SDSI - Synergetic Data Systems, Inc. launched a new website recently. If you haven't visited in a while, check it out. They are the makers of UnForm and General which many of you are familiar with.

    Allen of SDSI recently contributed an MD5 function to our code section.

    I just wanted to take a moment to thank Steve Litwak of Coast Data Systems for sending a donation in. Hundreds of visitors a week come to the site for information, example code and help with ProvideX - often saving themselves hours of struggle, or discovering something new that will benefit their business. Steve felt it was worth it. Do you?

    While I'm at it I'll thank past donators Stephane Devouard of Optims and Phil Whirley of BCS. There might have been one or two others a long time that have slipped my mind, if so please accept my apologies.

    If you're a fan of 'vim' (Popular variant of the Unix 'vi' editor) and want some syntax highlighting, you can find it here. Too bad the author of the file has a bad attitude about the language :-(

    Another syntax file we already have on the site for Ultraedit.

The Toronto Business Basic Meetup is taking place next week. Wed, Feb 9th @ 7pm @ Stoney's Bar & Grill at Yonge & Sheppard. If you haven't already, please RVSP at the meetup site so I can make sure to let the place know ahead of time in case we have a large group.

    Why might I suspect we'll have a larger than normal group? Well, Mike King and his wife Rosalba will be coming out to join us. Now that he doesn't have his monthly meetings in LA the same week he'll be able to come out more often to the user group.

    For those that haven't come out to a meetup before, it's very informal. Just a group of business basic programmers getting together to hang out. Some of us order dinner, others just order drinks. It's not all shop-talk either as most of the regulars are independants who are stuck in the office and/or at clients all day and don't get a chance to interact with their peers all that often.

    Hope to see you there.

    In follow-up to the announcement last week of Mike King leaving ProvideX, here is the note that George Riviere sent to all of the Master Developers with a bit more detail than what was in the first note. I know that it has helped answer many of my questions so I'm happy to be able to share it here for all of us non-MAS related people.

    Also, if you haven't already, check out Mike's new site at PVXPlus.com for even more information. I'm having lunch with him early next week and should be able to share some more news then.

     A good discussion was had on the mailing list today when Dave raised a question about where to go if netmeeting isn't available, as Microsoft as discontinued support for it as they replace it with some newer products.

    The major response has come back in favour of VNC, and there were opinions on the various versions and distributions available out there. RealVNC is the 'official' one, and they have a limited version that is freely available. If you want the security features, you need to go with the enterprise version (you can get a quote on their site). If you already have a VPN setup to the client, you probably don't need the security features (unless you're paranoid about local sniffers). A strength of RealVNC mentioned was the clipboard integration. As I type this on my Mac, I'm copying URL's from the emails on my PC and pasting them directly here - no fuss, no hassle. My understanding of VNC however is that it's an open standard (thus the proliferation of clients & servers) so the interoperability of each should be compatible back and forth.

    PCAnywhere which in the early 90s was the leader on the PC side seems to have not gotten too many votes. Perhaps it was the price point? A know a large # of people too that still just support off directly connecting to the unix server and anything PC related they just do over the phone. Perhaps this thread will give them the opportunity to explore a few other options. We all know that it can be difficult sometimes getting a user to type in PrintSpaceANineDollarSign. It only takes minutes to setup VNC the first time, and less after that.

    The 'Ask for Assistance' feature of MSN Messenger was mentioned. This can work if the user already has a passport account etc, which many won't have. Also, a number of organizations do not allow instant messaging applications as part of their corporate policy so you could hit resistance using this method. Not to mention having all your clients on your contact list could get disruptive.

    Thought not brought up in the conversation today, I know that a # of clients also have agreements with some of the web & java based providers of these types of services. In this case you pay the 3rd party a support agreement monthly and your staff have accounts on their system which they login to and start a session. The client then connects to the website and connects to your session. The benefit of these types of systems if you eliminate most of the connection/firewall related issues you'll run into occasionally with the others.

