Reed Me : free stuff

Two links I want to save for l8r: WM6.5 DTK and Windows API Code Pack for .NET 3.5

reedme — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:59:41 GMT

From the MSDN Flash dated 20090623:

Download the Free Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework
The Code Pack is a source-code library that provides access to the new Windows 7 features (and some related Windows Vista features) from managed code. These features are not available to developers today in the .NET Framework. Minimum .NET Framework version required to use this library is 3.5.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit Released
While this has been a much-awaited release for the developer community, some confusion has arisen in the media. To clarify, the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit (DTK) is not an SDK. The DTK contains emulators, gesture APIs, and samples useful for developing Windows Mobile 6.5 applications. Developers will still need to install Visual Studio and the Windows Mobile 6 SDK prior to running the tool kit installer.

Now back to my regularly scheduled interruption.

[Corrected the reversed links. Doh. Thanks, Chris! Now let’s see if Live Writer dupes the post or just updates it.]

Sybase loves AdventureWorks2008?

reedme — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:24:38 GMT

A SQL Ranger friend of mine in the UK gave me the heads up to this yesterday. (Thanks, Ben!!) Apparently, back in December 2008, Sybase ported some of our samples to SQL Anywhere. Needless to say, I’ve got mixed feelings about Sybase porting AdventureWorks to their platform. Sort of like a cherry-cheese Danish: it’s a pastry and pastries are supposed to taste good, right? But cherries and cheese? Ick. (I’m on a severely calorically restricted diet; sorry for the digression.)

As SQL Server 2008 and SQL Anywhere 11 are two very different database solutions, the ‘AdventureWorks2008’ database will appear slightly different, and offer a few functional differences. These incongruities are the result of different feature sets, which are intrinsic to each database’s design. AdventureWorks2008 Sample Database for SQL Anywhere Download: Mobile Enterprise, Database Management iAnywhere - Sybase Inc

We license AdventureWorks under the Ms-PL, so anybody’s welcome to do whatever they want with our code. It’s out there for learning purposes. Sybase seems to have learned that SQL Anywhere 11 doesn’t do a lot of the really cool things that SQL Server 2008 does! They only ported the OLTP database – I wonder why they ignored DW and LT??

The Sybase port of AdventureWorks2008 drops the following features:

They dropped all the spatial columns because SQL Anywhere doesn’t have a geography type.
They dropped Try/Catch error handling in all stored procedures, since they can’t do that.
They dropped DDL triggers, because SQL Anywhere doesn’t have them.
They dropped all stored procedures with recursive queries, because they don’t support them.
They dropped all Full Text indexes and queries, since SQL Anywhere doesn’t do that, either, I guess.
They dropped or modified all tables with HierarchyID columns, because they don’t have that data type.
They dropped all the tables with XML data, or omitted the XML columns, because they don’t support the same XML query lingo and have no XML index support.
They dropped all the indexed views, because SQL Anywhere doesn’t do that,either.
They dropped all the views that use PIVOT, because (guess what?) they don’t have that keyword.
They had to modify a bunch of stored procedures because they don’t support EXECUTE AS CALLER. (Did I mention that they had to drop all the Try/Catch support, too?)
They had to emasculate most of the trigger functionality (not counting the DDL triggers they had to drop outright), because they don’t support those features. Such as dropping Try/Catch support to throw exceptions instead of logging and always updating certain columns (even when not appropriate for the business rules):

HumanResources.dEmployee
Person.iuPerson
Production.iWorker
Production.uWorkOrder
Purchasing.iPurchaseOrderDetail
Purchasing.uPurchaseOrderHeader
Purchasing.uPurchaseOrderDetail
Purchasing.uPurchaseOrderHeader
Purchasing.dVendor
Sales.iduSalesOrderDetail
Sales.uSalesOrderHeader

They had to truncate all the binary image columns to 32,767 bytes (which will break all the ones bigger than that) because SQL Anywhere doesn’t have a large binary type apparently. Whoops!

Anyway, I don’t have a SQL Anywhere installation to try it out on, but that list from their own website reads (to me) like a list of reasons to use SQL Server 2008 instead. It looks like they ported our .NET samples for AdventureWorks2008, too, so I have to wonder if they’re equally limited as the AdventureWorks2008 port?

I do hope that SQL Anywhere customers do get some benefit out of using the port of our sample OLTP database (or switch to SQL Server 2008 where they can get the full functionality of AdventureWorks2008). I’d also like to invite Oracle and DB2 to port AdventureWorks2008 to their platforms so that the world can see how much of our feature set they don’t support, either. Heh.

Cool (Free, Open) Tools: SQL RSS

reedme — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:15:40 GMT

Even if nobody has asked you for an RSS feed of data in one or more of your databases, it won't be long before they do! When they do, you can grab this configurable, easy to use data-driven RSS feed widget.

A couple ideas for using this application:

Business intelligence updates delivered to Microsoft Outlook 2007 for management.
Proactive application event logs to your Vista Sidebar news gadget FTW!

I'm sure you can think of more... Check it out!

