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• Windows Live Writer

  - by TechTwaddle

  This is a sample post. Checking out the Windows Live Writer to post to my blog. (-:

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• Managed code and the Shell – Do?

  Back in 2006 I wrote a blog post titled: Managed code and the Shell – Don't!. Please visit that post to see why that advice was given.The crux of the issue has been addressed in the latest CLR via In-Process Side-by-Side Execution. In addition to the MSDN documentation I just linked, there is also an MSDN article on the topic: In-Process Side-by-Side.Now, even though the major technical impediment seems to be removed, I don’t know if Microsoft is now officially supporting managed extensions to the shell. Either way, I noticed a CodePlex project that is marching ahead to enable exactly that: Managed Mini Shell Extension Framework. Not much activity there, but maybe it will grow once .NET 4 is released... Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• Changes to the LINQ-to-StreamInsight Dialect

  - by Roman Schindlauer

  In previous versions of StreamInsight (1.0 through 2.0), CepStream<> represents temporal streams of many varieties: Streams with ‘open’ inputs (e.g., those defined and composed over CepStream<T>.Create(string streamName) Streams with ‘partially bound’ inputs (e.g., those defined and composed over CepStream<T>.Create(Type adapterFactory, …)) Streams with fully bound inputs (e.g., those defined and composed over To*Stream – sequences or DQC) The stream may be embedded (where Server.Create is used) The stream may be remote (where Server.Connect is used) When adding support for new programming primitives in StreamInsight 2.1, we faced a choice: Add a fourth variety (use CepStream<> to represent streams that are bound the new programming model constructs), or introduce a separate type that represents temporal streams in the new user model. We opted for the latter. Introducing a new type has the effect of reducing the number of (confusing) runtime failures due to inappropriate uses of CepStream<> instances in the incorrect context. The new types are: IStreamable<>, which logically represents a temporal stream. IQStreamable<> : IStreamable<>, which represents a queryable temporal stream. Its relationship to IStreamable<> is analogous to the relationship of IQueryable<> to IEnumerable<>. The developer can compose temporal queries over remote stream sources using this type. The syntax of temporal queries composed over IQStreamable<> is mostly consistent with the syntax of our existing CepStream<>-based LINQ provider. However, we have taken the opportunity to refine certain aspects of the language surface. Differences are outlined below. Because 2.1 introduces new types to represent temporal queries, the changes outlined in this post do no impact existing StreamInsight applications using the existing types! SelectMany StreamInsight does not support the SelectMany operator in its usual form (which is analogous to SQL’s “CROSS APPLY” operator): static IEnumerable<R> SelectMany<T, R>(this IEnumerable<T> source, Func<T, IEnumerable<R>> collectionSelector) It instead uses SelectMany as a convenient syntactic representation of an inner join. The parameter to the selector function is thus unavailable. Because the parameter isn’t supported, its type in StreamInsight 1.0 – 2.0 wasn’t carefully scrutinized. Unfortunately, the type chosen for the parameter is nonsensical to LINQ programmers: static CepStream<R> SelectMany<T, R>(this CepStream<T> source, Expression<Func<CepStream<T>, CepStream<R>>> streamSelector) Using Unit as the type for the parameter accurately reflects the StreamInsight’s capabilities: static IQStreamable<R> SelectMany<T, R>(this IQStreamable<T> source, Expression<Func<Unit, IQStreamable<R>>> streamSelector) For queries that succeed – that is, queries that do not reference the stream selector parameter – there is no difference between the code written for the two overloads: from x in xs from y in ys select f(x, y) Top-K The Take operator used in StreamInsight causes confusion for LINQ programmers because it is applied to the (unbounded) stream rather than the (bounded) window, suggesting that the query as a whole will return k rows: (from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() from x in win orderby x.A select x.B).Take(k) The use of SelectMany is also unfortunate in this context because it implies the availability of the window parameter within the remainder of the comprehension. The following compiles but fails at runtime: (from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() from x in win orderby x.A select win).Take(k) The Take operator in 2.1 is applied to the window rather than the stream: Before After (from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() from x in win orderby x.A select x.B).Take(k) from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() from b in     (from x in win     