PASS is the Professional Association for SQL Server & Business Intelligence.
If the organisations name had kept pace with their contribution to the strategic direction of MS SQL Server since its inception, then it may well have changed its name to PassBI. However, you can probably see the negative side of this :-)
It may have been more appropriate to call it Advanced Contribution Through Individual Voluntary Endeavour as PASS, thus making it ActivePass. However, it is often difficult to change something after the event and sometimes it is better to leave a great thing alone rather than tempt breaking what it contributes towards. Such synergistic contribution can affect the outcome of strategic changes negatively, and Vice-versa.
In their usual understated fashion, the great bunch of people that make up PASS, have made available, with the help of Maximum ASP and Dell, access to a free copy of SQL Server 2008, with associated learning materials at http://www.sqlserverbeta.com/. I would get there quickly because all of this is a new idea and resources will run out sooner or later.
Access to the Free SQL Server 2008 Beta includes a FREE PASS membership.
FREE PASS membership* includes:
· Subscription to the PASS eNewsletter
· Access to SQL Server Community programs
· Access to national and regional events
· Access to expert-user book reviews, technical webinars & podcasts.
It is all a bit like a Möbius strip. I have never properly understood why you can keep drawing the line without coming to the end of the paper! I guess it is similar to synergy, you don't know how it happens but it is a nice pleasant surprise when you see the outcome.
I hope you enjoy the site if you get to it on time. If not then keep trying, it is human nature for everyone to want something but only some to put something back. The site is being controlled so that if a resource lays dormant it will be made available to others who can use it better, no sweat on either party. How nice is that!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
You don't need money to be a member of the Mojo Pac
You may remember an article I put up in the blog earlier this year about a product called MojoPac. A piece of virtualisation software for taking your PC with you on an external storage device, like a PDA for example. Well now you can get a free version for free, how good is that. www.MojoPac.com
Monday, October 08, 2007
A Tiny effort can save a lot of time and Windows 2008 shows a lot of effort has been expended
The nice thing about working for a training company is that one sometimes comes across snippets of information that communicate a way of making management of techno-logical speak easier.
An example of this occurred this morning when someone cared enough to point out to someone that there is a way of reducing the amount of text you have to type in to allow someone to follow your path.
I am not sure whether the sender of the original message got the message but that is another story.
If you go to www.tinyurl.com you can enter the text that you would normally type in, in the address bar, and press a button to convert it into a smaller link that you can give to people. The site will retain the original and provide a conversion for the recipient.
I didn't have time to check if you could pass parameters, but you can do that investigation yourself from here!
Thanks Steve, and thanks Paul for the original link which is all about the distinctly new features of Windows 2008, now accessible at www.Tinyurl.com/242nek
An example of this occurred this morning when someone cared enough to point out to someone that there is a way of reducing the amount of text you have to type in to allow someone to follow your path.
I am not sure whether the sender of the original message got the message but that is another story.
If you go to www.tinyurl.com you can enter the text that you would normally type in, in the address bar, and press a button to convert it into a smaller link that you can give to people. The site will retain the original and provide a conversion for the recipient.
I didn't have time to check if you could pass parameters, but you can do that investigation yourself from here!
Thanks Steve, and thanks Paul for the original link which is all about the distinctly new features of Windows 2008, now accessible at www.Tinyurl.com/242nek
Monday, October 01, 2007
The Big Picture of how XML standards fit together
There is a nice guy called Ken Sall who spent some considerable time putting together a graphic with links in that will be useful to many of you.
Especially if you come to meet XML for the first time through your exposure to SQL Server.
It links with the standards organisation pages that explain all the relevant standards and the graphic shows how they fit together.
I always find a big picture works wonders to help you get started!
Especially if you come to meet XML for the first time through your exposure to SQL Server.
It links with the standards organisation pages that explain all the relevant standards and the graphic shows how they fit together.
I always find a big picture works wonders to help you get started!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Heroes and Villains
It can be all too easy to see the world through dark glasses, especially when you have to deal with large companies that fragment themselves to try to inject energy into their being.
This method of breaking things up usually works in nature because something fills the gaps to prevent a vacuum. It is the controlled movement that creates new structures. The control in nature comes from fluids.
However, in business the gaps that are left are often not filled with anything and the individual elements separate and create self contained units that no longer have a connection between constituent parts of the original organism.
What is more, the vacuum is often filled with, 'not my problem gov, try somewhere else'.
