Using VBA with Excel : COM

This blog post was Posted over 3 years ago at http://www.yousaytoo.com/using-vba-with-excel-a-manifestation-of-com/10713 I posted this article with the title

Using VBA with Excel : A manifestation of COM

Component Object Model provides excellent technique for code and component reusability. For eg. Excel can interact with microsoft word. API and macros are tools which provide high end techniques for this purpose. Even excel functions can be used. Microsoft now recommends .NET platform over COM. But its efficiency and fame can never be forgotten or underestimated. COM [COM 95] refers to both a specification and implementation developed by Microsoft Corporation which provides a framework for integrating components. This framework supports interoperability and reusability of distributed objects by allowing developers to build systems by assembling reusable components from different vendors which communicate via COM. By applying COM to build systems of preexisting components, developers hope to reap benefits of maintainability and adaptability.

COM defines an application programming interface (API) to allow for the creation of components for use in integrating custom applications or to allow diverse components to interact.

However, in order to interact, components must adhere to a binary structure specified by Microsoft. As long as components adhere to this binary structure, components written in different languages can interoperate Usage Considerations A number of issues must be evaluated when considering COM, DCOM, and COM+. They include -- Platform support. COM and DCOM are best supported on Windows 95 and NT platforms. However, Microsoft has released a version of COM/DCOM for MacOS that supports OLE-style compound documents and the creation of ActiveX controls. Software AG, a Microsoft partner, has released DCOM for some UNIX operating systems, concretely OS/390, HP-UX 11.0, SUN Solaris, AIX 4.2, 4.3, Tru64 Unix 4.0 and Linux. However, DCOM over non-Windows platforms has few supporters.

Until DCOM for alternate platforms has solidified, the technology is best applied in environments that are primarily Windows-based. Platform specificity of COM/DCOM components. Because COM and DCOM are based on a native binary format, components written to these specifications are not platform independent. Thus, either they must be recompiled for a specific platform, or an interpreter for the binary format must become available. Depending on your perspective, the use of a binary format may be either an advantage (faster execution, better use of native platform capabilities) or a disadvantage (ActiveX controls, unlike Java applets, are NOT machine independent). See Java for more information. Security. Because COM/DCOM components have access to a version of the Microsoft Windows API, "bad actors" can potentially damage the user's computing environment. In order to address this problem, Microsoft employs "Authenticode" [Microsoft 96] which uses public key encryption to digitally sign components. Independent certification authorities such as VeriSign issue digital certificates to verify the identity of the source of the component [VeriSign 97]. However, even certified code can contain instructions that accidentally, or even maliciously, compromise the user's environment. Support for distributed objects. COM/DCOM provides basic support for distributed objects.

There is currently no support for situations requiring real time processing, high reliability, or other such specialized component interaction. Stability of APIs. In October of 1996 Microsoft turned over COM/DCOM, parts of OLE, and ActiveX to the Open Group (a merger of Open Software Foundation and X/Open). The Open Group has formed the Active Group to oversee the transformation of the technology into an open standard. The aim of the Active Group is to promote the technology's compatibility across systems (Windows, UNIX, and MacOS) and to oversee future extension by creating working groups dedicated to specific functions. However, it is unclear how much control Microsoft will relinquish over the direction of the technology. Certainly, as the inventor and primary advocate of COM and DCOM, Microsoft is expected to have strong influence on the overall direction of the technology and underlying APIs.

Long-term system maintainability. Microsoft is actively supporting COM and DCOM technology and pushing it in distributed and Web-based directions. Microsoft is also trying to preserve existing investments in COM technology while introducing incremental changes. Microsoft, for example, has ensured backward compatibility of COM+. Although this affirmation is in general true, COM objects that access local information in the registry or in system folders may require modification. In general, the PC community has not been faced with the concern of very long-lived systems, and vendors often provide support only for recent releases.

Now i think this gives enuff primitive ideas on triggering your interests towards COM and VBA, in case you are into that domain. Take some time in reading more articles and clicking on some advertisement links too...

Mohd Anwar Jamal Faiz

New Blog: Internet Censorship Ideas, discussions, problems, and solutions

There is a new blog exclusively dedicated to the Internet censorship issues across the globe. The blog has a related Facebook page too. I am giving the links. Read and like those pages. Blog is full of original, rich, quality articles on the niche area.

Blog Name : Internet Censorship Voyager

Blog Link:  http://internet-censorship-voyager.blogspot.com/

Blog Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Internet-Censorship-Voyager/172211709553542

I hope you all will enjoy the stuff out there!!

Court accuses Google, Facebook etc for 'Objectionable and Offensive' contents. Problems in Internet censorship, reality, solutions and viablity.

This blog post comes after the news that Indian court issues summons to Google, Facebook, Microsoft for 'objectionable content'.
You must have heard -

Indian court ruling against offensive content in facebook, google, yahoo etc

Google,Facebook,Yahoo charged for objectionable and offensive contents

Social networking websites warned to remove offensive contents, and

Internet censorship is a debate and technical problems are there, etc.

