Best posts made by Ben_Warre
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RE: SQL silly database
@blakeyrat said in SQL silly database:
@ben_warre Ok well do what you do, you know my opinion on the matter.
I'll put $50 on "2 years from this day, the move to MS Dynamics hasn't yet happened" though. These guys haven't fixed their shit since 2003, what makes you think it'll happen now? Hah.
Blakey would be satisfied to know that the move hasn't happened yet...
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RE: Initiative Q - Money from nowhere?
Took a few days to read all that. Thanks guys.
Can't wait for my $14000.
Considering some online game money has really world worth, maybe @initiativeq should consider writing a MMPORG to go with it.
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Troubleshooting Trees
Hey All,
I work in support. I support one piece of software (6 historical versions, mostly similar).
The software drives engraving machines.
I am currently the only expert on the software and connections to the machines.
It's time to shift departments and train someone else.
I'd like to try and create an app or document much like a phone support script, which could present questions to ask and then further questions, until providing things to try to resolve the issue.
I'm struggling to find either the right keywords to google, or any real options.
What exists?
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Deceased font author
Hi All
A client of mine wishes to use a font I recommended on their website and they'd like to be legal.
The font was licensed as free for personal use but contact the author for commercial use.
The author died in 2017.
Any ideas?
Font is England Hand DB.
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Chrome only allows 1000 iframes
I can't find this fact documented by googling, but it certainly seems that after the 1000th iframe on my page, it doesn't bother displaying the rest.
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RE: Anyone with 3rd gen Ryzen to borrow?
My info may be out of date:
But I believe AMD will send you one if you ask them.
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RE: I've hit everybody in my network, now I try here: electrical engineer experience?
Wouldn't it be nice to play your games whilst listening to Kenny G though? You'd need a mixer.
Edit for spelling
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RE: Troubleshooting Trees
@skotl said in Troubleshooting Trees:
Forgive me, but it sounds like you'd spend way more time learning and configuring the workflows than you would just writing the documentation.
Have you looked at Confluence? If you don't already have it (and the target audience is ten people or less) then it's a bargaintastic $10 a month, and it's very easy to get a navigable doc set up and running pretty quickly.It's not documentation we lack. The the means to tell a non expert which document is relevant.
Here's an example...
In versions 5 to 7, it's possible for one of the config files to become corrupt. The developers couldn't find out why.
In versions 5.1-5.3 you have to manually replace the corrupt file. In 5.4 and above there's a button in the options menu that restores a working file.
When the file is corrupt, the software exhibits certain issues, but otherwise works OK.
This means people start their support call with something like "I can't select text, but I can drag select it" or "when I import an image it shows an empty box".
For me, that's a 1 minute phone call. For a non expert they would be very confused.
It took me almost 3 years to learn the ins and outs of the software (and then they went and released a new version which has completely different architecture mixed in with old features from previous versions).
So some sort of flowchart software, but it's not the drawing I'm interested in, it's the process.
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RE: SQL silly database
@blakeyrat said in SQL silly database:
@anotherusername said in SQL silly database:
edit: is $Powersell supposed to be spelled like that? I just copied and pasted what you wrote.
PowerSell is probably the name of their CRM software from the Age Of Sail.
Exactly that.
It is due to be replaced, probably with MS Dynamics within 2 years.
We just need more of an overview of the things we've shoehorned into it (hint: not every 'person' in the database is a person...)
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Software Licences
Hi All,
Quick (stupid?) question.
If I sell a piece of software (in this instance a scripted addon to existing software), that uses opensource applications (namely, 7Zip, ImageMagick, Freewrap and Tcl/TK), and the creators of the software change the license terms in a later version, the license that is attached to the version in my script doesn't change?
So the versions I am using will not get me into legal trouble in the future?
Thanks all.
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RE: SQL silly database
@blakeyrat said in SQL silly database:
@ben_warre said in SQL silly database:
It is due to be replaced, probably with MS Dynamics within 2 years.
That doesn't change your responsibility to put this app on solid footing for the next two years. Two years is a very long time.
You also didn't answer my question: are there backups? Have the backups been restored in the last month? Do they work? This is a HUGE bundle of risk your company's operating on, and I'm sure your management doesn't even recognize that they're basically rolling the dice on bankruptcy every time someone opens up that database connection.
