These shortcuts work in both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 for both Windows and Linux. (However, there do exist shortcuts which will only work in one version or operating system.) Most of these shortcuts will work in Mac OS after substituting Cmd for Ctrl, Option for Alt, and Return for Enter.

For a more complete list of shortcuts, see the official Mozilla website.

How to Transfer Mails from one Email Account to another for Free

2009-07-01T13:42:00.000+05:30

There can be several reasons why you may want to switch email service providers.

Reason #1. Your existing email address gets too much spam so you plan to dump the old account and switch to a new email address (a form of email bankruptcy).

Reason #2. You are leaving your existing job for higher studies and need to transfer all personal emails from the Microsoft Exchange server to your new university email account.

Reason #3. Your ISP's email service isn't reliable and you therefore plan to move to a free web based email service like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, etc.

Reason #4. You think the new email service from XYZ Inc. offers more features than your existing mail provider and hence want to make the move.

Moving Emails from One Account to Another

This illustration will help you visualize how to transfer email messages across the three most popular web email services. The transfer will happen online and you just need to specify the credentials (user name & password) of your old email account (from where you want to move message out) and your new email address (where you want to move messages in).

Moving to Windows Live Hotmail

Windows Live Hotmail is integrated with TrueSwitch so you can easily transfer emails from Yahoo Mail, AOL, Gmail, Live.com, .Mac, etc. to your shiny new Hotmail address. The same service may also be used for copying old email from an existing Hotmail account to a new Hotmail address.

Moving to Yahoo Mail

Like Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail too provides integration with TrueSwitch so you can easy copy mails from Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, Juno, Rocket Mail, etc. into your Yahoo! account. With TrueSwitch, you can also copy mails from one Yahoo! inbox to another without upgrading to Yahoo! Mail Plus.

Moving to Gmail / Google Apps

Gmail (or Google Apps for Email) has a built-in Mail Fetcher feature that lets you download email messages from 5 different email accounts that support POP access. You may therefore use this feature to move your old Hotmail or AOL messages into Gmail as both these service provide free POP3 access.

The migration from Yahoo! Mail to Gmail is slightly tricky but possible. Keep reading.

Trick: Move emails from Yahoo Mail to Gmail or Outlook without POP

The free account of Yahoo Mail doesn't provide IMAP or POP3 access so you can't move these emails into Gmail or a desktop client like Microsoft Outlook.

The Yahoo! Mail Plus upgrade will add POP3 access to you account at $20 per year but if you want to save some money, here's an alternate but simple trick:

1. Create a new account at Windows Live Hotmail and fetch all your Yahoo! mails into this account using the free TrueSwitch Service.

2. Now that your mails are inside Hotmail, you can setup POP3 configuration to fetch those Yahoo messages into Gmail via Hotmail.

Migrating Emails Away from your ISP Account

TrueSwitch mentioned above supports all popular ISPs including Comcast, Verizon, CableVision, AT&T, etc. but if your ISP is not in the list and you don't have the time to configure your email client for POP3 or IMAP access, check out Yippie Move.

It's a online email transfer service similar to TrueSwitch but supports an even larger number of email service providers including the .edu addresses of certain colleges and universities in US. With YippieMove, you can choose folders (or labels in Gmail) that you want to copy to the new location without having to move the entire mailbox. The service is quick and easy but costs around $15 per email account.

Copying emails from Microsoft Exchange / Outlook

Every organization has a different policy with respect to corporate email so check with the administration if your Exchange service offers POP3 or IMAP access - if yes, you can easily transfer messages into any of the free web mail accounts directly as listed above. Also see these guides:

Email Transfer Complete? The Next Step

Now that all your message have moved to your new email address, you can set up a vacation responder in your old email account to auto-inform contacts about your new email address. Also check this guide on how to manage multiple email addresses.

An SEO Checklist for your Website

2009-07-01T13:38:00.001+05:30

Adam Lasnik, along with members of the Search Quality team at Google, picked up a couple of audience websites and reviewed them live to provide feedback that will help these sites become more accessible and ultimately improve visibility in search engines.

Following are the key areas of a website that were examined during the Site Clinic for potential issue and you too can follow this simple checklist to improve upon your own site or blog.

1. If there are pull-down menus on your website, they should be accessible even without JavaScript - this is all the more important because a lot of mobile phone browsers either don't support JavaScript and have that disabled so save on data costs.

2. The contact information on your website should be available in plain text and always provide a link from the home page.

3. Make sure a robots.txt file exists on the root directory.

4. The logo image of your site should have proper ALT text - good for graphic accessibility as well as search.

5. Always check for URL canonicalization else you may splitting your PageRank across different pages and this may also lead to tracking issues in Google Analytics. Here's how to check for canonicalization:

5a. Type your domain with and without www and both links should point to the same URL. So http://labnol.org and http://www.labnol.org will both redirect to http://www.labnol.org/

5b. If you have index.html, index.html and index.php pages on the server, they too should redirect to your preferred domain.

6. Run a query like site:abc.com Viagra to make sure that hackers have not inserted spam links in your content.

7. Always have different feeds for different topics. So if you have a blog, you can have individual feeds for all the categories.

8. Comment moderation in blogs is very essential because if too many comments on a site end up linking to bad neighborhoods, Google may have problems with your site.

9. Google (probably) doesn't use META description tags for determining organic ranks but it does read this information to know what a page is all about.

10. Adam recommended the following TITLE structure - "Page Title - Category - Site Name"

11. Use the site: and intitle: operator in Google to determine that all web pages on your site have your company name. This is because when people bookmark your pages in the browser or social sites, the title of your site will also be added to the bookmark.

12. Don't repeat keywords and synonyms in your content.

13. The URL structure doesn't matter from the perspective of search but clean URLs can give users a clue about the target landing page and hence may get more clicks in search results.

14. If doesn't matter if have categories or directory names in URLs - just make sure that you follow a consistent URL structure across the website.

15. Don't use the same images across multiple pages of your site. You should consider including targeted pictures that are very relevant to the content of the page where you are embedding them.

16. Use the Enhance 404 Widget in Google Webmaster Tools to embed a search box on your 404 pages.

17. Don't do a soft 404 as it might penalize your site in Google.

You can easily check this by observing the HTTP headers. Install Firebug in Firefox, type a URL that points to some non-existent page of your site (e.g. labnol.org/abc.html) and see the response code - it should always say 404 Not Found and not 200 OK or something similar.

18. Always block pages (via robots.txt) from Google that contain search results as users don't want to see another search page in Google search results and this may even invite a penalty.

19. Good links are like votes. They are given consciously.

Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English (Presentations)

2009-07-01T12:34:00.001+05:30

This slide neatly sums up the main differences between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.

Web 1.0 - That Geocities & Hotmail era was all about read-only content and static HTML websites. People preferred navigating the web through link directories of Yahoo! and dmoz.

Web 2.0 - This is about user-generated content and the read-write web. People are consuming as well as contributing information through blogs or sites like Flickr, YouTube, Digg, etc. The line dividing a consumer and content publisher is increasingly getting blurred in the Web 2.0 era.

Web 3.0 - This will be about semantic web (or the meaning of data), personalization (e.g. iGoogle), intelligent search and behavioral advertising among other things.

If that sounds confusing, check out some of these excellent presentations that help you understand Web 3.0 in simple English. Each takes a different approach to explain Web 3.0 and the last presentation uses an example of a "postage stamp" to explain the "semantic web".

FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

Edit Google Documents Directly in Microsoft Office & Save Your Changes Online

2009-07-01T12:16:00.001+05:30

Oudi Antebi, a former marketing manager at Microsoft, has developed an awesome plug-in that turns your copy of Microsoft Office into an offline Google Docs editor. You can save your Office documents directly to Google Docs or directly open your online documents in Microsoft Office programs for reading and writing.

Here's a quick tour on how you can integrate Google Docs with Microsoft Office via Offisync.

Step 1: The plugin adds a new toolbar to your Microsoft Office suite of applications (both Office 2003 & Office 2007 are supported). You can then log-in to either Google Docs or your Google Apps Account or both.

Step 2: Once logged-in, you can browse through the list of your existing Google Docs documents from within Microsoft Office as if you were browsing files stored on the local file system.

The plugin implements some sort of a filter so you will only see .doc files inside Word, .xls inside Excel and ppt presentations inside PowerPoint. If you have too may documents in the root folder of Google Docs, you can use the built-in search function to limit that document list to a small set.

Step 3: Now click the document name in Google Docs to open that file in the corresponding Microsoft Office application. A limitation is that you can't download multiple documents from Google Docs in one go.

Step 4: If you are editing an existing Google Docs document in Office or need to upload a new document from Microsoft Office to your Google Docs account, simply hit the "Save" button and the modified copy of the document will be saved to your online Google account.

Another advantage is that you can share Google Docs documents with multiple people right from Microsoft Office. Just specify the email addresses of your contacts along with permissions (read-only or read-write).

It can't get easier than this. And since Google Docs now supports the new Open XML format, you can also save Office 2007 format files (pptx, docs, xlsx) via the same plugin.

Office Live Workspaces will also be integrated with Microsoft Office 2010 but until that is released, this plugin is a great choice. Also check this detailed Google Docs Guide for more tips and tricks.

Know What People Are Saying about a Web Page

2009-07-01T12:15:00.001+05:30

If you want to know what people are currently saying about any web page on the Internet, you can either copy-paste the link (URL) of that page in a blog search engine like Technorati or, if you need something more instant, try any of the following bookmarklets.

These bookmarklets will help you know which other sites are linking to the web page that you're viewing and the best part is that you don't have leave the page that you're on.

See what others are saying about a web page

ConvoTrack This! - This bookmarklet will pull posts from Digg, Twitter, FriendFeed, Reddit, Hacker News and any other blog that mentions the article and the reaction will load it in neat sidebar.

Convotrack provides a permalink to every URL (see example) but if you don't want to install bookmarklets, simply prepend "http://convotrack.com/" to any web page URL and the conversations will still appear in the sidebar (see example).

Bit.ly This! While bit.ly is a URL shortening service, their sidebar bookmarklet can do much more that shorten lengthy links.

Bit.ly will show you conversations from Twitter, FriendFeed and blog comments that reference the page you're currently on. You can also share the short link of that page page through Twitter, Facebook or email from the Sidebar itself.

TBuzz This! Unlike the previous bookmarklets that track reactions from multiple sources, TBuzz (short for Twitter Buzz) is limited to tracking mentions on Twitter only but the advantage here is that it TBuzz doubles as a Twitter client as well.

TBuzz uses the OAuth protocol to log into Twitter so you don't have to share your password anywhere.

Microsoft is Getting Things Right This Time

2009-07-01T11:47:00.000+05:30

Geeks and some part of the tech world consider it cool to hate everything that comes out of the Microsoft campus. Let me share a few instances.

Microsoft develops Vista and the vocal crowd immediately dubs it a failed product although a majority of these people may have never used the software. Microsoft releases a new "I'm PC" ad campaign and that provides some more fodder to *nix nerds because the ad agency, who Microsoft hired to produce these ads, probably made them on a Mac. Microsoft adds instant messaging in Hotmail and blog headlines scream to suggest that Microsoft is doing this "ages after Google". These are the same people who get excited when Gmail adds a "delete" button though that thing has been present in Outlook since birth.

