SQL Server 2008 Error

I downloaded and installed the SQL Server 2008 Express on my home computer and was testing it out. I created a test database and a test table in it. Then, in design view I was adding columns to this table. When I hit the save for the first time, I was prompted for a table name. I gave this table a name. After the table was named and created, I wanted to add a new column to it. But every time I was trying to save this table I was getting the following annoying error.

"Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created. You have either made changes to a table that can't be re-created or enabled the option Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created."

Here is the screenshot.

The solution of this problem is to go to Tools -> Options -> Designers -> Table and Database Designers and uncheck the "Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation".

Here is how to solve it:

Night Shift, Cancer And Vitamin D

I recently saw a news story stating that working night-shift hours can cause cancer in humans. This news story got me thinking that this is an interesting development to say the least, because if more studies actually confirm this without reasonable doubt then class action trial lawyers will get very rich very soon. These lawyers will sue many companies that burn midnight oil and drag them into bankruptcy.

As I was thinking about this story and I started thinking about number of times I have stayed up late for work or to study for exams when I was in college. Could those midnight cram sessions while I was in college can actually cause cancer in my body?

While I was thinking about all this, I realized that I have seen numerous news stories linking lack of Vitamin D in the body with occurrence of cancer. If you do a simple google search of “Vitamin D Cancer” without the quotes, you will find that many articles and scientific studies link lack of Vitamin D with cancer.

How Vitamin D is usually made in the body? The answer is: sun exposure. When sun is exposed to the bare human skin, Vitamin D is naturally generated.

Who does not get enough Vitamin D? The answer is: people who work nigh-shift hours. Why? Because they work during the night hours when there is no sun exposure, and when they sleep during they day their skin is never get exposed to the natural sunlight. This naturally causes deficiency of Vitamin D in their body and this deficiency makes them more prone to cancer then people who are awake and active during the day.

Now, this is my hypothesis. Someone needs to do a study where Vitamin D levels are measured in people who work night shifts and people who work regular morning shifts. And if the night shift people show reduced level of Vitamin D than the other group then I think we found what causes cancer. Night shift? Or Vitamin D deficiency? I am putting my money on Vitamin D deficiency.

Top 10 Bollywood Hindi Songs

If you live outside of India like me and if you are a big fan of bollywood music then you are always trying to find out which new Hindi songs are currently humming strong in India. I always try to seek out new popular bollywood music. So far, my methods of extracting this knowledge from the world has been asking my friends or asking my cousins who live in United States what they currently like.

I have tried to bookmark different websites that list top 10 Hindi songs every week or month. These websites go for few months and then they stop updating the list after that; or they shut down altogether. Now that does not help me at all. But at last, I think I found a great way to find out which songs are hit in India. The source of this information is: Any guesses??

Google Music Trends!!!!!

You can select the country India from the right dropdown and then select Hindi soundtrack from the left dropdown. This gives you a list of most popular songs right now. How does Google know which songs are hot now? "When Google Talk users opt in to Music Trends, we'll capture information about the music they're listening to from their music player. We then anonymize the information and add each musical vote to our Music Trends page. The more users that are opted in, and the more music they listen to, the more accurately the Music Trends page will reflect the world's musical tastes", according to the Google Music Trends FAQ page.

I think this is a great way to compile a top 10 list. As more users opt-in to the music trends, the list will become more accurate over time. You can also check the list of top 10 songs in United States in different genres.

I think this is another "wow" application from Google.

Where is Hindi station on XM or Sirius?

Where is Hindi station on XM or Sirius?

The answer is, it is not there. I keep checking the XM and Sirius websites for a Hindi station almost every month and I keep getting disappointed. I don't understand why either one of them, XM or Sirius, does not offer a Hindi/Indian music station. I have even e-mailed both companies telling them that they need to do some demographic research and find out that there are many people of Indian origin currently live in the United States and they are losing all those potential customers.

What is holding XM and Sirius back from offering a Hindi station?

I don't think getting rights to the songs is difficult part. There are radio stations in India that play music all day long and I am sure the rightsholders of Hindi songs are dying to sell it to some international customers.

I don't think bandwidth is an issue because as I check today there are 3 Christian, 3 classical, 4 comedy, 7 country, 5 dance, 6 decades, 8 hits, 5 jazz and blues, 2 kids, 4 latin, 4 lifestyle, 16 news, 14 rock, 18 sports, 22 talk and variety, 7 urban and 3 world channels on XM satellite radio today. I don't think it will be vary hard to squeeze a Hindi channel in there.

