Creating Routes in Goggle Maps

I used to create Maps in Google Maps. Recently it has heen a point of irritation to me. Regardless of whether I create the route by "line" or "along roads". There seems to be some pointer problem. The waypoint may not always appear at the point you clicked.

Creating the route by "along roads" method is worst. The pointer will simply jump about. The trace lines may disappear for no reason. Worst of all, the resultant route may have all the waypoints but the distance indicated is not the full length. The "show the driving direction" feature was also cut short in this way.

I tried to plot the route by line then turn on "along roads". The result is the same. The route is cut short despite showing all the waypoints.

One other thing is that the "line" mode end of line clicking is hell. I don't seem to be able to click the same point to end the edit mode.

No matter what I tried I could not correct the problem. It has been like that for almost a year already and there seems to be no remedy.

IEndomondo has route creation feature also. The editing of the route is a bit crude and I cannot add additional waypoints along the route after it has been created.

Look like I am stuck with Google Map and had to live with the problem or quite creating routes all together.

3G in HTC DESIRE

I installed Quick Settings and it does not seem to be able to enable the 3G whenever I requires it. It is able to disable the 3G. Tried as I might, it just don't work properly.

I discovered that by pressing the on/off switch for 5 seconds, you will get a menu where there is an option to turn on/off 3G. I tried it and it can turn on the 3G while the Quick Settings was killed. If "Quick Settings" is on then it behaves weirdly.

My final decision is to take out "Quick Settings" completely. Now I can just turn on/off 3G easily using the on/off switch.

The only thing I missed is the other switches in "Quick Settings" like WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. However, there are widgets that could turn on/off the three devices. Just that they take up three spaces in the handphone display panel.

According to what I have read in internet, apps turning on/off 3G are not very successful. I am glad HTC already provided the facility.

SP not found

When you try to setup Replication in SQL Server and you encounter Error 2812 "Stored Procedure" not found. Basically you will be lost for answers.

The actual problem could be in the creating of the distributor. For example, my labtop is a XP when I create a distributor, it promps a "XP agent" error 15281.

The creation process is then just terminated without it being fully completed. It is possible then the necessary SP is not setup properly. I did not actually test the setup of the publisher in such condition. I actually make change to the "SQL Server Surface Area Configuration" on "Features" and checked "enable OPENROWSET..." immediately before reconfiguring the distributor.

The reconfiguration of the distributor is quite straight forward. Right click on the Replication icon and then choose "Distributor properties". Click on "Publisher" and un-check what ever you have set earlier. Add the same publisher to it and you can create local publication now.

Oracle Client

Oracle client is a facility where you can use to query oracle databases. If you are only interested to just install the ODBC part of the client, then you don't need to install the whole package. Just download the basic package and the odbc package from Oracle.

Create a new folder and unzip the two packages into the directory. You will need two extra file from Microsoft to be present in the same directory also. They are mfc71.dll and msvcr71.dll. Somehow the two files are required but never available in the packages.

Run odbc_install in the directory in dos prompt. It is important to run it in dos prompt as you can see the run result of the installation.

Go to system environment and add ORACLE_HOME and TNS_ADMIN variable. The value of the variables are the directory of the installed packages.

Don't forget to create/copy the sqlnet.ora and tnsnames.ora into the same directory also.

Now you can create an ODBC for the database.

I will not go into detail of the ODBC DSN setup as some users like DSNLESS way to query databases.

Make db offline for SQL Server.

Have trouble take some db offline. According to some blogger, they say it is some other sql manager connection to the db. However, I manage to take two of bd off line on the same server. There could be some one else connected to the db but I cannot be sure.

One blogger suggests the following command

ALTER DATABASE db SET OFFLINE WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE 

Another blogger says do this to kick out other users.

ALTER DATBASE db SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE
Yet to try it but both looks promising. Will update this if successful over the weekend.

Not a trusted SQL Connection

When you set up a sqlserver, there is an option that you must always set before any remote administrator can access to the sqlserver using "Sql Server Management Studio".

At the server where you install the sql server. Start "Sql Server Management Studio". (Assuming you have already setup sql server).

Goto menu bar View>Registered Server

Choose the local instance that you have setup previously and double click on it.

You can skip the above two steps if you can see the local instance in the object explorer already.

Right click on the instance in the object explorer and choose properties.

Select Security.

Under "Server Authentication", check "Sql Server and Windows Authentication mode".

Click "OK"

You should now be able to connect to the sql server from remote sql server management tool.

Sending to a group of external email in Outlook

Normally if you want to send to external email, you would add the email directly to your new mail. However, if you need to send a mass mail of more than a thousand, like send mail to all your clients, it will be a headache.

Fortunately, there is a facility call "distribution list". However, you will still have to add the recipients one by one. Here is a way where you can send to a distribution list without having to add recipients one by one.

1. Start Outlook.

2. File>New>Folder

3. Type the name you want to use

4. Select “contact items”

5. Choose “Contacts” from the list.

6. Click “OK”.

7. From the main Outlook window choose File> Import and Export…

8. Choose “Import from another program or file

9. Click Next

10. Choose “Comma separated Value (windows)”

11. Click Next

12. Use the “Browse” button to select the email list.

13. Click “Do not import duplicate items”.

14. Click Next

15. Select the newly created folder from contacts.

16. Click “ok”

17. Click “Finish” when import completes.

When you want to send the mail, you can just go to contacts and choose the name of the distribution list. Should you need to keep the recipients from seeing other emails in the list then just add the list to BCC. Click the "TO" then select the list name (don't double click) and click "BCC".

Editing the list is easy. On the menu bar click "Go" then choose "Folder list" and you can find the list name in the contacts folder.