Anyway, it seems that the age-old trend to criticize everything "MSFT" is on the decline and that's because there are some things that have gone right for Microsoft in the consumer technology space in recent times:

1. The Laptop Hunter Ads - Their previous campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates got slammed but the new Laptop Hunter ads are proving very effective especially among the 18-34 year olds.

Apple did a great job of putting Microsoft on the defensive. It made them look old, stodgy, complicated to use and unhip. But Microsoft has started to hit back, and younger folks are more cost-focused. Microsoft's so-called value perception has risen steadily since the campaign began in March, while Apple's has fallen - Adage

2. Windows Internet Explorer 8 - IE 8 may not be enough to stop the rise of Firefox but some of it's unique features like Web Slices, Accelerators, InPrivate browsing and visual search suggestions have received positive attention.

Overall, Internet Explorer 8 is an impressive package, and while it lacks the raw speed of Chrome, the flashiness of Safari 4, and the extendibility of Firefox, it does offer reliability and some good features, which could be enough to win it some fans. It's certainly the best version of IE in a long time - ITPro

3. Windows 7 - Technically, Windows 7 may have lot of things in common with Windows Vista but it's better, faster and requires less resources.

In general, I have found Windows 7 a pleasure to use. There are a few drawbacks, but my preliminary verdict on Windows 7 is positive. Even in its preliminary form, Windows 7 looks very promising, and could well help expunge the bad reputation of Vista. - Walt Mossberg

For decades, Microsoft's primary strategy has been to put out something mediocre, and then refine, refine, refine, no matter how long and no matter what it costs, until it succeeds. That's what's exciting about the prospect of Windows 7. It's Windows Vista — with a whole heck of a lot of refinement. - David Pogue

4. Windows Live Mesh - This allows you to synchronize file and files across multiple devices include Windows PCs, Mac computers and mobile phones. It's one of our favorite web applications and others agree as well.

Live Mesh is both exciting and useful. It erases years of doubt about Microsoft's understanding of the computing industry and how it's changing. It proves that the company is no longer interested in simply milking its past successes. Most important, for users, it provides a hopeful glimpse at a future in which heterogeneous devices and environments will no longer be islands of functionality that are hard or impossible to connect - Paul Thurrott

5. Zune HD - The only advantage of having a Zune MP3 player vis-a-vis an Apple iPod is that the former device lets you tune in to FM radio on the go. That perception is likely to change with the launch of Zune HD that features a Wi-Fi enabled touch-screen browser and support for HD radio.

The thing kind of rocks. In your hand the Zune HD has a nice, solid feel, with good heft to it and a surprisingly thin profile. The OLED screen looks absolutely stunning — even at severe viewing angles, colors were super bright, edges were crisp, and text looked beautiful. While the OS isn't finished, we didn't notice a single hiccup while jumping through menus or playing back HD video - Engadget

6. Bing - Just when 60% of Internet users were feeling satisfied with their existing search engines, Microsoft rolled out Bing to take on Google (check out some Bing Tricks). Early reviews suggest that Bing has enough potential though it may not be a "google killer" yet.

A search engine with solid relevancy plus some new features that might hook a few of them into staying - Danny Sullivan

Bing is a solid improvement over the previous search product, and it beats Google in important areas. It will help Microsoft gain share in the search business. It's surprisingly competitive with Google - Rafe Needleman

7. Office Live Workspace - Enough has been written about the demise of "desktop software" at the hands of "web applications" but the immense popularity of solutions that bridge the online and offline world prove that people still prefer to have both choices.

Microsoft will add Office web applications to their Office Live Workspace service sometime later this year and that might give them an edge over Google Docs as existing Office users are more likely to prefer Office Live because integration between Office (on the desktop) and Office (in the cloud) would be much better.

8. Windows Live Skydrive - Other than Adobe (they have Acrobat.com), Microsoft is the only "Internet giant" that offers a free file hosting service on the web with plenty of storage.

AOL have closed their XDrive service, Yahoo! ~~never offered any online storage~~ closed Briefcase while rumors of Google GDrive have been circulating on the web for long but nothing concrete yet.

9. Xbox 360 & Project Natal

You have never seen anything like this before. Project Natal enables you to control and interact with Xbox 360 games through gestures, spoken commands, facial recognition and can even scan images of real objects or drawings made on paper.

Import Google Images into your Office Documents

2009-07-01T11:36:00.001+05:30

The Office Online website is an excellent resource to find high-resolution stock photographs, clip arts, GIF animations and other graphics that you can use in your PowerPoint presentations or Word Documents for free without having to worry about any licensing issues.

You can also search through this huge collection of images using the Insert -> Clip Art command available inside all Microsoft Office programs. These images can then be downloaded to the local hard-drive so you can quickly use them in other documents as well without having to search the Office Online site again.

The Microsoft gallery of images, though huge, looks miniscule when compared with Google Images which has a few billion images in its index (warning - not all images found via Google Image Search can be used in documents due to copyright issues).

However, if you limit your search to images that are either in the Public Domain or available under some sort of Creative Commons License, Google Images (or for that matter, any image search engine including Flickr) is a good place to find photographs and clip-arts for inserting in documents.

Offisync, a free plug-in that lets you open Google Documents in Microsoft Office, can now be used for importing images from Google Image Search into your Office files as well.

The image search feature of Offisync is pretty similar to the built-in Clip Art gallery search. Upon installation, Offisync will add a new Google Search option to your Office Toolbar - you can directly search for pictures and then insert any one of them into document or presentation that you are currently working on.

The plug-in won't add any attribution related information but it shows the URL of the page containing the original image so you copy-paste that information into the document manually.

While Offisync officially works only with Google Image Search, here's a simple tip that will help you search other photo websites via Offisync as well - use the site: operator with your search query.

For instance, if you want to limit your search to Flickr, use site:flickr.com <query> and it will only display pictures that are on Flickr. Use site:gov with the query to search for US Government photos that normally don't carry any restrictions.

Add Website Screenshots in Documents

Other than inserting images, you may also use the Offisync plug-in to add website screenshots into your documents or spreadsheets.

Use the web search feature to invoke the built-in web browser, type the full URL of the website in the Address bar (or use Google Search to find that website) and Clip. Drag the marquee around the area that you want to capture and hit the Insert button.

Related: How to Edit Clip Art in Office

Send SMS Text Messages from Your Computer to Any Mobile Phone With Outlook 2007 and Microsoft SMSOfficer

2009-07-01T11:34:00.001+05:30

With Microsoft Outlook 2007, you can easily send (or receive) SMS text messages from computer to any mobile phone - just write a new SMS text message (like the way you compose emails in Outlook) and hit Send.

Similarly, you can also forward emails, pending tasks and calendar items from Outlook to your mobile phone via SMS.

How to send SMS text messages from computer using Outlook 2007 ?

To SMS enable your copy of Microsoft Outlook 2007, first register your mobile phone number at SMSOfficer. This new service from Microsoft supports almost all cellular operators in US and other international countries including India.

You will soon get an SMS verification code on your mobile phone, confirm and the SMS feature is activated in your Outlook without you having to download any additional software - you will need to click on a configuration link which sets the entire configuration for you.

Forward Emails as SMS Text Messages

To compose an SMS message in Outlook, select New -> Text Message. Outlook is automatically set up to use the standard text message limit of 160 characters. If your message exceeds the 160 character limit, the extra characters are truncated and delivered as a separate text message.

There are no registration charges and you also get 10 SMS credits for free at the time of joining SMS Officer. Once you exhaust the free limit, you need to pay for using the Outlook SMS service - payment can be made via PayPal.

When the other person replies to your SMS message, it will arrive in your mobile phone. Am not sure if you can use Outlook 2007 to send bulk SMS messages - i.e., one SMS message addressed to multiple recipeints.

Resources: Microsoft SMS Officer, Microsoft Training, Ellen Adams

Disaster Recovery Procedures in SQL Server 2005 Part 1

2008-10-03T15:26:00.001+05:30

Problem
SQL Server 2005 has given us a lot of options on implementing high availability and disaster recovery. More than the technologies themselves, it is important to come up with the proper procedures as we manage different disaster recovery scenarios. How do we come up with procedures for various SQL Server disaster recovery scenarios?

Solution
This series of articles will look at different disaster recovery scenarios and the procedures involved in your recovery plan. When considering disaster recovery options for your SQL Server 2005 database, you should include as many technologies as you can so you'll have a pool of options to choose from if a disaster arises. While having these technologies prove to be important, it is the process that goes with it that makes it effective. For this article, let's take a simple scenario where a user accidentally dropped or truncated a table about 5 hours after a database backup was taken. Restoring from a database backup would mean losing 5 hours worth of data. And for most companies, they would rather opt for loss of time than loss of data. Plus, if this was a very large database, it would take quite some time to recover and bring it online. We'll take this scenario to build a procedural approach to recover the database as quickly as possible while minimizing data loss. We will use the Northwind database to demonstrate the process. Remember to change Northwind's database recovery model to FULL before working through the steps below.

1) Make sure you have a very good backup

For the scenario above, let's say you have a daily backup running at 6:00 AM and there are no database snapshots created on a regular basis. Your database is configured to use a single MDF and LDF file, which is not quite right for disaster recovery. Let's generate a full database backup for our Northwind database which will be the starting point for database recovery. Here is that code:

USE master
GO
BACKUP DATABASE Northwind
   TO DISK = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindBackup.bak'
   WITH NAME = N'Full Database Backup', DESCRIPTION = 'Starting point for recovery',
    INIT, STATS = 10
GO

Looking at the Northwind database schema, you won't easily be able to drop theProducts, Orders and Customers table due to foreign key constraints defined by other tables like the Order Details table. But I bet you can easily drop the Order Detailstable. Let's simulate that disaster by dropping the table at around 11:00AM.

DROP TABLE [Order Details]

2) Contain the problem

Since the database only has a single MDF and LDF file, we couldn't do much. All we can do is take the database offline by setting it to restricted user mode

USE master
GO

ALTER DATABASE Northwind
SET RESTRICTED_USER
WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE
GO

This will effectively take the database offline, terminating all active connections. This is where the clock starts ticking and we need to take action. Keep in mind your RPO and RTO while proceeding with the next steps.

3) Backup the transaction log

A good DBA would know that the first thing to do when disaster strikes is to backup the transaction log - assuming that your database is set to FULL recovery model. This is to make sure you still have all the active transactions in the log since your last backup. In our scenario, since the last backup - FULL backup, in this case - occurred at 6:00AM.

BACKUP LOG Northwind
   TO DISK = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindBackupLog.trn'
   WITH NAME = N'Transaction Log Backup'
   , DESCRIPTION = 'Getting everything to current point in time.',
       STATS = 10
GO

4) Restore the database to a known good point-in-time

Now, any user who accidentally dropped a table or caused any damage on a database will not tell you immediately. Sometimes, you may have to dig it up for yourself but that would take quite a lot of time. Since we wanted to bring the database back online as fast as we can, let's just assume a "known good" point-in-time and leave the digging for a later time. In the script below, I have chosen to use 10:42AM in my STOPAT parameter as my "known good" point-in-time for demonstration purposes.

