Hi FullName,
It’s time for more good news from ProgrammingMSAccess.com. This message features some great news about SPAM Blocker, our solution for blocking spam. We also give you updates about what’s popular content at the site. In particular, we tell you about the two presentation slide decks and two books that our visitors like to learn more about and buy. This message closes with a reminder about prizes for new and renewing Database Developers Group (DDG) members.
SPAM Blocker Is
Faster and Smarter
We normally reserve coverage of SPAM Blocker until the bottom of messages from ProgrammingMSAccess.com, but there is exceptional news to share with you this time. We just completed the first major recalibration of the SPAM Blocker filters since the initial release of SPAM Blocker 2.0. This recalibration is based on an extensive statistical analysis of our spam message database consisting of nearly 250,000 spam messages. BTW, we initially built this database in Access, but we recently migrated to SQL Server because it outgrew the Access database size limits.
The recalibration allowed us to make SPAM Blocker faster by two strategic improvements. First, we cut the number of filter values in half. The fewer filter values the application checks, the faster SPAM Blocker works. We dropped filter values that were not needed to filter any of the most recent 100,000 spam messages. Second, we rearranged the order in which we checked filter values so that those with the most effective filter values get checked first.
When we initially offered SPAM Blocker 2.0, it checked for the most effective filters first. Over the past year or so, spammers changed their messages so that some old filters did not block spam as well as newer filters. Our recalibration moves the most recent effective filters so that messages are checked against them first. This rearrangement of the filters makes SPAM Blocker filter spam faster. The quicker SPAM Blocker finds spam, the sooner you can get on to reading your good email.
In addition to making SPAM Blocker faster, the recalibration also made it smarter. In particular, we edited selected filter values to make them more effective. This process often allowed us to replace two or more filter values with a single new filter value. In addition, we added new filter values in the way that we normally do whenever we refresh SPAM Blocker’s filter set. This second step ensures our filter values detect the most recent spam messages.
If you have an Upgraded edition of SPAM Blocker 2.0, now is a great time to download a fresh copy of the program. See our FAQ for instructions on how to download the fresh filters. There is no charge for current Upgraded edition license holders to download fresh filters. If you have a Standard edition of SPAM Blocker 2.0, we remind you that you can obtain the latest Upgraded edition with the new, recalibrated filters. The fee for current Standard edition license holders to move to an Upgraded edition license is only $24 for a whole one-year license. This special opportunity is available exclusively to Standard edition holders who reply to this message. If you are a VB/VBA developer looking for spam blocking software written in your preferred language, we invite you to consider getting SPAM Blocker. We promise that you’ll obtain a great spam blocker plus some pretty interesting VB/VBA code for manipulating the Outlook object model and processing strings.
SPAM Blocker from ProgrammingMSAccess.com:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/spamblocker/
Instructions for downloading fresh SPAM Blocker filters:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/FAQs/SPAMBlocker.htm#DownloadFreshFilters
How to order SPAM Blocker:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/SpamBlocker/SpamBlockerHowToOrder.htm
Most Popular Presentations
at ProgrammingMSAccess.com
ProgrammingMSAccess.com offers the slide decks from several presentations made by the webmaster over the years. These presentations were originally for conferences, seminars, chats, or special presentations for the ProgrammingMSAccess.com community. During January, three of our eight presentations were especially popular. These presentations extend across the broad diversity of site content.
Our most popular presentation during January 2005 has the title: Developing Windows and Web Solutions with ADO.NET with SQL Server. This presentation demonstrates techniques for using ADO.NET with SQL Server to build either Windows or Web solutions. If you like the presentation, we invite you to consider purchasing “Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET”. This book includes much more detail for the kind of issues discussed in the presentation. Those of you just starting out with SQL Server may want a primer on T-SQL, which is the native programming language for SQL Server. We recommend the webmaster’s most recent DVD titled “Beginner's SQL Server 2000 T-SQL Programming on DVD” for a T-SQL primer. If you are an Access 2000 developer looking for techniques to help you work better with SQL Server 7, we recommend “Professional SQL Server Development with Access 2000”.
Another very popular presentation is titled “Access and Excel Interoperability”. This presentation is an extension to one of our seminars on Access development. An organization sponsoring an in-house seminar presentation requested this special addition. I hope that you find it helpful as well. For those who missed the seminar, you can see the webmaster’s best Access development techniques in any of his three Access programming books with separate editions for Access 2000, Access 2002, and Access 2003.
The third most popular presentation during January, 2005 is a custom presentation prepared for the site that covers how to show Access reports over the Internet. In this presentation, you’ll learn how to save Access reports to snapshot files and display Access reports from snapshot files. You can view snapshot files from a browser. The presentation has been a perennial site favorite. What has changed is the growing popularity of the IE version of the presentation. However, we still over a non-IE version as well which will be appropriate for non-IE browser users.
