What a week

Don't apply SQL 2005 Service Pack 1 if you use SSIS
http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/simons/archive/2006/04/26/SQL_Server_2005_SP1_Breaks_SSIS_when_date_variables_are_used.aspx

Monad becomes Windows PowerShell
http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2006/04/25/583344.aspx

Overstekend Wild : Weekly column from Marc Reynebeau. available in podcast
http://standaard.typepad.com/dsopodcast/

Quote of the Week
"I wish I Was Mr. Gates" - Bruce Springsteen in Pay me my money down
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/bruce25.htm

Song of the week - Lenny Kravitz - Breathe
Available as a free download from http://absolutkravitz.com

What a week

Google launches Google Calendar
http://www.google.com/calendar

Visual Studio Express Free forever
http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe/archive/2006/04/19/579109.aspx

Updated Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Management Pack
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BF21F798-9B10-40DC-BCDD-4A8358CCE94D&displaylang=en

David Weiss: A Tour of Microsoft's Mac Lab
http://davidweiss.blogspot.com/2006/04/tour-of-microsofts-mac-lab.html

Firefox Bus
http://kalyan.livejournal.com/204212.html

Song of the Week
What we talk about (when we talk about love) - Deus

SQL Server 2005 SP1 released

Microsoft released SQL Server 2005 SP1 Today. And yes, database mirroring is fully supported now!!!! More info on the links below.

SQL Server 2005 SP1

New features and improvements that are included in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1

Bugs that have been fixed in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP1

Readme Files for SQL Server 2005 SP1 and SQL Server 2005 SP1 Express Editions and Tools

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Toolkit

Article - SQL Server 2005 Logon Triggers

My first article (SQL Server 2005 Logon Triggers) was published by SQL Server Central today.
In the article I describe how to mimic Oracle logon triggers using event notifications in SQL Server 2005.

The article can be found on the URL below (free registration required)

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/FVandeputte/sqlserver2005logontriggers.asp

[UPDATE] The sample code is now available on the following url:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/FVandeputte/logontriggers.txt

What a week

More SQL Suduko Solvers
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/jeffs/archive/2006/04/06/9545.aspx

SQL Server Everywhere FAQ
http://blogs.msdn.com/stevelasker/archive/2006/04/10/SqlEverywhereInfo.aspx

Processing an AS2005 cube from the command line with XMLA
http://geekswithblogs.net/darrengosbell/archive/2006/04/11/xmlaProcess.aspx

Drop support dates SQL Server 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&x=10&y=9&p1=2852

Portable Firefox 1.5.0.1 has been officially released
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/browsers/portable_firefox

MacBooks comming soon
"Apple has begun manufacturing its new MacBook and should have the laptop in consumer hands in the next 30-60 days, sources report."
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0604macbook.html

Booting Solaris on Mac
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/setje?entry=solaris_on_the_imac

Song of the week
Blondie Vs The Doors - Rapture/Riders
http://www.musicomh.com/downloads/blondie-doors_0206.htm

Lease a sheep
http://www.leaseasheep.org/

Launchy

I was a happy Colibri user for the last couple of months. Colibri is a very nice alternative program launcher for Windows. Last week I uninstalled Colibri and switched completely to Launchy. Launchy is better, faster, and it is opensource. Since version 0.9.1 search results are also sorted by the frequency of use.
Press ALT SPACE F ENTER to launch Firefox. Press ALT SPACE S ENTER to launch SQL Server Management Studio.




Thanks for the tip, Mr. Peter.

From the Launchy Readme.pdf

Launchy is the most efficient way to open files and programs on your
computer. Nobody likes to hunt through the start menu to find an application,
just to find that the application is hidden under some obscure folder named
after a company you have never heard of! Instead, Launchy is a smart search
program which tries to guess which program or file you are looking for and will
launch it when you hit the enter key. It is only visible when you hit the
alt+space key combination; otherwise it hides in the background. Once you
have used it for a few days, it becomes an indispensable utility for your
computer. And it’s free!

What a week

Apple supports XP on Mac with BootCamp
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Firefox Extension of the week
The Copy URL+ extension enables you to copy to the clipboard the current document's address along with additional information such as the document's title, the current selection or both.
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=129

Ten of the Biggest Mistakes Developers Make With Databases
http://www.developer.com/db/article.php/3589351

Quote of the week - Dave Dargo's Blog
"But all these things add up and now I'm lucky enough to be doing another cool thing—working with Ingres."
http://blogs.ingres.com/davedargo/2006/03/31#2006-03-31

Song of the week
Blancmange - Don't Tell Me
http://www.80smusiclyrics.com/artists/blancmange.htm

Breaking SQL Server 2005 news

Breaking news:

• Database mirroring will be supported in SP1.
• SP1 will contain the RTM version of SQL Server Management Studio Express Edition.
  
