Kyle Archer

Carl and I will at the Arkansas Public Transportation Conference in Eureka Springs, AR on October 2-4, 2006. We hope to see you there!

As an engineer who loved programming, I learned VB v3 back in 1993 and developed many apps for classes and work etc. I built ParaPlan using VBA because it provided me immediate data access that I found very easy to use. As EnGraph has grown, we need to step out of these bounds and build better software. Tim has been building all our new components in .NET for 3 years now. I am teaching myself .NET 05 with help so we can provide a new vehicle maintenance module for our clients. I am working on the UE first, just to get a feel of Visual Studio and I have to say this is incredible. Tips pop up helping me all the time and intellisense is rockin my world. Things would have been easier with this framework 7 years ago. Anyway, I am currently battling with tabs, panels, lists, menus, etc. and just learning how basic controls work. I am excited to create a 'modern' looking software solution for our new and existing clients. Stay tuned for screen shots etc!

This is a compilation post of some cool stuff happening lately: Tim is going to South Carolina for a Code Camp with Jeff , John , Joseph and Dru . These guys are renting a van and driving to Greenville this week. There are gonna post pics on Where's Tim via flickr and several podcasts, so be sure and check these cool-nerds out during their road trip! Guardian recently threw up an article about GPS uses and interviewed Tim for most of their quotes and information. Read the article here . I also really like this blog called The Map Room , so check it out perhaps. Microsoft now has a 'service' to show you on a map where hotspots are near you...view it here . I have also recently tested the Microsoft MapPoint OCX with our legacy ParaPlan software inside Access VBA and it works like a champ! More info soon!

Lots of positive things happened in one day (today) at EnGraph HQ... Tim selected a new Wireless Router for our office by Linksys that boosts comp-to-comp file transfer by 35%. I got a sweet new roller laptop bag by Targus and my Dell Laptop KU Skin (pics coming). Our largest existing client wants to buy RiderTrac, our fixed route transportation software. Carl and Mark sold a HUGE new job in Arkansas! Amy is cold calling and having much success! Mark just got a great lead in Louisiana. Tim and I are going to the Heartland .NET Developers Conference in Omaha, NE. Tim is replicating a client env at his own home with workstations, servers, gps hardware, etc. Several invoices came in. Tim and I got a sweet 'goodcents' lunch discount from his roomy Evan!

Our flagship app, ParaPlan , has been running on SQL 2000 for over 2 years now. Before we re-design everything in .NET, I wanted to see if I could get it to work with SQL 2005 (as is). My attempts thus far have led to the following: 05 has many more INFORMATION tables and SYS tables associated with each database. I have MUCH MUCH more to learn, but I know that I could get an 05 SQL db attached to an Access front end, but I am having trouble with permissions (to the best of my knowledge). So as I learn more and/or hear from someone, stay tuned.

Now that I am married and all that, it is time to get serious about financial planning. Therefore, I downloaded the 90-day trial of Microsoft Money Deluxe ($30). I simply have to say that I am already amazed. I honestly didn't know that these programs can link up to all of your accounts via the web. I first put in my main checking account info and my web login on their site. As I put it into Money, it automatically downloaded my transactions over the last 60 days and managed to put 50% into the proper category. I love the interface and how easy it is. I continued to put in all my credit cards, my 1st and 2nd mortgage and my investments. I highly recommend it.

Tim showed me how to use the Microsoft 'Save My Office Settings' tool, which worked like a champ as I was setting up my new machine. So if you want to have the same settings, toolbar locations, rules, etc. on a different machine...just go to Microsoft Office Tools->Save My Settings. Then transfer that file (*.OPS) to the new machine and load it the same way, very nice. Now to Outlook... I wanted to transfer all of my outlook data to the new machine also, which required messing with the infamous 'outlook.pst' file. This file can be found at "C:\Documents and Settings\Kyle Archer\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\". I found out that PST stands for 'Personal Store' according to Microsoft. Anyway, this monster file contains all your emails, events, contacts, notes, etc. It can get quite large and mine was appraoching a Gig. Even when you clean out your junk mail, delete stuff then remove your 'Deleted Items', it doesn't do m...