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• OPTICS Clustering algorithm. How to get the best epsilon

  - by Marco Galassi

  I am implementing a project which needs to cluster geographical points. OPTICS algorithm seems to be a very nice solution. It needs just 2 parameters as input(MinPts and Epsilon), which are, respectively, the minimum number of points needed to consider them as a cluster, and the distance value used to compare if two points are in can be placed in same cluster. My problem is that, due to the extreme variety of the points, I can't set a fixed epsilon. Just look at the image below. The same points structure but in a different scale would result very different. Suppose to set MinPts=2 and epsilon = 1Km. On the left, the algorithm would create 2 clusters(red and blue), but on the right it would create one single cluster containing all of the points(red), but I would like to obtain 2 clusters even on the right. So my question is: is there any kind of way to calculate dynamically the epsilon value to get this result? Thank you very much and excuse my for my poor english. Marco

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• close file with fopen() but file still in use

  - by Marco

  Hi all, I've got a problem with deleting/overwriting a file using my program which is also being used(read) by my program. The problem seems to be that because of the fact my program is reading data from the file (output.txt) it puts the file in a 'in use' state which makes it impossible to delete or overwrite the file. I don't understand why the file stays 'in use' because I close the file after use with fclose(); this is my code: bool bBool = true while(bBool){ //Run myprogram.exe tot generate (a new) output.txt //Create file pointer and open file FILE* pInputFile = NULL; pInputFile = fopen("output.txt", "r"); // //then I do some reading using fscanf() // //And when I'm done reading I close the file using fclose() fclose(pInputFile); //The next step is deleting the output.txt if( remove( "output.txt" ) == -1 ){ //ERROR }else{ //Succesfull } } I use fclose() to close the file but the file remains in use by my program until my program is totally shut down. What is the solution to free the file so it can be deleted/overwrited? In reality my code isn't a loop without an end ; ) Thanks in advance! Marco

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• PowerShell Script to Deploy Multiple VM on Azure in Parallel #azure #powershell

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  This blog is usually dedicated to Business Intelligence and SQL Server, but I didn’t found easily on the web simple PowerShell scripts to help me deploying a number of virtual machines on Azure that I use for testing and development. Since I need to deploy, start, stop and remove many virtual machines created from a common image I created (you know, Tabular is not part of the standard images provided by Microsoft…), I wanted to minimize the time required to execute every operation from my Windows Azure PowerShell console (but I suggest you using Windows PowerShell ISE), so I also wanted to fire the commands as soon as possible in parallel, without losing the result in the console. In order to execute multiple commands in parallel, I used the Start-Job cmdlet, and using Get-Job and Receive-Job I wait for job completion and display the messages generated during background command execution. This technique allows me to reduce execution time when I have to deploy, start, stop or remove virtual machines. Please note that a few operations on Azure acquire an exclusive lock and cannot be really executed in parallel, but only one part of their execution time is subject to this lock. Thus, you obtain a better response time also in these scenarios (this is the case of the provisioning of a new VM). Finally, when you remove the VMs you still have the disk containing the virtual machine to remove. This cannot be done just after the VM removal, because you have to wait that the removal operation is completed on Azure. So I wrote a script that you have to run a few minutes after VMs removal and delete disks (and VHD) no longer related to a VM. I just check that the disk were associated to the original image name used to provision the VMs (so I don’t remove other disks deployed by other batches that I might want to preserve). These examples are specific for my scenario, if you need more complex configurations you have to change and adapt the code. But if your need is to create multiple instances of the same VM running in a workgroup, these scripts should be good enough. I prepared the following PowerShell scripts: ProvisionVMs: Provision many VMs in parallel starting from the same image. It creates one service for each VM. RemoveVMs: Remove all the VMs in parallel – it also remove the service created for the VM StartVMs: Starts all the VMs in parallel StopVMs: Stops all the VMs in parallel RemoveOrphanDisks: Remove all the disks no longer used by any VMs. Run this script a few minutes after RemoveVMs script. ProvisionVMs # Name of subscription $SubscriptionName = "Copy the SubscriptionName property you get from Get-AzureSubscription"   # Name of storage account (where VMs will be deployed) $StorageAccount = "Copy the Label property you get from Get-AzureStorageAccount"   function ProvisionVM( [string]$VmName ) {     Start-Job -ArgumentList $VmName {         param($VmName) $Location = "Copy the Location property you get from Get-AzureStorageAccount" $InstanceSize = "A5" # You can use any other instance, such as Large, A6, and so on $AdminUsername = "UserName" # Write the name of the administrator account in the new VM $Password = "Password"      # Write