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November 2006 - Posts

Thursday, November 30, 2006 10:45 PM

Strange Bedfellows? Branson Offers Hawking A Boost

Stephen Hawking wants to go to space. Via Virgin Galactic , Richard Branson wants to help. Read this . It's pretty remarkable. -wp
Posted by Ward Pond | 1 Comments
Thursday, November 30, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 30

The month comes to an end with a return to meteorological normalcy (light rain, temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s) as well as Day 4 of "SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Bootcamp," offered up in Bellevue for the week by SQLSoft . While the postulated
Posted by Ward Pond | 1 Comments
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Wednesday, November 29, 2006 8:30 PM

Research Begets Enlightenment: The SSMA Downloads

This time, it was me asking the question, on behalf of one of my classmates in BI training this week: Is anyone aware of an automated Access-SQL to TSQL conversion tool for stored procedures? Frankie answered: You can try SSMA for Access. http://www.microsoft.com/sql/solutions/migration/access/default.mspx
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 8:00 PM

DWWTWT?: November 29

Day 3 of "SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Bootcamp," offered up in Bellevue for the week by SQLSoft , saw me back on the chained-up Metro Transit 232 bus: Telecommuted: 4 Walked: 71 Walked to the Bus: 8 Drove: 23 Did Not Compete: 17 We're still
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, November 28, 2006 6:45 PM

DWWTWT?: November 28

Day 2 of "SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Bootcamp," offered up in Bellevue for the week by SQLSoft , coincided with a bit of a weather event here in the Seattle area. Today, the Metro Transit 232 was chained up, making for a suboptimal but ultimately
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Monday, November 27, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 27

This week sees me in "SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Bootcamp," offered up in Bellevue for the week by SQLSoft . Since I did so well riding the bus to SQL PASS before the holiday, I'm exploiting the Metro Transit 232 (express) and 233 (local) routes
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Friday, November 24, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 24

Today is the day after Thanksgiving, also known as "Black Friday", because it's the day that retailers' accounting books for the year go "into the black" (show a profit). For the first time in many years, I may well join in this peculiarly American celebration,
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
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Thursday, November 23, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 23

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday, an important opportunity to reflect on the generous bounty of our lives and the true extent of our extreme good fortune. The office would be no place to do that, so I'm staying at home with the family, as I hope you
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Wednesday, November 22, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 22

I'm relaxing on the day before the Thanksgiving holiday. No work means no commute: Telecommuted: 4 Walked: 71 Walked to the Bus: 5 Drove: 23 Did Not Compete: 15 -wp
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006 10:15 PM

Home For The Holidaze..

After over a month of working pretty ridiculous hours, I'm going to take the rest of the week away from work to celebrate our good fortune with my family. Other than some automated DWWTWT? posts, I expect the blog to pretty much remain quiescent until
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 9:00 PM

Database Programming: A Decrypter For Omni

This post will conclude (for me and for now, at least) a discussion begun here and continued here and here . When last we spoke, I was searching for a SQL Server 2000-specific decrypter for Omnibuzz . Well, I've got one. It might be a tad over-engineered
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 8:30 PM

DWWTWT?: November 21

A very short work week ended with a "short walking commute": Telecommuted: 4 Walked: 71 Walked to the Bus: 5 Drove: 23 Did Not Compete: 14 I'll be off from work on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday; these entries will be auto-posted
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Monday, November 20, 2006 10:45 PM

Database Programming: (Almost) A Decrypter For Omni..

Omnibuzz saw my comment (I left another one over the weekend and it showed up right away; I wonder if the ones I left previously were eaten by some flavor of the issue I ran into trying to leave a comment here) and left two comments . Omni's first comment
Posted by Ward Pond | 2 Comments
Monday, November 20, 2006 7:45 PM

DWWTWT?: November 20

A very short work week got off to a fine start -- my first "long walking commute" in almost a month , and I actually spent the day in my office rather than in a classroom or a convention hall: Telecommuted: 4 Walked: 70 Walked to the Bus: 5 Drove: 23
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Friday, November 17, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 17

Yesterday I asked: Can I go 5-for-5 for my week in downtown Seattle? I've got a ticket to a hockey game in Everett tomorrow night, so it could be a little dicey. Well, thanks to a colleague's generous offer of a ride home from the hockey game, I took
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Friday, November 17, 2006 5:00 PM

Living The American Dream

Just a quick note that as of 5:06pm yesterday, Gale and I closed on our house. Rumor has it we are now living the American Dream. If the American Dream involves a mortgage the size of a cruise ship anchor, then we're there.. I'll keep you posted.. -w
Posted by Ward Pond | 1 Comments
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Friday, November 17, 2006 4:45 PM