SQL RSS on CodePlex.com (Microsoft SQL Server Community & Samples)

It's also a great way to get a solid introduction to these technologies:

Change Data Tracking (CDT) feature of SQL Server 2008
SQL Server Reporting Services
The syndication feed feature of WCF
LINQ to XML
ADO.NET

Join us!
This project is a bit different than other SQL Server-sponsored projects. We want YOU to contribute to it. We are actively seeking other people (i.e. not on my team) to enhance and grow this project. Whether you work for Microsoft or not, let us know if you'd like to help!

Not quite a chocolate factory, but...

reedme — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:35:44 GMT

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (either version, since I skipped the remake) was never really my speed: no big explosions, no massive firefights or lightsaber duels, no well-choreographed martial arts scenes, nothing but the illusion of candy to keep my attention.

Nevertheless, a roomful of chocolate "sounds appealing" at first thought, unless you consider the implications...

In addition, sinking into the easy chairs was discouraged — unless you wanted to rise with a chocolate-covered derriere.
Godiva offers a night in chocolate room (msnbc.com)

It really doesn't seem all that exciting or romantic after all, except maybe as a porn flick for the scatalogically-inclined. Ick!

At my age, even if I weren't trying to shed a few extra pounds, the thought of eating a pound of chocolate (or more) just makes me queasy.

SQL Server gurus! Get connected to CodePlex.

reedme — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 02:09:19 GMT

First off, CodePlex is looking for developers. That seems like the best way to get plugged in. Heh. I have a vested interest in seeing you top-notch coders working on CodePlex. I know several great coders out there; you know who you are, so apply! More on my vested interest later.

Looking for developers to join the CodePlex team!

There are also lots of different ways to get plugged directly into the source control (Team Foundation Server).

The CodePlex command line client. Free, as in beer. (Makes me hum about Power Shell to the tune of I want my MTV.) Works for anonymous, developers and coordinators.
Teamprise Explorer (standalone, plug-in for Eclipse or command line client). Free, as in beer. Does not support anonymous access.
TortoiseSVN. Free, as in beer. I used this one a lot in previous lives and loved it. Works for anonymous, developers and coordinators.
Visual Studio Team Explorer. You may own it already, depending on your Visual Studio edition or MSDN subscription level. Does not support anonymous access.

See What clients can I use for source control with CodePlex? for more details.

What does this have to do with SQL Server specifically? You mean besides the fact that all the SQL Server Samples are in CodePlex? Well, besides that, I have a secret or three up my sleeve with regards to CodePlex (pending management approval). If you're already plugged into CodePlex, you'll be that much further ahead of the game when the other shoe drops.

More upcoming webcasts

reedme — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:32:44 GMT

If you're intrigued by data mining or wonder how your SQL Server certifications will be affected, these are for you:

TechNet Webcast: Mastering Time Series Prediction with SQL Server 2008 Data Mining (Level 300), Thursday, Jan. 24, 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Building and Validating Advanced Mining Models with SQL Server 2008 Data Mining (Level 200), Thursday, Jan. 31, 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. Pacific Time

MCP Live Meeting: SQL Server 2008 and Your Microsoft Certifications (Session 1), Wednesday, Feb. 6, 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time

I refrain from making any inappropriate Patriot Act or NSA jokes at this time. Heh.

Upcoming SQL webcasts and virtual events (January 2008)

reedme — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:54:43 GMT

Some random virtual things that you might care about (I do):

Get Ready for SQL Server 2008 Virtual Event (sponsored by SQL PASS et al)
Thursday, Jan. 24, 11 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time

MSDN Webcast: Optimizing Online, Enabling Offline with SQL Server Compact and Sync Services for ADO.NET (Level 200)
Thursday, Jan. 24, 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: New T-SQL and Engine Features, New Data Types for SQL Server Programmability (Level 200)
Wednesday, Jan. 30, 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time

January is Windows Server 2008 High Availability Month

reedme — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:31:31 GMT

If you've been meaning to ramp up on Windows Server 2008 clustering, but haven't made the lab time yet, here's the easy way to do it...

Virtual Lab

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Failover Clustering

January Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: Building High Availability Infrastructures with Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering
Monday January 21, 2008, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Failover Clustering 101
Tuesday January 22, 2008, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Failover Cluster Validation and Troubleshooting with Windows Server 2008
Thursday January 24, 2008, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Geographically Dispersed Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
Monday January 28, 2008, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: High Availability with Hyper-V
Wednesday January 30, 2008, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Deep Dive on Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Storage and Understanding Quorum
Thursday January 31, 2008, 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time

The best part? The price.

Want free SQL Server 2008 e-learning?

reedme — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 03:09:04 GMT

I've been out of pocket for almost a month now, but I'm catching up on email (while all 6GB of Visual Studio 2008 Team System install on my shiny new PC). I'm sure others have blogged it, but in case you missed it and you, too, still want free SQL Server 2008 stuff, check it out!

Collection 6187: What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008: In this 3 hour online collection, IT Professionals will learn about the new features in SQL Server 2008. Offer Detail

I haven't run through any of the content yet, but it did let me sign up just now for the three free clinics (6188, 6189 and 6190).

News @ 11.