Ward Pond's SQL Server blog

New Career Campaign From Microsoft Learning

2009-10-27T00:45:00Z

UPDATED 27 October 2009 with the correct expiration date for the E-Learning Collections discount (thanks, Lain !). Whether you are currently unemployed, looking for a promotion, or trying to become indispensible in your existing role, Microsoft has launched a new Career Campaign to provide learning paths and guidance to help you get trained for some of the top IT job roles in the industry. These learning paths focus on some of the most popular applications, such as Windows, SQL Server, Windows Server...(read more)

Pond’s Laws Home Page Now Live

2009-10-26T23:30:00Z

Thanks to yet another kick-in-the-pants from Jimmy May (did he play soccer as a youth?) the Pond’s Laws Home Page is now live. Jimmy wanted to find all of Pond’s Laws in one place, and now he (and you) can. There’s also a link to the new page in the A Bit More From Me section to your left (if you’re reading on the blog site). Keep those suggestions coming.. even if your name isn’t Jimmy May! -wp this copyrighted material was originally posted at http://blogs.technet.com/wardpond . the author and...(read more)

Windows 7 Now Available

2009-10-23T00:45:00Z

You might have heard about this somewhere else.. but Windows 7 was launched today . I recently got an upgraded laptop from my employer, upon which I installed Windows 7. Both the machine and the software are quite remarkable. First, the machine, so you can see how sweetly I’m riding these days, is an HP EliteBook 8530w (2.8gHz Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9600, 8gB RAM, 250gB hard disk, and all the extras which are typical these days). What’s really incredible is how the lighter footprint of Win7...(read more)

Pond’s Thirteenth Law: Change Won’t Be Cheaper Tomorrow

2009-10-21T01:45:00Z

Herewith, a discussion of the emergence of Pond’s Thirteenth Law (if you need to catch up, here are Laws One through Ten , Eleven , and Twelve , as well as three ruminations on the implications of Pond’s Seventh Law ).. One of the great things about my job is that I get to spend an embarrassing amount of time having conversations with really smart people. The next couple of posts I’ve got planned are the product of conversations I’ve either had or eavesdropped on (via email). My primary project these...(read more)

Beta 2 Release for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Available for Download

2009-10-20T12:15:00Z

Exciting news for the developer community: yesterday Microsoft released the second beta for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4. Click here for the download page. If you need it, go get it! -wp this copyrighted material was originally posted at http://blogs.technet.com/wardpond . the author and his employer are pleased to provide this content for you at that site, and via rss , free of charge and without advertising. the author welcomes and appreciates links to and citations of his...(read more)

Mark Your Calendar: Windows 7 Readiness Webcast on October 6

2009-09-29T15:30:00Z

The following description of a pending webcast arrived in my inbox earlier this week; I thought it might be of interest to some of you as you prepare for the launch of Windows 7: Is Your Organization Ready for Windows 7? October 6, 2009 12:00 PM Eastern / 9:00 a.m. Pacific (60 minutes) Event Details Featured Speaker: Independent Analyst Firm Forrester’s Benjamin Gray Forrester's Benjamin Gray discusses his April 2009 report "Get Ready For Windows 7" and whether or not your organization...(read more)

A Gift From Jens and Jimmy

2009-09-29T04:15:00Z

Two Microsoft folks frequently featured in this space, Microsoft Certified Masters Jimmy May and Jens Suessmeyer , have joined forces to bring to the world SQLIOSimParser, a tool to parse and interpret the XML output of the Bob Dorr’s SQLIOSim testing tool. Jimmy says Jens did most of the heavy lifting, but most of the heavy reading is found in Jimmy’s post on the tool. If you’ve ever plodded through a SQLIOSim output file, you’ll be very excited to hear about and use this tool. Thanks to Jens and...(read more)

