Uncategorized

LINQ, Spatial Data, Version 1.00000 in 2008 and More

Register Early for the Virtual Conference…
…and help provide feedback on setting up the session schedule, see the tools early, participate in chats and more. All just for getting your name in the hat early. The SSWUG SQL Server Virtual Conference – on your desktop, in your timezone, more than 27 sessions and much more. This is YOUR conference.

> Register, or get more information, here

Just Posted: SelectViews Show
Find Out About LINQ and Spatial Data Changes Coming in SQL Server 2008, Straight from Microsoft, In Two Interviews on the Show Today. Find Out What Makes These Features Something People are Really Looking Forward To With The New Release.

> Watch Here

Normalize the Excel (and CSV, etc.) Data?
Yes. You can actually extract and normalize information from semi-structure data sources – things like Excel, CSV files, spreadsheets, etc – then use that information in an SSIS pipeline and work with it against your database! If you’ve found that you have all sorts of information "out there" that is untouchable, this can really save the day and help you pull this information into your systems so you can use it, combine it with other information and much more. Get more informatino here – it walks you through all sorts of data mapping functions that are available. Get more information here.

Featured Article(s)
Oracle 2-Day DBA in x DaysPost 2; Installing Oracle Software
Take a quick look at Oracle software installation with a few important best practices.

Version 1.00000 Thoughts
Yesterday I asked about whether you felt like the 2008 releass were something you’d be more apt to move to as they are released, or whether you feel like waiting for the first service pack was still the way to go. Historically, people have said that wating for that first update let them avoid the "bleeding edge" issues of releases, letting others take the hit on any issues that came up in earlier deployments.

Overall, there is little hesitation on using Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 in terms of feeling the need to wait until the first updates are received. Windows, well, that appears to be another story. Here are some of the comments received – there’s a link after the comments to send in your thoughts.

Dana: "Microsoft is a strange beast, at least with their track record. Some of their products, yes, I’m a 1.00.00 person, others, I’m not even sure if I’m a 3.00 person.

Visual Studio 2008 – definite yes 1.00 – there was widespread usage of its beta, and several dozen respected people in the SharePoint community touted the improvements in VS 2008 at least in terms of SP development that it was a no brainer to adopt it as soon as it hit gold, as we are in the process of implementing MOSS 2007.

Their operating systems – not so much. An operating system is too critical to the overall success of a server to blindly trust a 1.00 without a bit of wait-and-see while the cutting edge gung-ho MS prophets start to use it and identify compatibility and other issues. I’m too busy and rely on our servers too much to risk something blowing up even tho Uncle Bill gave it a stamp of approval. I’d rather be up and running than brag about riding the crest of o/s releases.

SQL 08? No opinion – 2005 works fine (2000 works fine still), and as I’m a southern boy I like to hang on to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” at least until there’s sufficient feature/performance reasons to warrant the upgrade process. And in all honesty I don’t know enough about 2008 to make any judgement calls on said feature/performance reasons versus the 2005 that we just upgraded to late this year."

Shawn: "I can say that for Visual Studio 2008, it’s really an upgrade to 2005. Why? Well, for the most part, the IDE is the same, it’s faster, has very few “big” feature additions. So far, not many crashes. The templates are just that – templates. Add in wizards, etc., minor bug fixes, but again, nothing changed (other than hopeful bug or performance fixes).

The biggest “feature” is the ability to target the 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 framework in your project.

For some of the Team System things, nothing changed. In fact, the Team Architected Distributed System Designer still uses ASMX instead of WCF – that’s dead end right now – both ASMX and DSD. The movement there is to DSL’s and it’s all addons.

So, been using it since RTM and just converted most environments to it."

More to come – drop me a note with your feedback here.

Webcast: Understanding Indexes and Index Fragmentation
In this webcast, we’ll examine how to look at your indexes, how to understand them and how to apply them. We’ll look into fragmentation and how you can determine whether an index needs to be rebuilt. We’ll look at the options you have available to you for maintaining your indexes as well.

> Register Now
> December 11, 2007 12:00pm Noon Pacific

Featured White Paper(s)
Replication made simple using SQL Data Compare
Replicating SQL Server databases needn’t be a massive headache. This document discusses how to troubleshoot replication probl… (read more)

Improving SQL Server Database Development Methods
This white paper surveys several different methodologies of database development, examines their strengths and weaknesses, an… (read more)

Microsoft T-SQL Performance Tuning Part 2: Analyzing and Optimizing T-SQL Query Performance on Microsoft SQL Server using Indexing Strategies
This white paper, authored by SQL Server expert Kevin Kline, discusses the basics of indexes, such as density and selectivity… (read more)

Top 10 Things You Should Know about Optimizing SQL Server Performance
Performance optimization on SQL Server is difficult. A vast array of information exists on how to address performance problem… (read more)