~gux (Gustavo Larriera)

And when I awoke I was alone, this blog has flown

Since October 2006 many things happened: I changed to a new job in a foreign country. I've also decided to blog only in Spanish.

My new blog about SQL Server and other stuff, totally written in Spanish, is:

http://blogs.solidq.com/ES/glarriera

See you there!
~gux

IronPython .NET 1.0 released

Sure, you are an software architect... but in some distant corner of your brain you still remember the pleasure it was to code programs :-) Go to the new homepage of the IronPython Project, download it and play like when you were young!

SQL Server 2000 will not be supported on Vista/Longhorn

SQL Server 2000 (and also MSDE) and earlier versions will not be supported on Windows Vista. Please see details on this announcement.

Entity Data Model - ADO.NET preview

I overlooked this paper last month. It provides a complete definition of the Entity Data Model (EDM) which --in combination with eSQL-- represents a richer data model and query language for ADO.NET.

Download it in Word format from here.

MSDN Radio - Spanish spoken shows

For all of Spanish-speakers these MSDN Radio Shows presented by Solid Quality Learning professionals, are of great interest:

MSDN Radio en Vivo: SQL Server: Procedimientos Almacenados de SQLCLR
Daniel Seara, Adolfo Wiernik
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032294877&Culture=es-MX

MSDN Radio en Vivo: Servicios de Reportes en SQL Server 2005: Permitiendo al usuario final crear sus propios reportes personalizados
Jordi Rambla, Alejandro Leguizamo, Javier Loria
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032294875&Culture=es-MX

MSDN Radio en Vivo: Mirroring y Clustering en SQL Server 2005
Antonio Soto, Eladio Rincon, Miguel Egea
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032298274&Culture=es-MX

MSDN Radio en Vivo: Ventajas del modelo de servicios basado en proveedores en ASP .NET 2.0
Eugenio Serrano, Daniel Seara
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032294879&Culture=es-MX

SQL Server 2005 Upgrade - a technical resource guide

From a Brian Moran's article in SQL Server Magazine I came to this SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Technical Resource Guide. If you are going to SQL Server 2005 from earlier versions, this technical paper is for you. Download it from here.

SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition

The CTP published 9-Jun-06 can be downloaded from here. In the overview's own words:

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition (SQL Server Everywhere) is designed for developers who need light weight, in process relational database solution for their applications that can be developed and deployed on desktop as well as on mobile devices. The SQL Server Everywhere CTP contains the runtime bits that can be used to develop and deploy applications on desktop only. The RTW of SQL Server Everywhere will contain the device support for developing and deploying applications on mobile devices.

TechNet Webcasts

Live & on-demand: https://www1.msteched.com/content/webcasts.aspx

Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals

Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem/products/dbpro/default.aspx

SQL Server 2005 Security: Where to Start?

I receive many questions and see many posts on newsgroups asking about SQL Server 2005 security (something like "Do you know about a guide about SS2005 security considerations?"). IMHO, the best places to start with are SQL Server 2005 Security Considerations Also worth value are the Best Practices site, visit: Patterns & Practices: Security. Finally, for SQL Server 2000 you can check Chapter 3 of the Operations Guide: SQL Server 2000 Operations Guide: Security Administration

SQL Server 2005 Express on stereoids

Give a try to SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services (i.e. Reporting Services, toolkits, et al.). It is a worth value 500 MB bits & bytes :-)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql/download/

Have lotta fun!
~gux

Database refactoring

TODO: Look the catalog of database refactorings by Scott W. Ambler at AgileData.org

.NET Persistence Frameworks are around me

On these weeks I am in persistence frameworks stuff due to my activities in a development project. Being a database guy I am impressed: There are so many proposals to be considered mainly from the Java world.

I have a limited time assigned to the task of evaluating some of them. So I´ve started googling and found Fabrice Marguerie's "Choosing an object-relational mapping tool" article a good starting point. The "Object Relational Tool Comparison" and "Object Relational Tool Comparison Dot Net" pages both were great help (I am in the .NET side of The Force so I preferred the later one :-)). Surely Hibernate/NHibernate and Gentle.NET are at my first glance, worth to be considered. Finally, what about code generators? They are valid options too. I am evaluating MyGeneration and Olymars.

If you know .NET-based proposals from your experience, just drop me a line here or email me.

Project REAL

Project REAL (acronym for "Reference implementation, End-to-end, At scale, and Lots of users") is a cooperative effort between Microsoft and a number of technology partners in the business intelligence (BI) industry to build on actual customer scenarios to discover best practices for creating BI applications based on SQL Server 2005.

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/solutions/bi/projectreal.mspx

SQL Server 2005 E-Learning

This is a list of SQL Server 2005 online free mini-courses (*). The whole catalog can be found at https://www.microsoftelearning.com/catalog/default.aspx

2936: Installing and Securing Microsoft SQL Server 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/2936.asp

2937: Administering and Monitoring Microsoft SQL Server 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/2937.asp

2938: Data Availability Features in Microsoft SQL Server 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/2938.asp

2940: Building Services and Notifications Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/2940.asp

2941: Creating the Data Access Tier Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/2941.asp

2942: New Features of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/2942.asp

2943: Updating Your Data ETL Skills to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/2943.asp

2944: Updating Your Reporting Skills to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/2944.asp

(*) The courses are FREE until Apr. 28, but some pages say Nov. 1, 2006.