orderby x.A     select x.B).Take(k) select b Multicast We are introducing an explicit multicast operator in order to preserve expression identity, which is important given the semantics about moving code to and from StreamInsight. This also better matches existing LINQ dialects, such as Reactive. This pattern enables expressing multicasting in two ways: Implicit Explicit var ys = from x in xs          where x.A > 1          select x; var zs = from y1 in ys          from y2 in ys.ShiftEventTime(_ => TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))          select y1 + y2; var ys = from x in xs          where x.A > 1          select x; var zs = ys.Multicast(ys1 =>     from y1 in ys1     from y2 in ys1.ShiftEventTime(_ => TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))     select y1 + y2; Notice the product translates an expression using implicit multicast into an expression using the explicit multicast operator. The user does not see this translation. Default window policies Only default window policies are supported in the new surface. Other policies can be simulated by using AlterEventLifetime. Before After xs.SnapshotWindow(     WindowInputPolicy.ClipToWindow,     SnapshotWindowInputPolicy.Clip) xs.SnapshotWindow() xs.TumblingWindow(     TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1),     HoppingWindowOutputPolicy.PointAlignToWindowEnd) xs.TumblingWindow(     TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)) xs.TumblingWindow(     TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1),     HoppingWindowOutputPolicy.ClipToWindowEnd) Not supported … LeftAntiJoin Representation of LASJ as a correlated sub-query in the LINQ surface is problematic as the StreamInsight engine does not support correlated sub-queries (see discussion of SelectMany). The current syntax requires the introduction of an otherwise unsupported ‘IsEmpty()’ operator. As a result, the pattern is not discoverable and implies capabilities not present in the server. The direct representation of LASJ is used instead: Before After from x in xs where     (from y in ys     where x.A > y.B     select y).IsEmpty() select x xs.LeftAntiJoin(ys, (x, y) => x.A > y.B) from x in xs where     (from y in ys     where x.A == y.B     select y).IsEmpty() select x xs.LeftAntiJoin(ys, x => x.A, y => y.B) ApplyWithUnion The ApplyWithUnion methods have been deprecated since their signatures are redundant given the standard SelectMany overloads: Before After xs.GroupBy(x => x.A).ApplyWithUnion(gs => from win in gs.SnapshotWindow() select win.Count()) xs.GroupBy(x => x.A).SelectMany(     gs =>     from win in gs.SnapshotWindow()     select win.Count()) xs.GroupBy(x => x.A).ApplyWithUnion(gs => from win in gs.SnapshotWindow() select win.Count(), r => new { r.Key, Count = r.Payload }) from x in xs group x by x.A into gs from win in gs.SnapshotWindow() select new { gs.Key, Count = win.Count() } Alternate UDO syntax The representation of UDOs in the StreamInsight LINQ dialect confuses cardinalities. Based on the semantics of user-defined operators in StreamInsight, one would expect to construct queries in the following form: from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() from y in MyUdo(win) select y Instead, the UDO proxy method is referenced within a projection, and the (many) results returned by the user code are automatically flattened into a stream: from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() select MyUdo(win) The “many-or-one” confusion is exemplified by the following example that compiles but fails at runtime: from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() select MyUdo(win) + win.Count() The above query must fail because the UDO is in fact returning many values per window while the count aggregate is returning one. Original syntax New alternate syntax from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() select win.UdoProxy(1) from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() from y in win.UserDefinedOperator(() => new Udo(1)) select y -or- from win in xs.SnapshotWindow() from y in win.UdoMacro(1) select y Notice that this formulation also sidesteps the dynamic type pitfalls of the existing “proxy method” approach to UDOs, in which the type of the UDO implementation (TInput, TOuput) and the type of its constructor arguments (TConfig) need to align in a precise and non-obvious way with the argument and return types for the corresponding proxy method. UDSO syntax UDSO currently leverages the DataContractSerializer to clone initial state for logical instances of the user operator. Initial state will instead be described by an expression in the new LINQ surface. Before After xs.Scan(new Udso()) xs.Scan(() => new Udso()) Name changes ShiftEventTime => AlterEventStartTime: The alter event lifetime overload taking a new start time value has been renamed. CountByStartTimeWindow => CountWindow

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• Speaking at Atlanta.MDF on March 12

