Protean

I’ve had many reservations about Google’s previous attempts at the non-search arena with Wave & Buzz, but I think it’s time to give the people at Mountain View a pat on the back.

I don’t say this lightly. They’ve suffered some negative criticism from former staff and the wider media for following a new social path set out by their CEO Larry Page, however, although I can sympathize with those views, I actually admire them. Google now has a shiny new face and their stable is full of products helping people go about their online lives in a more efficient way. For many of us, their proposition is getting stronger and stronger…

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The facebook valuation is crazy. Can shares in a business with limited tangible assets be worth that kind of money? Based on what I’ve been reading over the last week, we’re talking of a 50x PE ratio. That surely assumes that earnings growth will continue to accelerate. Making this kind of assumption has to be risky.

Aren’t we forgetting the one thing that provides facebook with any kind of revenue at all?…

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I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months building a website, and as always, there is much help and information available on the internet. Something I struggled with however was the sending of emails… How can I send an email from my site without blocking the calling process? “Use sendAsync!” I hear people shouting. Having tried this I can say that it doesn’t help where asp.net is concerned. I implemented it myself, and whilst it is almost seamless on a web server with fast connectivity to the smtp box, what I found is there are occasions where this just isn’t fast enough, and the user experience suffers. Here’s what I have done to resolve this… I hope it saves someone the head scratching that I went through

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A simple piece of code to help you get the execution plan and the query text for a currently running query. This is especially useful when dynamic sql is being run against your database or if DBCC InputBuffer reports that a stored procedure is being run. You can actually view the execution plan for the batch that it’s running. It works using the 2005 management views and functions.

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Or more accurately: Preparing an encrypted TDE enabled database for restore on a Standard Edition SQL Server

I recently had the challenge of restoring an encrypted database on to a standard edition server to enable further development on the database code. It took some work, but to save you some time, I’ve listed the steps (and the T-SQL) in this article that you need to take in order to accomplish this.

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I love the idea of Web 2.0 - I jumped on the social networking bandwagon at a fairly early stage getting involved with AOL’s attempt to compete with myspace with its AIM pages. Its great that people with shared interests can join a network and interact with each other in a way that couldn’t be done before.

And I currently maintain profiles at LinkedIn, flickr, facebook & twitter, youtube, picasa, pprune.org and SSC. These profiles I can handle quite nicely along with my own hobby sites and various shopping websites that I use.

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Citi Group Building

I’ve been working at Canary Wharf for 6 months now. Its a fantastic looking place, and it lends itself well to photography. I thought I’d post a couple of shots while I think up some useful database article to write about. I feel its been so long since I’ve written, that I’ve forgotten how!


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I was reading a post by BI Monkey and found myself in agreement with what he says. It also got me thinking about the wider implications of the problem of not “helping you make better decisions”.

I’d add to BI Monkey’s question with the specific question I always ask business analysts as they begin to list out the attributes they want added to a dimension in a requirements meeting. “What question does this answer?”. It’s a BI specialist’s responsibility not just to resolve the technical aspects of the requirements, but also to help steer the requirements so that something useful is delivered at the end.

I think this is one of the reasons why support from the business can fade. And without champion users in the wider business, it’s very likely that a BI implementation will be paralysed. People don’t understand the information provided and so don’t use it. Why keep funding the project if nobody uses it? Or the last (over-scoped) project took so long that the team isn’t trusted to take on new projects. Here are some scenarios…

Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

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I know as SQL Server / IT pros we tend to focus our interview efforts on our technical proficiency. Having been on many interview panels, I can say this - by the time you’ve sat through a phone screen, a SQL Server test, and finally you’ve been brought in for interview, we already know that you have the technical skills to do the job and what we’re looking for is the right fit for the team.

I may ask you some harder questions on my chosen subject, I may challenge you about some of the answers you have given for the technical test, I may interrogate you about why you left a perfectly good job. The aim here is not to prove that I’m right and you’re wrong, it’s to see how you handle the situation. Can you argue your case persuasively and confidently, can you think on the spot, how do you react when your views are challenged?

I use the dialog that we have to get some idea of how you might be to work with and what your attitudes are. Exactly what the right attitudes are can be hard to tell, but I can tell you what they aren’t! Here are some of the reason’s why I might have questions about a person’s suitability for my team. What often surprises me is that candidates fail on some of these before they’ve even met me…

The 30 Day MBA: Learn the Essential Top Business School Concepts, Skills and Language Whilst Keeping Your Job and Your Cash

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The script task in SSIS was a fantastic improvement on DTS Active X script. The reasons for this in my view are 2 fold:-

1. Firstly, by allowing the user to code in Visual Studio it is far easier to develop and debug. Because the developer can make use of intellisense & object explorer, it means even the casual programmer can read & write code.
2. Secondly, because we can use it to access other external .net assemblies, it provides functionality for logic that can’t be achieved using the standard SSIS components.

These are both reasons in themselves that make it a compelling choice when deciding how to develop your package logic.

However, I have noticed at both client sites and on the forums, that there are those (the script task junkies!) that use the script task in almost any scenario when it is just not necessary. It makes maintenance and support tricky at best and sometimes impossible…

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