It is so refreshing to come across people who fill this vacuum with real human extensions to badly designed systems rather than excuses for not being able to achieve what the customer needs.
I applaud two such heroes who have gone beyond 'standard' practice to make my life easier, after it had been made miserable by many others in the same organisations.
The first works for AXA Health insurance. Robin Masters is an individual you can trust to fix an issue rather than to pass the buck.
The second is from BT. Graeme Paterson, regained my confidence in British Telecom which has been dwindling based on my attempt to get a good service from them over the last few years.
These people obviously represent many other helpful individuals in these companies. However, the probability is that you are more likely to meet people that do the hours without putting their heart into the job.
But then who is the villain? The person who has no heart in their job or the person that gives people heartless tasks to perform by developing vacuous systems?
This method of breaking things up usually works in nature because something fills the gaps to prevent a vacuum. It is the controlled movement that creates new structures. The control in nature comes from fluids.
However, in business the gaps that are left are often not filled with anything and the individual elements separate and create self contained units that no longer have a connection between constituent parts of the original organism.
What is more, the vacuum is often filled with, 'not my problem gov, try somewhere else'.
It is so refreshing to come across people who fill this vacuum with real human extensions to badly designed systems rather than excuses for not being able to achieve what the customer needs.
I applaud two such heroes who have gone beyond 'standard' practice to make my life easier, after it had been made miserable by many others in the same organisations.
The first works for AXA Health insurance. Robin Masters is an individual you can trust to fix an issue rather than to pass the buck.
The second is from BT. Graeme Paterson, regained my confidence in British Telecom which has been dwindling based on my attempt to get a good service from them over the last few years.
These people obviously represent many other helpful individuals in these companies. However, the probability is that you are more likely to meet people that do the hours without putting their heart into the job.
But then who is the villain? The person who has no heart in their job or the person that gives people heartless tasks to perform by developing vacuous systems?
Monday, September 03, 2007
The best debugging occurs at the common (Human) language interface
NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming is a strange thing for an IT person to be interested in wouldn't you think?
We all know that we should base all requirements on use cases which are stated in simple english. However, what is simple english? Who wrote the use cases? What did the business person state as the requirement and what else were they thinking at the time besides what they communicated by voice. How was the statement perceived and recorded by the analysit, did they rely only on words or other non verbal activity on and around the business person that should not have been considered in the way that it was?
Elicitation and recording of facts is impacted on by feelings which can change the meaning of words by overloading them with extraneuos data that should have been contained in isolation from the current object of communication.
Take a look at http://www.nlpls.com/articles/metamodel/MetaModelFlashcards.php.
Then go to http://www.nlpls.com/articles/NLPmetaModel.php and learn about Meta Models and the people that have discovered and documented them.
We all know that we should base all requirements on use cases which are stated in simple english. However, what is simple english? Who wrote the use cases? What did the business person state as the requirement and what else were they thinking at the time besides what they communicated by voice. How was the statement perceived and recorded by the analysit, did they rely only on words or other non verbal activity on and around the business person that should not have been considered in the way that it was?
Elicitation and recording of facts is impacted on by feelings which can change the meaning of words by overloading them with extraneuos data that should have been contained in isolation from the current object of communication.
Take a look at http://www.nlpls.com/articles/metamodel/MetaModelFlashcards.php.
Then go to http://www.nlpls.com/articles/NLPmetaModel.php and learn about Meta Models and the people that have discovered and documented them.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Best practice to make perfect
One of the things that all of us lack to some extent or other is real world experience in something or other. The main reason for this is that the real world this year is not the same as the real world last year or the year before.
There is only one entity that can be all things to all, and to my knowledge that entity doesn't participate directly in IT projects. Therefore, a pragmatic approach to this requirement for the rest of us can be to use the real world experience of others. Which is why history is so valuable lest we continue to make the same mistakes again and again.
In the IT world our history is encapsulated in successful organisations like OpenSource, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, etc , alongside standards bodies and the standards these organisations contribute towards like ANSII, Prince, ITIL, OMG, UML (See Standards_organizations).
These are the result of many 'real world experiences' being shared to make a common unified real world for all to share and work in, also known as teamwork!
These then lead to validated software and documentation packages that can be used as business (functional - Sales, Finance, Production, Distribution, PerformancePoint Server, etc) and technical (Non Functional - RDBMS's, Object Orientation, The Web, Operating Systems etc) needs solution implementors.
However, we can throw all this away if we do not follow the best practices that are revealed by such historic teamwork.
