So, What Do You Hate About SQL Server?

Paul S. Randal stirred up the SQL Server community this week with a blog post titled "What 5 things should SQL Server get rid of?"

He tagged five friends and started a chain reaction--or SQL Meme--of bellicose bombast across the blogosphere.

Randal's No. 1 complaint? "Auto-shrink." The CEO of SQLskills.com said, "I tried to have it removed during SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 development, but to no avail. It needed to stay for backwards compatibility."

Posted by David Ramel on 05/12/20104 comments

Rapid SQL Tool Catches Up With Windows 7

Way back in November,Rapid SQL XE, Embarcadero's integrated development environment for SQL coders, now includes support for Windows 7, the company announced recently.

Microsoft developers will also be glad to hear that the new IDE has enhanced object management capabilities for SQL Server, along with Oracle and DB2.

Also, it "includes support for all database platforms with a single product, interface and license," the company news release states. (Really, all database platforms? That’s a pretty strong statement. OK, the PR people just got carried away there -- other company sources indicate it works with the "major" databases: DB2, Firebird, InterBase, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle and Sybase.)

Posted by David Ramel on 05/07/20100 comments

Microsoft Nods To PHP Community (Yet Again) With SQL Server Driver

Microsoft continued to cater to the PHP community last week, announcing a Community Technology Preview of SQL Server Driver for PHP 2.0.

For the first time, PHP developers can use PHP Data Objects (PDO) with the SQL Server driver.

Posted by David Ramel on 04/28/20100 comments

Is Oracle's MySQL Move Really A Threat To Microsoft?

A lot of people believe that Oracle last week left no doubt that it will wield MySQL as a potent weapon to fight Microsoft for database market share. The company announced several new MySQL products at a conference in California and reaffirmed its commitment to the open-source software it acquired from Sun Microsystems earlier this year.

Posted by David Ramel on 04/19/20101 comments

New Training Kit For SQL Server 2008 R2

The buzz today is all about Visual Studio 2010 finally being released, of course, but you data hounds may be more interested in next month's launch of SQL Server 2008 R2.

Some of the more interesting features of R2 are the emphasis on "self-service BI" that comes through the new PowerPivot plug-ins for Excel and SharePoint and new Datacenter and Parallel Data Warehouse editions.

Posted by David Ramel on 04/12/20100 comments

New Data Visualization Tool Costs Nothing, Does A Lot

Continuing my exploration of new ways of using data from the cloud, I have found a nifty tool chock full of features that you wouldn't expect for its price: free!

It's called Tableau Public by its maker, Tableau Software.

It's called a step toward "the holy grail of data" by Microsoft's MSDN blog on Dallas, which is the new cloud data repository.

Posted by David Ramel on 04/07/20101 comments

.NET Data Access In Web Apps 101

Ever wonder what all these new-fangled data-based technologies coming from Microsoft can do for you? Who can keep track of everything? There's ADO.NET, LINQ to SQL, ASP.NET MVC, Entity Framework and OData, to name a few. Not to mention the code names and name changes: Oslo is now SQL Server Modeling; Gemini is now PowerPivot; ADO.NET Data Services is now WCF Data Services; and of course, my personal favorite, ADO Data Services v1.5 is now Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. The list goes on.

Posted by David Ramel on 03/25/20100 comments

Is The New 'Open' Microsoft For Real?

It was all about openness at Microsoft's MIX10 conference this week. What's going on with the notorious bastion of proprietary, locked-in software long known for holding out against the open-source barbarians clamoring at the Gates of Redmond?

Get it? "Gates" as in Bill? Maybe with him (almost) gone, the company is changing direction.

At one point during a live Channel9 broadcast from Las Vegas, a Microsoft exec, discussing open data, glanced nervously at the camera and wondered aloud how much of this stuff he could talk about. He didn't drop any bombshells, but he did allow as to how he was in continual contact with companies such as Google about working together on opening up standards and technologies.

Posted by David Ramel on 03/18/20101 comments

Coding -- Art Become Drudgery

"That was then," he said. "Today, I mostly paste libraries together.  So do you, most likely, if you work in software.  Doesn't that seem anticlimactic?"

I'm not in the biz, per se, but it does seem programming has lost something in these days of commoditized offshore code factories, rigid regimentation and plug-and-play developers populating dreary cubicle farms.

Where is the élan, the elegance, the art? Where are the brilliant mavericks, the rock stars?

I've often wondered if most programmers felt the same way. Looking at the hundreds of comments, there were of course many in agreement, such as this:

"I couldn't agree more. Writing software is not fun anymore, it's a job. The type of job that is occupied by people who don't even like computers, they're 9 to 5 programmers."

But a surprising number take task with Taylor, saying their jobs are creative and rewarding. Here's an example:

"I've found myself taking great pleasure from some of the higher level stuff I've done over the last 11-ish years as a pro."

Many posters suggested turning to open-source projects to regain whatever has been lost.

What about database-oriented programmers? Is that niche even more lacking in lustre? How do you feel about the state of the art in general or your job in particular? Comment here or send me an e-mail.

Posted by David Ramel on 03/10/20104 comments

TechFest 2010: Could This Stuff Really Happen?

You may not be able to attend yourself, but you should keep track of news coming out of Microsoft's TechFest 2010 if you're into high-tech futurism.

Since 2001, the invitation-only event has showcased futuristic projects in development at Microsoft Research. While some of these far-out projects fall by the wayside of the forgotten, others eventually bear mainstream fruition.

Posted by David Ramel on 03/03/20100 comments

Database Wars: Who Has the Edge?

I found all kinds of interesting stuff in Information Technology Intelligence Corp.'s recent 2010 Database Deployment Trends Survey, which predicts more companies will be upgrading their infrastructure this year, thus allowing database vendors a rare chance to persuade customers to switch their RDBMS allegiances.

Posted by David Ramel on 02/22/20102 comments

SQL Saturdays: Free, Fun, Informative

To start up SQL Server Management Studio faster, you can turn off Online Help, error/usage reporting and certificate revocation checking. It also helps to exclude the SqlWB.exe and Ssms.exe executables from anti-virus and anti-spyware tools.

Those are all tips from SQL Server MVP Aaron Bertrand, who presented at the recent SQL Saturday #34 Boston 2010 event (actually held in Waltham, Mass.).

Those are all beginner tips, of course, but dozens of other presentations targeted intermediate and advanced users, covering diverse subjects such as career tips, storage design and SQL injection attacks.

Posted by David Ramel on 02/11/20104 comments