Monthly Nissan Altima Sales

I drive a 2002 Nissan Altima. I really like this car. In my mind, it is the best looking car on the road today (for my price range at least). I bought this car as soon as Nissan redesigned it in 2002. I think Nissan Altima is a better car than Honda Accord or Toyota Camry even though Honda Accord and Toyota Camry regularly outsell Altima. Nissan Altima is bigger in size than Accord or Camry and performs similarly or better.

With another redesign of Altima for the model year 2007 I think Altima is ready to take the next step and challenge Accord and Camry in the sales department. How much Nissan Altimas are sold in USA every month? In the following table I list the number of Nissan Altima’s sold every month since the year 2004. As you can see from the numbers, the sales in the year 2007 have really picked up. The total sales in the year 2007 may approach 300,000.

Month	Monthly Nissan Altima Sales
Jun-07	25,935
May-07	23,980
Apr-07	16,309
Mar-07	27,521
Feb-07	22,114
Jan-07	24,394
Dec-06	24,832
Nov-06	18,203
Oct-06	14,761
Sep-06	19,752
Aug-06	20,281
Jul-06	17,669
Jun-06	14,174
May-06	21,981
Apr-06	23,790
Mar-06	23,790
Feb-06	20,080
Jan-06	16,758
Dec-05	18,448
Nov-05	15,154
Oct-05	16,624
Sep-05	26,442
Aug-05	23,362
Jul-05	24,865
Jun-05	22,239
May-05	23,900
Apr-05	22,869
Mar-05	25,329
Feb-05	19,044
Jan-05	17,095
Dec-04	19,627
Nov-04	16,345
Oct-04	18,819
Sep-04	21,284
Aug-04	20,182
Jul-04	22,933
Jun-04	17,516
May-04	20,558
Apr-04	15,596
Mar-04	24,716
Feb-04	18,013
Jan-04	20,300

DataSource: http://www.nissannews.com/nissan/sales/index.shtml

Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

1) How to compile the solution with keyboard shortcut in Visual Studio?
'ctrl + shift + B'

2) How to search a word in the current document in Visual Studio?
Highlight the word and then press 'ctrl +F3'

3) How to search a workd in the entire solution in Visual Studio?
Highlight the word and then press 'ctrl + shift + F'

3) How to go to the definition of a function in Visual Studio?
Move the mouse over to the function call and press F12. This should take you to the definition of the function in the VB.Net and C# code. This shortcut does not work in the classic ASP code.

I-495 Capital Beltway Traffic

I travel on the outerloop of capital beltway each morning from route 50 to I-270 North. That is, I enter the outer loop at route 50 in Maryland and take I-270 North exit. This stretch of highway commute is probably worst on the capital beltway and probably worst in the Washington metropolitan region. The outerloop comes to a standstill just after the route 1 interchange everyday. I think the main reason for this traffic is the inflow of traffic from the I-95 South that merges into the outerloop after the route 1 interchange. The outerloop has four lanes before the I-95 merge and I-95 comes in with 2 lanes of its own. So, 6 lanes of traffic tries to squeeze into 4 lanes after the New Hampshire avenue. If you are a daily commuter on this highway, you will notice that there is a bridge after the New Hampshire Avenue and just before the University Blvd on the outerloop. Just before this bridge all 6 lanes must merge into 4 lanes because the bridge is not wide enough to accommodate 4+ lanes of traffic.

Here's are the interchanges and traffic patterns on the outerloop every morning:

• Route 50
• Annapolis Road (MD-450, Exit 20)
• Baltimore-Washington Parkway (MD-295, Exit 22)
• Kenilworth Avenue (MD-201, Exit 23)
• Baltimore Avenue (Route 1, Exit 25)
• I-95 interchange New Hampshire Avenue (MD-650, Exit 28)
• University Blvd (MD-193, Exit 29)
• Colesville Rd (MD-29, Exit 30)
• Georgia Avenue (MD-97, Exit 31)
• Connecticut Avenue (MD-185, Exit 33)
• Wisconsin Avenue (MD-355, Exit 34)
• I-270 North (Exit 35)

The backup starts at route 1 interchange (exit 25) and goes all the way to the Georgia Avenue (exit 31). This is about 6-7 miles of stop and go traffic every morning. It takes about 30-40 minutes to go through this 7 mile stretch in the morning. I have yet to figure out a reason why the traffic starts moving at posted speed limit after Georgia Avenue interchange. Does anyone have an idea?

