Greetings, One of the many administrative chores I have been tasked with is to keep track of statistics on set of servers at our hub. At first, it wasn't that difficult to do, but we have continued to grow, and the list of servers I must request this data from has gone from one page, front and back, to five pages, front and back. Here's the basic procedure I am now following: Via a Windows 2003 server box, I remote console into each server one at a time (using their IP numbers and the administrative password), open up a command prompt, and enter a one-line string. Upon hitting enter, the command prompt displays the information I need for the report. I then enter this data manually into an Excel spreadsheet. To sum up my objective, I want to be able to open up a single interface, click a button, and have it execute the above steps programattically, and display the data in the appropriate fields. Probably the most important question I have is, is this even feasible? Also, what interops do I have to call on to request data that is usually viewed in a command prompt environment and then return that data to the form? Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

I know where you're coming from. Most HR professionals only look at the "surface" attributes and does not seem interested in digging a little deeper. Many qualified people get "circular filed" as a result. :confused: Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

I am guessing that J# is Microsoft's attempt at JAVA, I don't see a whole lot about it anywhere. Is it still viable, or is it being folded into one of the other languages? Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

I was wondering if anyone knew, is there something preventing a person from getting MCAD, and then taking the additional test(s)necessary to get MCSD? In other words, can I take the tests required to get MCAD and then apply those tests towards getting MCSD? Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

I'm assuming you also went into Projects-->Add References-->COM-->Microsoft Excel X.X Object Library (where X.X = your version of Excel). Also, I have had some odd problems with interops. Unless I used the full domain names, they wouldn't work. Dim xlApp As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

Off the top of my head, I would think it dangerous to allow a system namespace to be read/write, but I'm pretty new to this myself. This does not keep you from creating your own class though. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

It's actually several books. That's what worries me. One is Visual Basic.Net Step-by-Step by Mike Halvorson, one is Visual Basic.Net Programming by Peter Aiken, and the other one is the MCAD/MCSD Windows Aps with VB.Net and C# 2nd Edition. None of them have caused any sort of major exceptions, but I've had to do some sort of "tweaking" to my code to avoid syntax errors that they don't seem to have. So in one way, I'm learning how to improvise, but in another, I'm not getting the same results as these (so called) experts in the field. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

ACK! Call the Microsoft Police! Bill Gates is coming to get you! Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

My current rig is pretty sturdy (knock knock). I've been running my systems with two hard drives for many years for just the above reason. I also burn important files off regularly and back up to my other computer. I never intended to set up a home network, but I ended up with one. I have two computers and my wife has two computers. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

I hear you on the Maxtor deal. The one I had died within a year and I've never bought Maxtors again. I've had a Samsung and a Western Digital for at least 3 years now. I'm getting good life out of the two of them. When I built my latest machine last year, I bought a bigger case with room for two fans in front and two fans in back and I didn't skimp on the fans. Its a wind-tunnel in there! Of course, I live in the desert, (Las Vegas), so I have to dust it off about once a month. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

Visual Basic .NET Step-By-Step and then Visual Basic .NET Programming by Peter Aiken. Taking the (me) out and leaving just () worked, but I had to manually stop the program when I was done, not just by using the x, but by using the stop option in the Debug menu. There are two forms, one has two command buttons, the first command button opens the second form and closes the first, the second command button opens the second form but doesn't close the first. The second form only has a command button for closing itself. It was kind of strange, I was looking at the MCSD/MCAD Windows Applications book too, and there was a garbage collection demo that stored so many bits into memory and supposidly if I sat there long enough and waited, it would start to destroy them. I waited...and waited...and waited. Nothing. I just cleaned off my primary drive and reinstalled Win2K about a month ago (I have XP Pro on my laptop). Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

Which is why nobody is pointing a gun at your head making you read them. That does not invalidate the purpose for having blogs. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

While I am beginning to become more intuitive with the code, the "me" is printed in the book just as I typed it. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

Thanks for that explaination. It makes more sense now. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

This harkens back to my Excel.Interop issue. The book example (and the CD file examples) have just the shortened namespace includes at the top, but I had to use the fully qualified namespace in order to get the syntax errors to go away. I can find nothing in the example code that differs from mine, but they don't seem to have to use the full names. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

Apparently the person who wrote the blog does. What anyone else thinks or feels is up to them. Just like anything else, it gives people the comforting illusion that their voice is heard. Irony on the Rocks with a Twist (my blog) Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

Glad you aren't afraid to express your opinion. Like it or not, blogs are an important part of the evolving Web culture. What else can be said about them? Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

I was operating a little slow, but things have picked up since I updated my browser. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

I had serious performance slowdowns with 0.8, missed the fact that a new version was out, have to go download, brb. :) Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...

Whoops. I knew the click was the arm smacking their stops, but I thought it could potentially gouge the plattens as it travels across. Is there any recovery from this, or do you think the drive should be replaced? My opinion would be that the drive is no longer reliable. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...