tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91029552010-07-16T18:36:19.380-07:00Scott's blogClever tagline to comeScott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-78011815842970939932010-07-16T18:36:00.001-07:002010-07-16T18:36:19.411-07:00This blog has moved<br /> This blog is now located at http://blog.scottstonehouse.ca/.<br /> You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click <a href='http://blog.scottstonehouse.ca/'>here</a>.<br /><br /> For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to<br /> http://blog.scottstonehouse.ca/feeds/posts/default.<br /> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-7801181584297093993?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-87310307418572877352009-02-09T17:59:00.001-08:002009-02-09T17:59:42.020-08:00Connect to SQL Server using Windows Authentication when computer is not on Active Directory Domain<p>Steve Novoselac wrote this article over a year ago, and I only found it last week. Sometimes you aren't logged into the approprate domain, but you are using Windows authentication on the SQL Server. How can you get SQL Server Management Student (SSMS) to connect to the server when you aren't logged in?</p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://blog.stevienova.com/2008/01/14/how-to-connect-to-sql-server-vs-tfs-etc-using-windows-authentication-when-computer-is-not-on-active-directory-domain-xp-and-vista/">How To: Connect to SQL Server, VS TFS, etc using Windows Authentication when computer is not on Active Directory Domain (XP and Vista!) - stevienova.com</a> </p></blockquote> <p>Can't vouch for the XP instructions, but the Vista instructions worked like a charm! Just create a new SSMS shortcut that looks like this</p> <blockquote> <p> C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /netonly /user:<em>domain\user</em> "C:\<em>path to SSMS</em>\Ssms.exe"</p></blockquote> <p>Thanks Steve!</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-8731030741857287735?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-745499058650622192009-02-06T17:14:00.001-08:002009-02-06T17:14:17.401-08:00Another helpful error message #3<p>I've posted some interesting error messages in the past, but this is my favorite so far. I was setting up a test domain (Windows Server 2008), and I wanted it to trust authenticated users from the regular production domain. I mistyped the domain name, but you wouldn't know that from this!</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_M9MATMdvG4I/SYzgZQ9RhJI/AAAAAAAAACg/GCyC3L6w2TE/s1600-h/image001%5B8%5D.png"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="319" alt="image001" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_M9MATMdvG4I/SYzgaDHynMI/AAAAAAAAACk/_vPMJ4H61d8/image001_thumb%5B6%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="404" border="0"></a></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-74549905865062219?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-9024049822875356792008-12-04T21:16:00.001-08:002008-12-04T21:16:15.085-08:00DevTeach Day 3<p>Passed on the early run today, the 8am session still seemed to come early.  <a href="http://jessicammoss.blogspot.com/">Jessica M. Moss</a> presented the first two sessions I sat in on, and even part of the third.  </p> <p>The first presentation was on SQL Server Reporting Services.  I presented on this topic to the <a href="http://www.frederictonug.net/">Fredericton .Net User's Group</a> a few weeks ago.  I enjoyed watching someone else cover the same topic.  </p> <p>Next up was extending SQL Server Integration Services with Custom Components.  This is a new topic to me - I knew it could be done, but I had never seen it demonstrated before.  This falls into the "good to know in case I need it" category.  I'm not sure it would be such a good use of time in my environment, but knowing that is also important information.  Another good session.</p> <p>Jessica also contributed to <a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/rushabh_mehta/default.aspx">Rushabh Mehta's</a> session on Building an SSIS Management Framework.  This was a very practical session and I'll be making use of some of these ideas for sure.  Outstanding stuff.</p> <p>I also really enjoyed <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/bethmassi/">Beth Massi's</a> presentation - Taking Advantage of LINQ and XML in Office 2007.  I've got an automation app (VB.Net and the PIA) that I never liked, and this is a much better solution.  The automation app is fulfilling it's purpose right now, but when it's time to open that code again, it might get an overhaul.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-902404982287535679?