Lewies Blog

I’ve been looking into tons of ETL products over the past few days. ETL simply means Extract, Transform, and Load. Of course, it doesn’t mean much unless you know what I’m talking about in the first place. ETL products are used to copy (Extract) data from one place and save (Load) it to another. Along the way, you might need to change (Transform) a few things around. Why didn’t they just call it CCSD (Copy Change Save Data). It makes more sense to me.

This is mainly done with databases. It has been done for a long time as well. Microsofts SQL database had something called Data Transformation Services. With the next version, they are changing the name to SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS).

You now develop your packages in Visual Studio.Net 2005. Everything is basically drag and drop. I just spent a while just trying to get my RSS file and saving it to a database. There is just so much to learn. I feel like a snail.

I was confused with what I was doing because I hadn’t done anything like this before. Fortunately, I found a brief tutorial to help me setup SSIS with RSS.

1. Start a new SSIS project
2. Add a Data Flow Task
3. Switch to the Data Flow tab by double clicking the Data Flow task
4. Add a XML Source to the data flow
5. Double click the XML Source to edit it
6. In the XML Source Editor, in the “Connection Manager” portion, make sure that the “XML File Location” is selected in the Data access mode. In the XML location text box, type in the url for a RSS feed (e.g., http://news.com.com/2547-1_3-0-5.xml)
7. Click the “Generate XSD…” button, give the XSD file a name and save it. Make sure that it is correctly reflected in the XSD location text box.
8. Click “Columns” in the list on the left hand side. If all goes well you should see the available columns from various outputs from the RSS feed.
9. Select “item” from the Output Name dropdown box.
10. Click “OK” to close the XML Source Editor.

Now you are ready to consume the RSS data.

There were more steps on the blog to start moving the data to a database, but this really helped me get my feet wet.
Tags: SQL, Database, Migration, DBA, SSIS, Yukon, SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio.Net, Visual Studio.Net 2005, Whidbey, RSS, Data, GUI, Programming

Ever hear of a Loan Shark? Well now our famouse financial institutions have become loan sharks. This happens to me every two weeks. I get paid, my debts that I owe the bank are paid off, then I go into debt.

Just in the past few days I have withdrawn $134.40 after my balance went below zero. The bank has charged me $288.00 for doing this. Instead of calling it interest, they call them fees and penalties.

I know people who don’t even make $500 in a month. I’m paying for someones yearly sallery at this rate.

Tags: Bank, Loan Shark, Shark, Loan, Fees, Penalties, Debt, Finances, Cash, Broke, Poor House, Unfair, Upset, NSF, Interest, Interest Rates

As my brother stated:

A fun way for your friends to tell you what they think is wrong with your life. Because obviously you aren’t going to listen to them, but you’ll trust a pack of cards.

I just cracked up when he told me this.

Tags: Brother, Tarot, Problems, Humor, Joke

Wow, this is pretty funny. My brother and I used to work for this company. I can’t believe they are still running. Looks like they got an upgrade for there front end at Star Compliance. The old template looked horrible and nothing had changed on the site for years. All of a sudden it appears that these guys have 5 offices and a product called Altaire™.

Oh the horror stories that my brother and I could go into about this place. It is late at night so I’ll just talk about them later …

Tags: Work, Epstein, John Epstein, John, Brother, Horror, Templates, Altaire

The other day I told you about a little application that I created that would download all of my images from Flickr using the Flickr API. I was using a tool written in .Net called FlickrNet to do this. I developed the tool further to download every size available for each image as well as all of the meta data (tags, description, title, exif tags, map notes, etc.).

I finally got all of my images downloaded. The only problem was, they were all of the public images. I still needed my photos marked as “Friends Only” or “Family Only”. My guess was that it was because I was not authenticated when making the requests.

I looked over the API and didn’t see anything about authentication. I signed up for the development list and posted my question. Today I got my answer that there is undocumented support for this. I simply had to provide the email and password along with the request.

I didn’t develop the FlickrNet classes myself, but it was easy to find the code and add it. I was surprised that my first attempt at fixing the problem worked!

I watched as the program zipped along and then paused on the images that I hadn’t downloaded before. Boy am I happy! I now have a backup of everything from my flickr account.

The next part of the process is to set the program to run every night to only download photos that I haven’t backed up yet. After that, I need to dress up the user interface to make it pretty and see about distributing it.

