Speaker: Eric Nelson http://blogs.msdn.com/ericnel

Thanks to all those who listened to my session. Apologies that we did run out of time (as I suspected – but still sorry)

Some answers to Q&A during the breaks:

• What are the differences between the Express edition and the Compact Edition? Nicely summarised here.
• Does normal backup/restore work with Filestream? Yes (see the article link below)
• How convert from postcode to coordinates? Various services are out there. Try nearby (link below) as a starter.

Links

• Code for my demos is attached.
• SQL Server 2008 http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008 
• SQL Server 2008 Express – download the free version http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql/ 
• Filestream Article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc949109.aspx 
• Spatial demo
• Generate INSERT statement (remember – build polygon anti clockwise!)  http://mikeo.co.uk/demo/sqlspatial/
• Plot spatial data on Virtual Earth (as extracted from SQL 2008) http://mikeo.co.uk/demo/sqlspatial/visualise.aspx 
• Find latitude and longitude from postcode. Several free services. Try http://www.nearby.org.uk/api/
• NOTE: We all think latitude and longitude. BUT spatial sw (such as SQL 2008) is longitude then latitude
• Microsofts Strategic ORM (Object Relational Mapping) technology is ADO.NET Entity Framework.
  • Released August 2008 as part of Visual Studio 2008 SP1
  • Works with SQL Server, Oracle, MySql etc to expose relational tables as Objects and simplify db development
  • MSDN Library http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/bb399572.aspx
• Microsoft SQL Data Services, part of the recently announced Azure Services Platform
• Stores data in “the cloud” – a Microsoft managed database service accessible via SOAP or simple HTTP (REST). Move all/some of your data off premise.
• On MSDN (SDK etc to download) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/dataservices/default.aspx