SQL Server 2008 CTP6 hits the streets and you can win an XBox

SQL Server 2008 CTP6 hit the streets today. You can get it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=749bd760-f404-4d45-9ac0-d7f1b3ed1053&displaylang=en&tm

It's getting pretty close to feature complete now. Microsoft is keen to have it tested like no other version before. To assist with this, they've introduced a bug bash competition with a bunch of XBox's and other interesting prizes if you help find issues with the CTP. Details are here:

http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/content/content.aspx?ContentID=7734

It's time to go bug-hunting !

TechEd Orlando – 4 sessions and lots of friends there too

I got the good news today that I've had 4 sessions accepted in the first round of approvals for TechEd Orlando. Two are in the developer week and two in the IT Pro week. I'm really looking forward to those two weeks as TechEd's are always great events.

Good to see so many of my colleagues also doing sessions. Peter Myers has two precons together with Douglas McDowell and Craig Utley. Peter also has two sessions in the dev week. Adam Machanic is really excited about his first TechEd session coming up. I just know it'll be great so don't miss it. Fernando Guerrero has an interesting session planned, Andrew Kelly has several as does Itzik Ben-Gan both of whom are always great value. Maciej Pilecki also has a session this year that looks excellent.

Our friends at SQL Skills are also doing a number of sessions. Bob Beauchemin has some really interesting looking ones along with a precon and Kim Tripp and Paul Randall are also doing a double-act at a precon.

And great to see another local Jeff Wharton from WardyIT doing a session, hot after winning his Speaker Idol spot at Barcelona! And recent SQL Down Under guest Matthew Roche is there as well.

And that's just some of the info from the SQL tracks. All up, it should be a great event.

Crocodiles and curiosity

Late last night I watched the end of a wonderful documentary from the BBC called Dragons Alive. Although Mai didn't really want to discuss it at 12:30am, it really got me thinking about the nature of curiosity and its importance in how we advance science and through it, society.

Most awesome advances in science seem to come through people asking seemingly child-like questions. Some of the ones presented at the end of the show were great examples.

One that really struck me was about crocodiles. We all know they live in stagnant water quite happily. How do they live there without getting sick? If you'd have asked me, I would have guessed it was the tough outer skin. But the question that should have been obvious to us all is why don't they get infected and die when they get injured? If we exposed our injuries to stagnant water, it'd probably be the end of us.

There has been lots of work on that over the last few years and it looks like it'll yield antibiotics stronger than anything we've ever seen before.

But the interesting question isn't the specifics of this case, it's why we haven't asked that question before and what we need to do to encourage people (particularly children without preconceptions) to ask "dumb" questions.

 

SQL Down Under show 30 – Pablo Castro – LINQ, Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services

SQL Down Under show 30 with guest SQL Server product team member Pablo Castro discussing LINQ, Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria) for the DBA and database developer is now available for download from www.sqldownunder.com.

 

Enjoy!