Hierarchy ID: Model Your Data Hierarchies With SQL Server 2008

Click this article to see how CTEs and UNION ALL can be used to create a recursive query to flatten a hierarchy relationship into a bread crumb style path: Hierarchy ID: Model Your Data Hierarchies With SQL Server 2008

passing generic list to stored procs

• SQL Server 2008, Table Valued Parameters, and LINQ 
• how to populate a user-defined table type and pass it to a stored procedure call
• Executing Stored Procedure with User Defined Table Type Parameter in Entity Framework Using EntityFrameworkExtras

git ignore

asp.NET Git Ignore

Creating a Disk Image in Windows 8

windows-8-1-full-backup

Juniper Backdoor Exploited

Network Cables: 4 Hacks!

Inner Vs. Outer Join

What is the difference between and inner and out join in SQL?  I hear this question a lot (at work, when I conduct interviews, and when I'm interviewed).  The answer isn't as straight forward as you may think.  Here is a diagram from the article  "Visual Representation of SQL Joins" by C.L. Moffat that show's a visual representation of what each time of join does:

There are other good discussion on the difference between inner and outer joins found in Stack Overflow.

Git Pull = Git Fetch + Git Merge

Even Mark understood this back in 2009.

Python IDEs

10 Python IDEs

Wingware

You can use a text editor, like sublime text, if you are learning or doing very simple things.

Hackathon 2015

Upcoming Hackathons

Find, compete, and earn points for your school at the largest, most diverse student hackathons in the world.

How to Create a Document Library Icon In Windows

Links
HowToGeek.com (Changing Windows Library Icons)
WindowsITPro (How to find your AppData folder using Powershell)
Telegraphics (ICO file format plugin for Photoshop)

How to Get Powershell Variables

Open Powershell window and type Get-Variables or gv
PS C:\Users\username> get-variable                                                                               
PS C:\Users\username> gv                                                                                               


Links
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh849899.aspx

How to View All Environment Variable and Their Values

Mac:

Open a terminal window and type printenv

~$ printenv

Windows (DOS):

Open a Command Prompt and type set

c:\Users\username? set

Windows (Powershell):

Open a Powershell window and type Get-Childitem env:

PS C:\Users\username> Get-Childitem env:               

Links
Mac/Unix Bash Shell
Dos
Powershell

Demo iOS Device on Desktop or Projector

Links
reflector
more

Get a Git Cheat Sheet

I've been playing around with Sublime Text and a customizable Cheat Sheet package.  One reason I did this was to store a Git cheat sheet.  Hear are a few I found online just by searching "Git Cheat Sheet":

Sometimes we do things the way we have always done things not realizing there's an easier or better way to do it.  To a computer geek, CI usually means continuous integration, but it can also mean continuous improvement.  Let's face it, it always nice to learn something new and share with our work colleagues or online community.  After all, that's one reason why we blog about these things.  So grab a Git cheat sheet and share something you learned with a friend.

Links
http://zrusin.blogspot.com.au/2007/09/git-cheat-sheet.html
http://overapi.com/git/
http://www.git-tower.com/blog/git-cheat-sheet/
Google Git Cheat Sheets

Cheat Sheets in Sublime Text

Sublime is a lightweight free text editor.  I started using Sublime Text, when version 2.0 came out.  The more I use it, the more it grows on me.  Sublime Text 3 (beta) is available for OS X, Windows, or Linux (both 32 or 64 bit versions).

Besides being lightweight, having a built in regular expressions engine, a console, built in syntax coloring for a variety of file formats and programming languages; it's also extensible.

One of my favorite extensions is the Package Control extension, by which you can add packages.  One package that I found helpful was the Cheat Sheet package.

It allows you to use keyboard shortcuts to access existing cheat sheets that have already been created for you and allows you to create your own:

Command	Keyboard Shortcut
Bash *	Ctrl + Shft + C, S, H
Git *	Ctrl + Shft + C, G, I, T
Github Flavored Markdown *	Ctrl + Shft + C, G, F, M
Go *	Ctrl + Shft + C, G, O
KDE *	Ctrl + Shft + C, K, D, E
Regular Expressions	Ctrl + Shft + C, R, X
Sublime Text *	Ctrl + Shft + C, S, T

* Incomplete sheet.