  - by RickHeiges

  I am fortunate enough to be speaking to a user group with a really cool name - Atlanta.MDF (Microsoft Database Forum). Although I visit Atlanta often, it usually involves running from one councourse to another and rarely do I get the chance to visit the user group. I have made it to the user group on several occassions in the past, but it has been several years. This will be my first presentation to the group. I will be speaking about Database Consolidation - something I have been doing for years....(read more)

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• 24 Hours of PASS: 15 Powerful Dynamic Management Objects - Deck and Demos

  - by Adam Machanic

  Thank you to everyone who attended today's 24 Hours of PASS webcast on Dynamic Management Objects! I was shocked, awed, and somewhat scared when I saw the attendee number peak at over 800. I really appreciate your taking time out of your day to listen to me talk. It's always interesting presenting to people I can't see or hear, so I relied on Twitter for a form of nearly real-time feedback. I would like to especially thank everyone who left me tweets both during and after the presentation. Your feedback...(read more)

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• Presenting at Roanoke Code Camp Saturday!

  - by andyleonard

  Introduction I am honored to once again be selected to present at Roanoke Code Camp ! An Introductory Topic One of my presentations is titled "I See a Control Flow Tab. Now What?" It's a Level 100 talk for those wishing to learn how to build their very first SSIS package. This highly-interactive, demo-intense presentation is for beginners and developers just getting started with SSIS. Attend and learn how to build SSIS packages from the ground up . Designing an SSIS Framework I'm also presenting...(read more)

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• The current state of a MERGE Destination for SSIS

  - by jamiet

  Hugo Tap asked me on Twitter earlier today whether or not there existed a SSIS Dataflow Destination component that enabled one to MERGE data into a table rather than INSERT it. Its a common request so I thought it might be useful to summarise the current state of play as regards a MERGE destination for SSIS. Firstly, there is no MERGE destination component in the box; that is, when you install SSIS no MERGE Destination will be available. That being said the SSIS team have made available a MERGE destination component via Codeplex which you can get from http://sqlsrvintegrationsrv.codeplex.com/releases/view/19048. I have never used it so cannot vouch for its usefulness although judging by some of the reviews you might not want to set your expectations too high. Your mileage may vary.   In the past it has occurred to me that a built-in way to provide MERGE from the SSIS pipeline would be highly valuable. I assume that this would have to be provided by the database into which you were merging hence in March 2010 I submitted the following two requests to Connect: BULK MERGE (111 votes at the time of writing) [SSIS] BULK MERGE Destination (15 votes) If you think these would be useful feel free to vote them up and add a comment. Lastly, this one is nothing to do with SSIS but if you want to perform a minimally logged MERGE using T-SQL Sunil Agarwal has explained how at Minimal logging and MERGE statement. @Jamiet

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• Two free SQL Server events I'll be presenting at in UK. Come and say hi!

  - by Mladen Prajdic

  SQLBits: April 7th - April 9th 2011 in Brighton, UK Free community event on Saturday (April 9th) with a paid conference day on Friday (April 8th) and a Pre Conference day full of day long seminars (April 7th). It'll be a huge event with over 800 attendees and over 20 MVPs. I'll be presenting on Saturday April 9th.     SQL in the City: July 15th 2011 in London, UK One day of free SQL Server training sponsored by Redgate. Other MVP's that'll be presenting there are Steve Jones (website|twitter), Brad McGehee (blog|twitter) and Grant Fritchey (blog|twitter)   At both conferences I'll be presenting about database testing. In the sessions I'll cover a few things from my book The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team based Development like what do we need for testing, how to go about it, what are some of the obstacles we have to overcome, etc… If you're around there come and say Hi!

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• Expert Cube Development book finally on Kindle!

