Month: August 2010

Ola Hallengren has released an updated version of his free and very useful SQL Server maintenance scripts
New additions include:

• A new version of IndexOptimize with support for advanced index selection. In the new version you can select indexes in the same way as you can do with databases. You can select individual or lists of schemas, objects or indexes, use exclusions or use wild-cards.
• Support for HyperBac backup compression and backup description in DatabaseBackup.

He has also posted online documentation, including a Getting Started Guide, an Upgrading Guide and Frequently Asked Questions.

Very interesting recent post from Brad McGehee on RedGate’s Virtual Restore which enables you to “Rapidly mount live, fully functional databases direct from backups”:

In brief, what SQL Virtual Restore does is to mount a SQL Server backup to a SQL Server instance as a fully functional, live database. In other words, the mounted database works exactly like any other database from SQL Server’s perspective, except the data, for the most part, is stored in a backup file

This has many uses, as Brad mentions in his post.

The development landscape is so rich (or perhaps it is my age!), that I find myself forgetting about useful resources (hence this blog). One I had overlooked recently is the TechNet Script Center (note US spelling), and specifically the SQL Server area.

Don’t forget: meeting tonight. Ola Karlsson is presenting on Microsoft Smooth Streaming.  We have several Tekpub 30-day coupons and a JetBrains license as door prizes!

Saw this in a question on one of the StackOverflow family of sites today: Google Search Cheat Sheet

I never knew about the synonym operator ‘~’ !

Microsoft have just released Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.0, a new and long awaited process template for Team Foundation Server 2010.  It can be downloaded from the Visual Studio Gallery or via the Visual Studio Extension Manager. 

In this presentation we’ll look at how you can leverage tools like Microsoft Smooth Streaming, IIS, Silverlight and Expression Encoder to get a simple video player up and running in minutes and start delivering a great online video experience. We’ll also look at ways of creating your own fully customised player, including using the Microsoft backed open source project, Silverlight Media Framework (SMF).

Smooth Streaming and SMF use industry best practices and have been used for events such as the NBC 2010 Winter Olympics and the Tour de France on French Télévision. Smooth streaming provides features like near instant video start, very fast seeking and eliminating that irritating “buffering” we see all too often when watching online video.

• TOPIC: Microsoft Smooth streaming – with Ola Karlsson
• DATE: Thursday, Aug 5th, 5:30pm – 7:00pm
• VENUE: Excom, Ground Floor, 23 Barrack Street, Perth
• COST: Free. All welcome

Ola Karlsson works as a full time Silverlight and ASP.Net developer and has been working with Microsoft Smooth Streaming since it was released in early 2009. Ola is an active member of the Australian Silverlight community, having spoken at the at the first Australian Silverlight Code Camp, which was held in Melbourne February 2010 and he is a frequent speaker at the Perth, Silverlight Developer Designer Network (SDDN).

There will be a door prize of a choice of license from JetBrains (one of ReSharper , TeamCity Build Agent, dotTrace Profiler, RubyMine, IntelliJ IDEA), and several 30-day coupons to Tekpub‘s high-quality, online screencasts for programmers.