If you've been watching closely today you saw that Google acquired GrandCentral.com.  This site allows to get a phone number and then have that number routed to any number of other phone numbers you want such as cell, work, or home depending on rules you define.  It has a host of other features as well such as recording the conversation and sending individuals you're trying to dodge directly to voicemail.  I came across GrandCentral a few months ago and have been tempted to try it out, but I haven't had a chance to. If you're using it, let me know what you think about it. 

I decided to repost one of my original blog posts on how to easily build and test your connection strings that was quite popular and somehow lost during the transition to the new site.  This method is fairly simple and I use it all the time when I need to build or test out a new connection string.  The first thing you need to do is create a new empty file and call it Test.udl.  Normally I use Notepad to do this, but you can use anything you want.

Once you have done this your file will display the computer icon associated with .udl files and if you double click on the file it will open up the Data Link Properties window.

Next, you need to fill out your connection information including provider, server, database, and login information.  In order to properly get your connection string you will need to check the allow saving password box.  At this point you can click the test connection button to verify that the connection is successful.  If it is not, you can continue to make adjustments to the Data Link Properties window until it is.

Finally, click OK to save the file, and open up the .udl file using Notepad.  If you did check the allow saving password box you will be cautioned about the security risk of saving the password.  Once you’ve opened the file you will see something similar to the follow:

[oledb]

; Everything after this line is an OLE DB initstring

Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Password=yourpassword;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=sa;Initial Catalog=TimeTracker;Data Source=WDMPDC01

You have now created your connection string and can copy and paste this into your application.  This is also an excellent way of testing connectivity issues from individual computers.

Did you find this posting helpful?  Please let me know by posting a comment.

Scott Hanselman hit the nail on the head with his recent post.  It gave me quite the laugh, but unfortunately it is so true (Just like when I watch Office Space).  I was told the other day by a coworker that I over engineered a solution because I used an httphandler instead of just making a page.  Anyone with a small understanding of ASP.NET should realize that using an httphandler when no content needs to be display is going to be more efficient.  This “page” was going to be hit about every time someone accessed the portal and from what I have come across using an httphandler will increase performance by 5%-10%.  Considering the development time was only increased by the one minute or so that it took to add the proper section to the web.config I would have to say that in this scenario the httphandler was the best way to go and I think that the solution could only be considered “over engineered” if you don’t understand it.  Anyways, I’m beginning to think there is a case of ADD going on in my new environment.