Error "Unable to connect to SQL Server '(local)'. The step failed."

If you are using SQL Server 2000 and you have a job with a step that fails with the following error message:

Unable to connect to SQL Server '(local)'. The step failed.

it may mean that this step is configured to use a database that existed when the step was created but has later been dropped.

Moreover, if you don't remember what database this step should use, checking the step definition in Enterprise Manager won't reveal the cause of the problem, because there will be some database selected in the Database combo box (it cannot be empty) but it won't be the same database that the step is really configured to use (this database does not exist so it is not in the combo box).

To fix the problem select a new database for each failing step and save the changes.

No Back and Forward buttons in Firefox 3

If you use as minimalistic version of Firefox as I do (which means that the Navigation Toolbar is hidden and all the buttons are moved from it to the space next to the address bar), after installing Firefox 3 you will notice that not only are the Back and Forward buttons missing but also you cannot add them from the Customize Toolbar window.

This is because the buttons are already added to the interface but they are not visible because the Navigation Toolbar is hidden.



Of course, the a Back/Forward button (two separate buttons from previous versions have been replaced with a single one) can be moved from the Navigation Toolbar to the place of your choice.

I encountered this problem after upgrading Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) to Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), but it has nothing to do with Ubuntu. It is caused only by the fact that old Back and Forward buttons have been removed and a new Back/Forward one has been added. And it is placed in its default location (which is the Navigation Toolbar).