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-70754457530387931082008-12-04T20:18:00.001-08:002008-12-04T20:18:57.448-08:00DevTeach Day 2<p>Day 2 started out very well - an interesting demo of the data mining tools for Office by <a href="http://jessicammoss.blogspot.com/">Jessica M. Moss</a>.  This is something I'm definitely going to be spending some time on as soon as I free up some time.</p> <p>Next up was <a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/peter_debetta/">Peter DeBetta's</a> Encryption in SQL Server 2008.  I was disappointed to learn transparent data encryption in only in the enterprise version.  Microsoft (marketing?) has some funny ideas about what features are enterprise features.  That's a post for another day.  Peter's treatment of the topic was useful and interesting.  Security always has to be on our minds, and dedicating an hour to thinking about this is always a good investment of time.</p> <p>Next I chose <a href="http://bi-blogger.blogspot.com/">Christian Coté's</a> session on Visual Studio Database Edition.  This is an enormously valuable tool, and I've only started using it recently.  I learned a lot in this session, and I should be able to apply some of it immediately.</p> <p>I didn't know anything about ASP.NET Dynamic Data before <a href="http://www.sqljunkies.com/weblog/donkiely/">Don Kiely's</a> presentation, but I've enjoyed his sessions in the past, so I decided to check it out.  This is some neat technology.  I don't have an immediate use for it, but I'm glad I know about it because this is the type of thing that everybody has to deal with at some point.</p> <p>Next was <a href="http://www.stephenforte.net/">Stephen Forte</a>'s Data Access session.  This guy is very entertaining.  A timeline of Microsoft data access technologies should not be a fun presentation.  But it was!  </p> <p>Also sat in on the <a href="http://www.dotnetrocks.com/">.Net Rocks</a> session with <a href="http://blogs.tedneward.com/">Ted Neward</a> and <a href="http://www.pandamonial.com/">Amanda Laucher</a>.  As a longtime listener, it was fun to watch this show being recorded.  Later, I saw on twitter that show #400 was being done in the hotel lounge, but 8am to 8pm is a long enough day for me.  Especially after getting up early to get in a run on the treadmill before the first session.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-7075445753038793108?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-47490114628941136962008-12-02T20:53:00.001-08:002008-12-02T20:53:14.313-08:00DevTeach Day 1<p>Today was my first day of the 2008 <a href="http://www.devteach.com/">DevTeach</a>/<a href="http://www.sqlteach.com">SQLTeach</a> conference in Montréal.  There were preconference sessions yesterday, but I decided to pass on those.</p> <p>I've been looking forward to this, since SQL Server 2008 was released recently.  I've not spent much time on SQL 2008 yet - I made a deliberate choice this time to avoid the CTPs.  I just don't have the time to waste studying features that might never make the release - not to mention working around bugs, etc.  </p> <p>I did spend quite a bit of time with Reporting Services 2008 prior to the conference, so that I could present to the <a href="http://www.frederictonug.net/default.aspx">Fredericton .Net User's Group</a>.  But everything else is new to me.</p> <p>The first event of the day was the keynote by <a href="http://blogs.tedneward.com/">Ted Neward</a>.  Ted was talking about the future of languages and why he thinks we are going to go through an explosion of new languages in the near future.  I particularly enjoyed the part about the disconnect between Computer Science and the practical software development world.  When he asked how many in the room had a Computer Science degree, half the room raised their hands.  When he asked how many had used any of that knowledge in the last month, nobody.  Over the last year - one lonely hand.</p> <p>I have <a href="http://www.scottstonehouse.ca/blog/archive/2007_09_01_scottstonehouse_archive.html">made the point</a> that Computer Science is not about the craft of software development.  Physics is not about building bridges and Mathematics is not the study of accounting.  This informal survey in the room today certainly confirms that.</p> <p>My favorite session of the day was <a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/rushabh_mehta/default.aspx">Rushabh Mehta's</a> session on Analysis Services 2008.  I've personally done some testing with 2005, but I have nothing in production yet.  I ran into a few roadblocks that really slowed things down for me.  I saw a few things in the demo today that I'm excited to try out, and I think the built in best practices guidance will be a big help.