Martin Poon - Microsoft MVP blog [SQL Server]

Upgrade and migration to SQL Server 2008 webcast

Martin Poon — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:30:07 GMT

SQL Server 2008 is released, and you are invited to join this webcast that highlights the tools and procedures to make your move to SQL Server 2008 easy and troublefree.

*** For more information

~ Upgrade and migration to SQL Server 2008 webcast

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032384669&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

~ SQL Server 2008 is available for download for MSDN subscribers

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 - free unlimited installation and compatibility support

Martin Poon — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:53:14 GMT

Free unlimited installation and compatibility support is available for Windows Vista, but only for Service Pack 1 (SP1). This support for SP1 is valid until March 18, 2009. Chat and e-mail support is available only in the United States and Canada.

Both email support and phone support (@ Hong Kong: (+852) 2388-9600) are available.

=== For more information ===

- Microsoft Help and Support ~ Windows Vista Service Pack 1

http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?LN=en-hk&prid=11274&gprid=500921&x=9&y=15

Fujitsu Shock Sensor on Vista SP1 - This program is blocked due to compatibility issues

Martin Poon — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:41:21 GMT

After the Windows Update installation of [ Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems - English (KB937286) ] and [ Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems (KB947562) ], the application [ Fujitsu Shock Sensor Utility ] does not work on my Vista x64 SP1 (ENU) on my Fujitsu Lifebook S6410.

There is an update available for Fujitsu Shock Sensor Utility, and can be downloaded from the Fujitsu (Taiwan) official site, while you will need to uninstall the utility, and reboot your Vista box before installation.

To completely remove Fujitsu Shock Sensor Utility, and all of its features...

--> Start --> Control Panel

--> Classic View --> Programs and Features --> Shock Sensor Utility --> Uninstall/Change

You will need to restart your computer, and then install the latest version of Fujitsu Shock Sensor Utility that supports Windows Vista SP1.

===== For more information =====

~ Fujitsu LifeBook Shock Sensor Utility修正程式 @ http://www.fujitsu.com/tw/support/lifebook/Shock_Sensor_Utility.html

Create a Game in Microsoft Silverlight 2... and win an Xbox 360!

Martin Poon — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:54:00 GMT

Silverlight gives a lot of love to .NET coders, especially those versed with Microsoft development tools like Visual Studio 2008 and the new Microsoft Expression Studio. PHP developers have a lot to benefit from Silverlight as well. Using the Silverlight runtime, XAML, PHP code, and a touch of JavaScript, you can add a lot of splash to your PHP apps. Now, your mission--should you choose to accept: Take your shot at gaming stardom if you think you have what it takes to build a cool RIA game and you could win an Xbox 360 or other fabulous prizes. Hurry! You only have until May 15, 2008 to enter your game!

Note: No purchase necessary to enter or win. Open only to residents of the 50 United States (includes D. of C.) who are 17+. Game ends May 15, 2008

=== For more information ===

~ RIA Run Registration

http://www.devx.com/RIA/Door/37507

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 { JumpStart }... your data, any time, any place

Martin Poon — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:58:00 GMT

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 { JumpStart } @ http://sqlserver2008jumpstart.microsofttraining.com

This site contains presentations, recordings, hands-on labs and demonstrations for the SQL Server 2008 JumpStart technical training event, while there are 5 tracks in this event: Overview Sessions, Database Infrastructure and Scalability, Business Intelligence Part I & II, Developer & Software + Services, and Application Compatibility & Upgrade. -->Overview Sessions, Database Infrastructure and Scalability, Business Intelligence Part I & II, Developer & Software + Services, and Application Compatibility & Upgrade

Lateral SQL injection in Oracle

Martin Poon — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:41:00 GMT

David Litchfield has just released a paper, showing that it is possible to do SQL injection using DATE or even NUMBER data types to exploit a PL/SQL procedure in Oracle RDBMS! The attacker can exploit a PL/SQL procedure that doesn't even take user input!