• By the end of this year there will be a SQL Server Everywhere Edition. This edition will run on anything from smarphones through servers.

This, and more breaking SQL Server news will be announced later today by Paul Flessner. Euan Garden gives us a sneak preview on his blog.

http://blogs.msdn.com/euanga/archive/2006/04/06/569394.aspx

Switching to English

During the last months the scope of my blog narrowed more and more to SQL Server and IT stuff in general. This gives me a good reason to switch it to English. I will use Babel Fish to translate between Dutch and English.

From English to Dutch...

Tijdens de laatste maanden in het algemeen versmalde het werkingsgebied van mijn blog meer en meer aan SQL Server en het materiaal van IT. Dit geeft me een goede reden om het aan het Engels te schakelen. Ik zal de Vissen van Babel om tussen het Nederlands en het Engels gebruiken te vertalen.


... and back to English

During the last months in general commonly narrowed the functioning area of my blog to SQL server more and more and the material of IT. This gives me a good reason to change gear it to English. I the fish of Babel will translate between Dutch and English using.


Babel Fish is nie slecht, maar juuste nie ....

Microsoft koopt ProClarity

Microsoft Agrees to Acquire ProClarity, Enhancing Business Intelligence Offering: Leader in advanced analytics adds to Microsoft’s comprehensive BI capabilities.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/apr06/04-03ProClarityPR.mspx

Virtual Server R2 gratis

Virutal Server R2 is vanaf nu beschikbaar als gratis download. Bovendien supporteert Microsoft Linux nu ook (officiëel) als guest OS binnen Virtual Server.

Solving Sudoku with SQL

Onder het motto I Can do everything with T-SQL.... Hier vind je een artikel hoe je een Sudoku kan oplossen met T-SQL. Solving Sudoku with SQL. Funny :-)

Replication Monitor - Tracer Tokens

De Database Mirroring Monitor is leuk speelgoed in SQL Server 2005. Voor replicatie bestaat er een gelijkaardige tool, namelijk de Replication Monitor.

Replication Monitor maakt het heel makkelijk om latency in je replicatie te traceren. Door tracer tokens weg te schrijven in de transactie logfile kan je heel makkelijk te weten komen wat de latency is tussen publisher en distributor, tussen distributor en subscriber, en de totale latency.

Meer info vind je in BOL (How to: Measure Latency and Validate Connections for Transactional Replication (Replication Monitor)).

Database Mirroring Monitor - screenshots

Het ziet er naar uit dat database mirroring met de komst van SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 officiëel gesupporteerd zal worden. Het al dan niet opzetten van trace flag 1400 heeft in de March CTP geen belang meer.

Nieuw en zeer leuk is de Database Mirroring Monitor. Hiermee kan je alles in het oog houden. Je kan ook tresholds gaan definiëren. Bij het overschrijven van die tresholds wordt er een boodschap geschreven in de event log en die kan je dan gaan opvangen met de SQL Server Agent of MOM (of een andere monitoring tool).

Ook nieuw is sp_dbmmonitorresults. Deze system stored procedure toont je snel de status van een mirrored database.

exec msdb..sp_dbmmonitorresults 'AdventureWorks'

Hieronder een paar screenshots van het nieuwe speelgoed.

Free Training - Exforsys

Op de website van Exforsys staan een hele boel gratis tutorials, o.a. over SQL Server 2005 en Analysis Services.

SQL Server 2005 SP1 CTP beschikbaar

De beta van SP1 was al een tijdje (beperkt) beschilbaar maar nu heeft Microsoft ook een CTP publiek beschikbaar gesteld.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ctp_sp1.mspx

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 - Community Technology Preview (CTP) March 2006

SQL Server 2005 Books Online Service Pack 1 Community Technology Preview (March 2006)

Top 10 things I hate about SQL Server

Een schitterende post op de blog van Jeff Smith. Zeker ook eens de comments en zijn follow-up post lezen.

meer dan 140 leuke online tools

Een lijst met meer dan 140 leuke online tools, generators en checkers. Meer leuke lijstjes vind je op de homepage van listible.com.

SQL Server Podcasts

Podcasts are hot. De mensen van SQLDownUnder posten regelmatig een podcast over SQL Server. Hun RSS feed vind je op http://www.sqldownunder.com/sqldownundermp3feed.xml

Belgische SQL Server User Group

Peter De Seranno werkt met vol enthousiasme aan de oprichting van een Belgische SQL Server User Group. Alle info en binnnkort ongetwijfeld veel meer vind je op http://www.sqlug.be