the password of the administrator account in the new VM $Image = "Copy the ImageName property you get from Get-AzureVMImage" # You can list your own images using the following command: # Get-AzureVMImage | Where-Object {$_.PublisherName -eq "User" }         New-AzureVMConfig -Name $VmName -ImageName $Image -InstanceSize $InstanceSize |             Add-AzureProvisioningConfig -Windows -Password $Password -AdminUsername $AdminUsername|             New-AzureVM -Location $Location -ServiceName "$VmName" -Verbose     } }   # Set the proper storage - you might remove this line if you have only one storage in the subscription Set-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName -CurrentStorageAccount $StorageAccount   # Select the subscription - this line is fundamental if you have access to multiple subscription # You might remove this line if you have only one subscription Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName   # Every line in the following list provisions one VM using the name specified in the argument # You can change the number of lines - use a unique name for every VM - don't reuse names # already used in other VMs already deployed ProvisionVM "test10" ProvisionVM "test11" ProvisionVM "test12" ProvisionVM "test13" ProvisionVM "test14" ProvisionVM "test15" ProvisionVM "test16" ProvisionVM "test17" ProvisionVM "test18" ProvisionVM "test19" ProvisionVM "test20"   # Wait for all to complete While (Get-Job -State "Running") {     Get-Job -State "Completed" | Receive-Job     Start-Sleep 1 }   # Display output from all jobs Get-Job | Receive-Job   # Cleanup of jobs Remove-Job *   # Displays batch completed echo "Provisioning VM Completed" RemoveVMs # Name of subscription $SubscriptionName = "Copy the SubscriptionName property you get from Get-AzureSubscription"   function RemoveVM( [string]$VmName ) {     Start-Job -ArgumentList $VmName {         param($VmName)         Remove-AzureService -ServiceName $VmName -Force -Verbose     } }   # Select the subscription - this line is fundamental if you have access to multiple subscription # You might remove this line if you have only one subscription Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName   # Every line in the following list remove one VM using the name specified in the argument # You can change the number of lines - use a unique name for every VM - don't reuse names # already used in other VMs already deployed RemoveVM "test10" RemoveVM "test11" RemoveVM "test12" RemoveVM "test13" RemoveVM "test14" RemoveVM "test15" RemoveVM "test16" RemoveVM "test17" RemoveVM "test18" RemoveVM "test19" RemoveVM "test20"   # Wait for all to complete While (Get-Job -State "Running") {     Get-Job -State "Completed" | Receive-Job     Start-Sleep 1 }   # Display output from all jobs Get-Job | Receive-Job   # Cleanup Remove-Job *   # Displays batch completed echo "Remove VM Completed" StartVMs # Name of subscription $SubscriptionName = "Copy the SubscriptionName property you get from Get-AzureSubscription"   function StartVM( [string]$VmName ) {     Start-Job -ArgumentList $VmName {         param($VmName)         Start-AzureVM -Name $VmName -ServiceName $VmName -Verbose     } }   # Select the subscription - this line is fundamental if you have access to multiple subscription # You might remove this line if you have only one subscription Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName   # Every line in the following list starts one VM using the name specified in the argument # You can change the number of lines - use a unique name for every VM - don't reuse names # already used in other VMs already deployed StartVM "test10" StartVM "test11" StartVM "test11" StartVM "test12" StartVM "test13" StartVM "test14" StartVM "test15" StartVM "test16" StartVM "test17" StartVM "test18" StartVM "test19" StartVM "test20"   # Wait for all to complete While (Get-Job -State "Running") {     Get-Job -State "Completed" | Receive-Job     Start-Sleep 1 }   # Display output from all jobs Get-Job | Receive-Job   # Cleanup Remove-Job *   # Displays batch completed echo "Start VM Completed"   StopVMs # Name of subscription $SubscriptionName = "Copy the SubscriptionName property you get from Get-AzureSubscription"   function StopVM( [string]$VmName ) {     Start-Job -ArgumentList $VmName {         param($VmName)         Stop-AzureVM -Name $VmName -ServiceName $VmName -Verbose -Force     } }   # Select the subscription - this line is fundamental if you have access to multiple subscription # You might remove this line if you have only one subscription Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $SubscriptionName   # Every line in the following list stops one VM using the name specified in the argument # You can change the number of lines - use a unique name for every VM - don't reuse names # already used in other VMs already deployed StopVM "test10" StopVM "test11" StopVM "test12" StopVM "test13" StopVM "test14" StopVM "test15" StopVM "test16" StopVM "test17" StopVM "test18" StopVM "test19" StopVM "test20"   # Wait for all to complete While (Get-Job -State "Running") {     Get-Job -State "Completed" | Receive-Job     Start-Sleep 1 }   # Display output from all jobs Get-Job | Receive-Job   # Cleanup Remove-Job *   # Displays batch completed echo "Stop VM Completed" RemoveOrphanDisks $Image = "Copy the ImageName property you get from Get-AzureVMImage" # You can list your own images using the following command: # Get-AzureVMImage | Where-Object {$_.PublisherName -eq "User" }   # Remove all orphan disks coming from the image specified in $ImageName Get-AzureDisk |     Where-Object {$_.attachedto -eq $null -and $_.SourceImageName -eq $ImageName} |     Remove-AzureDisk -DeleteVHD -Verbose  