Therefore, to put a check on deviation from standards we can implement testing. However, as we know it takes as much as three times as long to fix things as to do them properly in the first place. Also, the testing can get a bit tainted by politics.
Therefore, thanks go to MS for their 'MS SQL Server real world experience' gap filler :-
SQL Server Best Practices
Get the real-world guidelines, expert tips, and rock-solid guidance to take your SQL Server implementation to the next level. These SQL Server best practices draw on the extensive experience and expertise from respected developers and engineers at Microsoft, who walk you through the specifics on solving particularly difficult issues.
Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb331794.aspx
There is only one entity that can be all things to all, and to my knowledge that entity doesn't participate directly in IT projects. Therefore, a pragmatic approach to this requirement for the rest of us can be to use the real world experience of others. Which is why history is so valuable lest we continue to make the same mistakes again and again.
In the IT world our history is encapsulated in successful organisations like OpenSource, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, etc , alongside standards bodies and the standards these organisations contribute towards like ANSII, Prince, ITIL, OMG, UML (See Standards_organizations).
These are the result of many 'real world experiences' being shared to make a common unified real world for all to share and work in, also known as teamwork!
These then lead to validated software and documentation packages that can be used as business (functional - Sales, Finance, Production, Distribution, PerformancePoint Server, etc) and technical (Non Functional - RDBMS's, Object Orientation, The Web, Operating Systems etc) needs solution implementors.
However, we can throw all this away if we do not follow the best practices that are revealed by such historic teamwork.
Therefore, to put a check on deviation from standards we can implement testing. However, as we know it takes as much as three times as long to fix things as to do them properly in the first place. Also, the testing can get a bit tainted by politics.
Therefore, thanks go to MS for their 'MS SQL Server real world experience' gap filler :-
SQL Server Best Practices
Get the real-world guidelines, expert tips, and rock-solid guidance to take your SQL Server implementation to the next level. These SQL Server best practices draw on the extensive experience and expertise from respected developers and engineers at Microsoft, who walk you through the specifics on solving particularly difficult issues.
Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb331794.aspx
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Systems do as their 'Logic', or lack of it, dictates
In business there should be little room for illogical systems, otherwise how can these systems be trusted and how can there be continued progress of an organisation as it grows.
Sometimes lack of logical systems can come from speed of expansion of the responsibilities of the people who are supposed to implement the business logic, within the said systems.
At other times the use of illogical methods can be the outcome of old system survival tactics in a developing business environment.
At other times ....
However it occurs, it should not be allowed to contaminate an organisations strategy of survival and expansion, otherwise it can become difficult to interface with the wider business world in a synergistic fashion.
There are tools available to help weed out illogical thinking systems and to ensure that rules implemented within systems are implemented in a fair and unambiguous way, for all customers that interface with a given service supplier.
I came across a company that produces one of these tools as a result of some research I was doing into storing logic in databases as opposed to coding it. Thanks to a reference from one of Joe Celko' articles, Joe Celko offers his sage (if offbeat) advice,
I found a link to the following:-
For Business Analysts: LogicGem Video 1
A demonstration of how to use LogicGem to create a set of business rules and provide business analysts with the confidence that the business rule set is complete. Ref: http://www.catalyst.com/videos/logicgem/index.html
Take a look if you want to do things properly but don't have the time. Also have a look if you don't know what I am harping on about. Things may, ?, become clearer as you watch the video.
Sometimes lack of logical systems can come from speed of expansion of the responsibilities of the people who are supposed to implement the business logic, within the said systems.
At other times the use of illogical methods can be the outcome of old system survival tactics in a developing business environment.
At other times ....
However it occurs, it should not be allowed to contaminate an organisations strategy of survival and expansion, otherwise it can become difficult to interface with the wider business world in a synergistic fashion.
There are tools available to help weed out illogical thinking systems and to ensure that rules implemented within systems are implemented in a fair and unambiguous way, for all customers that interface with a given service supplier.
I came across a company that produces one of these tools as a result of some research I was doing into storing logic in databases as opposed to coding it. Thanks to a reference from one of Joe Celko' articles, Joe Celko offers his sage (if offbeat) advice,
I found a link to the following:-
For Business Analysts: LogicGem Video 1
A demonstration of how to use LogicGem to create a set of business rules and provide business analysts with the confidence that the business rule set is complete. Ref: http://www.catalyst.com/videos/logicgem/index.html
Take a look if you want to do things properly but don't have the time. Also have a look if you don't know what I am harping on about. Things may, ?, become clearer as you watch the video.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Course PreRequisites - Straight from the horses mouth?
