Gmail and Match.com are Conspiring to Breakup My Marriage

My wife and I are happily married.  Both of us were surprised the other day when she started getting Match.com personals results sent to her GMail account!  She was a bit freaked out that it was some creepy malicious person, but it seems that it was just some end-user carelessness (by someone we don’t know) combined with inconsistent email address parsing implementations between two big companies.  Here's what happened.

An "interesting" feature of consumer GMail is that it ignores dots in email addresses.  So if you send an email to homer.j.simpson@gmail.com, or hom.er.j.sim.ps.on@gmail.com, your message will be delivered to the same GMail inbox.  (documented here: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/10313?hl=en)  However, any messages that you send are always delivered as the "official" email address - whatever you actually typed in when you signed-up for GMail.

It seems that someone else with a similar email address to my wife signed-up for Match.com and entered an incorrect email account.  No big deal – I'm sure this happens all the time – but what's bad is that they used an email address that was the same as my wife's but with no dots.  So it's the “same” for incoming mail, but “different” than my wife’s email address when she sends mail.

We reported the problem, but sadly the robo-support at Match.com has been unhelpful so far.  When she tries to explain what is going on, she’s getting back messages from support saying that she’s not the owner of the account (because the email address is different), so there’s nothing that can be done.  But of course she is the owner of the account based on the way GMail handles dots – it’s just not an exact string match.  I can't imagine this is the first time this has ever happened, and you'd think a company as big as Match.com would account for an oddity like this for a big email provider like GMail.

My wife and I met on Match.com many years ago and we were very happy with their service at that time.  If a human from Match.com spots this, please take a closer look at Incident:141126-001205.  (I guess this was the 1205th ticket from November 26…)  We’d love it if you could close out the account that was recently mistakenly registered.  I’m sure that other person has opened a different account already and you could probably verify that by IP.

Email address as a unique identifier – what could possibly go wrong?

Let’s invent our own email standards – because reasons!

Setting up WebStorm to debug grunt with TypeScript

It’s possible to use the WebStorm editor to debug grunt tasks if you are using TypeScript and generating .map files.  Assuming that grunt is already launching from the command line, here’s how to step into the debugger:

• Open your project’s folder in WebStorm.
• Click Run… Edit Configurations…
• Add a new configuration for Node.js (the green + sign)
• Name it “Debug Grunt”
• Set the JavaScript File to C:\Users\YOUR_USER_ID_GOES_HERE\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\grunt-cli\bin\grunt (make sure you update this path with your user ID)
• Set the application parameters to the grunt task you wish to debug, for example dev or just leave blank if it is default.

Now you should be able to hit breakpoints when running the Debug Grunt task.  WebStorm is also smart enough to notice if your JavaScript has a map file that points to a TypeScript file; if it does, you can even set breakpoints in the TypeScript code.

Thanks to Diego and everyone else who answered this question on Stack Overflow.

New Add-on for SSMS: T-SQL Flex

Do you ever copy query results out of SQL Server Management Studio, paste them into your text editor, and then perform gold-medal find + replace gymnastics to create T-SQL scripts?

Do you ever need to copy a small amount of data from one SQL server to another, but don’t want to set up a linked server or take the time to create an SSIS package?

Do you ever need to create simple Excel sheets from SQL Server queries – preferably one tab per query result and with valid formatting (such as showing dates correctly and not truncating leading zeros)?

Have you ever wanted to quickly script a temp table that has the exact schema (including nullability and precision) of a query, stored procedure, or table-valued function?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, there is a new add-on available for SQL Server Management Studio that you may like called T-SQL Flex.

T-SQL Flex is a free, open-source add-on for SQL Server Management Studio that does only two things:

1. It scripts SQL query results to INSERT statements.
2. It scripts SQL query results to Excel-compatible spreadsheets (specifically, XML Spreadsheet 2003 format).

Because T-SQL Flex does only these two things, it is very easy to use.  Simply paste in your query and click the “Run ‘n’ Rollback” button.  T-SQL Flex will create an ADO.NET transaction, run your query, collect the results, and then roll back the transaction.

You can check out the latest release here:

https://github.com/nycdotnet/TSqlFlex/releases

If you like T-SQL Flex, please let Steve know on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/nycdotnet

Thanks to the team at Red-Gate that created the SIP framework used by T-SQL Flex.

Happy scripting!

How to Generate a Fiddler SAZ File

Fiddler is a free program that will log HTTP and HTTPS requests on Windows.  These instructions demonstrate how to use Fiddler to create an archive file (.SAZ) of these requests for troubleshooting purposes using the full version of Fiddler.  As an alternative, there is a simplified version of Fiddler available that only supports capturing here: http://fiddlercap.com.