RESTORE DATABASE Northwind
FROM DISK = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindBackup.bak'
WITH NORECOVERY, RESTRICTED_USER
GO

RESTORE LOG Northwind
FROM DISK = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindBackupLog.trn'
WITH RESTRICTED_USER,
STOPAT = '2008-09-23 10:42:44.00', RECOVERY
-- use a "known good" point in time
GO

Although we have restored the database to a "known good" point-in-time, we don't really know how much data we've lost. We need to find out the exact time when the very lastINSERT statement occurred prior to the DROP TABLE statement so that we can recover as much data as we possibly can. But we don't want to do this directly on the server as we need to get the database back online as quickly as we can. This is where the succeeding steps would prove to be very valuable

You can validate whether the dropped table has been restored by running a query against it.

SELECT *
FROM Northwind.dbo.[Order Details]
GO

5) Create a snapshot of the restored point

We will create a database snapshot of the restored database for further processing. This database snapshot will be our reference in recovering data to the exact time prior to theDROP TABLE statement.

USE master
GO

CREATE DATABASE Northwind_RestorePointSnapshot
ON
( NAME = N'Northwind',
FILENAME = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindData_RestorePontSnapshot.snap')
AS SNAPSHOT OF [Northwind]
GO

Depending on the table schema, we can opt to leave it as it is, as what we will do for theOrder Details table, or do a few more tasks. If the table has an existing IDENTITYcolumn, we need to create a gap between the maximum value for our IDENTITY column and assumed number of rows which we need to recover. This, of course, will depend on the number of transactions that occur on the server. To identify the maximum value of the IDENTITY column, you can run the DBCC CHECKIDENT command as shown below:

DBCC CHECKIDENT ('tableName')
--Displays the number of rows you have for the restored table
GO

This will return the maximum value of the IDENTITY column. Let's say that the number of transactions on this table per day is around 4000 records, we can create a gap between the maximum value and the next value. If the maximum value for the IDENTITY column is25000, we need to add 4000 to it and run the DBCC CHECKIDENT command again with the RESEED parameter (we are simply assuming that you can recover the lost data within a day, thus, the value 400):

DBCC CHECKIDENT ('tableName', RESEED, 29000 )
--Creates a gap of for the IDENTITY column to start the next value at 29000
GO

6) Bring the database back online

Once you have managed to do that, change the database option to bring it online and allow users to connect back and run their applications.

USE master
GO

ALTER DATABASE Northwind
SET MULTI_USER
GO

Now the database is back online and the dropped table has been restored. Although everyone is happy by now, our job as a DBA does not stop here. Remember that we still need to recover the lost data from the "known good" point-in-time to the time before theDROP TABLE command was executed. That is the only way we can recover as much data as we can. Though there are a few third-party tools we can use to read the transaction log and recover the data by replaying those transactions back, most of us do not have the luxury of playing around with those tools. So our next best bet would be to use the RESTORE with STOPAT option. It's a bit tedious and sometimes very stressful as one mistake would plunge you back into repeating the entire process. All we need here is to find out the times we did our backups until the end of the tail (transaction log) backup. In our scenario, the last backup occurred at 6:00AM and your "known good" point-in-time is at 10:42.44AM. Therefore, you can start doing a RESTORE with the STOPAT option from 10:42.44AM and change the STOPAT time value to maybe a second. If you are not quite sure when the last backup occurred, you can always query theMSDB database.

SELECT     *
FROM msdb.dbo.backupset AS a
  INNER  JOIN msdb.dbo.backupmediafamily AS b
        ON a.media_set_id = b.media_set_id
WHERE database_name = 'Northwind'
ORDER BY backup_finish_date

Note the backup_finish_date and the type columns as this will give you an idea on the time you need to consider for your STOPAT value in your RESTORE command.

7) Restore another copy of the damaged database with a different name for investigation

Restoring another copy of the damaged database with a different name will allow us to work on the restoration of the data without worrying about the availability as we've already managed to bring up the production database. Just make sure you select a different name and database file location for the restored database or you'll end up damaging the already brought up database. We will just repeat what we did in step #4but with a twist - different name and database file location.

RESTORE DATABASE Northwind_recover
FROM DISK = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindBackup.bak'
WITH MOVE N'Northwind' TO N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindData_recover.mdf',
           MOVE N'Northwind_Log' TO N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindLog_recover.ldf',
           STANDBY = N'D:\DBBackup\Northwind_UNDO.bak',
           STATS = 10
GO

RESTORE LOG Northwind_recover
FROM DISK = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindBackupLog.trn'
WITH STANDBY = N'D:\DBBackup\Northwind_UNDO.bak',
           STATS = 10, STOPAT = '2008-09-23 10:42:44.00'
GO

Document the value of your STOPAT parameter as this will be the most critical parameter you'll ever work with during this process. Since we just repeated the process in step#4, we know for a fact that the DROP TABLE command has not been executed at this time.

8) Restore the transaction log by increasing the value of the STOPAT parameter

We run another RESTORE LOG command, increasing the STOPAT parameter value by a minute - from 10:42:44.00 to 10:43:44.00

RESTORE LOG Northwind_recover
FROM DISK = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindBackupLog.trn'
WITH STANDBY = N'D:\DBBackup\Northwind_UNDO.bak',
           STATS = 10, STOPAT = '2008-09-23 10:43:44.00'
GO

This is the part where it becomes iterative. Don't be frustrated at this point as it will be really tedious. You can increase the value by a minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes and document the time. Remember to run a test query on the dropped object after running the RESTORE LOG command. I would recommend creating a table for this activity that would look something like this.

TIME	OBJECT EXISTED?
10:43:44.00	YES
10:48:44.00	YES
10:58:44.00	YES
11:03:44.00	NO

With this information, you know for a fact that the table was dropped between10:58:44.00 to 11:03:44.00. You can repeat step #8 and increase the value of theSTOPAT parameter by a minute or even a second if you may since you already have a smaller interval to work with. If you find yourself overshooting the time value of theSTOPAT parameter, go back to step #7 armed with the tabular information you've documented in step #8, making the restore process a bit faster. Just remember to use the WITH RECOVERY option at the last RESTORE LOG statement like this

RESTORE LOG Northwind_recover
FROM DISK = N'D:\DBBackup\NorthwindBackupLog.trn'
WITH STATS = 10, STOPAT = '2008-09-23 11:01:44.00', RECOVERY
GO

Once you've managed to restore the database to the time before the DROP TABLEcommand was executed, you can now do a comparison between what was restored on the production database and what was recovered. You can do this in a number of different ways. Since we already have a database snapshot created earlier, we will use that together with the TableDiff utility. Although the tool was designed for replication, we can use it for disaster recovery as well. A previous tip on SQL Server 2005 tablediff command line utility can give you an overview on how to use this tool but just to highlight that your source database will be the one that you recovered and the destination database will be your database snapshot. This is where your database snapshot would prove to be very important especially if you are dealing with more than one object which is normally the case. If you are not comfortable with command-line utilities, a GUI version was created by the guys from SQLTeam.com. You might want to check that out as well and include it in your DBA toolbox

You can also do an INSERT/SELECT where you insert records on the production database based on a query on the recovered database. Since our Order Details table does not have an IDENTITY column, we can create our own by inserting the records in a temporary table and using the ROW_NUMBER() function:

--This inserts records in a temporary table and assigns a dummy identity value for reference
SELECT  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY OrderID) AS ROWID, *
INTO Northwind_recover.dbo.OrderDetailsRecover
FROM [Order Details]

--This inserts recovered records from the recovered database into the production database based on
--the dummy identity valuewe have assigned for reference
INSERT INTO Northwind.dbo.[Order Details] (OrderID,ProductId,UnitPrice,Quantity,Discount)
SELECT OrderID,ProductId,UnitPrice,Quantity,Discount
FROM Northwind_recover.dbo.OrderDetailsRecover
WHERE ROWID>
               (
                   SELECT COUNT(*)
                   FROM Northwind_RestorePointSnapShot.dbo.[Order Details]
               )

Notice that we used our database snapshot to identify the difference between what we managed to restore and what we have recovered.

Next Steps

It is important to have a disaster recovery plan in place and the procedures necessary for recovery. While it is impossible to come up with procedures for almost every type of disaster, it would help if you start listing the possible disasters that may happen and prepare a disaster recovery plan with procedures and document accordingly.
Simulate this particular process by going thru the steps outlined above.
You can download the Northwind database used in the sample here.

Using SQL Server datetime functions GETDATE, DATENAME and DATEPART

2008-10-03T15:25:00.001+05:30

Transact-SQL includes a set of functions that let you retrieve the current date and time or retrieve the individual parts of a DATETIME or SMALLDATETIME value. For example, you can extract the day, month or year from a datetime value, as well as the quarter, week, hour or even the millisecond. In this article, I describe each of these functions and provide examples that demonstrate how to use these functions to retrieve datetime data in SQL Server. Note that this article assumes that you have a working knowledge of T-SQL and the DATETIME and SMALLDATETIME data types. For more information about these types, see part one in this series, Basics for working with DATETIME and SMALLDATETIME in SQL Server 2005.

Retrieving the current date and time

One of the handiest datetime functions in T-SQL is GETDATE, which retrieves the current date and time based on the clock settings on the local system. To use GETDATE, simply call the function in your T-SQL statement without specifying any arguments, as in the following example:

SELECT GETDATE() AS [Current Date/Time]

In this case, I use GETDATE in the SELECT list to retrieve the date/time value. (Note that you must include the ending set of parentheses even if you don't pass in any arguments.) The statement returns results similar to the following:

Current Date/Time

2008-07-29 10:45:13.327

By default, the GETDATE function returns the datetime value in the format shown here. However, you can change the format of the results by using the CONVERT function. For information about using CONVERT, refer to part two in this tip.

Another Transact-SQL function that is just as easy to use is GETUTCDATE, which retrieves the current Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) -- also referred to as Greenwich Mean Time. The retrieved value is based on the clock and time zone settings on the local system. As you saw with GETDATE, you call GETUTCDATE within your Transact-SQL statement without including any arguments, as shown in the following example:

SELECT GETUTCDATE() AS [UTC Date/Time]

When you run this statement, you receive results similar to the following:

UTC Date/Time

2008-07-29 17:45:13.327

Notice that the time returned here is seven hours later than the time shown in the previous example. I ran both of these statements at the same time on a system configured for the Pacific time zone (during daylight savings time).

