Dec 24, 2012

Excel 2013 Error: There was a problem sending the command to the program

I installed excel 2013 and I think everything went well during the installation. But I find there is something wrong with excel when double click a spreadsheet file and it will pop up a strange error dialog:


To fix the problem, we should do like this, and this is for Excel 2013 and Excel 2010:

  1. Click the File tab, and then click Options.
  2. Click Advanced, and then click to clear the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box in the General area. (You need to scroll down quite a lot to see the General area)
  3. Click OK.

Dec 4, 2012

Feelings and Experiences of CCD-333 Exam - Cloudera Certified Developer for Apache Hadoop (CCDH)

In October this year, I took a Cloudera Certified Developer for Apache Hadoop exam, which number is CCD-333. I successfully passed the exam, and looking back upon, all the efforts paid had value. This is a new exam and there is few materials in the internet talking about it, now I want to write something to share my feelings and experiences, which may help people who are preparing for the exam.


Part 1: Exam Preparation - Learning
1. Hadoop The Definite Guide 3rd


This is the book you must read before the exam, which explain very well and in details of Hadoop. I took a three days training by Cloudera certified trainer, but that class is an overview level training and is not very detailed. After the exam, I found the many questions examed are in the Definite Guide book rather than the training.
And very important, it's better that you read very carefully of Chapter 2 to 8 of this book, and maybe add chapter 9 and 10. I read them twice. But for chapter 11 to 16 which talks about the ecosystem of Hadoop (HBase, Hive, Pig etc.) , you don't need to read them if only for preparing the exam.

Part 2: The Exam CCD-333
The CCD-333 exam is 90 minutes with 60 questions, and the requirement is to score 67% or above. The exam tests many areas, the section scores below listing them precisely:

I feel that it exams a lot in the Input and Outpout of MapReduce, you need to understand the flow and details of MapReduce, and in the exam itself, I feel that time is sufficient to finish the exam.

Part 3: The certification

I wish this article is helpful for those who are preparing for this exam. All the best!

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Nov 26, 2012

ORA-12541: TNS:no listener in Redhat

I have experienced oracle listener problem for some time.
When I try to start listener use the command as below:
lsnrctl start

It will report ORA-12541 problem. I don't know what I changed to make this problem. But luckily today I found it out the solution:

Open network in Redhat, and in the hosts tab: set the IP address as the IP address of this system.
Mine was wrong before and makes the listener start up failed.


After this, we can use a command to reset the network:
/etc/init.d/network restart

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Nov 19, 2012

Remote Desktop to a Windows 7 System (Allow Multiple Connect)

Remote desktop is powerful. The ideal scenario would be have a strong machine and be connected via many   thin client.

The way to set up remote connection to a Windows 7 system is like below. By the way, I think remote connection  is  only available on certain versions of Windows. I am using Windows 7 Enterprise as an example.

Part 1: Enable Remote Connection in the host.
1. Right click computer--> Properties-->Advanced System Settings, and click "Remote" tap. Then pick any of the last two items, for example: "Allow connection only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication"

Part 2: Enable Multiple Connect
Please download the tool here to enable multiple connect.

After downloaded this tool and unzip it, there is an install.cmd, you need to first:
1. Set the right version variables.


Find that from registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
On the right you will find a key "CurrentBuildNumber". 

2. Right click the install.cmd file "Run as a Administrator". That's it!


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Nov 14, 2012

Evernote Keyboard Useful Shortcuts

I love Evernotes more and more, and thanks to the developers who provide this great product.

I now use it to take notes, especially learning notes. It is very good, and have 60MB every months. When I am taking notes, I find use shortcut is very useful, for example, if you want to write some sub items under a certain topic, you can type "Ctril+Shit+B" to achieve it.

I copied from a post from CNET listing the most userful shortcuts for Evernote.
Evernote


Keyboard shortcuts can help you become more efficient with e-mailDropboxTwitter,Facebook and more. If you're an Evernote user and love using keyboard shortcuts, you'll be happy to know that you can use Evernote almost entirely from the keyboard. Here are some of the more useful keyboard shortcuts in Evernote for Windows:
General Application
Ctrl + N : create a new note
Ctrl + Shift + N : create a new notebook
Ctrl + Shift + T : create a new tag
F10 : toggle left panel display
F11 : toggle note list display
Ctrl + F11 : toggle note panel display
F5 : cycle note list views
Ctrl + F5 : switch to table view in note list
Ctrl + F6 : switch to mixed view in note list
Ctrl + F7 : switch to thumbnail view in note list
F2 : rename notebook, note, tag or saved search
F7 : spell check
F9 : sync with Evernote Web
Ctrl + Q : exit Evernote
Editor
Ctrl + B : bold
Ctrl + I : italicize
Ctrl + U : underline
Ctrl + A : select all
Ctrl + X : cut
Ctrl + C : copy
Ctrl + V : paste with original formatting
Ctrl + Shft + V : paste unformatted
Ctrl + Space : remove formatting
Alt + Shift + D : insert current date and time
Ctrl + Z : undo
Ctrl + Y : redo
Ctrl + T : strike through
Ctrl + Shift + B : bulleted list
Ctrl + Shift + O : numbered list
Ctrl + L : align left
Ctrl + R : align right
Ctrl + E : center
Ctrl + J : justify
Ctrl + Shift + X : encrypt selected text
Ctrl + K : create new hyperlink
Ctrl + F : search within note
Ctrl + S : save note
You can view the full list of Evernote for Windows keyboard shortcuts from Evernote.com