Warning: Distributing a SAZ file is potentially a massive security risk, especially if HTTPS decryption was enabled during the traffic capture, because any secrets that are sent over the wire (including even passwords or session cookies) will be included in the file.  You can use Fiddler to AES-encrypt the SAZ file using a password via the save dialog, but you must still treat the exported SAZ file (and password) with extreme care!!

1. If the web site that you need to profile uses HTTPS, please consider getting a dedicated VM set up for installing Fiddler.  This will make trusting the Fiddler certificate (essentially a self-inflicted man-in-the-middle attack) less problematic.  There are instructions on how to do that here if you’re going to be testing with old IE versions.
2. Go to http://fiddler2.com and download Fiddler.  You can use either the .NET 2 or .NET 4 version depending on which version of the framework you have installed.  Install it accepting the defaults and run it.
3. Do not perform this step if the site that you need to profile is HTTP-only.  If the site that you need to profile uses HTTPS, open Tools… Fiddler Options… HTTPS tab.  Enable “Decrypt HTTPS traffic”.  When the SCARY TEXT AHEAD dialog comes up, click “Yes” to trust the Fiddler Root certificate, and then click “Yes” again to acknowledge that you want to allow man in the middle attacks on this computer (which is how Fiddler can decrypt your HTTPS traffic (good), and how malicious actors who also have a copy of the Fiddler certificate could too (bad)).  More information is available here: http://docs.telerik.com/fiddler/configure-fiddler/tasks/DecryptHTTPS
   
   
4. If you want to use a browser other than Internet Explorer to generate the SAZ file, you may need to follow additional instructions here: http://docs.telerik.com/fiddler/configure-fiddler/tasks/ConfigureBrowsers 
5. Minimize Fiddler, and now browse to the site you want to test.  Tab back to Fiddler and you should see the HTTP and HTTPS calls that were made while the capture was running.  For example, here is a visit to the www.google.com homepage.  To see the session details, select the Inspectors tab, and click the “Raw” on both the top and bottom panels – this allows you to see the exact text that was requested from the server by the browser and the browser’s exact response.
   
   
   In this screenshot, you can see the list of sessions that happened as a result of accessing www.google.com.  When I clicked on a session at random, I was able to see the details on the right-hand pane when I selected Inspectors and then Raw on the top and bottom section.
6. To export the SAZ file, select the sessions that are interesting in the left-hand pane and click File… Save… Selected Sessions… in ArchiveZip…  Select “Password Protected SAZ” in the “Save as type” field.  “Save the SAZ file in a secure location.  It’s best to exclude things like login pages or other forms with secrets if they’re not relevant to the issue you’re troubleshooting because exported SAZ file will contain any secrets that were transmitted (including HTTPS transmitted items if HTTPS Decryption is enabled).  Choose a strong password.  You will need to share this password with whomever you wish to open the file.
7. Securely provide the SAZ file and password to whomever needs it.  Again - this file contains EVERYTHING that was sent on the computer via HTTP (and potentially HTTPS) including potentially passwords, session cookies, and other secrets that can be read in clear text if you have the SAZ password.  It is critically important to care for this file and the password in a secure manner!! (Can you tell that this is important?)
8. When the other party has the SAZ file on their computer, they can open it by opening Fiddler and clicking File… Load Archive…
9. If you enabled HTTPS traffic decryption, your computer is still at risk until you perform the following two steps:
1. Disable HTTPS decryption by opening Tools… Fiddler Options… HTTPS tab, and unchecking Decrypt HTTPS traffic.
2. Also, click the “Remove Interception Certificates” button to delete the Fiddler certificates.
   
   See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16827901/how-do-you-remove-the-root-ca-certificate-that-fiddler-installs 

Getting Started with the Modern.ie VMs on VirtualBox with IIS Express

Microsoft has made pre-packaged Virtual Machine images available for purposes of testing different versions of IE via the modern.ie web site.  This blog post describes how you can get these VM images loaded into the free VirtualBox software and talking to an IIS Express web site running on your local PC.

Warning: These instructions were tested on VirtualBox 4.3.12, the latest version as of May 22, 2014.  By default, this is set up to make your VM get Internet access via your PC using a virtual NAT.  The VM will be assigned an IP address by a built-in DHCP server that runs on the VirtualBox Host-Only NIC.  Unless you start changing things, this should all remain on your local PC and your VM won’t accidentally get an IP address from your network’s real DHCP server – but your mileage may vary and you should confirm that!  The author of these instructions makes no warranty that these settings may not cause a problem on your particular network, so you should proceed with caution and at your own risk.  Do not follow these instructions if you are not comfortable with the concepts of IP addresses, network cards, virtualization, or web servers – or what havoc a rogue DHCP server could cause.

