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GregLow — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:13:00 GMT

Hi Folks,

I've decided to migrate my blog to SQLBlog.com. The new subscription feed is: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/greg_low/rss.aspx

Regards,

Greg

Learning Mandarin and Windows Vista

GregLow — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:25:00 GMT

Some readers will know that I've been learning Mandarin lately. It's been really interesting. Most people assume I want to do it because my wife Mai is of Chinese Vietnamese heritage. No such luck as her family speak Tieu Chow, a dialect spoken mainly in part of Vietnam, part of Cambodia and part of Southern China.

One in four children born in the world today speak Chinese. I've always heard it was really hard but have decided to tackle it anyway.

I've enabled my Windows Vista system for Chinese input as I'm determined to learn to write as well as read. The way the Chinese input works in Vista is quite fascinating and I'll post a bunch of details on that another day.

I thought I'd document the methods I've been using. First I tried a number of CD-based systems. I haven't found any of them very useful. They're all sort of ok but I don't think any of the ones I've tried does a great job.

From info I got on the RD mailing list, I heard about ChinesePod. Now I can't wait to get my daily dose of Ken and Jenny, direct from ShangHai. They post a daily podcast about ten minutes in length that covers some basic aspect of common speech. It's excellent as is the way they break it down and describe it. They have different podcasts for different levels of study: Newbie, Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

I talked Mai into learning as well and we (well maybe mostly I) decided to get a real kick along by attending a class. We did the summer intensive class at Red Crane in Collins St. in Melbourne. Red 1 is a class that normally runs for 10 weeks with 2 hours per week. For the summer intensive class, you attend for 5 nights, they do 2 classes per night and you attend twice per week. So in just two and a half weeks, you've done the 10 week first level. Again, this was an excellent class. I'm trying to work out how I can now fit Red 2 into my schedule.

I am truly surprised how much we've learned already and listening to ChinesePod has simply accelerated that. Both are highly recommended !

SQL Server 2008 now Q3

GregLow — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:49:00 GMT

SQL Server 2008 has now officially slipped to Q3 this year. Details are at: http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2008/01/25/microsoft-sql-server-2008-roadmap-clarification.aspx

SQL Down Under show 29 - Richard Tkachuk - SQL CAT team and SQL Server Analysis Services

GregLow — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:06:00 GMT

SQL Down Under show 29 with SQL CAT team member Richard Tkachuk discussing the CAT team, working with Analysis Services and what's coming in 2008 for Analysis Services is now available for download from www.sqldownunder.com.

SQL Server 2008 - How effective was my backup compression?

GregLow — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:27:00 GMT

I've had a number of people ask me how you can tell if the backup compression in SQL Server 2008 really is effective. The easy answer is to try it and look at the results.

To compress a backup, you need to choose the "Compress Backup" option at the bottom of the Options tab in SQL Server Management Studio. Once the backup is done, you can see how effective it was by executing:

RESTORE HEADERONLY FROM DISK = 'PathToYourBackupHere'

This command has been enhanced to have two columns dealing with backup size. One shows the Backup Size, the other shows the Compressed Backup Size. (Both in bytes).

Playing videos and sound in Windows Server 2008 using a Virtual PC (VPC)

GregLow — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:24:00 GMT

Over recent weeks, I've been involved in building some of the launch materials for the worldwide SQL Server launch events later this year. In the filestream section, I wanted to play a wmv file ie: a video. I thought "that can't be too hard". I was wrong on that. I've now spent a long time working out what's needed. In the end, it's trivial to do. You just have to know what to do. After much googling, all I found were people with lots of questions and few answers.

Here's what you need to do:

1. If you're using Virtual Server (ie: not Virtual PC), you're out of luck. You need Virtual PC 2007. Virtual PC 2007 emulates a sound card. Virtual Server doesn't.

2. The sound card is listed as a soundblaster16 compatible. I saw heaps of web sites that suggest you force the old sound blaster drivers off your XP disks to install. Don't do that !

3. When you install Virtual Machine Additions in Virtual PC, it installs a folder C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions. This folder contains virtualized drivers that you need for sound. Go into Device Manager, right click the multimedia audio driver and choose "Update Driver". Point it at that folder and soon the audio will work.

(Thanks to Virtual Server MVP Dugie -> Andrew Dugdell -> for telling me about that folder).

4. Windows Server 2008 is resistant to installing Windows Media Player 11. It comes up with really helpful messages that tell you that "no updates are available for your computer at this time. try again later". I found web sites that suggested unpacking the installer file (it's a winrar file) and just running the wmp11 setup part. That doesn't work either and returns "not enough storage on your computer to complete the operation".