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• SSIS packages incompatibilities between SSIS 2008 and SSIS 2008 R2

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  When you install SQL 2008 R2 workstation components you get a newer version of BIDS (BI Developer Studio, included in the workstation components) that replaces BIDS 2008 version (BIDS 2005 still live side-by-side). Everything would be good if you can use the newer version to edit any 2008 AND 2008R2 project. SSIS editor doesn't offer a way to set the "compatibility level" of the package, becuase it is almost all unchanged. However, if a package has an ADO.NET Destination Adapter, there is a difference...(read more)

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• How to install SpeedFiler on Outlook 2010 (aka Outlook 14)

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  This is off-topic here on SQLBlog, I know, but I think there will be many users like me wanting to find the solution for this problem. If you have SpeedFiler there is a problem installing it on Outlook 2010. The setup of SpeedFiler stop showing this message: SpeedFiler 2.0.0.0 works with the following products Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 None of these products seems to be installed on your system. SpeedFiler will not be installed. Well, in reality SpeedFiler works...(read more)

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• Difference between LASTDATE and MAX for semi-additive measures in #DAX

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  I recently wrote an article on SQLBI about the semi-additive measures in DAX. I included the formulas common calculations and there is an interesting point that worth a longer digression: the difference between LASTDATE and MAX (which is similar to FIRSTDATE and MIN – I just describe the former, for the latter just replace the correspondent names). LASTDATE is a dax function that receives an argument that has to be a date column and returns the last date active in the current filter context. Apparently, it is the same value returned by MAX, which returns the maximum value of the argument in the current filter context. Of course, MAX can receive any numeric type (including date), whereas LASTDATE only accepts a column of type date. But overall, they seems identical in the result. However, the difference is a semantic one. In fact, this expression: LASTDATE ( 'Date'[Date] ) could be also rewritten as: FILTER ( VALUES ( 'Date'[Date] ), 'Date'[Date] = MAX ( 'Date'[Date] ) ) LASTDATE is a function that returns a table with a single column and one row, whereas MAX returns a scalar value. In DAX, any expression with one row and one column can be automatically converted into the corresponding scalar value of the single cell returned. The opposite is not true. So you can use LASTDATE in any expression where a table or a scalar is required, but MAX can be used only where a scalar expression is expected. Since LASTDATE returns a table, you can use it in any expression that expects a table as an argument, such as COUNTROWS. In fact, you can write this expression: COUNTROWS ( LASTDATE ( 'Date'[Date] ) ) which will always return 1 or BLANK (if there are no dates active in the current filter context). You cannot pass MAX as an argument of COUNTROWS. You can pass to LASTDATE a reference to a column or any table expression that returns a column. The following two syntaxes are semantically identical: LASTDATE ( 'Date'[Date] ) LASTDATE ( VALUES ( 'Date'[Date] ) ) The result is the same and the use of VALUES is not required because it is implicit in the first syntax, unless you have a row context active. In that case, be careful that using in a row context the LASTDATE function with a direct column reference will produce a context transition (the row context is transformed into a filter context) that hides the external filter context, whereas using VALUES in the argument preserve the existing filter context without applying the context transition of the row context (see the columns LastDate and Values in the following query and result). You can use any other table expressions (including a FILTER) as LASTDATE argument. For example, the following expression will always return the last date available in the Date table, regardless of the current filter context: LASTDATE ( ALL ( 'Date'[Date] ) ) The following query recap the result produced by the different syntaxes described. EVALUATE     CALCULATETABLE(         ADDCOLUMNS(              VALUES ('Date'[Date] ),             "LastDate", LASTDATE( 'Date'[Date] ),             "Values", LASTDATE( VALUES ( 'Date'[Date] ) ),             "Filter", LASTDATE( FILTER ( VALUES ( 'Date'[Date] ), 'Date'[Date] = MAX ( 'Date'[Date] ) ) ),             "All", LASTDATE( ALL ( 'Date'[Date] ) ),             "Max", MAX( 'Date'[Date] )         ),         'Date'[Calendar Year] = 2008     ) ORDER BY 'Date'[Date] The LastDate columns repeat the current date, because the context transition happens within the ADDCOLUMNS. The Values column preserve the existing filter context from being replaced by the context transition, so the result corresponds to the last day in year 2008 (which is filtered in the external CALCULATETABLE). The Filter column works like the Values one, even if we use the FILTER instead of the LASTDATE approach. The All column shows the result of LASTDATE ( ALL ( ‘Date’[Date] ) ) that ignores the filter on Calendar Year (in fact the date returned is in year 2010). Finally, the Max column shows the result of the MAX formula, which is the easiest to use and only don’t return a table if you need it (like in a filter argument of CALCULATE or CALCULATETABLE, where using LASTDATE is shorter). I know that using LASTDATE in complex expressions might create some issue. In my experience, the fact that a context transition happens automatically in presence of a row context is the main reason of confusion and unexpected results in DAX formulas using this function. For a reference of DAX formulas using MAX and LASTDATE, read my article about semi-additive measures in DAX.

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• The right way to start out in game development/design [closed]

  - by Marco Sacristão

  Greetings everyone I'm a 19 year old student looking for some help in the field of game development. This question may or may not seem a bit overused, but the fact is that game development has been my life long dream, and after several hours of search I've realized that I've been going in circles for the past three or four months whilst doing such research on how to really get down and dirty with game development, therefor I decided to ask you guys if you could help me out at all. Let me start off with some information about me and things i've already learned about GameDev which might help you out on helping me out (wordplay!): I'm not an expert programmer, but I do have knowledge on how to program in several languages including C and Java (Currently learning Java in my degree in Computer Engineering), but my methodology might not be most correct in terms of syntax (hence my difficulty in starting out, i'm afraid that the starting point might not be the most correct, and it would deploy a wrongful development methodology that would be to corrected later on, in terms of game development or other projects). I have yet to work in a project as large as a game, never in my learning curve of programming I've done a project to the scale of a video game, only very small software (PHP Front-ends and Back-ends, with some basic JQuery and CSS knowledge). I'm not the biggest mathematician or physicist, but I already know that is not a problem, because there are several game engines already available for use and integration with home-made projects (Box2D, etc). I've also learned about some libraries that could be included in said projects, to ease out some process in game development, like SDL for example. I do not know how sprites, states, particles or any specific game-related techniques work. With that being said, you can see that I have some ideas on game development, but I have absolutely no clue on how to design and produce a game, or even how game-like mechanics work. It does not have to be a complex game just to start out, I'd rather learn the basic of game design (Like 2D drawing, tiling, object collision) and test that out in a language that I feel comfortable in which could be later on migrated to other platforms, as long that what I've learned is the correct way to do things, and not just something that I've learned from some guy on Youtube by replicating that code on the video. I'm sorry if my question is not in the best format possible, but I've got so many questions on my mind that are still un-answered that I don't know were to start! Thank you for reading.

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• Optimize SUMMARIZE with ADDCOLUMNS in Dax #ssas #tabular #dax #powerpivot

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  If you started using DAX as a query language, you might have encountered some performance issues by using SUMMARIZE. The problem is related to the calculation you put in the SUMMARIZE, by adding what are called extension columns, which compute their value within a filter context defined by the rows considered in the group that the SUMMARIZE uses to produce each row in the output. Most of the time, for simple table expressions used in the first parameter of SUMMARIZE, you can optimize performance by removing the extended columns from the SUMMARIZE and adding them by using an ADDCOLUMNS function. In practice, instead of writing SUMMARIZE( <table>, <group_by_column>, <column_name>, <expression> ) you can write: ADDCOLUMNS(     SUMMARIZE( <table>, <group by column> ),     <column_name>, CALCULATE( <expression> ) ) The performance difference might be huge (orders of magnitude) but this optimization might produce a different semantic and in these cases it should not be used. A longer discussion of this topic is included in my Best Practices Using SUMMARIZE and ADDCOLUMNS article on SQLBI, which also include several details about the DAX syntax with extended columns. For example, did you know that you can create an extended column in SUMMARIZE and ADDCOLUMNS with the same name of existing measures? It is *not* a good thing to do, and by reading the article you will discover why. Enjoy DAX!

