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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
This has been discussed numerous times, I think I have also mentioned the first time I heard of this when Ash of the SSIS team talked about running a huge package on a 32 way server and 1 processor firing up.
Whilst this is true in some sense it isn't in a bigger sense. Its explained here Threads_and_Trees_in_SSIS and the original presenation here http://www.sqljunkies.com/WebLog/simons/archive/2005/09/14/16754.aspx
The reason I raised this is that it caught me out again. I need to process log files of a collection of servers. To make this maintainable I have the servers, folders and files stored in a db and the package loops over these. However the basic top level is a data flow that reads the data and then outputs the data, not exactly complex and thus I only get 1 thread and so 1 processor running.
The answer split the package so that I can pass in the server and have x packages running, one for each server. One gotcha, make sure any temporary files you use are named so that they don't class, i.e. include the variable that is being passed in.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
This has been discussed numerous times, I think I have also mentioned the first time I heard of this when Ash of the SSIS team talked about running a huge package on a 32 way server and 1 processor firing up.
Whilst this is true in some sense it isn't in a bigger sense. Its explained here Threads_and_Trees_in_SSIS and the original presenation here http://www.sqljunkies.com/WebLog/simons/archive/2005/09/14/16754.aspx
The reason I raised this is that it caught me out again. I need to process log files of a collection of servers. To make this maintainable I have the servers, folders and files stored in a db and the package loops over these. However the basic top level is a data flow that reads the data and then outputs the data, not exactly complex and thus I only get 1 thread and so 1 processor running.
The answer split the package so that I can pass in the server and have x packages running, one for each server. One gotcha, make sure any temporary files you use are named so that they don't class, i.e. include the variable that is being passed in.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Have started playing with Flickr - of which there is substantially more than I had guessed. Coincidentally found that 3form now has a blog which is pretty interesting, that they did the FilmBirmingham site and that they are all on Flickr too. A really talented web design and development crew. The blog's good too.
[Listening to: White Light/White Heat from Bowie at the Beeb: The Best of the BBC Radio Sessions Disc 2 by David Bowie]
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Those of you who are taking advantage of the Remote Access Quarantine feature of Windows Server 2003 SP1 may be familiar with establishing a remote VPN connection via Connection Manager along the lines illustrated below.
The Quarantine feature is a great way of asserting that client machines are compliant with your policy BEFORE allowing them remote access to corporate resources. If you're new to the concept of Remote Access Quarantine then I recommend reading Steve Riley's recent article for TechNet Magazine.
Typical Connection Manager implementations (as configured by the Connection Manager Administration Toolkit - CMAK) require the user to have administrative rights. Unfortunately the option to provide administrative credentials does not present itself via the GUI.
A solution to this problem is to use "RunAs" from the command line to execute the remote access request whilst prompting the user to enter the credentials of an account that has sufficient privilege.
Here's the contents of a script I use to initiate remote connections:
@echo off
%windir%\System32\runas.exe /u:%COMPUTERNAME%\Administrator "rasphone.exe -d \"IT Connection Manager\""
Thanks to Aaron Margosis for providing the script. If you'd like to read more about why running with least privilege is important then click here to read more of Aaron's work.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
The Chip and Pin system has cut plastic card fraud in the UK by 13% in the last year says APACS.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
The boss of the firm behind the Blackberry e-mail device says it came through its patent dispute battle without losing a customer.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
So the XBOX 360 supply in the UK now seems to be meeting demand and I had a shopping excursion this weekend to purchase 
... now the really hard bit, finding some time to play.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Following a recent forum post, I will let you find which one, I thought I would make some comments on the configurability of SSIS.
Everyone knows that a Porsche is a good car, its quick, it looks good and is generally built well. We also know that some people won't be happy with how it looks so the go down to the local auto shop and buy some bits, putting that 18inch spoiler on the back 6 inch flared wheel arches, 21 inch low profile tyres and not happy with the colour spray it pink, oh...(read more)
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Following a recent forum post, I will let you find which one, I thought I would make some comments on the configurability of SSIS.
