ProvideX Experts - Nth Dimension

SDSI's New Website

Sat, 19 Feb 2005 14:46:48 EST

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.

Thank you to Steve Litwak for Donating

Sat, 19 Feb 2005 14:22:48 EST

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.

VIM syntax file for ProvideX

Sat, 19 Feb 2005 14:08:02 EST

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.

Toronto Business Basic Meetup next week (Feb 9, 2005)

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 15:45:20 EST

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.

The Announcement to MAS90 MDs

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 15:33:34 EST

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.

Dear Master Developer,

As you may have already heard, Mike King has stepped down as vice president and general manager of the ProvideX business unit. Alan Bryant is expanding his role as vice president of Extended Solutions to take on the additional responsibility of heading up ProvideX. As a Master Developer working directly with the ProvideX tools, I wanted to take this opportunity to explain what these changes means to you.

First of all, let me assure you that this change, in no way, affects our commitment to the ProvideX technology as the engine for MAS 90 and as a development tool for developers. Alan Bryant brings his many years of experience as a ProvideX developer to ensure that the language and the tools continue to be enhanced and improved. Alan is intimately knowledgeable of both the ProvideX technology and how it is utilized by MAS 90 and the Master Developer community. He also brings strong business and management skills to lead the very capable ProvideX team in the Markham office.

I also want to emphasize that we will continue to work very closely with Mike in a new relationship. In this relationship, Mike will be a distributor and a developer of ProvideX products. As a distributor, Mike will help market and sell the ProvideX suite of products to the developer community. As a developer, Mike will create new enhancements and complementary tools for the ProvideX community. In addition, Mike will provide direct consulting to the Best ProvideX team to help us enhance and maintain the tool set.

We are very thankful to Mike for his talent and vision which have significantly helped the MAS 90 and MAS 200 product line over the last nine years. We are also very excited about continuing to work with Mike as well as with Alan and the rest of the ProvideX team to complete the 4.x roll-out. We are just getting started taking advantage of the new capabilities made possible by the ProvideX tool set and there are many new exciting things to come.

As a Master Developer, you can be assured that we will continue to create new and exciting products and tools to keep you successful in the coming years.

Sincerely,

George Riviere
V.P. Mid-range Engineering
Best Software Inc. Your Partner of Choice.

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.

Options on supporting a client remotely

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 23:18:00 EST

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

Extreme Laptop Transport? Or really bad idea?

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 14:09:14 EST

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.

Site updated

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 02:59:56 EST

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.

So you want to be a consultant...?

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 02:05:38 EST

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

Farewell Mike King

Fri, 28 Jan 2005 02:40:22 EST

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?

ProvideX Survey from Best Software Canada

Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:39:24 EST

Best Software is running a customer satisfaction survey that they would like your input on. Please take a few minutes to fill it out as your input is valuable to them and can only help make ProvideX a stronger product.

Firefox - The Browser, Reloaded.

Thu, 26 Aug 2004 20:24:57 EST

Ok, so "Reloaded" is getting lots of use lately with the Matrix movies and with the recent changes to the X-Men lineup of comics @ Marvel - so ignore the title - but download the browser now!

Check back soon for a review of how you can get the most out of this browser in your daily activities. [Note: Firefox is not a product of Nth Dimension, we're just in love with it]

Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) - Are you ready for it?

Sun, 08 Aug 2004 11:19:13 EST

With Microsoft sending SP2 for XP gold on Friday and with it being available for download via WindowsUpdate (New Version 5) as early as next week are you ready for it to be in your customers hands? If you're a subscriber to MSDN, then you've probably already tested your application with an earlier beta version of it, but if not you'll want to schedule some time this week to make sure your application runs smoothly, and to have your technical staff review the new features to be ready for those calls from customers.

Check out Microsoft's page for Windows XP Service Pack 2.

On a related note, SP1 of Office 2003 has recently been released as well. Review this knowledge base article for the full contents of everything that was included in Office 2003 SP1.

Tonight's Toronto Meetup

Wed, 09 Jun 2004 08:13:38 EST

Tonight's meetup is still happening, even if we didn't get 5 RSVP's on the website in time. See everyone @ Yorkland Station around 8. If you've never been out to a meetup with the group before, drop me an email and I'll give you the details. It's lots of fun so come on out!

New Toolkit! Messenger like Toast popup

Sat, 08 May 2004 17:56:02 EST

This is a slick little add-on that allows you to display pop-up messages just like Windows and MSN Messenger. These pop-up's are called 'toast' messages due to the way that they pop out of the screen with your information.

Give updates to your users quickly and easily, in an unobtrusive way.

You have complete control over the message itself, the colours, images, sound and background of the message so you can brand it and customize it as you wish.

Hover over the screen shot to the right to see a demo of the Toast action. Note that this works on Unix servers as well via WindX. The placement of the toast message is dependant on the location of the users window start bar.