Create Your Own Cheat Sheet

Use the following for the package path:

Windows 7 -  C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\<your version of sublime text>\Packages\Cheat Sheets (e.g. C:\Users\jsmith\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 3\Packages\Cheat Sheets).  

Mac OSX -  /Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages or within Sublime Text navigate via the menu: Sublime Text 3 > Preferences > Browse Packages


Use the following for the menu path:

Windows 7 -  C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\<your version of sublime text>\Packages\Cheat Sheets\Main.sublime-menu  

Mac OSX -  /Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/Cheat Sheets/Main.sublime-menu


Alternatively you can following to get the path: view.run_command("cheat_sheet_tester", {"cheatsheet": "$filename"})

Next follow the steps in How to Add Your Own Cheat Sheets or here:
How to add your own Cheat Sheets

1. Add your cheat sheet to $ST/Packages/User/cheat-sheets/$filename.cheatsheet.
2. Add a keyboard shortcut by adding the following line to $ST/Packages/User/Default ($OS).sublime-keymap and change the keys and $filename:

   [
       { "keys": ["ctrl+shift+c", "n", "s"], "command": "cheat_sheet", "args": {"cheatsheet": "$filename"} }
   ]
   

3. Add a menu entry by adding the following to $ST/Packages/User/Main.sublime-menu and change both instances of $filename:

   [
       { "id": "tools", "children": [
           { "id": "cheat-sheets", "caption": "Cheat Sheets", "children": [
               { "caption": "$filename", "command": "cheat_sheet", "args": {"cheatsheet": "$filename"} }
           ]}
       ]}
   ]
   

4. Add a palette item to $ST/Packages/User/Default.sublime-commands and change both instances of $filename.

   [
       { "caption": "Cheat Sheet: $filename", "command": "cheat_sheet", "args": {"cheatsheet": "$filename"} }
   ]
   

   To add multiple cheat sheets copy and paste just the keys or caption line and add a comma in between each entry to all the above files.
5. Highlighting follows this format:

   >\t Header
   >\t\t Subtext
   Text
   Command \t Text
   Command \s\s Text
   \tCommand \t Text # Comments
   

   Where \t means tab and \s means space.

• If there's a problem, you can use the cheat_sheet_tester command. The tester command will print in the console the file paths where it expected to find your $filename. The console can be opened with Ctrl + ` or View > Show Console.
  The tester command can be run directly in the console with:

  view.run_command("cheat_sheet_tester", {"cheatsheet": "$filename"})
  

  The tester command can also be run as a keyboard shortcut with:

  { "keys": ["ctrl+shift+c", "r", "y"], "command": "cheat_sheet_tester", "args": {"cheatsheet": "$filename"} }
  

How Does a Transistor Work?

How to Add Your Current Git Branch to Your Terminal Prompt in Unix/Mac OSX?

1. Download the git-prompt.sh file from github using the curl command in the terminal window.
~ ? curl -Lo .git-prompt.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-prompt.sh           

2. Add the following to your .bash_profile or .bashrc file:

if [ -f ~/.git-prompt.sh ]; then                                                                                            

   source ~/.git-prompt.sh                                                                                                  

   export PS1='\W\e[1;32m$(__git_ps1 "(%s)")\e[m\$ '                                                            

fi                                                                                                                                       

This small script adds an if statement to check if the file exists, sets the source to .git-prompt.sh, and set the PS1 variable to point to the __git_ps1 function in the .git-prompt.sh file.  The \e[1;32m and \e[m\ are color tags used to color the branch text.  

When you navigate to a folder that contains a git repository you should see something like the following:
GitProjectFolder (Master) $ git checkout NewBranch                                                           

GitProjectFolder (NewBranch) $                                                                                         


Links
Change the Terminal Command Prompt
Customizing the Color of Your Terminal Prompt

Nano Keyboard Shortcuts

Nano is an rich editor like Emacs and runs in the Terminal Window.  To access Nano help type Ctrl+G,  you'll be presented with a list of the commands available.  The following has been copied from Nano Keyboard Commands page.

NOTE: Any command prefixed with a caret symbol (^) means to use the Ctrl key (e.g., ^G means to press the Ctrl+G keys at the same time). Any command prefixed with the letter M means to press the Alt key (e.g., M-R means to press the Alt+R keys together).