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  The book Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services is finally available on Kindle ! I received many requests for that and the last one just a couple of days ago from Greg Low in its useful review . I'm curious to see whether the sales of this book will continue also on Kindle. After 2 years this book is still continuing to sell as in the first months. The content is still fresh and will be good also with the next release of Analysis Services for developing multidimensional...(read more)

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• December 2012 Cumulative Updates are available for SQL Server 2008 R2

  - by AaronBertrand

  Microsoft released new cumulative updates for SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Cumulative Update # 10 KB Article: KB #2783135 16 fixes are listed at the time of publication Build number is 10.50.2868 Relevant for @@VERSION 10.50.2500 through 10.50.2867 SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 Cumulative Update # 4 KB Article: KB #2777358 34 fixes are listed at time of publication Build number is 10.50.4270 Relevant for @@VERSION 10.50.4000 through 10.50.4269 My usual disclaimer: these updates...(read more)

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• OT: March Mdness 2011

  - by RickHeiges

  This past fall, I decided to take a break from Fantasy Football. Did I miss it? Yes to some extent. Fantasy Football can really eat up a lot of time. But - I still love March Madness (NCAA Men's Basketball Tourney). It doesn't take much time to pick out teams. Since you can't make any changes after the deadline and the computer keeps track of scoring/scenarios/etc, it is a fun thing that really takes a little time and can help you enjoy the games a bit more. Let's see how good you are at picking...(read more)

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• PowerShell Precon session at SQL Connections

  - by AllenMWhite

  Yesterday I had the privilege of presenting the full day training session SPR304-Automate and Manage SQL Server with PowerShell at the SQL Connections conference in Las Vegas. The session went very well (at least from my perspective) and I think the attendees enjoyed it as well. Just the day before the session I got excited about some features of PowerShell I hadn't played with much and decided to add a discussion of them to the presentation, so the material the conference gave them doesn't include...(read more)

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• Wordpress Installation (on IIS and SQL Server)

  - by Davide Mauri

  To proceed with the installation of Wordpress on SQL Server and IIS, first of all, you need to do the following steps Create a database on SQL Server that will be used by Wordpress Create login that can access to the just created database and put the user into ddladmin, db_datareader, db_datawriter roles Download and unpack Wordpress 3.3.2 (latest version as of 27 May 2012) zip file into a directory of your choice Download the wp-db-abstraction 1.1.4 (latest version as of 27 May 2012) plugin from wordpress.org website Now that the basic action has been done, you can start to setup and configure your Wordpress installation. Unpack and follow the instructions in the README.TXT file to install the Database Abstraction Layer. Mainly you have to: Upload wp-db-abstraction.php and the wp-db-abstraction directory to wp-content/mu-plugins.  This should be parallel to your regular plugins directory.  If the mu-plugins directory does not exist, you must create it. Put the db.php file from inside the wp-db-abstraction.php directory to wp-content/db.php Now you can create an application pool in IIS like the following one Create a website, using the above Application Pool, that points to the folder where you unpacked Wordpress files. Be sure to give the “Write” permission to the IIS account, as pointed out in this (old, but still quite valid) installation manual: http://wordpress.visitmix.com/development/installing-wordpress-on-sql-server#iis Now you’re ready to go. Point your browser to the configured website and the Wordpress installation screen will be there for you. When you’re requested to enter information to connect to MySQL database, simply skip that page, leaving the default values. If you have installed the Database Abstraction Layer, another database installation screen will appear after the one used by MySQL, and here you can enter the configuration information needed to connect to SQL Server. After having finished the installation steps, you should be able to access and navigate your wordpress site.  A final touch, and it’s done: just add the needed rewrite rules http://wordpress.visitmix.com/development/installing-wordpress-on-sql-server#urlrewrite and that’s it! Well. Not really. Unfortunately the current (as of 27 May 2012) version of the Database Abstraction Layer (1.1.4) has some bugs. Luckily they can be quickly fixed: Backslash Fix http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wp-db-abstraction-fix-problems-with-backslash-usage Select Top 0 Fix Make the change to the file “.\wp-content\mu-plugins\wp-db-abstraction\translations\sqlsrv\translations.php” suggested by “debettap”   http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3485384&group_id=315685&atid=1328061 And now you have a 100% working Wordpress installation on SQL Server! Since I also wanted to take advantage of SQL Server Full Text Search, I’ve created a very simple wordpress plugin to setup full-text search and to use it as website search engine: http://wpfts.codeplex.com/ Enjoy!

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• When is a Seek not a Seek?