There are some authorities across the globe and now even Indian court that wants these (and 21 others) Internet companies to develop a (? Big question mark!!) mechanism to keep a check and remove from their Web pages those materials which are deemed 'offensive and objectionable'.

Someone please tell me with such a diverse cultural, regional, religional,politico,socio,economical richness of India, who can find what is objectionable and what is not. And then, at last, thanks to various civic bodies too, which may find anything objectionable even if it is passed by legislation, law, censor boards, and religious authorities. Let’s cut our talks and be focused towards the technical news and aspects.

A Delhi court sent a summons to the headquarters of foreign Internet companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo on Friday, in a private case against objectionable content online. It started with some RTI Activists who found religious content on the sites that he considered offensive, and filed a complaint with a Delhi court, prompting Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar to issue notices to 21 Internet sites in December. Henceforth, The magistrate has asked the foreign entities and Indian Internet companies mentioned in the complaint to appear before the court on March 13.

In addition, India's Information Technology Act requires intermediaries like Internet service providers to remove content that is found objectionable within a period of 36 hours of being notified of the content.

It has been warned that "Like China, we will block all such web sites,". This was said by High Court Judge Suresh Kait said.

News complete. And now the technical aspects.

With more than billions of Internet users let’s see what are problems:

1. Billions of Internet users around the globe
2. Thousands of cultural diversities across the globe
3. Millions of line posted every hour over the internet
4. Approximately 11 hours video upload every third minute across the globe
5. Tweets, status updates, messages, forwarding, comes in a real time environment. So who will keep track of these things
6. What is objectionable may not be objectionable for other and vice-versa
7. Age old problems like “Adult content removal” is still not successful, who the hell can develop an “Offensive content removal” system. Hat’s off to law making people. They think programming just like passing a bill in legislature, or just finding a mistake in law that could convict an innocent or help escape a murderer.
8. Google indexes websites by their webbots (crawlers). But now a filtered Indexing has to be done. So now thousands of daily complaints by webmasters will come, why their websites was not crawled.
9. Facebook has to re-invent ways to check status updates. Monitoring (manual efforts and decision making also reuired here) will make your status updates taking time to come.
10. DNS manipulations and proxy servers are very common these days and known to almost every informed internet user
11. Audio visual contents and text in images are still not possible to handle.
12. Any Language translations API is also not 100% successful till date
13. Bla bla bla
14. Bla bla bla
Seriously, do I need to reason out by logic? You all are better judges. Lets us all see what turn this Internet censorship would take.

Just to add a few comments -

a) In November 2007, "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf stated that he sees government control of the Internet failing because the Web is almost entirely privately owned.

b) Time Magazine has quoted a big Computer scientist saying "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

And also a completely contradicting view to my post -
A 2011 report by researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute published by UNESCO concludes "... the control of information on the Internet and Web is certainly feasible, and technological advances do not therefore guarantee greater freedom of speech."

So, it is up to readers to decide how much optimistic should we be in terms of the feasibility and viability of a solution to offensive content removal. Keyword based filtering, firewall filtering, ISP controls, php/aspx solutions at real time websites etc won't help. Think of some another way. DNS manipulations, proxies, content in audio-video and images should also be kept in mind

Consider the vast amount of data already on servers of these big companies and enormous amount of content being generated every second. Remember well that -

The time you spend while reading this article must have been used by several people at several locations to generate several offensive contents for several societies in several languages over several internet portals. And be assured of several formats too!

Before ending I would like my readers to know what Wikipedia has in its store regarding this. It says - Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship on their own or due to intimidation and fear.
You can read more about Internet censorship at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship

I would again re-emphasize that the

Internet Censorship is wrong and devastating. We are still fortunate that it is a Fool's day prank. We may achieve it but those efficient programmers are in Mars. Find them and get the task done!

I would serious like readers to pour in some comments and help us understand the gravity of the problem and its solutions. But how about starting help with clicking on some advertisement links; They help me make money to understand pubs and discs; The place where I get inspirations to write more. lol;)

Is Google making an “Anti-iPad”- Google-Apple rivalry leading to new Android device by Google.

There has been a news circulating in the industry that Google is working on a device to compete with Apple's iPad. And now even according to the New York Times, "Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, told friends at a recent party (obviously informal party) in LA about the new device. This, still an elusive device (with unknown birth time and unknown pregnancy status), would exclusively be running on the Android operating system." Google is the standard-bearer in the world of Web standards, also owner of busiest and biggest search engine, holds control over majority of blogs around the world, and gives platforms and APIs in which programmers should be able to run nearly any software on almost any computing device. So, entry of Google with this device would be very very exciting for us, the users; And very very dangerous for rival companies. So, should we expect an exciting and marvelous child-birth (sorry device-birth ;) ) from Google?