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• Implement Budget Allocation in DAX for Power Pivot and Tabular #powerpivot #tabular #ssas #dax

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  Comparing sales and budget, or costs and budget, is a very common operation. However, it is often the case that you have different granularities for different tables containing budget and the data to compare with. There are two ways to do that: you can limit the comparison to the granularity that is common to the two tables, or you can allocate the budget where it’s not defined. For example, if you have a budget defined by quarter and category, you might want to allocate it by month and product. In this way, you will do the comparison as you had a more granular definition of the budget, without actually having to do the manual job of allocating data (usually in an Excel worksheet!). If you want to do budget allocation in DAX, you can use the Budget Patterns we published on DAX Patterns. If you come from and MDX/OLAP background, at first you might find it hard to solve the problem of not having attribute hierarchies that helps you in propagating the budget values to lower hierarchical levels. However, I think that once you get used to DAX, you will find the behavior very predictable and easy to “debug” also for more complex allocation formula. You just have to be careful in writing the DAX formula, but probably the pattern we wrote should help you designing the right data model, without creating physical relationships to the budget table! This pattern is also based on the Handling Different Granularities scenario I discussed a couple of weeks ago.

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• DATE function does not support all the dates in DAX by design #powerpivot #tabular #dax

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  The DATE function in DAX has this simple syntax: DATE( <year>, <month>, <day> ) If you are like me, you never read the BOL notes that says in a clear way that it supports dates beginning with March 1, 1900. In fact, I was wrongly assuming that it would have supported any date that can be represented in a Date data type in Data Models, so all the dates beginning with January 1, 1900. The funny thing is that in some of the BOL documentation you will find that Date data type supports dates after March 1, 1900 (which seems not including that date, but this is a detail…). But we should not digress. The real issue is that if you try to call the DATE function passing values between January 1 and February 28, 1900, you will see a different day as a result. evaluate row ( "x", DATE( 1900, 1, 1 ) ) -- return WRONG result -- [x] 12/31/1899 12:00:00 AM   evaluate row ( "x", DATE( 1901, 2, 29 ) ) -- return WRONG result -- [x] 2/28/1900 12:00:00 AM   evaluate row ( "x", DATE( 1900, 3, 1 ) ) -- return CORRECT result -- [x] 3/1/1900 12:00:00 AM As usual, this is not a bug. It is “by design”. The DATE function works in this way in Excel. And also in Excel it was “by design”. In this case the design is having the same bug of Lotus 1-2-3 that handled 1900 a leap year, even though it isn’t. The first release of Lotus 1-2-3 is dated 1983. I hope many of my readers are younger than that. I tried to open a bug in Connect. Please vote it. I would like if Microsoft changed this type of items from “by design” (as we can expect) to “by genetic disease”. Or by “historical respect”, in order to be more politically correct.

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• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services – The BISM Tabular Model #ssas #tabular #bism

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  I, Alberto and Chris spent many months (many nights, holidays and also working days of the last months) writing the book we would have liked to read when we started working with Analysis Services Tabular. A book that explains how to use Tabular, how to model data with Tabular, how Tabular internally works and how to optimize a Tabular model. All those things you need to start on a real project in order to make an happy customer. You know, we’re all consultants after all, so customer satisfaction is really important to be paid for our job! Now the book writing is finished, we’re in the final stage of editing and reviews and we look forward to get our print copy. Its title is very long: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services – The BISM Tabular Model. But the important thing is that you can already (pre)order it. This is the list of chapters: 01. BISM Architecture 02. Guided Tour on Tabular 03. Loading Data Inside Tabular 04. DAX Basics 05. Understanding Evaluation Contexts 06. Querying Tabular 07. DAX Advanced 08. Understanding Time Intelligence in DAX 09. Vertipaq Engine 10. Using Tabular Hierarchies 11. Data modeling in Tabular 12. Using Advanced Tabular Relationships 13. Tabular Presentation Layer 14. Tabular and PowerPivot for Excel 15. Tabular Security 16. Interfacing with Tabular 17. Tabular Deployment 18. Optimization and Monitoring And this is the book cover – have a good read!

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• #PowerPivot Workshop Online for America’s Time Zones #ppws

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  After so many request we have finally arranged a PowerPivot Workshop online edition dedicated to America’s time zones! It is scheduled for December 19-20, 2012, with this schedule: US Eastern Time (EST): 10:00am-1:00pm / 2:00pm-5:00pm US Central Time (CST): 9:00am-12:00pm / 1:00pm-4:00pm US Pacific Time (PST): 7:00am-10:00am / 11:00am-1:00pm Bogotá (Colombia): 10:00am-1:00pm / 2:00pm-5:00pm São Paulo (Brazil): 1:00pm-4:00pm / 5:00pm-8:00pm Buenos Aires (Argentina): 12:00pm-3:00pm / 4:00pm-7:00pm...(read more)

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• xVelocity engines compared: VertiPaq vs ColumnStore #ssas #vertipaq #xvelocity #sql #tabular

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  During the last months I and Alberto worked in several projects using Analysis Services Tabular and we had to face real world issues, such as complex queries, large data volume, frequent data updates and so on. Sometime we faced the challenge of comparing Tabular performance with SQL Server. It seemed a non-sense, because even if the same core xVelocity technology is implemented in both products (SQL Server 2012 uses ColumnStore indexes, whereas Analysis Services 2012 uses VertiPaq), we initially assumed that the better optimization for the in-memory engine used by Analysis Services would have been always better than SQL Server. However, we discovered several important things: Processing time might be different and having data on SQL Server could make ColumnStore way faster for processing. Partitioning in SQL Server might be much more effective for query performance than Analysis Services. A single query can scale easily on more processor on SQL Server, whereas in Analysis Services the formula engine is single-threaded and could be a bottleneck for certain queries. In case of a large workload with many concurrent users, storage engine cache in Analysis Services could be a big advantage over SQL Server, especially for scalability As you can see, these considerations are not always obvious and you might be tempted to make other assumptions based on these information. Well, don’t do that. Before anything else, read the whitepaper VertiPaq vs ColumnStore Comparison written by Alberto Ferrari. Then, measure your workload. Finally, make some conclusion. But don’t make too many assumptions. You might be wrong, as we did at the beginning of this journey.