  - by Paul White

  The following script creates a single-column clustered table containing the integers from 1 to 1,000 inclusive. IF OBJECT_ID(N'tempdb..#Test', N'U') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #Test ; GO CREATE TABLE #Test ( id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ); ; INSERT #Test (id) SELECT V.number FROM master.dbo.spt_values AS V WHERE V.[type] = N'P' AND V.number BETWEEN 1 AND 1000 ; Let’s say we need to find the rows with values from 100 to 170, excluding any values that divide exactly by 10.  One way to write that query would be: SELECT T.id FROM #Test AS T WHERE T.id IN ( 101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109, 111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119, 121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129, 131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139, 141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149, 151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,159, 161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169 ) ; That query produces a pretty efficient-looking query plan: Knowing that the source column is defined as an INTEGER, we could also express the query this way: SELECT T.id FROM #Test AS T WHERE T.id >= 101 AND T.id <= 169 AND T.id % 10 > 0 ; We get a similar-looking plan: If you look closely, you might notice that the line connecting the two icons is a little thinner than before.  The first query is estimated to produce 61.9167 rows – very close to the 63 rows we know the query will return.  The second query presents a tougher challenge for SQL Server because it doesn’t know how to predict the selectivity of the modulo expression (T.id % 10 > 0).  Without that last line, the second query is estimated to produce 68.1667 rows – a slight overestimate.  Adding the opaque modulo expression results in SQL Server guessing at the selectivity.  As you may know, the selectivity guess for a greater-than operation is 30%, so the final estimate is 30% of 68.1667, which comes to 20.45 rows. The second difference is that the Clustered Index Seek is costed at 99% of the estimated total for the statement.  For some reason, the final SELECT operator is assigned a small cost of 0.0000484 units; I have absolutely no idea why this is so, or what it models.  Nevertheless, we can compare the total cost for both queries: the first one comes in at 0.0033501 units, and the second at 0.0034054.  The important point is that the second query is costed very slightly higher than the first, even though it is expected to produce many fewer rows (20.45 versus 61.9167). If you run the two queries, they produce exactly the same results, and both complete so quickly that it is impossible to measure CPU usage for a single execution.  We can, however, compare the I/O statistics for a single run by running the queries with STATISTICS IO ON: Table '#Test'. Scan count 63, logical reads 126, physical reads 0. Table '#Test'. Scan count 01, logical reads 002, physical reads 0. The query with the IN list uses 126 logical reads (and has a ‘scan count’ of 63), while the second query form completes with just 2 logical reads (and a ‘scan count’ of 1).  It is no coincidence that 126 = 63 * 2, by the way.  It is almost as if the first query is doing 63 seeks, compared to one for the second query. In fact, that is exactly what it is doing.  There is no indication of this in the graphical plan, or the tool-tip that appears when you hover your mouse over the Clustered Index Seek icon.  To see the 63 seek operations, you have click on the Seek icon and look in the Properties window (press F4, or right-click and choose from the menu): The Seek Predicates list shows a total of 63 seek operations – one for each of the values from the IN list contained in the first query.  I have expanded the first seek node to show the details; it is seeking down the clustered index to find the entry with the value 101.  Each of the other 62 nodes expands similarly, and the same information is contained (even more verbosely) in the XML form of the plan. Each of the 63 seek operations starts at the root of the clustered index B-tree and navigates down to the leaf page that contains the sought key value.  Our table is just large enough to need a separate root page, so each seek incurs 2 logical reads (one for the root, and one for the leaf).  We can see the index depth using the INDEXPROPERTY function, or by using the a DMV: SELECT S.index_type_desc, S.index_depth FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats ( DB_ID(N'tempdb'), OBJECT_ID(N'tempdb..#Test', N'U'), 1, 1, DEFAULT ) AS S ; Let’s look now at the Properties window when the Clustered Index Seek from the second query is selected: There is just one seek operation, which starts at the root of the index and navigates the B-tree looking for the first key that matches the Start range condition (id >= 101).  It then continues to read records at the leaf level of the index (following links between leaf-level pages if necessary) until it finds a row that does not meet the End range condition (id <= 169).  Every row that meets the seek range condition is also tested against the Residual Predicate highlighted above (id % 10 > 0), and is only returned if it matches that as well. You will not be surprised that the single seek (with a range scan and residual predicate) is much more efficient than 63 singleton seeks.  It is not 63 times more efficient (as the logical reads comparison would suggest), but it is around three times faster.  Let’s run both query forms 10,000 times and measure the elapsed time: DECLARE @i INTEGER, @n INTEGER = 10000, @s DATETIME = GETDATE() ; SET NOCOUNT ON; SET STATISTICS XML OFF; ; WHILE @n > 0 BEGIN SELECT @i = T.id FROM #Test AS T WHERE T.id IN ( 101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109, 111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119, 121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129, 131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139, 141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149, 151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,159, 161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169 ) ; SET @n -= 1; END ; PRINT DATEDIFF(MILLISECOND, @s, GETDATE()) ; GO DECLARE @i INTEGER, @n INTEGER = 10000, @s DATETIME = GETDATE() ; SET NOCOUNT ON ; WHILE @n > 0 BEGIN SELECT @i = T.id FROM #Test AS T WHERE T.id >= 101 AND T.id <= 169 AND T.id % 10 > 0 ; SET @n -= 1; END ; PRINT DATEDIFF(MILLISECOND, @s, GETDATE()) ; On my laptop, running SQL Server 2008 build 4272 (SP2 CU2), the IN form of the query takes around 830ms and the range query about 300ms.  The main point of this post is not performance, however – it is meant as an introduction to the next few parts in this mini-series that will continue to explore scans and seeks in detail. When is a seek not a seek?  When it is 63 seeks © Paul White 2011 email: [email protected] twitter: @SQL_kiwi

