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IE8 came out not long ago and I just installed it and try it out

knowing that I would care much about its new features. But I was disappointed the first time I used it after installation. I went to Google Map it didn’t work and I went to Yahoo Map it didn’t work either. I mean the entire map was not able to display on IE8. When I went to Yahoo map I got a java script error saying, “YMapconfig is undefined” or something like that. I was wondering what went wrong with Microsoft. So what I have Firebox I don’t have to use Microsoft.

I didn’t find the problem until I went to Youtube. Youtube said my IE8 security setting prevented the video from being played. That is true. Seems to me the the default security level IE8 choose for internet zone is medium high level. After I set the security level to medium level everything works just fine. So how to do that? Go to Tools menu, go to internet options, go to security tab, select internet zone, drag the level bar to medium an apply. That is it!

The other day when I installed SQL server 2000 on a 64 bit machine a dialog box pop up and said I couldn’t install SQL server 2000 using the current installation program and and I had to use another executable under a different folder to do installation. Later on a person asked me whether the SQL server installed on the 64 bit machine was a 32 bit or 64 bit version. I said it was of course a 64 bit version because the 32 bit version doesn’t work on 64 bit machine. It was embarrassed to find out I was wrong. In fact even though the 32 bit installation program asked me to use another installation program that program was still a 32 bit installation. The version information of SQL that are running can be returned using the following query

SELECT @@VERSION
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(’ProductLevel’)

If the version returned is x86 that means it is a 32 bit installation and if it is x64 then it means it is a 64 bit installation. As simple as that! 32 bit version works on 64 bit machine but not vice versa

Well it took me a while to figure out the easiest way to connect to a SQL server listening on a non standard port. The standard sql server port is 1433. When you connect to SQL server using enterprise manager or Query Analyzer this is the port the tools automatically connect to on the server. However when you change SQL Server so that it runs on a non standard port for security reason you will have to do additional trick in order to be able to connect to sql server.

One way to do that is to insert an entry using SQL Server client network utility and specify the port corresponding to the SQL Server you want to connect to. The easiest however way is to embed the port number in the SQL Server name. But how? An almost universal format to specify port with host name is in this way, “ServerName:ServerPort”. For instance 127.0.0.1:1433. However SQL Server doesn’t take this format. It has its own format, “ServerName, ServerPort”. For example 127.0.0.1,1433. So next time when you connect to a SQL Server listening on a non standard port you can put the server name and port number together in above format and place it into where you usual enter the SQL Srver name. It works perfect for both Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer. And I recalled that was one of the interview question I was asked when I was looking for a job last year.

What is Triglyceride? I was told by my doctor it was a kind of fat in blood like Cholesterol. My doctor told me that I had a very high Triglyceride level. The normal Triglyceride level should be lower than 150 and I got 350. I asked my doctor what kind of problem it was going to cause with a high Triglyceride level. I didn’t get a straight forward answer. I did some researches and many people said that high Triglyceride level was usually accompanied with high bad Cholesterol(LDL). There are good Cholesterol(HDL) and bad Cholesterol(LDL) if you don’t know. My Cholesterol levels were in normal range though. So what is the downside of having high Triglyceride level? Doctor said that the chance of getting heart disease was higher but no specific symptom was mentioned and I could not find information talked about the symptoms of having high Triglyceride level.

I could not say that I knew the symptom of high Triglyceride but I did feel something was wrong when I had high Triglyceride. I hadn’t do my physical check up and blood test for four years before last time because I was confident about my health. But one night when I was playing badminton I felt my heart was beating very strangely. It was beating very heavily like it wanted to pop out of my body and the intermittent between each heart beat was irregular. At one point the intermittent was so long that I thought it was going to stop. I didn’t feel any pain though. I stopped playing right away that night and I went to do a physical check up and blood test next day. What came out was that everything looks great except that I had a very high Triglyceride level.

In the following days I worked very hard on lowering it. I took the medicine the doctor prescribed but I learned that best way to lower Triglyceride was not medicine. The best way was to keep a regular exercise and healthy diet. So I jog 2 miles very night, eat less at dinner like 80% full, eat less greasy food and drink green tea everyday. One and half month later my Triglyceride was lower at 135 within normal range. I shed some pounds too. I no longer feel the strange heart beat when I play badminton. My assumption is when Triglyceride level is high blood will become more sticky and harder to flow in blood stream. That will add load to heart and you will feel it when you are doing intensive exercise like badminton. One thing I learn is exercise is really important. It not only keeps up your health but also let you realize health problem earlier before it gets serious.

2009 is a good year to buy a house. It is extremely good year to buy a new one in California because the Federal Government and California state government provide large amount of tax credit to home buyer. The total tax credit or the money you can save on buying a new house can be up to $18,000.

I didn’t believe that originally until I review the official document from the Federal Government and the State. Here is the official document for 2009 Federal housing credit 2009. The Federal housing credit is up to $8,000 and it is for first time home buyer. Here is the official document for 2009 California State housing Tax credit. The tax credit in California is for buyer of newly construction homes. It is up to $10,000 and it is valid for new home sell after March 1st, 2009. You can review the document for more detail. So if you are a first time home buyer and you are buying a new home in California you will get up to $18,000 tax credit.

Further more nowadays if you are buying a new home the builder will usually provide up to 6% incentive to cover closing cost and interest rate buy down. You can even negotiate the price down about 3%-6% percent. So it is never been a good time to buy a new house in California. Of course if the US economy deteriorates further housing price will drop further.