This seem to look like a handy work of a computer virus after messing up with the executable file. Antivirus software scan did not yield any culprits that have caused error. Moreover, the application was running fine before office relocation. The splash screen and login prompt work fine as usual. The Visual Basic software error comes after the user has entered the credentials on the login prompt.

DBNETLIB MSSQL Connection Error

The full error message alert reads as follows:
Invalid connection string attribute
[DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen(Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.
Data provider could not be initialized.

The reason is right in the alert message. The application could not connect to the MSSQL database for retrieving the data needed to run the application. The database connection string could not be initialized due to network security or the database name could not be recognized which causes missing data provider.

Evaluation result confirms that it’s not due to network security, but due to the database string not found by the VB application. The cause is the database server hostname not found by the system. Office relocation as a consequence has caused the working computer to have new IP Address. Being part of a new local area network of computers with different DHCP server and WINS server that made the application fail to connect to the MSSQL server using hostname.

The solution was to add the IP address of the MSSQL database server on the client computer’s hosts file located in %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\drivers\etc folder. The IP address of the MSSQL server was entered and it’s corresponding hostname into the hosts file.

Windows Hostname Entry

Once this was added, the VB application software was able to call the MSSQL database server without any problem. The DBNETLIB invalid connection string attribute error was resolved.

Three different supported video formats by iPhone 4 as follows:
H.264 video
MPEG-4 video
Motion JPEG

The above formats usually have .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file extensions and is closely tied with the proprietary Apple movie player. Anyway that should not discourage would be users of those very nice gadgets as they do serve as handy companions and not to mention a good entertainment device.

During long trips on the subway train or public bus watching movie on an iPhone 4 is a good way to let time pass. People who have lots of DVD movies at home, like myself watching those movies on iPhone requires some dvd-ripper software for converting of movies to Apple supported format.

A software that could Rip and convert DVD movies (Convert almost all SD and HD videos to iPad video and audio format files) to iPhone 4S, iPhone4, iPhone video format and audio format is an essential software tool to have. Having such software to convert the DVD movies allows me to enjoy the most of my favorite movies while traveling.

Before, I have a Nokia E52 mobile phone prior to iPhone 4 and I use to watch videos in 3gp format by using a generic video converter (Convert videos/audios for mobile phones such as BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung, Moto, etc.). The screen of Nokia E52 though small serves to entertain me when I am on a trip. What I like most is watching videos and movie on iPhone 4 because of the large screen.

It would be easy to convert DVD videos to iPhone 4 by some software and one of such software is ImTOO.  There are many software available and some are even free to download and use. You’ll never run out of options for DVD ripping and conversion software for playing videos to iPhone 4.

Searching from the available list of fonts from different website is very difficult. There are several website with font collection, but it’s very tedious and time consuming as the font needs to be checked and compared one by one. Thus, an online font search software which is able to process font images would be very useful.

An online software from WhatTheFont that searches the font name using a graphic image uploaded from a fonts database. The website URL is http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/. It’s really pretty amazing how accurately it determined the closest font type name. If not satisfied with the result an online forum frequented by anonymous font expert is available that serves as a venue for finally determining the font name.

In practice offices will have to define and enter budget information in ERP. In our case we’re using the Oracle E-business suite financial module version 11.5.7 for budgeting. Manual budget creation using an ERP Oracle Financial Application software involves three things such as 1) creating a budget, 2) creating a budget organization, and 3) entering budget amounts.

