There’s a new concept mouse from Sony — VN-CX1 is a USB optical mouse-phone compatible with Skype which combines phone and mouse in one. I really like the idea and it looks stylish too. I just think it’s better if it is wireless or bluetooth-enabled, not wired.
When there’s a call in Skype you simply flip it open and it instantly becomes a USB phone. Flip it back and you can use it as a mouse again. The scroll wheel serves as the volume regulator during phone-mode. It doesn’t look ergonomic or comfortable because of its shape but it’s very trendy. 
Links:
Sony VN-CX1: Skype Mouse Phone [ via Share Skype ]
Skype, Sony, optical+mouse, mouse
Friday January 13, 2006 04:10
Posted by MV as Randomness
In this visual guide I’m going to show how you can use MyODBC in .NET 2005. It’s rather sneaky because when you install MyODBC it is not readily available in the data source option after installation. You have to create a connection string first in order to make use of MyODBC. I have tested this in Visual Web Developer 2005 Express and should work in other Visual Studio 2005 versions.
You should download and install MyODBC before beginning. It is available at MySQL Connector/ODBC download section. I’m going to use MyODBC 3.51.12 for this guide.
1. Go to menu bar -> Tools -> Connect to Database or click the Connect to Database icon
2. Choose Microsoft ODBC Data Source (or you may choose .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC, either will be just fine) then click Continue.
3. Choose the Use Connection String radio button and click Build…
4. In Machine Data Source tab click New…
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Note for my thesis groupmates –
After hours of testing I finally got MyODBC to work…
*Phew* I think I’m just an idiot for not discovering this tool earlier. This article on how ODBC access MySQL in .NET made the concept clearer to me. I thought using MySQL in Visual Studio 2005 would require hand-coding the database connection. It’s easier than I thought because there’s a query builder in it, yet it’s still peculiar to me. I have to check the MyODBC manual on how to use it effectively since stored procedures and views were added to MySQL 5 already. I guess this is a good sign as we can concentrate more on the the application logic and spend less time building complex database query.
Here’s a small screenshot of my workspace doing the n00bish query in VS.NET 2005 from MySQL 5 database (a dummy wordpress database dump)
Here’s the output of my simple query…
Looks simple, right?
So what’s the big deal with MyODBC? Hint: it’s all about $$$. If we can use MySQL 5 instead of MS SQL Server 2005 then we can save a lot of money not only in the development but also in the deployment of the web application. Initially we wanted to use the L.A.M.P. (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) to power our web application — all open-source. Cool. However it’s very idealistic since we cannot possibly code the entire application with our current knowledge and skill level. Not Cool. The server that we are going to deploy is going to be a Windows Server 2003 (we have no choice!) so in line with Windows Server 2003, we might as well code in Visual Studio. In addition, if we are going to race with time then Visual Studio is the right tool for rapid development — not necessarily the best but it serves its purpose.