The Industry Insiders

Martin Bell MVP and SQL Bits Organiser, wants to promote the idea of SQL Nuggets.  Basically these are 5-10 minute slots on something byte sized (ouch!) at community events where anyone can grab the mike and share their knowledge.  Martin has a good example in this article around activity monitor.

So check the article both because it’s useful and becasue it serves as a good example of how you can get involved in some of the community activities Martin mentions.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Alex Pearce, Microsoft MVP and network manager of Great Barr School.  In the interview he goes on the to discuss the state of the school prior to his arrival and then fast forwards to the present day where teachers are using technologies like Windows Mobile and Communicator to communicate in real-time.  Check out the video!

In this unusual Industry post I have got the industry insider on camera to discuss why you should get involved in the premier SQL community event, SQL Bits.

Take it away Chris Testa O’Neill

SQL Bits goes fourth is on  28th march this time in Manchester. If you decide you would like to get involved like Chris then you need to register as a speaker here and submit your session.  Delegates registering for the event then vote on the sessions they want to see and the best go through.  BTW if you want to see Chris’s session it’s here

Thanks again to Jennifer Stirrup from Aspective (A Vodafone company) for writing up how she gets data into SQL Server using its in built Integration Services (SSIS) from an AS400 in this useful guide. This takes me back to my first ever BI project which was doing the same thing only with SQL Server 7 and Data Transformation Services, at least it’s easier now to find out where it’s all going wrong, but as Jenny points out it’s essential to have the right drivers and hotfixes for SSIS for this to work.

Finding stuff about one Microsoft technology isn’t too hard it’s when you try and use two things get a little harder at Adrian J. Beasley found out when he was looking for nothing in particular; the use of SQL Server nulls in a Powershell script.  Having got the answer it would be rude not to share it so he’s written a short article to show you how.  You might also want to check Richard Siddaway’s introduction to Powershell for SQL Server while you’re here.

Leonard Chung, CEO of Syncplicity.com, discusses issues around web privacy and data protection laws his company deals with in the world of online storage.  Leonard and I dive deep into legal world of privacy statements what these types of documents actually mean for the industry.

Leonard Chung, President & CEO

Leonard is an experienced entrepreneur with a particular emphasis on developing and delivering version one products and ideas. Notable past projects include SETI@home, Windows PowerShell, and internet storage company Scale Eight. Past collaborators include RISC/RAID inventor Dr. David Patterson and ACM Turing Award Winner Jim Gray.

Leonard received a B.A. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

read the article

In BI and in SharePoint there is a great community which transcends the many partners, contractors etc. that specialise in this field.  We all keep in touch as we move companies and change roles as best we can using LinkedIn, Face book etc.  So I asked a friend of mine Darren Wray what he was up to know he runs a large Sharepoint Practice (and Microsoft Gold Partner) called Interakting and he mentioned all the upgrade work they were doing, usually as part of a large overhaul of the design of an older site.

I thought that there would be a lot of good advice coming form this work so Darren has asked one of his top SharePoint guys Raymond Little to write this up and so you can read all about it here

Although I understand what Powershell is I didn't understand really get it until I worked with James on our last TechNet road shows.  I did know that there were special extensions and support for it in SQL Server 2008, so I suggested to our good friend Richard Siddaway that he might be best placed to right an introduction to the use of Powershell in SQL Server 2008 for interested DBA's and Powershell experts alike. 

For those of  you that don't know Richard, he is a Powershell MVP and currently leads the UK PowerShell User Group. Richard has presented to the Directory Experts Conference 2007, at various events at Microsoft UK, including the last Community Day, and for other UK User Groups. 

Richard can be contacted by e-mail at RSiddaway@centiq.co.uk  and he blogs at http://richardsiddaway.spaces.live.com/

Adrian Beasley sent me this article the other day explaining how he managed to connect his Windows mobile 6 phone to connect to Exchange Server 2007.

It's certainly worth a read if you're struggling to get connectied and are running out of ideas...

Read it here...

Some extra resources that may also be of interest:

Configuring SSL and Exchange Active Sync

Active sync error messages when trying to sync a mobile device

Understanding Active Sync mailbox policies

Publish an Exchange server for OWA

Active Sync solution centre

Client side features in Outlook 2007

Jennifer Stirrup from Aspective has written another great business intelligence article for us on her experiences of presenting data in SharePoint. Jennifer rightly points out that getting the numbers right is not enough, easy to understand and compelling visualtisations are also needed by the business.

It's about time there were a few business intelligence posts on Industry Insiders so I am pleased to get an article about the Microsoft BI and the importance of users in form Jennifer Stirrup from Aspective - a Vodafone company. Jennifer has over ten years experience in working with SQL Server, and has specialised in BI and reporting for the last 6 years. Jennifer is currently working towards her Microsoft BI certification.

Adrian J. Beasley has provided us with another excellent article titled A General Defence Against Injection Attacks on Websites written in his inimitable fashion tackling the challenging subject of how to validate user input.

SharePoint has been a phenominal success as a product for Microsoft.  It has successfully penetrated almost every industry as collaboration & portal platform.  SharePoint's role in the enrichment of secondary education has been particularly strong.  Read this article titled, "Introduction to SCORM and SharePoint Learning Kit" from Alex Pearce, Network Manager of Hillcrest School in Birmingham.  Thank you Alex!