Lately, I have been having problems with my Google Chrome browser; it crashes way often. So I have to switch to Firefox. I was too used to searching through address bar in Chrome and it took me to Google search right away.

When Firefox performs a search from the Address Bar, it queries the search engine string you have setup within Firefox. Sometimes, it uses the search engine which you don’t want. If it’s using Yahoo, you can switch to Google. Don’t like Google? Use Ask. Here’s how to switch which search engine Firefox searches when you use the address bar to search.

1. In Firefox type about:config in the address bar and press ENTER.

2. Locate and double-click the entry for keyword.URL

3. Set the value based on which search provider you would like to use for your address bar searches. Here are a few search strings you can use.

Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=

Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=g

Ask: http://www.ask.com/web?q=

Bing: http://www.bing.com/search?q=

DuckDuckGo: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=

ChaCha: http://www.chacha.com/search/

AOL: http://search.aol.com/aol/search?s_it=searchbox.webhome&v_t=na&q=

HOTBOT: http://www.hotbot.com/?query=

Lycos:http://search.lycos.com/?tab=web&searchForm=true&query=

DMOZ: http://www.dmoz.org/search?q=

GigaBlast: http://www.gigablast.com/search?q=

I am trying to improve my macros based on rule of thirds. Still confused :$

Honey Bee, originally uploaded by Fahd Murtaza.

A note from photographer:

If you want to see how I made this (and how you can too!), visit my HDR Tutorial. I hope it gives you some new tricks! I have over 21,000 unread flickr emails – sorry but I am too swamped – but most of you ask questions that are answered in that tutorial, so there it is!

As for the process, it was a tough night because I was on the edge of a bridge that was rumbling as cars went across. The evening was very windy, and there was a light driving rain right into my lens. I had to wipe down the lens after every few exposures and try to cup my hands over the top during the shot.

from my daily photo blog at www.stuckincustoms.com

Fourth on Lake Austin, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

Saba, originally uploaded by Fahd Murtaza.

Hello twitter!

This is to inform you that despite being so twittering, you suck sometimes. Here is the thing. I opened one of emails which informed me that my friend Suneel Pervez is now following me on Twitter. To my surprise, his tiny thumbnail pic took more than 2 seconds to load which I thought, “Ooops my internet connection sucks”, but turns out Twitter sucks.

The picture was of big size and twitter didn’t bother to make it a thumbnail. It was just resized using HTML width and height attribute for img tag and thats all. No image thumbnailing at all. And for a site like twitter, its a disaster. Was you developer sleeping when he this nut job.. is that it you offer my dear little Twitter?

Seriously guys, I was not expecting this kind of mistake (infact a bug) from twitter. Let me show you some of the firebug screenshots about how I discovered this bug.

Have a look at the twitter messing with the image sizes

OK Fellows. I hope twitter grows up soon so as their sleepy coders.

This is just another portrait taken from my new EOS 1000D.

Armaghan Khan : Canon EOS 1000d test, originally uploaded by Fahd Murtaza.

Background:

I am comitted to resolve any programming issues that arise on my Windows Vista Ultimate installed on my HP Artist Edition Laptop DV2899ee. As Vista being the most criticized operating system for development purposes. I do have plans for getting Mac and switching back to Windows XP on my Windows machines but right now I like the Windows Vista experience and it works for me.

My friend Tahir Bashir (a great coder), who works for me under the umbrella of Universal Coders, is working again on the software that we did for AlHadeed Corporation back in 2006. It was not being used by these guys due to less adoption and computer literate manpower but they again are improving the work and so, we are re-developing the software in accordance with the new needs of Mr. Haider the CEO of AlHadeed Corporation Mansehra. He also happens to be the husband of my cousin so I am really taking personal interest in development of this software.

The Problem:

The problem I faced last night, when Tahir sent me the software was that I was unable to run it on my Visual Studio 2008 on Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I was having a problem that is shown in the following screen shot.

Database connection string for Access which produces the error

Visual Studio 2008 Exception Dialog whoing the error

The excpetion window says,  “Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0′ provider is not registered on the local machine”. My OS is Vista x64 and Visual Studio 9. But this error does not occur on Tahir’s Win XP Pro machine.This happens while using the debug button.

Exception details

System.InvalidOperationException was unhandled
Message=”The ‘Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0′ provider is not registered on the local machine.”
Source=”System.Data”
StackTrace:
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbServicesWrapper.GetDataSource(OleDbConnectionString constr, DataSourceWrapper& datasrcWrapper)
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnectionInternal..ctor(OleDbConnectionString constr, OleDbConnection connection)
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningObject)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreateNonPooledConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPoolGroup poolGroup)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection.Open()
at AlHadeed.MainForm.SelectBasicItems(Int32 mode, Int32 target, Int32 index1, Int32 index2) in C:\Users\Fahd Murtaza\AlHadeed\AlHadeed\Form1.cs:line 289
at AlHadeed.MainForm.ItemPanel_VisibleChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\Fahd Murtaza\AlHadeed\AlHadeed\Form1.cs:line 103
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.SetVisibleCore(Boolean value)
at AlHadeed.MainForm.SalesBtn_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\Fahd Murtaza\AlHadeed\AlHadeed\Form1.cs:line 40
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DebuggableCallback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG& msg)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(Int32 dwComponentID, Int32 reason, Int32 pvLoopData)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
at AlHadeed.Program.Main() in C:\Users\Fahd Murtaza\AlHadeed\AlHadeed\Program.cs:line 19
at System.AppDomain._nExecuteAssembly(Assembly assembly, String[] args)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly()
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()
InnerException:

Solution

Anyhow the reason for this problem is simple. Visual Studio itself is a 32 bit application so it can use 32 bit components. But my Visual Studio 2008 settings were for 64 bit application. Its OK with other Database Strings but not for MS Access as there is no 64bit version of Jet. Using a 64bit data provider (which doesn’t exist I believe, correct me if I am wrong), or spin off your database work to a 32 bit process. So I changed the settings for my application this way. Its shown in the screenshot below.

If you are experiencing the same issues, right click your project and choose the “Properties”, then select the “Build” page. Find the “Platform target” selection ComboBox. Please change the default “Any CPU” into “x86” then build your application again.

Solution to the problem: The 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0' provider is not registered on the local machine

Voila! Solves the issue perfectly. No more bloody exceptions!

Sheikh Chilli is happy, he has been fasting well this year. He is saying Eid Mubarak to all.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sheikh Chilli Says Eid Mubarak to all. Please join him @ www.KhyaliPulao.com, originally uploaded by Fahd Murtaza.

Wanna know about this character, join us at

khyalipulao.com/sheikh-chillis-diary/2008/09/hello-world-…

Sheikh Chilli: My latest character, originally uploaded by Fahd Murtaza.