5. What none of these messages is telling you is that you don't have the "Desktop Experience Feature" enabled on Windows Server 2008. Enable it from "Server Manager" -> Features -> Add a feature. After a reboot and some update installations, you'll then find you automagically have Windows Media Player.

(Thanks to my Solid Q colleague Daniel Seara for that one).

At this point, all should be good. Hope this helps someone else.

SQL Down Under show 28 - Ed Lehman

GregLow — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:22:00 GMT

SQL Down Under show 28 is now up on the www.sqldownunder.com download site. In this show, my guest Ed Lehman (the community lead for SQL Server at Microsoft) discusses the community around SQL Server, the MVP program, the Connect feedback site, the newsgroups, forums and CodePlex.

Enjoy!

SQL Down Under show 27 - SQL Legend - David Campbell

GregLow — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:17:00 GMT

Regular readers will notice that I've stepped up the pace of podcasts lately. I'm intending to maintain a one-per-week pace now. Last week, I was pleased to have had old friend Chris Randall on the show. Recording today's show was another real treat. David Campbell agreed to be on the show.

Dave is another of the people that I'd consider to be real legends in the SQL Server group, having come across to Microsoft (from DEC) back in 1994. He went on to be one of the key folk involved in totally replacing the query processing engine, etc. in SQL Server 7. And, as they say, the rest is history. He is currently a Microsoft Technical Fellow.

In the show, Dave gives us background on the product but spends most of the time on the show discussing how SQL Server 2008 is now built and giving us insights into that process. We discussed the pros and cons of the new SQL Server CTP mechanism in some detail.

The show is now available for download from www.sqldownunder.com.

The good news is that I've got some other really great guests lined up to appear on the show. I'm really looking forward to the show that I'll be recording tomorrow but I'll keep that a secret until I release it last next week. In the meantime, I really hope you'll enjoy the show with Dave Campbell.

SQL Server 2008 Readiness Events in Australia coming up

GregLow — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:06:00 GMT

Sharmilla Gosai and our friends at Microsoft Australia have announced SQL Server 2008 readiness events. These include jumpstart sessions specifically targets at administrators, developers and business intelligence professionals. These events offer up-to-date content at a low cost.

The developer event runs for two days and is being offered in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

For administrators, there is a one day event. As well as Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, it will be running in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.

The one day BI event is running in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.

You can book early at: https://partner.microsoft.com/Australia/40039523

SQL Down Under show 26 - Chris Randall - SQL Server Certification

GregLow — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:31:00 GMT

Hi Folks,

SQL Down Under show 26 with guest SQL Server MCT Chris Randall is available now from www.sqldownunder.com. In this show, Chris discusses the pros and cons of certification, its perceived value, the SQL Server certifications available and some tips and tricks for tackling the exams.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

New Australian SQL Server MVP

GregLow — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:12:00 GMT

I heard the great news tonight that our Canberra mate Jeff Wharton has been appointed into the SQL Server MVP program.

Outstanding news Jeff ! Congratulations!

Free SQL Server 2008 Virtual Event

GregLow — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:34:00 GMT

Solid Q along with our friends and sponsors at SQL Server Magazine are running a free virtual SQL Server 2008 event. The aim is to show you ways to make better use of your existing investment in SQL Server 2000 or 2005 while finding out how SQL Server 2008 will affect you.

You can find more info and register by following this link:

http://events.unisfair.com/rt/sql~jan08/?code=solidqweb

Itzik Ben-Gan, Erik Veerman, Ken Spencer and Andrew Potter from Solid Q are presenting along with Michael Otey from SQL Server Magazine. Itzik is covering performance tuning, Erik is covering data cleansing in SSIS, Ken is covering building data-centric applications with SQL Server 2008, Andrew is covering SQL Server 2008 reporting services and Michael is covering virtualizing SQL Server.

And a New Site for CodeCampOz

GregLow — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:35:00 GMT

Mai has also been helping me update the site for CodeCampOz. The updated site is still at: www.codecampoz.com.

Again, it'd be great to have your feedback.

CodeCampOz will be on again April 26th/27th (Saturday/Sunday) 2008. Be there!

A New Site For SQL Down Under

GregLow — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 06:30:00 GMT

I hope all readers are having a great start to the new year. We've been revamping a number of our web sites over the last few weeks. First off the block is the new site for SQL Down Under: www.sqldownunder.com.

Hopefully it's easy to navigate and I didn't miss anything while migrating to the new server. If you have any feedback, please just let me know.

It comprises the site for the podcast, links for the discussion/support list and the site for the SQL Down Under Code Camp, which will be running again in October this year.

