My Name is Mark - Ceci n'est pas un blog.

MCITP: Database Developer 2008

2010-07-12T20:37:00.003+01:00

I've put a blog post up on my other site about gaining MCITP: Database Developer 2008.

Click here to follow. http://tsqltidy.blogspot.com/2010/07/mcitp-database-developer-2008.html

Matilda Ruby May

2009-06-24T22:00:00.001+01:00

On the 19th of May, little (9lbs 3oz) Matilda was born at 8.02 am. She was born in our living room and it was great. I would recommend a home birth to anyone.

Now for the pictures…..

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Forgot...T-SQL Tidy Blog

2009-04-06T17:24:00.002+01:00

Forgot to put this in previous post. I've created a blog for T-SQL Tidy. I've added a feed to the blog on the T-SQL Tidy site - I will post up the source when I get a chance.

T-SQL Tidy

2009-04-05T18:14:00.002+01:00

Its taken a while but I've finally put version 0.1 of T-SQLTidy.com live.

I was debugging some complex SQL - I was spending most of the time just formatting the SQL because I could find the problem.

I wrote a small program to reformat the SQL, but it was very simple and only delt with a small number of cases, it made me realise that it would be a large undertaking to make it 'usable' - so the idea was shelved. Until a few weeks ago I was a Dev Week 09 and listening to Greg Low's SQL 2008 for developers talk, he was takling about how complex the SQL parser is - but we should check out a couple of web sites...so I did.... www.T-SQLTidy.com is the result.

Test message

2008-06-24T15:47:00.001+01:00

Test message
Originally uploaded by pryce maher

Test message

--
This Orange Multi Media Message was sent wirefree from an Orange MMS
phone. If you would like to reply, please either text, phone or send
a photo message to the sender directly by using the phone number listed
in the sender's address. To learn more about Orange's Multi Media
Messaging Service, find us on the Web at http://www.orange.co.uk/mms

Jon goes legitimate (sort of..)

2008-04-17T12:22:00.004+01:00

My desk neighbour Mr Jonathan Walmsley who has his own Zombie film review blog, is now being syndicated by Revenant Magazine.

Jon's ramblings are normally found here - http://trioxin.wordpress.com/

This hat is too big!!

2007-12-07T14:38:00.001Z

Recient shopping trip, its winter dont-you-know!!!!

Quiet on the western front.

2007-12-07T14:09:00.000Z

I have not put anything up on here for ages, partly due to;
a) my lazyness
b) my camera phone has died (when I say died - it has been used as a childs teething toy and now wont start [bugger])

I have a whole heap of photo's to upload, but finding the time is tricky at the moment, finding the time to sleep is hard enough, let alone time to play on a computer.

Oh well - perhaps santa (if I believed in hmi or her) might help me out with this.

All Hallow's Eve come early..

2007-10-12T14:27:00.000+01:00

Perhaps? Maybe not. Boy, do I look happy!!

Portable Computing??

2007-10-08T18:42:00.001+01:00

Picture_0077.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher

I have seen the future.... it is portable computing...

More Tabby..

2007-10-05T12:26:00.001+01:00

This one was taken last weekend, Zara's parents came over for a couple of days....
This is shot of Tabby in her new Gap dress, clapping for us..

This was taken while at Stonehendge - everyone loves megaliths!!!! :-)

Whats' up...

2007-10-01T17:34:00.001+01:00

Picture_0075.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher

Tabby playing in her high chair (and making the cutest face).

A few days after this was taken Tabby's first tooth came through...

Tabby clapping and walking

2007-09-05T12:56:00.000+01:00

Tabby did two things yesterday that I've not seen before;
a) clapping and
b) walking (while holding onto something - not mummy or daddies arms)

Very proud!!!

Mobile Blogging not working....perhaps

2007-09-05T12:48:00.001+01:00

IMAGE.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher

I've been using Flickr for my mobile blogging, but recently its not been working, I dont get any errors or warning, I just appear to lose 25p... (I have tried using the mobile blogging within blogger, but I just get an error email back).

