OraTransplant

Microsoft promoting illegal Windows XP

I just ran a Windows Update on my computer and got (yet another) update to Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474). That’s the component that checks if your Windows version has a legal license. At the end of the installation it actually showed me a thank you message with the question if I wanted to see the benefits of the use of ILLEGAL software?

Must be some mix up with the translation

Limited subscriptions to comments

Since April 2006 I’ve been using the very useful Subscribe To Comments plugin for WordPress. This allows commenters on my blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments. I also used the feature to subscribe without leaving a comment with the show_manual_subscription_form PHP function. This allows people to leave their email address and also get notified of new comments without leaving a comment of there own.

As it turns out this last feature was mis-used by spammers. They dumped thousands of email addresses to be notified of any new comments. This led to my hoster disabling email functionality for my blog. I’ve now disabled the feature to subscribe without leaving a comment and the email is back on. I had to remove all the email addresses that were subscribed this way. My apologies for the real readers that left their email address this way. They will no longer be notified of new comments.

Spammers cannot misuse the basic feature of subscribing to comments as you have to leave a comment yourself. This comment has to pass the spam filter and/or moderation queue, so the chances of a spammer getting an email address on the mail list this way are very slim.

Again, my apologies for the readers who now no longer get their updates by email. If you want to keep getting notified by email, you will have to leave an actual comment and check the check box to subscribe.

Difference between call_form, new_form and open_form

I never seem able to remember the difference between new-form, open_form and call_form. I’m just writing down the definitions from the online help in this article for my own (and perhaps others) reference:

CALL_FORM

Runs an indicated form while keeping the parent form active. Oracle Forms runs the called form with the same Runform preferences as the parent form. When the called form is exited Oracle Forms processing resumes in the calling form at the point from which you initiated the call to CALL_FORM.

CALL_FORM can be instructed to hide or not hide the calling form, replace or not replace the menu, open the new form in query only mode, share or not share library data.

NEW_FORM

Exits the current form and enters the indicated form. The calling form is terminated as the parent form. If the calling form had been called by a higher form, Oracle Forms keeps the higher call active and treats it as a call to the new form. Oracle Forms releases memory (such as database cursors) that the terminated form was using.

Oracle Forms runs the new form with the same Runform options as the parent form. If the parent form was a called form, Oracle Forms runs the new form with the same options as the parent form.

NEW_FORM can be instructed to continue the database transaction, rollback to the current savepoint or perform a full rollack. It can also be instructed to open the new form in query only mode and to share or not share library data.

OPEN_FORM

Opens the indicated form. Use OPEN_FORM to create multiple-form applications, that is, applications that open more than one form at the same time.

OPEN_FORM can be instructed for the two forms to share the same database session and/or library data.