As you've seen in the last two examples, the functions are included within the SELECT list. However, the functions can be especially beneficial when using them to define a default value in your table definition. For example, the following three statements create the Orders table -- including a DATETIME column (OrderDate) -- insert data into the table and retrieve that data:

CREATE TABLE Orders
(
OrderID INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY,
Product VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
OrderAmt INT NOT NULL,
OrderDate DATETIME NOT NULL DEFAULT GETDATE()
)
GO
INSERT INTO Orders (Product, OrderAmt)
VALUES('Test Product', 12)
GO
SELECT * FROM Orders

The OrderDate column definition includes a DEFAULT clause that specifies GETDATE as the default value. As a result, when you insert a row into the table, the current date and time are automatically inserted into the column, as shown in the results returned by the SELECT statement:

OrderID	Product	OrderAmt	OrderDate
1	Test Product	12	2008-07-29 10:46:47.420

You can use the information as a timestamp in order to track when records are added and to assist in auditing the data, if necessary. This is also handy for other operations that use the timestamp when retrieving data. For example, an extract, transform and load (ETL) process might reference the timestamp when determining whether to extract or update data.

Retrieving the year, month or day

In some cases, you might want to retrieve the year, month or day from a DATETIME or SMALLDATETIME value. One approach is to use the YEAR, MONTH or DAY function to retrieve the necessary data (as an integer). The following SELECT statement is an example of how this works:

SELECT YEAR(PostTime) AS [Year],
MONTH(PostTime) AS [Month],
DAY(PostTime) AS [Day]
FROM DatabaseLog
WHERE DatabaseLogID = 1

The SELECT clause includes three column expressions. The first one uses the YEAR function to retrieve the year from the PostTime column in the DatabaseLog table (in the AdventureWorks sample database). When you call the YEAR function, you specify the column name (or other expression) as an argument to the function. The MONTH and DAY functions work the same way. The second column expression in the SELECT clause uses the MONTH function to retrieve the month from the PostTime column, and the third expression uses DAY to retrieve the day. The following results show you the type of information that the statement returns:

Year	Month	Day
2005	10	14

Each value is extracted from the PostTime column and returned as an integer. (The value stored in the table is 2005-10-14 01:58:27.567.)

These functions are an easy way to retrieve the year, month or day, but, in some cases, you might want more control over the type of values returned as well as the format of those values. In addition, you might want to extract the time from the date/time value. Fortunately, Transact-SQL supports functions that provide this type of functionality.

Retrieving parts of a date/time value

Like the YEAR, MONTH and DAY functions, the DATEPART function returns an integer representing a specific part of the date/time value. For example, the following SELECT statement returns the same results as the preceding example:

SELECT DATEPART(yy, PostTime) AS [Year],
DATEPART(mm, PostTime) AS [Month],
DATEPART(dd, PostTime) AS [Day]
FROM DatabaseLog
WHERE DatabaseLogID = 1

The first thing to note is that, when you call DATEPART, you specify two arguments. The first argument determines the date/time component to retrieve, and the second argument is the source column. For the first argument, you must use one of the supported abbreviations to specify the datetime part. The following table lists the date/time parts you can retrieve and the abbreviations you must use to retrieve those parts:

Date/time part	Abbreviations
year	yy, yyyy
quarter	qq, q
month	mm, m
day of year	dy, y
day	dd, d
week	wk, ww
weekday	dw
hour	hh
minute	mi, n
second	ss, s
millisecond	ms

For some datetime parts, more than one abbreviation is supported. For example, you can use "yy" or "yyyy" as your first DATEPART argument to retrieve the year from the date/time value. Notice that the table includes abbreviations for date/time parts other than year, month or day. In other words, you can retrieve the quarter, the day of the year, the week of the year, and the weekday as shown in the following SELECT statement:

SELECT DATEPART(qq, PostTime) AS [Quarter],
DATEPART(dy, PostTime) AS [DayOfYear],
DATEPART(wk, PostTime) AS [Week],
DATEPART(dw, PostTime) AS [Weekday]
FROM DatabaseLog
WHERE DatabaseLogID = 1

As in the preceding example, each instance of DATEPART includes two arguments: the date/time part abbreviation and the source column. The statement returns the following results:

Quarter	DayOfYear	Week	Weekday
4	287	42	6

Notice that the weekday is shown as 6. By default, SQL Server begins the week with Sunday, so weekday 6 is equivalent to Friday.

The preceding two examples retrieved only values related to dates. However, as the table below shows, you can also retrieve data related to time:

SELECT DATEPART(hh, PostTime) AS [Hour],
DATEPART(mi, PostTime) AS [Minute],
DATEPART(ss, PostTime) AS [Second],
DATEPART(ms, PostTime) AS [Millisecond]
FROM DatabaseLog
WHERE DatabaseLogID = 1

In this case, the statement is retrieving the hour, minute, second and millisecond, as shown in the following results:

Hour	Minute	Second	Millisecond
1	58	27	567

The primary limitation of the DATEPART function is that it returns only integers, which is why Friday is shown as 6. However, if you want to display actual names of days and months, you can use the DATENAME function. The DATENAME function works exactly like the DATEPART function. DATENAME takes the same number of arguments and supports the same abbreviations. For example, if you want to retrieve the year, month and day, as you saw in an earlier example, you simply replace DATEPART with DATENAME:

SELECT DATENAME(yy, PostTime) AS [Year],
DATENAME(mm, PostTime) AS [Month],
DATENAME(dd, PostTime) AS [Day]
FROM DatabaseLog
WHERE DatabaseLogID = 1

Now your results will look like the following:

Year	Month	Day
2005	October	14

The month value is now October, rather than 10. The year and day, however, remain integers because that's the only way to represent them. You can also use the DATENAME function for other date/time components, as in the following example:

SELECT DATENAME(qq, PostTime) AS [Quarter],
DATENAME(dy, PostTime) AS [DayOfYear],
DATENAME(wk, PostTime) AS [Week],
DATENAME(dw, PostTime) AS [Weekday]
FROM DatabaseLog
WHERE DatabaseLogID = 1

Once again, I've replaced DATEPART with DATENAME, but changed nothing else. The statement returns the following results.

Quarter	DayOfYear	Week	Weekday
4	287	42	Friday

Notice that the quarter, day of the year and week are still integers, but the weekday now says Friday, rather than 6. You can also use DATENAME to retrieve the time components of a date/time value, but the results will always be integers, as you would expect.

Monitoring Changes in Your Database Using DDL Triggers

2008-10-03T12:11:00.001+05:30

Introduction

Additions, deletions, or changes to objects in a database can cause a great deal of hardship and require a dba or developer to rewrite existing code that may reference affected entities. To make matters worse tracking down the problematic alteration(s) may be synonymous to locating the needle in the haystack. Utilizing a DDL trigger in conjunction with a single user created table, used to document such changes, can considerably minimize the headaches involved in tracking and locating schema changes.

Creating the Table and DDL TRIGGER

The first step in implementing such a tracking strategy is to create a table that will be used to record all DDL actions fired from within a database. The below code creates a table in the AdventureWorks sample database that will be used to hold all such DDL actions:

USE AdventureWorks

GO

CREATE TABLE AuditLog

(ID        INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY(1,1),

Command    NVARCHAR(1000),

PostTime   NVARCHAR(24),

HostName   NVARCHAR(100),

LoginName  NVARCHAR(100)

GO

After creating the table to hold our DDL events it is now time to create a DDL trigger that will be specific to the AdventureWorks database and will fire on all DDL_DATABASE_LEVEL_EVENTS:

CREATE TRIGGER Audit ON DATABASE

FOR DDL_DATABASE_LEVEL_EVENTS

AS

DECLARE @data XML

DECLARE @cmd NVARCHAR(1000)

DECLARE @posttime NVARCHAR(24)

DECLARE @spid NVARCHAR(6)

DECLARE @loginname NVARCHAR(100)

DECLARE @hostname NVARCHAR(100)

SET @data = EVENTDATA()

SET @cmd = @data.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/TSQLCommand/CommandText)[1]', 'NVARCHAR(1000)')

SET @cmd = LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(@cmd,'','')))

SET @posttime = @data.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/PostTime)[1]', 'NVARCHAR(24)')

SET @spid = @data.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/SPID)[1]', 'nvarchar(6)')

SET @loginname = @data.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/LoginName)[1]',

    'NVARCHAR(100)')

SET @hostname = HOST_NAME()

INSERT INTO dbo.AuditLog(Command, PostTime,HostName,LoginName)

 VALUES(@cmd, @posttime, @hostname, @loginname)

GO

The purpose of the trigger is to capture the EVENTDATA() that is created once the trigger fires and parse the data from the xml variable inserting it into the appropriate columns of our AuditLog table. The parsing of the EVENTDATA() is rather straight forward, except for when extracting the command text. The parsing of the command text includes the following code:

SET@cmd = LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(@cmd,'','')))

The need for the LTRIM and RTRIM is to strip all leading and trailing white space while the REPLACE is used to remove the carriage return that is added when if using the scripting wizard from SSMS. This will provide the future ability to use SSRS string functions to further parse the command text to offer greater detail.

Once the table and trigger have been created you can test to assure that it is working properly:

UPDATE STATISTICS Production.Product

GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.Test(col INT)

GO

DROP TABLE dbo.Test

GO

-- View log table

SELECT *

FROM dbo.AuditLog

GO

The results of the above query should are shown below:

Conclusions

By creating a table to hold all DDL actions and a database level DDL trigger we can successfully capture all DDL level changes to our database and provide greater ability to track and monitor any such change.

As performance of any such action(s) is most often the deciding factor as to whether implement such change control, I have limited excessive parsing or formatting in the above trigger. Consider this the first step, documenting. Later I will post how to utilize reporting services to provide reports showing:

1. DDL action, CREATE, ALTER, DELETE, etc

2. The schema and object affected

3. Workstation executing DDL statements

4. Drill down report to show object dependencies

That will use the documenting objects created above to provide greater insight and detail external of your production environment.

How To Protect From SQL Injection in ASP.NET

2008-05-07T14:25:00.001+05:30

patterns & practices Developer Center

J.D. Meier, Alex Mackman, Blaine Wastell, Prashant Bansode, Andy Wigley

Applies To : ASP.NET version 1.1, ASP.NET version 2.0

Summary

This How To shows a number of ways to help protect your ASP.NET application from SQL injection attacks. SQL injection can occur when an application uses input to construct dynamic SQL statements or when it uses stored procedures to connect to the database. Conventional security measures, such as the use of SSL and IPSec, do not protect your application from SQL injection attacks. Successful SQL injection attacks enable malicious users to execute commands in an application's database.

Countermeasures include using a list of acceptable characters to constrain input, using parameterized SQL for data access, and using a least privileged account that has restricted permissions in the database. Using stored procedures with parameterized SQL is the recommended approach because SQL parameters are type safe. Type-safe SQL parameters can also be used with dynamic SQL. In situations where parameterized SQL cannot be used, consider using character escaping techniques.

Objectives
Overview
Summary of Steps
Step 1. Constrain Input
Step 2. Use Parameters with Stored Procedures
Step 3. Use Parameters with Dynamic SQL
Additional Considerations
Additional Resources

Objectives

Learn how SQL injection attacks work.
Constrain input to prevent SQL injection.
Use type safe SQL command parameters to prevent SQL injection.
Use a least privileged account to connect to the database.
Learn additional countermeasures to further reduce risk.

