My Journal

Two days ago, I finally got to a point where I made myself designed a more automated system for resetting the troublesome router craches at NYGC. The cause is yet unknown to be, but I would imagine it has something to do with heavy piracy downloads upon heavy connections of at least 30 stations.

I already used a remote appliance switch, which works quite well when attached to the CD-ROM Driver tray of a computer in a way I could use the computer (even remotely) to switch off and on the router by opening and closing the CD tray, thereby resetting the router.

But this took time. And to use the iphone to control this mechanism, it takes even longer to achieve. Not to mention the time it takes to detect a crash by a special detection host (30 minutes for free version) or when someone started complaining about the crash.

So, on Wednesday, during my usual check in, I looked up a few references to C# programming, which is supposed to be the latest most efficient windows programming tool, downloaded the free compiler from Microsoft, and did a skeleton coding. So it will not be relying on any other detection service except for its own. I set the loop to 3 minutes and not less so I don't put too much data on the network, not that it actually matters, I just don't like the idea of spamming servers every minute.

So now, it will do a detection every 3 minutes or so and reset the router if it has crashed. It is programmed to open the CD tray thereby turning the switch off and on. All I need to do is just sit back and receive notification emails which the program is also programmed to do.

Of all the programming I did, this is one windows based I find most useful thus far.

Now, I just need to put some covering on this skeleton program. It is still running from the compiler itself without any user friendly features nor is it compiled to run standalone.

At least I won't be getting text messages almost every day about the router crashing complaints.

Note to self: The cause and a more efficient remedy of the router problem is a mystery that needs to be solved as well.

A couple of times I've sent emails with blank subject line unknowningly.

Blank subject emails are often blocked or filtered.

For Outlook 2007, and perhaps 2003, there doesn't seem to be a warning pop-up upon sending an email with an empty subject line.

Solution: (Thanks to Ankit Jain)

Need to write macro in Visual Basic editor (Alt-F11) -> Microsoft Office Outlook->ThisOutlookSession (double click) and paste code below to right panel.

For MS Outlook 2007 (Works)

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim Answer As String

If IsNull(Item.Subject) Or Len(Item.Subject) = 0 Then

Answer = MsgBox("Subject field is empty. Do you still want to
send the e-mail? ", vbYesNo + vbQuestion, "Missing subject")

If Answer = vbYes Then
Cancel = False

ElseIf Answer = vbNo Then
Cancel = True

End If

End If
End Sub

For MS Outlook 2003 (I have not tested)

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim strSubject As String
strSubject = Item.Subject
If Len(strSubject) = 0 Then
Prompt$ = "Subject is Empty. Are you sure you want to send the Mail?"
If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Check for Subject") = vbNo Then
Cancel = True
End If
End If
End Sub