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• Summit reflections

  - by Rob Farley

  So far, my three PASS Summit experiences have been notably different to each other. My first, I wasn’t on the board and I gave two regular sessions and a Lightning Talk in which I told jokes. My second, I was a board advisor, and I delivered a precon, a spotlight and a Lightning Talk in which I sang. My third (last week), I was a full board director, and I didn’t present at all. Let’s not talk about next year. I’m not sure there are many options left. This year, I noticed that a lot more people recognised me and said hello. I guess that’s potentially because of the singing last year, but could also be because board elections can bring a fair bit of attention, and because of the effort I’ve put in through things like 24HOP... Yeah, ok. It’d be the singing. My approach was very different though. I was watching things through different eyes. I looked for the things that seemed to be working and the things that didn’t. I had staff there again, and was curious to know how their things were working out. I knew a lot more about what was going on behind the scenes to make various things happen, and although very little about the Summit was actually my responsibility (based on not having that portfolio), my perspective had moved considerably. Before the Summit started, Board Members had been given notebooks – an idea Tom (who heads up PASS’ marketing) had come up with after being inspired by seeing Bill walk around with a notebook. The plan was to take notes about feedback we got from people. It was a good thing, and the notebook forms a nice pair with the SQLBits one I got a couple of years ago when I last spoke there. I think one of the biggest impacts of this was that during the first keynote, Bill told everyone present about the notebooks. This set a tone of “we’re listening”, and a number of people were definitely keen to tell us things that would cause us to pull out our notebooks. PASSTV was a new thing this year. Justin, the host, featured on the couch and talked a lot of people about a lot of things, including me (he talked to me about a lot of things, I don’t think he talked to a lot people about me). Reaching people through online methods is something which interests me a lot – it has huge potential, and I love the idea of being able to broadcast to people who are unable to attend in person. I’m keen to see how this medium can be developed over time. People who know me will know that I’m a keen advocate of certification – I've been SQL certified since version 6.5, and have even been involved in creating exams. However, I don’t believe in studying for exams. I think training is worthwhile for learning new skills, but the goal should be on learning those skills, not on passing an exam. Exams should be for proving that the skills are there, not a goal in themselves. The PASS Summit is an excellent place to take exams though, and with an attitude of professional development throughout the event, why not? So I did. I wasn’t expecting to take one, but I was persuaded and took the MCM Knowledge Exam. I hadn’t even looked at the syllabus, but tried it anyway. I was very tired, and even fell asleep at one point during it. I’ll find out my result at some point in the future – the Prometric site just says “Tested” at the moment. As I said, it wasn’t something I was expecting to do, but it was good to have something unexpected during the week. Of course it was good to catch up with old friends and make new ones. I feel like every time I’m in the US I see things develop a bit more, with more and more people knowing who I am, who my staff are, and recognising the LobsterPot brand. I missed being a presenter, but I definitely enjoyed seeing many friends on the list of presenters. I won’t try to list them, because there are so many these days that people might feel sad if I don’t mention them. For those that I managed to see, I was pleased to see that the majority of them have lifted their presentation skills since I last saw them, and I happily told them as much. One person who I will mention was Paul White, who travelled from New Zealand to his first PASS Summit. He gave two sessions (a regular session and a half-day), packed large rooms of people, and had everyone buzzing with enthusiasm. I spoke to him after the event, and he told me that his expectations were blown away. Paul isn’t normally a fan of crowds, and the thought of 4000 people would have been scary. But he told me he had no idea that people would welcome him so well, be so friendly and so down to earth. He’s seen the significance of the SQL Server community, and says he’ll be back. It’ll be good to see him there. Will you be there too?