Tags: Flickr, Flickr API, API, FlickrNet, C#, Code, Programming, .Net, Application, Backup, Tools, Utility, Download, Images, Photos, Exif, Authentication, Undocumented, Troubleshooting, Happy

So it appears that Microsoft released a new version of its instant messenger. Half the time I can not tell what is different. Today was an exception. I could see a lot of cool features were added. The best was the ability to send ad-hoc drawings back and forth rather then typing text messages.

Angel was having some dislikes in the way things are. To cheer her up, I drew the planet earth with a big red X over it. She replied with a few pictures of her own with the earth blowing up. I think I did it best when I drew a big picture of the earth and a nuclear cloud over it. She got a kick out of it.

MSIM is calling out the creative side in us to message back and forth. The only problem is that it takes a while to draw with a mouse. I was able to save my conversation in RTF format, but the drawings lines were very jagged compared to the smoothe lines in my Instant Messenger window.

Tags: Art, Creation, Destruction, Angel, MSIM, Instant Messenger, Messaging, Drawings, Doodles, Creative, Nuclear, Earth, Blow Up, Microsoft, Update, Funny, Humor, Humanity

Tonight, my sister in-law called for a tow truck. It turns out that she and my wife knew the driver. He rolled the car up on the back and moved her car to a location that might get it some buyers and out of violation.

We are in Prince William County in Northern Virginia. She put $1200 into getting it fixed up and running. The only damage is the side door. If you are looking for a used car, check out these pictures.

1995 Crysler Concord

Mileage: 99,665 Miles
Price: $1500 Or best offer

She has decided against moving down to Richmond Virginia. Since this is the case, her boyfriend will continue to park in violation. She is going to look into what it will take to get asphalt on our driveway. The money she ows me will probably be used for that when she sells the car.

The good news is that the property value will go up. The bad news is that the value of our property will go up. I don’t like property taxes because it makes my mortgage payments go up every year. I told Angel that I would get her a bucket of chalk if we get a paved driveway.

Tags: Car, For Sale, Sister In-Law, Tow Truck, Towed, Northern VA, VA, Virginia, Used Car, Pictures, Asphalt, Ricmond, Money, Cash, Finances, Owe, Debt, Boyfriend, Property, Violation, Taxes, Prince William County, Wife

I arrived at home after work on Friday and my niece and nephew were already there with my mother in-law. She just stood there for a few moments looking at me and then asked who I was. “I’m your Uncle Lewie”, I said. “Your’re not Uncle Lewie!”, she exlaimed. I explained to her that this was my secret identity and that I would go and change into Uncle Lewie.

I went to my room and changed into my regular clothes. Sure enough, I come out of my bedroom to see a little girl running stait at me to give me a big hug. “Uncle Lewie!”, she yelled with delight as she crashed into my legs.

Today she was trying to ride on me like a tiger and I just wasn’t up for it. She would crawl all over me. “Get up!”. “No, I’m tired”, I said. “Tigers lay down all day, you can’t ride a tiger”. Still she continued to pounce on me and jump up and down. “Why won’t you get up?” My wife and mother in-law just giggled and watched as I continued to come up with funny excuses.

She then tried to give me juice. The other day I was playing airplane with her but my back got tired and I told her that I ran out of juice. So for now on, she offers me her juice any time that I say that I’m tired.

You gotta love the little ones.

Tags: Uncle, Lewie, Niece, Nephew, Tiger, Mother In-Law, Standing, Confusion, Denial, Young, Childhood, Children, Explination, Secret Identity, Changes, Clothes, Running, Girl, Hugs, Yelling, Delight, Crash, Legs, Ride, Crawling, Get Up, Tired, Laying, All Day, Pounce, Jumping, Wife, Giggling, Watching, Continue, Funny, Humor, Excuses, Juice, Airplane, Back, Offer, Love, Family, Fun, Home, Work, Work Clothes, Regular Clothes

The other day I received a violation notice and correction order from the county. My sister in-law and her boyfriend had cars on my property that were parked incorrectly. Well, due to this document, these two will be moving out within the next 30 days.

My sister in-laws car does not have tags and is setting in the grass. She is getting everything together to get the title switched into her name so that she can sell it. She still owes me a bunch of money from court costs and lawyer fees.

