Linux CentOS In-Depth: Connect To CentOS Using Putty SSH

In most environments you are not allowed to have direct access to the Linux server.  The most common way to gain access is through a secure shell connection or SSH.  The most common tool that is used on a Windows environment to connect to Linux is a utility software call Putty. In this post we are going to connect to our CentOS instance that we've installed on VirtualBox.

SQL Server : Assign The "sa", System Administrator Account A Password In SQL Server 2014

In older versions of SQL Server, the "sa",  System Administrator account is given a blank password by default.  In SQL Server 2014, that is no longer the case.

To set the "sa" account's password, perform the following steps:

ASP.NET SqlDataSource Part 3: INSERT New Record To GridView

In this tutorial we will add the INSERT functionality to our GridView control.

Follow the steps below to enable insert on our GridView control.

1. Open the source view in the .aspx page and add the ShowInsertButton attribute to the <asp:CommandField element inside the <asp:GridView element

        <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" AllowPaging="True" AllowSorting="True" DataKeyNames="ProductID" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1">
            <Columns>
                <asp:CommandField ShowInsertButton="True" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="ProductName" HeaderText="ProductName" SortExpression="ProductName" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="QuantityPerUnit" HeaderText="QuantityPerUnit" SortExpression="QuantityPerUnit" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="UnitPrice" HeaderText="UnitPrice" SortExpression="UnitPrice" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="UnitsInStock" HeaderText="UnitsInStock" SortExpression="UnitsInStock" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="UnitsOnOrder" HeaderText="UnitsOnOrder" SortExpression="UnitsOnOrder" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="ReorderLevel" HeaderText="ReorderLevel" SortExpression="ReorderLevel" />
                <asp:CheckBoxField DataField="Discontinued" HeaderText="Discontinued" SortExpression="Discontinued" />
            </Columns>
        </asp:GridView>

Linux CentOS In-Depth: Installing the Gnome Desktop Environment

In previous blog we've installed the CentOS operating system on VirtualBox however, when we reboot, it takes us to a text prompt.  In this blog we will be installing a graphical desktop environment to our operating system using "yum".  Follow the steps below to get the Gnome desktop in your CentOS.

1.  Make sure you have internet connection
2.  Click "Start" on your "CentOS" VM

Linux CentOS In-Depth: Installing CentOS On VirtualBox

If you are a startup or an entrepreneur, learning Linux is essential. Most of the open source and latest innovations starts out with Linux such as Docker.  That's because Linux is for the most part free and has a great community of techies supporting it.  Even Microsoft loves Linux now, it even made a commitment by releasing SQL Server on Linux.  Although it could  be a fling, instead of a long term engagement.  Also if you noticed the Virtual Machines on the clouds are cheaper if you choose the Linux version.  In this series on Linux I will go over what you need to do to get yourself started on Linux.  The best way to learn about Linux is to install it on a Virtual Machine.  We could host it on the cloud, but then we need to pay for it.  There are some free-tiers but they are limited.  So we are going to use VirtualBox from Oracle to host our CentOS instance.

On the previous blog we went over how to create a new virtual machine for CentOS in VirtualBox.  In this blog we will go over how to install the CentOS ISO file on the new virtual machine that we've just created. Below are the step by step instructions of how to install CentOS on VirtualBox.

Linux CentOS In-Depth: Create A New Virtual Machine for CentOS

If you want to know your way around Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution, but the you don't have the financial ability to obtain a license.  CentOS is your best bet get to the the Red Hat Enterprise Linux official experience.  Because CentOS is a binary compatible version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  Meaning all the things that matters are the same, only the branding and logos are different.  CentOS is open sourced and can be downloaded for free.  Although it might be a couple of versions behind Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  But, you should be able to perform everything you can with CentOS that you can with Red Hat Enterprise.  Below is a step by step instruction on how to install CentOS in Oracle VirtualBox.

Installing Putty SSH Client

In this post we are going to install the Putty client for Windows.  Which is the most common way to connect to a Linux instance remotely.

Here are the steps to install Putty:

1.  Go to the URL https://www.putty.org/
2. Click on the "Download" link

R Programming: Variables

R is a programming language that is a little different in syntax then your typical mainstream languages like Java or C#. In this post we will go over how to create variables in R.

Let's create some variables about a user:

To create a variable in we use the <- key for example if you want to assign a value to variable firstName, you would write firstName <-  "John" or "John" -> firstName

R Programming : Installing Packages, devtools

Now that we R installed in Visual Studio let's install some of the more useful packages that we will use in our R development.  Packages provides you  with the tools to perform tasks, functionalities and datasets for the those features.

To install R devtools package do the following:

In your R project, type the following command into the R Interactive window install.packages("devtools")

R Programming : Installing R Tools in Visual Studio 2017

In this post we are going to go over the steps to install R Tools For Visual Studio 2017.  RStudio has a development environment that is bare bones for the free version.  Visual Studio 2017 offers a more robust development environment if you download the R Tools feature.