Database Corruption

It's important to understand that any time an Access client disconnects unexpectedly, it may set a "corruption flag" in the .mdb file indicating that the database is in a corrupt state (regardless of whether any data has actually been corrupted or not). Any user who attempts to open the database while this flag is set will receive a message, and the database will have to be repaired before it can be used. If the users don't have permission to perform the repair, or don't know how to perform the repair, there may be significant downtime before the database is available again. This can result in a loss of productivity as well as extreme frustration for the users. Following the 5 tips below will minimize your odds of data loss from corruption in your Access databases.
1) Split your database.
The single most important thing you can do to prevent corruption in MS Access databases is to split the database into a "front-end" and a "back-end". The front-end contains all of the forms, queries, and reports, while the back-end contains only the data tables. A copy of the front-end is placed on each user's computer, and the back-end with the table data is stored in a shared folder on the network. How does this prevent corruption? Well, consider the amount of information that must make it across your network to your computer each time you open a form or report. If one bit of that information doesn't make it intact, you risk corrupting your database. Alternatively, if the forms, queries and reports are all stored on your local computer, then the only bit of information that needs to traverse the network is the actual table data. By reducing the amount of data you need to move back and forth across the network, you significantly reduce the chances of corrupting your database. If you're having corruption problems with an Access database on a network drive, splitting the database is the single most important thing you can do to stop it.
2) Don't hold connections open.
This one applies to both programmers and users. If you're a programmer, make sure you close your connections as soon as possible after using them. Leaving the connections open will allow more opportunities for an "unexpected" dropped connection. The only time you may want to leave a connection open longer than required would when it's used inside a loop. For such a case, open the connection at the beginning of the loop, and then close it after the loop is completed. Just make sure it gets closed for all cases (including exceptions).
If you're using a Microsoft Access database or application, be sure to close it when you're finished. Again, leaving the application open provides the opportunity for corruption if a network connection is lost. Remind users to always close the application before going home, as nightly backup jobs may fail or cause corruption in the shared file if there are open connections.
3) Exit the database correctly.
Always close the database or application correctly. Ctrl-Alt-Delete/End Task can wreak havoc on Access databases. Whenever possible, complete your tasks, then close the application using the File - Exit menu option or alternative Exit option provided by the application.
4) Don't skimp on hardware.
Remember that the corruption flag can be set from the slightest packet loss between your computer and the database file. MS Access has sometimes been called "the canary in the coal mine". It has gained this reputation from being the first application to "die" when there's the slightest hint of trouble on your network. Just like the slightest presence of gas caused the canary to die, the slightest presence of network problems and packet loss can kill your Access applications. Make sure you're not using the cheap built-in NICs that come with some PCs. Instead, use brand name network cards. The same goes for cheap hubs. Whenever possible, match good brands of equipment throughout your network.
5) Compact and repair regularly.
Performing the built-in compact and repair function regularly is recommended to prevent corruption and improve performance. Consider automating this function with a utility to compact and repair all of your databases nightly or during the weekend.
Error messages to look out for - the following error messages may signal database corruption:
"The database 'databasename.mdb' needs to be repaired or isn't a Microsoft Access database file."
"Record(s) can't be read, no read permissions on 'databasename.mdb'"
"Unexpected Error 35012"
"Unrecognized database format ‘databasename.mdb'."
"‘databasename.mdb' isn't an index in this table. Look in the Indexes collection of the TableDef object to determine the valid index names."
"The Microsoft Jet database engine could not find the object 'databases'. Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name and path name correctly."
"The database has been placed in a state by user '' on machine '' that prevents it from being opened or locked"
"Disk Error -- Reserved error (-1601)"
"The database has been placed in an unexpected state."
"Record(s) cannot be read no read permission on 'MSysObjects'"
"Record(s) cannot be read no read permission on 'MSysACEs'."
"The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot find the input table or query 'MSysAccessObjects'. Make sure it exists and that its name is spelled correctly."

Surfboard Lighting

There is just not enough time during the day to surf. Many times the best surf is at night, how often do you challenge a sunset to catch that last wave? Well thin you are a surf-aholic and as you have seen out there you are not alone. There is some new killer technology on the horizon for the dedicated surfer.
Recently we have seen WiFi surf boards so you can do your email between sets. This works pretty good and I was jazzed when I first heard of it. Surfing while surfing makes a lot of sense. Still waiting on the mail order as this article is finished, but here is some more information on that.