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• Announcing Four Weeks of SSIS MicroTraining!

  - by andyleonard

  For the next four Tuesdays – 29 Nov, 6 Dec, 13 Dec, and 20 Dec – I will deliver a 30 – 45 minute presentation beginning at 11:00 AM EST on Google+ . Please note Google+ limits attendance to the first ten people who join the Hangout and I have no control over who gets in. The topics will be: 29 Nov – “I See a Control Flow. Now What?” (Creating Your First SSIS Package) 6 Dec – The Incremental Load SSIS Design Pattern 13 Dec – Flat File Fu 20 Dec – SSIS Frameworks Magic Details 29 Nov – “I See a Control...(read more)

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• The PASS Board of Directors Q&A Session

  - by andyleonard

  Friday afternoon (18 Oct 2013), the PASS Board of Directors met with interested members of the SQL Server Community to answer questions. Paraphrases of some questions and notes I collected during the session follow (Please note: this is not a transcript): Elections Kendall Van Dyke asked about duplicate voting. The Board responded that they had looked into the matter and identified duplicate memberships based on names and addresses, but with different email addresses. After filtering for duplicate...(read more)

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• Windows Azure Emulators On Your Desktop

  - by BuckWoody

  Many people feel they have to set up a full Azure subscription online to try out and develop on Windows Azure. But you don’t have to do that right away. In fact, you can download the Windows Azure Compute Emulator – a “cloud development environment” – right on your desktop. No, it’s not for production use, and no, you won’t have other people using your system as a cloud provider, and yes, there are some differences with Production Windows Azure, but you’ll be able code, run, test, diagnose, watch, change and configure code without having any connection to the Internet at all. The best thing about this approach is that when you are ready to deploy the code you’ve been testing, a few clicks deploys it to your subscription when you make one.   So what deep-magic does it take to run such a thing right on your laptop or even a Virtual PC? Well, it’s actually not all that difficult. You simply download and install the Windows Azure SDK (you can even get a free version of Visual Studio for it to run on – you’re welcome) from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsazure/cc974146.aspx   This SDK will also install the Windows Azure Compute Emulator and the Windows Azure Storage Emulator – and then you’re all set. Right-click the icon for Visual Studio and select “Run as Administrator”:    Now open a new “Cloud” type of project:   Add your Web and Worker Roles that you want to code:   And when you’re done with your design, press F5 to start the desktop version of Azure:   Want to learn more about what’s happening underneath? Right-click the tray icon with the Azure logo, and select the two emulators to see what they are doing:          In the configuration files, you’ll see a “Use Development Storage” setting. You can call the BLOB, Table or Queue storage and it will all run on your desktop. When you’re ready to deploy everything to Windows Azure, you simply change the configuration settings and add the storage keys and so on that you need.   Want to learn more about all this?   Overview of the Windows Azure Compute Emulator: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432968.aspx Overview of the Windows Azure Storage Emulator: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg432983.aspx January 2011 Training Kit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=413E88F8-5966-4A83-B309-53B7B77EDF78&displaylang=en      

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• Hyper-V for Developers - presentation from NxtGenUG Oxford (including link to more info on Dynamic M