The trick is to apply an ''ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT'' command in order to change the NLS variable such that the PL/SQL compiler will accept an arbitrary SQL as a ''DATE'' (even though it is not).

=== For more information ===

~ Lateral SQL Injection: A New Class of Vulnerability in Oracle

http://www.databasesecurity.com/dbsec/lateral-sql-injection.pdf

Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie talks open source, mesh

Martin Poon — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:08:00 GMT

Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie says the company has been dramatically changed by open source and the concept of using the Web as a hub. So, here's more to go.

http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/04/17/Microsofts-Ozzie-talks-open-source-mesh_1.html

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/ozzie/04-17MVP.mspx

Microsoft Office Live Workspace

Martin Poon — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:53:00 GMT

Microsoft Office Live Workspace offers storage space for sharing documents online, such that you can access them directly using Microsoft Office Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

There are dozens of ways to use Microsoft Office Live Workspace for work, school, and home projects! The documents can be saved and accessed from any computer. Feedbacks and/or comments can be gathered within a project. Meeting agenda, minutes, and action items can also be shared with colleagues, classmates, or family. You can even save documents to your workspace directly from Word on your PC.

=== For more information ===

~ Video – Office Live Workspace

[ http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0710/31052/current.htm ]

~ Office Live Workspace

[ http://workspace.officelive.com ]

Writing the first SQL Server database .NET application

Martin Poon — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:15:00 GMT

Just listing a few getting-started links for developing SQL Server .NET application.

~ SQL Server 2005 Express Edition - Sample Rich Client and Web Applications
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/bb403187.aspx

~ SQL Server 2005 Express Edition - Samples and Starter Kits
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/aa718396.aspx

~ "How Do I" Videos - ASP.NET
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb498194.aspx

~ "How Do I" Videos - Visual Basic
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/bb466226.aspx

~ Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Studio and SQL Server: Best Practice Architectures and Examples (7th Edition)
http://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-Guide-Visual-Studio-Server/dp/0321243625
http://www.betav.com

~ LearnVisualStudio.NET
http://www.learnvisualstudio.net

~ Free basic training for SQL Server
http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/archive/2008/07/17/free-basic-training-for-sql-server.aspx

Installing Components... Full Installation of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition

Martin Poon — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 06:20:00 GMT

Just got the *full* installation of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition done on an Vista Ultimate box (x64), and, here is the ...long... list of components that are installed!

- Runtime Pre-requisites
- Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5 (x64)
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 64bit Prerequisites (x64)
- Microsoft Document Explorer 2008
- Microsoft Visual Studio Web Authoring Component
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
- Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP2
- Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5
- Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office system (version 3.0 Runtime)
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System Runtime
- Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5
- Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 Design Tools
- Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 For Devices
- Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK R2 for Pocket PC
- Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK R2 for Smartphone
- Microsoft Device Emulator version 3.0 (x64)
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Remote Debugger (x64)
- Crystal Reports Basic for Visual Studio 2008
- Crystal Reports Basic 64-Bit Runtime for Visual Studio 2008
- Microsoft Windows SDK for Visual Studio 2008 Tools (x64)
- Microsoft Windows SDK for Visual Studio 2008 Headers and Libraries (x64)
- Microsoft Windows SDK for Visual Studio 2008 Win32 Tools (x64)
- Microsoft Windows SDK for Visual Studio 2008 .NET Framework Tools (x64)
- Microsoft Windows SDK for Visual Studio 2008 SDK Reference Assemblies and IntelliSense (x64)
- Microsoft SQL Publishing Wizard

SQL Server 2008 CTP 6 (February 2008) is available for { evaluation }

Martin Poon — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:51:00 GMT

This build should be { feature complete }, and is available in the following languages.

>> Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish

=== For more information ===

~ Evaluate Microsoft SQL Server 2008 today

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=749BD760-F404-4D45-9AC0-D7F1B3ED1053&displaylang=en

.NET Framework 3.5 full package

Martin Poon — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:06:00 GMT

Have just got the link to download the full package of .NET Framework 3.5. This is a 197 MB standalone executable file that contains all the components that are required to deploy to 32-bit and 64-bit platforms on all supporting operating systems. (The .NET Framework 3.5 supports IA64 only on Microsoft Windows Server 2008.) This executable does not contain language packs. The .NET Framework version 3.5 language packs are available as separate per-language stand-alone executable files.

.NET Framework 3.5 builds incrementally on the new features added in .NET Framework 3.0. For example, feature sets in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace. In addition, .NET Framework 3.5 contains a number of new features in several technology areas which have been added as new assemblies to avoid breaking changes.
They include the following:

~ Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness. This new feature will let you write code written in LINQ-enabled languages to filter, enumerate, and create projections of several types of SQL data, collections, XML, and DataSets by using the same syntax.

~ ASP.NET AJAX lets you create more efficient, more interactive, and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers.

~ New Web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM, and several new WS-* standards.

~ Full tooling support in Visual Studio 2008 for WF, WCF, and WPF, including the new workflow-enabled services technology.

~ New classes in .NET Framework 3.5 base class library (BCL) that address many common customer requests.

===== For more information =====

~ .NET Framework 3.5 full package
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/0/f/60fc5854-3cb8-4892-b6db-bd4f42510f28/dotnetfx35.exe

~ Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 readme
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/a/e/9ae0f6cc-7032-408e-9ca7-989f9e4af4ec/dotNetReadMe.htm

Free SQL Server 2008 test drive program

Martin Poon — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 03:34:00 GMT

SQLServerBeta is offering a free SQL Server 2008 online testing account for the community.

Sign up at http://www.sqlserverbeta.com , and get the chance to experience the latest SQL Server 2008 technologies online, using your own set of data.

VSTS 2005 - using TFS SDK to write code on my x64 box

Martin Poon — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:18:00 GMT

I was trying to follow a source sample to obtain the VSTS project list, but got the following System.BadImageFormatException on the library file [ Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.dll ].

===== Exception =====

System.BadImageFormatException was unhandled
Message="Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client, Version=8.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format."
StackTrace:
       at TfsApplication1.Program.Main(String[] args)
       at System.AppDomain.nExecuteAssembly(Assembly assembly, String[] args)
       at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly()
       at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
       at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

===== More findings =====

It appears that the library cannot be used on my x64 box, and the workaround is to change the target platform of my project to [ x86 platform ].

--> Right-click on the project

--> Properties

--> Build

--> Platform target: x86

===== For more information =====

~ MSDN: How to: use the TFS SDK to write code

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb286958(VS.80).aspx

~ MSDN forum: BadImageFormatException on Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.dll

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=760600&SiteID=1

SQL Server Management Studio - standard reports in the Summary Page

Martin Poon — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 04:37:00 GMT

In SQL Server Management Studio, the Summary Page can be displayed at any time by pressing F7 (or, to be chosen from the menu --> View --> Summary). When you select an item in the Object Explorer of SQL Server Management Studio, information about that object is presented in the document window called the Summary Page.

You can opt to display the Summary Page when starting SQL Server Management Studio.

--> Tools --> Options --> Environment --> General --> At startup: Open Object Explorer

Note that the Summary Page will be displayed when the option 'Open Object Explorer' is being chosen. Other options will *not* bring up the Summary Page at startup (which include 'Open new query window', 'Open Object Explorer and new query', 'Open empty environment').

Following is the list of reports that can be found within the Summary Page when you choose a *SQL Server* in the Object Explorer. This list will be changed when you choose different kinds of database objects.