So this is a test.....

Introducting the over grown spider plant at work.

Visit on Saturday

2007-08-13T13:03:00.000+01:00

On Saturday, Granddad and Grandmother Pryce-Jones visited. It was a good day, althought the traffic down to us was quite heavy.

Here are a couple of pics..

View of the Thames from our hotel room

2007-08-10T21:15:00.001+01:00

View from the thames from our hotel room
Originally uploaded by pryce maher

Two weeks ago, we went to a wedding in Windsor. We stayed in the Thames hotel. In was nice and quiet, great view of the river, but, yes there is but...there were about 20 wasps in the room, most dead, some still had some fight left in them (they were no match for me!).

The wedding was cool, a nice weekend all round.

Seperating Blogs

2007-08-10T13:47:00.000+01:00

I've got one blog at the moment that contains all my personal and geek related stuff.

It feels a bit of a mess having them together, so I've split them out.

Markpm.blogspot.com is now my personal blog (which consists mainly of pictures of Tabby) and
GeekOClock.blogspot.com is my geeky one.
googlesearchwithimages.blogspot.com is a Search Page I've been playing with.

So first things first, I've added links to my CodeProject articles.

I am Tabby, hear me roar!!!

2007-08-07T20:42:00.000+01:00

Charge!!!!!!

Finished with Harry Potter

2007-08-05T19:58:00.001+01:00

Tabby reading harry potter
Originally uploaded by pryce maher

You have to start them early.

Tabby is almost 6 months old and has just finished the seventh Harry Potter (see cute picture on right).

When I say finished, I dont mean finished reading, finished destroying!!!!

Behold - the 'updated' copy of Deathly Hallows.

Shop until you drop...

2007-07-25T10:34:00.001+01:00

Picture_0064.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

well she dropped.. We were out in Tesco picking up a few items (milk, bread, loo roll etc), as soon as we got to the check-out, Tabby dropped off for a little kip. (Sleeping like a baby)

Nanna Maher

2007-06-30T19:17:00.001+01:00

nana_maher.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

I caught this cute pic of Nanna Maher playing with Tabby.

Error when creating a SQL function

2007-06-29T11:14:00.001+01:00

I have started using functions in SQL 2005 and I really do like them...But (there is always a but) I got this problem....

Msg 443, Level 16, State 1, Procedure UpdateTenders, Line 71
Invalid use of side-effecting or time-dependent operator in 'newid' within a function.
Msg 443, Level 16, State 15, Procedure UpdateTenders, Line 71
Invalid use of side-effecting or time-dependent operator in 'INSERT' within a function.

I got it on a rather natty (if that's how you spell natty) function, if I have to say so myself, but I wasn't doing anything strange with Guids, just an insert.

So after a quick google search found nothing, I changed it to be a stored procedure and it worked!! Hurray for simple solutions...

If it doesn't work as a sql function; do it as a stored procedure.

Tracy and James visit

2007-06-28T21:28:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday Tracy and Jim came down for a visit. Although it was a short visit, we had a fun morning. But we shall be seeing them very soon!!!!

Google Search with Images

2007-06-28T17:14:00.000+01:00

Okay, so not a catchy title, but a fairly descriptive one...

I've been toying around with some ideas on how to improve search engine results. I really like the way the image search on search.live.com brings back results. If this idea could be shared with the way web pages are displayed, then it would be a really cool web search...

So I spent a while looking at all the components needed...

1) a web spider (to index all the pages)
2) imaging software to screen shot the web pages
3) a cool web interface to view the results.
4) somewhere to host the software.

I wrote a very basic (but working) c# demo, but (free) hosting is the problem.

So I started from scratch; is it possible to do all the above, but only write a few lines of code and have it hosted???....

The answer is yes, but just like every compromise, there are limitations...

Lets start again, but pick up free or existing software...

1) use google's search API , its free and I wont say easy, but not impossible to use.
2) websnapr offer a free service of imaging web pages..
3) hmmmm this is an area of limitation...
4) erm, lets see if we can use blogger...

