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Microsoft Excel Import External Data Problem: When Microsoft Query doesn’t recognize some of your parameters

Posted by Daniel - 6,858 Views

This is a summary pulled from a discussion on IT-Toolbox with Alejandro Rodriguez titled “Excel query doesn’t allow me create 3rd paremeter for a criteria“. He said there he was having a problem with Mirosoft Excel’s Import External Data feature. He posted on the forum that Microsoft Query is not recognizing one of his query parameters.

I got curious about it and then I tried a simple test against Microsoft Query via Excel Import External Data feature, and Yes! Microsoft Query is not recognizing some of my test query parameters. If it does recognize the1st and the 2nd parameters, why it does not recognize the 3rd? I have no idea why, but I guess it’s a bug and they forget to debug it - so be it :D

Microsoft Query allows you to enter a hard coded SQL statement with parameters directly into the editor but it didn’t work as I described previously so we need to figure out another way to get around it.

As we know that most Database servers allow you to create a stored SQL statement for future use such as “query” on MS-Access and “stored procedure” on SQLServer. This ability gives me an idea:

What if I create an MS-Access query which can accept parameters and then call it from Excel’s Import External Data feature? Can Microsoft Query recognize all the parameters with this kind of method? The answer is Yes! Microsoft Query is recognizing all of the parameters.

Following are the steps on how to call stored procedure to Import External Data into Microsoft Excel. Some steps may look strange but based on my tests, each of them needs to be taken correctly,

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The Lack of Chances is the Source of Poverty, Can we make a different?

Posted by Daniel - 1,247 Views

It’s a post to join the shout for Blog Action Day about poverty. I live in a 3rd world country where this issue is still one of the biggest. For most cases, poverty in my country is caused by the lack of chances to get a proper education, lack of knowledge to find a better way to make a living and it’s not because they are lazy, in fact they are more diligent than some of us, they just don’t have the chance.

I remember watching The Secrets movie which is talking about a mindset on how to get a wealthy life, a success in many areas of your life just by using your mind.

Well, it may works for most of us because we have the infrastructure to do it or at least we have the information on how to start it, but for the people who don’t have any chance to access the infrastructure, who still thinking nothing except about how to feed their family on daily basis, it needs more than a mindset to get them out from poverty.

As Sonia Simone said in a different words that “the problem they are facing is not an illusion. It can not be easily ignored by thinking that it’s not there“, it’s real and it has been happening from generation to generation. It needs actions from others to help them out by giving them a chance to do it.

Nothing can be blamed. But it’s just sad to see who capable of doing something to make a difference still done nothing about it. I am not trying to be provocative so you can be a full time volunteer to overcome poverty - no, since not everyone has the calling for it, I just want to say that we can make a different by doing what we can do at the moment, no matter how small it is.

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SmartFTP Client is no longer Free. What would be the best replacement for it?

Posted by Daniel - 2,274 Views

I had been using SmartFTP (Free Version) for about 3 years, but it was about a month ago when I checked their website they stated there that they can not give SmartFTP for free anymore. Yep, it’s hard to be forced to use the other FTP Clients when I already get used to it but there’s nothing I can do except to find a replacement since I have no plan to buy it. Well, SmartFTP is a good FTP Client especially with the look and the arrangement of the panels, even I just found out that it’s a little bit slow. Do they limit the speed on the free version? I am not going to speculate, I am leaving it anyway.

The painful part when finding a new FTP Client is when I need to test-run it on my machine to choose the most suitable one since I don’t fully rely on screenshots and online descriptions. My requirements are:

• It should give me an easy ways to browse both local files and remote files. It means that the local file browser and the remote file browser should be accessible on a single window (split arrangement is preferred) and it should be placed close to each other so I can easily drag files between them.
• It should have transfer queue feature, real time debug information to monitor each process, a reporting feature such as failed transfer report, a good account manager to save my existing accounts.
• and of course it have to be FREE :D

There are so many of them available on the net. Free FTP Client key phrase with your search engine will give you a list. I tested some of them including CoreFTP, GoFTP, WinSCP, FileZilla and FireFTP. All of them perform good with the basic function but the last two are my favourite since they met the requirements I need. Let’s talk a bit about them,

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Kantaris Media Player, The most suitable Free Media Player on my Audio Environment

Posted by Daniel - 3,372 Views

Kantaris is an all new media player based on code from Videolan client (VLC) and Bass audio library. Kantaris has a graphical user interface similar to that of Windows Media Player. The latest version works with Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

Kantaris can play almost anything you can throw at it: AVI, MPEG, MGEG-AVC, WMV, MOV, MKV, quicktime, matroska, divx, xvid, H264, MP3, WMA, OGG files and more.

Kantaris can also play DVDs and audio CDs. The player also displays some of the most beautiful music visualizations ever seen. All this is completely free.

I am not good in digital music requirements but I guess the quality of digital music depends on many factors such as the quality of source file, the soundcard, the speaker including the placement and the software player itself.

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TCPView for Windows, Tool to check TCP and UDP Connections on your system

Posted by Daniel - 2,400 Views

It was a suggestion from a good friend of mine who told me to try TCPView when I asked him about a tool to check SQLServer Connection instances created by my program.

All I need is to check whether my program is not forgetting to free any DB connection instances when it is terminated and this TCPView for windows give me what I need.

Using TCPView

When you start TCPView it will enumerate all active TCP and UDP endpoints, resolving all IP addresses to their domain name versions. You can use a toolbar button or menu item to toggle the display of resolved names. On Windows NT, 2000 and XP systems TCPView shows the name of the process that owns each endpoint.

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