When I moved from CA, this was first thing we started to look for and unfortunately had to travel two hours to Chicago until TJ opened local store. Talking about loyalty

Only if visited TJ on the constant basis for a few years you may get an irony of some verses, but, otherwise, it is very good informal commercial and consider informal style of the TJ, they should use it officially.

Two thumbs up. Enjoy

Wow! Well, what do you expect from the guy who made this

or these.

One would think that with thousands if not million copies sold of various training materials software used/provided would be flawless. As it turned out, it is not true.

Yes, as programmers, we all know that deployment is a tough task and requires careful testing in all possible environments, especially when it comes to a “new” Operating System like Vista… hm, not too new already…

I am going through SQL Server 2005 Exam 70-431 and was kind of surprised to find out that after instalation of the Exam Prep program, it would not start with simple registration error

Run-Time Error -2147319779 (8002801d)
Automation Error
Library not registered

Do not waste your time reinstalling, or playing with Compatibility mode. First, it wouldn’t help. Second, it is all much simplier.
Yes, Google is your friend and in a few minutes you would find a simple solution.

Follow few simple steps:

1. Open Command Prompt window
2. Go to System32 or SysWOW64 (for 64 bit version) folder
3. Locate file called Vsocx6.ocx.
   

   A little history: it is very old (copy I have was dated Aug 2001) ActiveX control library from VideoSoft – “: ) VideoSoft vsOcx6 Controls“. It contains just 3 controls: TvcElastic, TvsIndexTab, TvsAwk, and unfortunately, it is used by the Kit Exam Prep.

4. Run the following command regsvr32 Vsocx6.ocx
5. This is it, everything should work as expected.
6. if not, try to turn off UAC and repeat from step 3.

 It should be handled by installation, but we can always help, especially when it comes to installing “old” software on Vista.

Simple formatting, link entry, and spellcheck is now available.

Please let me know if you experience any problems with the new feature.

For next few months we are going to keep a forward to this blog, after that sub-domain location would be deprecated.

As a result, visitor counter has been reset and “dots” are now “fresh”. If you have interest in prior stats, archived map is available from here.

(I just read Hadi’s blog. Is it a special time of the year when customer support goes South?)

Story:

I have been with AT&T since 2000 when they were SBC. I have had a phone line and DSL for just a little less. I have had several moves, they become AT&T, but I have managed stay out of trouble and haven’t had much to complain about. Good service for the dollar.

Little over two weeks ago  I have decided that I am not actually using a phone service that much (for kids mostly). How about just leave DSL and take advantage of the T-Mobile @home service which is 4 times less (10.99, no limits, free long distance).

OK then. After talking to AT&T customer support I was assured that:

I can have just DSL and it would be converted in no time, “just transfer your phone number and call us back. DSL will be switched on the “dry loop” and you will be OK”. Nice! Great!

Well, not nice and not great! Now fun is began.

I have got my T-mobile router in 2 days and phone number was switched in a week time. As result AT&T automatically turned off my phone, … and DSL “because they sit on the same line and goes together”. OK. so I am calling tech support and asking them to switch me now to a promissed “dry loop”.

• Rep: “Cannot do.”
• “What? Why? You’ve said…”
• Rep: “We did? I do not see it in our computer. Your new phone provider should have told you that your AT&T DSL will be disconnected.“
• … silence… trying to get some breath… “you have said that everything is OK and can be switched without the problem”
• Rep: “we could not have told you that since it is physically impossible to do it in one day… You should have told us to switch you to a dry loop before you have took a number away.” (Keep this last in mind for later reference.)
• “but you did”

15 minutes of finding where all growing from

• Manager: “We cannot do much for you at this time, you will have to wait. But I can give you 2 months of free service for your trouble and your service will be reestablished in the week after our visit and switching two wires and updating 40 databases…”
• … OK

Last weekend

• are we on schedule for the service being reestablished?
• Rep: let me check… yes we are
• Great, thank you

Today

• Just want to check that you are coming tomorrow and everything is on schedule
• Rep: we are? I do not see any order… let me check…

10 minutes later

• Rep: because of our topology we cannot have DSL service at your location without an actual phone line and the number.

you tell me how that is possible in our XXI century

• why didn’t you tell me before?
• Rep: we cannot know about it when phone service is in place
• but I called you after phone service was disconnected and I have called you this weekend
• Rep: yes, but it was 9pm in the evening and we did not check until next morning and I do not see anything else on the file. You must be mistaken.