Her boyfriends’ car is a different story. He backed it up a few feet so that it would be on more gravel, but a lot of grass has grown over it. I don’t know what the county will say about it.

I had started looking into what it would take to get more gravel laid down on the driveway. I got one estimate from Luck Stone for $200 plus $250 for delivery. I just said that I needed 100 feet by 10 feet. The guy stated that a driveway needed to be 4 inches thick and that would work out to be about 17 tons.

My sister in-law joined in on the hunt and found a few more places that would deliver. The prices were similar and she found one that would do it for a little bit less from Topsoil Nothern VA.

She called the county with questions about her own car and got an extension on the correction order. She had also found out that putting down more gravel wasn’t enough. If we were going to make any improvements, then it had to be done with asphault. For that, we would need a building permit of some kind or a zoning check.

She also found out that there were 17 new violations filled out in our neighborhood this past week. It is comforting to know that we were not a sole target of an unhappy neighbor. However, I am sure there are 16 other people in our neighborhood who are just as upset as we are.

Out of this whole ordeal, my sister in-law and her boyfriend are going to move down to Richmond, VA. His father has a house or an appartment that they can stay at. They were going to drive down and talk to his father the other night, but he got a flat tire.

I just hope the county lets his car pass for where it is setting now.

Tags: Sister In-Law, Moving, Violation, Notice, Correction, Order, County, Prince William County, VA, Boyfriend, Car, Property, Document, Tags, Grass, Title, Name, Ownership, Sell, Sales, Owe, Debt, Court Costs, Court, Lawyer, Fees, Costs, Money, Story, Gravel, Driveway, Estimate, Luck Stone, Stone, Delivery, Charges, Delivery Charges, Expensive, Thick, Ton, Hunt, Prices, Hunting, Similar, Topsoil, Northern VA, Northern, North, Call, Questions, Extension, Improvements, Home Improvements, Asphault, Building Permit, Permit, Building, Zone, Zoning, Neighborhood, Past Week, Comforting, Target, Unhappy, Neighbors, Upset, Ordeal, Richmond, Virginia, Father, House, Appartment, Drive, Talking, Night, Flat Tire, Flat, Tire, Pass, Setting

Call me paranoid if you will, but I don’t trust my data being in full control of a 3rd party. I’ll explain to you what I’m talking about. I have been uploading all of my digital pictures to a really cool service called Flickr. I can manage my photos and organize them into sets, groups, assign tags, descriptions, titles, and much more. I love what I can do with Flickr.

Here is the problem that I’m running into. I don’t have these photos anywhere else. They are soley in posession by the Flickr servers. If anything ever happens with my account, or the service itself, then I’m out of luck.

Enter the Flickr API. The good folks at Flickr have made some services available so that us programmers can interact with the flickr servers directly with any programs that we can create. There are many choices in the protocols that you can do it with such as REST, XML-RPC, or SOAP. There are plenty of API Kits as well for Flash (Action Script), Delphi, Java, .Net, PERL, PHP, PHP5, Python, and Ruby. Naturally, I went with Flickr.Net.

I had to download plenty of individual C# files, but as soon as I was done, I was up and running in no time. Of course, I first had to get my own API Key and explain why I wanted one. The key was generated on the fly.

When I was ready, I created a quick app that would download anything that I ever uploaded. Very simple indeed. The next step would be to make the program run every night and only download what I don’t have already. It downloads all of the different sizes of the photos including the thumbnails. It looks pretty ugly rite now since it is just a working example. Here is a screenshot of the Flickr Image Downloader in action.

Tags: Flickr, Images, Photos, Download, C#, .Net, API, Flickr API, Paranoid, Data, Trust, Control, 3rd Party, Explination, Talking, Upload, Digital Photography, Cool, Service, Management, Organization, Organized, Sets, Groups, Assignments, Tags, Love, Problem, Storage, Posession, Luck, Account, Good Folks, Folks, Availability, Programmers, Programming, Interaction, Direct, Program, Protocol, REST, XML-RPC, SOAP, XML, API Kits, Flash, Action Script, Delphi, Java, PERL, PHP, PHP5, Python, Ruby, Flickr.Net, Files, API Key, Key, Gerated, On the fly, Application, Simplicity, Night, Comparison, Thumbnails, Size, Ugly, Working Example, Example, Screenshot, Downloader