Database Geek of the Week - Richard Hundhausen

Richard Hundhausen is the author of Building Web Applications with ADO.NET and XML Web Services and Programming ADO.NET, both from Wiley, as well as the upcoming Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System from Microsoft Press. He is also a trainer, teaching numerous courses and speaking at conferences such as VSLive and Tech Ed.

Fixing SysDepends

Have you been burned by sysdepends at some point in your SQL Server DBA career? Steve Jones has many times, but a FREE new utility ends all that.

SQLAnswers Review

How many of you using SQL Server 2000 have the need to send email from SQL Server? How many of you hate Outlook? Here is a software package that can send not only HTML, but PDF as well and through SMTP. Read Hugh Scott's review and thoughts on this product.

Visit the SQLounge at PASS 2005!

Tried at TechEd and manned by the SQLServerCentral.com crew, this was a great idea. It's going to be at PASS and hosted by James Luetkehoelter.

Getting Help on Query Analyzer

Query Analyzer has been a great tool in SQL Server 2000 and while it is superceeded in SQL Server 2005, lots of us will be using it for some time to come. New author Yakov Shlafman brings us some references and tricks for this essential DBA tool.

The SQLServerCentral.com Casino Party at the PASS Summit

It is just next week that the PASS 2005 Summit kicks off and we've got some information about our casino party for those attending.

Asynchronous client script callbacks

There has been a lot of interest in the web-facing community lately about a new useability feature that goes by a number of different names—XMLHTTP, AJAX, out-of-band requests, and asynchronous client script callbacks, to name a few.

Regardless of the name, this feature provides a way for a standard web page to make calls back to the server, without a traditional page refresh. The user is oblivious to the fact that a server call has occurred, and is not interrupted by it.

Interviews Part 2

In a followup to the recent articles and discussions on interviewing and DBA skills, Sean McCown brings us a new article that looks at one situation that resulted in a rejection. Learn what you might want to work on before your next interview.

MDX Essentials: String Functions: The .UniqueName Function

n this lesson, we will examine another function / property in the MDX toolset, the .UniqueName function. The general purpose of the .UniqueName function is to return the Unique Name of the object to which it is appended. .UniqueName can be used in conjunction with hierarchies, dimensions, levels, and members, in a manner similar to the .Name function that we examined in String Functions: The .Name Function, and, also like .Name, .UniqueName can be useful in a host of different applications.

Controlling Transactions and Locks in SQL 2000 and 2005 - Part 2

In order for a transaction to meet the requirements of ACID, locks are employed to insure data integrity and multi-user access. The scope, or number of rows held by a lock, is referred to as Lock Granularity. This month, we will begin by introducing several different types of lock modes employed by MS SQL.