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• New licensing for SQL Server 2012 and #BISM #Tabular usage

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  Last week Microsoft announced a new licensing schema for SQL Server 2012. If you are interested in an extensive discussion of the new licensing scheme, Denny Cherry wrote a great blog post about that. I’d like to comment about the new BI Edition license. Teo Lachev already commented about the numbers and I agree with him. I generally like the new licensing mode of SQL 2012. It maintains a very low-entry barrier for SSRS/SSAS/SSIS (Standard Edition). It has a reasonable licensing schema for 20-50...(read more)

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• ASSIMP in my program is much slower to import than ASSIMP view program

  - by Marco

  The problem is really simple: if I try to load with the function aiImportFileExWithProperties a big model in my software (around 200.000 vertices), it takes more than one minute. If I try to load the very same model with ASSIMP view, it takes 2 seconds. For this comparison, both my software and Assimp view are using the dll version of the library at 64 bit, compiled by myself (Assimp64.dll). This is the relevant piece of code in my software // default pp steps unsigned int ppsteps = aiProcess_CalcTangentSpace | // calculate tangents and bitangents if possible aiProcess_JoinIdenticalVertices | // join identical vertices/ optimize indexing aiProcess_ValidateDataStructure | // perform a full validation of the loader's output aiProcess_ImproveCacheLocality | // improve the cache locality of the output vertices aiProcess_RemoveRedundantMaterials | // remove redundant materials aiProcess_FindDegenerates | // remove degenerated polygons from the import aiProcess_FindInvalidData | // detect invalid model data, such as invalid normal vectors aiProcess_GenUVCoords | // convert spherical, cylindrical, box and planar mapping to proper UVs aiProcess_TransformUVCoords | // preprocess UV transformations (scaling, translation ...) aiProcess_FindInstances | // search for instanced meshes and remove them by references to one master aiProcess_LimitBoneWeights | // limit bone weights to 4 per vertex aiProcess_OptimizeMeshes | // join small meshes, if possible; aiProcess_SplitByBoneCount | // split meshes with too many bones. Necessary for our (limited) hardware skinning shader 0; cout << "Loading " << pFile << "... "; aiPropertyStore* props = aiCreatePropertyStore(); aiSetImportPropertyInteger(props,AI_CONFIG_IMPORT_TER_MAKE_UVS,1); aiSetImportPropertyFloat(props,AI_CONFIG_PP_GSN_MAX_SMOOTHING_ANGLE,80.f); aiSetImportPropertyInteger(props,AI_CONFIG_PP_SBP_REMOVE, aiPrimitiveType_LINE | aiPrimitiveType_POINT); aiSetImportPropertyInteger(props,AI_CONFIG_GLOB_MEASURE_TIME,1); //aiSetImportPropertyInteger(props,AI_CONFIG_PP_PTV_KEEP_HIERARCHY,1); // Call ASSIMPs C-API to load the file scene = (aiScene*)aiImportFileExWithProperties(pFile.c_str(), ppsteps | /* default pp steps */ aiProcess_GenSmoothNormals | // generate smooth normal vectors if not existing aiProcess_SplitLargeMeshes | // split large, unrenderable meshes into submeshes aiProcess_Triangulate | // triangulate polygons with more than 3 edges //aiProcess_ConvertToLeftHanded | // convert everything to D3D left handed space aiProcess_SortByPType | // make 'clean' meshes which consist of a single typ of primitives 0, NULL, props); aiReleasePropertyStore(props); if(!scene){ cout << aiGetErrorString() << endl; return 0; } this is the relevant piece of code in assimp view code // default pp steps unsigned int ppsteps = aiProcess_CalcTangentSpace | // calculate tangents and bitangents if possible aiProcess_JoinIdenticalVertices | // join identical vertices/ optimize indexing aiProcess_ValidateDataStructure | // perform a full validation of the loader's output aiProcess_ImproveCacheLocality | // improve the cache locality of the output vertices aiProcess_RemoveRedundantMaterials | // remove redundant materials aiProcess_FindDegenerates | // remove degenerated polygons from the import aiProcess_FindInvalidData | // detect invalid model data, such as invalid normal vectors aiProcess_GenUVCoords | // convert spherical, cylindrical, box and planar mapping to proper UVs aiProcess_TransformUVCoords | // preprocess UV transformations (scaling, translation ...) aiProcess_FindInstances | // search for instanced meshes and remove them by references to one master aiProcess_LimitBoneWeights | // limit bone weights to 4 per vertex aiProcess_OptimizeMeshes | // join small meshes, if possible; aiProcess_SplitByBoneCount | // split meshes with too many bones. Necessary for our (limited) hardware skinning shader 0; aiPropertyStore* props = aiCreatePropertyStore(); aiSetImportPropertyInteger(props,AI_CONFIG_IMPORT_TER_MAKE_UVS,1); aiSetImportPropertyFloat(props,AI_CONFIG_PP_GSN_MAX_SMOOTHING_ANGLE,g_smoothAngle); aiSetImportPropertyInteger(props,AI_CONFIG_PP_SBP_REMOVE,nopointslines ? aiPrimitiveType_LINE | aiPrimitiveType_POINT : 0 ); aiSetImportPropertyInteger(props,AI_CONFIG_GLOB_MEASURE_TIME,1); //aiSetImportPropertyInteger(props,AI_CONFIG_PP_PTV_KEEP_HIERARCHY,1); // Call ASSIMPs C-API to load the file g_pcAsset->pcScene = (aiScene*)aiImportFileExWithProperties(g_szFileName, ppsteps | /* configurable pp steps */ aiProcess_GenSmoothNormals | // generate smooth normal vectors if not existing aiProcess_SplitLargeMeshes | // split large, unrenderable meshes into submeshes aiProcess_Triangulate | // triangulate polygons with more than 3 edges aiProcess_ConvertToLeftHanded | // convert everything to D3D left handed space aiProcess_SortByPType | // make 'clean' meshes which consist of a single typ of primitives 0, NULL, props); aiReleasePropertyStore(props); As you can see the code is nearly identical because I copied from assimp view. What could be the reason for such a difference in performance? The two software are using the same dll Assimp64.dll (compiled in my computer with vc++ 2010 express) and the same function aiImportFileExWithProperties to load the model, so I assume that the actual code employed is the same. How is it possible that the function aiImportFileExWithProperties is 100 times slower when called by my sotware than when called by assimp view? What am I missing? I am not good with dll, dynamic and static libraries so I might be missing something obvious. ------------------------------ UPDATE I found out the reason why the code is going slower. Basically I was running my software with "Start debugging" in VC++ 2010 Express. If I run the code outside VC++ 2010 I get same performance of assimp view. However now I have a new question. Why does the dll perform slower in VC++ debugging? I compiled it in release mode without debugging information. Is there any way to have the dll go fast in debugmode i.e. not debugging the dll? Because I am interested in debugging only my own code, not the dll that I assume is already working fine. I do not want to wait 2 minutes every time I want to load my software to debug. Does this request make sense?

