Pilgrim’s Progress

I was really starting to get irked at Apple because it seems like they want me to pay $1.00 (ok, $.99) every time I want to turn one of my songs into a ringtone. I’ve already paid for these songs once and now every time I want to play 18 seconds of it I have to pay another $1? Crazy.

This guy is a genius. I just tried this Make Free Ringtones tutorial and it worked like a champ. Go Ed Zachary!

At least the shared stuff is. I’ve spent at least four hours today trying to get my SQL 2005 database configured on their server. Since they don’t allow remote access through SQL Server Management Studio, I’ve been forced to use their not-so-powerful web-based administration tool. Compounding that is the fact that I used to have references between two different databases on my local server that I now need to merge into a single monolithic database, I’m not a happy camper.

As part of this process I’ve had to populate a bunch of tables with application-specific values. After wrestling with the crappy CSV import function that GoDaddy gave me I decided to write my own little tool to generate SQL INSERT statements for the data in my tables. Since WordPress won’t let me upload it, here’s the code:

/*
 * Created by SharpDevelop.
 * User: smeans
 * Date: 5/6/2008
 * Time: 11:58 AM
 *
 * To change this template use Tools | Options | Coding | Edit Standard Headers.
 */
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.IO;

namespace sql2insert
{
  class sql2insert
  {
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      foreach (string dsn in args) {
        Console.WriteLine("writing files to " + System.Environment.CurrentDirectory);

        using (SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(args[0])) {
          cn.Open();

          DataTable dt = cn.GetSchema("Tables");

          foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows) {
            for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++) {
              if (((string)row[3]).Equals("BASE TABLE")) {
                dumpTable(cn, (string)row[2]);
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }

   static void dumpTable(SqlConnection cn, string tableName) {
     SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(String.Format("SELECT * FROM [{0}]", tableName), cn);

     SqlDataReader sdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();

     if (sdr.HasRows) {
       Console.WriteLine("writing data for table " + tableName);

       using (TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(String.Format("{0}.sql", tableName))) {
         tw.WriteLine(String.Format("SET IDENTITY_INSERT [{0}] ON", tableName));
         tw.WriteLine("GO\r\n");

         StringBuilder sbCols = new StringBuilder();

         for (int i = 0; i < sdr.FieldCount; i++) {
          switch (sdr.GetFieldType(i).ToString()) {
             case "System.Byte[]": {
             } break;
             default: {
              if (sbCols.Length > 0) {
                sbCols.Append(", ");
              }

              sbCols.Append(String.Format("[{0}]", sdr.GetName(i)));
             } break;
          }
         }

         tw.WriteLine();

         while (sdr.Read()) {
           tw.Write(String.Format("INSERT INTO [{0}] ({1}) VALUES (", tableName, sbCols.ToString()));

           for (int i = 0; i < sdr.FieldCount; i++) {
            if (sdr.IsDBNull(i)) {
               if (i > 0) {
                tw.Write(',');
               }

               tw.Write("null");
            } else {
             switch (sdr.GetFieldType(i).ToString()) {
             case "System.Int32": {
               if (i > 0) {
                tw.Write(',');
               }

               tw.Write(sdr[i].ToString());
             } break;

             case "System.Decimal": {
               if (i > 0) {
                tw.Write(',');
               }

               tw.Write(sdr[i].ToString());
             } break;

             case "System.Byte[]": {
             } break;

             case "System.DateTime": {
               if (i > 0) {
                tw.Write(',');
               }

               tw.Write(String.Format("'{0}'", ((DateTime)sdr[i]).ToString("M/d/yyyy h:m:s tt")));
             } break;

             default: {
               if (i > 0) {
                tw.Write(',');
               }

              tw.Write(String.Format("'{0}'", sdr[i].ToString().Replace("\'", "\'\'")));
             } break;
             }
           }
           }

           tw.WriteLine(")\r\nGO");
         }

         tw.WriteLine(String.Format("SET IDENTITY_INSERT [{0}] OFF", tableName));
         tw.WriteLine("GO\r\n");

         tw.Close();
       }
     }

     sdr.Close();
   }
}
}

My daughter never speaks. Most weeks I spend two or three hours total driving her around in my car, and she never speaks, she just looks out the window. I often wonder what she’s thinking about, and today when I got the school newsletter I saw this poem she wrote:

Memories
Selene Means
Team 73

I am a piece of paper;
clean and blank,
now written all over
by others.

Words written in sharpie;
written in ink.
Staying there.
Forever.

Everything is written.
Everything.
Praises.
Compliments.
.Kindness.
Lies.
Hatefulness.
Misery.
Anger.

Sometimes it seems,
just seems,
kindness is outnumbered
by hurt.

But still,
I am a piece of a paper.
A home to these words.
Written in sharpie.
Staying with me.
Forever.
In memories.

It makes my heart ache, because I can’t give her any of my experiences, just watch her form her own. And hope.