Book: The Exceptional Presenter - Timothy Koegel

GregLow — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 02:37:00 GMT

When I am travelling, I try to make sure I have enough books with me to read. I estimate how much time I'll have for reading and look at the books in my "to be read" pile. It's always a tradeoff between having enough books and the weight of the books in my luggage.

Timothy Koegel's book "The Exceptional Presenter" wasn't in that pile. It was one of the books I pick up in an airport when I've accidentally been caught without enough. Even though it wasn't on my planned or recommended reading list, I enjoyed it. The quote from Tom Peters at the front of the book summed it up pretty well. He also had picked it up while waiting at an airport and said he figured that "the odds are high that I'll find at least one, small, operational piece of advice". He went on to say that he did find a couple of new ideas and lots of useful reminders.

What I find most reassuring about that is that even someone with the presentation experience of Tom Peters (www.tompeters.com) still spends his time working out how to improve his craft. Whether or not you agree with what he's got to say, you could never say that Tom isn't an experienced presenter. He said he thought the best advice in the book was that "Those who practice improve. Those who don't, don't".

I'm endlessly amazed by the number of people who are offered presentation skills training and don't take it or by those that think they've done enough now to stop learning how to do a good job of it.

Timothy Koegel's book is full of lots of very solid advice: nothing earth-shattering but well worth reading.

Recommended!

Developer Productivity - MIA?

GregLow — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:02:00 GMT

Darren Neimke has a thoughtful post about a Dot Net Rocks show he recently listened to. He said he gets really annoyed when people start knocking HTML and Javascript. Darren mentions sites like Amazon, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia as examples of what these technologies have brought us.

For me, the real story is developer productivity, which I now feel is missing in action.

My take on it is that sites like these have been built in spite of the tools being used. I wonder how much richer these sort of sites would have been, had we not been spending our time dealing with the technologies. The main reason they are successful is the ubiquitous delivery platform, not the quality of the development experience.

Darren said he'd rather maintain 10,000 lines of Javascript than 10,000 lines of VB.NET. I sure wouldn't. Assuming the code was written by people with the same skill levels (and that's usually where the argument starts), the tooling supplied for Javascript work still isn't at the same level as the tooling for VB.NET (or C# for that matter). Tooling quality directly affects developer productivity.

Browser inconsistencies is my biggest pain point. I see great web-based projects wasting huge amounts of developer time trying to make the end-user experience even similar across different browsers. This is something our industry should be ashamed of. We are wasting great amounts of clients' money on this nonsense.

Earlier this year I was involved in a public web-based project for a client. We (at the time this was Readify) had a team of four or five good developers working on the project for around seven or eight months. There was no lack of developer talent involved. What struck me when I saw the final result though is that (years before) if I had needed to quote the development of that same project as a winform app, I would have quoted several weeks in total, not several months and just for me, not for four or five people. What on earth have we done to developer productivity in recent years?

Now, you could contend that it's not a fair comparison, given the winform app couldn't have been deployed in such a public and cross-platform way but again that is a delivery platform issue, not a developer productivity issue. It's a problem that could have been solved rather than many of the other problems that the industry has tackled instead.

Much Ado About Dates

GregLow — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:47:00 GMT

I just did a short article for the PASS newsletter on SQL Server 2008 and date/time types. I thought I'd copy it here too:

SQL Server 2008 introduces a wave of changes in the way we use and process dates and times in SQL Server. Reportedly, having separate date and time data types was one of the highest-rated customer requests from previous versions. The early betas of SQL Server 2005 included a separate date data type but this was withdrawn from the release when a number of problems with the way it was implemented became apparent. Thankfully, this has returned in SQL Server 2008 along with a host of other date/time improvements.

Higher Precision

At the time it was introduced, the precision of the datetime data type no doubt seemed appropriate. It offered a range of January 1^st 1753 through December 31^st, 9999 with an accuracy of 3.33 milliseconds. The reason for the odd start date was the alignment of the Julian and Gregorian calendars just prior to that time. So while writing a date involving a year like 1152 might seem simple, the date arithmetic required could become quite complicated and involve knowledge of which country was being discussed as changes occurred in different countries at different times.

It could also be argued that dates well into the future might offer some potential for change as well. I gather that scientists are still discussing whether or not the years 4000 and 8000 should or shouldn’t be leap years.I’m sure it’s important that they discuss that but I would have to say that I’m not too concerned about the outcome, either way J

While it might seem fairly pointless to deal with dates earlier than 1753, it can create a source of errors when migrating data between systems. As an example, I was recently porting some data from an Oracle database. An error occurred because the Oracle system included a date with the year 200. Even though this was an error (it was meant to be 2000), it was enough to cause a problem as SQL Server 2005 had a narrower range of dates than the source system.