If your ocean becomes your office and your surfboard becomes your desk, what if you decide to work late or early? Well this is why I am going to figure out how to run my surfboard laptop, WiFi and headlight on electromagnetic energy? As you know batteries and water do not mix all that well. You say headlight on a surfboard come again? Yes, that is what I said now then I have tried this already via a battery-less flashlight and duct tape.
The waves provide a good amount of movement. Which is need to power up the new electromagnetic induction technology flashlights, which charge a capacitor instead of the working off a battery. Currently there are some nifty micro-flashlights being used which you can buy which use a similar technique and are available thanks to the Everlite Flashlight technology research lab. These smaller flashlights work by shaking them for about thirty seconds and shine for about 6 minutes and they shine quite bright since they use a very bright LED light. Here is a link to this home use flashlight:

I propose we get a really smart Surfboard making entrepreneur with some balls to put on of these flashlights inside the surfboard rather than having to duct tape it on top. We can test it for them and get some free surfboards. I propose that the front of the surfboard have an automotive style headlight lens with the LED light inside. Think on this now, surf on it later.

Graphics Card

Let’s talk about some specifics for the average home/office PC user. This PC is used for word processing, spreadsheets, viewing photos, and even watching a DVD movie or playing a 2D game. Most all of these functions are handled easily by today’s low-end graphics cards.
To accomplish these tasks, you can get by with a 32-64MB card, with a clock speed around 166MHz. You can find a good card with these specs for $40. Most of them will have only a VGA connector, but you can find some with DVI and even S-Video for more like $100.
Prevent eye fatigue
If you are looking at spreadsheets and documents for hours on end, the best thing you can do is get a card that has a high refresh rate, at the resolution you work at. A minimum is 75MHz. The higher the resolution, the more memory is used on the card and the harder it is to refresh. If this rate drops below 75MHz, your eyes will be fatigued from the flicker of the monitor. Find out what your monitor can support at the resolution you use, then get a card that can pump it out that fast.
Don’t get features you don’t need
If you just play on the Internet, or balance your checkbook on the computer, you don’t need all those available connectors on the back of your video card. Don’t spend a lot of extra money on a card that has features you’ll never use. If you’re just playing solitaire, it’s not likely you’ll notice the difference in a $50 card and a $500 card. Another good thing to check is the software that comes with the card. Most come bundled with nice utilities to change resolution and even add some effects to the way XP looks. A lot of them also come with a game or two, which are usually a good indication of what the card can handle.

Academic Software

If you are a sort of graphics addicted person you will not take advantage of one or two programs and you would need an entire series of programs to satisfy your exigences.Yet, you should always be aware of their price as they can cost a lot. There are some measures by which you can save a great deal of your money.One way to satisfy your need for a highly performant program is to search for the academic software version.If you attend any education institution you do probably benefit from some academic software purchases which can save you a large sum of money. You should know that academically priced software is of a great quality and it is given to affordable prices if you are part of any educational institution. The disadvantage is that no manual is given along with the program but the amount of money you have saved should be more than enough for you to buy one.
If you do not want to purchase a manual for your program there are many free tutorials on the Internet where you can find the useful information to start working with your program.
This along with free instructions and pieces of advice should be enough for you to register a great success with your program.If you believe that the price of the software with academic discount is suitable for you, you may contact your institution's library or any other source which deals with them in your school or faculty. You can also find them along with the discount on some Internet websites.
A frequently asked question is whether the academic software can be used in commercial purposes or not.Well, this is relative and totally dependent on what it is mentioned in the license Agreement for that particular program. Generally you are permitted to do so but some companies do not allow you to use the program in commercial purposes.

Data protection

S2s Ltd is a UK provider of network consulting and implementation services
that needed data protection" to ensure business continuity, even in the event of a server breakdown.
s2s was previously using disk-to-tape to back up all the various systems the business was running on.
Backing up and recovering data" was not only a very complicated and time-consuming process, it was also very unreliable. When retrieving data
from the tapes, once they had been delivered back to s2s, a lot of the data from the tapes was irretrievable.
SecurStore’s online solution automatically transfers data offsite in real-time, eliminating the risk of having backups located onsite in case of a disaster or loss of data during transportation to an offsite location. Data is transmitted and stored offsite in a state of the art data centre on a reliable disk subsystem, which is in turn duplicated and backed up onto a second disk sub-system located apart from the primary disk sub-system.
Due to the nature of the business, s2s runs on a variety of operating systems. Most of its servers are Linux-based and some of them are Mac-based,
because many s2s employees use Apple Macintosh machines. It also has the obligatory Windows applications and operates with a SAN architecture. SecurStore also needed to take into account the fact that most of the s2s servers are virtualised and that s2s already had a NAS (network-attached storage) system in place.
The backup service" uses many defense mechanisms, such as strong  authentication, data encryption, password protection and client and system side log legitimate users at s2s to perform a data recovery" when needed.
SecurStore backs up the critical data of s2s (120GB) online on a continual basis, so that from the moment a server goes down, all the data can be quickly retrieved online. The remaining less critical 80GB of data is either backed up to SecurStore’s Backup Lifecycle Management (BLM) offline service, or backed up by the outsourced provider.