Load and LoadXML in ASP

Dim objDOM
Dim blnOutput
objDOM = Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument.4.0")

blnOutput = objDOM.Load(Server.MapPath(XMLFileName))
blnOutput = objDOM.Load(StringXML)

The main difference between Load and LoadXML is that the Load takes XML file as input while LoadXML takes the XML string itself as input. Both Load and LoadXML returns a boolean value indicating if the XML was loaded successfully or not into the DOM.

ObjDataSource Control in ASP.NET 2.0

1) Name a few properties of the ObjDataSource Control?
TypeName
SelectMethod
UpdateMethod
InsertMethod
DeleteMethod

2) How does a GridView control binds to a ObjDataSource control?
by DataSourceID property on the GridView control is set to the id of the ObjDataSource control

3) Which ADO.NET objects can be represented by ObjDataSource?
DataReader
DataSet

4) Can ObjDataSource represent a web service?
Yes

5) Which Parameters can be included in the ObjDataSource control?
SelectParameters
InsertParameters
UpdateParameters
DeleteParameters
FilterParameters

6) Which types of parameters can be used with ObjectDataSource control?
Parameter
ControlParameter
CookieParameter
FormParameter
ProfileParameter
QueryStringParameter
SessionParameter

7) Which events are supported by ObjDataSource control?
Deleting
Deleted
Inserting
Inserted
Selecting
Selected
Updating
Updated
Filtering
ObjectCreating
ObjectCreated
ObjectDisposing

Benjarong Thai Restaurant Rockville MD

This weekend I went to Benjarong, a Thai restaurant in Rockville, MD for a dinner, and let me say that Benjarong is probably the best Thai restaurant I have ever been to. The food was delicious and service was excellent.

Since I am a vegetarian, I always scour through the website of the restaurant before I go there so I know what to expect once I get there. I checked the Benjarong website and looked at the menu and found several items with 'V' next to it indicating that these items can be made vegetarian. Normally, I find about 2-3 vegetarian items in a typical Chinese/Japanese/Thai restaurant, but Benjarong probably had about 20 items from which I can choose. I really loved that.

When my wife and me went there on the Saturday night around 7 pm, the place was mostly full with one group of people waiting before us. We were seated in no time and the wait staff was friendly and professional. Since I knew what I was going to have, I ordered it right away and food was served in about 10 minutes.

I ordered Phad Thai and my wife ordered Kee Mao. Phad Thai is "Thai style thin rice noodles sautéed with egg, bean sprouts, scallions, ground peanuts, topped with fresh bean sprouts and cilantro" according to the Benjarong website's menu description. Kee Mao is, "Sauteed wide rice noodles with fresh chili peppers, tomatoes, basil and mushrooms", but my wife had requested mushrooms taken out of the dish. Both dishes were delicious.

I am definitely going to Benjarong again.

2002 Nissan Altima Tires

Tires are very expensive.

If you recently bought tires for your car or truck, you know what I mean. I recently had to get new tires for my 2002 Nissan Altima after my original tires call it quits after serving me 93,000 miles. Yes, that is not a type. The original Bridgestone tires lasted 93,000 miles for me. I had them rotated once when the odometer was showing around 43k miles and that was it.

The new tires I got from NTB are Yokohoma Avid TRZ tires. The 2002 Nissan Altima’s tire specs are 205/65/16. Usually, you find 205/65/15 in stores but not the 205/65/16. My local Sam’s club store did not had 205/65/16 in stock so I had to go with NTB. The final out the door price for 4 tires was $560.

R.I.P. - Stay The Course

Keith Olbermann brilliantly eulogizes and honors 'Stay The Course'.



I hear that Keith Olbermann's ratings are up at MSNBC and Bill O'Reilly's ratings at Fox News is sliding down.

Maryland's 3rd congressional district

Below is the map of the Maryland Congressional District 3. Benjamin Cardin is the congressman of this district currently and he has been getting elected in this district for last 10 elections.

Redistricting is gone wild here. Can your district beat this? Click on the map to see the large image.

This district is in the suburbs of Baltimore City.