1. Download and install Virtual Box: http://www.virtualbox.org (yes I know it’s Oracle, but it is gratis and it works even on some older Core2 processors that Hyper-V doesn’t support)
• Be sure that Virtual Box is fully installed before starting the next step because installing the drivers will temporarily disable your physical NIC.
2. Open your Network control panel and ensure that the “VirtualBox Host-Only Network” adapter is set to use the static IP 192.168.56.1 and the Subnet Mask is 255.255.255.0.  You can leave the DNS server blank.
3. Download the appropriate VM image from the modern.ie web site
• Open this page: http://modern.ie/en-us/virtualization-tools#downloads
• Select "VirtualBox on Windows".
• Download part1.exe and all of the .rar files for the particular VM you want.  Save these to a temporary "downloads" folder.
  
• When all of the files are downloaded, run the EXE and allow it to extract the .OVA file.  Once you have the .OVA file, you can then delete the corresponding .EXE and .RAR files.
• Move the .OVA file to a “special place”.  This is the file you have to run to set up a new VM of that variety.
• Run the .OVA file by double-clicking on it.  You will get an "import" screen in Virtual Box.
• Change the "Virtual Disk Image" path to point to the appropriate place where you want the virtual hard drive to live for the VM you’re creating.
• Check the box to reinitialize the MAC addresses.
• Click “Import”
  
4. When the import is complete, go into the settings for the VM.  On the Network tab, confirm that network Adapter 1 is attached to NAT.  Click OK.
5. Boot the VM by selecting it and clicking the Start button in the button bar.
6. Note: the login information on all of the modern.ie VMs is IEUser and Passw0rd!
7. When the VM boots up, open a command line in the VM and run ipconfig /all
• The first VM you launch should have an IPv4 address like 10.0.2.15 which was served by the virtual DHCP server on 10.0.2.2.
8. The next step assumes that you already have a working site in IIS Express.  If not, use Visual Studio or some other tool to create one.
9. In your “Documents” folder on the host PC, open the IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config file.
• Find the web site that you want to set up for the VM to use and add an extra entry to the bindings tag to allow IIS Express to listen on the internal VirtualBox IP address (in my example, the site was set up on port 59707 – you can use whatever port you wish) and save the config file:
  
10. Start the site.
11. Try to access the site by visiting http://192.168.56.1:59707 (or whatever port number that you used) – it should hopefully work as expected.

Have fun getting your new site working with old IE!

From Zero to Pull Request with Git on Windows

I wrote a guide about using Git and GitHub for "Windows people".

This is the guide I wish was available when I got started with Git last year.

The guide takes you through everything you need to know to get started with Git and GitHub, and only requires a Windows PC where you have admin rights to complete.  You can probably get through the whole thing in an evening or two.

This guide is unique because:

• It is specifically for developers who use Windows
• It only describes how to contribute to an existing project
• It prioritizes the GitHub for Windows UI when the command-line is not required
• It is not embarrassed to give step-by-step directions or definitions of basic terms
• It prioritizes "the simple way for the common circumstance" over "every possible way for every possible circumstance"

Check out the guide here:

https://github.com/nycdotnet/FromZeroToPullRequestWindows/blob/master/FromZeroToPullRequestWindows.md

If you like it, please hit me up on Twitter and let me know: @nycdotnet

Rounding versus truncating

Be careful when implicitly converting data types in T-SQL.  Directly assigning 1.5 (either as a FLOAT or a NUMERIC) to an INT value in SQL Server may truncate the value to 1 rather than rounding it up as you might expect.  Explicitly calling ROUND( ,0) as part of the assignment will round 1.5 up to 2.

Here's an example:

DECLARE @Value INT;

DECLARE @NumericValue NUMERIC(10,1) = 1.5;

DECLARE @FloatValue FLOAT(53) = 1.5;

SET @Value = @NumericValue;  --Not calling ROUND()

SELECT @Value; --Returns 1

SET @Value = @FloatValue; --Not calling ROUND()

SELECT @Value; --Returns 1

SET @Value = ROUND(@NumericValue,0);

SELECT @Value; --Returns 2

SET @Value = ROUND(@FloatValue,0);

SELECT @Value; --Returns 2