Texasviking.com

Oh look! A blog.

Ran into an issue today when a new linked server connection. Turns out the fix was pretty simple, but I couldn't find it posted anywhere.

The Error:
An invalid schema or catalog was specified for the provider "SQLNCLI10" for linked server "MyLinkedServer".

My Query:

SELECT TOP 10 * FROM [MyLinkedServer].[MyDatabase]..[TableA]
Turns out I wasn't specifying a schema, obviously.

The Fix:

SELECT TOP 10 * FROM [MyLinkedServer].[MyDatabase].[dbo].[TableA]

Book reading is not my forte, nor will it ever be. I'm not exactly sure why; I do enjoy the occasional book from time to time, and when one draws me in, I'm hooked - usually finishing it within a few days. I think the biggest problem for me is that consuming information comes too slowly via reading a book. I'd rather skim a dozen web pages or surf Wikipedia for 20 minutes and learn 50 things as opposed to reading a book for an hour a night for the next month.

That being said, when I do come across a book that I want to read, it's "kind of a big deal".

Before I go any further, you must know that I go crazy for new tech gadgets. I've owned every iPhone, standing in line on launch day, and feverishly hoped that Apple's "tablet device" would be announced for the 2009 Holiday season. It wasn't. A month later (my birthday is in January), I asked for Amazon gift cards so that I could buy a Kindle (hoping that it would entice me to read more). I did, in fact, buy a Kindle and even used it for a solid week. Content was plentiful, and the device was solid, easy to use, and did exactly what it was expected to do.

Then, the iPad was announced.

Goal:

A friend of mine was desperately in need of a new PC. His laptop was quickly becoming a paperweight, and he needed something inexpensive, yet upgradeable to get him through the rest of college.

The requirements were simple.

• $300 (after rebate), including monitor! That realistically means $200 for the PC itself... not a lot, but doable.
• Fast enough to run office
• Maybe play a game of MineCraft.

Now that my workstation setup is beginning to take shape, I realized that I needed a third monitor for my "optimal" environment.

One small issue though, the Macbook Pro only supports 1 external monitor natively. You do have the option of using a Matrox device that extends that external output onto 2 or more displays. Not really ideal for me though. I need native display support. Once again, I went to Monoprice for my needs... this time for a USB video adapter. I've been reading about this over the last year or so, and finally decided that the ~$50 was a worthy investment if it solved my problem.

My Personal Photo Gallery!

Following the laptop arm that I sourced, I realized I needed a monitor arm to raise the height of my screen to a "more ergonomic" location.

After being so satisfied with my laptop arm, I considered ordering a single monitor arm from the same place. They don't carry single screen arms though, so it was back to square 1. However, one of my top 3 favorite tech equipment sites came to the rescue! 

Because a MacBook Pro is only capable of pushing a single external monitor (without any extra equipment...hopefully more on this in a future blog post), I needed to still use the onboard display as my second screen. This is all fine and dandy, except that the body of the laptop gets in the way of where I naturally want my keyboard to sit.

Luckily, I'd run across a great discount website that sells monitor arms and thought I'd remembered seeing a laptop stand too! Sure enough, I was right, and so I ordered one.

New Job

I now work for Match.com! (You probably already knew this from Facebook, or LinkedIn.)

Pretty sweet setup too, I might add!

New Server - New Site

Also, I've moved the site from my previous server to a new one! Yes, I know links are broken. I wanted to change dataproviders for Graffiti, and decided to start with a fresh database instead of trying to migrate and upgrade the old one. I will manually import the old posts as I have time.