Entries for David Oliver

Sir Tim: "Sorry for those Slashes!" [Sir Tim: "Sorry for those Slashes!"]

David Oliver — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:26:08 GMT

Berners-Lee 'sorry' for slashes

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8306631.stm

"The forward slashes at the beginning of internet addresses have long annoyed net users and now the man behind them has apologised for using them.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, has confessed that the // in a web address were actually "unnecessary". "

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Thanks Tim! Geez, now you tell us!

in reply to Sir Tim: "Sorry for those Slashes!"

Does Microsoft communicate more ... or do we learn more? [Does Microsoft communicate more ... or do we learn more?]

David Oliver — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:17:20 GMT

Today I was on a course at Microsoft UK on SQL Server 2008 upgrade where it struck me that wooooow there is sooooo much new stuff in SQL Server 2008 it isn't funny ... and with a new version, SQL Server 2008 R2, just around the corner more good stuff is coming.

Now I've been using SQL Server 2008 for a year now and I learnt some new features I didn't know existed (like TABLIX) and didn't realise that *= & =* joins had been deprecated amongst other things. All of which I found that it would have been handy to know some of these things over the last year.

OK so there is some nice tools like the Upgrade Advisor that will tell you but how do you know about these tools? I mean recently a colleague spend ages writting a Access 2 SQL process when the SSMA tool does it very well, boy was he miffed when he found out!

So to the point, Microsoft doesn't have a hope in hell of telling us all about new stuff in it's products ... and all that info we just aren't going ot retain. So, how do we go about finding out if there is something that can help us?

They answer is one of theses,

Bugging a colleague and asking if they know,

Throwing ourselves at the mercy of a search engine ... and hope you used the right words

Posting on a forum and hoping someone knows the answer.

Plough though a book

Paying for it in the shape of a course or consultancy.

Wait for the C9 video!

In this day and age of knowledge management, is this all the answers we have? They are all very random and hap-hazard? My moan is .... there has to be an easier way! What are your suggestions?

As you can see this would be in eveyone interests if we can crack it ...

My idea as a starter for 10 would be a version of BING just with SQL Server info, where you could access it from a right click context menu option when hovering over a feature or highlighted command and that it gives you the top 5 pages. The page titles could be 'Warning this feature has been deprecated!" ... then you click on it, it loads to tell you more! Good idea?

in reply to Does Microsoft communicate more ... or do we learn more?

Frustrating Visio feature or is it a bug? [Frustrating Visio feature or is it a bug?]

David Oliver — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:38:55 GMT

Ok so I'm using Visio 2007 on my work laptop (still running XP but soon to change to Win 7 Goodness) It's a Lenovo T400. I'm not in love with it but it does the job.

I run my laptop off a nice and big 28" second screen at work where my Visio diagrams look just nice.

So when I'm at home, how come every application realises that the second big 28" screen isn't plugged in ... except Visio! It's driving me nutts! How can I get the stupid application to stop maximising to a screen that doesn't exist! Even display properties gets the message that there is no second screen.

Does anyone know how to get around this other than finding another monitor to plug the laptop into ... which would be my HDTV.

in reply to Frustrating Visio feature or is it a bug?

So what did you do this summer? [So what did you do this summer?]

David Oliver — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:46:08 GMT

Well I'm just back from my holiday's down in (almost) sunny and beautiful Cornwall, UK.

The high point was Adrenalin Quarry and the 490m zip-line over a lake. I very much enjoyed that!

So what have you been up to on your holidays, apart from the obvious?

in reply to So what did you do this summer?

'Script Kiddy' McKinnon loses fight against US extradiction ['Script Kiddy' McKinnon loses fight against US extradiction]

David Oliver — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:32:03 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8177561.stm

So Gary McKinnon, an Asperger's Syndrome sufferer, loses his fight against extradiction for getting into NASA using blank password checks searching for UFO.

Gary faces up to 70 years in prison.

I think this is laughable and does make the US look like a bully.

What do you think?

in reply to 'Script Kiddy' McKinnon loses fight against US extradiction

Video Request: Madison, Gemini and Kilimanjaro [Video Request: Madison, Gemini and Kilimanjaro]

David Oliver — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:55:43 GMT

OK so I'm getting excited about Project Madison. I know it's going to be sold in a different way and I understand why but it would be nice to hear the reason from the project team as it is a departure for a SQL Server project.