1. Creating a Budget
Go to Navigator -> Budgets -> Define -> Budget
Enter the required information such as Name, Status, First, and Last.
Sample Data:
Name = XXBUDGET
Status = Open
First = Jan-XX
Last = Dec-XX
Use current year for both First and Last
Click Open Next Year button
Click Yes button in the Decision window
Click OK button in the Note window
Click View menu -> Requests to ensure that the concurrent process is completed

2. Creating a Budget Organization
Go to Navigator -> Budgets -> Define -> Organizations
Enter the name of the Organization.
Sample Data:
Name = XXIT DEPARTMENT
Display Sequence:
Sequence Segment
1 Company
2 Department
3 Account
4 Interco
Click Ranges button
Enter the required account information range.
Sample Data:
Line 10
Low 01.200.5000.00
High 01.500.9999.00
Type Entered
Click Save button

3. Entering Budget Amounts
Go to Navigator -> Budgets -> Enter -> Amounts
Select the Organization, Budget and Accounting Period using the LOV (list of values)
Enter the amounts on the account combinations using appropriate Budget Rules.
Sample Data:
Account 01.300.6000.00
Amount 300000
Budget Rule Repeat per Period
After entering the amount click Post button

The above outlines some basic steps in creating ERP Oracle Applications budget manually.

Remote desktop connection which comes basically with almost all Windows operating systems is very useful in doing remote desktop support. There is a limitation in this remote pc access software when it’s behind a network firewall as it needs to open a series of port for it to work. This is a difficulty, especially when the computer to be accessed is on a local network.

Remote computer access over the internet with public IP address and is not behind a firewall would be easier to work with using Windows Remote Desktop Connection software. In cases where the computer is behind a firewall and have local IP address it’s a little bit tough. I come across TeamViewer remote access software while searching for a software to overcome such a problem.

TeamViewer remote access software seemed to work as a an all-in-one solution for connecting to any PC or server over the internet. Even those behind local networks and firewall with local IP address are made accessible. The TeamViewer software is downloadable for free and also free for personal use. The requirement for registration to use the software is a setback for the software. Worst is that it stopped working after three usage.

It’s not really very encouraging. Thus, spending money for TeamViewer remote computer access to support PC or server around the world is not a priority.

There are a variety of smartphone devices like iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Mobile phone, or tablet devices like iPad, Galaxy Tab, and other which are at plain sight everyday. The portable devices are a form of entertainment for people to while waiting to have time past.

I’ve seem people playing games or listening to music while on travel for long distance train trips. There are times also that people play movies on this portable gadgets. Proprietary software is needed to play a movie on an iPhone of iPad as we all know, but there are program for ripping DVDs and putting them on this devices.

This DVD Ripping program makes DVD movies playable on tablet devices like Galaxy Tab, iPad or smartphones such as BlackBerry, Windows Mobile phone, Nokia, or iPhone. The software transfers converted DVD movies to iPad or iPhone directly after ripping.

What I like is the DVD ripping tasks in the background that allows other things to be done on a computer which definitely save time and effort. There are various formats like FLV, WMV, AVI, H.264/AVC, MP4, MPEG, MOV, XviD, 3GP, ASF and many others that are available while ripping DVD movies.

Creativity for merging different video clips is possible with the feature take small clip segments of a DVD title or chapter then merged into one new movie. Also transitions could be added to the different video clips which have the option to be stored on a DVD from a burn dvd software.

Backup data especially favorite movies for playing on iPhone and iPad is now easily available with the right DVD rip software without paying the high price of video copying proprietary software. Above all, it’s always advisable to search from the internet those software with free trial download for testing their worthiness and functionality before purchase.

The is a move to focus on the use of HTML 5 standard instead of Adobe’s Flash technology, all seem to going strong for Adobe in spite of the lack of support from Apple and Microsoft. The benefit though of following the HTML 5 standard would be no need for installing Adobe’s plugin all the time.

I was surprised to learn that Adobe Flash would not definitely go to silence as it got some backing from some top names in the industry. Google, Electronic Arts, and Zynga are some of the companies that support / accept Adobe Flash technology.

The new Adobe Flash supports HD videos, much faster graphic rendering, and higher performance on both personal computers and mobile devices. Some popular simple flash games are word maker, monopoly, poker, and chess. Role playing games are available also using flash, but the simple games are the most popular. My teen age nephew got addicted to the poker game online which shows how popular this games are.