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Nov 3, 2012

[Solved] In China, Google doesn't work because of GFW


Because of the great fire wall, Google search doesn't work well in China. Sometimes the search will go to a DNS error screen, and sometimes you can search, but none of the result links can be opened.

To solve this, we need to Force Chrome to use Https. The steps are as below:
1, Open Chrome, and input chrome://net-internals in address
2, Click "HSTS" link in the left



3, in the right page, add google.com in the "Domain" textbox, and select "Include subdomains", then click Add


Aha, now we have some freedom via google.

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Oct 25, 2012

Weird .NET Framework 3.5 Problem - No reference to System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization

I was recently in a SQL server 2008 performance tuning training, and installed SQL Server 2008 R2 and a bunch of related tools. And when I go back to work use Visual Studio 2010 to work on my Windows Form projects, I find that the project cannot be compiled.

There are more than 300 errors and warnings and this makes it very difficult to locate the real problem. After some analysis on the error messages, I was thinking the problem maybe caused by .NET framework. Because when installing 2008 R2 I remember that .NET framework was also installed. Some of the error message also helps to prove my suspect:

Warning The primary reference "******" could not be resolved because it has an indirect dependency on the framework assembly "System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" which could not be resolved in the currently targeted framework. ".NETFramework,Version=v3.5". To resolve this problem, either remove the reference "****" or retarget your application to a framework version which contains "System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35".

I was thinking to reinstall .NET framework 3.5 SP1 but before doing that, I suddenly found that in Microsoft website, there is a separate item called Microsoft Chart Controls for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. And I gave it a try first.


Then the problem is solved. 

Please download here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14422

I don't know why SQL Server 2008 will remove the char controls, but this is the fix works for me. I checked many posts in the web but they didn't mention this, I write this done to offer some help.

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Oct 24, 2012

WebEx Recorder Panel Disappear

WebEx recorder is a very good tool to record video, and it generates small size output file. When using WebEx recorder, I found a problem that sometimes the Recorder Panel would disappear and it's hard to find them out.


The solution is:

Change screen resolution and the recorder panel will appear again.



Jun 6, 2012

Remove Multiple/Duplicate Calendar Entries on Android

I am using ZTE Android 2.3 and one problem with my Calendar is that it has duplicate calendar entries, some items are even repeated 4 to 5 times, and this makes my Calendar hard to use. I found a way to solve this:

Settings > Applications > Manage applications > All > Calendar storage > Clear data... Then please try syncing again.

This works perfect for me!

[Update on 2014-03-05] For latest Android versions, for example 4.4, the path is a little different.
Settings > Apps > All > Calendar > Clear data..
But sorry I didn't have the problem in Android 4.4, I didn't test it. If you met the problem, you can try the path above.


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Mailbox Full! Clean Large Calendar in Outlook 2010

I often met a Outlook error that my mail box is full, then I will start to clean my email inbox. But I today I suddenly found that the root cause is that my calendar took too much space!

To view the "Mailbox Size", in Outlook 2010, you could do like this:
1, File -> Info -> Cleanup Tools, choose "Mailbox Cleanup..."
2, In the popup "Mailbox Cleanup" window, click "View Mailbox Size".


If you found your email box frequently go out of space, you might can take a look at the calendar space.

OK, the next question is how to clean the Calendar? Here is the way to do it in Outlook 2010

1, Click Calendar in Outlook, in the View tab, Click Change View menu item
2, Choose the List view

3, Add a column "Size", so you can sort on it. The step is:
1) Right click the header, Click "View Settings", then "Columns...",

2) In the popup dialog of "Show Columns",  select "All Appointment fields" in the drop down list.
3) In the list of "Available columns", go down to the end and choose "Size"

4, Now you can sort on Size column and delete the big appointment in Calendar!
My outlook lives a happy life ever...

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Jun 1, 2012

Adding a Landscape Page in Word

Usually word pages are in portrait layout, but we might need to add a landscape page among portrait pages to contain more contents. Please follow these steps:

1, Select the contents you want to make in the landscape page

2, Click the downright arrow in "Page layout" Ribbon to bring up Page Setup dialog

3, Choose Landscape, and most important "Selected Text"

4, Now it's good!