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• Converting #MDX to #DAX and PowerPivot Workshop online #ppws

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  I just published the article Converting MDX to DAX – First Steps on the renewed SQLBI web site about converting MDX to DAX. The reason is that with BISM Tabular in Analysis Services 2012 you will be able to write queries in both DAX and MDX. If you already know MDX, you might wonder how to “translate” your MDX knowledge in DAX. I think that this is another way you can improve your knowledge about DAX: it has different concepts behind and this comparison should be helpful in this purpose. This is...(read more)

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• New training on Power Pivot with recorded video courses

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  I and Alberto Ferrari started delivering training on Power Pivot in 2010, initially in classrooms and then also online. We also recorded videos for Project Botticelli, where you can find content about Microsoft tools and services for Business Intelligence. In the last months, we produced a recorded video course for people that want to learn Power Pivot without attending a scheduled course. We split the entire Power Pivot course training in three editions, offering at a lower price the more introductive modules: Beginner: introduces Power Pivot to any user who knows Excel and want to create reports with more complex and large data structures than a single table. Intermediate: improves skills on Power Pivot for Excel, introducing the DAX language and important features such as CALCULATE and Time Intelligence functions. Advanced: includes a depth coverage of the DAX language, which is required for writing complex calculations, and other advanced features of both Excel and Power Pivot. There are also two bundles, that includes two or three editions at a lower price. Most important, we have a special 40% launch discount on all published video courses using the coupon SQLBI-FRNDS-14 valid until August 31, 2014. Just follow the link to see a more complete description of the editions available and their discounted prices. Regular prices start at $29, which means that you can start a training with less than $18 using the special promotion. P.S.: we recently launched a new responsive version of the SQLBI web site, and now we also have a page dedicated to all videos available about our sessions in conferences around the world. You can find more than 30 hours of free videos here: http://www.sqlbi.com/tv.

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• DIVIDE vs division operator in #dax

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  Alberto Ferrari wrote an interesting article about DIVIDE performance in DAX. This new function has been introduced in SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 SP1, so it is available also in Excel 2013 (which still doesn’t have other features/fixes introduced by following Cumulative Updates…). The idea that instead of writing: IF ( Sales[Quantity] <> 0, Sales[Amount] / Sales[Quantity], BLANK () ) you can write: DIVIDE ( Sales[Amount], Sales[Quantity] ) There is a third optional argument in DIVIDE that defines the result in case the denominator (second argument) is zero, and by default its value is BLANK, so I omitted the third argument in my example. Using DIVIDE is very important, especially when you use a measure in MDX (for example in an Excel PivotTable) because it raise the chance that the non empty evaluation for the result is evaluated in bulk mode instead of cell-by-cell. However, from a DAX point of view, you might find it’s better to use the standard division operator removing the IF statement. I suggest you to read Alberto’s article, because you will find that an expression applying a filter using FILTER is faster than using CALCULATE, which is against any rule of thumb you might have read until now! Again, this is not always true, and depends on many conditions – trying to simplify, we might say that for a simple calculation, the query plan generated by FILTER could be more efficient – but, as usual, it depends, and 90% of the times using FILTER instead of CALCULATE produces slower performance. Do not take anything for granted, and always check the query plan when performance are your first issue!

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• A new SQL, a new Analysis Services, a new Workshop! #ssas #sql2012