    Another products mentioned: Remote Adminstrator (AKA "radmin")
TridiaVNC - Tridia was known in our cirlces years ago for the DoubleView software on unix systems which would allow you to take control of a terminals session and provide support, so they know the business well.
tightVNC
DameWare Mini Remote Control
UltraVNC

    Any of us that carries a laptop always has the worry in the back of their mind that it'll get stolen. A couple of Brits have thought up a way that they think will help prevent potential thieves casing your computer. Instead of carrying around your normal Targus case or similar brand, throw it in a Power Pizza box. That's right, they have you put your laptop in a specially designed pizza box and carry around. When you leave the house, pretend you're taking out the trash. When you come home @ night, act as if you've got a hot one for the family. Don't worry about the neighbours thinking you eat pizza 7 days a week. Or the clients who want a slice every time you show up for a meeting.

    The first thing that crossed my mind was: this will just help thieves! In larger offices it's not uncommon for a pizza delivery to come in around lunch time. Pretend that's what you're doing, walk around to an empty cubicle, load up the laptop and out you go with the trash. Or, even if one wanted to steal from their own company where you'd normally never be able to get a computer out past security it'd make it take much easier.

     As you may have noticed the site looks a little bit different this morning. I've upgraded the blogkit to my new version 2. I'll get around to documenting that soon, but you can see some of the features already. You'll notice that along the header of each news item is a link to comments, and a list of categories. You can click on the "comment" and be taken to the input form where you can leave your thoughts about each of the posts. Currently this is only available on the news items and not the articles/code/faq. Sorry it's not integrated with the site login yet so you don't have to re-enter your information. For any category listed, you can click on it to see previous posts in the same category.

    Along with the kit, comes the archive. Here you can see all posts every made, or grouped by category, or date. There is also a feature to search the posts. Note again that this isn't integrated with the main search bar above yet.

    Another feature, is the RSS Feed. For those of you that read lots of sites and like to stay up to date you may already be familiar with this technology. Review the specs and get some more details. If you're using Firefox you can click the RSS icon in the bottom right corner too.

    Please let me know if you find that I've broken any of the other features of the site with this change, or if you have any questions.

    A colleague sent over this link to an article titled So you want to be a consultant...? By Steve Friedl

    It's all stuff most of us already know... but it can't hurt to review every once in a while either.

    Here's the intro: ...I've been a consultant of one form or another since 1985 when I started my old company, V-Systems, with a friend from college, and actually did bits and pieces of consulting as early as 1982. I have been asked often about the business, and I decided to write this up

    The following announcement was made on the mailing list this evening

It is with mixed emotions I announce that Mike King is stepping down as V.P. & G.M. of the ProvideX Division at Best Software to pursue further entrepreneurial opportunities. As the founder and original developer, Mike has seen the ProvideX language flourish, and he will continue to play an important role in its on-going growth through his next career move to the distribution and development side of the business. The ProvideX product will continue to benefit from Mike's talents and expertise as he works with us to enhance and support our development efforts on a consulting basis. Please join me in wishing Mike further success in his new endeavors.

    I am very pleased to announce that Alan Bryant is expanding his role as Vice President of Extended Solutions to take on the additional responsibility of heading up ProvideX. Alan's proven leadership, extensive understanding of channel sales, and familiarity with both ProvideX and Best Software will be an outstanding benefit to us all. Alan's wealth of experience within Best Software and as a very successful business partner and developer prior to joining the Best Software family makes this a natural transition. Please join me in congratulating Alan Bryant on his promotion.

    We are excited about the continuing relationship we will have with Mike King, and the new leadership that Alan Bryant brings to ProvideX. As always, we look forward to your continuing support and thank you for the successes we've built together.

    Best regards,
Himanshu Palsule
Senior Vice President and General Manager
Mid-Market Accounting Solutions

    Needless to say, it has come as a bit of a shock, but not completely un-foreseen. The challenge ahead will be to not let this change effect the way ProvideX is run. Let's all keep our fingers crossed.

    And of course the rumours will start to fly too until we hear more about what Mike has up his sleave.

    I've only worked with Alan once or twice in the past, and that was before he moved over to Best. Maybe they'll have a little welcome party next time he comes to town?