Mar 27, 2012

Schedule or Delay Sending an Email

I was wondering that whether Microsoft Outlook supports the feature that it can support delay sending an email, and today I know it has. It's really a good product.

Steps:
  1. In the message, click Options.
  2. Click Delay Delivery, and then click the delivery date and time you want.
  3. If you don't want to delay the email, you can simply uncheck the checkbox.





















For more information about delay all emails, please refer to: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/delay-or-schedule-sending-e-mail-messages-HP005242790.aspx

Mar 26, 2012

Visual Studio Doesn't Load Previous Opened Files

I met a rather strange problem that Visual Studio doesn't reload previous opened files. When I had worked on some files which were opened in Visual Studio, if I save and quit Visual Studio, next time I start the same project, no files would be opened.  I need to go the specific file and manually open it, which is not the normal "Work and Continue" type most of the users have. I searched a lot but there is no available solutions on the web, and below is what I have done to fix it:
1, Find someone who is using Visual Studio and doesn't have this problem
2, Copy the settings of that user in C:\Users\*****\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Settings
3, Paste the settings in your own setting folder, which is the similar path like above

World is peaceful now. Sorry I cannot provide a screenshot because it's working now. :)

Mar 14, 2012

Adobe Acrobat Pro Tip - View Continuous Page in Read Mode

When I am using Adobe Acrobat in "Read Mode", one feature I find very useful is to read page continuously, which makes page scrolls smoothly, also the zoom function is very convenient. Also there is a nice way to let Acrobat remember your  habit.

1, Read Mode: Ctrl+H
2, View Continuous Page: View-->Page Display-->Enable Scrolling
3, Zoom: View-->Zoom
4, Remember habit: Edit-Preferences, In Open Settings, choose "Restore last view settings when reopening documents"


Update on July 01:
When in full screen mode, it's not able to scroll with down arrow key. But there is a tricky way to turn it on:

  • Go Fullscreen: CtrlL
  • Enable AutoScroll: CtrlShiftH
  • Disable AutoScroll: CtrlShiftH

Visual Studio Toolbox Went Empty

My Visual Studio 2010 goes weird these days, one problem is that it cannot open previously opened files when Visual Studio starts again. This is not solved yet...

Another problem is when I am designing WinForm, the tool box went empty completely, no Windows Form controls like textbox, label... at all. Luckily I find a fix:

1, Navigate to this folder
Windows 7:
C:\Users\zhang5\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0

(For VS2008 it will be 9.0)


2, Delete these hidden files
"toolbox.tbd", "toolboxIndex.tbd", "toolbox_reset.tbd", "toolboxIndex_reset.tbd"
Restart Visual Studio and it recovers.

Mar 1, 2012

Visual Studio DataSet Visualizer No Data, Please use Righthand Data Visualizer

I don't know why, but sometimes, when I was debugging Visual Studio codes, I cannot click the "Magnify" icon to view DataTable contents, this is so frustrating... Very inconvenient.


I have read some posts but none of them seemed useful, but luckily, I found there is another tool developed by Miha Markic, a Microsoft MVP, which can visualize the datatable.

This is called Righthand Data Visualizer:You can download it from here:

The installation path is:
Visual Studio installation path:
\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers
For example, in Visual Studio 2010, it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\Packages\Debugger\Visualizers

Don't need to restart Visual Studio, but if you are in debugging, you need to quit and debug again.

Let's see its screen:


Annoying IE warning"open a site in your trusted sites list Do you want to allow this?"

Internet Explorer will frequently popup warnings like "open a site in your trusted sites list Do you want to allow this?"


This really annoying... Let's get rid of it!

1, Go to Internet Explorer -->Internet Options,
2, Click Security Tab,
3, Click Trusted Sites (This is very important, click trusted sites)
4, Click Customer Level
5, Find an item "Websites in less privileged web content zone can navigate into this zone"
Change it from "Prompt" to "Enabled"


Enjoy!






Chrome English Version Download Chinese Garbled Code

I have installed Chrome English version, and it's very smooth and easy to use. But there is a problem when downloading file with Chinese name, the name will become garbled codes. The way to solve this:
1, Chrome-->Settings-->Options-->Under the Hood; See there is an item called "Customized Font" and click it

2, Change Encoding to Unicode (UTF-8)






Then everything is happy.

Feb 14, 2012

How to log in your Google Blogger


I used a new theme of Google Blogger, but found that the original login link which was on the top right was gone.

I finally found out how to log in:
1, Click your name of one post, and it will open your profile
2, Click Blogger icon on the top left.
Now you are in your blog world. Aha..

Change Putty Color

The default dark blue color for putty is so hard to see.
1, Run putty,
2.1 choose a saved session
OR
2.2 if a session is already running, right click the putty window title bar, choose "change settings...”
3, "windows“ ---> "colours" ---> "select a color to adjust" ---> choose your color to change
I chose "ANSI Blue" ---> "Modify",and changed it to LightGreen.
It's much better now!