  - by Liam Westley

  Many thanks to Richard Hopton and the NxtGenUG guys in Oxford for inviting me to talk on Hyper-V for Developers last night, and for Research Machines for providing the venue.  It was great to have developers not yet using Hyper-V who were really interested in some of the finer points to help them with specific requirements. For those wanting to follow up on the topics I covered, you can download the presentation deck as either PDF (with speaker notes included) or as the original PowerPoint slidedeck,   http://www.tigernews.co.uk/blog-twickers/nxtgenugoxford/HyperV4Devs.pdf   http://www.tigernews.co.uk/blog-twickers/nxtgenugoxford/HyperV4Devs.zip I also mentioned the new feature, Dynamic Memory, coming in Service Pack 1, had been presented in a session at TechEd 2010 by Ben Armstrong, and you can download his presentation from here,   http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2010/06/08/talking-about-dynamic-memory.aspx

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• User Group meeting in Copenhagen for #powerpivot

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  The next Monday, March 21st, I will join a special event organized by the Danish SQL Server User Group , Excelbi.dk and the Swedish SQL Server User Group . The meeting will start at 18:00 at the Radisson Royal Blu in Copenhagen, and this is the topic we will discuss. PowerPivot / BISM and the future of a BI Solution The next version of Analysis Services will offer the BI Semantic Model (BISM) that is based on Vertipaq, the same engine that runs PowerPivot. DAX and PowerPivot have been created as...(read more)

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• SQL Server 2014 Cumulative Update #3 is Available

  - by AaronBertrand

  Microsoft has released Cumulative Update #3 for SQL Server 2014. Important! This Cumulative Update includes MS14-044, which I blogged about here and also mention here . KB Article: KB #2984923 32 fixes listed publicly at time of publication Build number is 12.0.2402 Relevant for @@VERSION 12.0.2000 through 12.0.2401 (And no, they still haven't fixed the license terms screen; it still makes it seem like an update for SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1, which doesn't exist yet.)...(read more)

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• SQL2K8R2: StreamInsight changes at RTM: Hopping Windows

  - by Greg Low

  We've been working on updating our demos and samples for the RTM changes of StreamInsight. I'll detail these as I come across them. The first is that there is a change to the HoppingWindow. The first two parameters are the same in the constructor but the third parameter is now required. It is the HoppingWindowOutputPolicy. Currently, there is only a single option for this which is ClipToWindowEnd. So you can create a HoppingWindow like this: var queryOutput = from w in input.HoppingWindow ( TimeSpan...(read more)

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• Multiple 301 redirects, do search engines/viewers see them all?

  - by Karim

  I've put in place lots of different 301 rules to deal with numerous url changes. And for certain URLS there are 3-4 different 301 redirects landing the visitors to the new URL. I heard that 301 loses pagerank/linkjuice. ALl the 301 are onsite for the same domain. With a mix of php 301s and htaccess 301s. so for instance articles/news.php?id=2 --- articles/blog.php?id=2 [filename change] articles/* --- /* [subdir to root] /blog.php?id=2 --- /title-of-post [mod rewrite url change] so if you were to visit /articles/news.php?id=2 there will be two 301 redirects until you land on the /yellow-wellington-boots/, my question is does google see the intermediate redirects, or just the final page the 301's redirect to.

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• Two BULK INSERT issues I worked around recently

  - by AaronBertrand

  Since I am still afraid of SSIS, and because I am dealing mostly with CSV files and table structures that are relatively simple and require only one of the three letters in the acronym "ETL," I find myself using BULK INSERT a lot. I have been meaning to switch to using CLR, since I am doing a lot of file system querying using xp_cmdshell, but I haven't had the chance to really explore it yet. I know, a lot of you are probably thinking, wow, look at all those bad habits. But for every person thinking...(read more)

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• Extension Manager in Visual Studio 2010

  One of the powerful aspect of Visual Studio is its ability to be extended and many people do that. You can find numerous extensions at the Visual Studio Gallery. The VSX team links to a 4-part blog series on how to create and share templates. You can also look find extension examples on the vsx code gallery.With Visual Studio 2010, you can search for items and install them directly from within Visual Studio's new Extension Manager. You launch it from the Tools menu:When the dialog comes up, be sure to explore the various actionable areas on the left and also note the search on the right. For example, I typed "MP" and it quickly filtered the list to show me the MPI Project Template:Others have written about this before me, just bing Extension Manager (and note that Beta2 introduced changes, some of which you can witness in the screenshot above). Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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