~ server dashboard
~ configuration changes history
~ schema changes history
~ scheduler health
~ memory consumption
~ activity - all blocking transactions
~ activity - all cursors
~ activity - top cursors
~ activity - all sessions
~ activity - top sessions
~ activity - dormant sessions
~ activity - top connections
~ top transactions by age
~ top transactions by blocked transactions count
~ top transactions by locks count
~ performance - batch execution statistics
~ performance - object execution statistics
~ performance - top queries by average CPU time
~ performance - top queries by average IO
~ performance - top queries by total CPU time
~ performance - top queries by total IO
~ service broker statistics
~ transaction log shipping status

Recently, Buck Woody blogged the standard reports that can be found under the Summary Page. More information can be found here.

http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/archive/tags/Standard+Reports/default.aspx

GovHK Gadget for Windows Vista Sidebar

Martin Poon — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:59:00 GMT

Have just installed the GovHK gadget, and it's now sitting on top of my Vista sidebar. The GovHK gadget is a small and handy mini-program that provides quick and easy access to key information such as latest government news, weather and air pollution index. A Search service is also available so that you can easily search for information from all government websites in Hong Kong.

===== For more information =====

~ GovHK Gadget

http://www.gov.hk/en/about/helpdesk/gadget

101 samples for Visual Studio 2005

Martin Poon — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:43:00 GMT

Microsoft provides 101 samples to help you get started with Visual Studio 2005. You can find code projects (in C# / VB) related to different categories: data access, web development, windows forms, Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO), tablet PC, and .NET Compact Framework.

===== For more information =====

~ 101 samples for Visual Studio 2005

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718334.aspx

TechNet webcast: Advanced Manageability for SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services on 2007.10.10

Martin Poon — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:03:00 GMT

With the release of SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services, Microsoft introduces several advanced features for manageability and one such feature is Dynamic Management Views (DMV). These views enable administrators to query for information regarding connections, sessions, and server performance. This session focuses on such views and will drill down into many examples of their usage. This session will also help you learen on how to build effective queries, reports and even cubes that you can use to understand the behavior and monitor the performance of your SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services.
Presenter: Donald Farmer (Group Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation)

===== For more information =====
~ Advanced Manageability for SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services (recorded session)
http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032352699&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

2007 Nominations for Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine’s Best Software Awards are Ready for Public Feedback

Martin Poon — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:41:00 GMT

Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine’s 7^th annual Best Software Awards (www.pocketpcmag.com/awards) helps users select the best Pocket PC and Smartphone applications, utilities, and games, while honoring companies that produce outstanding software.Throughout June, Nominations Manager, Werner (“Menneisyys”) Ruotsalainen, and the 2007 Board of Experts(www.pocketpcmag.com/awards/board_of_experts_2007.asp) developed the nominations list. Now, the preliminary list of Windows Mobile Windows Mobile nominations are ready for public viewing and comment. End-users and Windows Mobile developers are welcome to make nominations from June 29, 2007 through July 13, 2007. The list will change daily (products may appear, disappear, and be re-categorized) until nominations are frozen on July 20.
Nominations form (suggest nominations, re-categorizations, and un-nominations. Werner Ruotsalainen will make final determination on each suggestion www.pocketpcmag.com/survey/nominationsfeedback.htm )Discuss nominations (discuss your favorite nominations, the awards process, or anything awards-related http://www.pocketpcmag.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=50 )

Vendors enter software into Encyclopedia (vendors must enter their free product listing in order to be eligible for nomination http://www.pocketpcmag.com/update/ )

Microsoft Query - ODBC data source - Error 2571 - User 'xxxx' does not have permission to run DBCC TRACEON

Martin Poon — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:39:00 GMT

Upon querying SQL Server 2005 using an ODBC data source in Microsoft Excel 2000...

You may encounter the following error.

Microsoft SQL Server Login
Connection failed:
SQLState: '37000'
SQL Server Error: 2571
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]User 'xxxx' does not have permission to run DBCC TRACEON.

===== Solution =====

To resolve this problem, you will need to change the *application name* for the ODBC connection, such that it is not 'Microsoft(R) Query'!