Everyone knows that a Porsche is a good car, its quick, it looks good and is generally built well. We also know that some people won't be happy with how it looks so the go down to the local auto shop and buy some bits, putting that 18inch spoiler on the back 6 inch flared wheel arches, 21 inch low profile tyres and not happy with the colour spray it pink, oh...(read more)
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
sudo gem uninstall switchtower
sudo gem install capistrano
Crappy name, great piece of kit.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Shock horror.
A threadful of issue dodgers: it's great that you use it and it's great that it's
free, but I don't see many people refuting that it's a slow clone of Office 97, minus
Outlook.
I find it fascinating that Firefox towers above IE, but OpenOffice
(potentially an even bigger winner for the open source community) lags so far behind.
I think one of the biggest selling points for OpenOffice is also it's biggest drawback
- most people only use a tiny fraction of the features of Office. And even then, most
people don't load up their word processor that often.
So who knows what to implement next? Who knows where the pain is? Where the excitement
is? For Firefox, all these questions are easy to answer, because there are millions
of people tearing through billions of pages every day. Great features, and the visibility
of things like extensions make it a really rich platform for new ideas. But what's
the tabbed browsing of OpenOffice? What's the Web Developer Toolbar for power OpenOffice
users? And where's the community? Because while Firefox address real issues, tackles
them with features, and generates excitement, OpenOffice seems to pick random Office
features, implement them unimaginitively, and generate a slower and slower binary.
It's only distinguishing feature is its price. Shame.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/technet/designit/default.mspxWe were having a coffee with the Audience marketing guys a while ago, and we were talking about how we could contribute to a charity in some way. Microsoft in the UK are sponsors of several charities, but we wanted to bring this to smaller charities in the UK that may not have that level of budget for advertising or funding. Well this coffee idea has really evolved into a 2 threaded design competition called Desigh IT.
You can design a piece of art that looks like a piece of IT infrastructure (only pretty), well the winners of one part of the competition get their art exhibited in a London art gallery, and the winner of the Design IT for charity part gets their infrastructure design implemented for the charity of their choice.
Its actally a really nice idea to get your doodles into functional specifications. Have a look here for the competition details and prizes....
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Just passing this on – there’s additional detail available now on the homepage of the Developer Developer Developer project about the organization for day 3. Most importantly, if you’re planning to speak there, you must have your session proposal in until March 17th. Other dates are the session voting period from March 17th to April [...]
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
I had a bit of play with Zam 3D, its a very cool tool for 3D manipulation and animation, when combined with EID you can do some really nice animation. I would like to see Feb CTP support, it runs ok but the export is borked unless your running Dec\Jan CTP. I would like to see a greater range of 3D model import as well, its really something that EID needs too.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
I have a rather spectacular career average for all of the times I've played Go because even though I learnt to play it over a decade ago I've yet to win a game. I admit that I haven't played for a long time because there's only so much loosing that I can take before I realise that I may well suck at the game. One day I'll be able to find a player who is worse than me, and when I do I'll crush them. In the meantime I came across an interesting post on the history of Go over at the Bablestone blog.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
This article over at Tom’s hardware suggests that Windows Vista will release in the first week of October. I’ve no idea whether that date has any kind of truth behind it or not but, regardless, it starts to show that Vista is on its way….
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Simple tip – if you’re working with WPF from the February CTP and you’re trying to do something with Windows Forms Integration then make sure that you reference your equivalent of;
c:\program files\microsoft visual studio 8\common7\ide\cider\WindowsFormsIntegration.dll
rather than the one that lives in;
c:\program files\reference assemblies……
Otherwise you’ll have problems with versions, there seems to be something out of synchronisation with the one on the 2nd path.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
You have four matches arranged in a square like this.
You have three more matches. Arrange these in a cube (without bending or breaking any of them).
The answer will be published next week....
