...or rather... if VistaDB was a woman... and I wasn't already married... and I was into chicks who were thread-safe and crash-safe.... then I'd marry it.

Since it is (by far) the most popular article on my blog, I'm assuming that anyone reading this knows about my long and painfully tortuous journey through the dregs of .NET embedded databases in an attempt to find a stable backend for TaskRunner. Well... I have finally arrived at a solution which I am perfectly content with. (yes, I realize that's bad grammer... sue me.)

Last you heard, I was going ahead with my implementation of SharpHSQL as the backend. I had a few "issues", but I thought I had a way of getting around them... well.... that has all changed.

I had a little task I wanted to perform. And this was one of those times where it wasn't as easy as my little pea-brain had imagined it would be. Basically, I wanted to copy data from a table in one database into an identical table in another database. You'd think that there would be a very straightforward way to do this using the amazing new ADO.NET... and believe it or not... there is.

"So what's the problem?", you ask? Well... apparently... NO ONE ON THE ENTIRE FREAKING INTERNET HAS EVER POSTED A SAMPLE OF HOW TO DO IT!!%#!%!

*aaah*... and that's where I come in....

VistaDB just put out a new version of their .NET embedded database. Here's the blurb from their site:

This 2.1 update includes over 60 improvements, including new support for .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2005. VistaDB is a small-footprint, embedded SQL database alternative to Jet/Access, MSDE and SQL Server Express 2005 that enables developers to build .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 applications. Features SQL-92 support, small 500KB embedded footprint, free 2-User VistaDB Server for remote TCP/IP data access, royalty free distribution for both embedded and server, Copy 'n Go! deployment, managed ADO.NET Provider, data management and data migration tools. Free trial is available for download.
- Learn more about VistaDB
- Repost this to your blog and receive a FREE copy of VistaDB 2.1!

Seriously... first the tsunami... then a nice long string of devastating hurricanes... then throw in a couple massive floods... and add a huge earthquake for good measure. It'll be a wonder if any buildings are actually still standing come Christmas.

And after all this... after months of consecutive tragedies... and public outreach... and billions of dollars in donations and aid... I think we might be running into a new phenomenon here... and I've dubbed it "PEE" or "Post Empathetic Exhaustion" (and mark my words, it'll be all over cable news in no time )...

Last time I drooled over the latest web-tech from Google, it was because of a cool new feature in Google Maps. This time... they've made a few enhancements (or should I say, optional enhancements) to their homepage. As ahead-of-the-curve as Google has always been, their homepage has always been very minimalistic and simple (which is one of the things I always liked about them). Most search engines flood their landing page with so much content, and news feeds, and crap that you have to squint just to find the "Search" field (which is the only reason you go to the page in the first place). But Google has always had a very uncluttered, fast-loading home page that gives you exactly what you need, and nothing more... but now, thanks to their latest groovy toy, you can have your cake, and actually find the freaking Search field too...

Here's a little tip I picked up... I figured I'd pass it along.

Let's say you've got an enumerator... lets also say that you want to give your user the option to pick one of the items in that enumerator by using a ComboBox (or ListBox or whatever). Well... once they pick which item they want, the combobox returns a plain ol' string, not an item from the enumerator. Well what good does that do you? Now you've got this string, and you need to convert it to the corresponding value of that item in the enumerator... So what do you do? How do you take a String and quickly and easily return it's corresponding value from an Enumerator.... Well, how 'bout I show you.

I don't really intend to talk about serious stuff too often in this Blog. Not because I don't have a serious side (which I do), but because I've learned after many, many years of "discussions" (if you can call them that) on the internet, that most conversations on the web, of even a remotely serious nature, eventually end up in some kind of worthless "us vs. them" flame-fest. There is very little objective, rational conversation left on the net, and I'd much rather stick to facetiousness and sarcasm then try to cut through the fog of years of bitter, divisive verbal lambasting.... but that's just me.

Anyway... the point is, every once in a while, I'll probably end up posting something resembling a serious topic... and this happens to be the first time that has happened...

You know... I thought I was the quintessential musical nerd. I'm nerdy: I write my own software... I own a watercooled computer (I'll pause while you giggle)... I build all my computer systems (and those of my friends.... and family... and people I don't even know)... I spend every waking hour in front of a computer. And I'm musical: I play drums... I play guitar... I do my own home-recordings. So you'd think that would qualify me as the ultimate musical nerd.... but you'd be wrong.

And it's all because of these guys...

As if the patent issues that Apple is having with their best-selling iPod weren't a happy enough event, they had to go and have another problem with them, just to brighten my day.

It looks like Apple put some really crappy batteries in that ridiculously over-priced, fad-tech, MP3 player of theirs. Consumers reported having problems with batteries that wouldn't hold a charge. And what was Apple's first response to their blindly-faithful consumers who plunked down 400 bucks for something they could have gotten for half as much....?

....buy another one.

In an earlier piece, I detailed all the trials an tribulations I endured while trying to deal with the problems and shortcomings of the VS.NET installer (i.e. the MSI file generated by a Setup and Deployment project). Well, you can consider this article to be Part II of that miserable saga.

It's bad enough that some of the most basic and common functionality of installers isn't available in the .NET Setup and Deployment project... but what makes it worse is just how hard it can be to implement some of the simplest features into your installation process.... and that's where I come in. I subject myself to hours of unimaginable misery, just so you don't have to... but that's just the kinda guy I am.

But before I tell you all you need to know about hacking up your very own MSI files, let's list off all the things that a VS.NET Setup and Deployment project won't do for you...