Training is naturally a little bit more complicated than gambling and so needs to be taken seriously. And at the least, as seriously as knowing the health of the horse you are gambling on when gambling on a horse race.
So that there is no confusion about the pre-requisites for Microsoft courses that people may wish to attend. I offer a link to the site of Element K. One can use the information on this site to confirm their understanding of what they need to bring to the party in order for everyone to enjoy themselves when attending a course.
If you perceive something that conflicts with the information given by Element K, then you should worry because the latest Microsoft training material is designed around an educational strategy.
This is new to technology training from Microsoft and to be applauded, however, for this strategy change to work the educational offerings should be free of marketing and if the two get cross contaminated then we are in real trouble!
So that there is no confusion about the pre-requisites for Microsoft courses that people may wish to attend. I offer a link to the site of Element K. One can use the information on this site to confirm their understanding of what they need to bring to the party in order for everyone to enjoy themselves when attending a course.
If you perceive something that conflicts with the information given by Element K, then you should worry because the latest Microsoft training material is designed around an educational strategy.
This is new to technology training from Microsoft and to be applauded, however, for this strategy change to work the educational offerings should be free of marketing and if the two get cross contaminated then we are in real trouble!
There are two main risks associated with such freedom of information.
The first is that it will scare the planners when they think of the time and cost involved in doing things correctly.
The second is that they will act on the fear and make the wrong decisions.
Be strong and enjoy the benefits of information sharing. This is what democracy is all about after all, isn't it?
Monday, June 11, 2007
Back to the future
This is a fantastic site. I am not sure whether you are up with this kind of thing but the acupuncture points used in Chinese medicine have been exploited to good effect without the use of needles, for thousands of years.
See Yin Yang House for the details.
If you learn better by being shown rather than by reading about things then look up EFT on the Internet. There are an increasing number of people willing to invest in learning and then helping others understand what is available! Gary Craig is one amongst many such nice people out there!
See Yin Yang House for the details.
If you learn better by being shown rather than by reading about things then look up EFT on the Internet. There are an increasing number of people willing to invest in learning and then helping others understand what is available! Gary Craig is one amongst many such nice people out there!
Friday, April 27, 2007
What hotels are there in this area of London?
I found this cool map when I was trying to locate a hotel near a customer site I will be working at in the near future. Very useful, you can zoom in and out and it changes hotels shown on the map also puts their names in a list on the right. Now thats something of a GISa (Google Is Special application) or (Graphical Information Systems applied) both work for me ;-)
Interactive guide to Hotels in London
You may not need it if your from London, but if your from outside then finding a hotel can be interesting. We were just chatting during a course this week and it's amazing the types of places people end up in when tryng to save the company money.
Interactive guide to Hotels in London
You may not need it if your from London, but if your from outside then finding a hotel can be interesting. We were just chatting during a course this week and it's amazing the types of places people end up in when tryng to save the company money.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
TechNet Virtual Labs: SQL Server 2005
Time to update your pre 2005 Data Warehousing knowledge to post 2000 Business Intelligence.
Microsoft have produced freely available virtual labs to help and you can download them, amongst other useful material, at TechNet Virtual Labs: SQL Server 2005
This is what I call learning support ;-)
Microsoft have produced freely available virtual labs to help and you can download them, amongst other useful material, at TechNet Virtual Labs: SQL Server 2005
This is what I call learning support ;-)
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Immediate benefits from moving onto a 64bit AMD Platform
"Will my software be limited by the same memory constraints on a 64bit machine as when on a 32bit machine"
Fair question! The reality is that when using a 64bit machine on an AMD chip the operating system, which is common to both the 32bit and 64bit persona's of the machine, does not capitalise the space allocated to the windows application execution environment.
This means that even without utilizing Advanced Windowing Extensions (AWE) you can access up to 4GB of memory rather than having to rely on 3GB and what can be stolen from the OS temporarily.
Go to 'tell me more about AMD use of memory' to get further details and there are lots of links therein to increase your knowledge about the subject area.
Fair question! The reality is that when using a 64bit machine on an AMD chip the operating system, which is common to both the 32bit and 64bit persona's of the machine, does not capitalise the space allocated to the windows application execution environment.
This means that even without utilizing Advanced Windowing Extensions (AWE) you can access up to 4GB of memory rather than having to rely on 3GB and what can be stolen from the OS temporarily.