Multiple backups. And the network share is also backed up.
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RE: SQL silly database
@anotherusername said in SQL silly database:
So, if @blakeyrat is done hijacking the topic, and we could get back to the SQL thing...
Does the code that I posted work?
I will test at work tomorrow (uk time)
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RE: Which languages allow emoji identifiers?
@bulb I think TCL would probably work for you. almost any string can be used as a command name or variable name. Maybe @dkf can confirm?
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RE: Which languages allow emoji identifiers?
also:
@jbert said in clustering:
@pie_flavor It's more fun to put your compiler in Unicode mode and use Emoji variables.
StringBuilder oh💩 = new StringBuilder(); oh💩.append("We are sorry for this outage. Please stand by while we look at the problem"); System.out.println(oh💩.toString());
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RE: Deceased font author
@Gurth said in Deceased font author:
@Ben_Warre said in Deceased font author:
England Hand DB
If I search for that, I find a font on several sites that all claim it to be owned by DATA BECKER GmbH. If that’s this company (its own website gives me nothing but a blank page) then the company is defunct, but I suppose it should have left more traces than a real person might.
The font itself doesn’t look particularly special, and there are plenty of others that look similar enough for the average person to not notice the difference.
The issue is it has to match an existing engraving font but I don't have a ttf for that one.
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RE: I've hit everybody in my network, now I try here: electrical engineer experience?
If you don't mind international hit up bigclive on www.blue-room.org.uk.
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SQL silly database
Hi All,
I'm trying to get reports out of an old access database over ODBC.
Because the application that uses the database is customisable, it is possible to add as many fields to the details for one person (record). This means I have the following tables:
CONTACT - this contains the company information (Name address etc)
REFS - this contains basic information on the people, with a foreign key to CONTACT.ID Basically only includes the keys and the person's name.
DATA - a massive table that contains the following headings: Field ID, Key 1, Key 2, Key 3, Data
Field ID references a different table for the Field name.
Key 1 is Company ID
Key 2 is REFS.ID
Key 3 seems to be unused
Data contains the actual data for that field for that personSo data contains all the information about the person.
How do I write a query that can output a table of all people with their details?
The example below is able to get just one field out at a time (postcode - I have previously looked up the field ID)
select Name,"Company name",Suffix,Data AS Postcode from REFS,CONTACT,DATA
where [REFS.Company ID] = [CONTACT.Company ID]
and REFS.Name Like 'x.%' and [REFS.Company ID] = [DATA.Key 1]
and [DATA.Field ID] = $Powersell(PostcodeField)
order by NameI'm not sure how many additional commands (UNION, JOIN etc.) are supported over ODBC to an Access 97 database, but hopefully there's an easy answer.
Make sense?
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RE: Chrome only allows 1000 iframes
Related to the post about silly SQL databases.
So I now have a local cache database that stores the jobs.
On the website, there's a div for each job.
Clicking the div expands an iframe underneath that loads a page which gets more data from the shitty slow database.
...
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RE: SQL silly database
I wouldn't know where to begin... A google suggests TRANSFORM, PIVOT, EXTRACT... Where's the idiots' guide?
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RE: SQL silly database
@tsaukpaetra It's a CRM system from the 90s. Still in use all day by 12 users at a time max.
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RE: SQL silly database
@tsaukpaetra said in SQL silly database:
An Access database on use constantly?
Same database I never got around to replacing last year.
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RE: SQL silly database
@anotherusername said in SQL silly database:
So, if @blakeyrat is done hijacking the topic, and we could get back to the SQL thing...
Does the code that I posted work?
Simply put, no, it doesn't work - it gives me duplicates
% set reqcols {Name,"Company name",Suffix,Postcodes.Data AS Postcode, Machines.Data AS Machines}
%set query " select $reqcols from REFS,CONTACT,DATA Postcodes,DATA Machines "
%append query " where [REFS.Company ID] = [CONTACT.Company ID] and REFS.Name Like 'x.201%' "
%append query " and [REFS.Company ID] = [Postcodes.Key 1] and [Postcodes.Field ID] = $Powersell(PostcodeField)"
%append query " and [REFS.Company ID] = [Machines.Key 1] and [Machines.Field ID] = $Powersell(MachineField)"
%append query " "
%append query " order by Name"I guess the cross of the two data tables is doing it. I get each person repeated I think by the number of people in the company.