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  One week ago Microsoft SQL Server 2012 finally debuted with a virtual launch event and you can find many intro sessions there (20 minutes each). There is a lot of new content available if you want to learn more about SQL 2012 and in this blog post I’d like to provide a few link to sessions, documents, bits and courses that are available now or very soon. First of all, the release of Analysis Services 2012 has finally released PowerPivot 2012 (many of us called it PowerPivot v2 before this official name) and also the new Data Mining Add-in for Microsoft Office 2010, now available also for Excel 64bit! And, of course, don’t miss the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack, there are a lot of upgrades for both DBAs and developers. I just discovered there is a new LocalDB version of SQL Express that can run in user mode without any setup. Is this the end of SQL CE? But now, back to Analysis Services: if you want some tutorial on Tabular, the Microsoft Virtual Academy has a whole track dedicated to Analysis Services 2012 but you will probably be interested also in the one about Reporting Services 2012. If you think that virtual is good but it’s not enough, there are plenty of conferences in the coming months – these are just those where I and Alberto will deliver some SSAS Tabular presentations: SQLBits X, London, March 29-31, 2012: if you are in London or want a good reason to go, this is the most important SQL Server event in Europe this year, no doubts about it. And not only because of the high number of attendees, but also because there is an impressive number of speakers (excluding me, of course) coming from all over the world. This is an event second only to PASS Summit in Seattle so there are no good reasons to not attend it. Microsoft SQL Server & Business Intelligence Conference 2012, Milan, March 28-29, 2012: this is an Italian conference so the language might be a barrier, but many of us also speak English and the food is good! Just a few seats still available. TechEd North America, Orlando, June 11-14, 2012: you know, this is a big event and it contains everything – if you want to spend a whole day learning the SSAS Tabular model with me and Alberto, don’t miss our pre-conference day “Using BISM Tabular in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2012” (be careful, it is on June 10, a nice study-Sunday!). TechEd Europe, Amsterdam, June 26-29, 2012: the European version of TechEd provides almost the same content and you don’t have to go overseas. We also run the same pre-conference day “Using BISM Tabular in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2012” (in this case, it is on June 25, that’s a regular Monday). I and Alberto will also speak at some user group meeting around Europe during… well, we’re going to travel a lot in the next months. In fact, if you want to get a complete training on SSAS Tabular, you should spend two days with us in one of our SSAS Tabular Workshop! We prepared a 2-day seminar, a very intense one, that start from the simple tabular modeling and cover architecture, DAX, query, advanced modeling, security, deployment, optimization, monitoring, relationships with PowerPivot and Multidimensional… Really, there are a lot of stuffs here! We announced the first dates in Europe and also an online edition optimized for America’s time zone: Apr 16-17, 2012 – Amsterdam, Netherlands Apr 26-27, 2012 – Copenhagen, Denmark May 7-8, 2012 – Online for America’s time zone May 14-15, 2012 – Brussels, Belgium May 21-22, 2012 – Oslo, Norway May 24-25, 2012 – Stockholm, Sweden May 28-29, 2012 – London, United Kingdom May 31-Jun 1, 2012 – Milan, Italy (Italian language) Also Chris Webb will join us in this workshop and in every date you can find who is the speaker on the web site. The course is based on our upcoming book, almost 600 pages (!) about SSAS Tabular, an incredible effort that will be available very soon in a preview (rough cuts from O’Reilly) and will be on the shelf in May. I will provide a link to order it as soon as we have one! And if you think that this is not enough… you’re right! Do you know what is the only thing you can do to optimize your Tabular model? Optimize your DAX code. Learning DAX is easy, mastering DAX requires some knowledge… and our DAX Advanced Workshop will provide exactly the required content. Public classes will be available later this year, by now we just deliver it on demand.

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• Donald Farmer left Microsoft for QlikView

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  As many of you probably already know, Donald Farmer left Microsoft to join QlikView . There are no doubts that Donald have been “the face of Microsoft BI” in the last years. This news has been initially perceived (me included, I admit) as a possible lack of confidence in Microsoft BI Vision, but after reading his blog and many other comments from Microsoft people, I can say it is not. This is more a personal choice, looking for a new challenge in a brilliant career in a relatively smaller environment...(read more)

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• SSAS Maestro Training in July 2012 #ssasmaestro #ssas

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  A few hours ago Chris Webb blogged about SSAS Maestro and I’d like to propagate the news, adding also some background info. SSAS Maestro is the premier certification on Analysis Services that selects the best experts in Analysis Services around the world. In 2011 Microsoft organized two rounds of training/exams for SSAS Maestros and up to now only 11 people from the first wave have been announced – around 10% of attendees of the course! In the next few days the new Maestros from the second round should be announced and this long process is caused by many factors that I’m going to explain. First, the course is just a step in the process. Before the course you receive a list of topics to study, including the slides of the course. During the course, students receive a lot of information that might not have been included in the slides and the best part of the course is class interaction. Students are expected to bring their experience to the table and comparing case studies, experiences and having long debates is an important part of the learning process. And it is also a part of the evaluation: good questions might be also more important than good answers! Finally, after the course, students have their homework and this may require one or two months to be completed. After that, a long (very long) evaluation process begins, taking into account homework, labs, participation… And for this reason the final evaluation may arrive months later after the course. We are going to improve and shorten this process with the next courses. The first wave of SSAS Maestro had been made by invitation only and now the program is opening, requiring a fee to participate in order to cover the cost of preparation, training and exam. The number of attendees will be limited and candidates will have to send their CV in order to be admitted to the course. Only experienced Analysis Services developers will be able to participate to this challenging program. So why you should do that? Well, only 10% of students passed the exam until now. So if you need 100% guarantee to pass the exam, you need to study a lot, before, during and after the course. But the course by itself is a precious opportunity to share experience, create networking and learn mission-critical enterprise-level best practices that it’s hard to find written on books. Oh, well, many existing white papers are a required reading *before* the course! The course is now 5 days long, and every day can be *very* long. We’ll have lectures and discussions in the morning and labs in the afternoon/evening. Plus some more lectures in one or two afternoons. A heavy part of the course is about performance optimization, capacity planning, monitoring. This edition will introduce also Tabular models, and don’t expect something you might find in the SSAS Tabular Workshop – only performance, scalability monitoring and optimization will be covered, knowing Analysis Services is a requirement just to be accepted! I and Chris Webb will be the teachers for this edition. The course is expensive. Applying for SSAS Maestro will cost around 7000€ plus taxes (reduced to 5000€ for students of a previous SSAS Maestro edition). And you will be locked in a training room for the large part of the week. So why you should do that? Well, as I said, this is a challenging course. You will not find the time to check your email – the content is just too much interesting to think you can be distracted by something else. Another good reason is that this course will take place in Italy. Well, the course will take place in the brand new Microsoft Innovation Campus, but in general we’ll be able to provide you hints to get great food and, if you are willing to attach one week-end to your trip, there are plenty of places to visit (and I’m not talking about the classic Rome-Florence-Venice) – you might really need to relax after such a week! Finally, the marking process after the course will be faster – we’d like to complete the evaluation within three months after the course, considering that 1-2 months might be required to complete the homework. If at this point you are not scared: registration will open in mid-April, but you can already write to [email protected] sending your CV/resume and a short description of your level of SSAS knowledge and experience. The selection process will start early and you may want to put your admission form on top of the FIFO queue!