SecurStore is suitable for businesses that need to protect data from a few gigabytes to terabytes. The service ensures that any data held on PCs, Macintosh computers, file servers and application/database servers is securely backed up. SecurStore supports many platforms including Windows NT/2000/2003/XP along with AS-400 iSeries, Unix and Linux. SecurStore can also protect a wide range of databases including Oracle, SQL, Exchange, Lotus Notes and DB2.

Leapster Kids

The Leapster Learning Game System
Teaches the way your child loves to play! With the Leapster learning advantage, kids can play action-packed games that teach essential skills for preschool through 4th grade. Multiple learning levels, tailored tutorials and a wide variety of learning games that take advantage of both the multi-directional control pad and the easy to use stylus ensure that children are learning essential skills while playing the video games that they love. With Leapster, the name of the game is learning!
Leapster Is Growing Fast
Since 1985, Leapster, LeapPad and LeapFrog has taken to heart the commitment of providing quality and fun educational toys for children. With a team of experts in child psychology, teaching and technology, LeapFrog has established itself as one of the most sought after and popular educational toy makers all over the world. In fact, in 2000 alone, during the rise of the demand for children's educational toys, LeapFrog's sales soared by a whopping 120%. Imagine how many products it is selling now!
LeapFrog has recognized this growing need and come up with a wide array of toys, each catering to a particular skill set and age group. There is a LeapFrog toy for every infant, toddler and elementary school child out there. In addition, LeapFrog does not only address the educational needs of kids in the English speaking world. It has toys that also come in Spanish and other major foreign languages.
Kids Can Learn
Children are capable of  learning best when they don't think they're learning at all. That is, the perfect chance to teach them is when they are playing. It is this concept that has propelled educational toys's popularity (Like Leapster) to the highest point. Despite the fact that they can be quite expensive, parents are paying no attention to the price, recognizing only the benefits their children will gain playing with the educational toy's, and seeing that it far outweigh's the price tag.
There are many kinds of educational toys, but the electronic ones are probably the most sought after. Since we live in a modern advancing technologically world, getting kids interested in electronics is inevitable.
Some toys are universal and are appropriate for all ages. These can make excellent gifts for children and  will not have to worry about the levels of skill or knowledge required. The Leapster gaming system masters this concept. By purchasing educational games of differing levels, the Leapster gaming system has a wide range of appeal across a large span of ages... Any list of potential gifts for children should include an item similar to the  Leapster educational handheld gaming system.
Children, especially younger ones, are in need of good education. Educational toys can aid this eduction. Of course these toys should also be fun and unique. Most educational toys are indifferent from each other, but some of these still stand out and are still unique in their own ways.
Leapster games are produced by Leapfrog, a company committed to producing only educational products for children.

Password Types

Have you ever wondered that there can be types of passwords just like types of files? Is it possible? Yes it is. MS Excel is equipped with five types of password locking with which you can protect your worksheets. This means you can secure your MS Excel worksheet with 5 different password security measures and prevent unauthorized access to the worksheet.

This article targets to those users who need to secure excel worksheets for various reasons. Beneficial for people in finance field as MS Excel is widely used tool by accountants, charted accountants, brokers, stenos and every other individual who need to store and display data in a hierarchical order.

The Excel password types are:

Password to open the Worksheet
Password for Modifications
VBA Modules
Worksheet Password
Workbook Password


1.) Password to open the Worksheet:

You can assign passwords to the excel worksheets and prevent any individual from accessing it. To assign password to your .xls file:

Open the .xls document, which you want to password protect.
Select the Save As option from the File menu.
Click the Tools tab on the top of the Save As window and select the General Options… option.
The Save Options window will be displayed, where you can enter the desired password in the Password to open text box.

