The Bit Bucket

Hi Folks,

I was recently interviewed by Andrew and Michael and their Frankly Speaking podcast. Was great fun. The show is here: http://www.noisetosignal.com.au/franklyspeaking/?p=71

Greg

2010-01-06

I’ve been doing a lot of work lately with StreamInsight, coming in SQL Server 2008 R2.

There are three development models you can use with StreamInsight: Implicit Server, Explicit Server and IObservable/IObserver.

When I was working through material on the IObservable/IObserver pattern, it wasn’t immediately apparent to me where it had come from. It’s based on the Rx Framework for .NET (Reactive Extensions). I finally got to watch the PDC Online session from Erik Meijer on the Rx Framework a few days ago and so many things suddenly fell into place for me.

2010-01-06

I was doing some varied reading this morning and stumbled across this article by Paul Graham. I want to highlight this passage:

“We now have several examples to prove that amateurs can surpass professionals, when they have the right kind of system to channel their efforts. Wikipedia may be the most famous. Experts have given Wikipedia middling reviews, but they miss the critical point: it’s good enough. And it’s free, which means people actually read it. On the web, articles you have to pay for might as well not exist. Even if you were willing to pay to read them yourself, you can’t link to them. They’re not part of the conversation.”

2009-12-27

With the climate summit in Copenhagen now finished, I wanted to make a few comments about a trend that really annoys me. I’m fairly “green oriented” in my outlook but amongst “green” scientists and advocates, there is an endless desire to make each cause sound much stronger than the facts permit. I think this does their support more harm than good. The recent expose on modified emails bore that out only too well but I want to show a few simpler examples.

2009-12-20

On a client site the other day, I came across a situation (unfortunately too common) where a column in a table was being used for two purposes. It could either hold an integer value or a string. Only about 100 rows out of many millions had the integer value. Some of the client code needed to calculate the maximum value when it was an integer. First step I tried was to add a persisted calculated column like so:

2009-12-05

The title says it all. An old buddy of mine Wally McClure has just released a short new eBook on Wrox that covers how to get started building iPhone and iPod Touch applications using MonoTouch. That should be of interest to the C#/.NET developers out there.

Just bought a copy myself and was pleasantly surprised. It’s 42 pages and $6.99 and comes as a PDF download.

2009-12-03

Not long back, it became very common for dodgy domain registration companies to send letters to domain owners that they weren’t dealing with. Rather than saying “hey we’re a great registrar and here’s why you should switch to us”, the common ploy was to send out something that looked like a renewal notice, hoping that the receiver would just authorize and pay it without thinking. In Australia, the ACCC (basically the consumer watchdog) has been chasing down and taking action against such practices.

2009-11-09

Sorry that shows have been slow coming this year. That’s about to change (famous last words).

The good news is that show 45 with guest SQL Server MVP Jamie Thomson discussing SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is now available for download from https://sqldownunder.com . In the show, Jamie discusses lessons he learned while moving from DTS to SSIS and covers off many best practices for working with SSIS.

Enjoy!

2009-11-09

My colleague Antonio Soto pointed us at a new (and free) book providing Sharepoint-related advice for SQL Server administrators. You’ll find it here: SharePoint guidance for SQL Server 2008 database administrators (Downloadable book)

2009-11-08

This is no ordinary book. Paul Nielsen took up Bill Gates’ challenge at a recent MVP summit to do something notable to give back to the community. He organised a large group of SQL Server MVPs to create a unique book and worked with Manning to get it published. The money made on the book was to go directly to a charity and the charity chosen was WarChild.

I had the privilege (along with Kalen Delaney, Adam Machanic, Kimberley Tripp and Paul Randall) to be one of the editors on this book but the magic contribution has come from the 53 SQL Server MVPs involved with the book.

2009-10-31