I’ve recently become conscious of how much I’ve started sounding like the guys over at 3D Realms who are now infamous for stating the release date of Duke Nukem Forever as “when it’s done.” They have however also provided some comfort in that the aformentioned game has been in development now for nearly ten years, … Read more
Its always nice as a developer when you find a new tool to make your life easier – understanding what is actually happening during the execution of your application (rather than what you think is happening) is key to fixing those hard to find bugs. Visual Studio does a pretty good job of helping with … Read more
When the news broke that Red-Gate had purchased SQLServerCentral, there followed a fascinating, and generally positive debate in one of their forums over the possible ramifications. It all seemed extraordinarily mature and sensible until a couple of the current advertisers on the site started to question Red-Gate’s motives. Were Red-Gate going to suppress all advertising … Read more
Well, no-one can accuse Microsoft of giving out mixed messages. The framework for Steve Ballmer’s keynote this morning was exactly the same as the one used by Ray Ozzie et al. at Tech Ed 2006 in Boston. You’ll be relieved to here that Microsoft are still very much “people ready” and are still trying their … Read more
In the new Simple-Talk spirit of ‘coming out’, I have to confess I used to be a practicing IT strategist. In fact I gave up and went back to being a database developer after a number of almost identical conversations with IT Agencies. ‘OK, you’ve sent me your CV, how would you sum up what … Read more
Simple-Talk is about technology and beer, but we’re going to expand that a bit to include mixed drinks as well. My wife and I frequent a local Bennigans and have been hooked on a drink called the Pattio Punch (or Paddy-O Punch). It’s a tropical drink served in a giant glass meant for two, though you could … Read more
Jonathan Watts, SQL Compare Product Manager at Red Gate Software, has just let me know that he has released a SQL Compare survey with a cool prize for 10 lucky Simple-Talk participants… If you include your e-mail address in the survey, you can be entered into a prize draw to win 1 of 10 copies … Read more
There was an article about some research which Akamai has done on user’s experiences of online stores – mainly with respect to loading times – on Slashdot yesterday and it appeared on BBC News this morning as well. Their headline conclusion was that if a web page took more than 4 seconds to load then … Read more
David Atkinson, a product manager at Red Gate Software, is doing some preliminary research around the area of database development processes, especially in relation to source control and versioning. If you are a SQL Server database developer, then David is very keen to read more about your thoughts and ideas in a short survey. Your … Read more
I just wanted to provide everyone with a “heads-up” on Simple-Talk’s plans for SQL PASS in Seattle. If you’re at the show and are interested in talking – maybe about writing an article, doing a short interview, to tell me how great Simple-Talk is, or just to give me a good slap, then drop me … Read more
After all the years I’ve spent working with databases, I am continually shocked by how little I know. The power and facilities of relational databases have increased enormously, and we struggle to keep up. One has, of necessity, to spend an increasing portion of the working day in retraining. To a hard-pressed project manager, time … Read more
When checking for local instances of SQL Server its normally best enumerate the value of the registry key HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server and then look at the value on installed instances. However on a 64 bit machine there are two keys, the 64 bit version and the 32 bit version for the machine so using the … Read more
In a previous blog entry (Date Errors Pulling DB2 Data into SQL Server) I recounted some of the issues I had with date conversions from DB2 to SQL Server. Another interesting issue came up. We were pulling data from a production DB2 database and continued getting duplicate primary key violations on a few records in … Read more
It was just after I’d written the ‘Yancey Men’ article for Simple Talk that I came across the following verses which, I think, first appeared in Punch magazine. It was written after the poet,Wyndham Lewis, came across a court report in which one of the directors of a rather shady city company was recorded to … Read more
A major development of SQL Backup is scheduled for the coming months and Jamie Gerig is looking for a lucky few to help influence the exciting changes ahead. Red Gate’s usability candidates come from a varied target audience and give vital feedback during the development process. No preparation is required from candidates. I would also … Read more
I need to apologise because we’ve had to disable anonymous comments on my blog due to the fact that for some reason this post in particular seems to be attracting an inordinate amount of spam advertising various “exotic” items, websites and services. Guess it must be my kinky porn star name… either that or the … Read more
I like making webpages that expand to fill the entire browser window, but ever since browsers started rendering in full-compliance mode it has been a chore because tables do not respond very well to their heights being set to 100% directly in the table tag or using CSS. I normally just revert back to “quirk” mode by removing the … Read more
Developing a usable application requires that you pay particular attention to who you’re designing for. That statement isn’t exactly rocket surgery, but it becomes rocket surgery when you begin to realise that everyone has their own ideas of who their users are. Faced with broad labels, such as ‘ software developer’ or ‘dba’, it can … Read more
Phil Factor’s recent blog on The Joy of IT Meetings contains a lot of good advice, but if you really want your meetings to be productive, I can only suggest you adopt the Simple-Talk approach. All you need are some good people, a traditional local hostelry, some lovingly-brewed real ale and about 2 hours. Here’s … Read more
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