January 2006 - Blogs - SQLServerCentral

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Archives: January 2006

Teaching 3rd Graders binary numbers?!?

This is just neat. I saw the link in a post on Tess Ferrandez's blog. She's an escalation engineer with Microsoft based on her profile. I initially signed up for her blog because of how she covers debugging. In any case, the Socratic method was used to teach 3rd…

0 comments, 423 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 27 January 2006

Forums for Atadore's PromptSQL

Atadore has opened up forums for support and feature requests of its PromptSQL tool. You can find them on the PromptSQL site here:

http://promptsql.com/community/forums/

There is useful information such as Known Restrictions and what's Fixed in Next Release.

0 comments, 394 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 26 January 2006

The Greatest Trick

In reading Gianpaolo Carraro's blog I came across this entry: The architect greatest trick?!

In it he's talking about having seen the movie The Usual Suspects where Kevin Spacey's character make a comment about the devil's greatest trick is making people believe he didn't exist. Then Mr. Carraro carries this…

0 comments, 424 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 26 January 2006

Pro SSIS is Here!

My box of books arrived today! For me, a first-time author (actually co-author), this is very surreal. I remember it was a ton of work, but I would do it all over again.

So, if you need a good resource to learn SQL Server 2005 Integration be sure to check it… Read more

2 comments, 386 reads

Posted in Advice from Aunt Kathi on 25 January 2006

Slightly Connected

Sometimes those connection problems come in the most interesting ways.

I took a few minutes over lunch today to try and get DSL working. We've got ADSL and it actually works way out here in Elbert county, CO. The Qwest wizard worked great and I setup the modem in the…

0 comments, 407 reads

Posted in The Voice of the DBA on 24 January 2006

Cast vs Convert

Sometimes you must "convert" a column or variable from one data type to another. For example, if you want to compare a numeric value to a string, you must often cast one to the other so that the comparison can be made. This can be done with either CAST or CONVERT.

I've… Read more

3 comments, 436 reads

Posted in Advice from Aunt Kathi on 23 January 2006

Photos

I had a couple people ask about the move after my editorial, but my wife doesn't like the address to go out on the 'Net. I guess I get that with kids and the world being a strange place.

So here's a Google Map image of the house land.

The…

0 comments, 404 reads

Posted in The Voice of the DBA on 20 January 2006

SSC Moving

As if it weren't enough that I was moving my home, the SSC site is also moving. I'll drop some details in a editorial for next week, but for you bloggers, be prepared for a move on next Sat am (the 28th) in all likelihood.

0 comments, 413 reads

Posted in The Voice of the DBA on 18 January 2006

PromptSQL Review

I had the opportunity recently to take a look at PromptSQL and offer a review on it. That review hit SSC.com's front page today. If you're interested in an inexpensive IntelliSense tool for Query Analyzer, Visual Studio, or SQL Server Management Studio, take a look at the review to get…

0 comments, 420 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 18 January 2006

A Funny Thing Happened at Starbucks

I decided to commit to the book, so I'm waiting on some information and a contact from my co-author and I'll be able to get going. It's 70-443, and I hope it goes over well with all the readers in SQL land.

So I went to Starbucks today to get…

0 comments, 405 reads

Posted in The Voice of the DBA on 12 January 2006

Awesome Interview on Windows Vista Kernel Architecture

This actually premiered on Channel 9 right before Christmas. It is an interview with Rob Short, a Microsoft VP in charge of the team working on Vista's kernel architecture. With him are Darryl Havens, Richard Ward, and Rich Neves, all architects who work under him. The interview is quite candid…

0 comments, 410 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 7 January 2006

To Write or Not to Write

That's the decision to be made.

Apress contacted me about the update for my book. I wrote 1/2 of the Designing Database Solutions book for SQL Server 2000, the one originally published by Sybex for the exam. It was a long, tough process and one that really strained my life…

0 comments, 379 reads

Posted in The Voice of the DBA on 5 January 2006

Guidance on .WMF patch from Mike Nash, Microsoft Corporate VP

There is a new posting from Mike Nash on the Microsoft Security Response Center blog:

http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2006/01/05/416980.aspx

Relevant quote:

So the thing that I know you are all wondering is what should I do? So here is my advice. If you are a consumer or a small business, you…

0 comments, 407 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 5 January 2006

Microsoft .WMF Security Patch Releasing Today (out-of-cycle)

Microsoft has announced they will release a security hotfix at 2 PM PST for the WMF design flaw. More details here:

Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification

The number of exploits taking advantage of this design flaw are continuing to grow. Consider testing this patch immediately on non-production systems.

0 comments, 409 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 5 January 2006

Remote DBA

I'm getting ready to look for a new cell phone and I got lots of suggestions from my editorial on the topic. I have hated my phone from almost day 1, actually it was about day 31, so I was stuck with it. Not to mention that I ordered it…

0 comments, 393 reads

Posted in The Voice of the DBA on 5 January 2006

Simple Script to Report Tables Sizes in a SQL2K Database

Last week we had an issue with a database growing unexpectedly. The database in question supported an infrastructure type 3rd party application and the administrators over said application were scratching their head as to why it could have grown. I threw together a quick script using sp_spaceused to figure out…

0 comments, 381 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 4 January 2006

Sample Chapter from Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services

Brian Knight posted a sample chapter for Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services to his blog a few days ago. Last night I had a chance to go through it and work through the examples. I found them to be clear and closely model some of the types of file…

0 comments, 414 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 4 January 2006

Philosophy on Soldiering

This is taken from the book About Face:The Odyssey of an American Warrior. The author is Col. David "Hack" Hackworth, one of the most decorated soldiers in the history of the United States. He served in post-WWII Europe in Trieste, spent two tours in Korea during the Korean War,…

0 comments, 405 reads

Posted in K. Brian Kelley - Databases, Infrastructure, and Security on 1 January 2006