Replace memory on MacBook Pro

Issue

To be able to run my BaseCamp partition of Windows 7 more smoothly through vmware in OSX i needed some more memory.

Solution

After searching for both guides for the actual replacement action and for some ideas on what memory would fit my laptop best I settled with an upgrade pack with 2x4GB Corsair modules. I've read both good and bad about these, but I found them being a good choice.

Actually this procedure is really simple and is done in 3 steps:

1. Turn off computer and unscrew the 10 (Philips 0) screws holding the aluminum lid at the bottom of the MBP.
   Carefully lift the lid from the computer. I pull it off with a little help from a flat screwdriver. The 10 screws consists of 2 different types (lengths) so make sure you know where they go later on.
   
2. Remove the old RAM modules which are located in the center of the machine. They are held in place by two small, black plastic arms which needs to pushed to the sides to remove the memory modules one by one.
   
(I was also happy to see that the harddrive was easy to access the very same way. This could be handy on a future occasion.)
Note the direction to insert the modules.
3. Insert the new modules one by one and carefully push the memory until the plastic arms locks the module in place.
   Close the lid and return the screws to their holes respectively.
   

As simple as that!

Windows Experience Index

I did run an updated assessment for my system (although I did it through vmware which might give it a little tweak) and found out that the score for RAM Memory haddropped from 6.3 to 5.9. I will run it again when I boot Windows correctly and give these numbers also...

This applies to

Computer: MacBook Pro Unibody 17” (late 2008)

Windows 7 freezes on MacBook Pro

Issue

Windows freezes on different occasions. Sometimes immediately after startup and sometimes during work.

Solution

First solution was to not use Google Chrome which do have several reports on hanging Windows 7 on MBP. Even though this seems like a long shot solution it really did help me out during several weeks. IE8 does not hang my system and Firefox also seemed to carry the same issue with freezes.

Final (hopefully) solution is to download the latest driver from NVidia. Currently the latest driver is released in july 2010. This driver solved an  issue having trouble booting Windows. My system booted logon screen perfectly, but after logon it turned black and mouse pointer frooze…

This applies to

O/S: Windows 7 [x64]
Computer: MacBook Pro Unibody 17” (late 2008)

Create dropscript in Oracle

This is a quite smooth way to create a “drop all tables” script.
Note that it does not take care of foreign key relations, which means that it might throw errors when running.

select 'drop table ' || table_name || ';' from ALL_TABLES;

You might want to a where statement for example for owner:

select 'drop table ' || table_name || ';' from ALL_TABLES where owner='xxx'

Get Oracle version from a production server using SQL Developer

There are several ways to do this depending on what privileges you have and what tools you are using. This is one way:

select * from v$version where banner like ‘Oracle%’;

The blog My Digital Life presents a few other alternatives:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2005/10/18/check-oracle-version/

Trouble opening Visual Studio solution files

Background

Having set the Visual Studio application to “Run as administrator” I could no longer open solution files (.sln) from Explorer.

Problem

By default the solution file is opened by the Visual Studio Version Selector.

Solution

One alternative

Google results gave me one alternative to set the Visual Studio application as the default application.

Right click solution file – Properties… – Change…

Since I run dual versions of Visual Studio (2005 and 2008), because of having multiple customers and projects, this isn’t really a solid solution.

Better alternative

The best alternative for me was to set the Version Selector application to run as administrator.

Locate the .exe file.

[Program Files Folder]\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSEnv

Right click – Properties… – [Compatibility Tab] – Tick the checkbox “Run this program as an administrator”

My System

Windows Vista 64 bit

Visual Studio 2005 & 2008

Insert into med OPENQUERY

Mål
Migrera data från nuvarande databas (Oracle 10g) till ny databas (SQL Server 2008).

Problem
Mellan från ett 32 bit system till Oracle 64 bit databashotell var det inga problem att använda simpel Linked Server teknik:

exec('INSERT INTO SQLSERVER.[SQL_SCHEMA].[SQL_TABLE] SELECT * FROM LINKED_SERVER..ORACLE_SCHEMA.ORACLE_TABLE')

Men däremot från test och produktionsmiljöns 64 bit system fanns det hinder. Kolumner som i Oracle har typen NUMBER blev endast nollor i målsystemet med följden att det dels blev fel data och dels, i de fall som kolumn var primärnyckel, blev det fel i importen.

Lösningen
Lösningen blev OPENQUERY och konvertering av kolumnerna av typen NUMBER.
Så här ser det ut:

exec('insert into SQLSERVER.[SQL_SCHEMA].[SQL_TABLE](COL1, COL2) select * from OPENQUERY(LINKED_SERVER, ''select TO_NUMBER(COL1), TO_CHAR(COL2) from ORACLE_SCHEMA.ORACLE_TABLE'')')

5 frågor till 35 webdesigner

Lämnar denna hyggligt okommenterad.
I alla fall jag kommer använda denna artikel/undersökning som en liten referens i kommande designuppdrag:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/04/20/35-designers-x-5-questions/