Overview

A successful SQL injection attack enables a malicious user to execute commands in your application's database by using the privileges granted to your application's login. The problem is more severe if your application uses an over-privileged account to connect to the database. For example, if your application's login has privileges to eliminate a database, then without adequate safeguards, an attacker might be able to perform this operation.

Common vulnerabilities that make your data access code susceptible to SQL injection attacks include:

Weak input validation.
Dynamic construction of SQL statements without the use of type-safe parameters.
Use of over-privileged database logins.

SQL Injection Example

Consider what happens when a user types the following string in the SSN text box, which is expecting a Social Security number of the form nnn-nn-nnnn.

; DROP DATABASE pubs  --

Using the input, the application executes the following dynamic SQL statement or stored procedure, which internally executes a similar SQL statement.

// Use dynamic SQL

 SqlDataAdapter myCommand = new SqlDataAdapter(

          "SELECT au_lname, au_fname FROM authors WHERE au_id = '" +

          SSN.Text + "'", myConnection);

// Use stored procedures

SqlDataAdapter myCommand = new SqlDataAdapter(

                                "LoginStoredProcedure '" +

                                  SSN.Text + "'", myConnection);

The developer's intention was that when the code runs, it inserts the user's input and generates a SQL the following statement.

SELECT au_lname, au_fname FROM authors WHERE au_id = '172-32-9999'

However, the code inserts the user's malicious input and generates the following query.

SELECT au_lname, au_fname FROM authors WHERE au_id = ''; DROP DATABASE pubs --'

In this case, the ' (single quotation mark) character that starts the rogue input terminates the current string literal in the SQL statement. It closes the current statement only if the following parsed token does not make sense as a continuation of the current statement but does make sense as the start of a new statement. As a result, the opening single quotation mark character of the rogue input results in the following statement.

SELECT au_lname, au_fname FROM authors WHERE au_id = ''

The; (semicolon) character tells SQL that this is the end of the current statement, which is then followed by the following malicious SQL code.

; DROP DATABASE pubs

Note The semicolon is not necessarily required to separate SQL statements. This is dependent on vendor or implementation, but Microsoft SQL Server does not require them. For example, SQL Server parses the following as two separate statements:

SELECT * FROM MyTable DELETE FROM MyTable

Finally, the -- (double dash) sequence of characters is a SQL comment that tells SQL to ignore the rest of the text. In this case, SQL ignores the closing ' (single quotation mark) character, which would otherwise cause a SQL parser error.

--'

Guidelines

To counter SQL injection attacks, you need to:

Constrain and sanitize input data. Check for known good data by validating for type, length, format, and range.
Use type-safe SQL parameters for data access. You can use these parameters with stored procedures or dynamically constructed SQL command strings. Parameter collections such as SqlParameterCollection provide type checking and length validation. If you use a parameters collection, input is treated as a literal value, and SQL Server does not treat it as executable code. An additional benefit of using a parameters collection is that you can enforce type and length checks. Values outside of the range trigger an exception. This is a good example of defense in depth.
Use an account that has restricted permissions in the database. Ideally, you should only grant execute permissions to selected stored procedures in the database and provide no direct table access.
Avoid disclosing database error information. In the event of database errors, make sure you do not disclose detailed error messages to the user.

Note Conventional security measures, such as the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and IP Security (IPSec), do not protect your application from SQL injection attacks.

Summary of Steps

To protect your application from SQL injection, perform the following steps:

Step 1. Constrain input.
Step 2. Use parameters with stored procedures.
Step 3. Use parameters with dynamic SQL.

Step 1. Constrain Input

You should validate all input to your ASP.NET applications for type, length, format, and range. By constraining the input used in your data access queries, you can protect your application from SQL injection.

Note When constraining input, it is a good practice to create a list of acceptable characters and use regular expressions to reject any characters that are not on the list. The potential risk associated with using a list of unacceptable characters is that it is always possible to overlook an unacceptable character when defining the list; also, an unacceptable character can be represented in an alternate format to pass validation.

Constrain Input in ASP.NET Web Pages

Start by constraining input in the server-side code for your ASP.NET Web pages. Do not rely on client-side validation because it can be easily bypassed. Use client-side validation only to reduce round trips and to improve the user experience.

If you use server controls, use the ASP.NET validator controls, such as the RegularExpressionValidator and RangeValidator controls to constrain input. If you use regular HTML input controls, use the Regex class in your server-side code to constrain input.

If in the previous code example, the SSN value is captured by an ASP.NET TextBox control, you can constrain its input by using a RegularExpressionValidator control as shown in the following.

<%@ language="C#" %>

 <form id="form1" runat="server">

    <asp:TextBox ID="SSN" runat="server"/>

    <asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID="regexpSSN" runat="server"

                                    ErrorMessage="Incorrect SSN Number"

                                    ControlToValidate="SSN"

                                     ValidationExpression="^\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}$" />

</form>

If the SSN input is from another source, such as an HTML control, a query string parameter, or a cookie, you can constrain it by using the Regex class from the System.Text.RegularExpressions namespace. The following example assumes that the input is obtained from a cookie.

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

if (Regex.IsMatch(Request.Cookies["SSN"], "^\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}$"))

    // access the database

else

    // handle the bad input

For more information about how to constrain input in your ASP.NET Web pages, see How To: Protect From Injection Attacks in ASP.NET.

Constrain Input in Data Access Code

In some situations, you need to provide validation in your data access code, perhaps in addition to your ASP.NET page-level validation. Two common situations where you need to provide validation in your data access code are:

Untrusted clients. If the data can come from an untrusted source or you cannot guarantee how well the data has been validated and constrained, add validation logic that constrains input to your data access routines.
Library code. If your data access code is packaged as a library designed for use by multiple applications, your data access code should perform its own validation, because you can make no safe assumptions about the client applications.

The following example shows how a data access routine can validate its input parameters by using regular expressions prior to using the parameters in a SQL statement.

using System;

 using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

 public void CreateNewUserAccount(string name, string password)

     // Check name contains only lower case or upper case letters,

    // the apostrophe, a dot, or white space. Also check it is

    // between 1 and 40 characters long

    if ( !Regex.IsMatch(userIDTxt.Text, @"^[a-zA-Z'./s]{1,40}$"))

      throw new FormatException("Invalid name format");

    // Check password contains at least one digit, one lower case

    // letter, one uppercase letter, and is between 8 and 10

     // characters long

    if ( !Regex.IsMatch(passwordTxt.Text,

                      @"^(?=.*\d)(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[A-Z]).{8,10}$" ))

       throw new FormatException("Invalid password format");

    // Perform data access logic (using type safe parameters)

...

Step 2. Use Parameters with Stored Procedures

Using stored procedures does not necessarily prevent SQL injection. The important thing to do is use parameters with stored procedures. If you do not use parameters, your stored procedures can be susceptible to SQL injection if they use unfiltered input as described in the "Overview" section of this document.

The following code shows how to use SqlParameterCollection when calling a stored procedure.

using System.Data;

 using System.Data.SqlClient;

 using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))

   DataSet userDataset = new DataSet();

  SqlDataAdapter myCommand = new SqlDataAdapter(

             "LoginStoredProcedure", connection);

   myCommand.SelectCommand.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

  myCommand.SelectCommand.Parameters.Add("@au_id", SqlDbType.VarChar, 11);

  myCommand.SelectCommand.Parameters["@au_id"].Value = SSN.Text;

  myCommand.Fill(userDataset);

In this case, the @au_id parameter is treated as a literal value and not as executable code. Also, the parameter is checked for type and length. In the preceding code example, the input value cannot be longer than 11 characters. If the data does not conform to the type or length defined by the parameter, the SqlParameter class throws an exception.

Review Your Application's Use of Parameterized Stored Procedures

Because using stored procedures with parameters does not necessarily prevent SQL injection, you should review your application's use of this type of stored procedure. For example, the following parameterized stored procedure has several security vulnerabilities.

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.RunQuery

 @var ntext

AS

        exec sp_executesql @var

GO

An application that uses a stored procedure similar to the one in the preceding code example has the following vulnerabilities:

The stored procedure executes whatever statement is passed to it. Consider the @var variable being set to:

DROP TABLE ORDERS;

In this case, the ORDERS table will be dropped.

The stored procedure runs with dbo privileges.
The stored procedure's name (RunQuery) is a poor choice. If an attacker is able to probe the database, he or she will see the name of the stored procedure. With a name like RunQuery, he can guess that the stored procedure is likely to run the supplied query.

Step 3. Use Parameters with Dynamic SQL

If you cannot use stored procedures, you should still use parameters when constructing dynamic SQL statements. The following code shows how to use SqlParametersCollection with dynamic SQL.

using System.Data;

 using System.Data.SqlClient;

 using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))

   DataSet userDataset = new DataSet();

  SqlDataAdapter myDataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(

         "SELECT au_lname, au_fname FROM Authors WHERE au_id = @au_id",

          connection);

  myCommand.SelectCommand.Parameters.Add("@au_id", SqlDbType.VarChar, 11);

  myCommand.SelectCommand.Parameters["@au_id"].Value = SSN.Text;

   myDataAdapter.Fill(userDataset);

Using Parameter Batching

A common misconception is that if you concatenate several SQL statements to send a batch of statements to the server in a single round trip, you cannot use parameters. However, you can use this technique if you make sure that parameter names are not repeated. You can easily do this by making sure that you use unique parameter names during SQL text concatenation, as shown here.

using System.Data;

 using System.Data.SqlClient;

. . .

 using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))

   SqlDataAdapter dataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(

       "SELECT CustomerID INTO #Temp1 FROM Customers " +

       "WHERE CustomerID > @custIDParm; SELECT CompanyName FROM Customers " +

        "WHERE Country = @countryParm and CustomerID IN " +

       "(SELECT CustomerID FROM #Temp1);",

       connection);

  SqlParameter custIDParm = dataAdapter.SelectCommand.Parameters.Add(

                                          "@custIDParm", SqlDbType.NChar, 5);

   custIDParm.Value = customerID.Text;

   SqlParameter countryParm = dataAdapter.SelectCommand.Parameters.Add(

                                      "@countryParm", SqlDbType.NVarChar, 15);

  countryParm.Value = country.Text;

  connection.Open();

  DataSet dataSet = new DataSet();

  dataAdapter.Fill(dataSet);

. . .

Additional Considerations

Other things to consider when you develop countermeasures to prevent SQL injection include:

Use escape routines to handle special input characters.
Use a least-privileged database account.
Avoid disclosing error information.

Use Escape Routines to Handle Special Input Characters

In situations where parameterized SQL cannot be used and you are forced to use dynamic SQL instead, you need to safeguard against input characters that have special meaning to SQL Server (such as the single quote character). If not handled, special characters such as the single quote character in the input can be utilized to cause SQL injection.

Note Special input characters pose a threat only with dynamic SQL and not when using parameterized SQL.

