Sql-Server

Lorem Ipsum has long been used to provide placeholder text for testing report and document layouts. Programs such as Microsoft Word have also included options for generating sample text. (For example, type =rand() anywhere in a blank area of a Microsoft Word document and hit enter).

Matthew Roche and Donald Farmer both sent me a link the other day to an online service that provides placeholder images. This could be quite useful when testing report layouts in SQL Server Reporting Services.

2012-12-17

One of the things that I’ve just come to accept is that the designers of Windows 8 and I think very differently.

It’ll take a long time to convince me that shutting down the computer is a “setting”. Even after using Windows 8 for quite a while now, I still find that I struggle nearly every day, just trying to do things that I previously knew how to do. That’s just not a good thing.

2012-12-10

One of the challenges in any application development is trying to make your application look like it’s really designed for the target environment. Using the same icons/images that are used in the target environment, and for the same purposes, helps greatly with this.

It’s great to see that Microsoft have published an image library for Visual Studio that lets your own applications use the same images that they use in the operating system.

2012-12-05

When Power View appeared, one of the big outcries was “but what about connecting to existing cubes!”.

Great to see that the SQL Server team have addressed that. A tool that allows connecting Power View to SSAS Multidimensional cubes is now available.

(NOTE: CTP no longer available)

Help the team get this out the door by trying it and providing feedback.

2012-11-30

Good to see the Visual Studio 2012 team get update 1 out the door. I’m using it now and am pretty happy with it.

I like the way that the tools are now being updated out of band. Hopefully, the SQL BI folk will get their templates updated to VS2012 soon too.

You can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads#d-visual-studio-2012-update

2012-11-28

We as an industry have a lot to answer for. One thing is the level of support provided for users. Here’s the conversation I’m having with Skype right now. It feels like being in a Monty Python skit. I was really hoping that when Microsoft purchased Skype that things might improve.

8:33:44 PM greglow

Initial Question/Comment: Subscriptions (Unlimited Country, Unlimited Europe, Unlimited Region, Unlimited World)

8:33:44 PM System

Thank you for contacting Skype Customer Support!

2012-11-21

ScottGu announced the Azure Conference today at BUILD. Have to say that I’m looking forward to it. If you want a bunch of Azure content, online and free, you can register for more info.

2012-11-01

The default action when performing a backup is to append to the backup file yet the default action when restoring a backup is to restore just the first file.

I constantly come across customer situations where they are puzzled that they seem to have lost data after they have completed a restore. Invariably, it’s just that they haven’t restored all the backups contained within a single OS file. This happens most commonly with log backups but also happens when they have not restored the most recent database backup file.

2012-10-31

Ola has produced another update of his database management scripts. If you haven’t taken a look at them, you should. At the very least, they’ll give you good ideas about what to implement and how others have done so. The latest update allows targeting multiple devices during backup. This is available in native SQL Server backup and can be helpful with very large databases. Ola’s scripts now support it as well.

2012-09-17

One thing you get to do as you get older, or have been around the industry for a long time, is to pontificate. My pet topic today is passwords. I think that they are, as a concept, now completely broken and have been for a long time.

We tell users:

1. Pick something really complex

2. Don’t write it down

3. Change it regularly

4. Use a different password for each site, and often each role that you hold in each site

2012-08-22