If any unauthorized individual tries to open the worksheet, Microsoft Excel will ask to enter the password. If the password is incorrect the sheet will not open.

2.) Password for Modifications:

This option works similarly as the first one. As the password was assigned to open the excel worksheet, password to modify the excel worksheet can also be assigned in the similar way.

Open the .xls document, which you want to password protect.
Select the Save As option from the File menu.
Click the Tools tab on the top of the Save As window and select the General Options… option.
The Save Options window will be displayed, where you can enter the desired password in the Password to modify text box.

Only authorized individuals who know the password can modify the document otherwise he can only view the read-only copy of the password protected worksheet. This kind of protection helps to protect the document getting modified by other people, thus saving the original data which you had saved before leaving your desk.

3.) VBA Modules:

The excel worksheet can contain VBA modules with added macros in the file. This Visual Basic for Application module can also be password protected. To password protect, perform the following:

Select the VBA module and right-click the mouse button.
Select the VBA Project Properties… option.
Click the Protection tab.
In this window, check the Lock project for viewing option and assign password in the Password to view project properties dialogue box.
Click OK.

The VBA module is now protected with password and secure from any unauthorized use.

4.) Worksheet Password:

There can be several worksheets in a single .xls file like Sheet 1, Sheet 2 and so on. You can password protect them too. To assign password to any current worksheet perform the following:

Click the Tools menu
Select the Protection > Protect Sheet option. The Protect Sheet window will be displayed.
Select amongst the number of options for your worksheet. (These options depend on the working version of MS Excel; I am working in MS Excel 2003)
After selecting the options you can assign password to the worksheet.

5.) Workbook Password:

Like Worksheets, excel workbooks can also be protected in the similar way of protecting worksheets.
Click the Tools menu
Select the Protection > Protect Workbook option. The Protect Workbook window will be displayed.
Select both or appropriate option from Structure and Windows and assign the password.

You can also try this:

Click the Tools menu.
Select the Protection > Protect and Share Workbook… option. The Protect Shared Workbook window will be displayed. This enables you to share the workbook with track changes.
Check the Sharing with track changes option. This would activate the Password text box.
Assign password in the Password text box.

This kind of password protection helps at the time of sharing the excel worksheets. This would restrict other user from making changes in the document and retains the track changes in the sheet.

As there are 5 different options to protect the excel worksheet with passwords, there can be times when you tend to forget or lose the assigned password or the excel document can get corrupt due to virus attacks, accidental deletions, power outages etc. There are many excel password recovery tools to recover the lost / forgotten passwords. These software tools can easily restore the forgotten passwords of excel files. But if in case the MS Excel file gets corrupt, you can try the FREE demo version of  Kernel Recovery for Excel , a corrupt excel file recovery software which easily recovers and repairs the damaged worksheets and extracts cell data, formulas, charts, images, hyperlinks etc. If the Excel repair software displays your lost data then you can purchase Full version of the excel file repair software.

Compare function

Sometime we need to compare files, in order to find out differences and learn more about modifications that were made within documents. The common task is to do comparison analysis fast and provide accurate results. Further requirements depends on what is compare done for.
For instance, quality assurance specialists need to find changes and analyze how these changes will affect other documents. Manager might need to check someone's job and provide report about project progress. Web developers are interested in comparing web page files to highlight changes that were made.
Some programs has a built-in compare function. For instance, Microsoft Word has an ability to edit documents and more over, do document audit. It's possible in Word to display what changes were made and who did these changes. But there are some limitations in Word, for instance, sometime the report is too detailed and it's hard to find out what changes are really important.
For sure, a number of well-known compare tools suggest a compare function to end user. These tools can handle most file types, but sometime lack an ability to represent source file format correctly. For instance, comparing Word or PDF file will be hard as most tools doesn't represent actual document formatting. More over, it's not possible to specify what formatting is important to you right now, e.g. some font changes may be very critical to you, but color changes don't mean much.
As for comparison built in Word, it's very convenient, as you don't need to have any third-party utility. What you need is just a Word and two files to compare. Give a try to this feature before considering purchase some third-party tool.
What do you miss when you use just Word comparison? Well, it works good for documents that were changed just a little, but when you need to compare documents that were changed a lot, then Word will not do it's job. In this case you might need to use some tool that supports comparison by keywords.
Also, if you wish to share the results of your comparison with others, then it would be hard to get some kind of comparison report, put your comments there and process it to your colleague.
Finally, with Word comparison you will not be able to compare Word document against Excel or Word document against PDF file. Word will deal only with documents of Microsoft Word software. That is the common limitation why people are looking for some other compare tools.
MS Word software is great for comparison of Word files, but it will hardly compare documents that were changed a lot or documents of different type. That's why, if you are involved in quality assurance or need to control document changes, it's a good idea to pay attention to third-party compare tools.