The result is this.... Google Search with Images

Sleep suits you.....

2007-06-24T14:40:00.001+01:00

Picture_0058.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

I thought this would make an interesting comparison.

The white new born sleep suit is laid on top of a 6 to 9 month sleep suit (one from Tabby's current rotation).

They do get big quick!

Live Writer and profile...

2007-06-22T12:58:00.001+01:00

I'm testing out Window Live Writer, it looks and feels good. I'm impressed....apart from the uploading of images issue (which isn't a Live Writer problem). I will update with any issues I find..

On-line profile updating...:-)

I've updated fiend reunited , Messenger , myspace and now I've created a Facebook profile

Here goes nothing...time to post....

Online Profile...

2007-06-21T15:20:00.000+01:00

I've been reading Bill Thompson's Bill Board on the BBC news web site.

Apart from feeling old, I thought; I want one of those..an on-line profile.. what ever those is..

There are quite a few social networking sites out there, but which is the best? I was talking with some friends at the weekend and they said dont use facebook.... I would have argeed if I knew what facebook was.

So what are the 'cool' sites?
Is myspace still cool? What about friends reunited? and twitter? what the hell is twitter..
Are blogs still cool??

Sometimes my head hurts too much....

Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals 'The selected database is not supported' Error

2007-06-21T14:31:00.000+01:00

I tried to 'Import Database Schema..' from a SQL 2005 project, I added a new connection.

When I clicked on OK, I got the following error. 'The selected database is not supported.'
(I was connecting to a standard SQL 2005 database...nothing special about it)

I asked our Microsoft contact; James Snape.

He suggested trying to manually add a new database connection from the Server Explorer. This didn't work!! But I did get a different error, 'Key not valid for use in specified state.'.

The solution was: deleted all the Data Connections I had, then add a new one.

Programmer Personality Type

2007-06-14T10:07:00.000+01:00

Try this small quiz to work out your programmer personality type.

Mine is....

DHTB

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.

You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it's parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.

You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.

Your space, my space, myspace?

2007-06-11T21:57:00.000+01:00

It feels as if everyone on the planet has a myspace site, so I have finally got around to creating one...but of course I'm still using blogger for my blog. The myspace site is here at http://www.myspace.com/markprycemaher

Mr Wobble Head...

2007-06-11T19:25:00.001+01:00

IMAGE.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

Tabby playing with Mr Wobbly Head. Her new best-est friend.

And relax...

2007-06-10T17:56:00.001+01:00

Pete and Claire having a sit down after getting back from Springwatch (and having our pick's nicked) on Southampton common.

PeteandClare
Originally uploaded by Me

Hello Dave!!!

2007-06-08T12:20:00.001+01:00

IMAGE.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

Meet Dave.

He is one of the members of our co-op family....not matter how much he denies it, he is one of us now.........

Tabby 17th April 2007

2007-06-01T18:28:00.000+01:00

Tabby looking cute and playing on her pillow.

Tabitha sleeping

2007-06-01T16:25:00.000+01:00

I've been meaning to upload loads of pictures of Tabby, but there are so many, that I've no idea where to start...

So here is one of my favourate...

Simple Web Service using WCF (Windows Communication Framework) - The Code Project - Windows Communication Foundation

2007-06-01T12:57:00.000+01:00

Hurray!! My first article (third one written) for CodeProject has been moved from an Unedited Reader Contributions to a proper article...

I've been meaning to write more, but I've just not been able to find the time.

Hopefully, this will spur me on.. (or not)

Its been published here:
Simple Web Service using WCF (Windows Communication Framework) - The Code Project - Windows Communication Foundation

Oh go on, rate it!!

Vote now for your fave Reg headline | The Register

2007-05-11T09:58:00.000+01:00

Some of the best headlines in the world (probably)....
Vote now for your fave Reg headline | The Register

Phoebe's Ball

2007-04-23T13:43:00.000+01:00

Phoebe's Ball

Link to article in the Daily Echo

Creationist museum challenges evolution

2007-04-17T07:56:00.000+01:00

This is one of the craziest things I have ever heard of...

