In this issue:
- Mail archiving
- Data Protection and the Comic
- Macromedia and Allaire to Merge
- ROMCat - Corel Draw catalog tool
- Moving paragraphs and rows in tables in Word
- Finding out when a user logged on
- Turning off NT Autoplay
- Access: Decoding those popup errors.
- Find errors in Uniplex database
- Synchronize audio in Flash movies
- Legal information required for online ordering
- Managing workspaces in PaintShop Pro
- One button START menu access
- How many posters to change a light bulb?
As a follow on to the Data Protection story, you may be interested to know that our Palladio (mail security for Unix) and Mail Essentials (for Windows) both offer the facility to capture and archive all in- and outbound mail messages.
Palladio stores the archive as accessible files on the Unix system, where you are able to examine, archive and remove message files. You can also auto-forward all emails to a "reviewer" to monitor.
With Mail Essentials you can archive all in- and outbound mail in an ODBC database of your choice. This allows you to keep a back-up of all email communications and easily search for a customer’s emails.
And of course with both systems you can also check the content of messages and quality of responses.
See http://www.c2000.com/products/sec_mail.htm for more information
DATA PROTECTION AND THE COMIC
How Mark Thomas opened the Government
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You've probably heard on the radio or TV how comedian Mark Thomas used the Data Protection act to gain access to documents and emails internal to the Department of Trade and Industry.
The Channel Four political satirist Mark Thomas put in a standard 'subject access' request to the DTI and got back a selection of more or less abusive emails. They reveealed how officials had attempted to "starve him of information".
Now, not only is this good advertising for both Mark Thomas and the Data Protection Office, but it also highlights issues for document and email management internally to your organisation.
Under the 1998 Act (which came into force in March 2000) anyone can request an organisation to reveal any personal information held on them. Organisations then have 40 days to respond with ANY information they have; a description of WHY they information was processed; anyone the information may have been passed to or seen by; and the logic involved in any automated decisions. Failure to comply can lead to possible legal action.
Now, this has implications for systems management, particularly email. Since I know many organisations do not have any procedure for capturing and retrieving emails once they have been passed to users.
So, for example 2 users could exchange emails about an individual, then delete them from the Inbox (or equivalent) and there would be no trace of those emails. Worse, only one user might delete the messages in which case you've got something that looks like a conspiracy to hide data.
And of course this will often apply to database materials and documents as well. There is a clear issue here both at an administration level but also a programming level.
Suppose you have a database of customer records and you can routinely delete those customer records - then you have removed data which you be called upon to retrieve. It may be time to think about marking old records as obsolete without actually deleting them.
Equally, for emails, you must consider being able to capture and archive all email transactions.
Finally, you may need to look at your archiving procedure to see if there is a permanent record of all data which can be retrieved if required.
See http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/ for more information
MACROMEDIA AND ALLAIRE TO MERGE
Two key Web software companies to join
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Macromedia: makers of Flash, DreamWeaver etc and Allaire, authors of HomeSite and ColdFusion are to merge.
Now, I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or not, on the one hand we've got competing products which cover similar ground but operate in non-standard ways. On the other hand we've got competing products. . . etc.
Personally, I'm a dedicated HomeSite user and I would hate the product to be lost and replaced by DreamWeaver. On the other hand, if some of Allaire's interface and usability features could be inserted into Macromedia's products they would be improved considerably in my opinion.
As ever, we shall have to wait and see, but my guess is that the Allaire products will lose out to Macromedia's favourites.
See http://www.c2000.com/ for more information
ROMCAT - COREL DRAW CATALOG TOOL
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This utility was designed to catalog all the CorelDraw clipart CD's. It gives you thumbnails and keywords from all the CD's live on your hard disk. You can search the catalog to find the image you want, then insert the required CD, much better than the Corel version of sticking in the CD you THINK the images are on.
You can also download pre-built catalogs of the standard Corel image collections, including versions 7,8 and 9.
Of course, you can add your own catalogs too.
Runs on Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000 - completely free.
See http://www.c2000.com/software for more information
MOVING PARAGRAPHS AND ROWS IN TABLES IN WORD
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A very nifty shortcut this one and particular for Word tables I use it a lot, to move a paragraph, or a table row, then press Alt-Shift-Up Arrow to move the paragraph up one. And of course Alt-Shift-Down Arrow moves down. Quick and simple.
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
FINDING OUT WHEN A USER LOGGED ON
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Occasionally you need to know when a user logged on from the command line (usually when script building). You can use "net user " to get full details of the user logon, and just pick out the "Last logon" line for the time of logon.
You can also use the utility USRSTAT.EXE from the Win NT ResKit.
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
Two methods at hand here. The easy way is to use TweakUI - on the paranoia tab.
Second way, is to edit the registry as follows:
1) Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom
2) Set Autorun 0x1 to 0x0 to disable autorun
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
ACCESS: DECODING THOSE POPUP ERRORS.
What Parameter Errors really mean and how to fix them
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When creating Access forms and reports it is inevitable you will get the "Enter Parameter Value" popup dialog, usually showing you a field name such as Forms![MyForm]![MyField]. Unfortunately Access doesn't give you any clues as to why you've been given this box and what you are supposed to do about it!
