Configuring Citrix to open a specific Access database

We deployed Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 in a five-server farm at one of our clients. They use it for Office 2003 and ERP program application serving. I’ve worked with Citrix in the past, and my impression is it’s a great product that takes a while to learn. It takes longer to get really good at it. The Citrix community seems like a secret club where they are nice to their big resellers and the others are just an afterthought. We are not a Citrix Partner, nor do we play one on TV, nor are we auditioning for any roles.

My last interaction with Citrix was a support call to get pass-through authentication to work. I had to call because their support site is lame. I was 90% there, but was missing the last 10%. The support engineer was rude and had this smug “I-can’t-believe-you-don’t know-this” attitude. Excuse me sir, but we’re paying you $400. Would it kill you to be nice? Windows 2008 TS Remote App provides almost all of the functionality of Citrix with a fraction of the hassle.

So another request came up: can we publish an application that has Access open a specific database? My colleague worked on a couple different ways but they didn’t work. I suggested we publish MS Access as a separate app with a switch to open a specific DB. Using this article we set the command line of the app to read:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\MSACCESS.EXE” “\\contoso.com\DFS\Files\Sales\SalesStats.MDB”

Worked like a charm. Day saved, cocktail hour earned.

The Wonders of CSS

I am interested in CSS so I can improve my blog appearance. My niece’s boyfriend told me about this site which explains just how far CSS goes in changing a page’s look. Way cool! If anybody knows how to do CSS, I would be interested in retaining you.

Jackson the art critic

Last night was mom’s night off and my night with the kids. We went to John Hawk’s for dinner, walked across the river on the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge, and headed to the lake for a walk. I took the kids on one of my (renowned?) tours through downtown. We saw City Hall, the Marcus Center, Watt’s (where mom likes to go for tea) the Pfister (where we stayed on our wedding night) and headed east on Wisconsin Avenue towards the lake. I showed them The Calatrava (what locals call the new wing of the Milwaukee Art Museum) and Jackson saw the orange di Suvero sculpture that Milwaukeeans love to hate. “What’s that big ugly orange thing, dad?” I explained it was a sculpture. They should move it; it’s ugly!” “Jackson, everybody thinks it’s ugly.” The girls concurred with his opinion. Apparently even kids have common sense.

We had a great time at the lake, the kids found a playground. I don’t think we go down there often enough. Here’s a photo of the kids at the park; click to see the full photo.

Game Recap, Part 2

The game narrative was so long and involved that I didn’t get a chance to do a recap. Here goes:

What I liked: Like my lovely wife said, the faces of the kids on the bench. We acted like a team, and I hope that continues. I liked our patience at the plate. Once we got over our jitters, there were a lot of heads-up plays. I enjoyed very little complaining about position assignments. I loved not having to keep score. Hearing the kids sing “Happy birthday (cha-cha-cha)” to Tre’Vaughn was cool. Watching Jackson shake of nerves to throw strikes was another personal highlight. (Sorry, I’m not just a coach, but also a proud dad.) Our pitching looked good in general. Nathan’s play to tag the runner at the plate was heads-up. Caleb’s consolation of Nathan was awesome. It was fun trying to steal an out by a fake throw to second.

What I would change: I moved everybody around too much. Next time, I think I will move people less in one game. I didn’t like the way we threw the ball around, but oh well. I felt rushed before the game, and need to organize pre-game drills better. I need to remember the score sheets and roster. I didn’t care for the post game protest RE: time limit, but that’s behind us. It would have been nice to be on the hook for ice cream, but the season is young.

Feel free to leave a comment on the game highs/lows as well.

For the record, I talked to Jeff Fuller at the Waukesha YMCA and the game result will stand. A clarification will go out regarding the rules on time limits.

Our next game is Thursday at home. See you there!