Escape routines add an escape character to characters that have special meaning to SQL Server, thereby making them harmless. This is illustrated in the following code fragment:

private string SafeSqlLiteral(string inputSQL)

  return inputSQL.Replace("'", "''");
 
}

Use a Least-Privileged Database Account

Your application should connect to the database by using a least-privileged account. If you use Windows authentication to connect, the Windows account should be least-privileged from an operating system perspective and should have limited privileges and limited ability to access Windows resources. Additionally, whether or not you use Windows authentication or SQL authentication, the corresponding SQL Server login should be restricted by permissions in the database.

Consider the example of an ASP.NET application running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 that accesses a database on a different server in the same domain. By default, the ASP.NET application runs in an application pool that runs under the Network Service account. This account is a least privileged account.

To access SQL Server with the Network Service account

Create a SQL Server login for the Web server's Network Service account. The Network Service account has network credentials that are presented at the database server as the identity DOMAIN\WEBSERVERNAME$. For example, if your domain is called XYZ and the Web server is called 123, you create a database login for XYZ\123$.
Grant the new login access to the required database by creating a database user and adding the user to a database role.
Establish permissions to let this database role call the required stored procedures or access the required tables in the database. Only grant access to stored procedures the application needs to use, and only grant sufficient access to tables based on the application's minimum requirements.

For example, if the ASP.NET application only performs database lookups and does not update any data, you only need to grant read access to the tables. This limits the damage that an attacker can cause if the attacker succeeds in a SQL injection attack.

Avoid Disclosing Error Information

Use structured exception handling to catch errors and prevent them from propagating back to the client. Log detailed error information locally, but return limited error details to the client.

If errors occur while the user is connecting to the database, be sure that you provide only limited information about the nature of the error to the user. If you disclose information related to data access and database errors, you could provide a malicious user with useful information that he or she can use to compromise your database security. Attackers use the information in detailed error messages to help deconstruct a SQL query that they are trying to inject with malicious code. A detailed error message may reveal valuable information such as the connection string, SQL server name, or table and database naming conventions.

Additional Resources

HTML - ASCII and ESCAPE Code LIST

2008-04-28T11:48:00.001+05:30

HTML Codes - Extended ASCll Decimal and Hexadecimal Code Table

Char	Dec	Hex	Char	Dec	Hex	Char	Dec	Hex	Char	Dec	Hex
NULL		%00	@	@	%40	€	&#128	%80	À	à	%C0
SOH		%01	A	A	%41	�		%81	Á	Á	%C1
STX		%02	B	B	%42	‚		%82	Â	Â	%C2
ETX		%03	C	C	%43	ƒ		%83	Ã	Ã	%C3
EOT		%04	D	D	%44	„		%84	Ä	Ä	%C4
ENQ		%05	E	E	%45	…		%85	Å	Å	%C5
ACK		%06	F	F	%46	†		%86	Æ	Æ	%C6
BEL		%07	G	G	%47	‡		%87	Ç	Ç	%C7
BS		%08	H	H	%48	ˆ		%88	È	È	%C8
TAB		%09	I	I	%49	‰	&permil;	%89	É	É	%C9
LF		%0A	J	J	%4A	Š		%8A	Ê	Ê	%CA
VT		%0B	K	K	%4B	‹	&lsaquo;	%8B	Ë	Ë	%CB
FF		%0C	L	L	%4C	Œ		%8C	Ì	Ì	%CC
CR		%0D	M	M	%4D	�		%8D	Í	Í	%CD
SO		%0E	N	N	%4E	Ž		%8E	Î	Î	%CE
SI		%0F	O	O	%4F	�		%8F	±	Ï	%CF
DLE		%10	P	P	%50	�		%90	Ð	Ð	%D0
DC1		%11	Q	Q	%51	'		%91	Ñ	Ñ	%D1
DC2		%12	R	R	%52	'		%92	Ò	Ò	%D2
DC3		%13	S	S	%53	"		%93	Ó	Ó	%D3
DC4		%14	T	T	%54	"		%94	Ô	Ô	%D4
NAK		%15	U	U	%55	•		%95	Õ	Õ	%D5
SYN		%16	V	V	%56	–	–	%96	Ö	Ö	%D6
ETB		%17	W	W	%57	—	—	%97	×	×	%D7
CAN		%18	X	X	%58	˜		%98	Ø	Ø	%D8
EM		%19	Y	Y	%59	™	™	%99	Ù	Ù	%D9
SUB		%1A	Z	Z	%5A	š		%9A	Ú	Ú	%DA
ESC		%1B	[	[	%5B	›	&rsaquo;	%9B	Û	Û	%DB
FS		%1C	\	\	%5C	œ		%9C	Ü	Ü	%DC
GS		%1D	]	]	%5D	�		%9D	Ý	Ý	%DD
RS		%1E	^	^	%5E	ž		%9E	Þ	Þ	%DE
US		%1F	_	_	%5F	Ÿ		%9F	ß	ß	%DF
		%20	`	`	%60			%A0	à	à	%E0
!	!	%21	a	a	%61	¡	¡	%A1	á	á	%E1
"	"	%22	b	b	%62	¢	¢	%A2	â	â	%E2
#	#	%23	c	c	%63	£	£	%A3	ã	ã	%E3
$	$	%24	d	d	%64	¤	¤	%A4	ä	ä	%E4
%	%	%25	e	e	%65	¥	¥	%A5	å	å	%E5
&	&	%26	f	f	%66	¦	¦	%A6	æ	æ	%E6
'	'	%27	g	g	%67	§	§	%A7	ç	ç	%E7
(	(	%28	h	h	%68	¨	¨	%A8	è	è	%E8
)	)	%29	i	i	%69	©	©	%A9	é	é	%E9
*	*	%2A	j	j	%6A	ª	ª	%AA	ê	ê	%EA
+	+	%2B	k	k	%6B	«	«	%AB	ë	ë	%EB
,	,	%2C	l	l	%6C	¬	¬	%AC	ì	ì	%EC
-	-	%2D	m	m	%6D			%AD	í	í	%ED
.	.	%2E	n	n	%6E	®	®	%AE	î	î	%EE
⁄	&frasl;	%2F	o	o	%6F	¯	¯	%AF	ï	ï	%EF
0	0	%30	p	p	%70	°	°	%B0	ð	ð	%F0
1	1	%31	q	q	%71	±	±	%B1	ñ	ñ	%F1
2	2	%32	r	r	%72	²	²	%B2	ò	ò	%F2
3	3	%33	s	s	%73	³	³	%B3	ó	ó	%F3
4	4	%34	t	t	%74	´	´	%B4	ô	ô	%F4
5	5	%35	u	u	%75	µ	µ	%B5	õ	õ	%F5
6	6	%36	v	v	%76	¶	¶	%B6	ö	ö	%F6
7	7	%37	w	w	%77	·	·	%B7	±	÷	%F7
8	8	%38	x	x	%78	¸	¸	%B8	ø	ø	%F8
9	9	%39	y	y	%79	¹	¹	%B9	ù	ù	%F9
:	:	%3A	z	z	%7A	º	º	%BA	ú	ú	%FA
;	;	%3B	{	{	%7B	»	»	%BB	û	û	%FB
<	<	%3C	\|	\|	%7C	¼	¼	%BC	ü	ü	%FC
=	=	%3D	}	}	%7D	½	½	%BD	ý	ý	%FD
>	>	%3E	~	~	%7E	¾	¾	%BE	þ	þ	%FE
?	?	%3F			%7F	¿	¿	%BF	Ÿ	ÿ	%FF

HTTP Status Codes

2008-04-28T11:34:00.001+05:30

The following are the constants and corresponding values for the HTTP status codes returned by servers on the Internet.
HTTP Status Codes (100s, Intermediate Status)
Continue (100)
	The request can be continued.
Switching Protocols (101)
	The server has switched protocols in an upgrade header.
HTTP Status Codes (200s, Successful Response)
Ok (200)
	The request completed successfully.
Created (201)
	The request has been fulfilled and resulted in the creation of a new resource.
Accepted (202)
	The request has been accepted for processing, but the processing has not been completed.
Non-Authoritative Information (203)
	The returned meta information in the entity-header is not the definitive set available from the origin server.
No Content (204)
	The server has fulfilled the request, but there is no new information to send back.
Reset Content (205)
	The request has been completed, and the client program should reset the document view that caused the request to be sent to allow the user to easily initiate another input action.
Partial Content (206)
	The server has fulfilled the partial GET request for the resource.
HTTP Status Codes (300s, Redirects)
Ambiguous (300)
	The server couldn't decide what to return.
Moved Permanently (301)
	The requested resource has been assigned to a new permanent URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), and any future references to this resource should be done using one of the returned URIs.
Moved Temporarily (302)
	The requested resource resides temporarily under a different URI (Uniform Resource Identifier).
Redirect Method (303)
	The response to the request can be found under a different URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) and should be retrieved using a GET HTTP verb on that resource.
Not Modified (304)
	The requested resource has not been modified.
Use Proxy (305)
	The requested resource must be accessed through the proxy given by the location field.
Redirect Keep Verb (307)
	The redirected request keeps the same HTTP verb. HTTP/1.1 behavior.
HTTP Status Codes (400s, Request Errors)
Bad Request (400)
	The request could not be processed by the server due to invalid syntax.
Unauthorized (401)
	The requested resource requires user authentication.
Payment Required (402)
	Not currently implemented in the HTTP protocol.
Forbidden (403)
	The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it.
NotFound (404)
	The server has not found anything matching the requested URI (Uniform Resource Identifier).
Bad Method (405)
	The HTTP verb used is not allowed.
None Acceptable (406)
	No responses acceptable to the client were found.
Proxy Authentication Required (407)
	Proxy authentication required.
Request Time-out (408)
	The server timed out waiting for the request.
Conflict (409)
	The request could not be completed due to a conflict with the current state of the resource. The user should resubmit with more information.
Gone (410)
	The requested resource is no longer available at the server, and no forwarding address is known.
Length Required (411)
	The server refuses to accept the request without a defined content length.
Precondition Failed (412)
	The precondition given in one or more of the request header fields evaluated to false when it was tested on the server.
Request Entity Too Large (413)
	The server is refusing to process a request because the request entity is larger than the server is willing or able to process.
Request-URI Too Large (414)
	The server is refusing to service the request because the request URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) is longer than the server is willing to interpret.
Unsupported Media Type (415)
	The server is refusing to service the request because the entity of the request is in a format not supported by the requested resource for the requested method.
Requested Range Not Satisfiable (416)
	The server could not process the client's partial GET reques.t
Expectation Failed (417)
	The sever
Retry With (449)
	The request should be retried after doing the appropriate action.
HTTP Status Codes (500s, Server Errors)
Internal Server Error (500)
	The server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.
Not Supported (501)
	The server does not support the functionality required to fulfill the request.
Bad Gateway (502)
	The server, while acting as a gateway or proxy, received an invalid response from the upstream server it accessed in attempting to fulfill the request.
Service Unavailable (503)
	The service is temporarily overloaded.
Gateway Time-out (504)
	The request was timed out waiting for a gateway.
HTTP Version not supported (505)
	The server does not support, or refuses to support, the HTTP protocol version that was used in the request message.