But thats not the only cool SQL Server project going on right now, Gemini and Kilimanjaro are cooking away ... I would love to know how millions of rows of data are going to get into Excel on the fly?

So plenty of things to talk about.

Anyway chance that we can have a few videos on them?

in reply to Video Request: Madison, Gemini and Kilimanjaro

Expedia ... migrating from C# ASP.Net to Java [Expedia ... migrating from C# ASP.Net to Java]

David Oliver — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:39:02 GMT

http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=693074

Expedia was started by Microsoft many years ago and now it looks like they are moving away from Microsoft technologies.

All I can say is, why would they move from order to chaos? Haven't they been watching the last year or so?

The thing is Java is growing too much in too many areas with no one putting in standards. Many people have already started to complain about the number of features (and idioms) in the language itself, probably the next version will bring in a whole bloat more.

Just take a look at the Java Community Process to get an idea of what is Java today. To me the problem is not the number of technologies or the number of specifications. Nor the fact that Java tries to compete in every possible market niche. I don't mind. The problem is the integration between them! Specially when you group them together and call it a 'platform'.

How can something like JSF be promoted to be the standard? A component framework that lacks even one interesting component! That relies on third party libraries (many OSS) that are, of course, incompatible between them. Each one with a different AJAX approach (as the specification says nothing on the topic). And, worst of all, incompatible with JSP/JSTL and portlet development.

So, if even the Spring people can't get WebFlow to work properly in a JSF + Portlet environment how are we supposed to do so?

I call this a mess!

... and Expedia want to move into this world? I wish them luck because I'm keen to go the other way!

in reply to Expedia ... migrating from C# ASP.Net to Java

What Linux needs to improve for the desktop [What Linux needs to improve for the desktop]

David Oliver — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:54:19 GMT

I follow Locutus on ITToolBox as he has a high signal ratio about what's good, the easy part, and honest about what isn't so good about Linux.

As we've had a spate of Linux post recently I felt it was important to show what happens when a good Linux advocate has a debate about a hot topic such as improving the desktop ... the main reason why I no longer use Linux ... and where Linux needs to improve the most to compete with Windows IMO.

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/what-linux-needs-to-improve-for-the-desktop-32533?subtype

in reply to What Linux needs to improve for the desktop

Perhaps SQL isn't interesting? But it sure is ! [Perhaps SQL isn't interesting? But it sure is !]

David Oliver — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:50:17 GMT

I hoping that I'm not right but I kind of getting the impression that developers in general aren't really all that interested in SQL or SQL Server any more?

There always seems to be a buzz around .Net or UI stuff but I don't get the impression that there is the same feeling with SQL Server stuff.

I get this impression because when I talk to developers they aren't really interested to talk about the new stuff in 2008 and what is coming in 2008 R2, it's all abit mehhh ...

... which is the same feeling I get when I look at the stuff they've made in SQL it literally is CRUD and never very good at that.

So tell me if I'm right ... or that I'm talking utter tosh!

I would love to know so I can work out how to get them interest so I can get better written databases because they work but not as good as they could do, but these same guys produce some amazing .Net.

Thanks!

in reply to Perhaps SQL isn't interesting? But it sure is !

OMG! Windows 7 to launch October 22 [OMG! Windows 7 to launch October 22]

David Oliver — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:19:31 GMT

According to CNET ... http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10253924-56.html

"Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is planning for Windows 7 to hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs on October 22.

To reach that milestone, Microsoft plans to wrap up development of the operating system by the middle or end of next month, Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview."

in reply to OMG! Windows 7 to launch October 22

OMG! Xbox without any controller! Project Natal! [OMG! Xbox without any controller! Project Natal!]

David Oliver — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:00:46 GMT

Controller Free Games and Entertainment! ... without a new console!

http://www.xbox.com/en-gb/e309/default.htm

...OMG with Steve Speilberg!

in reply to OMG! Xbox without any controller! Project Natal!

OMG! Lots of new exciting stuff for Xbox Live [OMG! Lots of new exciting stuff for Xbox Live]

David Oliver — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:49:15 GMT

http://www.xbox.com/en-gb/e309/default.htm

Instance On 1080p HD films video library in 18 countries !