Creationist museum challenges evolution

Give me Pastafarians any day.....

Cascade

2007-04-11T12:25:00.000+01:00

Cascade is a Theatre company in Truro.. They have just launched there new website http://www.cascadetheatre.co.uk/

So Cute!!

2007-04-11T10:12:00.000+01:00

What a cute little yawn!!!

Quote of the Day

2007-04-11T09:21:00.001+01:00

Picture_0046.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

Jon from work made this amazing quote....
"There seams to be more static in the air now-a-days..."

Genius..

Looking cute.

2007-03-29T20:41:00.001+01:00

Picture_0044.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

Are you looking at me? You are - because I am cute!

HerSpace....

2007-03-29T13:36:00.000+01:00

My wife has been working hard at home on her mySpace site.

Celebrity Look-alike....

2007-03-29T13:34:00.000+01:00

Not much I can say about this...

BBC NEWS | Health | Babies rob 'two months of sleep'

2007-03-29T13:23:00.000+01:00

I can agree with this BBC NEWS | Health | Babies rob 'two months of sleep' but sometimes it feels like more!!!!

Woo Hoo!! Here she is...

2007-03-25T20:42:00.000+01:00

Tabitha Lily-Rose Raven Pryce-Maher was born on the 7th of February 2007 at 1:26pm weighing in at a whopping 9lb 14oz!!!

Mother and Baby doing fine after a long and exhausting 3 day labour.

Its taken a while to put this post up, but I've hand my hands full.

phydeaux3: Code for Blogger Label Cloud

2007-01-15T16:31:00.000Z

I've been looking around for a while for a tag cloud for Blogger, but I found I was using the search criteria in google.

I should have been using label cloud, blogger.com calls them labels, but everywhere else calls them tags.

I put in the changes and I'm really impressed with the results, a great tag/label cloud.

The only thing I wanted to change was; my blog home page only shows a limited number of posts, but I wanted all the labels/tags to appear.

So I made a slight change to phydeaux3's code;
Instead of this line;
var lcBlogURL = 'http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com';

I replace it with;
var lcBlogURL = 'http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/search?q=';

phydeaux3: Code for Beta Blogger Label Cloud

Graham C

2007-01-10T10:24:00.001Z

IMAGE.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

This is Graham. He loves his computer...

and taking pictures using his mobile phone..One day he will release it on the internet so everyone can send picutres from their smart phones to your blogs/websites.

Have a look at his pictures....

http://www.glc.org.uk/photos

http://www.glc.org.uk/mobile

PS. He is quite normall really.

Label Cloud

2007-01-05T14:15:00.000Z

I've added a label cloud (or tag cloud - if you use Technorati).

I followed the instructions from here http://phy3blog.googlepages.com/Beta-Blogger-Label-Cloud.html

Office Eye Candy

2007-01-04T14:55:00.001Z

IMAGE.jpeg
Originally uploaded by pryce maher.

Introducing Jon the self confessed office eye candy.

This is a test picture, uploaded using Flickr.

Flickr

2007-01-04T14:37:00.001Z

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Simple Web Service using WCF (Windows Communication Framework) - The Code Project - Vista / .NET 3.0

2007-01-02T13:01:00.000Z

I've written another beginners article for CodeProject.

It details how to create to a web service using WCF (Windows Communication framework).

Simple Web Service using WCF (Windows Communication Framework) - The Code Project - Vista / .NET 3.0

Dynamically Adding Button to a Form - The Code Project - C# Programming

2006-12-07T16:45:00.000Z

I've written a beginners article on The Code Project.

Dynamically Adding Button to a Form - The Code Project - C# Programming

Slough Musical Theatre Company

2006-09-25T13:12:00.000+01:00

Just found out my Bro has a part in the Slough Musical Theatre Company's next production: Jekyll and Hyde.