Most of the portable devices based on Android OS are already doing fine with Flash Technology. A variety of games are available to download from any smartphone device. Thus, Adobe’s Flash will still be used in the coming years, always strong and popular having the advantage over HTML 5 standard when it comes to games creation. Flash technology will be widely used in the gaming sector of the industry as support for it grows from various portable device developers.

Due to the cheap cost of smartphones, I believe that everyone will have it soon. Furthermore, mobile internet devices such as tablets will gain more markets. In the US alone, it was predicted that one-third of Americans will own a tablet in the next two years. Statistics showed that Apple and Android devices are leading the market over Microsoft or RIM that trails with some improvement. Apple is the leading device manufacturer with their iPhone and iPads, but Android devices are catching up fast with an ever increasing number of Free Web Apps on the Google market place.

In the US, the most used mobile apps are social networking, games, news, maps, music and videos. Web applications are growing tremendously to complement with the increase of user base of these devices. Social networking web application like Facebook tops the list of the most-used webapps. The people are hooked into this web application due to the way people can connect with friends and family. The games like Angry Birds are so popular on smart phone and mobile devices. I am not really an avid fan of social networking or games, but with interest more on business applications. Thus, business web applications are my main interest and I find mobile internet access through 3G or WiFi as important factor in selecting a mobile device.

Developing web applications for smartphone and mobile internet devices is growing in demand. I even have even applied on a company which develops software for these devices. I have stumbled on Octomobi Free Webapps which is an online tool for easily creating photo galleries, CV’s online, or mobile friendly website. What is good is that the web application and website developed behaves like native apps. Thus, the software is a perfect development tool on a wide range of mobile internet device.

A feature of the smartphone which comes handy is connectivity to the internet. I could connect the phone to a wireless access point at home. There are times that I would like to copy text from the browsed website for sending SMS text messages to friends on the phone.

I have difficulty in achieving this one using the built-in browser of Nokia E52. It’s really disappointing that the copy and paste facility of Nokia E52 only works on a text box. Thus, it’s seeming useless for browsed website. Most users are hoping that there would be a firmware upgrade to include this feature in Nokia E2 to copy and paste text from browsed pages.

There are lot of work around for this problem, but I have encountered on the web forums as a solution using an intermediate website. Nokia E52 user could visit mobitol.com, which prompts for the URL of the website to convert to text or HTML for copying. This solution works mostly for al S60 based mobile phone browsers.

It seems to be a tedious task for web pages with lots of text, but it’s a solution that works fine for me. If you have some other solution at hand, which is better you can share your thoughts to overcome this limitation on Nokia E52 smartphones.

Those running Windows 7 could not upgrade Internet Explorer to version 9 Release Candidate. Better security, privacy, ease of use, reliability, compatibility, manageability, and performance are some things to expect. The list could go on, but here’s what Microsoft is talking about Windows Internet Explorer 9 software.

Windows Internet Explorer 9 delivers web sites and applications that look and perform like native PC applications through the power of Windows.

Four Reasons to Download Windows IE9:

• Fast: IE9 is all-around fast. It is designed to take full advantage of the PC’s hardware comparable to native PC application software installed.
• Clean: IE9 puts focus on a clean look and increased viewing area.
• Trusted: IE9 has robust built-in security and privacy t for safe browsing experience.
• Interoperable: IE9 conforms with modern web standards such as HTML5 that utilizes GPU hardware.

Well, the above claim could not be verified if one does not try the IE9 internet browser. I’ve installed the IE9 beta and have experienced seemingly fast and uncluttered browsing. Now is the time to upgrade to the Windows IE9 Browser for Windows 7 for me to see the real deal.

The download size of Windows Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate for Windows 7 is 19.9 MB. After installation the computer needs to be restarted for the update to take effect.

More information on Windows Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate for Windows 7 :
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=71727