Go to 'tell me more about AMD use of memory' to get further details and there are lots of links therein to increase your knowledge about the subject area.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Three cheers for Microsoft Learning Support
Moving a whole world from procedural coding to Object Oriented principles takes a lot of things, not least of which is training.
However, while schools and colleges try to achieve government set targets and companies outsource resources rather than investing in them, Microsoft offer a hand of friendship to the poor worker/ learner.
If your interested in following a career in programming using the latest tools and techniques, or your the parent of a child who asks you where they can learn how to program, or your a teacher looking for assistance in helping your children but cannot afford the hefty prices that are sometimes charged to get your own skills up to date, now you have somewhere you can go!
Head for learning help from Microsoft where this fantastic company has kept alive the idea that they started with knowledge sharing with Encarta many years ago. Now they are sharing their resources with you so that you can learn about the latest software development techniques at your own pace.
However, while schools and colleges try to achieve government set targets and companies outsource resources rather than investing in them, Microsoft offer a hand of friendship to the poor worker/ learner.
If your interested in following a career in programming using the latest tools and techniques, or your the parent of a child who asks you where they can learn how to program, or your a teacher looking for assistance in helping your children but cannot afford the hefty prices that are sometimes charged to get your own skills up to date, now you have somewhere you can go!
Head for learning help from Microsoft where this fantastic company has kept alive the idea that they started with knowledge sharing with Encarta many years ago. Now they are sharing their resources with you so that you can learn about the latest software development techniques at your own pace.
Get your dirty machine clean and fresh again
Ever ended up with an unstable machine that you can't just blow away and re-install, due to time constraints? Well yo would be amazed at how often you come across this kind of situation now that computers are in widespread use, as are Beta versions of very enticing products!
The nice people at VMware have come up with tools that can help with a solution. You can save the complete machine as a virtual machine. Blow away the contaminated machine and then transfer the good bits back at your leisure.
The tools are made available free to you by Vmware. Download VMware Converter and use this to convert your current machine into a virtual machine and store it somewhere safe, a new external hard disk is much cheaper than a replacement machine, which I have seen some desperate users resort to.
Then go to Download VMware Server to load the newly created virtual machine, having restored your machine to its factory installed state.
The nice people at VMware have come up with tools that can help with a solution. You can save the complete machine as a virtual machine. Blow away the contaminated machine and then transfer the good bits back at your leisure.
The tools are made available free to you by Vmware. Download VMware Converter and use this to convert your current machine into a virtual machine and store it somewhere safe, a new external hard disk is much cheaper than a replacement machine, which I have seen some desperate users resort to.
Then go to Download VMware Server to load the newly created virtual machine, having restored your machine to its factory installed state.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Give and take wins again
It is always better to give and take rather than just taking all the time. Now it is definitely becoming a fashion of goodness. Join in at Liftshare Solutions
Thursday, February 22, 2007
TechNet Virtual Lab: SQL Server 2005 Upgrade
These virtual labs get better and better. Now you can do a no risk upgrade attempt without threatening your real live system here. Then when you feel confident you can do it for real where you are!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Be softer with your computer hardware
I am one of those people that cannot part with old hardware. However, often you have to resort to open versions of equivalent software for the older machines because of the ruling that each computer that the software can run on needs its own license. This is true even if your never ever going to run the software on two of your machines simultaneously.
What Google has done and others are moving towards are Internet based equivalents of software which free you from some of these licensing practices.
However, today I stumbled across a piece of software which allows the user to install their software on a removable device which can then be attached to any host running a compatible operating system.
This leaves the host machines totally clean while allowing their resources to be used by the software on the removable device to pick up and put back data only on the removable device.
How cool is that! Now go and try it at www.mojopac.com where you can download a free 30 day trial.
Update Now it is even cooler, you can get a version for FREE
What Google has done and others are moving towards are Internet based equivalents of software which free you from some of these licensing practices.
However, today I stumbled across a piece of software which allows the user to install their software on a removable device which can then be attached to any host running a compatible operating system.
This leaves the host machines totally clean while allowing their resources to be used by the software on the removable device to pick up and put back data only on the removable device.
How cool is that! Now go and try it at www.mojopac.com where you can download a free 30 day trial.
Update Now it is even cooler, you can get a version for FREE
Friday, January 12, 2007
A charity event in the memory of David and Bob Bridges
For all instructors and/ or students that knew Bob Bridges and who I cannot reach via email.