Have you ever created a Database project and after some time you are not able to load it in the Visual Studio? Probably you might be getting following error:
An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)
The database project requires an active database connection to load at design time. Probably it uses that to compile/verify scripts. The problem here is Visual Studio is not able to connect to any such instance. Following are few solutions (these worked for me)
- Make sure the instance to which you want to connect is running and allows remote connections.
- After performing step 1, if it is still not loading then you may need to start the SQL Browser Service. Make sure it’s running.
- If the problem is still there, it has to be fixed from Visual Studio itself. Actually database project do not store to which instance it can connect. It’s a Visual Studio setting. In VS2008 go to Tool > Options > Database Tools > Design-time Validation Database > Connection Options. Specify your instance name here like “.\SQLEXPRESS”
If the problem is still there post it to MSDN forums 
Ankit
Two days back I bought W660i, a Walkman series mobile phone from Sony Ericsson. It features 2 MP Camera, Walkman 2.0, FM Radio, 512 MB card, Bluetooth, Video Call, Email/RSS, USB mass storage, Flight mode, Synchronization services, Stylish, … … all these in less than INR 9K.
In addition to those common features, this phone features something new. In this post I’m going to write those specifications which you won’t be able to know unless you buy the phone. Here are a few…
- Bright display! I can read text even in sun light. The phone comes with preloaded high contrast images, watching those you can see how much color contrast it delivers !!! - far from any other manufacturer in the same prize range.
- 3.5mm jack support. This allows any kind of head phones to be used with the phone.
- Text Copy/Paste feature. Handy for coping/writing SMS.
- J2ME with support of - Internet access, File system read/write access API, camera API, Messaging APIs, automatic start, local connectivity API, running Java apps in background.
- You can have at max 1000 Contacts, 1000 SMS memory and 380 events/tasks. (~26MB internal memory)
- 5 alarms, and you can also set FM alarm.
- Two kind of keypad lights. White for normal purpose and Orange when Walkman is running. The orange light blinks on the beats of the song.
- USB charging: When you connect this phone to PC it start charging from the USB cable.
- Flash Menu: The main menu in this phone is built using Flash Lite. You can switch the orientation and look of the menu. Menu items can be tiled, horizontally or vertical aligned, and can have cool animations.
- Synchronization is one of the most important service that we should use. In short taking backup of the phone data. I sync my phone regularly with PC. The phone supports synchronization via USB data cable, Blue-tooth, or internet server.
- Stereo Bluetooth, Picture Blogging, Voice Dial + Playing Caller’s name, Big Fonts, Video Ringtone, etc;
Go and get the phone… it’s a worth buy cellphone.
Note: The camera is not good as compared to ‘K’ series (remember it’s Walkman phone, and this is acceptable). Still it supports EXIF, Night Mode, Effects, Self Timer, No shutter sound (in silent mode), etc;
Ankit