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-4749011462894113696?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-39166270365590122522008-11-05T18:10:00.001-08:002008-11-05T18:10:15.578-08:00Data Dude GDR RC1<p>Gert Drapers <a title="http://blogs.msdn.com/gertd/archive/2008/10/27/the-gdr-rc-is-here.aspx" href="http://blogs.msdn.com/gertd/archive/2008/10/27/the-gdr-rc-is-here.aspx">announced</a> the availability of release candidate 1 for the GDR update of Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition. If you have been using the previous CTP, go get this now. It's way, way faster than the CTP.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-3916627036559012252?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-63862204552741775412008-08-25T19:12:00.001-07:002008-08-25T19:12:31.767-07:00Twitter - I take it back<p>I originally said I didn't see the point of Twitter: <a href="http://www.scottstonehouse.ca/blog/2008/07/twitter.html#links">Scott's blog: Twitter</a>.</p> <p>But once you are following the right people (and some of them follow you), it actually becomes very interesting.</p> <p>I did a <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=sql+server">Twitter Search for SQL Server</a> and found a bunch of smart people to follow. Enough of these folks "followed back" that now I can post thoughts or questions about SQL Server and get nearly instant feedback from a group of experts.</p> <p>Jason Massie has been following a similar group of people and he <a href="http://statisticsio.com/Home/tabid/36/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/217/Cool-SQL-People-that-I-Follow-on-Twitter.aspx">blogged a list of SQL people he follows</a>.</p> <p>I guess the key here is to keep track of where all the cool kids hang out. Once upon a time it was Usenet. Then we had web forums. Then blogs. Right now it's Twitter. Pretty soon it could be <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/">Stack Overflow</a>. Too bad everybody keeps moving, because we certainly have enough to learn everyday as it is.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-6386220455274177541?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-7543557171519288202008-07-31T17:43:00.001-07:002008-07-31T17:43:18.565-07:00Microsoft Licensing<p>Microsoft licensing has always been a pain. You can always find good technical information, but then you can never figure out how much anything will cost. This is from the latest Microsoft Canada Technet email, and I think it's worth repeating here:</p> <blockquote> <p>Microsoft LICENSING 101: Do you have burning Licensing questions you'd like answered? Ask them now. <br>Licensing is a major pain point for Microsoft customers. Let's face it. It's complex, always changing and based on feedback, it's not very flexible either. You've shared with us through the spring Microsoft Customer and Partner satisfaction survey that it's an area you wish Microsoft would improve on. To address your feedback, we invite you to ask us questions you'd like answered on licensing. Based on your top questions, we'll work with a Licensing specialist to get your questions answered. In confidence, we'll share your questions and answers with the broader TechNet Flash audience so readers like you can learn more about Microsoft Licensing. Send your simple or complex questions to cdntnlic(AT)microsoft.com. Stay tuned in future TechNet Flash editions, as well as our TechNet home page for more information on getting your top questions answered!</p></blockquote> <p>Note: I misquoted the email address to try to avoid sending spam their way.</p> <p>Bravo to Microsoft Canada for recognizing that this is a serious issue. Hopefully this is not a one time thing, and will become a regular feature. It probably won't make for exciting reading, but it's important stuff.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-754355717151928820?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-47294973988236754892008-07-04T20:56:00.001-07:002008-07-04T20:56:57.830-07:00Twitter<p>For anyone who cares, <a href="http://twitter.com/ScottStonehouse">I'm on twitter</a>. I don't know why. I don't see it as particularly productive. And the <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/failwhale">failwhale</a> is annoying.</p> <p>But it certainly is the best way to find out what <a href="http://twitter.com/sbellware">Scott Bellware</a> is mad at today.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-4729497398823675489?