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Following from my last blog I wanted to write down what the motivation was behind the Edge Architecture and in the end it became more of a manifesto about what I believe and how I think the IT world is changing. It has the following 5 core values:
- Community and collaboration are more important than organizations and contracts
- Value and sharing are more important than price and ownership
- Individual skill and contribution are more important than processes and tools
- Relationship and trust are more important than security and laws
- Flexibility and improvement are more important than plans and schedules
From these values the main parts of the Edge architecture flow and then from them a ton of really specific technical requirements. I will delve into these in more detail in later blogs.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
So I watched this video from marketing guru Seth Godin, apparently addressing a group of Google employees. Thanks to Scoble for the link. Worth it? Maybe; too many words and not enough content for my liking; but hey, this is marketing. What caught my attention though is in the q&a at the end, where an unknown Google person asks:
What have we done wrong with Google Maps? It was really amazing when it came out two years ago or something, and now my sister visiting over the weekend had Mapquest maps, it was like a dagger through my heart, and now Yahoo has scrolling maps, Microsoft has scrolling maps... now we've got this cool thing that it seems like nobody knows about
Personally I see Google Maps all over and it didn't occur to me that it was failing, but I take the point. The average person doesn't think Google for maps the same way she does for search; and furthermore, I presume from the question that it is not a big profit centre for the company. I consider mapping as a key part of local search, which is a huge potential market, but still wide open.
Tags:
google
googlemaps
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
So I watched this video from marketing guru Seth Godin, apparently addressing a group of Google employees. Thanks to Scoble for the link. Worth it? Maybe; too many words and not enough content for my liking; but hey, this is marketing. What caught my attention though is in the q&a at the end, where an unknown Google person asks:
What have we done wrong with Google Maps? It was really amazing when it came out two years ago or something, and now my sister visiting over the weekend had Mapquest maps, it was like a dagger through my heart, and now Yahoo has scrolling maps, Microsoft has scrolling maps... now we've got this cool thing that it seems like nobody knows about
Personally I see Google Maps all over and it didn't occur to me that it was failing, but I take the point. The average person doesn't think Google for maps the same way she does for search; and furthermore, I presume from the question that it is not a big profit centre for the company. I consider mapping as a key part of local search, which is a huge potential market, but still wide open.
Tags:
google
googlemaps
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Charges that online auction firm eBay aided the illegal sale of contact lenses are dismissed.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
At the latest Under the Radar conference Dabble DB was voted best in show, and it won the “make it easy” category. It is, of course, written in my beloved Smalltalk.
Technorati: Smalltalk
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Ajax, our friendly web 2.0 friend has many innovative and funky uses, from google maps to basecamp and all points in between. I've just come across another interesting implementation of it and felt that I just had to share: dictionary.hm is as the name suggests an online dictionary that gives a definition as you type. Very clever and very cool. :)
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Decided to make SharePointGator available for download. You can get the .dll for the webpart and the .dwp file here.
This is an early release as there are a number of things I need to do to improve it. But if you have a SharePoint test environment set up and want to give it a whirl please do. Here’s a bit more about what it is.
I’ve only tested the webpart running under full trust at the moment. Here’s an article that will be of help to those setting it up. If you have any questions about installing it please use the comments here and I’ll do my best to help.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
I’m looking to buy a digital camera. Never owned a camera in my entire life so I’m a complete newbie when it comes to them. I want to spend around £200 (is that enough?), so any recommendations great fully received!
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
I needed to select out XML nodes from an XML document that had namespaces attached
and wasn't getting the results I needed from my real code, so using snippet
compiler I cooked up a simple example to get it working. Presented below
is that simple example, here more as a reminder to myself if I need it again.