Most Helpful!	Ctrl Key Combination	Function Key	Alt Key Combination	Description
***	^G	F1		Display the help text
***	^X	F2		Close the current file buffer / Exit from nano
***	^O	F3		Write the current file to disk
	^J	F4		Justify the current paragraph
	^R	F5		Insert another file into the current one
***	^W	F6		Search for a string or a regular expression
***	^Y	F7		Move to the previous screen
***	^V	F8		Move to the next screen
***	^K	F9		Cut the current line and store it in the cutbuffer
***	^U	F10		Uncut from the cutbuffer into the current line
***	^C	F11		Display the position of the cursor
	^T	F12		Invoke the spell checker, if available
***	^_	F13	M-G	Go to line and column number
***	^\	F14	M-R	Replace a string or a regular expression
	^^	F15	M-A	Mark text at the cursor position
***		F16	M-W	Repeat last search
***			M-^ or M-6	Copy the current line and store it in the cutbuffer
			M-}	Indent the current line
			M-{	Unindent the current line
	^F			Move forward one character
	^B			Move back one character
	^Space			Move forward one word
			M-Space	Move back one word
***	^P			Move to the previous line
***	^N			Move to the next line
***	^A			Move to the beginning of the current line
***	^E			Move to the end of the current line
			M-( or M-9	Move to the beginning of the current paragraph
			M-) or M-0	Move to the end of the current paragraph
			M-\ or M-|	Move to the first line of the file
			M-/ or M-?	Move to the last line of the file
***			M-]	Move to the matching bracket
			M-- or M-_	Scroll up one line without scrolling the cursor
			M-+ or M-=	Scroll down one line without scrolling the cursor
***			M-< or M-,	Switch to the previous file buffer
***			M-> or M-.	Switch to the next file buffer
			M-V	Insert the next keystroke verbatim
	^I			Insert a tab at the cursor position
	^M			Insert a newline at the cursor position
	^D			Delete the character under the cursor
	^H			Delete the character to the left of the cursor
			M-T	Cut from the cursor position to the end of the file
			M-J	Justify the entire file
			M-D	Count the number of words, lines, and characters
***	^L			Refresh (redraw) the current screen
			M-X	Help mode enable/disable
***			M-C	Constant cursor position display enable/disable
			M-O	Use of one more line for editing enable/disable
			M-S	Smooth scrolling enable/disable
			M-P	Whitespace display enable/disable
			M-Y	Color syntax highlighting enable/disable
			M-H	Smart home key enable/disable
***			M-I	Auto indent enable/disable
			M-K	Cut to end enable/disable
			M-L	Long line wrapping enable/disable
			M-Q	Conversion of typed tabs to spaces enable/disable
			M-B	Backup files enable/disable
			M-F	Multiple file buffers enable/disable
			M-M	Mouse support enable/disable
			M-N	No conversion from DOS/Mac format enable/disable
			M-Z	Suspension enable/disable

Links
Nano Tutorial Page

Customizing the Color of Your Terminal Prompt

I posted a quick tip a couple of weeks ago about on how to Change the Terminal Command Prompt.

I want to take it one step further and add custom color to the prompt and/or to a portion of the prompt.

 currentDirectory$   export PS1='\e[1;32m\W\e[m\$'                                                   

 currentDirectory$                                                                                                    

I found this link to be a good bash prompt overview of how to customize your terminal prompt and has a list of fore and background colors show below:

Foreground colors, Normal (non-bold) is the default, so the 0; prefix is optional.

\e[0;30m = Dark Gray
\e[1;30m = Bold Dark Gray
\e[0;31m = Red
\e[1;31m = Bold Red
\e[0;32m = Green
\e[1;32m = Bold Green
\e[0;33m = Yellow
\e[1;33m = Bold Yellow
\e[0;34m = Blue
\e[1;34m = Bold Blue
\e[0;35m = Purple
\e[1;35m = Bold Purple
\e[0;36m = Turquoise
\e[1;36m = Bold Turquoise
\e[0;37m = Light Gray
\e[1;37m = Bold Light Gray

Background colors:

\e[40m = Dark Gray
\e[41m = Red
\e[42m = Green
\e[43m = Yellow
\e[44m = Blue
\e[45m = Purple
\e[46m = Turquoise
\e[47m = Light Gray

Links
Color_Bash_Prompt
Change Color of Shell Prompt (Unix, Linux, and OS X)