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Many people are fascinated by Astrology. They can’t wait to open up the paper each morning to see their daily horoscope. Many of these people would love to know how to do their own astrological chart. Unfortunately, doing a chart by hand takes a ton of work to go along with a ton of education about the subject. Fortunately, there is a piece of software that will do this for you, literally in the blink of an eye.
Enter Astro 123.
Astro 123 is not something that you can buy in a store. It is available only off the Internet from a guy named Allen Edwell. This gentleman put a ton of work into this thing and the small price tag that comes with it is more than worth the many hours that you’ll save doing your own Astrological chart.
Astro 123 does all the basic things that you would expect a chart making program to do and then goes 100 steps farther.
For starters, by simply typing in your birth date, time and place and clicking a button, you get your basic birth chart which tells you your sun sign, rising sign and what house each planet is in at the time of your birth. But that’s just the beginning.
You can also get where your planets are on any day of any given year by simply putting that date into the program. This is how you do your daily chart, the kind that you see in your local newspaper each morning. If you do this on a daily basis you can get your horoscope every day for the rest of your life.
But we’re still not even close to being done. In addition to this, you can store birth dates of various people into a database. This way you don’t have to type in the information each time you want to get a chart for somebody. Just pull up their name from the database, press a button and their chart is done.
One of the most important requirements for creating a chart is to know where the person was born. This program allows you to load coordinates for any city into a database so that when doing somebody’s chart you don’t have to type them in each time. You just pull up the city from the database and there they are. The program even comes with some major cities already preloaded.
In addition to the standard birth chart, you can also get other charts from the program such as natal charts and transit data. Just about every kind of chart you could possibly want can be created by this program. In addition, each chart you make also produces a report, similar to your daily horoscope, that you can print out. This comes in handy if you’re doing a chart for a client and he requests something written.
The interface isn’t much to look at and it’s obvious that more time went into the meat and potatoes than the glitz. But this is one serious piece of software for doing Astrological charts that no serious Astrologer should be without.
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Michael Russell |
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Bundling software applications together is a practice much abused by purveyors of adware. The potential for sneaking unwanted software into a bundle of desirable software is obvious. The benefits of bundling software aren’t so obvious. Isn’t it time to consider dumping the practice of bundling software altogether?
Bundled Software: When Is It Not Adware?
If a user wants a piece of software, why can’t he or she be allowed to install it separately? If the bundled software were essential to the functioning of the original software (excluding generic functions such as install, un-uninstall, and documentation), why wouldn’t the developer build its functions directly into the original software?
Sure, sometimes there’s a software application that clearly complements another application. But for users who do not want the complementary software, having it just means a bloated install file and a needlessly long installation process.
Does the chance that users will want the bundled software ever outweigh the risk of the bundled software being installed without the user noticing? In the case of adware, the technology community is increasingly willing to put the burden of proof on the adware bundlers:
* Cnet’s download.com website recently removed any and all software that comes bundled with another piece of software that shows advertising, regardless of how well informed the user is of the bundled software.
* Affiliate networks such as Commission Junction and Kolimbo have either cautioned advertisers against accepting adware distributors into their affiliate programs or kicked them out altogether.
* Many technology law experts are saying that the click-wrap license agreements that supposedly legitimate adware are not proof of informed consent. Some experts even say that such agreements amount to unconscionable contracts: the burden imposed by adware is so great and the benefit offered so negligible.
Adware and Bundled Software: A Modest Proposal
If the spam arms race is any indication, we may soon face even more aggressive attempts to get adware on our computers. There will be even more tortured arguments that bundled adware is installed with users’ informed consent. Why not head off any of those arguments right now? Let’s push for an industry standard that reputable developers do not bundle software (with a few highly specific exceptions such as documentation, installation, and error reporting).
In the end, by getting rid of bundled software, what do we have to lose except adware?
Read more of Joel Walsh’s articles on spyware and adware: www.spyware-refuge.com
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology - Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.
If you are developer who is asked: how do we implement Great Plains integration/interface with your legacy or other system - read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
1. Great Plains Integration Manager - this is rather end-user tool - it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables. The limitation of Integration Manager - it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them - so it is relatively slow - you can bring 100 records - but when you are talking about thousands - it is not a good option. By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA.
2. eConnect - it is type of Software Development Kit with samples in VB.Net. Obviously the development environment should be Visual Studio.Net. eConnect will allow you to integrate master records - such as new customers, vendors, employees, etc., plus you can bring transactions into so called Great Plains work tables (eConnect doesn’t allow you to bring open or historical records - you need to post work records in Great Plains, the same limitation applies to Integration Manager above) eConnect is rather for ongoing integration. It was initially created for eCommerce application integration to Great Plains.
3. SQL Stored Procedures. Obviously you have unlimited control and possibilities with SQL queries. You need to know Great Plains tables structure and data flow. Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers - it should be RM00101 - customer master file. If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents - they are in SOP30200 - Sales History Header file, etc. Do not change existing tables - do not create new fields, etc. Also you need to realize that each GP table has DEX_ROW_ID - identity column. Sometimes it is good idea to use inbound/outbound XML in the parameters - then you can deploy web service as a middle party between two systems.
4. Data Transformation Services (DTS) - Good tool for importing your third party data into staging tables in GP - then you can pull them in using either stored procs of Integration Manager. You can also deploy this tool for EDI export/import.
5. Great Plains Dexterity Custom Screens. Sometimes users prefer to have seamlessly integrated into GP interface custom screens - for parameters settings and initiating integration. Dexterity is a good option, however remember - it is always better to create new custom screen versus customizing existing one - due to the future upgrade issues. Also - Dexterity is in phasing our by Microsoft Business Solutions.
6. Modifier/VBA custom buttons on the existing screens - alternative to Dexterity is you are comfortable with VBA and ADO.
7. MS Access - if you are doing one time conversion and your legacy has old ODBC compliant platform - you can use MS Access to create linked tables there - or import into MS Access.
8. SQL Linked Servers - you can do direct SQL queries to other ODBC compliant platform via SQL Linked Server (including ORACLE, UNIDATA, Pervasive SQL, Ctree, etc) - you may need to familiarize yourself with OPENROWSET command in Transact SQL. This is also good option if you need cross-platform Crystal Report - pulling data from SQL Server and third party databases on the same report.
9. Warning - do not place existing GP tables into Replication! - you will have upgrade issues.
Happy integrating! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, New York, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.