SQL PASS 2006, Day 5

The SQL PASS 2006 Community Summit wraps up this afternoon. The entire conference has run very smoothly; the organizers and volunteers should be very pleased with themselves. I got here this morning just in time for David Ca mpbell's keynote. David was
Posted by Ward Pond | 3 Comments
Thursday, November 16, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 16

In attempting to assess this morning's possibilities, yesterday I said: [I]f anything goes wrong in the morning I'll have to ditch the bus and fire up the MG . Well, nothing went wrong (if you don't count designing a day where I needed to get up at 5:10
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Thursday, November 16, 2006 4:00 PM

SQL PASS 2006, Day 4

Another day at the SQL PASS 2006 Community Summit , and my education continues on more axes than I would've thought possible. The day started very early, with Quest Software 's breakfast seminar, The Growing World of SQL Server: Surviving The Data Avalanche
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 16, 2006 3:30 PM

No More HTML For This Database Geek?

A couple of weeks ago , you might recall, I mentioned that I'd added a couple of new web-based search tools from Windows Live to the left-hand menu of the blog. Well, as you might've noticed, they're gone now. It turns out that the Windows Live tools
Posted by Ward Pond | 1 Comments
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Wednesday, November 15, 2006 5:45 PM

DWWTWT?: November 15

The commuting challenges and obligations were the same today as they've been all week , only today I needed to get downtown half an hour earlier, and when I woke up it was raining cats and dogs. After a good deal more consideration than any person should
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Wednesday, November 15, 2006 4:30 PM

SQL PASS 2006: Breakfast Panel Venue Change

From a personal perspective, I somewhat " buried the lead " in my last post , so here it is again in a post of its own.. The response to Quest Software 's breakfast panel seminar, The Growing World of SQL Server: Surviving The Data Avalanche , has been
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 4:15 PM

SQL PASS 2006, Day 3

Networking, I'm user friendly Networking, I install with ease Data processed, truly BASIC I will upload you, you can download me - Networking , Warren Zevon and Stefan Arngrim Today is the third day of my trip to the SQL PASS 2006 Community Summit , and
Posted by Ward Pond | 3 Comments
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT? November 14

Today's commuting obligation and alternatives were the same as yesterday: to get to downtown Seattle for SQL PASS for an 8:30 call via either the MG or the Sound Transit 545 bus. Today was another victory for social responsibility: Telecommuted: 4 Walked:
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Tuesday, November 14, 2006 4:00 PM

SQL PASS 2006, Day 2

Greetings from the last break of the second day of preconference seminars from SQL PASS 2006 . Since my primary goal in attending this week is to get up to speed on BI issues, today I'm attending a seminar called, "Enterprise ETL with Integration Services",
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Monday, November 13, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT? November 13

Today's commuting obligation was to get to downtown Seattle for SQL PASS for an 8:30 call. My choices were to either drive (and brave rush hour traffic and a company-reimbursed parking fee alone) or to ride mass transit (carpool lane, no parking fees).
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Monday, November 13, 2006 4:30 PM

What Do You Get When You Put 350 SQL Developers In A Room And Open Up A LiveMeeting Link?

The last time I asked you a question like this, I told you about SQL-Fest, a SQL Server training event at Microsoft. Well, SQL-Fest went so well, we had to try it again, so on November 2, we gathered 350 SQL developers in a training hall for SQL-Fest
Posted by Ward Pond | 1 Comments
Monday, November 13, 2006 10:30 AM

Greetings From SQL PASS!

At the moment, I'm on my first break of my first morning of my first PASS, and so far it's all been good. I rode the Sound Transit 545 bus in from Redmond and was deposited two blocks from the Convention Center. The preconference session on my agenda
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Sunday, November 12, 2006 2:45 AM

Database Programming: Omnibuzz Steals A Saturday Night..

I first encountered Omnibuzz during the recent prime number mania. His contribution to that exercise introduced me to his blog, which I must confess that I initially perused only lightly. Tonight, a chain of links led me back to his blog and I explored
Posted by Ward Pond | 4 Comments
Friday, November 10, 2006 6:45 PM

Database Programming: SET Statements and Dynamic SQL

What's this, you say? Useful T-SQL making a return to this blog? Yep. The first T-SQL I've posted since we were in the midst of the prime number exercise , over a month ago. The first commercially viable T-SQL I've posted since the end of August . It
Posted by Ward Pond | 1 Comments
Friday, November 10, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 10

This morning brought a steady rain and an anticipated noon-time appointment to sign our closing documents, so I drove to work today: Telecommuted: 4 Walked: 69 Drove: 23 Did Not Compete: 14 SQL PASS will throw a few wrinkles into my commuting next week..
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Thursday, November 09, 2006 8:30 PM

DWWTWT?: November 9

Thursday morning brought a number of apparent commitments for the day: my grandson's choir recital over the lunch hour (which happened), my older son's football banquet right after work (which happened), and the signing of the closing documents for our
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, November 08, 2006 6:45 PM

A Brand New Blog You Might Not Know About Yet..