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• A new SQL, a new Analysis Services, a new Workshop! #ssas #sql2012

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  One week ago Microsoft SQL Server 2012 finally debuted with a virtual launch event and you can find many intro sessions there (20 minutes each). There is a lot of new content available if you want to learn more about SQL 2012 and in this blog post I’d like to provide a few link to sessions, documents, bits and courses that are available now or very soon. First of all, the release of Analysis Services 2012 has finally released PowerPivot 2012 (many of us called it PowerPivot v2 before this official name) and also the new Data Mining Add-in for Microsoft Office 2010, now available also for Excel 64bit! And, of course, don’t miss the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack, there are a lot of upgrades for both DBAs and developers. I just discovered there is a new LocalDB version of SQL Express that can run in user mode without any setup. Is this the end of SQL CE? But now, back to Analysis Services: if you want some tutorial on Tabular, the Microsoft Virtual Academy has a whole track dedicated to Analysis Services 2012 but you will probably be interested also in the one about Reporting Services 2012. If you think that virtual is good but it’s not enough, there are plenty of conferences in the coming months – these are just those where I and Alberto will deliver some SSAS Tabular presentations: SQLBits X, London, March 29-31, 2012: if you are in London or want a good reason to go, this is the most important SQL Server event in Europe this year, no doubts about it. And not only because of the high number of attendees, but also because there is an impressive number of speakers (excluding me, of course) coming from all over the world. This is an event second only to PASS Summit in Seattle so there are no good reasons to not attend it. Microsoft SQL Server & Business Intelligence Conference 2012, Milan, March 28-29, 2012: this is an Italian conference so the language might be a barrier, but many of us also speak English and the food is good! Just a few seats still available. TechEd North America, Orlando, June 11-14, 2012: you know, this is a big event and it contains everything – if you want to spend a whole day learning the SSAS Tabular model with me and Alberto, don’t miss our pre-conference day “Using BISM Tabular in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2012” (be careful, it is on June 10, a nice study-Sunday!). TechEd Europe, Amsterdam, June 26-29, 2012: the European version of TechEd provides almost the same content and you don’t have to go overseas. We also run the same pre-conference day “Using BISM Tabular in Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2012” (in this case, it is on June 25, that’s a regular Monday). I and Alberto will also speak at some user group meeting around Europe during… well, we’re going to travel a lot in the next months. In fact, if you want to get a complete training on SSAS Tabular, you should spend two days with us in one of our SSAS Tabular Workshop! We prepared a 2-day seminar, a very intense one, that start from the simple tabular modeling and cover architecture, DAX, query, advanced modeling, security, deployment, optimization, monitoring, relationships with PowerPivot and Multidimensional… Really, there are a lot of stuffs here! We announced the first dates in Europe and also an online edition optimized for America’s time zone: Apr 16-17, 2012 – Amsterdam, Netherlands Apr 26-27, 2012 – Copenhagen, Denmark May 7-8, 2012 – Online for America’s time zone May 14-15, 2012 – Brussels, Belgium May 21-22, 2012 – Oslo, Norway May 24-25, 2012 – Stockholm, Sweden May 28-29, 2012 – London, United Kingdom May 31-Jun 1, 2012 – Milan, Italy (Italian language) Also Chris Webb will join us in this workshop and in every date you can find who is the speaker on the web site. The course is based on our upcoming book, almost 600 pages (!) about SSAS Tabular, an incredible effort that will be available very soon in a preview (rough cuts from O’Reilly) and will be on the shelf in May. I will provide a link to order it as soon as we have one! And if you think that this is not enough… you’re right! Do you know what is the only thing you can do to optimize your Tabular model? Optimize your DAX code. Learning DAX is easy, mastering DAX requires some knowledge… and our DAX Advanced Workshop will provide exactly the required content. Public classes will be available later this year, by now we just deliver it on demand.

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• Watch @marcorus and @ferrarialberto sessions online #teched #msteched #tee2012

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  In June I participated to two TechEd editions (North America and Europe). I and Alberto delivered a Pre Conference and two sessions about Tabular. Both conferences provides recorded sessions freely available on Channel 9 so that you can compare which one has been delivered in the best way! If you have to choose between the two versions, consider that in North America we receive more questions during and after the session (still recording), increasing the interaction, whereas in Europe questions usually comes after the session finished (so no recording available). If you’re curious, watch both and let me know which version you prefer, especially for Multidimensional vs Tabular! BISM: Multidimensional vs. Tabular (TechEd North America 2012) BISM: Multidimensional vs. Tabular (TechEd Europe 2012) Many-to-Many Relationships in BISM Tabular (TechEd North America 2012) Many-to-Many Relationships in BISM Tabular (TechEd Europe 2012) If you are interested to learn SSAS Tabular, don’t miss the next SSAS Tabular Workshop online on September 3-4, 2012. We are also planning dates for another roadshow in Europe this fall and I’m happy to announce we’ll have two dates in Germany, too. More updates in the coming weeks.

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• Image libraries sites to download pro images with no credits expiration policy

  - by Marco Demaio

  I found professional image libraries sites like http://www.istockphoto.com or http://www.dreamstime.com are quite useful to add some cool images to a website either when filling its contents or when designing its graphic layout. Unfortunately both of the site I listed above use credits plans that expires after 12 months: you buy credits (using real bucks) and then you can download images, but if you don't use all the credits within 1 year, thay suck them out from your virtual wallet (I think it's really unfair, but too bad for you, that's their policy). Do you know about other good image libraries sites (from your real life experience) that use credits to download images, but thay don't expire after 12 months? Obviously I won't ignore your suggestions about any other image libraries sites.

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• Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010 – book coming in September

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  As you might already know, I and Alberto Ferrari are writing a book about PowerPivot 2010 for Excel. The official title is Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Give Your Data Meaning and you can already order it on Amazon ! However, it will be published in September 2010, and it is reasonable considered we are still in writing mode… Well, before buying it, consider that we are writing the book for the “real user” of PowerPivot, who doesn’t have a knowledge of MDX, multidimensional databases, ETL,...(read more)

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