Quickly discover the meaning of an error number

Sometimes a client or software program may report a SQL Server error number without the description. For example, you may see a reference to Msg 109, or some other cryptic number.

An easy trick for ensuring that you specify background and link colors (FrontPage 2003)

If you find yourself forgetting to specify background colors and link colors on your pages, there’s an easy solution: change your browser’s default colors to a palette of lime green, hot pink, and other garish colors. You’ll get an instant and visible reminder each time you preview a new page.

Apply alternate row shading that updates automatically (Excel 2003/2007/2010)

Worksheets often span hundreds or thousands of rows, which can wreak havoc on your eyes. Alternate row shading makes it easier to read large data tables, but if you manually shade rows, any changes you make to the data later will cause problems with your shading.

Sample pixels from more than just the active layer (Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

You can sample pixels from layers other than the active one. To do so, select one of the tools that requires Photoshop to sample pixels, such as the Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, Smudge, Blur or Sharpen tool from the Tools panel. Then, select the Use All Layers or Sample All Layers option on the tool Options bar. The tool you chose samples pixels from all visible layers, not just the active layer.

Protect Windows systems against SYN flood attacks

A SYN flood is a type of Denial of Service (DoS) attack that overwhelms a server by sending it repeated synchronization (SYN) packets, usually making these packets appear to come from fake or forged (spoofed) source IP addresses. The SYN packet is normally used to establish a TCP/IP connection as the first part of the TCP/IP handshake process. Attackers can exploit this characteristic of the TCP/IP protocol. When the server’s connection table is full, legitimate users won’t be able to connect to it.

Preserving data using PHP Session

PHP sessions are important when you build more customized web applications. These sessions store information across several accesses within your website.

Quickly remove a gradient mesh (Illustrator CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

If you discover that you need your vector art back without the mesh grid in Illustrator, use the Selection tool to select the object that contains a mesh and choose Object > Path > Offset Path and enter 0 in the Offset Value text box. Click OK to exit the dialog box. You’ll still see your original mesh, but select the object and delete it and you’ll find a copy of just the path remains underneath. You’ll need to repeat the process with each individual mesh piece if your object contains more than one mesh.

Option Strict places an even tighter grip on applications (VB .NET)

Many of you are familiar with the Option Explicit statement. When this feature is enabled, you can't use any undefined variables. Well, another option avaialable is Option Strict. When this feature is on, VB will flag any late bound statements and statements causing implicit conversions where data will be lost.

Use SysKey to protect the SAM database (Microsoft Windows XP/2003)

The Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database stores local user account information, including user passwords in hashed form. However, the system key that’s used to encrypt the database is stored on the local machine. This poses a security risk because a hacker might be able to access the encryption key and decrypt the database.

Remove personal information from your documents (2003/2007/2010)

To make your documents easier to store, route, and locate, Word automatically saves hidden information (a.k.a. metadata) within your document. Metadata includes information such as authors’ and editors’ names, routing slips, and email headers. You can configure Word to remove this metadata during the save process if you'd rather restrict access to this information.

Easily track your links with this creative trick

Virtually anyone who offers web services also provides some form of tracking mechanism in the basic cost of the service. And these utilities usually include a method for determining the domain the viewer came from. This is good information to have, especially when you're buying banner ad space from other websites. But what if you want to test a couple of different banner ads on the same site? How would you distinguish between a hit from banner ad #1 and a hit from banner ad #2? Simple—a single question mark.

Manage your guides (QuarkXPress)

After you create guides in your QuarkXPress layout, you may want to remove, lock, or unlock some or all of them. The Guide Manager makes doing these things quick and easy. To access the Guide Manager choose Utilities > Guide Manager. In the Guide Manager dialog box, click on the Remove Or Lock Guides tab to access the various options in the Remove Guides and Lock Guides areas.

Use xsl:value-of to retrieve attribute values for output

A valuable method for retrieving attribute values to output their contents is with the xsl:value-of element. For example, your XML document has an element called biblioref, which has a sequence attribute:

Don’t let date-related queries miss important records

You may think that querying the records between two dates is a simple process. But if you forget to consider both the date and time values, you may not get the results you want. And because such data omissions usually don’t cause software errors, they may never get fixed, and nobody will ever know what caused, say, someone’s medical records or banking transactions to go missing.

How your digital photo displays onscreen isn't always what you get

The digital image you see on your LCD screen is usually different than the image of the same photo you see on your computer monitor. Your LCD is generally brighter. Some cameras allow you to adjust your screen's brightness, but most do not. To help gain an understanding of the visual difference between the two, try taking a few shots outdoors that contain a standard gray scale. Make a number of bracketed shots of your scale, and then note which one looks best when viewed with your LCD. Now, copy the shots to your computer and review them again, noting this time how that best LCD shot appears. Pay particular attention to the highlights and shadows. Return outside once again, review that best LCD shot, and note what you can and can't see as compared to the shot on your monitor. With this test, you should get a sense of what you see isn't always you get.

Designing for space using white space

It's important to remember that white space (also known as negative space) isn't just a background or afterthought—it's an important part of the design. By reducing the superfluous elements on your web page, you also strengthen the visual impact of your message—you actually get your point across better with fewer words and images. When you pay attention to the spatial relationship between elements, you can make your page flow better, actually leading the viewer's eye from section to section. This space isn't just the area between graphics; it's also the letter and paragraph spacing, margins—everything on the page.

Avoiding parallel port paranoia (Windows all)

While USB and FireWire are the preferred technologies to connect external devices to your PC, you may be required to support older systems that use the parallel port for connections other than printing. On these systems, you should avoid daisy-chaining devices off the parallel port. Instead, install a second parallel port card and install one device per port. If you have more devices and use a switch box, make sure that all the cables and the switch box itself are IEEE-1284 compliant (not just compatible).

Send email to a distribution list minus a few names (Outlook 2003)

Whenever you can save time with a repetitive task, it's good to take advantage of it, such as adding an automatic signature to your emails. In your signature, you can have your name, company name, phone number, address, Web site address, company slogan, or any other information you'd like to share with your email recipients. That way, when you email someone and write, "Call me with any questions," the recipient has the contact information he needs to reply.