Using CASE Expressions IN SQL

2008-04-18T15:40:00.001+05:30

Using CASE Expressions

by Craig S. Mullins

CASE expressions are often over-looked but can be extremely useful to change very complex query requirements into simpler, and sometimes more efficient SQL statements. The CASE expression enables many forms of conditional processing to be placed into a SQL statement. By using CASE, more logic can be placed into SQL statements instead of being expressed in a host language or 4GL program.

Microsoft's implementation of CASE expressions in SQL Server is compliant with the ANSI SQL-92 standard.

A Quick Example

Sometimes a quick example is worth several hundred descriptive words, so let's take a look at a sample SQL statement using a CASE expression on the title table in the sample pubs database:

SQL Statement #1

SELECT title, price,
      Budget = CASE price
         WHEN price > 20.00 THEN 'Expensive'
        WHEN price BETWEEN 10.00 AND 19.99 THEN 'Moderate'
        WHEN price < 10.00 THEN 'Inexpensive'
        ELSE 'Unknown'
      END,
FROM titles

This statement would return results similar to these:

Title                  Price       Budget
---------------------- ----------- ---------------
Cooking with Computers 11.95       Moderate
Straight Talk About Co 19.99       Moderate
The Busy Executive's D 19.99       Moderate
You Can Combat Compute 2.99        Inexpensive
Silicon Valley Gastron 19.99       Moderate
The Gourmet Microwave 2.99        Inexpensive
But Is It User Friendl 22.95       Expensive
Secrets of Silicon Val 20.00       Moderate
Net Etiquette          (null)      Unknown

This output is not comprehensive but shows enough detail to help describe the effects of the CASE expression. The CASE expression is exercised on each row returned. It categorizes the contents of the price column into four different groups: expensive, moderate, inexpensive, and unknown. This is easier and more efficient than writing a SQL statement that uses UNION to combine the results of the four categories. The following UNION statement would return equivalent results:

SQL Statement #2

SELECT title, price, 'Expensive'
FROM titles
WHERE price > 20.00
UNION ALL
SELECT title, price, 'Moderate'
FROM titles
WHERE price BETWEEN 10.00 AND 19.99
UNION ALL
SELECT title, price, 'Inexpensive'
FROM titles
WHERE price < 10.00
UNION ALL
SELECT title, price, 'Unknown'
FROM titles
WHERE price IS NULL
go

UNION ALL is used instead of just UNION because no duplicates need to be removed. Each SELECT in the UNION returns a distinct result set.

You can see where this UNION formulation would be less efficient than the previous CASE formulation. In the UNION example SQL Server would have to make four passes through the data—one for each SELECT used. In the CASE example, one pass through the data is sufficient to return the correct results. Obviously, the CASE formulation will outperform the UNION formulation.

Another very useful capability of CASE expressions is to transform a result set from multiple rows into a summary row. Consider the situation where sales data is stored in a table by month. One row is stored per month with a table structure that looks like the following:

CREATE TABLE prodsales
(product char(3),
mnth smallint,
sales money)

In this table, sales amounts (sales) are stored by month (mnth) and product code (product). The mnth column stores an integer value ranging from 1 (for January) to 12 (for December). You can use the following single SQL statement to product one row per product with 12 totals, one for each month:

SQL Statement #3

SELECT product,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 1 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS jan,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 2 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS feb,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 3 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS mar,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 4 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS apr,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 5 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS may,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 6 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS jun,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 7 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS jul,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 8 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS aug,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 9 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS sep,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 10 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS oct,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 11 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS nov,
SUM(CASE mnth WHEN 12 THEN sales ELSE NULL END) AS dec
FROM prodsales
GROUP BY product

This statement generates a row for each product with twelve monthly sales totals. The CASE expression causes the sales amount to by added to the appropriate bucket by checking the mnth column. If the month value is for the appropriate "month bucket", then the sales amount is added using SUM; if not, then NULL is specified, thereby avoiding adding anything to the SUM. Using CASE expressions in this manner simplifies aggregation and reporting. It provides a quick way of transforming normalized data structures into the more common denormalized formats that most business users are accustomed to viewing on reports.

This same basic idea can be used to create many types of summary rows. For example, to produce a summary row by quarter instead of by month, simply modify the CASE expressions as shown below:

SQL Statement #4

SELECT product,
SUM(CASE WHEN mth BETWEEN 1 AND 3 THEN sales
      ELSE NULL END) AS q1,
SUM(CASE WHEN mth BETWEEN 4 AND 6 THEN sales
      ELSE NULL END) AS q2,
SUM(CASE WHEN mth BETWEEN 7 AND 9 THEN sales
      ELSE NULL END) AS q3,
SUM(CASE WHEN mth BETWEEN 10 AND 12 THEN sales
      ELSE NULL END) AS q4
FROM prodsales
GROUP BY product

A More Complicated Example

Using searched CASE expressions and nested subqueries in SELECT statements very complex processing can be accomplished with a single SQL statement. Consider, once again, the sample pubs database. The following query checks the royalty percentage by title and places the percentage into a category based on its value:

SQL Statement #5

SELECT au_lname, au_fname, title, Category =
CASE

WHEN (SELECT AVG(royaltyper) FROM titleauthor ta

WHERE t.title_id = ta.title_id) > 65
THEN 'Very High'

WHEN (SELECT AVG(royaltyper) FROM titleauthor ta

WHERE t.title_id = ta.title_id)
BETWEEN 55 and 64

THEN 'High'

WHEN (SELECT AVG(royaltyper) FROM titleauthor ta

WHERE t.title_id = ta.title_id)
BETWEEN 41 and 54

THEN 'Moderate'

ELSE 'Low'

END

FROM authors a,
titles t,
titleauthor ta

WHERE a.au_id = ta.au_id
AND ta.title_id = t.title_id

ORDER BY Category, au_lname, au_fname

Within a SELECT statement, the searched CASE expression allows values to be replaced in the results set based on comparison values. In this example, the royalty percentage (royaltyper) in the titleauthor table is checked and a category is specified for each author based on the royalty percentage returned.

Usage and Syntax

CASE expressions can be used in SQL anywhere an expression can be used. This provides great flexibility because expressions can be used in a wide number of places. Example of where CASE expressions can be used include in the SELECT list, WHERE clauses, HAVING clauses, IN lists, DELETE and UPDATE statements, and inside of built-in functions.

There are two basic formulations that a CASE expression can take: simple CASE expressions and searched CASE expressions. A simple CASE expression checks one expression against multiple values. Within a SELECT statement, a simple CASE expression allows only an equality check; no other comparisons are made. A simple CASE expression operates by comparing the first expression to the expression in each WHEN clause for equivalency. If these expressions are equivalent, the expression in the THEN clause will be returned.

The basic syntax for a simple CASE expressions is shown below:

CASE expression
WHEN expression1 THEN expression1
[[WHEN expression2 THEN expression2] [...]]
[ELSE expressionN]
END

A searched CASE expression is more feature-laden. It allows comparison operators, and the use of AND and/or OR between each Boolean expression. The simple CASE expression checks only for equivalent values and can not contain Boolean expressions. The basic syntax for a searched CASE expressions is shown below:

CASE
WHEN Boolean_expression1 THEN expression1
[[WHEN Boolean_expression2 THEN expression2] [...]]
[ELSE expressionN]
END

You have seen samples of each type of CASE expression in the SQL examples depicted previously in this article. SQL statements #1 and #3 are simple CASE expressions; SQL statements #4 and #5 are searched CASE expressions.

Using CASE Expressions When Modifying Data

CASE expressions can also be used with data modification statements. Using CASE in conjunction with a SQL UPDATE statement enables developers to conditionally modify large amounts of data using a single SQL statement. Consider the following example:

SQL Statement #6

UPDATE titles
       SET price =
                 CASE
                   WHEN (price < 5.0 AND ytd_sales > 999.99)
                                   THEN price * 1.25
                   WHEN (price < 5.0 AND ytd_sales < 1000.00)
                                   THEN price * 1.15
                   WHEN (price > 4.99 AND ytd_sales > 999.99)
                                   THEN price * 1.2
                   ELSE price
                 END

This statement examines book title criteria to determine whether prices should be modified. The CASE expression uses a combination of current price and year-to-date sales to specify a price increase percentage. Any criteria that can be expressed in terms of SQL predicates in CASE expressions can be used to update rows conditionally.

General Usage Guidelines

All data types used in the THEN clause of CASE expressions must be compatible data types. If the data type used is not compatible then SQL Server will return an error because implicit data type conversion is not supported.

Be sure that all possibilities are covered within the CASE expressions. For example, consider a CASE expression that must be coded on numeric data that can range from -1 to 100, and then an outlying value of 1000. Do not omit or overlap any of the possible data values. Furthermore, be aware of the data type of the values being examined in the CASE expression. Do not leave gaps in the range of possible values by not using appropriate values. For example, if the data is decimal (instead of integer, say) do not ignore the portion of the number to the right of the decimal point. A good example of this is shown in the previous SQL statement #6. If the value for 999.99 is changed to 999.0 then any values between 999.01 and 999.99 will be lumped in with the ELSE condition – which is clearly not the desired intent of this statement.

The bottom line is that CASE expressions are very powerful, yet often neglected. Favor using CASE expressions under the following circumstances:

when data needs to be converted from one type to another for display and no function exists to accomplish the task
when a summary row needs to be created from detail data
when conditional processing needs to be executed to determine results
when using UNION to "glue together" different subsets of a single table

One final usage guideline is to use the COALESCE function with your CASE expressions when you wish to avoid NULLs. Consider an employee table that contains three columns for wages: salary, commission, and retainer_fee. Any single employee can only receive one of these types of wages. So, two of the columns will contain NULLs, but one will always contain a value. The following statement uses the COALESCE function to return only the non-NULL value:

SELECT COALESCE(salary, commission, retainer_fee, 0)

FROM employee

The COALESCE function will go through the list of expressions (in this case columns and constants) and return the first non-NULL value encountered. In this case, the numeric constant 0 is added at the end of the list to provide a default value if all of the columns should happen to be NULL.

Summary

CASE expressions bring a vast degree of power and control to SQL Server programmers. A working knowledge of CASE expressions can make accessing and updating SQL Server data easier and perhaps, even more efficient. Additionally, CASE expressions enable more work to be accomplished using a single SQL statement, which should also improve efficiency and decrease development time. As such, CASE expressions should be a component of every SQL Server developer's arsenal of programming techniques.

From SQL Server Update (Xephon) August 1999.

How to reduce firefox memory load?

2008-04-14T15:20:00.001+05:30

Please find the attachment that will help you to reduce the memory load while running firefox.

--
Prakash Samariya (IT Professional, HDSE)
Mob: 9879074678 Res: +91-79-32924610
http://ps-india.blogspot.com/
http://psamariya.googlepages.com/
Below Nelson's School, Opp SBI, Punit Ahram Road, Maninagar, Ahmedabad - 380008, Gujarat, India.