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-42376445115474963192008-06-09T18:45:00.001-07:002008-06-09T18:45:39.536-07:00MVC + Facebook == Wonderful Development Platform - Nick Berardi’s Coder Journal<p> </p> <p>Over maybe the last week or so, I've been thinking MVC is a great way to write a Facebook app. Nick Berardi apparently already had this thought and has put in the work. He wrote it up <a href="http://www.coderjournal.com/2008/06/mvc-facebook-wonderful-development-platform/">here</a>.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-4237644511547496319?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-37115372508175591932008-06-02T18:47:00.001-07:002008-06-02T18:47:42.247-07:00Windows Search Indexer Status Gadget<p>I've had Brandon Paddock's <a href="http://brandonlive.com/2008/04/09/windows-search-indexer-status-gadget/">Windows Search Indexer Status Gadget</a> installed on my sidebar for a while now. It's a neat gadget that simply tells you what the indexer is doing at the moment. It also give you a handy 'pause' button to stop the indexer when your system is just too bogged down. Thanks, Brandon!</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-3711537250817559193?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-21299174926106982202008-05-15T18:19:00.001-07:002008-05-15T18:19:24.423-07:00DLL Hell Database<p>Not sure how long this has been around, but it's new to me. Microsoft has a <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/dllhelp/">DLL Help Database</a>. I'm sure they called it that because marketing wouldn't let them call it the DLL Hell Database.</p> <p>Looks like it could be useful.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-2129917492610698220?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-68024859022731711132008-04-29T17:49:00.001-07:002008-04-29T18:14:06.572-07:00Super Crunchers<p>I finished reading this book: "Super Crunchers".</p> <p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553805401?ie=UTF8&tag=ifilterorg-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0553805401"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="164" alt="51qy80LU6lL__SL160_" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/Scott.Stonehouse/SBfH3cj_9lI/AAAAAAAAABs/VQWJPZZs0ZM/51qy80LU6lL__SL160_%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="110" border="0"></a> </p> <p>I'm not going to go into much detail here. Suffice to say, I was not the target audience. If you work with data, you won't learn anything. I'm not really sure who the book is targeting.</p> <p>As an academic (Yale, no less), I'm sure the author would want me to back up my argument. I won't, because he's a lawyer and it's not worth it to me to pick a fight with a lawyer! </p> <p>And because he's a lawyer, I'll be sure to point out the more positive reviews.</p> <p><a title="Eye On BI- Supercrunchers- Practical BI" href="http://blog.eyeonbi.com/2007/09/supercrunchers-practical-bi.html">Eye On BI- Supercrunchers- Practical BI</a></p> <p><a title="Jamie's Junk - Supercrunchers and Microsoft Data Mining" href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jamiemac/archive/2008/03/11/supercrunchers-and-microsoft-data-mining.aspx">Jamie's Junk - Supercrunchers and Microsoft Data Mining</a></p> <p><a title="800-CEO-READ Blog- SuperCrunchers- The Good and The Bad" href="http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/007328.html">800-CEO-READ Blog- SuperCrunchers- The Good and The Bad</a></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-6802485902273171113?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-69588923420850489142008-04-25T18:20:00.001-07:002008-04-25T18:21:34.282-07:00Yet another helpful error message - Apple edition<p>In the interest of fair play, I thought I would post this lovely Apple error message I got a few days ago:</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/Scott.Stonehouse/SBKDXMj_9jI/AAAAAAAAABc/pSWZwWKuNvs/s1600-h/AppleError%5B29%5D.jpg"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="137" alt="AppleError" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/Scott.Stonehouse/SBKDXcj_9kI/AAAAAAAAABk/e2qrwQInf1Q/AppleError_thumb%5B23%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="403" border="0"></a></p> <p>"iTunes cannot run because it has detected a problem with your audio configuration". Shoot. I guess my sound drivers got corrupted or something? Well, let's see where the help goes:</p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304424">http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304424</a></p></blockquote> <p>It says:</p> <blockquote> <h6>Solution </h6> <p>QuickTime may need to be reinstalled. Follow the steps below to uninstall QuickTime and then download and install QuickTime using the QuickTime standalone Installer. <ol> <li>On the <strong>Start </strong>menu, click <strong>Control Panel</strong>. <li>Windows XP and Windows 2000: Open the <strong>Add or Remove Programs </strong>control panel and select <strong>QuickTime </strong>in the list of currently installed programs. <br>Windows Vista: Click <b>Uninstall a program</b> (or alternately, click <b>Programs and Features</b> in Classic View of Control Panel) and select <b>QuickTime</b> in the list of currently installed programs. <li>Click the <strong>Remove </strong>button and follow the prompts to remove QuickTime from your computer. <li>Download the QuickTime standalone installer from <br><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html">http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html</a>. <br><strong>Note: </strong>There are two options for downloading QuickTime, be sure to select the second option that <strong>does not include </strong>iTunes. <li>During the download: <ul> <li>If you choose to run the installer, proceed to the next step. <li>If you choose to save the download, double click the QuickTimeInstaller file, then proceed to next step. </li></ul> <li>Follow the on-screen instructions to install QuickTime. <li>Reopen iTunes. </li></ol></blockquote> <p>No, seriously. Uninstall and reinstall QuickTime? That's a problem with <em><strong>my</strong></em> audio configuration? </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-6958892342085048914?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-931239192159102522008-04-25T18:02:00.001-07:002008-04-25T18:02:20.030-07:00Column Headings from SQL Results - Easier Way « Rhonda Tipton’s WebLog<p>I was going to write this one up, but <a href="http://rtipton.wordpress.com/">Rhonda Tipton</a> saved me the trouble:</p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://rtipton.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/column-headings-from-sql-results-easier-way/">Column Headings from SQL Results - Easier Way</a></p></blockquote> <p>When you cut and paste data from a SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) result grid into Excel, it doesn't give you the column headings. I find it surprising that Microsoft chose this as the default. But to their credit, they gave us a way to change this behavior. Rhonda did a nice writeup, so I see no need to repeat it here.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-93123919215910252?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-46362972561214369902008-03-25T18:20:00.001-07:002008-03-25T18:20:04.435-07:00Yet another helpful error message<p>Apparently my external USB "9 in 1 card reader" is obsolete now that we have Vista SP1. It worked fine last week, but now I need to "replace the device". Shall I re-place it into a new MacBook? </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.google.com/Scott.Stonehouse/R-mkwMn3X0I/AAAAAAAAABI/7SlCM246kw8/USBerror%5B13%5D.jpg?imgmax=800"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="393" alt="USBerror" src="http://lh4.google.com/Scott.Stonehouse/R-mkw8n3X1I/AAAAAAAAABU/S_uaqdhFrQM/USBerror_thumb%5B11%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="385" border="0"></a></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-4636297256121436990?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-83377555130171724882008-03-11T20:36:00.001-07:002008-03-11T20:36:52.121-07:00MIX 08 and the Great Microsoft Internal Conflict<p>Microsoft's <a href="http://visitmix.com/">MIX 08 conference</a> is over, and the usual pundits have said their usual things. Robert Scoble (Mr Microsoft) says, "<a href="http://scobleizer.com/2008/03/06/microsofts-hits-multiple-internet-home-runs/">Microsoft hits multiple Internet home runs</a>". Leo Laporte (Mr Apple) says, "<a href="http://twit.tv/135">"Frankly, it's a snore"</a>.</p> <p>I'm here to tell you the truth. The big story from Mix is that Microsoft has finally embraced the web and the software as a web service model. They've been watching carefully as Google and Amazon build incredible businesses that show signs of making the desktop irrelevant. Everybody agrees that Microsoft has no choice but to make a move in this direction.</p> <p>What have they announced?</p> <p>IE8 and Silverlight 2 - proving that Microsoft still wants to own the end user entry point to the web. As Ballmer said "Web Developers".</p> <p><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/sql/dataservices/default.mspx">SQL Server Data Services</a> - Here's the strategy story that I'm interested in. This big announcement at MIX was largely ignored. Note that it comes after Windows Live SkyDrive, Microsoft Office Live, Hosted Exchange and Hosted Sharepoint.