Music with Last.FM

... and with Live Party you can share it all with your firends!

Partnership with Facebook linking your Xbox friends and the Facebook Friends! Facebook Connect ... screen shots of your game straight onto Facebook

... and a Partnership with Twitter!

in reply to OMG! Lots of new exciting stuff for Xbox Live

Apple co-founder says Microsoft's Bing is 'astounding' [Apple co-founder says Microsoft's Bing is 'astounding']

David Oliver — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:55:55 GMT

http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/169769.asp?source=rss

"I don't normally come to these business presentations and all that, but I thought it was one of the most astounding software demos I've ever seen," Wozniak said. "It was so well thought out, the algorithms, the intelligence of it, really impressed me."

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Bing is silly name but that's partly the point so I get that now. Lets be honest Google and Yahoo are silly names as well.

IMO, Steve B's demo @ D7 is actually impressive so I'm looking forward to trying it.

in reply to Apple co-founder says Microsoft's Bing is 'astounding'

Sky puts content onto the Xbox [Sky puts content onto the Xbox]

David Oliver — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:04:57 GMT

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8070291.stm

"British broadcaster Sky has struck a deal with Microsoft that will see live football, TV and film content brought to the Xbox 360.

The deal marks the Xbox's first move into live linear broadcast TV."

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I'm a Sky customer and I have an Xbox, so I'm very much looking forward to the result of this.

However, I really do hope I don't have to pay up any more money as I'm paying allot already for HD and Movies etc

I'm hoping that the Xbox can turn into the equivilent of 'Multi-Room' without the extra £10 a month.

in reply to Sky puts content onto the Xbox

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 is now live! [SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 is now live!]

David Oliver — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:54:56 GMT

Ok kids go get ... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=66ab3dbb-bf3e-4f46-9559-ccc6a4f9dc19&displaylang=en

There is some guidance out if you've already applied CU4 ... http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2009/04/09/sql-server-2008-sp1-and-cumulative-updates-explained.aspx

And if you want to create one install that includes SQL Server RTM and the applied SP1 welcome to 'slipstreaming'. Info on how to create one can be found here ... http://blogs.msdn.com/petersad/archive/2009/02/25/sql-server-2008-creating-a-merged-slisptream-drop.aspx

I suppose that now SQL Server 2008 has got to the SP1 maturity milestone that people will start to adopt it.

in reply to SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 is now live!

Blackberry Outage? [Blackberry Outage?]

David Oliver — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:56:37 GMT

Just noticed on the Twitter feeds about a US wide Blackberry outage.

in reply to Blackberry Outage?

Windows 2008 Clusters with SQL Server 2008 ... Ggrrrrr! [Windows 2008 Clusters with SQL Server 2008 ... Ggrrrrr!]

David Oliver — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:17:49 GMT

Much as I love Microsoft products sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot.

Take for example my problem. I have two data-centre's one is the failover site for the other, not uncommon in theses days of SOX.

With 2003 clustering can only work when all the nodes are on the same network, so to make it work cross sites you had to fool clustering to thinking it was using one network using technologies like 'Spanning Tree'. The problem with that is that the spanning tree network switches would be in either one data-centre or the other but not both ... not very resilient defeating the point.

With 2008 clustering it doesn't need 'Spanning Tree' because different cluster nodes can be on different sub-nets as long as they are in the same forest in the same domain. Hooray!!!! Clustering in 2008 is now brilliant and simple and easy to setup so I would advise everyone now to go and have a play ... especially if you are a developer as it's good to use technologies that your code will run on.

However SQL Server 2008 is supported on Windows 2008 Clustering ... but not if the nodes are on separate sub-nets. So I'm back to thinking about Spanning Tree the very technology I want to get away from ... and one could argue that one of the main reason why you would want to cluster Windows is to put SQL Server on it.

So what does this all mean to my developers? Well to get round this I'm going to have to ask the developers to write in code a way to detect when one cluster is down in one data-centre then route the database connections to the other data-centre.

So why don't I use Database Mirroring? Because the databases I'm talking about won't work with Mirroring they are big and have partitioned views and such like. The databases are happily copied from one site to another using CA or VERITAS Storage Foundation.