Some other sources stated that Google has been experimenting in protected-secret-and-low-hyped mode with a few content publishers to explore the possibility of delivering ebooks, emagazines and other content on a tablet. Some of my friends also told that it might also try to bag Kindle project too from Amazon, partially, even if it is not fully.
Read more about Google-Apple rivalry at http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/14/apples-rivalry-with-google-gets-personal/

Cumon, it true that there is no proof of this deal. Just one of the gossips circulating from Silicon Valley. But we have seen such gossips turning into reality many many times.
This would again prove the so called Apple and Google technological rivalry. Also see http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2009/tc2009084_007016.htm
This new device, after ipad2, Galaxy S2, and Nexus devices, would take Google to the next level of Tablet market and thus creating a totally new “Anti iPad device”. Because who the hell will then care for iPad when it comes with heay price tag, selling problems (see Apple showroom got shutdown and stones pelted reports), Anti-flsh system (God knows why Flash is considered ‘heavy’ for Apple devices, and limited accessibility.

FaceBook TimeLine : Make Attractive Cover Profile. - Tips to start/ activate your Timeline view, its advantages and how to make more attractive profile. *

“Facebook TimeLine. Tell your story with a new kind of profile” – as explained by Facebook itself, Timeline gives a great look to your Facebook profile page.

The Facebook timeline is a feature on the social media platform that displays a user's posts and activity in chronological order. It allows users to see a history of their activity on the site, including posts, photos, videos, and other content they have shared. Some people may feel the urge to change their Facebook timeline for a variety of reasons. Some may want to clean up their timeline by removing old posts or photos that are no longer relevant, while others may want to update their timeline to reflect a change in their life, such as a new job or relationship. Additionally, some users may want to update their timeline to make it more visually appealing or to match their current interests and hobbies. It is important to note that users can edit or delete their post or photos at any time, they can also choose the level of privacy they want to set on each post. Overall, the Facebook timeline is a personal space that users can customize to their liking and preferences. 

You can manifest a lot more, share easily, and control the layout more coolly, in the new facebook profile avatar. For better explaination you can visit
Facebook Timeline Details and Description (FAQ)

This new profile design that has rolled out this month is different from previous Facebook design updates. Tis time users will just love it: Timeline lets them be a designer.

The Timeline view of your profile basically divides your profile into three categories
1. Your Cover
2. Your Stories
3. Your Apps

For example you can see the following Pic of a Profile page in Timeline view: (click to enlarge the picture)

You can use an stunning pic, (or any interesting one for that matter), as the cover of your profile. This will be shown in wide view. And the profile pic that was initially used will also be visible in left corner.

Your stories are your day to day happening in a time line format.
And your Apps, are the collection of your Apps that you use and its activities.

Cover Photo must tell something. Your cover is the first impression of you a user will get when he or she goes to your page. But remember, Your profile photo should be of you; your cover photo can be anything.
Edit your photos Please!. The cover is a huge space, so a high-res photo will look best. You must crop to make it better.
Click and drag on the picture so that it looks good. Tis will automatically happen when you hover your mouse over the cover picture. You will be prompted to drag and drop your picture so that u can let best portion of the Photograph to be viewed.
Be creative in choosing Cover photo.Use Web sites that help you design your own cover and share it. Sites such as MyFBCovers and SiteCanvas


It is important to note that Facebook said it will automatically push the timeline live seven days after someone signs up for the new feature. However, if folks are content with what's shared after reviewing it, they can push it live themselves at any point within that period. This was already accessible to Facebook App developers via OpenGraph API, but now Facebook itself has launched timeline feature in Full Public Release making it available to million of users together.

I am attaching a snapshot of my own profile in timeline view: (click to enlarge the image)

Activating Timeline View

How to switch / convert to Cover page View / time line view in Facebook

You can activate this type of profile by visiting the page described above.
Or simply click here...
Get Facebook Timeline View Easily in a Click
And click on "Get It Now"

Now first of all, lets see what is Facebook TimeLine. Facebook describes it as following:

What is a new Timeline view in facebook?

Your timeline is your collection of the photos, stories, and experiences that tell your story. Here are some of the things you can do on your timeline:
Add a cover
Edit your basic info
Jump to the past
View your activity log
See highlights from each month
Star stories you want to highlight
Add life events
Update your status
View and add photos
Share your app activity
This can be seen from the following page Help From Facebook Website Timeline


For example I have attached my Facebook Profile page. See the time line view in red circle.
Users can click on those places to go directly to specified time in your story. The new timeline feature will aggregate all your old Facebook stuff at one window and you/viewers will be able to switch between times (ie. month and year easily).

This new feature from Facebook, the largest Social Networking Website, is just awesome. And the entire outlook is just fabulous.

And just keep in mind, since this is new design, u will need time to get used to it. But during this time do not be forced to post something that u do not want everyone to see. For that purpose one simple question will pop up in ur brains that "How do I hide a story on my timeline?"
The answer is straighforward, To hide a story so that it no longer appears on your timeline:
Hover over the story and click button that appears on right of your post. (this is similar as before. only nomenclature has changed. !). Then Click Hide from Timeline.

Cheers to Facebook!
Cheers to the world!!
Please click on Advertisements because that fetches me liquid tonic used at real midnight cheers!! lol ;)