PHP MYSQL Error Message-mysql_fetch_row expects parameter 1 to be resource-

This is an error that one faces when they use mysql and mysqli Interchangeably. Functions that begin with “mysql” are deprecated and no longer supported in the latest versions of PHP. So, one should either use mysql throughout the program or mysqli, mix and match doesn’t work. Mix and match might work in the grocery store that might help you to get sale prices but unfortunately it doesn’t work here! 😀

 

Not able to schedule Skype Meetings in Outlook

 

The message states that “You cannot schedule the Skype Meeting because you are not UC enabled or there may be configuration Issues with your account. Make sure you are    signed in to the same account you use for Microsoft Outlook. If the problem continues, please contact your support team”.

Normally one would get this error message if the account you sign In with Skype for Business is different than the one that you are signing for Outlook. In this case, this was the reason. The employee had two accounts in her Outlook Client, one was a hotmail account and the other was the Organization Account. So, when she pulls up a calendar to schedule a Skype Meeting, it was inadvertently pulling out the calendar from the hotmail account rather than the organizational account. Naturally there will be a conflict between Skype for Business and Outlook since the accounts are different.

In order to resolve this, I had to make sure that only the calendar for the Organizational account shows up when clicked and to close the calendar for the other account. Once done, she was able to successfully schedule a Skype Meeting from Outlook.

Fix-Keyboard does not work

There may be times when your keyboard suddenly stops working and you don’t know what to do. It might have stopped for no reason at all. You might think that it might be a hardware Issue and that you would need to send it to the service center. Well, in most cases it can be fixed all by your self particularly if it is a software Issue.

All laptops and desktop computers come with a keyboard software. Sometimes for some reason the software might suddenly stop working for which you would have to uninstall the software. Don’t worry that you would have to load another software after that, upon restarting the laptop would automatically re-Install the software and in most cases it would work, it has at least worked for me 🙂 .

Here are the steps –

1. On the Search , type Device Manager  and click it. 
2. Then under View, click Show Hidden Devices. 
3. Then scroll down and expand the Keyboard tab, right click on the software and click Uninstall. Do this for all the entries under Keyboard. 
4. Restart your computer.

 

Now your keyboard should be functioning normally. 🙂

Removing an Entry from the Outlook Autocomplete list

If we have to create a new personal email ID, the first thing which we have to do is create a unique username eg-username@gmail.com. Nowadays, it is actually not possible to get the email ID we want because of the high number of users using services like Gmail. It’s very likely you would have people with the same first name and last name, so once you try to create an Email ID with that, it would say that it is not available.

For Companies, this is not the case. The company has it’s own email domain and it has the freedom to create the username of an email ID in whichever way it wants. Companies normally follow a naming policy in creating new email accounts for employees. For Example you might have a policy which says to use the first letter of the First Name and the last letter of the Last Name. Suppose we have a new employee whose name is Jacob Peterson. Following this policy his email ID would be jp@company.com . Let’s say he leaves the company after 3 or 4 months and later we have a new employee whose name is Jim Phillips. So, following the policy the Exchange admin would create the email ID as jp@sohodragon.com. Now, this is not a problem since Jacob has left the organization and there would be no conflict.

Outlook has unfortunately a good memory and it will not forget people easily! Even though the person has left the company, Outlook would still keep him in his list. Outlook has a feature called AutoComplete. This gives an End user the ability to add an email address in the address field just by typing a couple of letters. The autocomplete feature maps the name with the email ID. So if you had an employee say Robert Stevens, you could type certain letters like R, O, B and it would show up in the auto complete list. Once you select the name, Instead of showing rs@company.com, it would show Robert Stevens.

Now because of this mapping, Outlook would be confused whether to stick with the original mapping jp@sohodragon.com – Jacob Peterson or establish a new mapping jp@sohodragon.com- Jim Phillips. And when we try to send an email with the address jp@sohodragon.com, it might not get delivered since it uses the old mapping. We might get a message which would appear to be something like this

Your message to IMCEAEX-_O=EXCHANGELABS_OU=EXCHANGE+20ADMINISTRATIVE+20GROUP+20+28FYDIBOHF23SPDLT+29_CN=RECIPIENTS_CN=BC4DAF7E25554088B2BD07D11737E949-JP@namprd03.prod.outlook.com couldn’t be delivered.

Your email program is using outdated address information for IMCEAEX-_O=EXCHANGELABS_OU=EXCHANGE+20ADMINISTRATIVE+20GROUP+20+28FYDIBOHF23SPDLT+29_CN=RECIPIENTS_CN=BC4DAF7E25554088B2BD07D11737E949-JP@namprd03.prod.outlook.com.

jb Office 365 IMCEAEX-_O=EXCHANGEL. . . Action Required Recipient Outdated To address

So, in order to resolve this we need to remove Jacob Peterson from the Auto Complete List.  In order to do that one would have to follow these steps-

Steps to remove an entry from an Auto Complete List

1. Open a New Email Message
2. On the To Field, Type James
3. Scroll down to the entry “Jim Phillips” and hit the Delete button.

 

Now, we have essentially removed the person from the memory of Outlook and Outlook would then map jp@company.com with Jim Phillips.

Please note that in normal scenarios, Outlook should be able to resolve this normally. But as you all know Outlook is prone to Issues, so sometimes it doesn’t do it automatically.

Issues with Outlook

Outlook is probably one of the most sought after and popular email client out there but like everyone else it has got it’s own fair share of problems. Since it’s launch with MS DOS the problems which the end users face are still prevalent even with the latest version which is Outlook 2016.

The Interesting part of the whole story is that Issues are not localized to one specific part of the system but rather span across the width. It ranges from Password Prompt to Outlook crashes. And a solution that may solve an Issue for one user might not be the fix for another user with the same problem! Outlook is strange in that way to say the least. But even with it’s shortcomings and Issues, it is still one of the email clients with the highest user base.

Having Outlook in an Organization has always put the IT Department on it’s toes. Since, there would be always be a support request from an end user every other day. Outlook is definitely an application that requires attention. It is not a “once Install and then forget about it ” kind of situation because there is always a high probability of an Issue occurring.

In a series of blogs I will be posting different Outlook Issues that I have encountered and how it was fixed. And please note that the solution which appears in this blog may not be a fix for yours even if it is the same Issue.