Anyway one else come across this problem yet? How did you get round it? - please don't say we used Linux and Oracle RAC :-(

in reply to Windows 2008 Clusters with SQL Server 2008 ... Ggrrrrr!

Google's bad week continues ... Gmail down again! [Google's bad week continues ... Gmail down again!]

David Oliver — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:17:24 GMT

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/10/gmail_outage/

"Google has admitted that some Gmail users cannot currently access their email just weeks after the company suffered a major outage following a technical cockup at one of its European data centres.

It confirmed that a “small subset of users” have been affected by the latest downtime, but didn’t provide a definitive number and could not confirm when the service would be back up and running.

It’s also unclear if only individuals who use Gmail for free are affected, or if business customers who pay for the service are also being hit by Google’s latest embarrassing outage."

Google would seem to need a lesson in trustworthy computing.

in reply to Google's bad week continues ... Gmail down again!

Who's on Twitter then? [Who's on Twitter then?]

David Oliver — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:18:27 GMT

Ok so this is me on Twitter ... http://twitter.com/DaveOliver ... if anyone is interested in connecting.

I'm not a monster fan of Twitter, it has a good use and that is text indirection or Micro-blogging. It's a short and concise way of getting info out so the signal to noise ratio is better.

It's pretty rubbish for having a conversation over so still prefer email, IM or forums for that.

I have been thinking allot about how I would improve it? Do you have any suggestions?

-Should there be a mini-twit on C9?
-Wouldn't it be nice to have messages since your last twit button.

in reply to Who's on Twitter then?

Woops! Search is knackered! [Woops! Search is knackered!]

David Oliver — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:10:03 GMT

http://channel9.msdn.com/Search/

Server Error in '/' Application.

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source Error:

The source code that generated this unhandled exception can only be shown when compiled in debug mode. To enable this, please follow one of the below steps, then request the URL:

1. Add a "Debug=true" directive at the top of the file that generated the error. Example:

  <%@ Page Language="C#" Debug="true" %>

or:

2) Add the following section to the configuration file of your application:

<configuration>
   <system.web>
       <compilation debug="true"/>
   </system.web>
</configuration>

Note that this second technique will cause all files within a given application to be compiled in debug mode. The first technique will cause only that particular file to be compiled in debug mode.

Important: Running applications in debug mode does incur a memory/performance overhead. You should make sure that an application has debugging disabled before deploying into production scenario.

Stack Trace:

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.] EvNet.Web.Templates.EntryMedia2.GetScriptDescriptors() in C:\projects\Live_October2008\EvNet\Web\Templates\EntryMedia2.cs:133 System.Web.UI.ScriptControlManager.RegisterScriptDescriptors(IScriptControl scriptControl) +142 EvNet.Web.Templates.EntryMedia2.Render(HtmlTextWriter w) in C:\projects\Live_October2008\EvNet\Web\Templates\EntryMedia2.cs:95 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +239 System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl.RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter writer) +12 System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) +41 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +239 EvNet.Web.Templates.BaseTemplate.Render(HtmlTextWriter w) in C:\projects\Live_October2008\EvNet\Web\Templates\BaseTemplate.cs:101 EvNet.Web.Templates.BaseListTemplate.Render(HtmlTextWriter w) in C:\projects\Live_October2008\EvNet\Web\Templates\Lists\BaseListTemplate.cs:111 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +239 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +239 System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl.RenderContents(HtmlTextWriter writer) +12 System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebControl.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) +41 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +239 EvNet.Web.Templates.Lists.ListControl.Render(HtmlTextWriter w) in C:\projects\Live_October2008\EvNet\Web\Templates\Lists\ListControl.cs:390 EvNet.Web.Templates.Lists.EntryList.Render(HtmlTextWriter w) in C:\projects\Live_October2008\EvNet\Web\Templates\Lists\EntryList.cs:425 ASP.search_default_aspx.__RenderContent1(HtmlTextWriter __w, Control parameterContainer) +546 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +114 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +239 System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm.RenderChildren(HtmlTextWriter writer) +252 System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm.Render(HtmlTextWriter output) +86 System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer) +52 ASP.masters_default_master.__Render__control1(HtmlTextWriter __w, Control parameterContainer) +338 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +114 System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children) +239 System.Web.UI.Page.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) +37 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +4239

in reply to Woops! Search is knackered!