</p> <p>There's no doubt that Microsoft is moving quickly into the data center business. This is all about c<a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html">ommoditizing their complements</a>. These products will offer a cheap alternative to Microsoft servers in the office. They will also offer Microsoft servers to home users, who usually don't have servers. Microsoft servers complement Microsoft desktop applications - Office and Windows, the cash cows.</p> <p>Short term, this makes a lot of sense. The demand is going to be there - if Microsoft doesn't host these services, everyone will go to Google or Amazon. Right now, Microsoft has the desktop, and they can potentially make their servers work better with the desktop software. They should have a competitive advantage if they can catch up to Google and Amazon before the "cloud" becomes mainstream. </p> <p>(Aside to you folks in California - no, the cloud is not mainstream yet. And while we are on the subject, Apple doesn't own the desktop and some people don't even use Firefox.)</p> <p>Long term - this is the story that nobody is talking about yet. How is this going to work long term? Microsoft is not going to abandon the IT shops. They still want to sell every business multiple copies of Windows Server, Sharepoint, SQL Server and Exchange. But they will also be using these tools internally in their own data centers. Microsoft will suggest that we (the IT shops using those tools) will benefit from the super-dogfooding effort. Microsoft will learn the shortcomings of the server software and work to enhance it. I think this is true. </p> <p>But at what point do those improvements become valuable strategic assets to Microsoft? Conceivably, in the battle with Google and Amazon, these enhancements to the software could become too valuable to Microsoft for them to release in their off-the-shelf software products. Don't think this will happen?</p> <p>Check out <a href="http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/03/10/microsoft_database_cloud/">this article</a> at The Register.</p> <blockquote> <p>SSDS is based on SQL Server, though Microsoft technical fellow Dave Campbell told <em>Reg Dev</em>: "We are not using an off-the-shelf SQL Server to power this, we've taken the technology and shifted it around to make it more suitable for large-scale datacenter deployment."</p></blockquote> <p>Seriously. Microsoft has been telling us for years that SQL Server <em>is </em>suitable for large-scale datacenter deployment. </p> <p>There you have it. My concern is that the new services side of Microsoft has the potential to be the end of decent server tools for the rest of us. I know this isn't going to happen overnight, but lots of us in this business have long careers ahead of us. Some will argue we should go with the flow and use the new tools in the cloud. Will you store your valuable competitive data in the cloud on someone else's servers? </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-8337755513017172488?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-86310965883613329852008-01-29T17:57:00.001-08:002008-01-29T17:59:55.109-08:00Silverlight & AVG<p><a href="http://www.scottstonehouse.ca/blog/2007/05/devteach-day-2.html">Here</a> I said I wouldn't be touching Silverlight for a while. I stuck to that. I'm finally looking at it now, 8 months later. I'm just looking at Silverlight 1.0 right now, none of that Alpha stuff for me, thanks. That puts me well behind the bleeding edge guys, but still in the early adopters.</p> <p>One advantage of starting out a bit late is that many of the problems are already googlable. So when I ran into the issue with AVG antivirus, someone had gone before me:</p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://vinodunny.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!F162DB18909CE884!403.entry">Vinod's Irregular Rants & Raves!: SilverLight, Anti Virus Software & Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2</a> </p></blockquote> <p>Since I'm behind the curve, I'm still using Visual Studio 2005. And Vinod's instructions (for 2008) didn't exactly match what I was looking at. Not to mention he's one of those guys who's looking at the Silverlight 1.1 Alpha rather than 1.0. So I'm rewriting it here for us VS 2005 slowpokes.</p> <p>So here are my revisions to Vinod's instructions to make them applicable for the VS 2005 template for Silverlight 1.0 to work with AVG:</p> <p><strong>1. Go to </strong><em><strong>%appdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\ProjectTemplatesCache\Visual C#\Silverlight\SilverlightJSApplication.zip</strong> </em></p> <p>Note for me %appdata% is <em>C:\Users\Scott\AppData\Roaming - </em>but that's on Vista.