SQL Server 2008 R2 August CTP Available for Download

2009-09-29T03:45:00Z

If you’re interested in the next release of SQL Server, the BI-focused SQL Server 2008 R2, you’ll be pleased to know that the August CTP is available for download here for MSDN and TechNet members. Here’s the skinny from the download page: SQL Server 2008 R2 expands on the value delivered in SQL Server 2008 to help your organization scale with confidence and improve IT and developer efficiency with new and enhanced tools for application and multi-server management, master data services and complex...(read more)

Pond’s Twelfth Law: In Your Pursuit of Five Nines, Don’t Practice in Front of the CIO

2009-09-09T16:09:00Z

After a long hiatus , Pond’s Laws of System Design (or, How to Be a Competent Professional in an Irrational World) returns. Thanks to Jimmy May for a kick-in-the-pants on this topic several months ago; I hope he’ll understand why I just had to wait until right now to publish this post (the clue lies in a very careful examination of the datetime stamp on this post vis a vis our topic).. I know you’re asking yourself.. Why would I practice looking for an impossible poker hand in front of my (great-(great-(great-)))grandboss?...(read more)

Database Programming: A New String Concatenation Contender for SQL Server 2008

2009-09-07T22:15:00Z

UPDATED 11:11p 7 September 2009: Based on my latest exchange with Adam (see the comments for this post), compound operators should be avoided for string concatenation due to the ORDER BY bug discused in KB 287515 . The XML variant below is the preferred approach for string concatenation, but the compound operator remains a viable alternative in other scenarios. UPDATED 7 September 2009: See Adam Machanic's comments on this post for a link to a discussion of a SQL Server 2008 ORDER BY bug ( KB 287515...(read more)

Database Programming: Did You Know IN Can Do This?

2009-09-05T00:30:00Z

Courtesy of Jens Suessmeyer comes this little gem purloined from an internal discussion; cut-and-paste this into SQL Server Management Studio and see if you can answer the questions in the comments before you execute the script: -- create and populate a table variable DECLARE @Demonstration TABLE ( ID INT IDENTITY ( 1 , 1 ), Col1 INT , Col2 INT , Col3 INT ) INSERT @Demonstration ( Col1 , Col2...(read more)

Download a New Browser and Help Feed the Hungry

2009-09-02T17:30:00Z

I sure wish I’d known about this sooner.. If you haven’t yet downloaded Internet Explorer 8, here’s a great opportunity to acquire some fantastic software and help out some folks less fortunate than we are in the bargain. If you download Internet Explorer 8 from http://www.browserforthebetter.com , Microsoft will donate eight meals to the Feeding America campaign. Furthermore, if you’re replacing IE6, Microsoft will double its donation to sixteen meals . This is all part of Microsoft’s...(read more)

Adam Machanic Likes MERGE, Too

2009-08-26T02:45:00Z

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s MERGE discussion comes a complementary (and far more detailed) take from Adam Machanic . It’s a nifty technical discussion, under the banner of an outstanding Dr. Strangelove pun. To see some of the true power of MERGE (and to share Adam’s joy in releasing his MERGE-related stress), click on over! As with all of Adam’s technical discussions, you’ll be glad you did. -wp this copyrighted material was originally posted at http://blogs.technet.com/wardpond...(read more)

Database Programming: Why I Like MERGE

2009-08-24T16:30:00Z

In the wake of last month’s post on my new development efforts in SQL Server 2008, several of you have asked me to go into further detail. This post is my first effort to answer those questions; right now, we’ll focus on these two , which relate to this statement: By using a CTE with a MERGE and a TRY-CATCH block, in a single statement I can: shred the XML document containing user input; update existing records; modify existing records; delete records (either logically or physically); create...(read more)

At the Onset of My Fiftieth Year

2009-08-07T03:45:00Z

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook are aware that I’ve spent the last week and a half dealing with my latest round of health issues. I returned home yesterday afternoon following a brief hospitalization for diagnosis and removal of a non-functional gall bladder. Today, I celebrate the beginning of my fiftieth year on the planet with new reasons for optimism. Unlike previous procedures when I was still feeling ill afterwards, I was drinking apple juice five minutes after...(read more)