Now I am delusional… where is my insurance? it is time to see a doctor…

• why didn’t you call me that very morning after you find out?
• Rep: you do not have a phone
• yes, but I gave you my cell phone number for that exact reason
• Rep: I do not see it

Few more minutes, phrase exchanges… not that a rep is responsible for all this mess, but…

• What can I do? can I get a temporary phone number so I can get a DSL back until I find a replacement for your “undeliverable” DSL?
• Rep: yes, but it will take a week to do. Sorry, I cannot help you.

later

• So… Do I have an open account with AT&T?
• Rep: since nothing can be done, we never processed an account.
• Ok, thank you

Grrrrrr…

In the mail that day: “welcome letter”, asking to validate that I have placed an order by not calling them about the letter.
In the email that day: “Now that you’ve joined our online community, you can expect to receive…”

Nice, so did I or did I not place the order? Please, make up your mind…

I have had a good perception about AT&T over Time Warner Cable, but this story brought their level below any possible ground level.

Now I am waiting for Time Warner guy to arrive…

I have that feeling about customer support in US in general that it is a very low priority for big companies like AT&T and only thing which matter is a profit.

“We are in this business for profit”, they say. I am not sure how it works. And what kind of profit are we talking about? I am not paying for any of AT&T services, would it be DSL, dish or phones. And I would not recommend it to anyone. If you have service with them, do not trust what they are saying you and even if you go by their word, check with them every day until service is delivered.

I would like to thank everybody for taking time and reading some of my postings.

I see a lot of attention received when it comes to Delphi. But I also see a growing number of people coming to read some of my other posts which are not otherwise visible via DelphiFeeds.com and I always welcome everyone and value their opinions.

What is interesting about the service is that anyone can easily see distribution of the visitors around the world – big continents and small islands, Internet is everywhere. I might missed a few spots on the maps (like Alaska, Guinea, and Antarctica (would you imagine Internet for fun there?)), but who knows, one day there could be visitors and from those remote locations.

I have enabled Google maps for my photo gallery also. It is fun.

Being very big, world become smaller every day as being more and more accessible. One day I hope to have a photo taken from every big place of Earth. And who knows, they sell tours into space nowadays…

Result of new record rainfall rivers are record high almost everywhere.

Fortunately, our area, Milwaukee, was not affected that much – in some cases basements are wet, or people who are living to close to the river now have a small pools in their backyards.

Sadly, southwest Wisconsin, famous Wisconsin Dells area as an example, was hit along with Iowa and have some noticeable damage.

There is a chance for you to help. Several agencies accepting donations for their efforts to help victims of flooding in southern Wisconsin.

PS. I have received a nice email from CodeGear team offering help and assistance. Thank you!
It is good to know that there is always a friend nearby.

At Embarcadero Technologies we know databases, we understand the important role they play in every organization and we love meeting their challenges.

It took two+ years for story to end. From original $100M+, it now came to just $23M+$7M(AR).

Not to much of the surprise though

Revenue for ALM products and services for the first quarter of 2008 was $32.4 million. Deployment (DPG) products and services revenue was $13.7 million and CodeGear (IDE) products and services revenue was $12.2 million.

(more) The company says the loss was larger with a $13.3 million impairment charge related to CodeGear, $1.3 million in restructuring expenses and other costs.

With primary focus on Database related technologies and Eclipse, it might come that the Eclipse part of CodeGear what actually is a target for them.

Back in 2007, ET has received $200M Go-Private investment from Thoma Cressey Bravo and acquired several key Eclipse committers ever since.

From public information on CodeGear’s web-site

The acquisition of CodeGear will enable Embarcadero to offer a complete product portfolio to design, develop, manage and manage and optimize heterogeneous applications and their databases.

From that I do not really know yet what would be a future of the Delphi product line. Would we have a new brand pushed once again?

Are there plans to discontinue any CodeGear or Embarcadero products?
The merging of CodeGear and Embarcadero increases our ability to enhance and evolve current products, as well as to develop new products, markets, and business models. There are no current plans to discontinue or EOL specific products. However, you can anticipate products will be evaluated to determine optimal development and go-to-market strategies on an ongoing basis consistent with our current practices.

From David I:

We will work together to integrate Delphi and some of their tooling as well as create new products.  Don’t fear – EMBT is excited about Delphi big time. Some of their developers learned programming on Turbo Pascal.  They are all developers just as we are.  Stay tuned for things we will do together. Delphi can use more database design, development, and optimization tooling.
The combined company, technologies, and products will move Delphi’s database capabilities forward much faster than on our own.

We will become employees of Embarcadero Technologies.  The product names
will stay:  Delphi, C++Builder, RAD Studio, JBuilder, etc.  This is just the
definitive agreement step.  There is more operational and planning work to
be done before the deal closes.  Stay tuned

More:

• Press release
• From David I
• Customer letter from Wayne Williams, CEO Embarcadero Technologies
• From Gregory Keller, VP of ET - good read and some clarifications
• From Nick Hodges – compilation of the recent posts about the event
• Interesting responses to original blog entry, no less – read comments