1: using System;
2: using System.Xml;
3: public class XPathWithNamespaces
4: {
5: public static void Main()
6: {
7: XmlDocument xd = new XmlDocument();
8: xd.LoadXml("<?xml version=\"1.0\"
encoding=\"utf-16\"?><test xmlns=\"http://foo.bar/mouse\">"
9: +"<element><theone>test</theone></element></test>
");
10: XmlNamespaceManager nsmgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(xd.NameTable);
11: nsmgr.AddNamespace("foo", "http://foo.bar/mouse");
12: XmlNode xn = xd.SelectSingleNode("//foo:theone",
nsmgr);
13: if (xn
!= null)
14: {
15: Console.WriteLine(xn.Name);
16: }
17: Console.ReadLine();
18: }
19: }
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Non-profit groups protest about plans to charge up to one US cent to deliver e-mail to supporters.
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Now I have my new Sony TV installed I thought I would post some pictures of the setup.
The TV is wall mounted and connected to the XBOX 360 via a VGA cable.
You can see the XBOX in extender mode, and you can also see my Media Center PC's, a self build XP machine and a Dell Vista Beta box
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Jon and I will be bringing the Grand Prix Show back this week. As the 2006 Formula One season kicks off next week we are back previewing the season and the race. We will be reviewing each race and bringing all the Grand Prix news on each show.
The Email address for the show is GrandPrixShow@gmail.com, send us in your thoughts and comments
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Coming up this week on the Media Center Show with Orb Networks is Stephen Toub of MSDN Magazine.
Stephen has written some great articles on Media Center development including Time Travel with Media Center
and Fun with DVR-MS
A great show for developers and even if your not a developer you should find it interesting to know how Media Center works.
Don't forget to take the Media Center Show survey and check out the Media Center Show gear
The show will be out Thursday
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Kathy Sierra writes that you should never forget the fundamentals of whatever you do. A good musician will always practice scales and arpeggios.
However, developments in hardware and software mean that you no longer have to worry about things like writing optimal functions for low level tasks such as calculating the lengths of strings. Things like memory management are handled by the operating system and framework.
Which fundamentals are still important to know, and which can be dismissed as no longer being relevant – I think the most important two are Big-O notation and network design?
Big O – notation – It's important to know how long does it take to perform an operation on a collection based on the size of the collection. If you know the basics of this, you can use appropriate collection types (such as lists or hash tables) and know when to look at reducing collection sizes.
Networking technologies – it's important to know how and when data travels across a network, and when delays and unreliability may be introduced. If you know the basics of this, you can plan for how to structure systems to cope with delays and unreliability.
Are there any other fundamentals that you think should never be forgotten?
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Mix has sold out, the Mix blog does say that a few postions may still be available but you will need to register now as its at capacity and very few spots are left. I think that as the first show of its nature for Microsoft to sell out is fantasic news as it really shows the vibe surrounding the ethos of the show and what Microsoft are others are doing. I will admit that lately I would of liked to have seen Adobe at the show, showing their RIA vision and what it means for all developers (not just Microsoft developers) as this is very much inline with that ethos. The days to the show are counting down faster and faster now and I am at full steam on a little something I am taking to the show, that said I have been laid out with a nasty cold all this weekend so I am having to ease off :(
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
UK developer Peter Bradley is conducting a fun experiment as part of his Msc project. He's put up a simple .NET application and is inviting all and sundry to enter data. When you do so, you will be logged in to either a Mono or a Microsoft .NET version of the same C#/ASP.NET application, on a random basis. Bradley is analysing the performance of the apps and promises to report back.
I like the thinking behind this, and look forward to the results, though it is notoriously difficult to compare like with like in such comparisons. This particular application looks very basic, and it will be interesting to see if Bradley gets enough testers to stress the respective implementations.
There's more on Bradley's blog, including some nuts-and-bolts comments about getting ASP.NET up and running on a Linux box.
Why not help Bradley out by trying the app, if you are reading this before about the 18th March when the trial ends? Right now, the Linux one is running fine, but the Windows app is timing out on me (if you read the blog, you will see direct links to the two applications). Your mileage may vary.
Tags:
microsoft
mono
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from
Recent article by Mike Gunderloy on SearchVB.com -
VB developers: Second class no more
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Published on 06 Mar 2006 from