So in '7 ready for your desktop? [So in '7 ready for your desktop?]

David Oliver — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:08:35 GMT

Been using '7 in a VM and on home machines and it all seems AOK ... so I've backup ... then ....

... taken the plundge ... gone over XP with '7 on my work laptop !!!

It's all good so far, stuff still works!

Anyone else feeling brave* ???

* - I'm kind of convinced that '7 is pretty mature and ready for the big time, so it's not really a 'brave' thing at all IMO.

in reply to So in '7 ready for your desktop?

One of my pet hates ... The Start Button [One of my pet hates ... The Start Button]

David Oliver — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:32:23 GMT

One of my pet hates ... The Start Button

If I was to wish to change one thing in Windows it would be the Start button.

I was more than disappointed when Vista arrived to discover that designers had decided that to keep continuity with previous versions of Windows and keep the Start button with nothing more than a make-over. But it did seem for awhile that with Longhorn it was at last disappearing.

The Start button is actually an extremely useful UI vehicle as it allows someone who is unfamiliar with a machine a standard avenue to discovery, this has to be applauded as it is a simple construct that is universal but it is in the same token very restrictive. If anyone remembers Windows before 95, then you know that Windows could indeed be a disorganized mess. The Start button offers a simple restriction, where the only other alternative to navigating through menus was groups of icons on the desktop.

In recent years to help stem the sea of desktop icons, the Quick menu has appeared however if you want to have some sort of organization and (here comes the important word) 'categorization' it meant creating folder structures that turned into a skilled drilling frenzy whether on desktop or in Start Menu.

However, what’s the point of trying to get organized? Who has that many programs anyway? Well the simple reason is that we all now have loads of programs, files, documents, videos, films, pictures just lots and lots of stuff all over the place. Strangely enough however I don’t want to find anything using a search term, that’s like admitting defeat.

The Start button doesn’t really help as the menu is small and restrictive, you can't move it or expand it and you can’t have more than one of them such as an ‘Office Start Button’, a ‘Games Start Button’. So to get some semblance of categorized organization I’m using a Dock, like you can find on the Mac or Linux that has tabs to get a bit of organization.

Now that Windows 7 development is in full swing can I please ask the UI designers to take a long hard look at the Start Button. I thought we almost had it with a similar Vista Start button appearance type thing in Office 2007, I just wanted to rip it off the top right hand part of my Office window and place it next to the Start button and say … this is what I mean, more of this please!

So what do say Microsoft? Can you help me keep my hair please?

in reply to One of my pet hates ... The Start Button

Video Request: SQLCAT Team & MySpace.Com [Video Request: SQLCAT Team & MySpace.Com]

David Oliver — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:07:15 GMT

Hi Charles/Jeff,

Recently I was lucky enough to watch a presentation with Prem Mehra about his team http://sqlcat.com/. The presentation had examples of many VLDB SQL Server installations that gave confidence that SQL Server these days is very much up for the big time, if anyone was in any doubt. One of them was MySpace.com, yes the very same social networking site! Did you know they have 3000+ SQL Servers running the whole thing?

To me the SQLCAT is facinating, they have a great resource of a website and what they are up to is pushing the boundaries of SQL Server which is the database most of us are writting to so I can imagine a lot of interest with us C9'er (perhaps as soon as they read this) would be to see a few videos from this team.

Also in the presentation they hinted at a massive project called 'Centipede' that not even they knew what it was about ... heck I would love to know what that project is!

Anyway Charles/Jeff can one of you guys arrange a chat with these SQLCAT please, I bet this is going to be one of the videos of the year!

... better still ... I'm happy to do it if you wish !

Many Thanks,

Dave

in reply to Video Request: SQLCAT Team & MySpace.Com

Google Chrome, Google’s Open Source Browser Project [Google Chrome, Google’s Open Source Browser Project]

David Oliver — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:19:43 GMT

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-01-n47.html

The world doesn't need yet another browser.

Update: Now I've tried it, I'm not so sure !!! It's fast, simple and low on memory usage which all is ticking boxes for me as other browser like FF and IE have turned into bloatware of late. Nice one Google!