SQL Server

In a multi-user environment, there are two models for updating data in a database: optimistic concurrency and pessimistic concurrency.
Pessimistic concurrency involves locking the data at the database when you read it. You essentially lock the database record and don't allow anyone to touch it until you are done modifying and saving it back to the database. Here you have 100% assurance that nobody will modify the record and while you check it have it checked out, out. aAnother person will have to wait until you have made the your changes.
By default, SQL Server controls lock escalation, but you can control it yourself by using lock optimizer hints. Here are some lock escalation hints you may want to consider:
· ROWLOCK This hint guides tells SQL Server to use row-level locking instead of page locks for INSERTS. By default, SQL Server may perform as a page-level lock instead of a less intrusive row-level lock when inserting data. By using this hint, you can guide tell SQL Server to always start out using row-level locking. But, this hint does not prevent lock escalation if the number of locks exceeds SQL Server's lock threshold.
· SERIALIZABLE (equivalent to HOLDLOCK) applies only to the table specified and only for the duration of the transaction, and it will hold a shared lock for this duration instead of releasing it as soon as the required table, data page, row or data is no longer required.
· TABLOCK specifies that a table lock to be used instead of a page or row level lock. This lock will be remained held until the end of the statement.
· TABLOCKX specifies that an exclusive lock will be applied held on the table until the end of the statement or transaction, and will prevent others from reading or updating the table.
· UPDLOCK specifies that update locks will be used instead of shared locks, and will hold the locks until the end of the statement or transaction.
· XLOCK specifies that an exclusive lock be used and kept activated held until the end of the end of the transaction on all data being processed by the statement. The granularity of XLOCK will be adjusted if it is used with the PAGLOCK or TABLOCK hints.

disaster recovery

Nordural ehf's backup system needed to incorporate a Disaster Recovery plan that would reduce the backup window from ten hours to two-three hours.
A Disaster Recovery Plan" is a coordinated activity to enable the recovery of IT/business systems due to a disruption. Disaster Recovery can be achieved by restoring IT/business operations at an alternate location, recovering IT/business operations using alternate equipment, and/or performing some or all of the affected business processes using manual methods.
It was essential that Nordural's backup system incorporate a trustworthy Disaster Recovery plan that would reduce its backup window from ten hours to two-three hours. In addition to this, Nordural wanted a Disaster Recovery plan that restored the company's most critical servers to bare metal restore in less than two hours.

Nordural's decision to select the SecurStore Remote Backup Service" highlights the strength and flexibility of managed services.
Remote backup (sometimes also referred to as online backup) is a service that provides users with an online system for backing up and storing computer files. Remote backup service providers are companies that provide a software program and space on a server that their client's data is stored on. The software program will run on a client’s computer and (typically) once a day; compress, encrypt and then send the client's data to the remote backup service providers' servers to be stored
With SecurStore, Nordural had the assurance that all their requirements would be met - from a fast critical restore, to remote backup at multiple locations, to a simple and effective interface for the
IT people at Nordural.
"We chose the SecurStore Remote Backup Service because it gives us all round backup and recovery services for our needs, with 24x7x365 support" said Emil Hilmarsson, IT Manager Nordural. SecurStore also provided Nordural with the option of assigning which data is 'critical; and which is 'important' data by using Long Term Storage with the use of Backup Lifecycle Management system that manages data during all backing up and archiving processes.
Backup Lifecycle Management differentiates data into varying levels of protected data: current critical data, which is stored on-line for fast recovery; and archivable data that may be needed at a later time but is not likely to be accessed in the near future.
Alexander Eiríksson, President of SecurStore, confirmed, "The agentless architecture of SecurStore Remote Backup Service allows us to implement the service with minimal interference to Nordural's existing computer systems. Moreover, because the service is pivoted around providing backup and recovery for geographically dispersed locations, it perfectly compliments Nordural's multi-site locations, remote or otherwise. This provisioning enables Nordural to remotely back up laptops even when workers are away."
At each customer site, a single client discovers all servers, desktops and laptops connected to the local network, and automates the backup of all local data assets.