I am taking the course “Advanced Databases and Datawarehousing” this semester. As a part of the course, i am supposed to work with either oracle or MYSQL or any other equivalent db.

Instead of working in the labs at the campus ( well, i need to apply and get a valid login from the IT guy at UofL, then take time out of my 20 hours/week schedule, plus swimming , plus taking care of my new kitty, plus hello its snowing, how the deuce do you expect me to go to campus.. and yeah, did i mention i DONT have a car?), i would rather take time to install one that i like on my super hot laptop!

I need to post more pics of my laptop and my kitty .. uh well. so here the first step towards installation of MYSQL.

step1: Choose which db software you want to install. I chose MYSQL because, well i played with Oracle 7.3 when i was a kid(well, 4 years ago i was a kid).

Step2: google “MYSQL APACHE PHP all in one installation”. Well, what do you know, the first of the results leads to XAMPP. OFCOURSE!!

Step3: INSTALL XAMPP

Step4: Need to post more on followups!

ADIOS!

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I love visual basic… yes its having the word basic..but its so much more than that now!!

Many times when you export data from internet or just plain copy-paste when nothing else works, most of the HTML carries itself with the data into excel. Heres some code to remove hyperlinks from a column in excel.

**************

Sub RemoveHyperlink()

Dim Cell As Range

For Each Cell In Intersect(Selection, ActiveSheet.UsedRange)

On Error Resume Next

Cell.Hyperlinks.Delete

Next Cell

End Sub

**********************

All you gotta do you run the macro after selecting the range of cells with hyperlinks

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iTunes sucks with iPod shuffle!!

I’ve tried and my patience has run out. So i googled a bit about it. And all i see is forums filled with frustrated people ranting that shuffle is broken.

Well, not really. Its not broken. All you need is a “About iPod Reset Utility“.

Now you gotta look for what you want it for, Windows/Mac. You could do this by searching at apple.com for the phrase “About iPod Reset Utility“. Or, at this link.

I have tried installing the iPod Updater 1.1.3 that would allow you to reset/format models of iPod, but alas, not Shuffle!! So dont waste time doing that…

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ShopWiki Color Search –Just saw this on comparisonengines.com and loved it: Shopwiki uses Web a Web 2. interface to let users search by color. Simple and innovative addition to the online shopping behavior. Very cool.im thinking that so many folks like to shop by color.
Ok, just talking about ShopWiki’s new color search tool is not enough. You have to experience it for yourself to understand the ‘cool’ factor of this funtionality. So go and test it out:

Go here (a search for a – something). Click on the ‘Colors’ beta button. Then choose a color. Then another. Then another. Then another. Now try searching for ‘vacuum’ or ‘cell phone’ and use the color search tool. It’s not perfect, but you’ll quickly get the picture.

Seriously. Leave. But please come back.

If you take a close look at what ShopWiki is doing, the color search tool is probably just the start of a flood of innovative ways to shop. Many shopping comparison engines are set up to quickly and efficiently monetize incoming clicks. If you look at the UI of most engines, there’s no Web 2.0 technology like Ruby on Rails or AJAX. There’s no sleek or simple interface like you’d see on SimplyHired or Kayak. And many of the current breed of shopping comparison engines are now owned by larger entities that are public or are going public so there’s not necessarily going to be a drive to take a step back and figure out how to innovate, but rather a full fledged assault on increasing revenue per visit.

The point is that ShopWiki has the freedom to think about the activity of shopping search much differently than NexTag, PriceGrabber, or Shopping.com. I’m not saying that ShopWiki is correct in its approach and every other company is wrong, but this color search innovation is what comes from thinking about a better user experience. I have not seen new features like this on the more established engines in a while. And isn’t the shop by color feature a better way to search for a sweater than the current options out there?

So where does this leave ShopWiki? Because of the potential for comprehensiveness, the low cost model, and focus on user experience, it’s exciting to think of the possiblities. Expect the company to continue to launch new features to create a more engaging shopping experience. Taken as a whole, this is one way (note, it’s not the only way) to build a loyal audience and not rely on the PPC engines. The more established players should pay attention.

Women are going to love this!

I need to play some more to get the color just right – you are right – it is fun!

Now, maybe I can match shoes and a purse without spending hours at the mall!

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IE: a wannabe firefox?

First lets talk about the predecessor. A post about IE7 on TechCrunch generated a lot of comments complaining about the lack of innovation in the Microsoft product. The timeline between IE6 and IE7 has been unusually long by software standards, so it was reasonable to expect a decent amount of innovation.

But nothing is near to ‘innovation’. All the features, though they look like the Microsoft IE-styled integration, are what firefox has. Infact, the features are what firefox came out as foxier than IE. So all looked like imitation.

Firefox

In just a few years, Firefox has taken
the previously dormant browsing market by storm and woken the slumbering giant Microsoft.

Any browser that was to successfully challenge IE6’s market dominance would have to be far and away the best browser on offer. Netscape 6 was decent, but didn’t cut it. The Mozilla suite, on which Navigator 6 was based, is excellent but aimed at developers and unwieldy for most user’s needs. The web needed a browser that was fast, lightweight, and did everything IE does, but better. The answer to that: Firefox.

Features that i Like the MOST! :

Firefox has an open architecture which allows the installation of
themes and extensions. Themes, like ‘skins’ in many other applications,
give the browser a whole new look. Extensions are even better — anyone
can write one to make the browser do something special, like check your
Gmail account when you open the browser, or block all ads.

• I like the IE Tab, with which i open the sites which cry to
  open in firefox. Another interesting thing i do with IE Tab is to open
  two gmail accounts at the same time in two different tabs, one firefox
  tab, one ie tab.
• And ofcourse, i use Performancing, which lets me configure my blog account very easily and blog within any tab.
• Firefox uses the same powerful rendering engine (code named “Gecko”) which is found in all Mozilla products. This means it has superb support for all those things we web developers love. Its rendering is accurate and fast, and it has advanced stylesheet support up the proverbial ‘wazoo’. DOM support is present and accounted for.
• Search is probably the most fundamental thing we do online and Firefox excels at
  integrating search engines in a very smart way. With this new release, Firefox adds the
  search completion mechanism, which works just like Google complete.

• FireFTP:

FireFTP is a Firefox add-on which enables you to upload your site or
files via the FTP protocol. It is handy if you are a Firefox user
because of the idea of running it inside one of the tabs so you don’t
have to launch an extra program. I looove this feature!

This free add-on allows you to upload to anywhere on the internet with FTP ability, providing you have the password of course.

You can run multiple FTP accounts and switch between them with a
simple drop down list. It is faster than most FTP clients I have used
and includes a whole host of features as well as a very good help
website to accompany it.

The program is available through the Mozilla Firefox add on website or direct from fireftp.mozdev.org.

Pros: Firefox has a tabbed interface; includes a pop-up
blocker; built-in, multiple search tools; and built-in RSS reader. It
is stable and free.

Cons:
No ActiveX support, so not all sites work in Firefox.

Overall:
Firefox’s tabbed browsing, RSS support, security features, and overall
cool factor make it more attractive than Internet Explorer.

powered by performancing firefox

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