</p> <p><strong>2. Rename the file <em>Default.html.js</em> to Default<em>.js</em></strong></p> <p><strong>3. Open each of the following files and search & replace all occurrences of <em>Default.html.js</em> to <em>Default.js</em>: </strong></p> <ul> <li><em><strong>Default.html</strong></em> <li><em><strong>SilverlightJSApplication.csproj</strong></em> <li><em><strong>SilverlightJSApplication.vstemplate</strong></em></li></ul> <p><strong>4. Close all the files and create a new Silverlight project in VS2005. This time it should work fine.</strong></p> <p>So now I've written my first post in almost two months - but I've still not actually done anything with Silverlight.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-8631096588361332985?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-45468923474503679072007-12-02T18:39:00.001-08:002007-12-02T18:39:18.194-08:00Foundations of Programming - Part 1 - Introduction - Karl Seguin [MVP]<p> </p> <p><a href="http://codebetter.com/blogs/karlseguin/archive/2007/11/26/foundations-of-programming-part-1-introduction.aspx">Here's</a> the first in Karl Seguin's series on foundations of programming. He's only posted the first two parts so far, but it looks promising.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-4546892347450367907?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-7332689594355018402007-11-29T18:10:00.001-08:002007-11-29T18:10:29.609-08:00Andy Leonard : SSIS and Visual Studio 2008<p> </p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/andy_leonard/archive/2007/11/28/ssis-and-visual-studio-2008.aspx">This</a> is some really bad news. Apparently you can't work with SSIS 2005 in Visual Studio 2008? Don't know if this is 100% true - it really seems hard to believe. If it is true, Microsoft has a lot of explaining to do...</p> <p>I mean, could they possibly release the database edition without support for SSIS 2005?</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-733268959435501840?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-24611548817939627312007-11-21T20:13:00.001-08:002007-11-21T20:19:27.530-08:00Scoble has 5001 friends<p><a href="http://scobleizer.com/" target="_blank">Robert Scoble</a> now has 5001 Facebook friends. Is this a change in Facebook's policy, or an anomaly?</p> <p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2058/2054342728_44ba1d41f4_o.jpg"></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-2461154881793962731?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-91214514057831751632007-11-13T19:32:00.001-08:002007-11-13T19:32:01.848-08:00Windows PowerShell : SQL Server Support for PowerShell!<p> </p> <p>Jeffrey Snover <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2007/11/13/sql-server-support-for-powershell.aspx">posted</a> info about the latest SQL Server CTP, including the fact that PowerShell scripting will now be possible. </p> <p>Anyone who's been paying attention will not be surprised. The last major server release was Exchange 2007, which apparently has more cmdlets than PowerShell itself. So the next version of SQL Server was pretty much a no-brainer.</p> <p>Jeffrey points out that a CTP feature doesn't mean it will be in the final product. But I'll bet that this is either in the shipping version of SQL Server 2008 or will be made available as a free download in the SQL Server 2008 lifetime.</p> <p>Now, I'd like to see the list of cmdlets, please!</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-9121451405783175163?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-76403519686814696882007-11-08T18:09:00.001-08:002007-11-08T18:09:55.326-08:00Microsoft Search Server<p><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/searchserver/default.aspx">Microsoft Search Server 2008</a> looks pretty neat. I don't know much about it yet, but I'll look into it because it's yet another <a href="http://www.ifilter.org">ifilter</a> consumer.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-7640351968681469688?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9102955.post-47112209388963146272007-11-04T18:36:00.001-08:002007-11-04T18:37:22.451-08:00Rick Heiges : Buy the first 32-bits, get the second for FREE<p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.sqljunkies.com/WebLog/rheiges/archive/2007/10/17/75443.aspx">This post</a> by Rick Heiges is worth pointing out. I didn't know you could 'trade in' your 32 bit SQL Server license for a 64 bit one.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9102955-4711220938896314627?l=www.scottstonehouse.ca%2Fblog%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Scott Stonehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932311399052299693noreply@blogger.com0