Geek related...

2006-09-22T13:01:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote this Intergrating MySql with Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0.

Its my first attempt at writing a technical article. I've very pleased with the (limited) feedback, but its a start...I've got a few ideas for a few more..

Alive and kicking..

2006-09-22T12:50:00.000+01:00

It seams a long time ago now, when we found out the news we were pregnant....

A while has passed and there is only less than 5 months left....and we have not sorted out the nursery yet!! (Plenty of time left :-) )

The kicks come good and fast, sometimes in the form of overhead kicks and sometimes in the form of river dance!!

Taken at 13 weeks

Taken at 20 weeks

Minne and Daisy

2006-05-18T21:47:00.000+01:00

Here are a couple of cute cats pics...... (Daisy is the white one)

2 Bee or not 2 Bees

2006-05-18T21:27:00.000+01:00

We have Bees. Our bees arrived at 7.40 this morning (by TNT). I got the bees in their little bee house, and to my suprise the bee house was buzzing!!! In my defense I was told we would be getting bee eggs and not LIVE bees.

We got them from a place called Just Green.

New Job (day 3)

2006-05-10T12:33:00.000+01:00

On Monday I started my new job at the Co-Op. Everything is going well, I started some real work on Monday, no sitting around reading manuals.

I've already started a mini compost bin in the kitchen, so all the apple cores, tea bags and waste food will all go into my home compost bin (which cost 6 pounds from the council!).

I'm covered in Bees!!!!!

2006-05-08T22:02:00.000+01:00

Not the Eddie Izzard sketch, but my wife's birthday present; one of these Bee Nests . Why on earth anyone would want to keep little stingy flying things, I will never know.

Do you know, one bee sting releases hormones that make other bees want to sting you!!! I bet she has not seen the swarm!!

Veggie Update

2006-05-08T20:35:00.000+01:00

Just a quick veggie update.

The runner beans are the pots. (The larger runner bean is the same one shown in an eariler post)

The plants on the left are Kale and Letuce on the right.

Yum yum

Wedding Anniversary

2006-05-08T20:27:00.000+01:00

We have just had our wedding anniversary and stayed at a wonderful B&B Witherington Farm
Link:http://www.witheringtonfarm.co.uk/.

Crops

2006-04-24T18:56:00.000+01:00

Our crops are starting to emerge from the soil, well compost.

I forgot to label up the seedlings, so I've no idea what is growing. Oh well its going to have to be a suprise!!!

Note: These do grow up to be real plants.

Thief!!!

2006-04-24T11:19:00.000+01:00

Looks like nothing is safe.... I thought squirrels liked nuts!!
But it appears they LOVE sunflower hearts!!

It does look like there is such a thing as a free lunch!!!

Baskets...

2006-04-21T21:02:00.000+01:00

We have started growing some Fuschia's for our hanging baskets.

Hopefully they will survive until we can plant them into the baskets.

Minnie Mog..

2006-04-21T20:59:00.000+01:00

This is one of the cutest pictures we have of Minnie, asleep on the rug, snoring..zzzZZZZZZZ.

Yes, snoring, who knew cats snore?

Suprise Goat!

2006-04-21T09:38:00.000+01:00

My brother [Paul] has kindly bought my wife and I a really cool anniversary [and belated wedding] present; a goat. Yes, a goat - a real goat, unfortunately we wont see the real goat, it goes to a family in Africa. But we do get a very cute goat toy.

Check out the website link:http://www.farmafrica.org.uk/

Its not easy wanting to be green....

2006-04-19T12:53:00.000+01:00

I have been watching 'Its not easy being green' from the last 3 weeks, and how I have just seen their web site. http://www.itsnoteasybeinggreen.org/

Also their book is on Amazon.co.uk at a discounted £11.38 Woo Hoo!!! http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0563493461/202-4102632-9173452

Being green isnt half expensive!!!

Lets get started...

2006-04-19T12:47:00.000+01:00

This is my first post on Blogger.