On the heels of two messages last week pointing you at worthy SQL-related blog resources, I'm happy to say that yet another team has jumped on the blogging bandwagon at Microsoft. That's nothing but good news for you if you're a user of SQL Server (which,
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Wednesday, November 08, 2006 6:30 PM

Oh, Yeah.. There's Some Operating System News Today, Too..

Lest I be accused of myopia in the wake of the SQL Server 2005 SP2 CTP announcement , I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Windows Vista was released to manufacturing today! Head on over to the Vista team's blog for direct links to some very happy,
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Wednesday, November 08, 2006 6:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 8

It's Wednesday and it's not raining. Two excellent reasons, among many, to start the day with a "short walking commute": Telecommuted: 4 Walked: 69 Drove: 21 Did Not Compete: 14 One thing I noticed on this, my first walk of the week: as I age, the physical
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Wednesday, November 08, 2006 6:00 PM

It's Here! SQL Server 2005 SP2 CTP2 Released!

The SQL Server team has released CTP2 of SQL Server 2005 SP2 to the public. You'll find the following here : SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 CTP (ReadMe here ) SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and Tools Service Pack 2 CTP SQL Server 2005 Books Online Service
Posted by Ward Pond | 1 Comments
Tuesday, November 07, 2006 5:30 PM

DWWTWT?: November 7

The " rain event of historic significance " has mellowed somewhat ; despite that, it was raining hard enough this morning to give me pause about showing up in front of a class in a soaked condition. I also needed to get home quickly today because it's
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Tuesday, November 07, 2006 2:00 PM

Vaya Con Dios, Old Friend..

Here's another piece of news I got last week.. this one of a sadder variety than my PASS plans .. Last week's inbox brought the unhappy news that John Huschka is leaving Microsoft . While I will miss John as a long-distance colleague and friend (to my
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, November 07, 2006 1:45 PM

See You At PASS!

This news has been in the works for a couple of days, but it was only just this morning that everything came into focus.. There are two pieces of news to share: one is that I will be in attendance at next week's 2006 PASS Community Summit in Seattle.
Posted by Ward Pond | 2 Comments
Monday, November 06, 2006 5:15 PM

DWWTWT?: November 6

I had all sorts of good intentions to start the week off with a "long walking commute," but Mother Nature had other plans. Our region is currently enduring what the meteorologists call " a rain event of historic significance "; even though the MG has
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Friday, November 03, 2006 10:45 PM

DWWTWT?: November 3

The rains and cold subsided just long enough to provide a pleasant "short walking commute" to end the week: Telecommuted: 4 Walked: 68 Drove: 19 Did Not Compete: 14 Have a great weekend.. -wp
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Thursday, November 02, 2006 11:45 PM

Dude, Where's My Data? DataDude (VSTE for Database Professionals) CTP7 Released

What a crazy couple of days.. everything from the second SQL Fest this afternoon (which I'll blog about sometime within the next couple of days) to more great sessions from the SQL team during week two of our four-week SQL Server Microsoft Certified Architect
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 02, 2006 9:45 PM

A Brief, Innocuous, Perhaps Even Humorous Quasi-Political Statement

No matter your stance on the war in Iraq and the people who are arguing about it, this is simply brilliant. I'm humbled by the fact that my best laugh of the day came to me courtesy of a group of people in a war zone half a world away from their homes.
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Thursday, November 02, 2006 5:45 PM

DWWTWT?: November 2

I've got a lot of commitments all over town today: day 9 of the SQL Ranger training in the morning, the second Microsoft SQL Fest this afternoon, and a board meeting of the Redmond Baseball association tonight, starting ten minutes after SQL Fest is scheduled
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:45 PM

New Blog Features, With A Caveat: Beware Of Database Geeks Writing HTML

This post doesn't apply for you aggregate surfers; those of you who come to http://blogs.technet.com/wardpond , please read on. If you look closely, over at the left hand side of the bloo .. er, I mean, blog .. over on the left hand side of the blog ,
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006 8:30 PM

DWWTWT?: November 1

Despite having two appointments before work today (dropping Zach off at an early football practice and attending a conference with Alex's teacher), I managed a "short walking commute" to start off the month: Telecommuted: 4 Walked: 67 Drove: 18 Did Not
Posted by Ward Pond | 0 Comments
 
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