Building Windows and Web Solutions with ADO.NET and SQL Server 2000:
Access/Excel Interoperability presentation:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/Presentations/AccessExcelInterop_files/frame.htm
IE Tutorial on Using Snapshots for Access Reports:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/Presentations/SnapshotTutorialIE_files/frame.htm
Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TheBook/#SQLDotNet
Beginner's SQL Server 2000 T-SQL Programming on DVD:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TheBook/#DVDBegTSQL
Professional SQL Server Development with Access 2000:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TheBook/#PSSD
Programming Microsoft Office Access 2003:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TheBook/#A2003
Programming Microsoft Access Version 2002:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TheBook/#A2002
Programming Microsoft Access 2000:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TheBook/#PMA2K
Site Visitors’ Most Popular Books
Our site originally presented material exclusively for those creating solutions with Access. Over the years, we gradually added content about building solutions with SQL Server and VB.NET. At the same time, the webmaster expanded his authoring of books and DVDs to all three topics (Access, SQL Server, and VB.NET). In spite of the fact that the author’s three most recent titles are DVD titles, his books are much more preferred by site visitors. In particular, two of the webmaster’s six books are most preferred among site visitors.
By far in January 2005, most site visitors chose the link to learn more about “Programming Microsoft Office Access 2003” at Amazon.com. This book builds on two earlier books by the webmaster on Access programming. He adapted the best content from two earlier books on programming Access while extending coverage of selected topics and adding new coverage of classic topics. This book also contains special content on the new features in Access 2003.
In spite of the fact that more site visitors selected the link to learn more about “Programming Microsoft Office Access 2003”, the most frequently purchased book by site visitors was “Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET for Microsoft Access Databases”. This book is appropriate for those who want to learn to program Microsoft Access database files with VB.NET. This is the webmaster’s second book on .NET technology. The fact that he authored a second book on the topic indicates his interest in .NET technology and his affection for Access databases.
If you like the content at this site, chances are you will appreciate the material in the following two books. The links for both books include a table of contents and summaries for each chapter in either book. The link for the VB.NET book includes book excerpts. The Access 2003 book does not have excerpts, but the ProgrammingMSAccess.com site has excerpts from each of the webmaster’s prior two books on Access programming. We invite you to see for yourself what attracts our other site visitors to these two titles.
Programming Microsoft Office Access 2003:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TheBook/#A2003
Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET for Microsoft Access Databases:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/TheBook/#VBDotNetAccess
New and Renewing DDG
Member Prizes
If you have been receiving newsletters from ProgrammingMSAccess.com for a while, you probably recall the phrase: membership has its privileges. The membership to which we refer is membership in the Database Developers Group (DDG). There are many ways that we afford special treatment to DDG members. One of those ways is by offering them exclusive prizes.
The first two members to either join or renew during February can win one of two prizes. This is the first quarter in which we offered this kind of promotion. The first member to join or renew has their choice of either DemoCharge 2004 from YesSoftware or an annual subscription to Smart Access from Pinnacle Publishing. If you have been waiting for just the right time to join or renew, this could be it. If you have remaining months left on an existing membership, we’ll just add your new subscription to any existing time remaining from an existing subscription.
DemoCharge 2004 is a screen recording application that records screens in an animated gif format. Therefore, you can view saved recordings in your browser or any application, such as an email viewer, that can view animated gif files. This is a must-have application for anyone who wants to show how an application works or how to do something on a computer. Our site has a review of this handy and easy-to-use application. We even have a sample demonstration created with DemoCharge 2004.
Smart Access is a monthly newsletter that targets advanced Access users and Access developers. Smart Access includes about 4-5 articles in each single issue of 20 pages. I like this publication. If you create solutions with Access, you will almost certainly be able to benefit from many of the articles that appear over the course of your subscription.
Database Developers Group:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/databasedevelopersgroup/
Description of DemoCharge 2004 prize:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/Contests/DemoCharge_PrizesNewFeb.htm
Description of Smart Access Annual subscription prize:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/Contests/DemoCharge_PrizesNewFeb.htm
How to join the DDG:
http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/DatabaseDevelopersGroup/HowDoIJoin.htm
I hope that you found this message a good read even though it is long. I had a lot of valuable news that I wanted to share with registered ProgrammingMSAccess.com site visitors, and I hope that at least one or two of the items in this message appealed to you personally. Please take a moment to share this message with your favorite newsgroups as well as your friends and colleagues. Consider forwarding this message to several of your colleagues right now. One of your friends is almost surely going to thank you for passing along the good news about our site’s SPAM Blocker, content, or DDG prizes. Feel free to excerpt the message as you see fit for your favorite newsgroups. If you no longer wish to receive messages from ProgrammingMSAccess.com, just reply with Remove in Subject field.
Rick