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RE: SQL silly database
Sorted, I think. The problem is the Companys can have fields and people can have fields. Both are stored in the Data table.
This works I think.
% set reqcols {Name,"Company name",Suffix,Postcodes.Data AS Postcode, Machines.Data AS Machines}
%set query " select $reqcols from REFS,CONTACT,DATA Postcodes,DATA Machines "
%append query " where [REFS.Company ID] = [CONTACT.Company ID] and REFS.Name Like 'x.201%' "
%append query " and [REFS.Company ID] = [Postcodes.Key 1] and [Postcodes.Field ID] = $Powersell(PostcodeField)"
%append query " and [REFS.Company ID] = [Machines.Key 1] and [REFS.Reference ID] = [Machines.Key 2] and [Machines.Field ID] = $Powersell(MachineField)"
%append query " "
%append query " order by Name" -
RE: SQL silly database
@tsaukpaetra said in SQL silly database:
A query like that should take nowhere near six seconds to process unless you have no indexing and are running it on spinning rust from a decade ago over a network share (which, considering your posts, seems likely).
The above query runs in under 3 seconds, so I guess the 6 second load is more to do with delays in outputting the data and chrome displaying the table.
Let's just hope that adding many more field queries doesn't slow it down too much more.
Would I get any speed up if I did my Like 'x.' somehow before crossing all the tables together? How would I do that?
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RE: SQL silly database
Oh for $Deity's sake!
So, if a field is not filled in, the data isn't added to the DATA table.
So I am missing loads of complete rows, because I want a <null> instead of ignoring the person.
FULL OUTER JOIN??
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RE: How would I build a footstep pressure sensor?
Two sheets of foil with carefully placed foam in between. Wont last forever though.
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RE: Chrome only allows 1000 iframes
@tsaukpaetra I set the src only when the div is clicked.
It makes for an accordion style page.
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RE: Chrome only allows 1000 iframes
@tsaukpaetra said in Chrome only allows 1000 iframes:
@ben_warre said in Chrome only allows 1000 iframes:
@tsaukpaetra said in Chrome only allows 1000 iframes:
@ben_warre said in Chrome only allows 1000 iframes:
an iframe underneath that loads a page which gets more data from the shitty slow database.
Perhaps the reason it's shitty slow is because a webpage is trying to load all the things at once in the background?
The iframes don't do anything until you click the div.
They don't exist? Or you don't set the src until you click the div? Because AFAIK simply hiding an iframe doesn't stop it from loading its source...
See the problem is that a simple query takes about 5 seconds for each job. So I can't generate all the info on the fly.
So I cache the primary key and easy data in a fast database and use that for my divs.
Then the iframe loads the slow bit as and when needed.
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RE: SQL silly database
Update: A full query to get basic company info now takes about a minute. I then cache that in a local database, along with the time. Then a mini update (from the last time stored) takes about 10 seconds.
Displaying the data works nice and smoothly. Aside from the 1000 div issue, but that's not really an issue.
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RE: Yet another weird question
OK, so I have this working now.
It involves a few external executables and sending local files to the printer.
Another silly question, in line with the topic title:
Would it be better to use a RAM disk of some sort to save repeated hard drive access, or is that not something to be concerned about nowadays?
Thanks,
Ben
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RE: Java quiz
Side question from a non expert.
Is there ever a good reason to allow int overflow?
Should the compiler give a warning or should the runtime give an indication?
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Efficient base 30
Long time lurker. First time post.
I need to convert decimals to base 30 serial numbers and back again.
Whilst easy enough to do, I wondered what the most efficient way to do it would be.
WTFs welcome.
End language will be tcl but any code will be understandable I'm sure.
Filed under: I'm ready for tcl bashing.
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RE: Software Licences
@dkf I never made the link between your user name and the wiki. Assuming I'm correct...
Thanks for the responses.
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RE: Internal domains
@cartman82 if you access //cartmanspc from a webbrowser a webserver running on port 80 would serve a page?