The new datetime2 data type now comes to the rescue. It has a range of 1^st January 0001 through 31^st December 9999 with a precision of 7 decimal places ie: 100 nanoseconds. The name of the data type has been the source of a lot of discussion. Many of us would have preferred perhaps bigdatetime, in keeping with other existing SQL Server data types like bigint but the name chosen does align well with common practice in the .NET development arena.

Several literal string formats are supported for the datepart. Numeric options are mm/dd/yyyy, dd-m-yyyy and mm.dd.yyyy. An alphabetical option of mon dd, yyyy is supported along with ISO 8601 formats of yyyy-mm-dd and yyyymmdd, an ODBC format of {d’yyyy-m-dd’} and finally a W3XML format of yyyy-mm-ddZ. It is important to note that it is unaffected by dateformat set options, unlike the existing datetime data type.

Datetime2 is also a system CLR data type. In SQL Server 2008, many of the new data types are implemented as system CLR types. Regardless of whether or not CLR integration is enabled at the system level, these types are available.

Date and Time Data Types

The next new data type is the date data type. This is identical to the date portion of the new datetime2 data type and uses the same literal string formats. Developers have called for this type for a long time as systems often store datetime values but only want to search on a date. For example, on a table with a TransactionDateTime column (holding both date and time), we might often want to locate all the rows on a particular date. In SQL Server 2005, the approach was to use a clause like:

WHERE TransactionDateTime >= @RequiredDate AND TransactionDateTime < @TheDayAfter

A common mistake was to try to wrap the column in a function such as:

WHERE CONVERT(date,TransactionDateTime) = @RequiredDate

This, however, caused performance problems as an index on the TransactionDateTime column could well be considered not useful by the query optimizer. SQL Server 2008 comes to the rescue on this in two ways. First, we can now have a column that just holds a date. Second, the pattern involving the CONVERT function is now specifically detected and index searchability on such existing datetime columns has been restored. The date data type is stored in a fixed three byte location.

The new time data type offers a variable level of precision. Declaring a variable using it should normally involve a decision on the degree of precision required. For example:

DECLARE @When Time(6)

This would declare a variable with up to six decimal places for the seconds part of the time component. The maximum precision value is 7, which indicates 100ns.

The time data type is stored in a location of between three and five bytes. It does not have a fixed size.

And Onto The World

Although this was all great work, the SQL Server 2008 team haven’t stopped there. Great support for timezones has been added to the product as well. The DateTimeOffset data type is similar to the new DateTime2 data type but also adds support for storing the timezone offset. This means we can now store values such as:

2007-08-13 10:30:39.432343 -07:00

The timezone offset is preserved and returned. All comparisons of the DateTimeOffset data type are performed as UTC (universal time aka GMT). This affects comparing values, sorting values and indexing them.

SQL Server 2008 also provides functions that allow processing timezone offsets. The SWITCHOFFSET function allows modifying the timezone offset of a DateTimeOffset value while preserving the actual time (ie: UTC-based time).

Functions

With support for higher precision and offsets comes the need to enhance the system functions for date and time. In particular, the GETDATE function is now deprecated and replaced by the higher precision SYSDATETIME function. SYSDATETIMEOFFSET provides a value with the timezone offset of the server and SYSUTCDATETIME provides the current UTC time.

In Summary

The changes and enhancements to date and time management in SQL Server 2008 are a very welcome addition to the product, should provide a great basis for the future and assist today in interoperability with other systems.

PDA Typing

GregLow — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:40:00 GMT

I had a colleague today who said "sorry about the PDA typing" when sending an email. It made me reflect on the change that PDA devices have had on the email system. I used to think that SMS messages (ie: texts) that the teenagers send to each other were fairly cryptic but I'd have to say that even they pale into insignificance compared to some of the messages I receive now from PDA-based emailers. The briefest email I've ever received from a client said:

TY D

Maybe I was having a day where I was a bit thick but it took me a while to realise this meant:

Thank you, David

Keynote at PASS summit - Dusseldorf

GregLow — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:49:00 GMT

On another PASS-related topic, I'm really honoured to have been appointed as the keynote speaker for the PASS summit in Germany in April 2008. Details are at: http://www.european-pass-conference.com/

If any reader is attending, please find me and say hello.

PASS board meeting

GregLow — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:44:00 GMT

Over the last few weeks, I also attended the board meeting for PASS (www.sqlpass.org). I was voted onto the board this year and at the board meeting, it was confirmed that I will now take on the role of Director for Chapters. I'm very excited about the possibilities that this brings and I look forward to trying to make a signficant contribution to the chapter organisations throughout the world. My first step is to spend time talking to each chapter leader, so if you head up a PASS chapter, expect a call :-)