How to get Records from SQL for Last 24 Hours

2008-04-06T03:42:00.002+05:30

One of the applications I wrote is a logging system. One of the requested modifications is that I make it easy for managers to look at entries made in the last 24 hours. Right now, I have hard-coded links for Current Day, Yesterday, Last 7, etc.

Current Day shows entries made since midnight. Yesterday shows entries made for the previous day. So right now there's no quick way to get the entries for the last 24 hours.

The solution was simple:

Select * from Entries where DateAdded >= " & DateAdd("d",-1, Now())

How it works:

The VBScript Now() function gets the current date and time. I then use the DateAdd funciton to subtract 1 day. I then get all entries with a DateAdded timestamp great than or equal to resulting date and time.

Alternately, you could subtract hours:

Select * from Entries where DateAdded >= " & DateAdd("h",-24, Now())

DateAdd is pretty nifty.

Syntax:
DateAdd(datepart, number, date)

Datepart can be (abbreviation):
year (yyyy)
quarter (q)
month (m)
day (d)
week (ww)
hour (h)
minute (n)
second (s)

Examples:
1 month from today: DateAdd("m", 1, Now())
100 years ago: DateAdd("yyyy", -100, Now())
10 minutes from now: DateAdd("m", 10, Now())
1 quarter (3 months) ago: DateAdd("q", -1, Now())

Solution for "Operation must use an updateable query"

2008-03-14T14:39:00.001+05:30

Error:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'

[Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Operation must use an updateable query.

Reason1 : ODBC Connection (OLD FASHION)
strConn = "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=E:\ABC\XYZ.mdb"

Solution: OLEDB Connection
strConn = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=E:\ABC\XYZ.mdb;" & _
"User Id=<username>;Password=<password>"

note: specify username and password if any
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reason2 : RIGHTS
Access Rights (Write Permission) is not given to that folder / file (for e.g. ABC)

Solution:
Give Rights of "Write Permission" to Internet Guest Account (IUSR_<MachineName>)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reason3 : MDB file is read only

Solution:
Remove Read only attributes of file.
(hint: Right Click on File->Properties->Un check Read Only->Apply->OK)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reason4 : Problem executing Query
Query is not updateable sometimes when using relational tables improperly.

Solution:
Look into Query and Update query according to satisfaction.

IPL MATCH SCHEDULE

2008-03-05T11:47:00.002+05:30

April 19 : Delhi v Jaipur at Delhi
April 20: Mumbai v Bangalore at Mumbai; Kolkata v Hyderabad at Kolkata
April 21: Jaipur v Mohali at Jaipur
April 22: Hyderabad v Delhi at Hyderabad
April 23: Chennai v Mumbai at Chennai
April 24: Hyderabad v Jaipur at Hyderabad
April 25: Mohali v Mumbai at Mohali
April 26: Bangalore v Jaipur at Bangalore; Chennai v Kolkata at Chennai
April 27: Mumbai v Hyderabad at Mumbai; Mohali v Delhi at Mohali
April 28: Bangalore v Chennai at Bangalore
April 29: Kolkata v Mumbai at Kolkata
April 30: Delhi v Bangalore at Delhi.
------------
May 1: Hyderabad v Mohali at Hyderabad; Jaipur v Kolkata at Jaipur
May 2: Chennai v Delhi at Chennai.
May 3: Hyderabad at Bangalore at Hyderabad; Mohali v Kolkata at Mohali
May 4: Mumbai v Delhi at Mumbai; Jaipur v Chennai at Jaipur
May 5: Bangalore v Mohali at Bangalore
May 6: Chennai v Hyderabad at Chennai
May 7: Mumbai v Jaipur at Mumbai
May 8: Delhi v Chennai at Delhi; Kolkata v Bangalore at Kolkata
May 9: Jaipur v Hyderabad at Jaipur
May 10: Bangalore v Mumbai at Bangalore; Chennai v Mohali at Chennai
May 11: Hyderabad v Kolkata at Hyderabad; Jaipur v Delhi at Jaipur
May 12: Mohali v Bangalore at Mohali
May 13: Kolkata v Delhi at Kolkata
May 14: Mumbai v Chennai at Mumbai; Mohali v Jaipur at Mohali
May 15: Delhi v Hyderabad at Delhi
May 16: Mumbai v Kolkata at Mumbai
May 17: Delhi v Mohali at Delhi; Jaipur v Bangalore at Jaipur
May 18: Hyderabad v Mumbai at Hyderabad; Kolkata v Chenna at Kolkata
May 19: Bangalore v Delhi at Bangalore
May 20: Kolkata v Jaipur at Kolkata
May 21: Mumbai v Mohali at Mumbai; Chennai v Bangalore at Chennai
May 22: Delhi v Kolkata at Delhi
May 23: Mohali v Hyderabad at Mohali.
May 24: Delhi v Mumbai at Delhi; Chennai v Jaipur at Chennai
May 25: Bangalore v Hyderabad at Bangalore; Kolkata v Mohali at Kolkata
May 26: Jaipur v Mumbai at Jaipur
May 27: Hyderabad v Chennai at Hyderabad
======================================
May 28 and 29: Rest days

May 30: First semi-final at Mumbai
May 31: Second semi-final at Mumbai

June 1: Final at Mumbai

Railway Budget2008-09 by the Railway Minister, Shree Laluprasad

2008-03-02T12:59:00.003+05:30

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS

01. Professional agencies being involved on a pilot basis to ensure cleanliness in running trains.

02. Second-class Sleeper fares cut by 5%.

03. AC-1 fare cut by 7%.

04. AC-2 fare cut by 4%.

05. AC-3 fare cut by 3%.

06. Railways planning SMARTCARD-based ticketing system.

07. 6,000 automatic ticket sale machines in 2 years.

08. 50% concessions for AIDS patients.

09. Free season tickets for girls till graduation.

10. Arrival time to be printed on tickets.

11. 50% concession for senior women citizen.

12. Ticket confirmation via mobiles likely.

13. Railways to connected to call centres for reservations.

14. Display boards to be set up across stations for convenience of passengers.

15. Touch screens, colour TVs across all major stations.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

16. Freight traffic target of 785 million tonnes crossed to touch 790 million tonnes.

17. Railway plan size increased from Rs 11,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore in the last four years.

18. Set new profit of Rs 25,000 cr in 2007-08.

19. 560 railway station platforms to be lengthened to take long trains.

20. Middle-level and low-level platforms to be upgraded to high-level platforms in several stations to help commuters.

21. Doubling of lines to be given priority.

22. Work on automatic signalling to start in new sections.

23. Electrification of more routes in North India.

24. Foot overbridge along high level platforms.

25. In talks with foreign cos for new wagon designs.

26. High level platforms in 135 stations.

27. Housekeeping in Shatabdi to be outsourced.

28. Lifts and escalators in 50 stations.

29. Modular toilets to be introduced in trains.

30. Rajdhani, Shatabdi to get modernised coaches.

31. By 2010 all coaches to be in stainless steel.

32. 16,548 old rail tracks to be renewed.

33. Pvt cos can make terminals on Rly land.

34. All un-manned crossings to be manned.

35. Metal detectors, baggage scan at key stations.

36. 'Go Mumbai' tickets to be sold at bus depots.

37. Delhi-JNPT-NavaSheva western freight corridor cleared.

38. Multi-level parking at 30 major stations.

39. Free Rajdhani, Shatabdi travel for Ashok Chakra winners.

40. New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune to be made world-class stations.

41. Railways to issue wait-listed e-tickets.

42. To link trains via IT, communications in 2009.

43. 10 new Garib Raths, 53 new trains to be introduced.

44. Amravati-Mumbai Express -twice a week.

45. Khajuraho-Delhi thrice a week.

46. Chennai-Salem daily

47. Kurla-Howrah frequency twice a week.

48. Considering a rail link for Ennore port.

49. To have new wagon leasing policy.

50. BBU-NDLS Rajdhani thrice a week.

51. Expanding use of automated signalling system.

52. Special train between Delhi and Pune for Commonwealth Games.

Prakash Samariya - IT Professional

TEST POST

About Swine Flu (H1N1 - Influenza)

Very Important for Every PC USER

FAQ - Swine Flu (H1N1 Virus Influenza)

What should I do if I think I have the illness?If you feel unwell, have high fever, cough or sore throat:

Should I go to work if I have the flu but am feeling OK?No. Whether you have influenza A(H1N1) or a seasonal influenza, you should stay home and away from work through the duration of your symptoms. This is a precaution that can protect your work colleagues and others.

Can I travel?If you are feeling unwell or have symptoms of influenza, you should not travel. If you have any doubts about your health, you should check with your health care provider.

Swine Flu and Tulsi

MOZILLA FIREFOX KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Entering URLs

Basic Navigation

Tabbed Browsing

Searching Page Text

Miscellaneous

Notes

How to Transfer Mails from one Email Account to another for Free

Moving Emails from One Account to Another

An SEO Checklist for your Website

Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English (Presentations)

Edit Google Documents Directly in Microsoft Office & Save Your Changes Online

Know What People Are Saying about a Web Page

Microsoft is Getting Things Right This Time

Import Google Images into your Office Documents

Send SMS Text Messages from Your Computer to Any Mobile Phone With Outlook 2007 and Microsoft SMSOfficer

Disaster Recovery Procedures in SQL Server 2005 Part 1

Using SQL Server datetime functions GETDATE, DATENAME and DATEPART

Monitoring Changes in Your Database Using DDL Triggers

Introduction

Creating the Table and DDL TRIGGER

Conclusions

How To Protect From SQL Injection in ASP.NET

Applies To : ASP.NET version 1.1, ASP.NET version 2.0

Summary

Contents

Objectives

Overview

SQL Injection Example

Guidelines

Summary of Steps

Step 1. Constrain Input

Constrain Input in ASP.NET Web Pages

Constrain Input in Data Access Code

Step 2. Use Parameters with Stored Procedures

Review Your Application's Use of Parameterized Stored Procedures

Step 3. Use Parameters with Dynamic SQL

Using Parameter Batching

Additional Considerations

Use Escape Routines to Handle Special Input Characters

Use a Least-Privileged Database Account

Avoid Disclosing Error Information

Additional Resources

HTML - ASCII and ESCAPE Code LIST

HTTP Status Codes

Using CASE Expressions IN SQL

Using CASE Expressions

SQL Statement #1

SQL Statement #3

A More Complicated Example

Using CASE Expressions When Modifying Data

SQL Statement #6

General Usage Guidelines

How to reduce firefox memory load?

How to get Records from SQL for Last 24 Hours

Solution for "Operation must use an updateable query"

IPL MATCH SCHEDULE

Railway Budget2008-09 by the Railway Minister, Shree Laluprasad

What should I do if I think I have the illness?
If you feel unwell, have high fever, cough or sore throat:

Should I go to work if I have the flu but am feeling OK?
No. Whether you have influenza A(H1N1) or a seasonal influenza, you should stay home and away from work through the duration of your symptoms. This is a precaution that can protect your work colleagues and others.

Can I travel?
If you are feeling unwell or have symptoms of influenza, you should not travel. If you have any doubts about your health, you should check with your health care provider.