House of Representatives (Congress) members from Maryland

Here are the current House of Representatives from the state of Maryland. There are total 8 congressional districts in Maryland; Of these 8 districts, 6 have democratic representatives and 2 are republicans.

• District 1 - Wayne T. Gilchrest (Republican)
• District 2 - Dutch Ruppersberger (Democrat)
• District 3 - Benjamin Cardin (Democrat)
• District 4 - Albert Russell Wynn (Democrat)
• District 5 - Steny Hoyer (Democrat)
• District 6 - Roscoe Bartlett (Republican)
• District 7 - Elijah Cummings (Democrat)
• District 8 - Chris Van Hollen (Democrat)

How to do System Restore in Windows XP?

If you want to restore your Windows XP system to earlier time, do following steps:

1. Click Start
2. All Programs
3. Accessories
4. System tools
5. System restore

A wizard will open and it will guide you through the system restore process. This of course will only work if you have system restore setting turned on in the System Properties.

Futures Prediction Markets

The prediction markets are highly reliable in predicting the probability of the certain event happening in the future. This is what the futures prediction markets are saying for the various events today. (October 12, 2006)

1. GOP holds House of Representatives in the 2006 elections - 40.6%
2. GOP holds Senate in the 2006 elections - 73.2%
3. GOP president elected in 2008 - 48.1%
4. McCain GOP nominee in 2008 - 38.3%
5. DEM president elected in 2008 - 48.6%
6. Hillary Clinton DEM nominee in 2008 - 47.1%
7. CT Senator IND in 2006 - 81.5%
8. Super Bowl XLI winner Chicago Bears - 19.7%
9. Detroit Tigers World Series winner - 45.5%
10. NBA championship outright winner 2006/2007 Dallas Mavericks - 16.0%

Source: TradeSports.com

Largest Cities of United States

According to the census estimates below are the 10 largest cities (population) of the United States:

1) New York city - 8,143,197
2) Los Angeles - 3,844,829
3) Chicago - 2,842,518
4) Houston - 2,016,582
5) Philadelphia - 1,463,281
6) Phoenix - 1,461,575
7) San Antonio - 1,256,509
8) San Diego - 1,255,540
9) Dallas city - 1,213,825
10) San Jose - 912,332

Source: US Census Bureau

Nurse Shortages

I know that the one month does not make a trend but as you can see from the chart below where the jobs will be in the future. The chart shows that the nursing and residential care facilities lost workers last month. Nurse shortage will be huge problem when baby-boomers start to retire.

I guess now is a good time to enroll in a nursing school.

Top Selling Cars in US - September 2006

Below is the list of top 10 selling vehicles in United States in September 2006.

1. Ford F-Series pickup - 70,822
2. Chevrolet Silverado pickup - 51,964
3. Toyota Camry - 38,269
4. Toyota Corolla - 32,279
5. Honda Accord - 27,759
6. Honda Civic - 26,331
7. Dodge Ram pickup - 25,081
8. Ford Taurus - 22,811
9. Chevrolet Impala - 21,863
10. Nissan Altima - 19,752

Interesting to note here is that 2 Toyota cars have overtaken the Honda Accord. Both Camry and Corolla are outselling the flagship Honda Sedan. Nissan Altima has gained popularity also and the sales numbers of Altima are quickly approaching that of Ford Taurus and Chevrolet Impala.

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061003/auto_sales_best_sellers.html

HTTP Status Codes

100 - Continue
101 - Switching Protocols
200 - OK
201 - Created
202 - Accepted
203 - Non-Authoritative Information
204 - No Content
205 - Reset Content
206 - Partial Content
300 - Multiple Choices
301 - Moved Permanently
302 - Found
303 - See Other
304 - Not Modified
305 - Use Proxy
306 - No Longer Used
307 - Temporary Redirect
400 - Bad Request
401 - Not Authorised
402 - Payment Required
403 - Forbidden
404 - Not Found
405 - Method Not Allowed
406 - Not Acceptable
407 - Proxy Authentication Required
408 - Request Timeout
409 - Conflict
410 - Gone
411 - Length Required
412 - Precondition Failed
413 - Request Entity Too Large
414 - Request URI Too Long
415 - Unsupported Media Type
416 - Requested Range Not Satisfiable
500 - Internal Server Error
501 - Not Implemented
502 - Bad Gateway
503 - Service Unavailable
504 - Gateway Timeout
505 - HTTP Version Not Supported