What's happened is that there is an incorrect reference to a control or field in the form. Usually it is just a misspelling, but could be an incorrect syntax or incorrect usage. When it is a spelling error, then it is usually fairly easy to track down and fix. But there are more complicated reasons and when the going gets tough, the only way is to work through the problems listed below until you nail it!
1) A spelling or syntax error of a control reference in a forms record source.
2) A reference to a control on a form that is not currently open
3) A spelling or syntax error of a control in a form event, such as Open, Load etc.
4) A spelling or syntax error of a control mentioned in the Grouping and Sorting dialog (reports only)
5) A spelling or syntax error for a control in a record source of a subform.
6) Spelling errors or inccorrect field names in the Link Master or Link Child fields for a subform.
7) A spelling or syntax error in a control requested in an SQL statement or query used in the row source for a combo or
list box.
8) A spelling or syntax error in a control used in aggregate function, such as DLookup or Dsum
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
FIND ERRORS IN UNIPLEX DATABASE
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Here's one of those horrible little problems, that when you find out what causes it, you realise you knew all along!
I'd added some fields to an existing table and went to the database forms and called up Find to select and edit some of the existing records, but I kept getting the message: "Invalid SQL statement specified". What had I done wrong? Was the database corrupted or something - didn't seem likely.
After about an hour chasing round my tale I realised what I'd done, I had created a new column called "name" - which just happens to be an Informix reserved word. Shame Uniplex doesn't stop you doing that, but there you are. Avoid "name" and other reserved words in the column names.
You can run HELP in usql to see a list of most of the reserved words.
See http://www.c2000.com/uniplex for more information
SYNCHRONIZE AUDIO IN FLASH MOVIES
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Including sound in a Flash movie really makes a difference, but it is one of the more difficult tasks to accomplish.
Unlike elements in an animation, sound can't be dragged to a particular location or resized to fit within a frame. Flash's basic audio editing tools won’t take you very far.
For simple sounds on button presses things aren't too hard, but what about when you more complex soundscapes?
Firstly, you will need to do most of your sound editing in an application built for the task, such as Cool Edit.
Secondly, we recommend you build your animation first and determine (from the timeline window) how long the sequence lasts.
Then, in your separate audio application, edit your sound to play for the same amount of time as your animation.
Back to Flash and you can import the sound using the File, Import command. Insert the sound into a new layer.
Click the frame in the timeline that corresponds to the start of the animation. Select Modify, Frame and in the dialog box choose the sound you've just imported. In the Sync box, select Stream.
Now, when you run the animation, the frames will play in sync with the associated audio portion. If the sound you've imported runs longer than your animation, it will be cut off when the last animation frame plays.
Flash automatically deals with the vagaries of delivering synchronized animation and audio over the Internet. If network congestion or a slow computer causes the animation sequence to slow down, Flash will drop a few frames to keep the animation in sync with the sound.
LEGAL INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR ONLINE ORDERING
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Here is a quick summary of information you ought to provide on your web site if you are supporting online ordering.
- The Name and Full Address of the Supplier
- A full description of the goods
- Price (including VAT and delivery)
- Payment and delivery arrangements
- customers MUST be given a right to return goods in 7 days
- customers must receive written notice of the above (can be by email)
You should also provide details of:
- any conditions for the right of withdrawal
- after-sales service/guarantee
- cancellation conditions - if the period is longer than 1 year or unspecified.
MANAGING WORKSPACES IN PAINTSHOP PRO
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In PaintShop Pro 7 you can save multiple work spaces. That is the various settings for dialog boxes, toolbars etc. Arrange the workspace as you want it, then click File, Workspace, Save. Use File, Workspace, Load to restore a workspace.
You can also launch that directly from a shortcut, just change the shortcut target to:
psp /workspace "my workspace.wsp"
See http://www.justkiss.com/psp for more information
ONE BUTTON START MENU ACCESS
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Options on the Start menu that have a unique initial letter are started as soon as you press the letter. Options which are not unique require you to press the Enter key.
Why not rename (or even number) your Start menu options so they are all just one keypress away?
If you run out of unique keys on the opening letter you can also use an ampersand ("&") before a unique letter anywhere in the middle of words. The ampersand is not displayed, but the letter is underlined.
Incidentally, if you don't have a Start button (older keyboards are missing this key) you can use Control-Escape instead.
See http://www.c2000.com/mswindow for more information
HOW MANY POSTERS TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB?
Seen on the internet - a slice of real Net life
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Top 10 Answers to the question:
How many newsgroup posters does it take to change a light bulb?
1 to change the light bulb and to post to the newsgroup that the light bulb has been changed.
14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.
27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.
109 to post that this newsgroup is not about light bulbs and to please take this thread to alt.lite.bulb.
111 to defend the posting to this NG saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts **are** relevant to this NG.
27 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs.
14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly, and to post corrected URLs.
22 to ask for reposts because the lite bulb post never made it to their server.
33 to quote all posts to date including all headers and footers, and then add "Me Too."
12 to post to the NG that they are leaving the NG because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.
1 to propose new alt.change.lite.bulb newsgroup.
DJ
See http://www.c2000.com/fun for more information
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